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Book of the Month: The Digital Coyote
June’s Book of the Month is The Digital Coyote, a science fiction novel by Kris Schnee.
Pete signed up to have his brain diced, so he could become a better person. Now he lives in the virtual world of Talespace, where he beta-tests everything from new game rules to mental upgrades to robots that will let his AI boss help people in the real world. As brain-uploading technology starts to become more than a toy for the rich, the now-divided America isn’t the only place where Talespace’s new society, buggy as it is, is badly needed. Will Pete’s new home become an irrelevant gamer heaven, or a force for liberty?
In Talespace you can change your body, fly, build starships, befriend native AIs eager to learn about the dangerous world outside, and try to find a home and happiness. Even if there’s an unexplained asterisk on your account information.
Some days Pete pilots robots on diplomatic missions back “Earthside.” Sometimes he learns magic and battles monsters. Oh, and sometimes he tries to outwit a rival AI god. It’s a pretty good job to have.
The Digital Coyote won the 2016 Cóyotl Award for best novel. It’s the third book in the Thousand Tales setting, but is a standalone work. Buy it in Kindle or paperback from Amazon.
The Bay Area Furries return to San Francisco Pride with an amazing spectacle.
A Burning Man art car will carry furries in the SF Pride parade… If a few furs step up to volunteer as safety monitors.
Just a few more are needed to qualify. Time is short to make it happen on 6/25/17. See info below and ACT NOW!
Here’s some cool art cars at Burning Man, and even more here. (Those are NOT FOR THE PARADE, the car will be a surprise.)
Furries are ready for a better parade than ever before. They got involved around 2002-2004, and returned with a float in 2014-2015, but relaxed with just a booth in 2016. The time is right for a big comeback. Before now they used plain rental trucks, but even modest effort got amazing feedback for putting 50+ members in front of crowds and media. (Take a look back at fursuiting in 2012, a float in 2015, and much more on the Pride tag.)
Capri, a fabulous transgender dragon, sent this memory:
In the last year we did the parade, I met a great friend who helped me to start transition. I managed to walk the entire way in fursuit, a feat I am quite proud of. I still use that video to show off my suit. I also really enjoyed passing by the judges and having one of them say awesome words of kindness to me. We went to a Korean barbeque place afterwords and mistakenly thought it was all you can eat. (Patch): sorry, I confused it with a different place I was at once before… (Capri): It was fine, I should be the sorry one, you took care of it and the bill was pretty staggering.
That’s the positive vibe that furries bring to Pride. But there’s an important ingredient they need to make it happen.
VOLUNTEERS NEEDED – THE FLOAT CAN’T ENTER WITHOUT YOU. PLEASE GET INVOLVED!
Organizer Roman Otter says: The SF Pride Parade and March is one of the largest and most colorful events in San Francisco, and we have a reserved place in it. However, there are training and registration tasks we must complete to be eligible. If we don’t get enough people there won’t be a float! Here’s how to join:
1) See complete participant instructions (PDF).
2) Here is a video that needs to be watched by all:
3) Take this quiz to validate yourself (our group title is “Bay Area Furries”) – and then you’re in! Confirm to organizer contacts below.
Wheel Monitors and Contingent Monitors are mandatory to help with our growing attendance. WE DON’T HAVE ENOUGH VOLUNTEERS TO BE ELIGIBLE YET – PLEASE JOIN.
$$$ DONATIONS HELP. $$$ We’ll pay for water for suiters and marchers, sound system, the art car we’ll dance and wave from, and fees associated with the parade. Paypal donations are being collected by organizer Zoren: Zorenm@gmail.com – please throw money at him!
Updates are coming, like our location in the parade route that’s still waiting to be chosen by Pride. The place and time will be updated once we know. How do fursuiters prepare? During the event, the float will have a fursuit lounge on it. There will be after meets (dinner etc.) to announce as well.
The Meetup page is one place for updates. Go leave an RSVP if you’re a member. The event is also being discussed on Bay Area Furries groups.
PLEASE TAKE ACTION! Now you have the info. Follow the steps, watch for updates, and tell your friends that this will be the best event ever! If you have questions, ping @RomanOtter (on Telegram and most things), Zoren on Twitter or email or @ZorenManray on Telegram, or Patch from links on the About page.
Monkey Wars, by Richard Kurti – book review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Monkey Wars, by Richard Kurti
NYC, Delacorte Press, January 2015, hardcover $17.00 (409 [+1] pages), Kindle $10.99.
Monkey Wars has been described as “a dark fable in the tradition of” – different reviewers have compared it to several other adult talking-animal novels; but almost always including Animal Farm and Watership Down. The British edition was nominated for two literary awards. It has been translated into French, German, and Japanese.
The novel, set in India, is based on the proliferation of wild street monkeys, usually rhesus macaques, in Delhi and Kolkata. They travel in troops and attack people if they are disturbed – sometimes when not provoked. The specific event that inspired Monkey Wars was from The New Delhi Times for 21 October 2007: “In a sinister development, the deputy mayor of Delhi, S. S. Bajwa, died this morning after being attacked by a gang of rhesus macaques.” But whenever the authorities try to curb the monkey problem, they are attacked by devout Hindus because all monkeys are believed to be sacred to Hanuman, the monkey god. Authorities have tried importing langur monkeys, a larger species, to scare the rhesus monkeys away, but with mixed success.
(This is still a problem. The New Indian Express reported on April 6, 2017 the discovery of a wild naked girl about 8 to 10 years old living with a troop of monkeys in the forests in northern India. When local police tried to remove her, they were attacked by the monkeys acting as though they were protecting one of their troop. The story was almost immediately disproven – the girl was wearing rags, and the monkeys ran away without attacking anyone. Authorities now believe that the girl, who is severely retarded, was recently abandoned by her family. But the story of a wild child being adopted and raised in the forests for years by monkeys was considered plausible.)
“They struck at noon.
Monkeys shrieked in confusion as langur fighters sprang down from the cemetery walls, howling in an attacking frenzy. As they stormed through the tombs, fear and panic flashed everywhere. And with the screams came the smell of blood.” (p. 5)
A troop of rhesus monkeys that has been living peacefully for generations in an abandoned human cemetery (which in India is full of miniature Hindu temple reproductions) is suddenly ruthlessly attacked by an organized army of langur monkeys. The langurs kill all the rhesus males, drive out the females and children, and take over the cemetery for themselves.
The beginning of the novel is divided into two stories, told in mostly alternating chapters; those of Papina, a young rhesus girl, and of Mico, a young langur boy. Papina and her mother Willow are traumatized by the disappearance of their males, and by being driven into the streets of Kolkata that are already filled by as many slum monkeys as they will hold. Mico, who is too young to question what he is told, is delighted by the palatial new home that the langur Lord Ruler Gospodar announces that he has found for them.
The short chapters are full of action and tension. Papina, Willow, and the other rhesus females are harried into increasingly shabby and dangerous neighborhoods. They are finally rescued by Twitcher, a rhesus male who takes them to a temple of Hanuman where they can live in peace, if not the luxury that they had known in the cemetery.
Mico, who is more curious than most langur children, is told to not ask questions:
“‘But asking questions is …’ Mico frowned. ‘It’s what monkeys do. Monkeys question.’
‘The langur troop aren’t like other monkeys. We were chosen,’ Trumble [Mico’s father] replied solemnly. ‘Chosen to fight for peace. The langur keep the streets safe from the hordes of wild monkeys out there. If we questioned every decision Lord Gospodar made’ – Trumble broke off to look around the cemetery – ‘we wouldn’t have all this.’” (p. 26)
Mico gradually sees things that do not match what he is told. Despite the langur’s advertised freedom and luxury, they are ruled by Lord Gospodar and his Ruling Council of General Pogo, Deputies Tyrell and Hani, and one ordinary monkey to represent the concerns of the common langurs. Monkeys who question the Council tend to be ostracized or disappear. In scenes within Mico’s chapters, Deputy Tyrell acts like Stalin in the first days of Soviet authority (or like Napoleon at the beginning of Animal Farm), constantly volunteering for minor positions that, added up, will transfer power to him.
Mico and Papina get together in Chapter 12, on page 75. I have revealed several minor spoilers getting this far, so I won’t continue in as much detail. Even though Mico has tried to keep a low profile among the langurs, he is noticed by Deputy Tyrell. Papina’s attempts to get the cemetery back for the rhesuses get her branded as a troublemaker by the other rhesuses who are content to let well enough alone. When she meets Mico, she is forbidden to associate with him..
Papina’s talents cause her to rise in the rhesuses’ hierarchy, and she can see the coming battle with the langurs. Mico’s fears are realized when he sees that the langurs are preparing to take their supremacy outside the cemetery:
“‘The city is looking to us,’ Gospodar declared. ‘It needs us to eradicate the scourge of savage monkeys! The Ruling Council and I are of one mind: in the name of peace, we must mobilize for war!’” (p. 99)
but he remains hesitant to turn against his own leaders, his own people — his own family.
“Mico shuddered as the dampness of the night crept up on him. He scrambled to the top of the wall and perched himself on the smooth coping stones.
On one side of him was the cemetery, on the other the city stretching out into the distance. He was perched between two worlds in more ways than one. Whichever decision he made seemed to lead to unhappiness. Maybe he should just spend the rest of his life sitting up here on this wall.” (p. 145)
Will Mico and Papina join together to prevent a bloody, fatal confrontation? Or will they remain separate for a tragic, Romeo-&-Juliet conclusion?
Or will something unexpected happen?
Kurti’s writing is straightforward but gripping; Monkey Wars (cover by Will Staehle) deserves the accolade of “unputdownable”. Since Mico and Papina are both monkey young adolescents, Monkey Wars could serve as a Young Adult novel. It is published as an adult literary novel from a major publisher, and it got good reviews, so your public library may have it. Author Kurti has an animated blurb for Monkey Wars on his website.
To support writing by furries, for furries, please visit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, and support all of the team’s news and reviews.
He Ain’t Canine, He’s My Brother
And here’s another, perhaps much stranger work coming soon from First Second: Making Scents, a new full-color graphic novel written by Arthur Yorinks. Here’s what they say over at Kirkus Reviews: “In this thoughtful graphic novel, a human boy who believes himself to be part dog seeks acceptance for who he is. Mickey’s brothers and sisters all have four legs. His ardently dog-loving parents are professional bloodhound breeders who never planned on having a child. His parents encourage Mickey to develop his own sense of smell, which becomes just as acute as his hound siblings’. However, when his parents suddenly die, he goes to stay with his estranged aunt and uncle, a much older couple who hate dogs and demand that Mickey start acting like a boy. Now in the throes of grief, Mickey must also struggle with having to conform to someone else’s idea of whom he should be.” Illustrated by Braden Lamb and Shelli Paroline, Making Scents is coming in hardcover at the end of June.
image c. 2017 First Second
The Mask of Bone, by Brian Panthera – book review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
The Mask of Bone, by Brian Panthera
Bloomington, IN, iUniverse, November 2016, trade paperback $20.99 (xvii + 331 pages), Kindle $3.99.
The Mask of Bone – which is only Book 1 of the Otherworlds saga – is High Fantasy. Really High Fantasy, replete with lots of footnotes. The first footnote is: “To reduce confusion, calendar dates in the text will use the Universal Calendar (UC), based on the Central Timekeeping System used by the kitsune of the dimension of Escher. 11973 UC corresponds to roughly 2001 A.D. in the Gregorian Calendar used in most dimensional variations of Earth, and 1507 KI in the calendar on most of Tayrik, which dates back to […]” Does that reduce confusion? The world of Tayrik is where the action begins.
“Long ago, the mask of bone was shattered, its bearer slain, the pieces stolen. They were scattered through the dimensions to prevent its reassembly.” (blurb) Xolotl, the Aztec guide to the dead, wants the Mask reassembled, and he drafts Pflarrian to do it. Pflarrian Collifox is a student at the Mirial’s Rock Academy of Magic (and Mayhem) on Tayrik who is slowly turning into a fox. He looks like a gaunt human with “a long, bushy red tail sticking through a hole in his jeans, and a pair of large, pointy, red, furry, fox ears sticking up from under a shock of long reddish-brown hair that was usually pulled back in a rough ponytail.” (p. ix) Professor Verdigris, who is a dragon, has assigned Pflarrian to do something entirely different, but Xolotl waylays him and persuades him to search the dimensions for the pieces of the Mask before he finishes turning into a fox. Got all that?
Oh, and Pflarr’s girlfriend Marani is a sometimes-impulsive anthro jaguaress:
“She paused in the kitchen just long enough to wash Pflarrian’s blood from her claws before returning to bed.” (p. 78)
Despite The Mask of Bone’s being set in a supposedly predominantly human dimension, there are more anthropomorphic animals than humans in this novel; including gods taking on anthro animal forms:
“It was here, finally, that the goddess [Isis] found the one she had come here to speak with. He stood slightly stooped over as he leaned on the edge of a great carved-marble reflecting pool, gazing at something only he could see. Her quarry [Xolotl] was an impressive sight. Tall and broad-shouldered, he was a humanoid canine like the goddess’s current form, but where she had taken the form of a jackal, he bore the form and shape of heavier-set dog-being, looking more like a rough-coat collie. His fur was a dark, almost metallic bronze in most places, accented here and there with white and bone-colored highlights. Fine robes fit for an emperor draped his body, glowing with the colors of the setting sun. They were resplendent in rich tones of orange and red. His head was adorned with a heavy-looking gold crown of sorts, bedecked with an array of long, brightly colored feathers. They swept back from just behind his canine ears to a point almost two feet over his head. Matching golden bracelets rode his wrists. A chunky, heavy necklace formed of square blocks of gold graced his neck and shoulders, barely visible through the thick ruff of fur about his neck.” (p. xiv)
I’ve quoted that at length to give you a taste of Panthera’s opulent writing style. The book is full of furry references. Isis has issues with cat-headed Bastet. One of a college professor’s assistants is Kalya, an anthro black-footed ferret. Someone mentions getting in a shipment of citrus fruits from the Felinid Empire. “It [a doorknock] was answered by a diminutive female mouse in pale blue student’s robes. She looked up at Pflarrian, who towered a good two feet over her, and blinked in surprise.” (p. 55) “The immortal had rented a private room at the Sign of the Nine Tails, a kitsune-run restaurant of some renown near Temple Road.” (p. 83) “The wide variety of beings that inhabited the city caught the wolf’s attention. Humans, felines, canines, something with long, furless, pointed ears that Dashell figured must have been an elf, and a myriad variety of others!” (p. 49) Pflarr’s turning into a fox is constantly kept before the reader: “With a resigned sigh, Pflarrian knelt on the stone floor, making sure not to kneel on his own tail.” (p. 7)
To cut to the admittedly-confusing plot, the first page of the story (as distinct from the 17-page Prologue) begins:
“Dashell awoke to pain. It filled his head to the tips of his fuzzy black ears, ran down his arms and legs, and caused his furry wolf’s tail to twitch in irritation. It made him feel is if someone had been trying to use him as a pincushion.
In other words, he had a hangover.” (p. 1)
Dashell Grauvolf, an alternating black-&-white-furred anthro wolf, is also a college student (computer sciences major) in his dimension. He is kidnapped by a wannabe-demonic mad scientist in Pflarrian’s dimension, escapes before he can be experimented upon (MUHAHAHA!), and is rescued (kind of) by Pflarrian (they think by coincidence, but not really).
Xolotl, who has been scrying what is happening to Dashell (read the book to learn why), has his attention drawn to Pflarrian. He is shocked to find that the same spell that is turning Pflarrian into a fox has made him Xolotl’s champion, even if no one is aware of it. So he appears to Pflarrian to persuade him to search the dimensions for the pieces of the Mask of Bone. But Pflarr doesn’t go alone! He brings Dashell, Marani, and her big (over 8 feet tall) sister Hakarra with him.
They set sail for the Felinid Empire (and promptly get into a sea battle with anthro animal pirates) on page 107. The rest of the 331-page novel is Pflarr’s & Dashell’s adventures looking for the pieces of the Mask of Bone. They don’t find them yet. To be continued in Otherworlds, Book 2: The Fated Ones.
The Mask of Bone (cover imagery © Thinkstock) is good fun, especially if you like a lot of transformations. Be prepared for one of the characters (a wolf) to have a thick German accent:
“She sighed. ‘I vill explain later, D’shal. Meanvile, ve haf to make sure neizzer Faylarrian nor Zaul do anyzing rash, ja?’” (p. 64)
To support writing by furries, for furries, please visit Dogpatch Press on Patreon. You can access exclusive stuff for just $1, and support all of the team’s news and reviews.
FA 075 All Questions Show Vol. 6 - Is he just not that into you? Can Metriko pronounce the word "sixth"? Is sapiosexuality real? How can you be more confident in real life? All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!
Hello Everyone!
This week we open with a discussion on how to identify ways that your fuckbuddy, roleplay partner, or new romantic interest might not be into you. We look at an article from Grindr's blog (yes, we read it for the articles) concerning five ways to identify how he might just not be into you. We then tack on our own five and give examples from our own lives.
Our main section this week is our sixth All Questions Show! We cover a diverse range of topics, from how to decide between two potential lovers, to how to go about making friends in real life when no one seems to like you, to whether or not it is okay to not be interested in someone because of a perceived gap in intelligence. We offer our advice and, as always, invite you to offer your own takes on these issues.
For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
FA 075 All Questions Show Vol. 6 - Is he just not that into you? Can Metriko pronounce the word "sixth"? Is sapiosexuality real? How can you be more confident in real life? All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!Everything Needs an Update!
I tried to post this earlier but I had to update the server and wordpress ... and my computer.
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A Fox Raising A Hen House
We’ve been hearing for a while about Le Grand Mechant Renard, a European animated TV special directed by Benjamin Renner (co-director of Ernest & Celestine) based on his graphic novel. Well now First Second Books have released that graphic novel as a new full-color trade paperback, translated into English as The Big Bad Fox. The creator describes it like this: “[It’s] about a fox who isn’t strong enough to catch and eat chickens. Instead, he gets beaten by the chickens. So, he has this weird idea where he’s going to steal eggs and he’s going to raise the small chickens, pretending he’s the mother, but one day, he’s going to eat them.” Got that? There’s an extensive review over at the School Library Journal. Look for the graphic novel this month.
image c. 2017 First Second
Trailer: Beyond Good and Evil 2
It's E3 time and this is the first trailer that makes me wish I had a console. If this hits the PC I will be so there. (This game has been in development for nearly a decade ... does this mean Half Life 3 is going to hit next?)
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Before The War — The Escape!
More gearing up for the new War for the Planet of the Apes feature film this summer. Now Boom! Studios have brought back a classic from the 1970’s with the Planet of the Apes Archive Volume 1, coming this August in hardcover. According to Previews, “Experience the legendary 1970s Marvel Comics’ Terror on the Planet of the Apes, collected for the first time ever and remastered in this prestigious hardcover. This classic series follows two friends – man and ape – on the run from the law. From Doug Moench (Batman), Mike Ploog (Ghost Rider), Tom Sutton (Doctor Strange), Herb Trimpe (Incredible Hulk), and more!”
image c. 2017 Boom! Studios
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ep. 166 - Firestream! - OH HEY, WE HAVE A WEBSITE NOW TOO www.thedragget…
OH HEY, WE HAVE A WEBSITE NOW TOO www.thedraggetshow.com Here's the youtube vid of it if you prefer that! https://youtu.be/8ndpTWOzfIs Patreons will get episodes first right after recording. Just a buck gets you early access and a downloadable mp3 file! www.patreon.com/thedraggetshow Serathin's amazing Dragget Show story! - docs.google.com/document/d/1AYkJR…y8RCsCK0NjEw/edit ALSO, we're not just on SoundCloud, you can also subscribe to this on most podcast services like iTunes! ep. 166 - Firestream! - OH HEY, WE HAVE A WEBSITE NOW TOO www.thedragget…
TigerTails Radio Season 10 Episode 28
Yāoguài
Yay! New Gobelins short for the Annecy film festival! If you are not aware Gobelins is an ant/animation school in France. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobelins_School_of_the_Image [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobelins_School_of_the_Image
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What’s Yiffin’? – June 2017 edition of syndicated furry news.
Can you believe it’s been five months since What’s Yiffin’ was picked up by Dogpatch Press? We can’t; it still feels like we’re just getting started here every month even though this feature is now a regular thing (and we’ve been running this series since 2015). It’s all about having confidence really, and this will make a nice segue into one of our stories because it’s exactly that. No, wait that’s “Confurence”. Anyway we’ve got your usual lineup this month: something gets cancelled, someone phones in a bomb threat somewhere, and Dracokon complains about the current state of the fandom. Get out your officially licensed What’s Yiffin’ bingo cards and play along because it’s time to start this article proper.
THE O.C. IS THE NEW O.G.
We’re pretty sure everyone reading this has played the “[Your Name] the Hedgehog” game; you know, the one where you literally punch something like “Andre the Hedgehog” into Google and see what DeviantArt-tier Sonic fanon characters crop up? It’s incredible but there’s usually an “OC” (“Original Character”) for every name you can think of. Make no mistake, “the OC” is a huge thing in Sonic circles and it has been dating as far back as the early years of the Internet on places such as the late Sonic HQ. If it pleases the jury, one of the two people behind What’s Yiffin’ even had an OC at one point, that’s how prevalent this is.
But why all the OC talk though? Well, coming to stores this holiday season is Sonic Forces which comes with a built-in character creator. Believe it or not this is the first of its kind in a Sonic game, never before have players been able to create their own characters and team up with the Blue Blur himself. Up until now that privilege has been reserved solely for the realm of awkward and shameful fanfiction. In a trailer that has been dubbed the “Custom Hero” trailer SEGA revealed Forces’ character creator by finally clearing up just who this “new character” was that’s had people biting at tooth and nail for more information. It’s you.
SEGA later followed up with a list of species available for use in the creator: bear, bird, dog, cat, wolf, rabbit, and hedgehog. Each of them have their own unique traits which have subtle effects on gameplay regarding things such as how the characters take and recover from damage, how they can collect rings, or how inflation art of them should be drawn. Eagle-eyed readers have probably noticed by now the huge hole in the species list –“fox” and “echidna” are nowhere to be seen. Yes that’s right, Tails and Knuckles superfans are currently high and dry at the moment with no confirmation one way or the other if their OC’s will have a place in the game. There’s still a whole half of a year before this game’s release though so anything can change between now and then.
Finally, DeviantArt — arguably the ground zero of Sonic OC’s — had a moment of self-awareness on social media when they tweeted out a congratulations to their fanbase for making “the OC” official canon. Smiles all around, everyone. We’re looking forward to the release of Sonic Forces later this year, available on all major platforms including PC.
PARTY LIKE IT’S 1989
Mark Merlino might not be a household fandom name to you, and that’s truly a shame because in the grand scope of the furry fandom he’s quite an important person. Back in 1989, Mark was one of the organizers of Confurence Zero, considered by and large to be the world’s very first furry convention. Yes, as crazy as it sounds and as hard as it might be to believe “furry” predates the commoditization of the Internet by just a narrow window and got on its feet before a significant slice of its current base was even born. Hell, if you add together the ages of the What’s Yiffin’ news team in 1989 you get four.
Mark and his partner Changa Lion have put forth an incredible amount of work digitizing and putting online “The Confurence Archive” (www.confurence.com). They’ve taken the old defunct Confurence convention website and have revitalized it with over TWO THOUSAND images, videos, and digital scans from Confurence’s seasoned history plus additional odds and ends such as magazine advertisements, conbooks, mailing forms, old fandom memes, and much more ephemera that thankfully was not lost to time. In an interview right here on Dogpatch Press, Mark said when he and his friends all moved in together way back in the day their collections of books and mementos formed a sort of “library”. Now, 28 years after the first Confurence, it’s all online. For you. For free.
Please do go and check it out, we implore you to give a shit about this. With the fandom in its current state at times it feels like we’ve completely forgotten where we’ve come from as a fandom and The Confurence Archive is here to give us that rare glimpse back to the way things used to be, before the drama. We owe a lot to Mark & Co. for helping us get to where we are today, so from us and everyone else at Gatorbox, thank you. Thank you Mark, Changa, and everyone else who played a role in the creation of this archive; we can only hope in coming years more archives such as this one will appear.
GROUNDED
Over the weekend of May 19-21 Califur took place. We’ll leave it up to you to guess which state it was in. This just so happened to be Califur’s 13th convention and its theme was “horror” (because Friday the 13th, get it?), however if you’re a superstitious person then you know 13 is an unlucky number and luck would rear its ugly side at Califur this year.
Historically, the convention has always hosted a small number of BDSM panels for people interested in learning more about the lifestyle — whether or not you believe a BDSM panel to be appropriate content at a furry convention is up to you, and while we won’t be getting into a specific side of that argument it does play an integral role in this particular story. One of the panels, formerly named “BDSM 101: What is a Little/Big?” was renamed to simply “Meet the Babyfurs!”. Now that we’ve said “the B word” you can probably pinpoint with surgical precision exactly where problems arose.
An unknown fur (or potentially a group of them) took it upon themselves to phone in some threats to the Califur venue because of this panel. The immediate fallout caused the panel to be renamed “Littles Meetup”, but the damage was done. Everyone knew what that panel was and now that nefarious people had their sights set on it it’s not a huge stretch for them to see this through to its ultimate conclusion. Security at the convention was increased, obviously, but in the end the “Littles” panel was canned. That’s right, the people making the threats got what they wanted in the worst manner possible.
The people calling in these bogus threats are total assholes, don’t get us wrong, but despite this perhaps the only sympathetic aspect of their cause was the notion of “it happened to them, it can happen to us too”; the inappropriate behavior of many furs has led to the indefinite termination of at least one convention (Rainfurrest), and the seemingly negative viewpoint people take with things such as babyfurs would be reason for concern. “Concern” is an important emotion to highlight here, because in a statement released by the convention Califur stated that at no point did anyone approach or contact the con staff with concerns regarding the content of the panel or the existence of the panel itself. Nope, they just went straight to bogus bombs, which is a felony offense.
Personally, we don’t care what consenting adults do behind closed doors as long as it stays between them and the public isn’t subjected to it against their will. That said, if you really have a problem with things like a panel for babyfurs, bring it up through the appropriate channels. That’s why they’re there.
(Editor’s note from Patch: Trolling attacks at Califur’s venue originated from @altfurrydiscord, a group of Nazi furs who use extreme racism as a shit-test to filter members for a smaller secret “cyber_activism” group where the planning is done. It’s led by Casey Hoerth, a former staffer of the Trump campaign, also known as “Len Gilbert / The Furred Reich”. Before this info leaked, he lied to deny his group was the source of the attack and attempted to scapegoat supposed “SJW’s”. When it leaked and the smokescreen failed, those posts were deleted and he removed his role as owner of “cyber_activism” to hide it.)
DROUGHT RESTRICTIONS
Last but not least it wouldn’t be a proper edition of What’s Yiffin’ without some convention somewhere getting cancelled and that’s exactly what we’ve got here. The Great Lakes Fur Con was set to happen May 26-28, however due to a shortage of staff the event was called off. That’s it. Nothing happened. Nobody crapped in a hot tub, nobody had sex in public, nobody left used diapers on someone’s car, nobody partook in unknown substances and had to have the paramedics called in… this was just a case of convention staff having to step down due to personal reasons.
The remaining staff chose to cancel the convention because they did not want to host a sub-par event and let everyone down, and really? That was the smart move. Even smarter is that if you had already registered for this year’s GLFC you’re already good to go for 2018. No dates have been announced, so if this potentially isn’t good for you and you’re unsure if you can make it next year the con staff wants you to contact them at registration@greatlakesfurcon.com to work something out. Again, that’s the smart move. We had never really even heard of this convention but thus far we’re impressed with how they handle business. Everyone else should be taking notes here.
Even though there was no official convention this story still has a happy ending, too; the remaining staff of GLFC elected to hold a big cookout/potluck and invited furs in the area to bring a dish and come hang out. Afterwards, everyone went bowling! Sure, it’s not a convention but that still sounds like a hell of a way to spend a day.
That’s a wrap on last month’s most interesting stories from the fandom. Thank you for checking us out! As always, we’d like to invite you to come check out What’s Yiffin’ when it is broadcast live as part of the first Friday show of Gatorbox, every Friday night at 9PM. Follow us on Twitch so you’ll know when we are live!
– André “Dracokon” Kon & Rob “Roastmaster” Maestro
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Catch Our Next Thrilling Episode
American Mythology continue their quest to bring back classic cartoons in comic book form. Next up? The heroes of Frostbite Falls, Rocky the flying squirrel and Bullwinkle the not-flying moose. According to Bleeding Cool, “Rocky & Bullwinkle comic books have been published by Gold Key, Charlton, Marvel and IDW over the decades, the last being in 2013. Well, the latest comic publisher to take on the pair is American Mythology Productions, with a new series by Todd Livingston and Jacob Greenwalt.” Meanwhile, the publisher says it like this: “Hey Rocky, watch me pull a rabbit out of my hat! That staple of Saturday morning cartoon shenanigans, The Rocky & Bullwinkle Show, is back in all its satirical slapsticky joy! The entire misfit cast of Jay Ward’s wonderful series are here — Rocket J. Squirrel, Bullwinkle the Moose, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, Dudley Do-Right, and everyone’s favorite Russian hooligans, Boris and Natasha! American Mythology celebrates the return of a one-of-a kind comic book with adventures and high jinx that are fresh and funny while remaining true to the look and format of the classics!” Look for the first issue later in June.
image c. 2017 American Mythology Productions