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[Live] TeaHC
We discuss possibly being sponsored, followed by the usual off-track news.
Link Roundup:- US Consumer Product Safety tweets about wolves
- Adobe and Twitter are designing a system for permanently attaching artists’ names to pictures
- BuckTownTiger returns to Jeopardy
- The Senate unanimously passes a bill that makes SOME animal cruelty a federal felony
- FurFest “I lost the room lottery” shirts
- Vlogbrothers: This Cat Makes No Sense
- Twitter thread judging every horse emoji
- Netflix says Beastars is coming
- MinuteEarth explains the realism of dragons
- The mayor of Washington DC posing with a drag queen and her pups for Halloween is a huge, huge mood
- Jacksfilms: How to fix your furry profile
- Voxian finishes public VRChat Taur model
- Gilead drama: Who Owns H.I.V.-Prevention Drugs? The Taxpayers, U.S. Says
Ev’rybody’s Busy, Just A Little Dizzy
Got this right from Animation Scoop: “This month marks Disney Television Animation’s 35th Anniversary, the studio that created pop culture phenomena beloved by multiple generations, including, among others: DuckTales, TaleSpin, Recess, Kim Possible, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Phineas and Ferb, and Gravity Falls.” Your ever-lovin’ ed-otter feels the need to make mention of Gargoyles, too! Take a look at the video celebrating the milestone and interviewing several creative folk about what it’s like to work for The Mouse on the small screen.
image c. 2019 Disney Television Animation
Green Eggs & Ham
Green Eggs & Ham is now a series on Netflix ... somehow. We can assume they will pad the story a bit.
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Yoshi Stranding
It's a Yoshi based parody of the new video game Death Stranding [1] and while I've heard good things about that game ... I kinda want to play the Yoshi version now. While not exactly furry here is a Rick and Morty crossover for good measure: https://youtu.be/KXf9O0OWe54 [1] https://youtu.be/tCI396HyhbQ
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Any Port in a Storm…
Another successful Kickstarter project we discovered at a recent comic convention: Franklin and Ghost, a full-color graphic novel series written by Garrett Gunn and illustrated by Nic Touris. Check out the glowing review over at Outright Geekery. And now comes news from the publisher, Source Point Press, that a Franklin and Ghost animated series is in development. So what’s it all about? “‘Franklin and Ghost is a sci-fi adventure story about two trouble-making aliens who escape slavery on their home planet by stealing a space ship and crashing it on Earth,’ says Source Point Press Editor-In-Chief Travis McIntire. ‘They inhabit the closest bodies to the crash site, one being a fox and the other a skull from a cemetery. It’s absolute chaos from there, as they cause all sorts of trouble, landing them on the radar of galactic police forces.'” Got that?
image c. 2019 Source Point Press
Stuffed
A beautiful short about a young cat with anger issues (to a near lovecraftian level) learns to deal with his issues. (I believe the first murder by some stuffing monster is free?) I think there might be a broken aesop [1] somewhere in this. [1] https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BrokenAesop
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Underrated furry news sources
So, you want to know what’s up in furry news. There’s that site from the dog with holographic pants, but it’s blabbing about obscure art movies and being too sexy to handle. There’s that site that smells like carrots, but their comment section is toxic waste. Maybe there’s a more respectable site ready to grow. Hmm… nothing but a merchandising front here, and a spam blog there… why hasn’t this need been solved yet?
Writers have lives, and fandom won’t pay for 1/10th of the cost for ones willing to slave over a hot keyboard all day. Social media can make reach, but has negatives like users who bite the hand that feeds. If you find anything decent, it’s like a gift given despite the costs. You won’t find it for sale in the mainstream.
When it’s a labor of love, think of this oxymoron: “unbiased fandom.” That’s self contradicting, and it’s possible there will never be a news source for furries that isn’t run by some agenda (personal passion is a fine agenda). Don’t hunt for a unicorn, just go find the ones that do it well. There’s stakes too. When “sensational media” is blamed for image problems, the solution is “Be The Media”. That’s how fandom works, so be a fan for the little ones with potential.
1991 (from confurence.com)
InFurNation — https://www.infurnation.com
Weekly posts about books, movies, TV, art, games, and anything creative curated by Rod O’Riley (co-founder of the first fur con). On paper since 1991 and the web since 2009.
Our team of researchers scour the globe looking for new things and events of interest to furry fans. And who’s on that team? Us… and you! If you know about some cool upcoming things that funny animal fanatics might want to see – and buy! – then write to us! Contact our head writer at his e-mail, rodso64@hotmail.com.
Rod, Mark Merlino, and Changa Lion share Southern California’s Skiltaire house. I keep nudging them to consolidate effort because they do so much for too little recognition. Imagine one content stream, backed by a Patreon to sustain all their stuff under one brand:
- The Confurence Archive — artifacts of fandom curated by Changa.
- Skiltaire Party — The twitter presence for their monthly furry house party.
- Furry.Today — Changa’s daily short videos.
- Two Old Furry Fans — Mark and Rod’s blog.
- Ursa Major Awards — The annual best of fandom.
Finding furry info there is like drinking from a firehose. R/furry is sort of a forum just for art, you can barely get to know anyone, and there’s no curation of topics. Imagine the front page of Furaffinity, minus porn which all goes to r/yiff. Then r/furry_IRL is just for memes. That covers most of furry Reddit. But there’s potential in small subreddits. These look good:
- r/WagInHeaven: Stories of the furry community at its best.
- r/Furrydiscuss: News and talk, no art or memes.
It’s hard to call this a source, and beware of falling in past the event horizon. If you wanted to find all the great accounts to follow, it could take forever. (For example: Furries Out of Context, Unintentional Furries.) Try these:
- Furry News Network: Briefly a promising blog, now a Twitter feed worth watching.
- Furry news list: aggregating a few other sources.
In hibernation?
- [adjective][species]: Essays, issues, data.
- Culturally F’d: Not news, but more like documentary/popular education.
- Furrymedia: Livejournal petered out but news aggregation could easily happen on one of those subreddits.
- Furstarter: Furry crowdfunding was well covered there in 2016 and would be great to have as a feature here.
Got any others? Leave a tip. Or start one.
Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.
Honest Trailer: Lion King
Have some honest trailers and speaking as a fan of the Lion King I have to admit about the "Live Action" one .... At least they will leave Lilo and Stitch alone right?
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TigerTails Radio Season 12 Episode 08
Meet Magferret, artist for October’s site banner.
(Patch:) Hi Mag. Very nice art and it’s a pleasure to host it. The site is commissioning regular new banners and featuring the artists, with a goal to give attention to ones outside the US. The last one was Alf Doggo from Chile. Can you give a little intro about yourself, where you live, and where to find you on social media?
Hi! My name is Mag, I’m from England and I draw cartoons and make music! I’m most active on Twitter where I post a bunch of my art!
- https://twitter.com/magferret – Art Twitter
- https://skooshed.bandcamp.com/ – Music (Also on Spotify)
- https://www.skooshed.net/ – Merch Store
Do you mostly do art in furry fandom, or somewhere else like for non furries? Do you do it for a living or just sometimes for money or for fun?
I’ve been taking commissions for over 10 years now, but went full-time with my art around 2 years ago. I’ve done some art for indie game projects, but the majority of my art is commissioned from within from the fandom which has honestly been such a pleasure! The fandom has some of the kindest, most supportive people ever and I’m really lucky to have such an amazing community of followers to interact with, I’m nothing without those guys!
Can you say more about your art? I notice it all looks SFW and wholesome, and it’s multi talented even involving music. For the art you did for the site, my favorite part is the zombie possum, who might just be playing dead because that’s what possums do. And why are you so good at toony ferrets?
I mostly draw toony animals, the cuter and squisher the better! As for being good at drawing toony ferrets, I think that just comes with how long I’ve been drawing for! I started drawing back in 2003 roughly, mostly drawing video game characters I liked. I wasn’t very good at it, but I enjoyed drawing and kept at it. I started taking my art more seriously in 2007 and began posting my stuff online / drawing a lot more. It’s surprising how quickly you can improve at something if you really dedicate yourself to it!
I also make music under the name Skooshed. I released an album called “Anxious Dreamer” earlier this year. It’s a personal, downtempo / chill album. You can find it on Spotify or Bandcamp (https://skooshed.bandcamp.com/).
How did you find furry, and what’s the fandom like where you live? Do you spend time with other furries in real life?
I don’t really remember the exact moment I found the fandom. I’ve always been into toons since I was super young and spent pretty much all my free time watching Cartoon Network and Nickelodeon, so naturally when I got on the internet I made friends with a few people on forums who were into toons and it kinda went from there.
There’s quite a few furries in the UK and I attend a bunch of cons around Europe too. I’ll have a table at Confuzzled in May 2020, so if you’re there, come say hi!
Do you have any favorite furry characters, whether in game or movies or tv — or favorite artists people should check out?
Oh man, I have way too many fav characters to list! Bonkers and Sylvester are a few of my favs. As for artists you should check out, go follow @gatorblits on Twitter – their stuff is always amazing!
Do you have one more favorite piece of art you drew that you want shared?
I’ve been playing the Links Awakening remake recently, so here some art of Mag dressed as Link!
Like the article? These take hard work. For more free furry news, please follow on Twitter or support not-for-profit Dogpatch Press on Patreon.
Infurnity 2019 in numbers
Episode 445 - Tornado Watch - This week~There's a convention fire that got put out quickly, Gender Reveal (GONE WRONG), Jeffrey Epstein didn't commit suicide, Florida Principal, and Shiva got to see Bingeing With Babish live. Patreon
This week~There's a convention fire that got put out quickly, Gender Reveal (GONE WRONG), Jeffrey Epstein didn't commit suicide, Florida Principal, and Shiva got to see Bingeing With Babish live.
Ponies in the Woods
Well, now that My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has reached it’s conclusion… *sniff* Excuse us, we need a moment… *Ahem* Well, now that it’s done, it’s nice to know that the IDW comic tie-ins will continue into the future. Including, now, another brand-new mini-series, My Little Pony: Spirit of the Forest. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders are back! When Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle take a trip into the woods, they find a forest filled with trash! Just what could be causing this mess?! Looks like it’s another mystery for our favorite fillies to solve — and one where not everything is as it seems…” Written by Ted Anderson and illustrated by Brenda Hickey, the full series is available now.
image c. 2019 IDW Publishing
原住民神話中的李克勞——雲豹印象
精壯的身材、悶騷的個性、始終如一的表情，可愛的克勞想必對獸圈的各位來說一點都不陌生。出現在《家有大貓》中的李克勞是隻魯凱族的雲豹，身上有著百步蛇的圖騰（圖一）。由李克勞身為雲豹的設定，以及他身上的百步蛇紋，我們得以窺見我國原住民族中與雲豹和百步蛇的淵源。
圖一，《家有大貓》中的李克勞，取自WikiFur
我國的原住民族和百步蛇與雲豹間有著密不可分的關係。在魯凱族的傳說中，族人的祖先們在死後成了kanavanan（靈蛇）（許功明，1991）。因此，當族人們看到百步蛇時便一定要祭拜牠，因為魯凱族的人們認為百步蛇就是他們祖先的化身。在排灣族的文化中，也同樣存在著對於百步蛇的尊敬與祭祀的行為（林建成，2002）。這樣的百步蛇神靈信仰，在具有蛇崇拜的原住民族中被稱為「蛇生起源」（李亦園，1956）。雲豹與我國原住民族間的關係雖沒有像和百步蛇般具有如此神聖的起源性質，但雲豹在各原住民族的傳說中亦多可見，如在泰雅、賽德克、布農、排灣、鄒族等族中，皆可聽聞有關雲豹的傳說與故事。其中最廣為人知的，或許是在各族間都大同小異的〈熊與豹的故事〉。以下節錄泰雅族的〈熊與豹的故事〉，供讀者參考：
很久以前，熊和豹於途中偶遇，熊便提議彼此為對方的毛皮染色。豹聽了欣然同意。接著，熊又表示希望豹先替他著色，但豹卻要求先為其染色，並且答應完成之後，將會幫熊染得更漂亮。於是，熊就拿起墨汁，為豹染上耀眼的黑色斑點，豹看了非常開心的說：「熊呀！現在請你跪下，由我來替你染色。」待熊跪下，豹拿起墨汁，由熊的背部開始染起，並將其全身塗黑，僅咽喉部分未染，然後一溜煙跑掉了。熊覺得很納悶，端視己身，才知自己為一身烏黑，憤怒的往豹離開的方向飛奔過去。從此至今，據說熊一見到豹就想報復。（中央研究院，2010）
由此看來，百步蛇比起雲豹，與原住民族間的關係應更為強烈。但近年來，台灣雲豹（Neofelis nebulosa brachyura, N. n, brachyura）在我國曾因其是否滅絕而多次躍上各家媒體版面。然而，在探討雲豹是否滅絕前，更根本的問題是：台灣雲豹（N. n, brachyura）這個雲豹亞種是否真的存在？
目前對於台灣雲豹最早的紀錄出現於Swinhoe在1862年發表於Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London上的文章。然而，自此之後，並沒有任何有關於台灣雲豹的科學材料出現。雖然許多未經證實的文字、口述紀錄曾經描述了對於台灣雲豹的觀察，但目前尚未有強而有力的證據來證明這個亞種確實存在。在2017年發表的《貓科分類學（A revised taxonomy of the Felidae）》（Kitchener, A. C, 2017）中，作者說明了目前對於台灣雲豹（N. n, brachyura）的證據尚不足以證實牠的存在，因此認定N. n, brachyura並不是一個正確的亞種分類。這意味著，台灣雲豹（N. n, brachyura）是個憑空捏造出來的物種。
但這不代表台灣並沒有雲豹的存在。或許台灣雲豹（N. n, brachyura）的亞種並不存在，但台灣確實可能曾經存在其他亞種的雲豹。就原住民的神話以及傳說來看，我國早期可能的確有著雲豹的存在，只是這些雲豹並不是我們認為的「台灣雲豹」，而是其他亞種的雲豹。至於存在於台灣島上的雲豹（無論他們的亞種為何）是否已經滅絕，這點仍有待進一步的科學研究來認定。唯一可以確定的是，台灣這座島嶼確實曾經有雲豹在上面生活著，並且被我國的原住民以各種形式記錄了下來。
儘管「台灣雲豹」的存在仍有許多爭議，雲豹的神秘性以及牠們的地位仍然使得人們創造出了各種與雲豹相關的藝術創作、工業產品等。在圈內，最為人所知的，或許便是《家有大貓》中的李克勞了。透過遊戲以及各種二次創作，克勞的形象也深深地烙印在了圈內各獸的腦海中。在了解完了原住民文化中與雲豹相關的故事，以及台灣雲豹在國際學術界上的爭議後，即便台灣雲豹的存在極為可疑，我們仍可以透過各種藝術創作，讓雲豹的形象存留在每個人的心中。就算台灣雲豹不存在，雲豹的印象也是我們每個人都能好好保存的文化產物。
——————
參考文獻：
浦忠成，〈混沌年代重要的神話母題：以台灣原住民族為例〉收於《台灣原住民研究論叢》第一期。臺北，台灣原住民教授學會，2007。頁159-207。
許功明，《魯凱族的文化與藝術》。臺北：稻鄉出版社，1991。頁60-61。
林建成，《台灣原住民藝術田野筆記》。臺北：藝術家出版社，2002。
李亦園，〈來義鄉排灣族中箕模人的探究〉收於《中央研究院民族學研究所集刊》第一期。 臺北：中央研究院民族學研究所，1956。
臺灣總督府臨時舊慣調查會著，中央研究院民族學研究所編譯，《蕃族調查報告書第七冊：泰雅族後篇》。臺北：中央研究院，2010。
Kitchener, A. C, et al., A revised taxonomy of the Felidae: The final report of the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group, CATnews Special Issue 11(2017, Switzerland), p.p. 64.
臺灣原住民族中與動物相關的傳說——熊與豹的故事
在古老的時期，泰雅族裡有著這麼一個傳說：
昔時熊與豹全身都長白毛，熊和豹於途中偶遇，熊便提議彼此為對方的毛皮染色。豹聽了欣然同意。接著，熊又表示希望豹先替他著色，但豹卻要求先為其染色，並且答應完成之後，將會幫熊染得更漂亮。於是，熊就拿起墨汁，為豹染上耀眼的黑色斑點，豹看了非常開心的說：「熊呀！現在請你跪下，由我來替你染色。」待熊跪下，豹拿起墨汁，由熊的背部開始染起，並將其全身塗黑，僅咽喉部分未染，然後一溜煙跑掉了。熊覺得很納悶，端視己身，才知自己為一身烏黑，憤怒的往豹離開的方向飛奔過去。從此至今，據說熊一見到豹就想報復。
而在布農族部落裡，也同樣有著這麼一個傳說：
從前有一隻熊與一隻豹在路上相遇，雙方談起何不彼此替對方染色。於是，熊就先替豹畫上美麗的圖案，輪到豹替熊染色時，豹要求熊先閉上眼睛，熊不疑有他便閉上雙眼，還打起盹來，豹即趁機將熊的身體全部塗黑。當熊清醒過來，卻發現自己全身一片漆黑，於是憤怒的朝豹撲了過去。豹驚恐的道歉說：「請原諒今天我的行為，以後抓到鹿時，一定親自送來給你。」熊答應之後，彼此再度和睦相處。現今我們看到熊的胸前有片月形的白毛，這正是當時熊醒來時，未被豹塗黑的部分。
台灣黑熊胸前的月形白毛(來源:台灣黑熊保育協會)
這兩則傳說分別來自於不同的原住民族，但卻有著高度的相似性。在故事中，豹都是先被上色的那一個，而熊則都是被豹塗得全身漆黑，只留下胸前一塊半月形的毛皮尚未被塗黑。在故事的最後，兩則故事的熊都因為不滿豹對自己做出的行為，而對豹抱持著憤怒的心情。唯一不同的差別是，在泰雅族故事裡的熊與豹並沒有和好，但在布農族故事裡的熊與豹卻再度和睦相處。
為甚麼會有這則故事？又為甚麼兩個不同的原住民族會有這麼相像的傳說呢？
在史前時代，島上生活的居民們對於周遭的環境、生物總是充滿好奇心。而因此，為了解答許多他們心中的疑問，傳說以及故事便就此被編織出來。
台灣雲豹
筆者猜想，在過去，人們可能曾經見到熊與豹為了爭奪地盤或是資源而大打出手，而豹與熊身上又都有著黑色的元素，才創造出了這個傳說。但問題來了，臺灣除了早期原住民傳說中提到的雲豹以外（而雲豹的存在也未曾被證實過），並沒有任何有關豹類生物的紀錄，那麼這兩則故事中的「豹」到底是指誰呢？
雖然雲豹的存在尚且未被證實，但若這兩則故事中提到的「豹」並不是雲豹的話，那麼這個問題也大概就無解了吧。
我們姑且相信雲豹是存在的，且在史前時代的族群數量仍然龐大到能夠被原住民們以口述的方式記錄下來。畢竟，要是雲豹的數量非常稀少的話，那麼看到雲豹的人也會跟著變少，是否真的有「豹」在當時也早就會是個問題了。
那麼，為什麼泰雅族跟布農族兩個不同的原住民族會有長的很像的傳說呢？
這個問題的答案或許比較有科學根據。我們都知道，臺灣原住民族（不管是平埔族或是高山族）的祖先都屬於南島語族，並且都屬於同一個南島語系（Austronesian Languages）。這使得臺灣原住民族的語言具有共通性，或甚至在早期的時候，不同族的族人能互相理解對方的語言。因此，當某一族的族人創造出了神話或傳說後，其他族的族人也可以透過與創造神話的族人們交流來得知這個神話。 而不一樣的是 ，其他族的族人可能會因為語言上的差異而誤解了故事的內容，或是因為本身生活環境、型態的差異而改變了故事的內容。
但每一族間的語言共通程度，以及神話在地域上的傳播程度，真的能讓相似的神話出現在不同的族群間嗎？目前神話學上的解釋偏向以該族群的「思維模式」以及神話中所出現的「基本元素」來探討。就我國原住民族中〈熊與豹的故事〉來看，其中都有出現的基本元素便是「熊」、「豹」。而「思維模式」指的則是在當時的環境、時空背景下，生活於該地的人們會對事物有著什麼樣的看法。故在台灣這座島嶼上的原住民們，可能因為有著共同的思維模式與對於熊和豹的觀察而創造出了這些大同小異的故事與神話。這或許也就是為甚麼泰雅族跟布農族雖為不同的原住民族，但卻有著那麼相像傳說的原因。
透過這兩則故事，我們得以一窺臺灣早期原住民的語言差異以及型態，或是一窺可愛的臺灣黑熊以及臺灣雲豹在故事中的有趣互動。雖然這兩則故事充其量也只是故事，但其實它們背後隱含的意義可不單單只是黑熊與雲豹相互為對方上色而已。有了故事的流傳，我們更可以知道原住民祖先們在面對外界環境以及其他生物時所作出的解讀。神話、傳說以及故事，也因此是我們了解原住民族早期生活最主要的方式之一。
[Live] FurCats
Overrun with cats, we do a short roundup then get side tracked a lot.
Link Roundup:- Annual furry convention in Mesa mixes art, animal costumes and Zumba
- CBSN Documentary about Non-monogamy & Polyamory
- Migrating Russian eagles run up huge data roaming charges
- Awesome protogen feature
- Furpoclypse moves venues as Halloween convention’s hotel became ghastly
- Ferdinan Mythical Meteorologist Unicorn Calgary
- US Stops Using Floppy Disks to Control Nuclear Weapons
- Blue Bioluminescent Insects
- Plants Panic when it Rains
- Despite Their Spooky Reputation, Vampire Bats Keep Life-Long Friends
- Suspicious package turns out to be suspicious package reporting device
Infurnity 2019 : Atlantis
Con video for the Taiwan based Infurnity 2019 [1]! I just love seeing furry conventions spread across the globe. We gotta make the word fuzzy. [1] https://infurnity.com/en/
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Kids and Beasts Got Each Other’s Backs
Happy Halloween! Be safe, and watch the sugar. Recently we came across Beastlands, a new independent fantasy comic book series written by Curtis Clow and illustrated by Jo Mi-Gyeong. “Beastlands is an action adventure story set in a beautiful medieval fantasy world, where some people have companion beasts known as ‘Keepers’. In Beastlands you’ll go on an adventure with a group of 3 teenage friends, Mac, Ava and Ping. They’re on a journey to find out what Mac’s father, an explorer, was trying to discover before he disappeared. On this quest their friendships will be put to the test all while a tyrannical King looks to outlaw Keepers from the land.” The comic got quite a lot of chatter going when its Kickstarter campaign topped its original goal in just a matter of days. Check out the interview and preview video over at Comic Burst.
image c. 2019 To Infinity Studios