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Furrnion 2017: The Spanish Furry Convention; Interview with Salmy Cheetah
Furrnion 2017 is the first furry fandom convention in Spain. Conceived as such since 2015, it was officially announced in February last year (link⇒), opening its registration in May. From then until its opening, a total of 155 furry fans signed up for the convention; with another 60 to 70 visitors attending the ‘doors open’ day (both children and adults), to greet and meet the fans and their artists. It was held from Friday 27th to Sunday 29th of January, in the municipality of Fuenlabrada (30 minutes by train from the center of Madrid), at the hotel MC Las Provincias. The official languages of the convention were both Spanish and English. It was an event of special significance for the Spanish fandom, as it establishes it as a non-fleeting enthusiastic community, with the capacity to organize, and with the desire, above all else, to have fun together.
The event featured a dealer’s den, an art exhibit and art auction, tabletop / card games, talent show, furryoke (karaoke), disco nights, furrylympics (a competition of activities while in fursuit), educational panels, and the traditional fursuit parade (around the building). 54 of 155 attendees were from abroad (35%), another 101 were Spanish (65%). The average age of the attendees (and the median) was around 25.
If there’s a trait that’s certain about the fandom, is that it’s a diverse group; and nothing shows it better than attending an event of this type, where you meet old acquaintances, and also many other previously unknown people, with all their different personalities and talents. Most of the activity took place on the ground floor where people gathered; artists from the dealer’s den, and almost always some fursuiter. Quite rightly, the schedule included a few hours of rest after lunch (the advertised ‘siesta’), which would be especially beneficial to those who went to bed late at night. On the ‘doors open’ day there were children who came deliberately from far away with their parents to immerse themselves in the atmosphere. The high presence of foreigners incited Spanish furries to practice their English, and more than one will exercise it in advance for the next convention; though barking / meowing works as a last resort. There was also a snack exchange, where every person brought typical foods from their land; and on Saturday a big table with paella and sangria.
The opening and closing ceremonies were hosted by Ritsukaxan the panther (Spanish) and Saberhagen the gryphon (English)
There were several visitors on ‘doors open’ day, at the fursuit parade
Everyone commented on the good quality of the art available at the dealer’s den
Coming across fursuiters and artists drawing was a regular occurrence
The karaoke and the disco nights were memorable moments for those who like partying
Having fun was inevitable!
Fursuits, fursuits, and more fursuits!
The charity for the event was the Madrid Felina Association (link⇒), with a stand at the dealer’s den. It raised a total of 780 € (link⇒), which went to the eye surgery of a severely abused kitten, and to shelter two kitten brothers. In honor of the event administrators, these two kittens were given the names of Salmy and Tronchy at the closing ceremony. The disclosure of the news was a very emotional moment!
The board of directors of the Furrnion consists of Tronchy the gray fox, S (Sierra) the cheetah, and Salmy also the cheetah. A majority of cheetahs at management give name to the last disco night, which instead of being called the Dead Dog Party (as usual), is called the Dead Cheetah Party. With us today in this article is Salmy Cheetah, the de facto chairman of the convention.
Salmy is a furry born in ’73, from the province of Lugo, who’s been settled in Madrid for years. Self-employed computer services provider (competent in other skills too), he’s been known for his hosting and management, for some time now (before the rise of smartphones), of the phpBB forum Furry Madrid, and more recently as an administrator of Inkbunny. His fursona is a perennial 16-years-old anthro cheetah with green eyes.
GM: Hello Salmy! Tell us, how, when, did you find out about the fandom?
S: I met the fandom itself mid-1997. I went online on the Internet for the first time in September 1996. I was a staunch fan of The Lion King, and through that fandom I got to the furry fandom. But it still took me a while to go deep into it, to get involved; I thought there weren’t others in Spain and I didn’t take it as a fandom itself. So I was into it, but not really a part of it.
Back then my thing was role-playing, and Salmy was my first bipedal animal anthropomorphic character. Up until that point I only played characters from The Lion King universe, so I had been feral up until then. It wasn’t till 2006 that I considered that anthro cheetah my ‘fursona’. I’m not quite sure there was such a thing as ‘fursonas’ before that.
GM: You used the nickname ‘KDJ The Net Surfer’, was this one of several others? Does it have any significance?
S: It did back then, yes. In my adolescence and first years of adulthood, I did many things, one of which was learning to be a DJ with the best, at Lugo, and I also loved rap. I even composed songs, and my ‘artistic nickname’ was KDJ, which comes from Kant DJ. I liked Kant, though I don’t exactly remember why!
When I entered the Internet, the most logical nickname was my older one, to which I added ‘The Net Surfer’, because that was the role of KDJ at that time. The silliness of youth I suppose. I’ve never really given much thought about what nicknames to use on the Internet, it’s always been whatever came to my mind first.
GM: How did the name ‘Salmy’ come about?
S: ‘Salmy’ was the first thing I came up with when I had to choose a name; my boss’ surname at the time was Salmerón, and he was walking around at the office. It’s not an epic tale by any means, but it’s the truth.
GM: Damn Salmy, you have to come up with better stories 
Nobody will blame you if in a fandom filled with role-play you add some ornaments. “I happened to be fighting at the War for the Retrieval of Gibraltar when…”
S: But then it wouldn’t be true. I never say that which is not
GM: Do you still use MUCKs? (text-based online role-playing games)
S: Nah, maybe once a year or two years I get nostalgic and go back to Tapestries or The Lion King MUCK, which were my first ones, but that time is long gone. I no longer do role-play.
GM: Some say you’re the Spanish furry that’s been active for the longest time. How did you start going to furmeets, to meet with people.
S: I think there’s still a few of us from the generation of 2006, and there are some who’ve been relating with other Spanish furries for even longer. Those were the ones I met back in the day, in the spring / summer of 2006, when I went into Andalfur, which was the first Spanish furry forum I found, and went into its MSN group.
The first furmeet was in September 2006, if I remember correctly, on Wolfyote’s birthday. Later named Kennet Brent, he was originally Naraki when I met him at The Lion King MUCK and in person in ’98.
GM: Nowadays called ‘Mankeulv’.
S: Really I started looking for furries after trying to get into more conventional groups / fandoms without success, such as anime otakus and the like. It was hard to find my place in the cycle of life!
GM: Before using FurAffinity (2005), where did you look up the art, on VCL?
S: Yes, wherever we could… I mostly checked TLKIAA (http://fanart.lionking.org/), the pages of FurNation, at alt.fan.furry (Usenet), on cubcentral…
GM: How many fursonas have you had, is Salmy Cheetah the only one? What relationship do you have with your fursona?
S: Fursona as such, only Salmy, yes. The relationship I have with him is very close. It represents, on one hand, the strange fascination I feel for cheetahs, and on the other, the time of my life that I remember most fondly, adolescence. That period when you’re old enough to do anything, and life is full of possibilities, and everything excites you and at the same time you enjoy everything like a child. As I said earlier, in my youth and as a young adult I did many different things, I was very active and restless. Later in life you adjust to a more narrow path and focus and specialize on something, becoming more ‘closed’ in every way. I’ve never wanted to be fully this way, so thanks to my fursona I think I can still keep some of that wonderment.
GM: Talking now about Furrnion, I suppose you had expected for long we’d have a convention in our country. How did the idea of Furrnion come about, as it is now?
S: Since late 2007, when we did our first ‘mega furmeet’ in Madrid, I wanted to do something bigger and more important, but I never knew how I wanted it to be, nor could I have an overall view of it in my head until I started going to other conventions (ConFuzzled [CFZ], Midwest FurFest [MFF], NordicFuzzCon [NFC] and Anthrocon). It was having visited those, and having the support of young active people like Tronchy, and older and experienced people like Sierra (who managed Ibercamp 2), which made me decide to undertake the project at this moment in time.
I did make a previous attempt a couple of years ago, which I started in Furry Madrid, but that only stayed as an idea. It was much more ‘democratic’, and as it often happens with these things, democracy wasn’t invented for it There had to be a leader, or a couple of leaders, with a clear wholesome view to be able to do something that works.
GM: You’re the chairman of the convention. It doesn’t say it anywhere, but everyone says you are. I guess you’ll eventually accept it?
S: We really don’t have officially divided roles within con-ops or management… basically all three of us are equal in regards to responsibilities and assignments, and each one’s opinion weights the same when taking decisions. We are precisely 3 to that end, and all decisions are taken in agreement or by majority of 2 against 1.
[Enterprise-wise it is common for management members to be an odd number, or if they’re an even number or only 2, more decisive power is given to one of the two, to avoid opposing directions]
So no, I’m not the ‘boss’. If Tronchy and Sierra say the opposite of what I say, I have to put up with it Although it can be said that I’ve been the one who led the way and chose the style of the convention, the original idea was mine; but it wouldn’t be fair to say that Furrnion is my doing. It has lots from many different people.
GM: (quoting Sierra’s intro from the con book):
Mayhem is looming:attendees are coming!And if chaos runs amuckremember: for Salmy’s fault we all got f*ed
S: That’s Sierra being Sierra
GM: How did you choose the hotel or venue?
S: We looked at 20 hotels or more, and Las Provincias was the last one we saw, recommended by Loeches / Alpha Thunder, who is a dealer at CifiMad (link⇒), which is also held there.
The final decision was, like everything else, based on quality / price ratio, and our estimates for room bookings. Attendance doubled our initial estimates, but we were still within range.
GM: The Furrnion logo is a chimera. How, when, why? Did you create it before, or after Doña Ana and Bertín (official mascots)?
S: Furrnion comes from ‘furry reunion’, and we didn’t want the logo to be the typical wolf or fox or the typical paw. We wanted the logo to represent a reunion of different types of furries (mammals, dragons, avian), so that’s the origin of the chimera. I don’t know if we designed it before, or after, our mascots, because they were different sub-projects. They’ve coexisted. One thing was the logo, and another was the mascots.
GM: How were the convention activities proposed? The ones that appear in the con book.
S: There’s an activities department within staff. Most of them were conceived there. Others were proposed by attendees.
GM: What was your favourite con activity, in which you took part?
S: My favourite activity in all cons is the dealer’s den, seeing and meeting the artists and buying art 
I also love the furryoke, because I like to sing. Even if I’m ill, with a sore throat and a sinister voice, I’m going to sing
GM: An important difference between Furrnion and other similar conventions (58 attendees in Italy, 37 attendees in France), something which has undoubtedly boosted attendance over the 100 people mark in this first iteration, is the promotional work you’ve done abroad, in foreign conventions. Do you intend to continue with the same dynamic?
S: Since there were no previous references for a new con, and what we had in mind was to make something big & good from the get-go, we had to promote it a lot. Publicity is the way in which, by definition, something is made ‘public’. This year we aren’t going to need as much promotion as last year, because our best advertising will be made by the attendees of the first con, so it’ll be a mere reinforcement, and we’ll probably rely on numbers and facts, not just promises.
The best feedback we’ve received, and it has been practically the same coming from all attendees we asked, is that the con was ‘much better than expected’. That was the goal. There was much disbelief and skepticism about the Furrnion, reasonably so, because everything we’d done in Spain so far didn’t reach this level, nor did it so in any other country from Latin Europe. We are notorious for being lousy, sub-par, and that’s really what we usually do, ‘whatever, anything goes’. I don’t know if it’s in my nature, or if it was my upbringing, but I’ve always thought that if you want to do something, you have to do your best, strive to surpass yourself and others. It’s senseless to make an effort to do always the same, or something that people will forget in two days.
GM: Give me the names of the non-believers, so that I may write them on my Death Note.
S: Hahahaha There were more skeptics than trusting people, Mickey. This is Spain, people here are most likely to think ‘I’m sure it’ll be trashy’ than ‘It’s gonna be awesome’.
GM: What about getting a fursuit. Is it clear to you now? A group of people has now formed, they say they want a fursuit of their own.
S: It’s a normal thing, meeting fursuiters and interacting with them at conventions generates that feeling of ‘I want that too’. It’s a very fun experience. You don’t realize how much you want one until you’re with them, or surrounded by them. It’s the typical ‘you can’t miss what you’re not aware of’. I’ve been considering getting a fursuit since my first convention. It used to feel creepy. Now I want to have one, but I haven’t yet decided what style I’d prefer or who I’d like to commission.
GM: You probably wouldn’t be able to wear it for long being the boss, but you don’t have any kind of responsibility at other cons.
S: Exactly 
In any case, the amount of work in future events has to be more balanced than in our first year.
GM: Do you mean, delegating? Surely the titanic effort of the board members has inspired the rest of the staff to improve in any way possible. There was also staff who would do their tasks without having to be told twice.
S: Yes, delegating. Our job as managers must also be as hosts, not so much being ‘in the heat of the battle’ doing particular tasks (selling, filling up registrations), but rather we should be solving problems or making sure everything’s going as planned.
The problem we had this year was that hardly anyone knew what they would have to do or why. That’s not going to happen next year. Everyone will know what has to be done and what’s expected of them. We’ve all learned many things this first year. It has been a real field test. The goal of Furrnion 2 is to make it as it is, but better. Or rather, do it right.
GM: Anyone who’s seen it from a non-staff point of view will say it has been good.
S: Next year people will be more demanding, rightly so.
GM: A piece of information, that spread previously, was that the net profits of the convention would entirely go to the charity. From a business standpoint, having no funds for the next con is very risky. Are you going to keep any funds? Is it important for you to make a good impression on the charity?
S: As it is for any not-for-profit association, the first thing is always to achieve self-sufficiency, of course. What we’ve donated to Madrid Felina has been what was planned from the art show / auction, plus what they’ve been able to collect from what they sold and from donations. We still have to do some accounting post-con, and see if after recovering our investment and keeping a financial buffer for expenses for both this year and next year (consultancy, taxes, storehouse…) we can donate some more, but it’s probably going to be difficult.
For me it was just as important to be in good terms with the charity as it was for anything else to go as planned, I didn’t give more importance to one thing or to another. In any case, we were very clear with them from the start: it’s our first convention, not many people are going to come, don’t expect to collect much. That’s why we agreed they’d be present in our first two editions, not just in one. Still, it seems they too have exceeded their expectations! We’re also very happy with that
GM: I don’t have any more questions so far. Would you like to add a final comment?
S: I’d just like to mention that I’m really very proud of what we’ve managed to do. We had a great response from everyone: staff, attendees, artists, the hotel, the charity. The common denominator has been good vibes everywhere. Everyone wants a Furrnion 2. I still don’t know anyone who wouldn’t like to repeat if their circumstances allow it. It’s the best reward you can have as a manager of something that’s not for monetary gain. I can only say that for our second edition we’ll do our best once more to make it better, more organized, more balanced, so that everyone can enjoy the experience just as much if not more. And I’m sure we’ll achieve it, because everyone’s very motivated, and things that we had against us this year won’t be there anymore. All the work we had to do because it was the first one won’t need to be done again, so we’ll be able to focus on the convention itself 100%. Furrnion 2 will be our consolidation.
GM: Furrnion will hit strong in Spring 2018, with a medieval theme (knights in armor, damsels, and dragons). You can check its progress in some months at Furrnion.org, or follow their Twitter @Furrnion . See you next year!
The entry Furrnion 2017:</br> The Spanish Furry Convention;</br> Interview with Salmy Cheetah appears first in FurryFandom.Es.
FC-258 Shower Ranger - Quite a packed show this week. Fox Amoore and Pepper Coyote joined us for an extended interview, followed by a roundup, news and even a few emails!
Quite a packed show this week. Fox Amoore and Pepper Coyote joined us for an extended interview, followed by a roundup, news and even a few emails!
Watch Video Interview:Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote! Two wonderful collaborative music artists who joined us to talk about their latest upcoming album “Come Find Me” produced at Abbey Road Studios.
Fox Amoore:- Twitter: @FoxAmoore
- FA: foxamoore
- Website: www.foxamoore.com
- Twitter: @peppercoyote
- FA: peppercoyote
- Website: lookleft.us
- EZwolf – Fox Amoore’s The Dreamcatcher
- EZwolf – Come Find Me – Fox Amoore at Abbey Road Studios – A documentary by EZwolf
- EZwolf – Come Find Me – Music video by EZwolf
- Anthrocon – AC2016 Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote – #HASHTAG
- Biologists confirm foxes sneakiest little fuckers in the animal kingdom
- Relationship Advice From The Animal Kingdom
- Even Furries Are Fighting Fascists
- Bojack Horseman Voice Actors
- Furry Network Blog – Site Update February 2017
- Oh Joy Sex Toy – Murrsuits by Matuska
- Oh Joy Sex Toy – Getting Tested (STI Testing)
- 3D Model of Paradox’s Head by Jeyeff Fox
- Zelda The Ferret Receives A Pacemaker
- Beer Company Gives Its Staff A Week’s Paid ‘Pawternity’ Leave
- Florida Man Arrested For Tossing Gator Into Wendy’s
- Man Creates His Own Tinder-Like Dating App Where He’s the Only Guy Available
- 2 Women Try To Sneak 13 Pounds Of Horse Genitals Into U.S.
- Ann Summers recall sex toys over fear they could become damaged with “prolonged use”
- Silver Hoof – “Thank You So Much”
- Icarus Wolf – “howdy im a big fan and kind of a short story”
FC-258 Shower Ranger - Quite a packed show this week. Fox Amoore and Pepper Coyote joined us for an extended interview, followed by a roundup, news and even a few emails!
Quite a packed show this week. Fox Amoore and Pepper Coyote joined us for an extended interview, followed by a roundup, news and even a few emails!
Watch Video Interview:Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote! Two wonderful collaborative music artists who joined us to talk about their latest upcoming album “Come Find Me” produced at Abbey Road Studios.
Fox Amoore:- Twitter: @FoxAmoore
- FA: foxamoore
- Website: www.foxamoore.com
- Twitter: @peppercoyote
- FA: peppercoyote
- Website: lookleft.us
- EZwolf – Fox Amoore’s The Dreamcatcher
- EZwolf – Come Find Me – Fox Amoore at Abbey Road Studios – A documentary by EZwolf
- EZwolf – Come Find Me – Music video by EZwolf
- Anthrocon – AC2016 Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote – #HASHTAG
- Biologists confirm foxes sneakiest little fuckers in the animal kingdom
- Relationship Advice From The Animal Kingdom
- Even Furries Are Fighting Fascists
- Bojack Horseman Voice Actors
- Furry Network Blog – Site Update February 2017
- Oh Joy Sex Toy – Murrsuits by Matuska
- Oh Joy Sex Toy – Getting Tested (STI Testing)
- 3D Model of Paradox’s Head by Jeyeff Fox
- Zelda The Ferret Receives A Pacemaker
- Beer Company Gives Its Staff A Week’s Paid ‘Pawternity’ Leave
- Florida Man Arrested For Tossing Gator Into Wendy’s
- Man Creates His Own Tinder-Like Dating App Where He’s the Only Guy Available
- 2 Women Try To Sneak 13 Pounds Of Horse Genitals Into U.S.
- Ann Summers recall sex toys over fear they could become damaged with “prolonged use”
- Silver Hoof – “Thank You So Much”
- Icarus Wolf – “howdy im a big fan and kind of a short story”
[Live] Shower Ranger
Quite a packed show this week. Fox Amoore and Pepper Coyote joined us for an extended interview, followed by a roundup, news and even a few emails!
Interview:Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote! Two wonderful collaborative music artists who joined us to talk about their latest upcoming album “Come Find Me” produced at Abbey Road Studios.
Fox Amoore:- Twitter: @FoxAmoore
- FA: foxamoore
- Website: www.foxamoore.com
- Twitter: @peppercoyote
- FA: peppercoyote
- Website: lookleft.us
- EZwolf – Fox Amoore’s The Dreamcatcher
- EZwolf – Come Find Me – Fox Amoore at Abbey Road Studios – A documentary by EZwolf
- EZwolf – Come Find Me – Music video by EZwolf
- Anthrocon – AC2016 Fox Amoore & Pepper Coyote – #HASHTAG
- Biologists confirm foxes sneakiest little fuckers in the animal kingdom
- Relationship Advice From The Animal Kingdom
- Even Furries Are Fighting Fascists
- Bojack Horseman Voice Actors
- Furry Network Blog – Site Update February 2017
- Oh Joy Sex Toy – Murrsuits by Matuska
- Oh Joy Sex Toy – Getting Tested (STI Testing)
- 3D Model of Paradox’s Head by Jeyeff Fox
- Zelda The Ferret Receives A Pacemaker
- Beer Company Gives Its Staff A Week’s Paid ‘Pawternity’ Leave
- Florida Man Arrested For Tossing Gator Into Wendy’s
- Man Creates His Own Tinder-Like Dating App Where He’s the Only Guy Available
- 2 Women Try To Sneak 13 Pounds Of Horse Genitals Into U.S.
- Ann Summers recall sex toys over fear they could become damaged with “prolonged use”
- Silver Hoof – “Thank You So Much”
- Icarus Wolf – “howdy im a big fan and kind of a short story”
Episode 340 - The Road
The legend of the goat…
"The legend of the goat who knew the true meaning of the mountain" "A lot of people are afraid of heights; not me, I'm afraid of widths." - Steven Wright
View Video
What’s Yiffin’? February 2017 edition – now syndicating the monthly furry news program.
Greetings, readers of Dogpatch Press. I am André “Dracokon” Kon. Maybe you’ve heard of me as I’ve made my rounds in the fandom over the past decade. If not, here’s the fastest crash course I can give you. I began as a purveyor of written reptilian smut, got invited to speak at a couple of conventions, was admin of the late Herpy website, had work read in an NYC art show, was briefly on SoFurry’s staff, joined the musical stage act Attractivision, and became the host of a livestream called Gatorbox.
With Gatorbox, I’ve helped spearhead a new breed of entertainment through Twitch. With the assistance of my long-time writing counterpart Rob “Roastmaster” Maestro, one show we brought to this channel is What’s Yiffin’?. What’s Yiffin’ began as a one-off bit in September 2015. The viewer response prompted us to bring it back the following month… and the one after that. The show has been a staple of Gatorbox ever since, with a brand new installment rolled out almost every month. Now I’m honored to have the series syndicated, adding bonus commentary just for Dogpatch Press.
ENJOY THIS MONTH’S EPISODE
We usually don’t lead with self promotion, however since the Ursa Major Awards have just now opened for nominations, this month’s video lets you know we’re eligible for nominations in the “Magazine” and “Website” categories. For a good many of you this is probably going to be your first exposure to us and I’m simultaneously excited and profusely apologetic for that. In the name of good journalism, I’d like to provide you with the show’s official playlist on YouTube to give you a better idea of our scope and coverage over the past two years.
GLOBAL WARMING IS REAL
At the end of last month, Disney announced that the massively successful children’s MMO Club Penguin would be shutting down for good, providing March 29th as the day of the game’s closure (and the release of its successor, Club Penguin Island).
It’s hard to quantify just how big this game was. It was featured on Miniclip.com for a little over a year, until in 2007, Disney made the move to buy the rapidly growing game for $700M. With the support of Disney, Club Penguin would eventually see massive merchandising in the form of console video games, books, toys, a trading card game, and multiple TV specials.
Arguably the most important aspect of Club Penguin’s closure is the reveal of one of the biggest urban legends in the game’s decade+ long history: “tipping the iceberg”. Nobody really knows who started the rumor, but at some point someone came up with the hoax that you could literally tip the in-game iceberg location over, if you stood on its left side and used the jackhammer item. The hoax spread like wildfire. It has persisted for literally the entire length of Club Penguin’s life.
From now until the game’s last moments, it’s finally possible to “tip the iceberg”. For doing so, players are rewarded with a special item, as well as unveiling a memorial placard that reads:
“Together we can build an island, create a community, change the world, and even tip an iceberg. Waddle on.”
Club Penguin was many things to many people. For a lot of children from the Millennial generation, it was among their very first forays into the world of the internet. Believe it or not, Roastmaster and I were major players in Club Penguin’s history for several years. For us the closure of the game officially bookends an important chapter in our lives as well.
See you, space cowboy. You’re gonna carry that weight.
WHAT TIME IS IT?
Last December decorated furry author Kyell Gold released The Time He Desires, his 22nd anthropomorphic novel. All of Gold’s work is of a very high standard, however The Time He Desires is unique in that given the social atmosphere in which its release coincided it received noticeably more attention from the mainstream media as it is a book that deals with the very real issue of homosexuality in Muslim culture. For those who may not be fully aware, same-sex partnership is a big no-no under Islam. Combine this with the tumultuous political atmosphere of the United States and the growing trend of pushing for more inclusion with minorities and you basically have lightning in a bottle.
Matt Baume of Slate Magazine interviewed Kyell Gold last month about The Time He Desires which afforded Gold the opportunity to better articulate the noble goals that he hoped to achieve with this book. Because this is Slate there is going to be a little bit of virtue signaling, however. “Muslims, queers, and furries all share the experience of having been marginalized by the mainstream, and of being continually forced to justify their existence,” writes Baume. I don’t necessarily disagree with him, but one of those three things isn’t like the others. Nobody comes out of the womb wanting to purchase silicone horse dicks.
But I get where Baume is coming from. His heart is in the right place and you can’t fault him for being passionate.
SUFFERIN’ SUCCOTASH
DC Comics has recently been pursuing reboots of old Hanna-Barbera properties
with series such as The Flintstones and Scooby Apocalypse. For better or worse, both reboots have performed fairly well. Well enough to spur interest in more DC reboots, at least. The problem is once you get beyond The Flintstones and Scooby Doo, what else really is there? (Hint: SWAT Kats.) Snagglepuss — yes, the “exit stage right” guy — rounds the corner in third place.
Snagglepuss is a character whose popularity has waned in the past few decades so in a way it makes for a perfect reboot candidate; you basically get a clean slate of sorts to reinvent a character for an entirely new generation. Because Snagglepuss has historically been seen as “closet gay”, and because there is much more acceptance of LGBT people in today’s society, outing the cat as a homosexual character seems like a no-brainer. That’s exactly what DC has done by reinventing him as a playwright in the theater and acting scene of 1950’s New York where virtually everyone knew someone who was gay but couldn’t talk about it due to how different society was at the time.
The new Snagglepuss comic is set to, ahem, “come out” next month.
WHAT PURPOSE?
A Dog’s Purpose is a manufactured heartwarming tale about the spiritual journey taken by the titular dog in order to find its ironically also titular purpose. It was also the subject of a TMZ exclusive article which featured a video showing what is clearly a very frightened dog being coerced into jumping into a simulated river plus an additional clip of the same dog being sucked underwater by the set’s current. Animal welfare activists got up in arms over the footage which eventually prompted a response from actor Dennis Quaid and producer Gavin Polone. The American Humane Association also weighed in, but determined “no harm” came to the animals on set and that the video evidence was “edited”.
A lot of people involved with the production of the film who came forward to speak about the incident made similar accusations that the video was edited to spin a specific narrative. The concept of “spin” is a very real thing, but when push comes to shove we’re looking at a video of someone literally pushing and shoving a dog into running water.
Frankly the concept of “spin” kind of goes right out the window and I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say I don’t really care about the personal motives of the individual who released the tape to TMZ. In an ideal world there wouldn’t even be video footage to spin because this wouldn’t have happened in the first place.
In the end, the uproar seemed to have hurt A Dog’s Purpose which made only $22M on its opening weekend with a production budget of exactly that.
THANKS!
Thank you for taking the time to check out our show, and thank you to Dogpatch Press for seeing something in our production and picking us up. Fans of the Gatorbox show have loved this series for years now. The crew and I are more than overjoyed to be able to share it with a brand new audience. We sincerely do hope you enjoyed it, even if the subject matter can get a bit “touchy” at times. We try to keep it as off-the-cuff and politically neutral as possible, because at the end of the day we’re just a group of entertainers who want to make others laugh. Thanks again, and we hope to see you next month!
Lanterns of the Forbidden Zone
Is there no end to the mash-ups? (Probably not.) After last year’s well-received Planet of the Apes and Tarzan crossover comic, BOOM! Studios is at it again — teaming up with DC Comics this time to bring us… Planet of the Apes / Green Lantern. Yes. (Pretty straight-forward title, huh?) In this new full-color 6-issue miniseries, Cornelius the chimpanzee scientist investigates a disturbance in the Forbidden Zone… and discovers an ancient ring of power. Then, the rest of the Green Lantern Corps catches solar wind of it… According to the publishers, “BOOM! Studios, DC, and Twentieth Century Fox Consumer Products are excited to bring together two celebrated pop culture properties in a historic comics crossover event when the talking simians of the Planet of the Apes meet the Emerald Crusaders of the Green Lantern Corps. Written by Robbie Thompson (Silk) and Justin Jordan (Green Lantern), and illustrated by Barnaby Bagenda (The Omega Men), Planet of the Apes/Green Lantern debuts February 1st as a 6-issue monthly limited series.” So it’s there for you now! Blastr.com has more.
image c. 2017 BOOM! Studios
Wild Things: the festival before Mardi Gras – furry fetish party in San Francisco, Feb 25.
Guest post by Mark, organizer of Wild Things.
Art by Kailys Rat
Saturday, February 25, 2017 2:00 PM – 7:00 PM SF Citadel, 181 Eddy St., San Francisco
(Mark:) WILD THINGS is a quarterly party for furries, petplayers, pups, primals, littles, and everyone who accepts them… but the furry community is the heart of it. Our first event was in 2014, but despite very positive reviews and a good crowd, it went on pause. It was the furry community that brought Wild Things back, and fortunately the SF Citadel was very supportive of the idea.
Our return event was in late November 2016. Exactly three months later, now we’re doing the weekend before Fat Tuesday. I love the Mardi Gras / Carnival atmosphere, so the theme is a no-brainer. It won’t have a zydeco playlist, but will have the decor, feel, and playfulness of Mardi Gras.
OzFurs at Sydney’s LGBT Mardi Gras
It’s open to everyone, but a majority fall somewhere in the whole LGBTQA spectrum. And it should be remembered that Carnival and Mardi Gras are major LGBT celebrations. Sydney’s draws hundreds of thousands of people. Why Mardi Gras in Australia, of all places? Because around the world, one thing that unites us is that we *LOVE* a great party, where people boldly express their inner selves. A mask, a fursuit, beads, a kigurumi, or body glitter shows it off.
Be a volunteer to get free entry… nobody misses out! Our last event drew nearly 160 attendees, making it one of the largest at the Citadel that month, beating our prior events by 50% and it’s sure to grow more. Nearly 25% assisted as volunteers: from DJing to promotions, setup to cleanup. Anyone who wants to volunteer instead of paying admission is encouraged to contact me. (I am on Telegram and Fetlife: @sleeplesseye.)
Here’s the Citadel’s event page, and our Fetlife community. Follow on Twitter. There’s also a very active Telegram group with about 130 members, who are finding new friends and play partners, organizing private gatherings, and being a community. (Message @sleeplesseye for an invite.)
Our email list is here, with a $5 discount for new members. Please sign up now, and tell your friends!
As an SF Citadel event, we have a small, fixed budget and most of the profit goes to keep the Citadel afloat. They have a nightclub-sized rent in one of the world’s most expensive cities. But we do a LOT on a small budget, because it’s volunteer-led. We keep reaching new people (including at Further Confusion recently) and I can’t tell you how much we value your volunteering!
Wild Things is 18-and-up. There are parties at other venues that draw under-21’s to hang out in front, risking trouble. Our event can serve some of that crowd, and make sex and sexuality more safe and positive, not intimidating or deserving of unfair mistreatment.
Wild Things is for friends, socializing and playfulness… and don’t forget the kinky, sexy part. Our attendees are mature enough to deal with it. You can be your adult selves without judgement. And lots of people in the furry community are surprised at how well people behave at Wild Things. It might have to do with being alcohol and drug free.
Personally, I sense a conflict of ideas in the community. Some lecture others about reputation and morals, but ironically getting drunk is acceptable enough to them. Some have a problem with LGBT people and sexuality. They expect censoring and shaming to improve things. But I’d say the great majority of furries don’t really gain from that oversensitivity. They just lose options. Excessive policing is a waste of time that offends more people than it protects. People are smarter about this than society often gives credit for.
I think it’s not just me who believes this… it’s the majority of the furry community and even a majority of Americans. It does make sense to use private, safe, consensual spaces. With those spaces, *everyone* wins, including the moralistic.
It actually does work like that in the San Francisco Bay Area. Openly adult LGBT activity and events are absolutely not incompatible with others. Go to Pride or to Folsom Street Fair, and you will see straight people by the tens and hundreds of thousands, who are very supportive of the gay community. You can know that people are getting their freak on, and NOT BE OFFENDED, while doing what’s comfortable to you. An open society like that is the most empowering.
Wild Things wants to be inclusive to anyone who is new, making them feel welcome, unpressured, and free to learn and explore at their own pace, if they wish. We advocate tolerance and respect for others, so people can live and let live, and let adults be adults however they choose to do so. It’s a new thing for some, but all I can say is to come without judgements and see for yourselves.
– Mark
FA 058 Commissioning Art - Who gets paid the least in the workplace? Straight men, gay men, straight females, lesbian females, or bisexual men and women (the answer might shock you!)? What are some best practices for commissioning art? How old is too old
Hello Everyone!
We open this week's show with a discussion on workplace discrimination and sexuality-based pay gaps. In the past research was done on a binary approach (heterosexuals versus non-heterosexuals). Now that more data is in, we can dive in and see which group in the LGB community (still not enough information for Trans*/NB individuals quite yet) make the most-- and least-- money. If this were other websites, we would inform you that number five will surprise you.
Our main topic is on Commissioning Art. With this being the day after Valentine's Day, we wanted to tackle a lighter, more fandom related topic, and one of the more common questions we receive is what is the best etiquette to practice when commissioning art of your character (and perhaps of other people's characters). We go through a quick checklist of things to look out for, points about copyright law, and steps that commissioners and artists alike can take to ensure the goodwill continues to be fostered in the fandom.
We close with a question on how to make friends if you are older than most other furries and also might have physical impairments you might be self-conscious about.
For more information, including a list of topics, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
FA 058 Commissioning Art - Who gets paid the least in the workplace? Straight men, gay men, straight females, lesbian females, or bisexual men and women (the answer might shock you!)? What are some best practices for commissioning art? How old is too old for the fandom? All this, and more, on this week's Feral Attraction!Life with Herman H. Rott
I also hoover my roommates when thew sleep on the sofa. ...also relationships can be weird and complicated. "Herman is a rat who lives alone in a messy apartment. One day a very tidy cat shows up at his doorstep. With everything she owns. "
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Peter & Company: A Comic Collection, by Jonathan Ponikvar – book review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Peter & Company: A Comic Collection, by Jonathan Ponikvar.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, June 2012, trade paperback $17.99 (unpaged [74 pages]).
Although it doesn’t say so, this is volume 1 of what is now Ponikvar’s online bi-weekly comic strip. It covers Peter & Company for its first 100 strips; from its beginning on January 1, 2005 to December 17, 2007. Volume 2, Of Cats and Crushes, is “coming soon”.
Peter & Company, drawn with anthropomorphic animal characters, is about Peter (cat), a 12-year-old geek and social loner who gets Seth (duck) as a cross between an imaginary friend and a guardian angel. Seth is invisible to everyone except Peter, but like the ghosts in Thorne Smith’s Topper, he can make his presence felt by others when he wants to.
Ponikvar calls Seth and his compatriots “Guardians” rather than “guardian angels” to remove any religious aspects from the strip, and to present them more imaginatively than in the format of standard religious doctrine. Seth is more like a senpai, a big brother, than a messenger from God. He’s sarcastic, and often openly manipulative to force Peter to do something like studying that he doesn’t want to do.
Ponikvar is also more original in his use of Guardians. Not everyone has a Guardian; only those who need one. Peter can not only see Seth; he can see the Guardians of everyone else who has one – and those who have Guardians can all talk with them. (With exceptions, which are explained in the strip.) The Guardians sometimes get together and “talk shop” without their charges. Peter talks openly to his “imaginary friend”, which increases his reputation as a “freak boy” and gets him sent to Mr. Betrug (dog), the school Counselor.
In his introduction, Ponikvar says that Seth is not so much a guardian angel as himself in the present, if he could travel back in time to his 12-year-old self and give him the advice he needs to stop being a geek.
The strip is a coming-of-age fantasy through junior high and high school with Peter and his associates (and sister), and Seth and his friends among the Guardians. Peter’s classmates include Iggy (gecko) and Chelsea (bear). His sister Ezzy is closer to Chelsea, who considers Peter a weirdo. The other Guardians include Skin, a snake (with humor about him being a Guardian without any arms), and Persephoni [sic], an anthropomorphic lop-eared bunny who appears as a natural lop-eared bunny to ordinary people.
There are a few outright fantasy characters, such as the Worms who stand in for minor imps, usually tempting Peter to goof off, and Mr. Korgar, the fearsome math teacher seen as a cross between an orc and the Incredible Hulk.
Peter & Company was originally a black-&-white strip drawn in a four-panel newspaper-strip format, because Ponikvar hoped to sell it to a news syndicate someday. At the beginning of 2007 he gave up that idea and switched to a comic-book page format. He has gone back and colored those pages for this album. He has also added an original 9-page color story showing how & why Seth first appears to Peter.
Peter & Company is an enjoyable comic for fans of adolescent/school humor, funny animals, and fantasy of the angel/ghost sort. Like most online strips, you can get most of this for free on the website’s archive. But it’s so much easier to just turn an album page. Plus there are about two dozen pages in color that are in black-&-white on the archive, and that original origin story. Recommended.
Just a Little Frog… Well, Mostly.
How did we miss this one? Alternative Comics bring us the collected Fancy Froglin: Uncensored, an on-line comic by James Kochalka (American Elf). Here’s what they say: “James Kochalka’s complete Fancy Froglin — the lovable story of a very dirty little frog who only sometimes wears pants. Fancy Froglin is an ineffably cute happy little frog… He’s highly sexual yet purely innocent. And he loves bunnies. Most important, he’s really funny.” Do we need to mention here that this comic is decidedly for adults? Their web site has more.
image c. 2017 Alternative Comics
Skeleton Crew, by Gre7g Luterman – book review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Skeleton Crew, by Gre7g Luterman. Illustrated.
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, August 2014/October 2016, trade paperback $8.95 (259 pages), Kindle $3.99.
This is the first hard science-fiction novel I’ve ever read with absolutely no humans in it. The cover by H. Kyoht Luterman (the author’s wife) shows two of the main characters; Commissioner Sarsuk, a kraken, holding Kanti, a geroo. All of the other characters in the novel are geroo. There are over a dozen full-page illustrations, most by Rick Griffin of Housepets! fame, showing such geroo characters as Kanti, Saina, Tish, Captain Ateri, Chendra, and more.
The geroo are unclothed, with thick tails and fur. There are frequent mentions in the text of twitching ears, tail rings, and the like. Kanti is called Shaggy for his unruly fur.
Skeleton Crew is set entirely on, or within, the huge generation exploratory starship White Flower II in interstellar space. There is a two-page cutaway diagram of the White Flower II by Brandon Kruse. Four centuries earlier, the krakun came to the primitive planet Gerootec and offered to hire thousands of the overpopulated geroo as their starship crews. The geroo who went into space and their descendants would never see Gerootec again, but they would live in luxury compared to the backward geroo on their homeworld. Technically, the White Flower II belongs to the krakuns’ Planetary Acquisitions, Incorporated, with a mission of finding new planets that can be colonized.
New planets for the krakun. Never for the geroo.
After 400 years, some geroo are asking if the krakun are their employers or their slavemasters. Commissioner Sarsuk is Planetary Acquisions’ representative to the White Flower II. As you can guess from the cover, he is the novel’s villain.
“Strictly speaking, all krakun vessels prohibited alcohol. But enforcement of that law was half-hearted at best. Showing up to work drunk might land a crewman before a judge, but only the krakun really cared if anyone drank during their down-time.
If a krakun caught someone drinking, he’d probably toss that geroo in the recycler. But that’s how the monstrous creatures handled most problems they encountered. Fortunately, the White Flower II seldom hosted anyone from Krakuntec. The commissioner visited periodically to check on the ship, but he wasn’t liable to stroll down any of the decks – not any of the ones with a three-meter clearance, at least.” (p. 18)
—
“Kanti headed off to the gravity down-wells and hopped back to deck twenty-four. The wells were essentially stairwells without the stairs – simple platforms that geroo could jump off to reach the level below. The artificial gravity in the wells was turned down to a tiny fraction of normal, so each hop was slow and gentle.
Each platform shadowed the opening down to the next level; so to travel multiple levels, one simply hopped, turned around, and hopped again until reaching the desired deck. The overlapping structure ensured that a geroo could not fall multiple levels accidentally.” (p. 21)
The White Flower II has a crew of ten thousand geroo. Exactly. 10,001would be overpopulation, and the krakun’s policy for overpopulation is – messy. And that’s one “law” that Commissioner Sarsuk enforces ruthlessly.
Both the tech-talk and the plot are fascinating. This review is heavy on the novel’s technology, and reveals almost nothing about its plot, because the plot is full of twists and surprises. Even revealing this much of the technology probably gives away some major spoilers. But Skeleton Crew is a real page-turner. I could hardly put it down for wanting to find out what would happen to Kanti and his friends next.
“A well-placed kick into Kanti’s stomach dropped him back to the deck, grasping his gut and gasping for breath.
Ateri knelt before the shaggy geroo and whispered in his ear. ‘Listen very closely to me, kerrati. You will not discuss what was said here today—ever. You will never, ever, say the words, ‘skeleton crew’ again. Is that understood?’
Kanti nodded. Tears streamed down his muzzle.
‘If you do, I promise that I will find out,’ Ateri said calmly. ‘And when I do, I will rip chunks of you out with my bare paws … and toss them into the recycler one by one … until all that remains of you … is your blood in my fur … and your screams in my ears.’” (p. 163)
Skeleton Crew is set in the same universe as Rick Griffin’s short story “Ten Thousand Miles Up”. The book ends with a three-page “Epilogue: One Year Later” by Griffin.
Amazon and CreateSpace say Skeleton Crew was published on August 9, 2014, but Griffin’s epilogue is dated January 23, 2015, and some of the illustrations are dated 2015 and 2016. A last-page printer’s mark of “17 October 2016” indicates when this book was really published.
Gre7g Luterman is working on Small World, a sequel to Skeleton Crew.
(Note from Patch: the book appears to be removed from sale, but you can contact Gre7g about it here.)
Episode 339 - Hippity Hoppity
Handmade with LOVE
TigerTails Radio Season 10 Episode 11
On February 17, don’t go to work – go fursuiting for a General Strike in the USA.
Furry buddies--let me make a point real quick.
Marches are about visibility.
Fursuits are real damn visible.
Political Animals.
What does Furry have to do with politics? Nothing. Or a lot. (Kinda like kink). It’s up to you. Maybe you just like talking-animal media. Or maybe you like media that’s inseparable from a culture that’s cracking apart.
This group is about talking animals, but it’s made of people, and we don’t exist in a vacuum. (The vacuum is just there to pick up all the shedding.) So for those who care… Let’s recap some previous stories that relate to this, then see what’s up now.
Start with the San Francisco Bay Area. It has the world’s most dense population of furries, and it’s the epicenter for a rent crisis. That big trend hit the local group when their premiere monthly event, Frolic furry dance was pushed out of it’s home.
Across the bay, on the day Frolic restarted, the Ghost Ship warehouse fire killed 36 fellow party goers at an electronic music show. It instigated a national purge of underground cultural spaces. This blog is written from one of those spaces, and narrowly escaped being forced out in a wave of evictions. Economic class issues are personal here.
Go back to 2012 and the East Coast. Money, sex and politics crashed into furry fandom in a mini-scandal of “fake news” with the New Jersey FurBQ Hoax. Looking back now, you might see some of the sparks that turned into 2017’s political dumpster fire. I’m talking about the way the group was split up by dishonesty and xenophobia, and manipulated as pawns for politics.
Furries got scapegoated for having a harmless party. It made me say: “Fun is serious business because it has to do with liberties.”
There’s some examples of how furries have long experience with fake news, they can be vulnerable as a subculture, and they can share a common cause with other marginal communities. (Don’t forget their sizeable queer membership.) You don’t have to agree about politics, but there are good reasons to pay attention. From anti-mask laws, to anti-LGBT legislation and anti-kink moral panic, furries will be part of many fights to come.
Dirty Words.
Speaking of fake news and manipulating the public, here’s some really dirty words: plutocracy, oligarchy, Trump. During the Gropenführer’s campaign, I tried to avoid playing into his outrage-spreading, except for one article about furries vs. conservatives, Gamergate and Trump. Now it’s a good time to push back.
Check this story from April 2016: Nation-wide radio station hack airs hours of vulgar “furry sex” ramblings. It set the stage for a recent followup: Someone Keeps Hacking Radio Stations To Play “Fuck Donald Trump”.
Radio was hacked to play 'explicit furry podcast', now it's Fuck Donald Trump. A precedent to mock the president! https://t.co/4fFFwZdWEC
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) February 1, 2017It's been 2 days since PutinPup officially collared me and I just know we're going to be together for ever and ever and ever ❤️❤️❤️
— Donnie J. Trumpypaws (@trumpypaws) February 7, 2017Meme wars.
Furry fandom has it’s own “alt-right” invasion with a supposed quantity of members using “ironic” memes and trolling to spread it. But it has very little creativity or substance. The point is just to beg for attention, and that doesn’t last. I get told that it’s real and there’s lots of members – but it’s always the same handful trying too hard to get me to believe it. Ignore it and it will wither. More from Vice: Even Furries Are Fighting Fascists.
RMFC will officially ban paraphernalia that is deemed offensive by those in charge of the convention. (2/4)
— RMFC (@RMFC_Denver) January 27, 2017@KikiDoodleTweet @sigilgoat Per our post last night, we will not be allowing FRs armbands at our convention.
— RMFC (@RMFC_Denver) January 27, 2017The same furs supporting Milo & Richard Spencer are offering free drinks and prizes to get furs into the event...
Buying friends. ????
Nazis are afraid of being punched. Would you use a #fursuit to get their guard down? #AfraidofFurries #SadNazis
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) February 9, 2017Getting Real.
Propaganda was a big thing before an election, from low effort memes to fake news. Now, a freedom-loving subculture has more ways to push back than just lurking behind a keyboard.
FYI to smart fursuiters who care: Under Armour supports Trump, people are boycotting. https://t.co/9AZhk62G3r
— Dogpatch Press (@DogpatchPress) February 9, 2017What will furries use now that they can't use @UnderArmour and not feel totally dirty about it? https://t.co/gDo7ZmQ8M3
— Kovu Cougar (@KovuCougar) February 8, 2017I know this is a popular brand choice in the furry community. Nike makes a similar product and opposed the EO/ban. I recommend them. https://t.co/beyrevFjsn
— Roux/Tracey
️
(@kai_fox) February 8, 2017
Looking for an alternative to underarmor? Why not something custom instead? https://t.co/e0kgFmdwle Works great/same cooling under a fursuit
— Matrices (@RaisedbyDogs) February 9, 2017
General Strike: February 17.
Activists Are Calling for an All-Out Strike to Protest Trump on February 17. Buy nothing, stop work, and be on the street. See local protests around the US.
It could be silly to go fursuiting. It’s not just the heat, it’s the pepper spray! I don’t need to hear obvious criticism about that, but street fursuiting is my favorite thing. If you’re tough enough and expect low risk…
Someone mentioned fursuiting at a protest this weekend. This is a bad idea, don't do it. Not fuzzy animal time.
— Nahani Otieno (@Poingah) January 20, 2017@UrsulaV Wavy Gravy would dress up for protests because police don't like being seen arresting Santa Claus or The Easter Bunny.
— Bill Stewart (@BillStewart415) January 29, 2017The country is being dragged down with heinous actions like immigrant bans targeting entire classes of people. (Remember this: Syrian Refugees Get Put Up in Same Hotel As Furries, Kids LOVE It.) There’s a part in this for you, whether you feel like openly protesting, or just quietly resisting by being you.
May this be a reminder of what the furry fandom is all about! I am proud & honored to be associated with you all.https://t.co/SEO3ghJM5y
— Reo Grayfox (@Reo_GrayFox) January 29, 2017I love that #FurryBlackHistoryMonth is a thing right now. This is dope.
— EarCat Supreme™ (@KashmirDaLynx) February 7, 2017A lot of negative in the world, have a fox that's doing all he can to stay positive! pic.twitter.com/hruidIlgKi
— Hawaiian Hoosier Fox (@wildfox34) February 1, 2017The most punk and anti establishment thing you can do, in a society that does not give a shit, is to give a shit. Caring is resistance.
— Menokh A'Khadim (@Menokh) February 9, 2017