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submitted by FurriesRuinEverythin
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submitted by Kaybok
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Homo homini lupus: man is as wolf to man.

This latin proverb on human nature is neatly inverted by Redacteur’s happy wolves, who treat one other with great humanity.

Redacteur was kind enough to take the time for a quick chat about his art, and share a few of his pieces here on [adjective][species].

Reacteur draws with a minimalist style that captures the essence of life’s happy moments. His wolves – and other creatures – live in an escapist, joyful universe.

He has a graphic design background, where he picked up his geek’s eye for fonts and typography. Less sophisticated is his uninhibited use of lame visual jokes. I asked him to defend himself but he was unapologetic: “I love puns“.

I’d like to say that I find Redacteur’s puns to be flaccid and cheap, but I actually find them delightful. They complement his cheery art, and fit in perfectly with a furry world that freely and unironically uses portmanteaux like ‘fursona’.

His minimalist, non-technical style is not to be confused with naivety, although it’s probably safe to say that he wouldn’t have met the bygone Yerf quality standards. Redacteur’s style is most obviously comparable to the likes of Aqua Teen Hunger Force or Regular Show, but it also reminds me of Henri Rousseau’s paintings, most famously Tiger in Tropical Storm. Like Rousseau, Redacteur uses a deliberately childish style, allowing him to imbue clear emotions in the face of his characters.

You can find Redacteur on his Furaffinity (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/redacteur) and Tumblr (http://outsidewolves.tumblr.com/).

He is also featured in the excellent furry comic compilation RRUFFURR (www.rruffurr.com) along with a few other furry artists working in a similarly positive, intelligent, and introspective vein.

Dear Papa Bear,

I have a question on how to achieve success in the world today. I've been trying to succeed for years with typical "bear morals," you know, honesty, love, compassion, credit to others' work and not steal it, etc. But I've began to lose hope in that code of standards. I'm a bear in spirit and fursona/human wise but... I notice how dishonest hearts always win. Today being honest and doing the right thing, is total BS nowadays. It's like hunter VS. prey, kill or be killed. I read about artists in the music world, how they sometimes steal music from other artists that were SUPPOSED to have the song as their own produced by a selected producer(s) but another artist takes it and claim it as theirs before the original artist release it or finish recording the project. THOSE music artists become successful far more than the original artist by stealing their work or if the producer decides another singer deserves it more than the original. For example, Rihanna's "We Found Love" was originally meant for a lesser known artist. Though she didn't steal it but the producer/Electronic-Dance DJ, Calvin Harris, felt Rihanna would be a better candidate. Which he was right unfortunately for the original singer. I know it's dishonest and not right to achieve my goals in life in this way, but when evil looks so good... it's very tempting... an evil desire or temptation to strife for the blood of who ever in the same situation as you but only cause them to fail to improve your success to climb to the top. Things got worst for me, all the "love" I gave and attempt to success in the "good" way, I felt was a total waste of time and instead I should've cheated my way through everything... even use a few people to my advantage... I don't know what to do, maybe you know?

Sincerely, 
Anonymous Bear

* * *

Dear A. Bear,

An interesting dilemma that has potential answers from a narrow to a broad perspective. Let’s start from the narrow and work our way up a bit. That is, the idea about songs being taken from one artist and recorded by another who then makes a success of it. This is not a new practice in recent times by any means. In fact, many remakes of songs have been more successful than the originals. The Beatles even called Elton John’s remake of “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” a more successful rendition than their own. Here are some others:

• Big Mama Thornton was the first to record “Hound Dog” but Elvis Presley was the one to make it a hit with his rendition.
• Eric Clapton found success with “I Shot the Sheriff,” “stealing” it from Bob Marley (I actually like Marley’s version better, but I just love him more than Clapton)
• Whitney Houston stole the show with Dolly Parton’s “I Will Always Love You” when she performed it on that horrible movie “The Bodyguard.” (again, I love Dolly’s better—she made me cry, whereas Whitney, may she rest in peace, poor thing, just made me wanna grab my earplugs because she could sure belt that one out).
• Otis Redding was the writer of “Respect,” but who can remember that when Aretha Franklin blew us out of the water with her version?

In short, this sort of thing happens all the time in the music biz. Producers don’t care who first wrote or performed the song; they are looking for the person who can give them the best version, sing it the best, and make the most money on it. Did they “steal” it? Depends on what the contract says. If you have a case where someone stole your copywritten song, take them to court. Copyright infringement cases are also a mainstay of the music industry (I always think of George Harrison being sued for “My Sweet Lord”). If someone took one of your songs and recorded it, making money off of it, then they need to pay you royalties.

The case you cite about Rihanna is a case in point of the above. You even admit that nothing was stolen; the producer simply decided that Rihanna would perform the song better and handed it off to her. You even admit that the decision was the right one to make. So, the person originally promised the song didn’t get a “fair shot,” but maybe they wouldn’t have done as good a job and didn’t deserve it.

Bear, you need to remember that music is not burned onto CDs and downloaded onto iPods for the sake of beauty and love and kindness in the world. It is done to make money. You yourself, I suspect, are in it for the money, or you wouldn’t be upset by this. If you were writing and performing music simply for the love of music, you wouldn’t care who made money off of it because it would be your gift to the world. I doubt that is how you feel; you are seeking an income. We all need money. I do this website for free because I care about furries and wouldn’t dream of charging them for my advice, but I do have “Ask Papabear” items for sale on the site, too, because I need money (btw, who wouldn’t want a handsome Papabear mug or T-shirt? Hint, hint! ;-) )

I’m reminded here of a story my mate often tells me about the news industry. He used to give seminars to journalist students, asking them, “Why do stations like Fox News and CNN exist?” He would get answers like, “They are trying to report the truth to Americans,” or even “CNN/Fox have political agendas and are trying to give us their left/right wing slant on the news.” WRONG! After a dramatic pause, he tells them, “They are broadcasting the news for one reason only: to make money.”

Once we wash away any notions from our naive, idealistic minds that this world operates on the basis of kindness and brotherhood and realize that, like the lion eating a gazelle on the Serengeti plains, we have to do ugly things to survive, we have gone a long way toward being unsurprised by what humans do.

Is there a lot of backstabbing and unscrupulous behavior in the business world? You bet. Is that a pleasant thing? Of course not. Do we have to succumb to this behavior and emulate it ourselves? That depends on what you want in life. For instance, to become president of the United States, you have to do a lot of favors to pay back the favors of people who helped put you in office; you have to compromise your values with Congress in order to get things done. Some people can live with that; I cannot, which is why you won’t see me running for president, let alone any other office.

I have seen nasty, horrible people get high-paying jobs they don’t deserve, and, yes, it makes one bitter. But these people climb their way to the top over the bodies of other people and, when they stand at the pinnacle, they find themselves without a soul and without real friends.

There are, though, cases in which people are so incredibly bright and talented that they can rise above the crowd and not compromise their integrity. Those people are few and far between in the business world. Then there are those who do not give a rat’s ass about having a prestigious job and being driven around in a limousine—people, like Papabear, who are more than happy to have enough food and shelter to get by and, more importantly, have real friends and family members who love them. One doesn’t need to compromise in any fashion in order to achieve those goals, my dear brother bear.

Papabear’s advice to you is this: don’t worry about those backstabbing, double-crossing bastards who make lots of money at the expense of others. These are the people who, like Bernie Madoff, eventually end up having to stare at empty walls, their lives imploding all around them. And, if they don’t end up in prison like Madoff, they might as well be in one because their lives will be very empty indeed.

Live and let live, which is a very bear attitude. Pursue what you love in life, hug your friends, love your lovers, and you will find happiness.

Hugs,

Papabear

Hello there Reddit furs. Just running an idea I've had for a while, which I've been slowly preparing to make a possibility, with you all. A while back, I asked a group of friends "Is it just me, or is anyone else here interested in the psychology behind furrys?" The answer to my question was a resounding "Yes!" From that day on, an idea was implanted in my head, one that grew slowly over time. That idea was that I wanted to study the psychology behind furrys and the fandom as a whole. Every experience I have just opens up more and more questions, and it'll drive me mad if I don't try answering them. So here I am, taking the first steps towards giving it a shot. I already have started typing up an extensive report, mainly just asking questions and figuring out what I'm going to try to "solve" and how. This whole plan is still in its very early stages, and I'm not really promising anything, but I've always been keenly interested in internet psychology and furrys, so I'm sure that I'll at least give it a good run. As for my credibility, I don't have that much honestly. I've read various psychological reports and books, a few which bordered on sociology. I've read one book specifically pertaining to Internet Psycholgy, and I'm currently reading another, which will be followed by Oxford's comprehensive guide to Internet Psychology (after which I will most likely start this officially). I am in my second year of psychology, and will probably take social psychology in the coming two years. And of course, I have a hunger to learn and answer all these questions that not only I have, but other people as well (from what I've heard). So tell me, what do you think?

submitted by Shookso
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submitted by evilsibe
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submitted by Ashtalon
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Hey everyone. I recently just got introduced to the community by my best friend. I am a writer, so the main appeal to me was the new style of writing I could try out. I had a discussion with said best friend and realized that I am a scaley. I have always had a fascination with dragons and would often spend time thinking about how it would be to be a dragon. It has been a bit of an obsession of mine for years!

So I know this. Now what? What do you all recommend I should do as getting a fursona created? What are the best communities? Anything specific about the community that I should know? Give me your best r/furry! :)

submitted by DemonZypher
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submitted by khelan-the-wolfy
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What’s a crunchy, tasty, and totally unhealthy snack food? Potato chips. What’s your favorite? What’s this All Seasoned type? Maybe you’re just hungry and want an idea to, wait, that doesn’t work. Do you want to get hungry? Listening here will do that.

Hosts: Levi, Tikaani, Syruss, Wolfin
Picture By: Gesine Kuhlmann

 

Daily Show: October 22, 2012 - What's a crunchy, tasty, and totally unhealthy snack food? Potato chips. What's your favorite? What's this All Seasoned type? Maybe you're just hungry and want an idea to, wait, that doesn't work. Do you want to get hungry? Listening here will do that.

submitted by HappyWulf
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submitted by DaSkunk
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submitted by Shiftia
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submitted by nuttychooky
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Hello there. Short time reader, one time poster. I've got some issues I'd like to discuss in a civil manner. I am not a furry, but I like some of the art and think the idea is cute. I'd like to address the things scaring me away from the fandom, because the majority of "unfavorable" furries have no idea that they're acting inappropriately. Allow me to enumerate:

1. Yiff. I don't care that this smut exists, and I would never judge someone for having a fetish that doesn't affect others. The problem is, porn should be something that you hide in a corner and discuss only in private among friends. The way it is now, platonic furry art and erotica is so intertwined that there's no way to be part of the art community without being connected to the porn community. Just flipping through a couple of pages of Furaffinity, Inkbunny, or deviantArt's anthro section will reveal that a significant portion of submissions are pornographic in nature. There is yiff for almost every furry webcomic out there. There is so much porn that it has its own lexicon. This is not how you want your group to appear to outsiders who want to get to know the fandom better. If you want this problem to go away, the community needs to make a concerted effort to separate the platonic from the sexual, be that by making separate websites entirely or simply a "disable mature images" option selected by default on popular websites.

2. Fursuiting. This one is an issue for people on a psychological level, and while it's great in the company of other furries, it gets very weird in public. From one perspective, a fursuiter is a giant, living teddy-bear for people to take pictures with. On the other hand, people wearing the suits tend to lose their sense of self rather quickly. It's just not healthy to hide behind a mask, if you wouldn't do something in public without the suit on, please don't do it in public. Ever. That said, I can't really find fault with fursuiting at conventions or with friends, playing make-believe is often lost with age, and I wish it wasn't.

3. Self-Criticism. I could probably write more about this issue than about the other two combined, but I'll keep it short. If you'd take a short trip over to r/furryartschool or r/furry_wordsmith, you might notice how sheepish (pun intended) the users are about giving criticism. I read some stories looking for constructive criticism on the wordsmith last night, and they were outright bad, but the commenters just skirted around the issues. This is endemic in the online art community in general, where many users are more concerned with making friends than improving their art. For issues 1 and 2 to be addressed, the community needs to grow some proverbial balls, take a long, hard look at itself, and be willing to take a stand on the issues brewing among members. It is never too late to make an ultimatum. In a recent success, the TVTropes admins recently demanded that all personal, pornographic, and pedophiliac pages be deleted or moved offsite, and in a week it was done. Now, the furry fandom is much larger than TVTropes, but that doesn't mean the same kind of results can't be turned out. It just takes some forcefulness on the part of the administrators.

That's all I have to say for now. I do like the fandom in general; and it's far less sexual and psychopathic than the media would have people believe, but it could be so much more. Thank you for reading, and I look forward to discussing this in an open environment.

submitted by rabiesfreesince1999
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submitted by electricfoxx
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So BBF rides out another video from Eurofurance and past cons. Check it out, sit back and relax. Then you can go back to your porn.

submitted by Byn_C
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Author: Isiah Jacobs Isiah offers his own thoughts and analysis on Roar as a part of a twelve-part review series. See also: Reviews of Roar 4 by Roz Gibson and Fred Patten. Find the full article here: flayrah – furry food for thought Creative Commons: Full post may be available under a free license.

submitted by AlmaWade
[link] [28 comments]