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Roo and Tugs recently appeared on Conspire-A-Theory, hosted by PsyChris. We're pleased to re-broadcast the episode in its entirety!





NOW LISTEN!

Catch the original release at https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/conspireatheory/episodes/2018-03-19T18_13_11-07_00
Original description:
Episode 017: Fur what it's worth. Furry/Paranormal centered episode. Another special, Getting to know the neighbors, show. This time Roo & Tugs from the popular furry podcast, “Fur What It's Worth” join to talk about the their show. The ups and downs facing the furry fandom/community, as well as the drama and the fun within it. After the break, things get spooky with the crew's paranormal encounters which include, UFOs, Ghost Children, Shadow beings in the bedroom, A black eyed Old Lady, and even a Haunted Chair! http://www.furwhatitsworth.com Music "Assimilate" by -KLR- https://soundcloud.com/kiracura Here's where to reach me online if you would like to drop a story, ask a question, or commission an artwork. Show E-mail: conspireatheory@outlook.com Twitter: @psychochris ( https://twitter.com/psychochris ) Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ConspireATheory Tumblr: https://psy-chris.tumblr.com Instagram: conspire_a_theory FA: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/psychris/ DA: https://chrisholm.deviantart.com/

  Conspire-A-Theory - Roo and Tugs recently appeared on Conspire-A-Theory, hosted by PsyChris. We're pleased to re-broadcast the episode in its entirety! - NOW LISTEN! - Catch the original release at https://www.podomatic.

A VR Planet of the Apes vr game where you get to be the apes? Amazing! I would have expected the developers to force you to be a human. I want a Rampage VR game where you get to be the monster right away.
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On April 6, catch the convention debut of an Official Selection from SF IndieFest and the SXSW Film Festival. 

FWA just updated their schedule with all the details. Director Brett Hanover and collaborators will be in attendance. It will be an “After Dark Panel.” FWA is part of the story of the movie – it’s a local con for the film makers who come from Memphis.

Rukus (2018, 87 min):

• Trailer and a short review.
• Announcement from the San Francisco premiere, and a look at furry indie movies.

In January I helped bring a large furry group to SF Indiefest. It was an awesome experience, and cinema lovers who appreciate the art form should get a thrill from it. Rukus is punk influenced storytelling between queer coming-of-age story, experimental fiction, and a love letter to fandom. This isn’t a sunny movie but it has joy and passion in it. There’s suicide, sex, and finding identity. It rewards multiple watches where you can peel up the rough edges to find a lot going on underneath. My favorite part is how it takes chances with a shoestring budget, and it’s something a community can count as a DIY product from itself. (I’d love to see that become a scene.) Plus, screening at SXSW is a big deal in the larger scheme of things.

I think one of the reasons I find the furry fandom so appealing and cool is that it facilitates an identity around creation instead of consumption.

It feels more like a community than a result of a good marketing campaign.

— several gay monsters (@Orcanist) January 22, 2018

I am just completely floored that someone made a movie about an old friend of ours, Rukus, and that it's being played at SXSW. https://t.co/xuGUurekAF
Lots of weird feels...

— Triad (@triadfox) March 20, 2018

Brett Hanover tells me:

It was really well received at SXSW – good turnouts for all three screenings, and a very positive response from the Austin furry community. Had a few other people from the film there who weren’t in SF, too – so overall, a very positive, emotional week.

Next screenings for Rukus:

• April 13: Indie Grits Film Fest in Columbia, SC
• April 20 and 24: Anthology Film Archives in NYC. That’s part of a film series organized by Madsen Minax called “The Cinema of Gender Transgression: Trans Film.”

Article about Rukus, the indie furry doc/fiction hybrid movie. It just screened at @sxsw, a big honor to get. I love that the director mentions the furmeet for the premiere in San Francisco, by me, @RelayRaccoon and a few dozen furs. https://t.co/HuS2EZiBeJ

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) March 16, 2018

Brett Hanover’s RUKUS is an incredible, indescribable movie that has been in production for over ten years. It had a major effect on all of us in the audience. Go in blind, as I did. #SXSW pic.twitter.com/xCi5pRDrRr

— Blair Hoyle (@Blair_Hoyle) March 11, 2018

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

You just know that anything from a publisher called Plotless Comics is going to be interesting, right? Well that’s the home of Walrus-Rabbit, created by Matt Marchetti (the actual title is much much longer but we’ll leave it at that), and SadoCat, created by Cory Patten. Needless to say things are not very serious but are very very strange in these funny animal superhero comics. Read all about these characters and more at their Plotless web site.

image c. 2018 Plotless Comics

Furry filmmaker, Eric Risher [1], director of the documentary Furries [2] has made a con video for this years Texas Furry Fiesta in Dallas. I love all the high quality video furs produce now, it's all Very cool. "This year, I traveled to Texas for the first time to attend Texas Furry Fiesta in Dallas. The convention was held at the Hyatt Regency, a brand new location for the con, which pulled in record attendance with 3,866 furries. I had a blast, and I hope you enjoy this convention video I made to celebrate the convention." [1] https://twitter.com/furryfilmmaker [2] https://FurryFilm.com
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The animation business joins the #metoo movement, a campaign for awareness of sexual harassment that started with powerful people in Hollywood.

John Kricfalusi, creator of the Ren & Stimpy show that gained a cult and influenced many 1990’s TV cartoons, is subject of a report about grooming and sexual abuse of young girls. They were taken under his wing as aspiring artists.

These aren’t just allegations; when he was around 40 he had an underage girlfriend, as mentioned in a book about him, and his attorney admits it was true.

Ren & Stimpy played at the Spike & Mike Animation fest in the 1990’s. I remember getting my mind blown when the fest toured to my town. It inspired me to do indie stuff (like this news site.) There’s more of a furry connection than just fandom, though.

There’s a general industry connection. Since the #metoo campaign came out in October 2017, I’ve been holding on to an animation story by request due to sensitivity about the climate (nothing more than that). Pro talk on a furry site can be a bit tricky because of general stigma.

There’s a personal story too. I didn’t expect this in 2018, because I hadn’t thought about John K. in a while – but I’m not surprised. In the early 2000’s, I saw blog commenters joke about him being a Svengali to pretty young girl artists (I had no idea about the underage part). 15 years ago, give or take, I went to a party at his house in Ontario and saw something myself there.

Oh, we’re arguing today because the guy who made Ren & Stimpy groomed minors and had a 16 year old live-in girlfriend when he was in his 40’s, despite the fact the age of consent in California has been 18 since 1970?

...What exactly are we arguing about here?

— Boozy Badger (@BoozyBadger) March 30, 2018

Does 2 Gryphon know it's the lawyers job to defend people? What does he know about John K, whose lawyer confirmed he had a 16 year old girlfriend in his 40s. Calling foul isnt the same as court guilt, there are times to both-sides it but this isn't one. https://t.co/tOmMczokh4

— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) March 30, 2018

There are actual furry artists in this community who have worked for John K, saw this first hand, and mentioned seeing it while it was happening. Even without his lawyer saying so, we know this is true, I met witnesses at Further Confusion who were -there-.

— Chakat Slamfire (@ChakatSlamfire) March 31, 2018

back in 2007—ELEVEN DANG YEARS AGO—i wrote a humor column AS John K. to make fun of him. it's incredibly fucked up that the allegations against him are so much more extreme than my actual jokes pic.twitter.com/OC7Fw74Bqw

— Wow, Bob Mackey! (@bobservo) March 30, 2018

Trashy! My original fursona is a punk pack rat.

Background to my story: in 2003 I was in Canada, in a sort of punk collective and the animation scene. (That’s how I knew the director of the Furry Force animation I was in for a second; he’s a great friend and we shared space at one point.) I was noncitizen, so I couldn’t take offers of animation studio jobs. That left me homeless and looking for a path while sleeping in boiler rooms, closets or on couches of people I was helping to start projects. Then there was crashing parties – (and sometimes dumpster diving clothes and even food, freegan-style, because sell-by dates aren’t use-by dates on good sealed stuff. But that’s another story!)

John K. was at an animation event I was at. I got his address for the afterparty. His house was 1960’s bachelor-pad style, with vintage kids toys, wrestling vids and a shag carpet party basement thing. I got fed, had some beers, looked at some stacks of intern art submissions, and watched girls get rounded up to a closed room where John was going to play ukelele for them. Only the girls, including hopeful young students. It was a bit odd.

Only in 15 year hindsight does it click into a pattern. Now I can suggest that what I saw is a supporting detail for info that just came out. In 2003, it appeared to be no more than “this stranger is weird”. I neither owned a computer, had a presence online, or was professionally or personally connected enough to follow up, so it was useless info without context.

Also, talking to police was dangerous. I’d been caught in a cop’s spotlight after midnight, diving in a dumpster and retrieving bagged day-old bakery stuff. (Call me if you ever need garbology for investigative journalism.) The cop took my business card for ID, trusted my talk and let me go – unaware that my student visa was expired and I could have been deported across a border and away from people I relied on. That was a scary feeling, and a very small clue about challenges for reporting things.

Now if you can imagine yourself in furry animal paws, think about being brown or a non English speaker in the USA, or underage with a story that’s hard to tell.

 

John K. was a boss and mentor to people speaking up now, including artists Katie Rice and Robyn Byrd. Cartoon Brew is one of the most active sources for insider news, and the founder (Amid Amidi) had worked with them and John K. In 2018, Amid is praising these women for speaking up. He says the reporting has many details he didn’t know. They’re also commenting on the story in their own words.

I wonder if this has anything to do with 2017 news that Ren & Stimpy were rejected from proposed movies? They cited poor reception for the 2003 “Adult Party Cartoon.” (It could be another furry topic, maybe, about stigma on adult stuff and whether or not abuse was in the equation at the time.)

This is a story about people who are popular and looked up to, and trusted when maybe they shouldn’t be. Fandom knows this well, or it should.

Another thing we know well is supporting others. Check out the art and comics of Katie Rice and Robyn Byrd.

Maybe it's perverse but for now I'm just going to keep lobbing the photo "receipts" at the universe. John's 16-year-old girlfriend was really a thing! It was me! (And at 17, 18, 19, 20, 21...) #johnk #JohnKricfalusi #MeToo pic.twitter.com/RQSY6fEN38

— Robyn Byrd (@TopographicFish) March 31, 2018

Deepest love and respect for @TopographicFish. We were brought together as girls with the same weird, funny ambitions. Instead of nurturing our friendship we were pitted against each other by an egotistical pervert. He's not in control anymore.

— Katie Rice (@katiejrice) March 31, 2018

Hey also, @arianelange of Buzzfeed deserves a huge shout out. For six months she's been doing countless interviews, scouring blogs and books, and wading through giant piles of emails and transcripts, all to corroborate our stories and keep us safe by making our case air-tight.

— Katie Rice (@katiejrice) April 1, 2018

Thanks @DogpatchPress for doing this writeup with followups from your perspective! https://t.co/DkFx2qiH26

— Robyn Byrd (@TopographicFish) April 4, 2018

pic.twitter.com/SXrXEetklz

— Sarah Andersen (@SarahCAndersen) March 31, 2018

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

This makes me want to check out some of the Canadian cons now.
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www.draggetshow.com Be sure to check our website for all Things Dragget Show! Podcasts, videos, merch and more! Also, don't forget we stream the D&D sessions Friday at 7pm Central on YouTube! YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/DraggetShow Patreon: www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow 193 - FIRECAST! - www.draggetshow.com Be sure to check our website…

reminder that these stream FRIDAY @7pm on YouTube if you would like to join the chat! for all things Dragget: www.draggetshow.com Here is video of it w/ illustrations and more! -- https://youtu.be/LkCLDESOkkM Our Patreon w/ great new rewards! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Telegram Chat: t.me/draggetshow Dungeons & Draggets #10 - reminder that these stream FRIDAY @7pm on YouTube…

Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.

Cold Clay: A Murder Mystery by Juneau Black.
Philadelphia, PA, Hammer & Birch, November 2017, trade paperback, $12.95 (198 {+ 1] pages), Kindle $4.99.

This sequel to Shady Hollow: A Murder Mystery, described as “a Murder, She Wrote with animals”, is a worthy followup to it. Again the cast is:

“Vera Vixen: This cunning, foxy reporter has a nose for trouble and a desire to find out the truth, no matter where the path leads.

Deputy Orville Braun: This large brown bear is the more hardworking half of the Shady Hollow constabulary. He works by the book. But his book has half the pages ripped out.

Joe Elkin: This genial giant of a moose runs the town coffee shop – the local gathering spot. If gossip is spoken, Joe has heard it, but this time, he is the gossip.”

And too many others to list here. Cold Clay takes place several months after the events in Shady Hollow.   The animal inhabitants of the village of Shady Hollow are settling back into their peaceful routine – newspaper reporter Vera Vixen might call it boring – when the rabbit farm workers of Cold Clay Orchards who are transplanting an apple tree find the skeleton of a moose buried beneath it.

The news soon spreads, and all thoughts turn to the popular moose proprietor of Joe’s Mug, Shady Hollow’s coffee shop. Joe’s wife Julia disappeared eleven years ago. She was flighty and hadn’t wanted to stay in what she considered a nowheresville, so when she vanished, leaving Joe with their baby son, everyone assumed that she had walked out on them. But a moose’s skeleton, which is soon determined to be the missing Julia’s, and that she was murdered, sets all Shady Hollow talking again. There’s not really any evidence against Joe, but there isn’t against anyone else, either.

“Orville gestured for Vera to come to his desk. He handed her a copy of the arrest report, and said, ‘The orders from Chief Meade [another bear] are clear. In light of the evidence of a troubled marriage and Julia’s disappearance eleven years ago, and the recovery of the body this week, we arrested Joe Elkin on the charge of murder.’

‘Oh, Orville,’ Vera said, unable to hide her disappointment.

He bent his head, saying in a much lower voice, ‘You can’t print this, Vera. Meade insisted I arrest somebody, and Joe is the only suspect. He wants it to be understood that the police are on top of the matter.’

‘But you don’t think Joe did it!’ Vera guessed.

‘If he’s innocent, he’ll be fine.’ Orville’s expression was one of extreme doubt.” (pgs. 91-92)

Vera, an investigative reporter, is determined to discover who really did it since the police aren’t looking for anyone else. But where are there clues to an unsuspected murder eleven years earlier? And Vera is forcibly sidetracked when Octavia Grey, a haughty silver-furred mink, moves to Shady Hollow, starts a school of etiquette, and takes out a full-page ad for it in Vera’s newspaper. Vera’s skunk editor, who doesn’t want to offend a major advertiser, orders Vera to enroll in Ms. Grey’s school and spend all her time writing puff pieces on it.

Vera senses something suspicious about the aristocratic Ms. Grey almost immediately. But she suspects some kind of con artist at worst. How could a newcomer to Shady Hollow be connected to a murder eleven years in the past?

Cold Clay is full of the animal inhabitants of Shady Hollow. There’s Vera’s friend Lenore Lee, the raven proprietor of the village’s bookshop. There are Edith Von Beaverpelt and her daughter Anastasia, snobs who don’t want to be interviewed by a lowly reporter, and Howard Chitters, Mrs. Von Beaverpelt’s mouse manager of the local sawmill. There are Gladys Honeysuckle, the town gossip (a professional; she writes a gossip column for the Shady Hollow Herald), and Sun Li, the panda owner of The Bamboo Patch, an Oriental vegetarian restaurant. Professor Ambrosius Heidegger, the owl philosopher, seems too stuffy to be a serious suspect.

“‘Hmpf.’ Lenore ruffled her feathers. She wasnot the most cheerful of birds. ‘So what’s she like, then? This new mink?’

‘She’s very classy,’ Vera said. ‘But nice as well. Shesounds like she’s had an interesting life. Born into a family of aristocrats and has all sorts of stories about meeting royalty and such.’

Lenore gave a skeptical-sounding squawk. ‘Oh, indeed? And she gave it all up for Shady Hollow?’

‘There’s nothing wrong with Shady Hollow,’ Vera said defensively.

‘Course there is! No place is perfect, and we have bones out in the orchard, don’t we?’” (p. 62)

Cold Clay (cover by James T. Egan) is a second witty “cozy” murder mystery by “Juneau Black” (Jocelyn Koehler and Sharon Nagel). With animals. The characters are mostly funny animals (although Lenore Lee, a raven, does fly looking for clues from the air), but if this doesn’t bother you, it’s an enjoyable light read.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Publisher’s site

Quick: What’s the difference between a car driven into a crowd by a terrorist, and a swimming pool? That’s a question about the video below from 2 Gryphon.

So, I've never responded to a video made about me before. Let's have some fun!

Totally respect to @Tantroo_McNally. I appreciate what his work and what he does, even though I may not agree. No hate!https://t.co/tK1ZHSEx1Y

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) March 25, 2018

He was reacting to a video criticizing his beliefs about hate groups. Like neo-nazi marchers who murdered a woman in 2017 by driving a Dodge Challenger into a crowd – (with participation by haters from the furry community, leading one to kill himself in March 2018.)

2 Gryphon claims to be respectful of the critic Tantroo McNally, AKA Sonious. a furry news writer and Youtuber. At the same time, his reaction was punching down on an easy target with 369 subscribers in front of his 28,000.  That’s unusual. Sonious doesn’t get other ratings like this, and it pushes down search results. With so much unbalance, it’s hard to get both sides. Everyone likes both sides, right? So let’s give a deeper look to what Sonious was criticizing. This was the source of it all:

Okay, I'll try. If the Nazi didn't hate, then they wouldn't have killed people. And if the people who hated Nazis for hating hadn't hated them, the wouldn't have killed them. Hate is never good. Violence is never good. If someone tells you violence is an answer, they're wrong. https://t.co/mJ7FBfuNJJ

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) February 15, 2018

To be accurate, Jews weren’t causing hate against Nazis when Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, started a war and exterminated them. In fact Jews were scapegoated with fraudulent conspiracy theories to make them seem malevolent. That’s a key ingredient of antisemitic hate speech, then and today – so it’s a real dick move to insinuate that opposing nazis is hate. This is the definition of false equivalence.

Sonious took issue with this, like any informed person would. He raised a subsequent tweet by 2 Gryphon:

The Southern Poverty Law Center tallied 1064 incidents of hate crime in 2017, relatively few ending in death.

3500 people on average are killed every year in swimming pools. Swimming pools are a larger threat than racists. Why aren't you going after them? https://t.co/zgw2WDbB5a

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) February 15, 2018

According to 2 Gryphon, more people die in pools than by hate crimes, so we should care more about pools than haters. That’s the implication of bringing it up, out of the blue, to move the goalposts of a discussion. Sonious did nothing to downplay other deaths, and of course we can care about pool safety AND stopping hate groups at the same time. There was no justification to change the subject.

2 Gryphon was doing Whataboutism:

Like 2 Gryphon, except funny

Remember when pools took over a country and rounded people up for genocide?  Actually, they’re inanimate, regulated for safety and not a growing threat. But hate groups are actively recruiting with an agenda that leads to murder. It’s like having regular pools vs. people working to poison the water. (Or use cars or whatever does the damage.) One sits there with a good use and the other doesn’t. That’s why there’s public advocacy against hate groups. Like from the Southern Poverty Law Center, who certainly aren’t approving misuse of their work for whataboutism.

2 Gryphon’s video shows another bad faith tactic. After saying something ignorant, he has a habit of denying he actually said, alluded, meant, implied, or insinuated anything like that, with extremely pedantic hairsplitting. (Pettifogging is a good word.) This helps him deflect responsibility to have things both ways – like punching down on a critic while calling it “respect”. (Two-faced is a good word too.)

"I hate Nazis" is a very bold statement for someone who said he would rather shake hands with a nazi than use a transgender individual's pronouns because they somehow inconvenience him, don't you think.

— Riley "Zydr8" Pascal (@puppyresidue) March 16, 2018

Splitting the hairs: He said “stare a Nazi armband in the face”, not shake hands. Gotcha!

2 Gryphon can claim misquoting to play victim, and use false equivalence to claim he cares about ALL hate. But he’s not doing anything to stop support for hate groups [1][2][3][4][5] any more than he’s saving lives in pools (like he brought up.)

He claims to want education for nazis, but instead, he just slams people who don’t like them. His response to Sonious was 20 minutes of acting like an out-of-control-Challenger at the truth. That’s a lot of effort to avoid owning a misinforming, inaccurate comment. Here’s another one:

What's the deal with denying the holocaust? Some people think we never landed on the moon. They're stupid... but it doesn't make them evil.

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) May 9, 2014

How to fix stupidity? We could start with his. With total respect, of course!

To be respectful, comments about people being hateful to Nazis happen all the time. Often they come less from malice than from ignorance and failure to think critically. Especially with young people who don’t have a major personal stake in engaging the lessons of the past. Such comments need to have context of history and how they’re frequently deployed to justify bigotry and worse.

Since 2 Gryphon cited the Southern Poverty Law Center as a good source, I asked a journalist contact there for help to inform him. They sent me a quote about Holocaust denial – something I just showed happening in screenshots from altfurries.

From Memory, Myths, and Meanings. Why?: Explaining the Holocaust, by Peter Hayes (pp. 331–332):

A vocal group of deniers persists in asserting that gas chambers did not exist and genocide did not occur during the Third Reich, that the number of Jews who died in World War II was small and an incidental outcome of the fighting, that the evidence mentioned above consists of forgeries or coerced testimonies, and that Jews and communists contrived the “hoax” of the Holocaust after World War II in order to discredit Germany, extract money from it, and gain support for a Jewish state in Palestine. Calling themselves “revisionists,” these deniers drape themselves in the trappings of scholarship, but their strained arguments so clearly resemble the conspiracy theories that animated nineteenth-century antisemitism that their role as the real driving force behind denial shows through.

… Arguing with people who believe this nonsense is pointless, because the real source of their belief is not evidence or reasoning but incorrigible and circular fantasies about Jewish power and malevolence.”

The book by Peter Hayes, a world expert on the topic, explains how Nazis in hiding in South America essentially invented modern Holocaust denial. So by definition it’s not just a conspiracy theory, as 2 Gryphon suggests with his moon landing comparison – it’s honest-to-God Nazi propaganda. Countless scholars have concluded that the principle factor motivating Holocaust denial is not merely “stupidity,” but antisemitic hate.

What we can learn from 2 Gryphon’s reactionary stance:

• Nazis didn’t rise from being hated and aren’t just innocently stupid.
• Opposing them isn’t “hate,” it’s being an informed citizen.
• Enabling them by punching down on critics isn’t neutral, centrist, or informed advocacy.
• Presenting this as “free speech” vs “SJW’s” is a self serving, cooked-up controversy, not supported by sources who were cited.

While he’s spreading misinformation, can he be any more manipulative and self-serving? Yes. Watch him use a common trolling tactic (with explanation):

What the extreme left doesn't realize is that every time they send someone packing for not falling in line with their ideas, they come to me or someone like me for advice.

Not a good way to get people on your side.

— 2 Gryphon (@2_gryphon) March 31, 2018

Found this post while scrolling through the cesspit that is /pol/.
Reminds me of that one from @ContraPoints ‘ video on decrypting the right. pic.twitter.com/RmZXoTarsH

— Brad Savvy (@Brad_Savvy) March 29, 2018

It’s very corrupt for 2 Gryphon to tell people that correcting misinformation leads others to believe it, when he means “to believe me“. Don’t trust anyone who manipulates an argument to their advantage like that, or plays dumb on purpose.  (Like lying that they don’t know what nazis are).  Don’t be a tool.

This shows why he lost convention stages. Digging in with an incorrigible, circular claim isn’t very entertaining. He styles himself as a “shock jock” entertainer, but controversy with increasingly smaller targets and less honesty is a cheap high. It never gets as good as it used to be. At this point, the most shocking thing he could do is kick the habit and be funny and informative instead.

On a positive note, I want to close with something informative – Sonious’ World In Rooview channel. Here’s some more good stuff, including a previous video about 2 Gryphon. It’s likely that Sonious became a target for reaction because of it – (the same thing happened when I did a critical article, and 2 Gryphon avoided answering it but picked a different article to slam. It seems like a predictable play.)

Give Sonious a follow to encourage his good work and help everyone enjoy a better informed fandom.

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

We stumbled across an interesting article about a new series of animated shorts coming to TV in South Africa. “NickToons in association with local animation studio, Sunrise Productions have proudly developed it’s first South African animation for the channel. Munki and Trunk is a dialogue-free 3D animated TV series for kids aged 4 to 7. Munki is a vine-swinging force of nature, hungry for bananas and adventure. Trunk is a big-hearted elephant who loves to nurture and play. These unlikely best friends explore their world together, facing fears and helping friends along the way. It’s the most fun you can have in the jungle.” The show is produced by Tim Keller, and it premiers this month. No word at all if anyone plans to distribute it to other parts of the world, unfortunately.

image c. 2018 Sunrise Productions

Another WonderCon discovery: Star Beasts is a science fiction funny animal comic written by Stephanie Young and illustrated by Allyson Lassiter. “The cosmic adventures of Star Beasts! Protectors of our planet, this secret order of creatures is sworn to guard our home. Keeping us safe from all Galactic Evil great and small. Want to know the real reason why Pluto isn’t a planet anymore? Find out in the first issue of Star Beasts, The Mighty Menace.” Well it’s nice to know that someone figured it out. Visit the Star Beasts home page or look for the creators at a comic convention near you.

image c. 2018 by Allyson Lassiter

It's Fursuit Friday and the people at Culturally F'd have added part two of their deep dive into fursuit history.
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Guest post by Arrkay from Culturally F’d, the furry youtube channel. See their tag on Dogpatch Press for more.

It’s #FursuitFriday which means twitter floods with pictures of our fluffy creations. It’s also the time for us at Culturally F’d and Dogpatch to look back at some Fursuit History. Make sure to catch up on Part 1: Masks and start your own exploration of animal costume performance with Culturally F’d.

Actual true fact: Fursuit History was inspired by a series of articles right here on Dogpatch! Below are the original posts about Pantomime Animals that Patch and Fred graciously let us adapt to script! Once we had that started, it had us thinking “why not a full history of animal costume?” Next thing you know it’s a whole planned multi-part series that we’ve been concocting since the release of these original posts:

If there was a Museum of Furry, theatrical “Panto-Animals” would be a major exhibit.

Theatrical Panto-animals, Part 2: Feedback, history and sources roundup.

Theatrical Panto-animals, Part 3: History book reviews by Fred Patten.

Additional research for the episode narrowed down 3 fursuit pioneers of the era: Charles Lauri, who sees a spotlight in the video, and also the heavily photographed Fred Conquest, and Fred Whittaker. Of course these are only the most photographed, there were many animal acrobats and actors at the time in a tradition of stage costume that continues today.

On the next Fursuit History we’ll be looking into the next logical media of animal performance: FILM! From sci-fi giants like Godzilla, to horror classics like The Wolf Man and Creature From the Black Lagoon to childhood fantasies like The Cowardly Lion, we look at the development of special effect makeup, prosthetics and the fursuits of the cinema!

 

Further Reading and References:

“Weird and Wonderful World of Panto-Animals” includes an excellent photo gallery.

It’s Behind You: Panto-Animals photo gallery – from Shakespeare to Mother Goose plays, 1909-1980’s.

It’s Behind You: Fact Sheets on classic Panto plays – including stories and photos.

Nigel Ellacott’s blog: Cat and Rat costumes

A History of Pantomime, by Maureen Hughes on Google books

Video Sources:

Monty Python pantomime horse sketch

Pantomime horse race in aid of CLIC Sargent

London Pantomime Horse Race 2017

The Pantomime Horse (Dance training)

Pantomime Elephant and Clown

And of course, used with permission Room 366 Prequel by EZ Wolf

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Fursuit History 2: Skin Parts

Looks like penguins get to learn about free markets and Externalities.
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Hello Everyone!

We open this week with a discussion on FOSTA. This is an American bill that is soon to become law that is having a chilling effect on how we use the internet, and the impacts are being felt worldwide. We discuss what the bill is, why it's ten types of awful, and how this impacts the furry fandom. We at Feral Attraction would encourage those who feel so inclined to visit the Electronic Frontier Foundation to learn even more and find ways you can resist this awful legislation. 

Our main topic is on sexual roles. We go over the different axes that are present when it comes to sexual determination and how everything is fluid and in motion. We talk about how the persona you portray becomes your truth and the beacon by which you attract people in your life, how pretense is prologue and determines the lifestyle that you lead, and why it's not a bad idea to experiment with your sexual roles. 

We close out this episode with a question on poly and friendship. Our questioner is interested in a poly relationship with one of his friend's husband, but his friend doesn't want that. How can he keep his new romantic attachment and his friend? Spoiler alert: he probably can't. 

For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode.

Thanks for everything everyone and, as always, be well!

FA 104 Sexual Roles - Is FOSTA good? Are sexual roles dynamic? Can you have your cake and eat it too? Can Metriko make it through his last episode without messing up the Patreon shoutouts? All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!

Tom Broadbent has been staging creative fursuit photography for many years. I covered him in: Five pro photographers advancing the art of furry documentary. For each I named a signature approach, and to me, Tom excels at “whimsy”. His carefully chosen fantasy scenes show a depth of intrigue and storytelling beyond conventional scenes. Tom takes great care with relationships with his subjects. I think he’s the ideal photographer that furries could ask for.

That’s why I’m rushing out a post on short notice to urge support for his project. Tom has a dream to showcase furry subjects in a photo book, a beautiful archival object. It’s a few days from the Kickstarter deadline, and of course the funding is all or nothing.

There are 124 backers at 70% of the goal – can it get all the way to 100%?

We’ll know on April 4. I usually avoid covering crowdfunding – so this is an unusual request.

Link: Please share and support At Home With The Furries on Kickstarter.

Tom chatted with me about his feelings about trying to get his work promoted and published to a high standard:

“During this Kickstarter campaign, Cosmopolitan approached me to do an article. They did a really nice job.

8 Fascinating Photos Inside the Daily Lives of Furries

The day after, an American tabloid asked to do a feature and I had to turn them down, mainly because of their previous coverage of the furry community. I’ve worked with the furries for nearly 10 years and I can’t have anything jeopardizing the trust I’ve built with them. It’s a balancing act, obviously I could have done with the publicity, but then at what cost!

In terms of how protective I am of the work, it’s very! I want the work to be seen in the right places, as in the type of platforms that will add to the message I’m trying to say, not take away, devalue or sensationalise it. Hence it’s broadsheets, high quality magazines, websites and exhibitions. I have worked in the media for a long time and I know how the industry operates.

So that has meant a certain limitation of who can use the work and it’s meant saying no to a lot of outlets, for example tabloids and the inevitable TV production companies. It’s absolutely key that the furries involved in the project are happy with the sort of coverage I get. Here’s a tweet I made last week which sums up my position on it.”

I've had to say no to so many outlets over the years of making the #furry project. Making a body of work that has longevity means that I have a responsibilty to the community I'm working with and that means no compromise https://t.co/7obd5VKKG3

— Tom Broadbent (@Broadbentius) March 16, 2018

Furries talk about supporting Tom’s work:

• From Edward Fuzzypaws, featured in the book: Please help back this amazing project! <3 It’s a beautiful book and a wonderful tribute to the fandom!

• From the Singapore Furs: Need a little something to start a conversation among your guests as they relax your living room? Check out @Broadbentius and his photobook on furries as featured in Cosmopolitan.

• From Alfa Fox, referring to the Cosmopolitan feature (also featured in the book): I honestly never thought I’d ever be able to say that I’d been in Cosmo! If you’ve not already, get behind @Broadbentius and his kickstarter.

• From Sticks, the Fox (Sticks is in the book:) The excellent photographer @Broadbentius has just started a Kickstarter for a printed version of his project “At home with the Furries”. I had the privilege to be part of this & I have yet to find anyone who paints the fandom in such a wonderful light.

• From Cosmo Snowmew: Remember the Sunday Times Magazine “At Home With the Furries” series? Photographer, friend of furries and all-round cool cat @Broadbentius wants to turn it into a book… and needs your help funding it on Kickstarter!

• From Ambery Badgyote:

Hey man, were nothing. It's such a great thing to do. I really applaud the effort you've put into it

— ambery the 13.5%vol badgyote (@badgyote) March 7, 2018

Last words from Tom and Wolfy:

“I think possibly the most touching thing I’ve read since I launched the kickstarter is from a friend of mine, Wolfy from Lincoln. He’s a furry I met for the first time at a London fur meet, maybe in 2009 or so. This hit me hard and maybe sums up why the furry community is well, so great!

I asked Wolfy about the furry fandom and what it meant to him – I blogged about it recently here.”

Before (the furries) I had no social life. Struggled like hell with people and often had panic attacks. It wasn’t until I started to go to furry meets that I actually felt connected with people. For the most part the people were friendly and welcoming and very understanding. I still struggle at times in crowds but I have been to conventions, done furry camping. Things that would have scared the hell out of me 10 years ago.

The guy who introduced me to furry is running a kickstarter to turn his project into a book. He is an amazing guy and one of the few professionals that treat the fandom with dignity and respect. Anybody who can should seriously consider backing this project https://t.co/bZJsMmqpsK

— wolfy adder (@wolfy_adder) March 13, 2018

Like the article? It takes a lot of effort to share these. Please consider supporting Dogpatch Press on Patreon.  You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, or get Con*Tact Caffeine Soap as a reward.  They’re a popular furry business seen in dealer dens. Be an extra-perky patron – or just order direct from Con*Tact.

Here is a well done con video by Polar The Lion [1] of ThaiTails [2]. I'm still amazed by how far furry conventions have gone. [1] https://twitter.com/polarthelion?lang=en [2] http://thaitails.net/en
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