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Poems by Renee Carter Hall – Day 1
This is the first of three days of animal-themed poetry by Renee Carter Hall. Renee is curating the 2016 [adjective][species] Poetry Collection, which is open for submissions until 22 April.
Panthera tigris
Your stripes on my skin are foolish,
garish colors on a flattened face–
you were never meant to walk on two legs,
to sacrifice your rolling-smoke stride
for my half-falling, unbalanced gait.
I will not flatter myself to be
even your poor imitation,
your ridiculous reflection,
no matter how much I long for your form.
I will borrow your fire instead,
the deep, fierce light of your eyes.
I will learn how to crouch and wait
and trust that the right moment will come.
I will learn to hunt
what I need to survive.
Grizzly
How he rested
his massive head on the log —
the easy curve of his claws —
I have never seen anything
so casually powerful
yet so open to endearment,
so likeable in the eyes,
no feline “I’m beyond you” gaze
that lions and jaguars cherish —
just bear,
a thousand pounds of bear,
all weight at rest —
and it’s enough.
Lord Tiger’s Answer
The question, he said, is not
why some of my kind
prey upon man.
It is why all of us do not.
Your hide is thin, your flesh
is soft, you are blind as
wet cubs, and the wind
says nothing to you.
Men stumble like chital fawns
through this jungle,
bleating their complaints
for any hunter to hear.
Why, then? Not pity:
We feast on the young,
the unsteady, the trembling;
they are as gifts to the hungry.
It is not, even, the weapons you carry
that crack the sky with their fire.
No.
It is your very strangeness
that closes our jaws–
of this earth, but not walking in it,
you carry the movement of worlds
in your stride, carry the heavens
in your gaze, carry so many swirling
confusions in your heads,
where we are bone and teeth and claws.
Easy meat, oh yes,
but it sits sour in our bellies,
fouls our breath,
and muddies our minds.
(Readers can find more of my poetry, on various subjects, at http://www.reneecarterhall.com/poetry.html)
WagzTail Live @ TFF 2016 - WagzTail had a live show at TFF2016! We had a decent turnout, answered audience questions, and engaged in mild insanity. We recorded it too, so those of you who couldn't make it can hear what you missed!
WagzTail had a live show at TFF2016! We had a decent turnout, answered audience questions, and engaged in mild insanity. We recorded it too, so those of you who couldn’t make it can hear what you missed!
Metadata and Credits WagzTail Show @ TFF 2016
Runtime: 56:26m
Cast: Wolfin, Levi
Editor: Levi
Format: 128kbps ABR split-stereo MP3 Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0. Podcast thumbnail by Levi.
WagzTail Live @ TFF 2016 - WagzTail had a live show at TFF2016! We had a decent turnout, answered audience questions, and engaged in mild insanity. We recorded it too, so those of you who couldn't make it can hear what you missed!
WagzTail had a live show at TFF2016! We had a decent turnout, answered audience questions, and engaged in mild insanity. We recorded it too, so those of you who couldn’t make it can hear what you missed!
Metadata and Credits WagzTail Show @ TFF 2016
Runtime: 56:26m
Cast: Wolfin, Levi
Editor: Levi
Format: 128kbps ABR split-stereo MP3 Copyright: © 2016 WagzTail.com. Some Rights Reserved. This podcast is released by WagzTail.com as CC BY-ND 3.0. Podcast thumbnail by Levi.
My Pony, by Liam Rector
My Pony, by Liam Rector follows Shining River’s article about cowboy poetry yesterday. It is from Cowboy Poetry Matters, From Abilene to the Mainstream, Contemporary Cowboy Writing, edited by Robert McDowell, Story Line Press, Ashland, Oregon, 2000.
My Pony
Coming back to you, my pony, whom I had to leave
To make money, I proffer up the dire smidgen,
The torn thing I managed to lug back with me,
Along with the big bucks: World is made of bologna.
Like the pressed woods of my ascetic bookcase,
Like the traffic jam full of air conditioning
And grieving music, world is pressed together
As if my impossibility, my pony, as by poetry…
How long I have loved thee to see you now grown old
Though still able—under all this weight—
To put your foot to the far off, to the going…
Carry me now, my pony. Carry us to where we buried
Those Clydesdales who once in soggy spring,
In early morning, plowed those furrows which fed us
Before I could no longer afford the farm.
I think we laid them down, me scrounging money
For the backhoe, over there in the west field.
I think we should go over now to the west field…
And the cats who used to run with us back
In the olde days: Sartre, Huck, and the others—
None lived to see fourteen, though all stayed relatively
Long for cat lives—blessings to them now, my pony ;
Blessings to them who used to run and sit with us!
And will I ever get to hold my father as he dies
And will he release me then from the fear of dying?
Not likely. Probably not, my pony.
Probably much more mulling through this membrane
Which passes so quickly, which stuns me and makes me
Wonder how much longer we’ve both got here to ride…
Ride on while we’re here, my pony, and next spring
I’l bring Virginia, whom I’ve left back in the city.
I’ll bring her to you for her safekeeping.
She needs the hurl and arc these fields have put in us,
Out looking: she needs the kind of joking past grieving
We’ve come to together, thrown through the pressed world
Where I went off to earn being hers and yours, your Liam.
Papabear Suggests a Great Article on Coming Out Written by a Conservative Christian
So I have a question... My family is religious, we're Christians and I am religious along with them... but my problem with this is that because we follow the bible... anything except for normal human, male goes with female sex is a big no no... I am transgender and furry... though only one other person knows...
My fursona, Silvia the orca, is part of me and my personality. I roleplay but I'm worried that my parents will only see the bad side of the fandom... if I come out as furry the other problem is that I'd have to come out as trans as well and I know I would never be looked at the same again...
Please help D:
From Silvia (age 15)
* * *
Hi, Silvia,
I was going to write you a long spiel about coming out to Christian parents (or else link you to earlier articles), but I found someone who did it better. Read this article http://www.gaychristian101.com/Coming-Out.html by a conservative Christian that is most excellent. Among his points are that God loves you, whether or not your are gay or trans or whatever, that parents often misunderstand the Bible, and that if you are in a bad situation you might not want to come out just yet. Read it, it will help.
As for being furry, you might conceal this in addition to not coming out (if you so choose), or you can explain to your parents that this is just a fun hobby and is no worse than watching a Disney movie such as, say, The Rescuers. You might also try joining the Christian Furs at http://christianfurs.net/. You don’t say whether or not you are still a Christian, or if you have turned to some other belief system, but do know you can certainly be both a Christian and a furry, just as you can be a transgender Christian.
Please take a look at these links and let me know if you have further questions. Good luck!
Hugs,
Papabear
La Saga d’Atlas & Axis, T. 3, by Pau – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
La Saga d’Atlas & Axis, t.3, by Pau.
Roubaix, France, Ankama Éditions, November 2015, hardcover €12.90 (60 + [3] pages).
Once again, Lex Nakashima & I present our conspiracy to get you to read French animalière bandes dessinées that aren’t likely to be published in English.
Has it really been 2 ½ years since I reviewed tomes 1 & 2 for Flayrah? Well, Jean-Marc Pau has been busy. Not only has he written & drawn this volume, he has made a “movie” of the whole series. If you look closely, you can find a little animation in it. The 3:25-minute “movie” starts with images from the first two albums; tome 3 starts at 2:09 minutes.
I described La Saga d’Atlas & Axis as “Their world looks like a doggy version of Astérix & Obélix …” Cutely drawn but without the humor. The setting, allowing for the anthropomorphic animals, is around the 9th & 10 centuries when the Vikings were taking over Armorica so thoroughly that it’s been called Normandy ever since. This series also differs from Astérix & Obélix in being one continuous adventure rather than standalone albums.
This tome 3 begins right where tome 2 ended in 2013. To repeat my translation of the blurb of the first two volumes:
In the world of Pongeo, where all the animals talk and walk on two paws, Atlas and Axis are two mutts of very different characters and pedigrees: the first is intelligent and rational, while the second is controlled more by his feelings. One day when the two companions return to their village for a festival, they discover it ravaged by the cruel Vikiens, bloody brutes from the North who pillage and kill all who fall under their claws. So begins the saga of Atlas and Axis, the astonishing epic of two friends overflowing with courage, who leave to brave the great North to avenge their folk. In the grand tradition of adventuring duos, prepare to live a story funny and terrible, tender and epic …
I thought that Atlas is a golden retriever, but the dialogue establishes that he’s an Afghan hound. Axis is a mutt; mostly a terrier mix. Atlas is the cool, thoughtful one of the pair; Axis is the hothead who rushes into trouble.
To quote again from my review of tome 2:
But after only a couple of days [in Miel’s tavern], they can’t help overhearing a noisy argument between two traveling scholars. The older claims that dogs are evolved from wolves, while the other insists that dogs were created by the god Toby in his own image. The believer in evolution offers to outfit Atlas and Axis for an expedition to bring back proof of the Tarses, a legendary missing link tribe halfway between wolves and dogs, which incidentally is connected to the magic bowl of Khimera. The quest leads to what is clearly central Asia, a canine Genghis Khan, and living mammoths and dinosaurs. The volume ends with Atlas and Axis impressed into a barbarian fleet en route to conquer a thinly-disguised Constantinople. Obviously the story is to be continued.
Volume 3 begins with Atlas & Axis learning that they’ve been tricked. Their canine armada isn’t heading for Constantinople and rich loot. It’s going to the fortress of the rival Maka raiders, to kill them all and annex their territory. “We’re finally going to annihilate the Makas and take their lands. No more of their pillaging and unpunished murders! Today marks the end of these criminals! This time, we’ve got the larger army… and if you’re tempted to spare them, think of our assassinated families and our pillaged homes! Remember them? Are we going to let these murderers see another day!? NO! It’s now or never! To the Maka fortress! Don’t take prisoners… I don’t want to see a single Maka alive! And we’ll take their lands!” (pages 5-6) As far as Atlas & Axis are concerned, one tribe of ruthless (and penniless) barbarian dog warriors is no better than the other.
The first 22 pages are Viking longboats landing and the siege of the Maka fortress. Attacks! Arrows! Sword killings! Beheadings! Boiling oil! Battering rams! (with live rams tied to them) Catapults! Battle axes! Atlas’ & Axis’ side kills deserters so the sneak away during the battle, killing anyone who comes after them.
They are successful, sort of, until they meet Vulk, the king of the Makas. (That’s him on the cover.) He’s not a dog; he’s a wolf. (You can’t tell the difference in Pau’s cartoony art style.) He sneaked out of the doomed fortress through a secret passage. He tells Atlas & Axis how he was a homeless wanderer who gradually collected dog robbers and built them into an unstoppable army with himself as their king. He was a bloody conqueror (I’m sorry I can’t include one panel in the review; you never saw such a berserk, blood-soaked – but cute – cartoon wolf warrior before), but he was fair to his own people (as long as they paid their taxes). Atlas & Axis leave Vulk to his destiny, and after several more adventures while getting further and further away, they are totally lost – but in sight of what is probably a clue to the magic bowl and lost dog-wolf mix lost tribe that is their original goal. A caption promises that tome 4 will be the climax and final volume of the series.
If you haven’t started La saga d’Atlas & Axis yet, get it from the beginning rather than jumping into the middle of the story. It’s a funny-animal fantasy, but it’s also good history in presenting how northern France came to be settled by the Vikings in the 9th & 10th centuries. The animalicity is mostly in the vocabulary; the dogs call their wives and girlfriends bitches and their children puppies. The peasantry is helpless prey animals like rabbits, goats, and sheep, and the dogs including Atlas & Axis casually oppress (eat) them. You won’t find anything like this in American cartoons.
No More is Need for Sad-Mad
Over at Animation Scoop they have word about a new TV series adapted from Dreamworks Animation’s successful (some might say keester-saving) movie Home. “Developed by Ryan Crego (Sanjay and Craig, Shrek Forever After) and Thurop Van Orman (The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack), and executive produced by Ryan Crego, DreamWorks Animation’s Home: Adventures With Tip & Oh, an all-new Netflix Original Series, answers the question: What happens after a misfit alien conquers Earth, befriends an adventurous teen girl named Tip and together they save the day? Picking up where the hit 2015 animated film left off and building upon their enduring friendship, this animated buddy comedy follows fearless Tip and overenthusiastic alien Oh, as they navigate the combined human and alien culture they live in, finding adventure everywhere they go… The first season will be available exclusively to Netflix members in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, the Nordics, Benelux, and France beginning July 29.” Heard it here did you.
image c. 2016 Dreamworks Animation
Finding the Animals in Cowboy Poetry
In the United States,
in Canada and Mexico,
Argentina, and Australia,
out beyond the screaming cities,
beyond electric lights that have stolen your night sky,
there is our other country.
From the people and the land
and the animals,
there comes a clear voice
telling stories of courage and fear,
success and great loss,
the man and the horse,
the cattle and the coyote,
the present and the past.
Gather ’round,
listen in,
and cowboy poetry
will soon begin.
Cowboy poetry is a unique category of poetry which comes from the life and culture of the diverse people who work and live primarily in the environment of the cattle industry of a handful of nations. Theirs is a lifestyle created by that industry and by the land on which they live and work. Much cowboy poetry is about animals—their behavior, their problems, their strength and beauty, and how cowboys and ranching family members interact with them. They tell stories of animals both real and imagined.
Although many cowboy poems may be found in books, the real strength of cowboy poetry is found in the performance of it—the recitations, and the music that sometimes accompanies it. Sometimes the poetry is shared between just a few individuals when the work of the day is done, and sometimes it is shared with the world, in books, on television and online. Cowboy poetry comes from the minds of individuals, not from the urban American entertainment industry. A few poets have become prominent in the cowboy poetry community and have made some relatively small financial benefit from their writing and performance. For the great majority, their participation is done for the love of the art. In that way, cowboy poets and their fans are like the furry community. And like the members of the furry community, cowfolk have their own cons which are known simply as cowboy poetry gatherings.
In 1985 the first cowboy poetry gathering was organized by western American folklore researcher and author Hal Cannon. With the help of many others around the west, he held the gathering in Elko, Nevada, and the first one drew a “few hundred” people. Since then it has increased to attendance numbers around 8,000, with events spread out over several locations in Elko over the span of the entire last week in January every year. Other cowboy poetry gatherings have been organized in many other states, along with smaller events, commonly held during the last week in April, officially designated as Cowboy Poetry Week. The month of April is known in the literary community as National Poetry Month.
Just like furry, there is some history behind today’s cowboy poetry.
Craig Miller, in his essay “Nature and Cowboy Poetry” contained in the book Cowboy Poets and Cowboy Poetry, University of Illinois Press, 2000, observes that historically there are three main categories of cowboy poetry. The early days, he names “The Old Paradigm: Nature Equals Chaos, Civilization Equals Order.” This beginning of cowboy poetry began after the American Civil War, primarily in the 1870s before the railroads and telegraph came to western America. Miller describes the cowboy poetry of this time thus:
Poems of this period are characterized by enormity of landscape, natural disasters that test individuals and groups, and a correlation between nature and the devil. […] few collections of cowboy poetry (from that time, ed.) exist without reference to that dreaded occupational hazard, the stampede […] In these poems, herds of domestic cattle represent raw energy ready to explode at the slightest spark.
The second historic category that Miller introduces is “A New Paradigm: Nostalgia Ushers in a Growing Respect for Nature.” As the West became settled in the late 1800s into the early 1900s, lands were extensively fenced, and railroads and telegraphs connected distant cities and towns, the cowboy’s way of life began to change, to become a little restricted, less free. He offers this example from an important early collection of cowboy poetry and songs : Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, (1910) John A. Lomax and Alan Lomax, Macmilllan, publisher, 1986. In this excerpt from “The Last Longhorn“—which is attributed to frontier judge R.W. Hall of Amarillo, Texas—a nostalgic, talking longhorn steer describes the passing of the Old West and the end of the old cowboy life:
“I remember back in the seventies,
Full many summers past,
There was grass and water plenty,
But it was too good to last.
I little dreamed what would happen
Some twenty summers hence,
When the nester came with his wife, his kids,
His dogs, and his barbed-wire fence.”
Miller’s final time period he names “The Old Paradigm Inverted: The Chaos of Civilization Becomes the Major Threat to the Environment and to Cowboy Culture.” The enormous increase in population in the United States in the twentieth century brought good and bad results for those in the cattle ranching life. Demand for beef kept the cowboy’s work necessary and relevant despite increasing mechanization of food production. Higher paying jobs in cities pulled young people away from the ranching life and culture. Laws and regulations regarding land use began to restrict the rangelands. The entertainment industry and published literature created unrealistic mythologies and stereotypes of the cowboy and the culture. In the second half of the twentieth century cowboy poetry began to include themes of environment destruction, foreign wars, and modern ideas of the value and relevance of wild animals.
The Animals in Cowboy Poetry
Horses have played an important role in human civilization from the ancient empires of Egypt up to modern nations. Today in North America, Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia, the mounted rider still is important to the managing of domestic animal herds. Horses are the subject of many cowboy poems. They are both the blessing and the curse to the cowboy. Though it is less common today, in the past cowboys often had to break wild horses for the cowboys to use as working horses. They could be unpredictably wild and violent, as we read in this excerpt from Ham Hamilton’s “Rough Rider” from One Cowboy’s Roundup, Prairie Poetry and Proverbs, Frontier Publishing,1995:
A horse’s name usually told you a bunch
About how people viewed his demeaner.
“Cyclone” and “Storm” and “Tornado”
Were in the class with old “Steamer”.
But I watched close for the subtle names
Of “Lady”, “Sweetheart”, “Beauty”, and sorts.
Some of those gals could rattle your bones
And shake you right out of your shorts.
The cowboy’s horse is his most important tool, and partner, in his work. Good horses respond well to the rider’s directions and they often actually know what moves are needed in certain situations. They may not be pretty but they get the job done, as Wallace McRae writes in “Red Pup, Bonine, and Owl” Cowboy Curmudgeon and Other Poems, Gibbs-Smith Publisher, 1992:
I go to some horse shows every year,
And usually come home feeling foul,
And slightly ashamed of my stay-at-home mounts:
Red Pup, Bonine, and Owl.
The arena horses are shining and proud.
Their ears are always alert.
While Red Pup, Justin, Bailey, and Snip
Are slovens, in sweat and in dirt…
…But could the show horses keep up with my boys,
Doing their chores on the ranch?
Could they make the circle, work herd, drag the calves?
Would an honest day’s work make them blanch?
…So Hail! to the Red Pups, the Bonines, and Owls.
Hail! to the equine wage slave.
In this beholder’s eyes you’re beauties.
You never took as much as you gave.
In the cowboy’s world, loss and death is never far away, and there are many ways that a cowboy or his horse can lose their lives, or simply be parted from one another, possibly never to see each other again. Whether one is a man or woman in the cattle industry, one learns at an early age to stuff down and rationalize away natural feelings of tenderness and grief toward animals because such emotions can interfere in the rough work that is the livestock industry. This is a strong cultural tradition that continues from long ago. Some contemporary cowboy poems speak to the feelings of loss that can come upon a man or woman when their relationship with a special horse is disrupted. Here, a few excerpts from Liam Rector’s “My Pony”, from Cowboy Poetry Matters, From Abilene to the Mainstream, Contemporary Cowboy Writing, Story Line Press, 2000:
Coming back to you, my pony, whom I had to leave
To make money, I proffer up the dire smidgen,
The torn thing I managed to lug back with me,
…How long I have loved thee to see you now grown old
Though still able—under all this weight—
To put your foot to the far off, to the going…
…Ride on while we’re here, my pony, and next spring
I’ll bring Virginia, whom I’ve left back in the city.
I’ll bring her to you for her safekeeping.
She needs the hurl and arc these fields have put in us,
Out looking : she needs the kind of joking past grieving
We’ve come to together, thrown through the pressed world
Where I went off to earn being hers and yours, your Liam.
Cattle have hard lives, and in cowboy poetry they are the source of curses, despair, and comedy. Out on the rangelands, they are independent, ornery, and vulnerable. Just getting them started in life can be an epic struggle. Cowboy poet Baxter Black has become a living legend in his community, particularly for his humorous poetry. Here are some excerpts from his “Fetal Eye View” from Croutons on a Cowpie, Volume II, Cowboy Poetry by Baxter Black, Coyote Cowboy Company, 1992. A calf being born is speaking to the humans assisting in his birth:
“Say, anybody got a light? It sure is dark in here
and tighter’n the skin on Polish sausage.
For nine long months I’ve trusted Mom but now she’s pulled the plug!
A pure and simple case of double crossage!
I’m not sure what I really am or even what I’m for?
To breed? Or do they plan to milluk us?
I’ve checked myself the best I could . . . a bull calf’s what I think,
but, heck, that might be my umbilicus!
. . .Git out the way! I’m bailin’ out! Too bad we met like this
‘Cause you might be alright, at least I think . .
And to show there’s no hard feelin’s, belly up here to the bag
and I’ll buy you and all yer friends a drink!
Domestic cats don’t get invited on cattle drives, as you may have suspected. They hang around barns and ranch houses, keeping the rodent population in check, but there are a few poems that include them, though not as the main subjects. In my research I have found them in Vess Quinlan’s “The Barn Cats”, Linda M. Hasselstrom’s “What the Falcon Said”, and Liam Rector’s “My Pony”.
Dogs are necessary companions to the cowboy. They are not pets, and they too have rough lives. Cowboy poet Ed Brown, in his “Cowdogs”, in New Cowboy Poetry, A Contemporary Gathering, Gibbs-Smith Publisher,1990, wrote:
Now some cowdogs have pedigrees
And other claims to fame.
But here a cowdog gets two things:
A whipping and a name.
And we don’t just give them a name
From a book upon the shelves.
We use them, and if they stay around,
We let them name themselves. . .
…Backhoe fills the yard with holes;
Nixon covers them up;
Welfare hasn’t done a thing
Since he was just a pup.
Buzzard eats the darndest things;
Leppie’s mother never claimed him.
If we had a dog that could work cows
We wouldn’t know what to name him.
Wild predators were once common enemies of the cowboy and the herds but the wolf, bear, cougar, and coyote were drastically reduced in number in North America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Naturally they do appear as subjects of cowboy poetry. Bears get mentioned in Ham Hamilton’s “Bear” and here in Jesse Smith’s “Message in the Wind” from New Cowboy Poetry, A Contemporary Gathering, Gibbs-Smith Publisher, 1990
. . . Yer old pony’s eyes are a-lookin’,
his ears workin’ forward and back.
All of a sudden you feel his hide tighten,
And a little hump come into his back. . .
. . .But you know yer old hoss ain’t a-lying,
He’s as good’ne as you’ll ever find.
And you know that old pony’s tryin’
To warn ya ’bout somethin’ in time.
Well, ya look real hard where he’s lookin’,
His eyes are plum fixed in a stare,
Then ya see what he’s seein’,
A cub and an old mama bear.. .
A cougar, felis concolor, makes an appearance in Virginia Bennett’s “The Lion”, and a deer in Floyd A. Jenson’s “The Day I Roped a Deer”, and a falcon in Linda Hasselstrom’s “What the Falcon Said”. Accounts of wolves are uncommon in cowboy poetry but the coyote is popular. An old poem attributed to Robert Fletcher is “The Belled Coyote”, telling a likely fictional story about catching a coyote in a trap and tying a small bell around his neck and letting him go. The cowboy later takes pity on the coyote because the bell is always warning away the coyote’s prey, and so he accurately shoots the bell off the collar.
Four contemporary poems, Buck Ramsey’s “Songdog”, Wallace McRae’s “The Coyote”, Eric Sprado’s “Our Range”, and Linda Hussa’s “Under the Hunter Moon” bring in more modern ideas about the relationship of humans and coyotes. The McRae and Sprado poems are considerations of how humans and coyotes share the land. Hussa’s “Under the Hunter Moon” tells of how she must kill a coyote who has attacked a flock of sheep. Ramsey’s “Songdog” found in Cowboy Poetry Matters, From Abilene to the Mainstream, Contemporary Cowboy Writing, Story Line Press, 2000 is more friendly to the coyote:
When young I saw a coyote spring in air
And arc and tumble in a backward flip,
Then chase his tail and wallow in his joy,
Exalting with his private yap and yip.
Caught up, I sprang from hiding to my horse
And somersaulted backward to the ground,
Then rolled and wallowed in the flow’rs and grass
And mocked the private rapture of his sound.
There is much more to learn about cowboy poetry than the small fragments I have shared with you here. There is much more history behind modern cowboy poetry, and forms of cowboy poetry can be found in several other nations. In the month of April in 2015 I posted a series of essay excerpts by prominent authors, reports of two cowboy poetry events which I attended, and twenty-four poems with animal themes in my DreamWidth journal which are available for you to read beginning with this post: http://shining-river.dreamwidth.org/19085.html.
Included among those posts is a list of books that I have referenced in this essay, and several websites. Very soon I will post approximately twenty more cowboy poems. For those of you living in the United States, Canada, and even Australia, you may find live cowboy poetry (or bush poetry, if you are in Australia) events in many states/provinces, simply by an online search.
The cowboy community and the furry community have some significant differences and, most likely, little in common. The majority of us have only seen the cowboy’s world through the fiction and fantasy of popular, mass-produced entertainment. It requires some sincere effort to look beyond that. If you do so, because this is poetry, a language form expressive of emotion, you may find something in cowboy poetry that appeals to you in your deep emotional core, as this writer has found.
Look,
there is a canyon,
a grand canyon,
an unbridgeable canyon between
those cowboys
and those animals.
But we can see
and they can see
the stars in the constellations,
those man and animal line figures,
the star-stippled spirits
of us all.
“Furry Film Festival:” thoughts from Fred Patten and Califur’s video programmer.
Gideon & BuckHopper
“The San Francisco Furry Film Festival” was a fantasy article inspired by many potential reasons for why it could happen for real. A movie journalist even told me it was an idea “way past due!”
Once put together, it could have built-in audience at any con. However, the practical work of organizing a festival wouldn’t be too different from making a small con. With such a special niche, that puts it out of reach unless a team of dedicated movie lovers gather around the idea. That hasn’t happened yet… but 2016 has brought amazing Furry movie events. There were sold-out furry screenings for Zootopia, and the furry-made documentary ‘Fursonas‘ won unprecedented notice on the festival circuit.
A furry film fest isn’t so far-fetched. Here’s hoping it happens. Meanwhile, below are reactions from Changa, video programmer for Califur and admin of Furry.today (check the site for great videos!) And then Fred Patten.
– Patch
From Changa:
One of the reasons I started furry.today was to keep myself constantly looking for new furry shorts and animations and keep track of them for things like our Parties and the animation festivals I had been putting on at Califur. Here was the play list for the Animation Festivals we showed in 2015. Warning: Lots of embeds. I mostly put that page up not linked anywhere as it was my way of handing out a link to people asking me what specific films were after the con. A dedicated Furry film festival is a great idea (not sure of the logistics.) From your article, I haven’t seen Finsterworld but was aware of Furry Force – they were at Califur, they received the Ursa Major award and it was rather awesome. I do know about your site and it’s cool that you noticed my video blog.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Furry Film Festival
The suggestion of a Furry Film Festival makes my mind overflow with potential titles. Such a festival could easily be filled by excellent but obscure features (many foreign). That would have the advantages of probably being cheaper to rent than those by large American studios like Disney and DreamWorks (which might snub a Furry Film Festival even if it was willing to pay really expensive rentals), and more enticing to the public that might be overly familiar with big American studio “classics” anyway. Here are some suggestions (emphasizing what I would like to see):
American Features
Mr. Bug Goes to Town, directed by Dave Fleischer. 78 minutes. December 5, 1941.
Bill and Coo, directed by Dean Riesner. 61 minutes. March 28, 1948.
Gay Purr-ee, directed by Abe Levitow. 105 minutes. October 24, 1962.
Shinbone Alley, directed by John David Wilson. 85 minutes. April 7, 1971.
Fritz the Cat, directed by Ralph Bakshi. 80 minutes. April 12, 1972.
Coonskin, directed by Ralph Bakshi. 89 minutes. August 20, 1975.
An American Tail, directed by Don Bluth. 80 minutes. November 21, 1986.
Tiny Toon Adventures: How I Spent My Vacation, directed by Barry Caldwell and six others. 80 minutes. March 11, 1992.
Once Upon a Forest, directed by Charles Grosvenor. 72 minutes. June 18, 1993.
Balto, directed by Simon Wells. 77 minutes. December 22, 1995.
The Nut Job, directed by Peter Lepeniotis. 86 minutes. January 17, 2014.
Foreign Features
Puss in Boots, directed by Kimio Yabuki. 80 minutes. March 18, 1969. (Japan)
Blinky Bill, directed by Yoram Gross. 90 minutes. September 24, 1992. (Australia)
Felidae, directed by Michael Schaak. 78 minutes. November 3, 1994. (Germany)
Catnapped!, directed by Takashi Nakamura. 76 minutes. June 10, 1995. (Japan)
The Fearless Four, directed by Michael Coldewey, Eberhard Junkersdorf, and Jürgen Richter. 89 minutes. October 2, 1997. (Germany) NOTE: Warner Bros. has an excellent American dub of this, unreleased. Ask for it.
Help! I’m a Fish, directed by Stefan Fjeldmark and Michael Hegner. 83 minutes. October 6, 2000. (Denmark)
The Adventures of Renny the Fox, directed by Thierry Schiel. 90 minutes. August 12, 2005. (Luxembourg)
Blinky Bill’s White Christmas, directed by Guy Gross. 80 minutes. December 24, 2005. (Australia)
El Arca, directed by Juan Pablo Buscarini. 88 minutes. July 5, 2007. (Argentina)
Niko & the Way to the Stars, directed by Michael Hegner and Kari Juusonen. 81 minutes. October 10, 2008. (Finland)
Roadside Romeo, directed by Jugal Hansraj. 93 minutes. October 24, 2008. (India)
The Missing Lynx, directed by Raul Garcia and Manuel Sicilia. 100 minutes. December 25, 2008. (Spain)
Cinderella in the Far West, directed by Pascal Herold. 81 minutes. April 16, 2012. (France)
Bitter Lake, directed by Shay. 41 minutes. August 19, 2012. (France/Germany/Netherlands)
A Turtle’s Tale 2: Sammy’s Escape From Paradise, directed by Vincent Kesteloot and Ben Stassen. 93 minutes. August 15, 2012. (Belgium)
Delhi Safari, directed by Nikhil Advani. 92 minutes. October 19, 2012. (India)
The House of Magic, directed by Jeremy Degruson and Ben Stassen. 85 minutes. December 25, 2013. (Belgium)
Sheep and Wolves, directed by Andrei Galat. Scheduled for 2014; postponed to 2015. (Russia)
Shorts
This is a mixture of furry films, animation school student projects, and even commercial films. It only briefly suggests the wealth of material that exists.
Anthrocon 2014: Compass. 5:16
Chicken or the Egg. 3:22
Children of the Night. 4:20
Control Bear. 4:04
Crayon Dragon. 3:13
Kickball. 2:26
Merry XXXmas from Room 366. 2:55
RusFurence 2012: The Movie. 16:37
I could go on, but this gives you an idea of how enjoyable a Furry Film Festival could be. These particular films might not be available, but others could surely be found to fill a three-day festival program. Would it be best to schedule such a film festival in conjunction with a furry convention? I’ll leave the details to the festival organizers.
FA 012 Collie's Follies and Metriko's Mistakes - A brief look into the lives and mistakes of Viro and Metriko.
Hello Everyone!
This week we go into the past and talk about our lives. What mistakes in life and relationships have we made, and how did we move forward from these negative situations? How have we handled some of the lowest moments of our life and what did we learn from this?
We also take a question about whether or not you should sacrifice your relationship for employment.
Please note that this episode contains some sensitive material and covers some topics that some listeners might view as being disturbing. Please review our show notes for timestamps in order to prevent any emotional or mental issues that you might experience.
For more information, including a list of topics by timestamp, see our Show Notes for this episode.
Thanks and, as always, be well!
FA 012 Collie's Follies and Metriko's Mistakes - A brief look into the lives and mistakes of Viro and Metriko.In His Comic Book, Humans Kill Evil Furries
I just had one hard question: every time I draw and post art online other furries hate it. Although I’m making a project for a comic book, they hated it and sometimes they report me for hate. I don’t hate furries, but all I did is draw humans the good guys and they’re Mexican soldiers fighting anthros, saving the world from evil creatures. Every time I post them, furries blocked me and some are cool with it. This has to do with my Christian religion and I always thought that furries are open minded but I believe they’re open minded but limited to things. Furries I talk to are aholes sometimes and I meet new friends on the fandom. And I meet Christian furries that do understand me.
Ronnie Alvarez (age 28)
* * *
Dear Ronnie,
Wow.
This is not a “hard question” at all. You are drawing art in which anthros (portrayed as evil) are being attacked and hated by human soldiers, apparently. Now, look at it from the other side, which you actually do in your letter. Don’t you hate it when people don’t like your art because it is homophilic (favors humans)? Don’t you feel persecuted for your Christian beliefs by feeling that the furries aren’t tolerant of what you are doing? Can you seriously not understand that furries would feel the same way about your art?
Complaining that furries aren’t open minded enough to accept your art is to misunderstand what it means to be open minded. Open minded doesn’t mean accepting hatred. Furries don’t dislike you because you are Christian (as you noted, there are Christian furries in the fandom), they dislike your art because it inflames their sensitivities of already being persecuted.
Your question is like asking why black people wouldn’t appreciate hooded KKK members marching down a street in Savannah, Georgia. KKK members espouse Christianity, too, you know. Doesn’t mean blacks don’t like Christians (many many African Americans are Christians); it means they don’t like hatred.
You can say "I don't hate furries" all you like, but actions speak louder than words.
Understand?
My suggestion: either seek another (non-furry) audience for your art or draw art that furries will enjoy. Continuing to do what you are doing just deliberately stokes the fire of hatred.
Papabear
WiLD party in Mission Viejo, CA – organizer DJ Ear gives a Q&A for the Furclub Survey.
Furclubbing: “A repeat/regular nightclub event by furries for furries.” It’s a New Thing that’s been spreading since the late 2000’s. This kind of dance party is independent from cons. This builds on the growth of cons, and takes things farther. It’s more ambitious than events that happen once, house parties, or informal meets. Those can stay inner-focused for friends who already know each other. This brings partnership with venues that aren’t hotels, and new supportive interest in the kind of events they host. It crosses a line to public space. A stranger may walk in off the street to discover their new favorite thing. It encourages new blood, and crossover to other scenes. It makes subculture thrive. It’s a movement!
See the list of parties at The Furclub survey. Any party that gives a Q&A will get a featured article.
Featured here is WiLD, a new event in Mission Viejo, CA. So Cal furs have complained of a lack of furry parties. With Tail! recently started not too far away, WiLD promises to amplify awesome developments for one of the longest existing populations of the fandom. WiLD’s first venue was lost with ownership change, so it seems like hard work to get established, but their new place looks like it has a lot of potential. LOVE the toony graphics! Party organizer DJ Ear tells more:
WiLD party (2016) ____________________- The party name: WiLD (official website.)
- Who: WiLD is organized by myself, DJ EAR – with lots of help from the Orange County Music League (OCML) as well as our local fur community and DJs (some of whom are not furry themselves – but love to come out and party with us).
- What: We’re starting at a new location in Mission Viejo CA. We are not at a nightclub, there is no bar (although we do have a snack bar!) – and as such we have opened our doors to an 18+ crowd. Our ultimate goal is to pack the entire building head-to-tail in furries, speaker systems, and DJs for anyone who wants to enjoy a night out with friends, EDM, and fur. Our two previous incarnations the previous year saw roughly 20-30 people show up, and we expect that number to hold for our return until we can prove WiLD is worth returning to. (You’ve gotta start somewhere!)
- When: WiLD is every last Saturday of the month and while we started last year – we’ve only had 2 previous events (due to a change in ownership at our previous venue.) We want everything to be as transparent as we can in the building and structure of WiLD – so feedback from those who come out to our event is really valuable to us and we’ve tried to learn from our mistakes. We’ve already been contacted by a few furs in the area wanting to help however they can – all it takes is a quick email or message on Facebook or Twitter. We’re always listening!
- Where: Studio One Live Venue (Pacific Coast Center for the Arts) – 25732 Taladro Circle, Mission Viejo, CA 92691.Furs from around the Orange County area and beyond (San Diego, LA and more) have come out to WiLD.
- How (the behind the scenes story:) I was approached by one of the Co-Founder’s of OCML with an idea to host a furry EDM event built on the success of recent EDM night’s they had organized. Details got ironed out quickly – DJs were lined up even quicker, and we had less than a month to promote for our first event! It was a big learning experience for me as I was basically given the reigns to organize almost all the aspects of WiLD with OCML providing the backup and know-how to help make it happen.
- Vibe: WiLD hopes to be a place for furs to come enjoy a night of EDM from local furry DJs with friends. We’re an 18+ event and anyone’s welcome to come by. We’ve got a headless lounge & some changing areas setup so we hope to see some fursuiters stop by en mass.
- Promotion: So far we’ve been getting the word out by mouth about our event at local fur meetups & online thru social media. It’s still too early to tell how business will go – but we do hope to make some money from this event so that we can improve WiLD and make it bigger & better!
Follow WiLD and check out previous events on Facebook and Twitter.
Good luck to DJ EAR and all of the So Cal furries – I hope WiLD takes off, and proves the awesome potential shared by furry communities starting their own dance parties all over the place.
Skitch and Corvin.
Haze Tiger.
Gender of furries vs Age of furries: interactive visualization
Click here for our interactive visualization showing the relationship between furry gender and age.
Visualization by Ruxley. Species and age data taken from the 2015 Furry Survey. click through for the interactive version.
A Long Letter about the Nature of Friendship
First of all i want to apologize about the last letter i sent you and i couldn't reply due personal problems and many things to do. I have a problem that has been haunting me for a long time. I know, i'm a bit old for this kind of stuff, but i'm tired of have the same problem when i meet someone, and i think you're professional with this kind of problems: this is an example what's happening, but this is a bit more important, and it's one of the most bigger problems I have I got two friends: one from San Diego and another from South Africa, I met the first one when a year after I started in FurAffinity, and we became best friends some months later, and the another one, I saw his profile in FA thanks to a friend, but at first I thought he was someone egotistical, but when the San Diego started a role play group on Skype, with me and another 5 guys I changed my mind about him, It was the opposite of what I thought at first, so later we became friends, the first group only it lasted until August 2015 due we had various problems with one of the members and we started another one with just the only four members.
But during May or June 2015 I started to get many anxiety problems, at first I thought I could control that, but it wasn't, and to date I still have these problems but knowing why it happened, but over time he began to generate problems of depression, and I began to reflect on the RP group, I got into trouble within the group, and I got to leave the group on several occasions, but the last was a reason that bothered me from the beginning of the first group, the guy from San Diego always helped me when I left the group for several occasions, so the last time I left the group I said I was sick of not put me attention as others, there was some favoritism between them and it seemed like I was not important to them, and made their own stories without will include me in them, he tried to see a way to help, but did not seem to be helpful, and indeed, there came a time I spoke to the boy of South Africa for the gradually began to behave very sharp me both RP and chat, send a letter asking him what was wrong, that was not the first time I did that, the first time, when our friendship was much closer, he apologized to me and told me that no happen again, but this time was much different, let me in them, just she told me to do something to change, but at that time, I did my best to be treated like others, but all were in vain. Finally the boy from San Diego came up with something to help taking advantage of Halloween approached, he had a character not used for a long time and started to do a story involving my character and where we were all going to participate, everything was very well planned, but everything gets worse after we began the story within the group, I had the stupid idea that one of my characters commit suicide to fix the main problem of the story, I doubted that but just when I wanted to fix it was too late, and one member who was present quickly left the group, the guy from South Africa, just sent a message saying "WTF?!" and also he left the group. Quickly me and the guy from San Diego I wonder what was wrong with me, I told him I had never been my intention, and try to talk to the two who had left the group, but the guy from South Africa was very angry, and the girl He would not return to know the group, I did not know what to do, and burst into tears explaining everything that had happened to me and intimating my reasons that had left the group several times.
Finally he understood everything, and said that would not give up for helping restore friendship boy from South Africa and after a week, after she asked him to ask him to send a letter via skype apologizing and explaining everything that happened, the guy from South Africa sent me a private message forgiving me and I finally understood why he had been so curt with me I was going through family problems related to his father and did not want to embarrass him with my role plays depressants, and asked me to promise not to return to that sort of thing, and with everything that happened I did not want that to happen again that and I promised, then said he would have to spend a good time to come back to the group, I said no problem, but apparently he was mad at me, and there were times I had to ask the guy from San Diego on how I was the guy from South Africa, he came to me to show several chats boy from South Africa saying he knew that it was never my intention to hurt him, but still remained uncertain until finally in December of that same year the boy from San Diego said we were going to return all in a Christmas role play, but anyway I was very unsure about that, and personally wrote a letter via skype the boy from South Africa, explaining everything and apologetically as I never had, it took two days to answer, the apparently he was annoyed to hear the same story, but he told me not to worry about that, because he had forgiven me for several months, and I was more than relieved when I sent that message.
before it was Christmas I sent them to draw a picture for the boy from San Diego, but just a day before told the artist that will fix the mistakes he had and took a lot more than I expected, I warned him that I would take to reach you, and I said no problem, if I'm not wrong was around that time that the following happened: also because of my anxiety problems I suffer, I tend to be jealous, but before I suffer these problems was not jealous.
I think it was a few days before Christmas, the guy from South Africa made a vore comic character boy from San Diego (I feel like I get in trouble for this but here I leave the link of the comic: also because of my anxiety problems I suffer, I tend to be jealous, but before I suffer these problems was not jealous.
I think it was a few days before Christmas, the guy from South Africa made a vore comic character boy from San Diego (I feel like I get in trouble for this but here I leave to you the link of the comic: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18524978/)in a way I felt jealous, in fact there was a time that I refrained from entering FurAffinity by the comic, but in my mind told me "will come your day ... he will do something for you" and otherwise felt guilty ... very guilty, I felt I did something wrong to not deserve his respect, felt I was not friendly enough and I should do something to deserve their respect, after a while I forced myself to see the comic and tell me myself "will get your day ... he will do something for you, and if he doesn't you do not mind, he do not need to make you a picture to show you you're his friend" and for a while I said that and I forget it, had passed the Role Christmas Play and everything returned to normal, my friendship with the two became much narrower, and only three of us create our own group Role Play, referring to the game Assassin's Creed, but before that, in early February I got the picture that would give gift to man from San Diego (http://www.furaffinity.net/view/18922338/) I apologized to him, and he did not care how long it takes, the intention was the which had, when I showed, I think something did not like, I asked if he liked, but apparently not reflected, and told him that if he did not like he could do anything for him, he said it was not necessary, He said he liked a lot, but I knew not, and in fact I told him that if he wanted he could raise his profile, I felt bad because I felt it was not the best thing I did, later seeing the two of them had better than me, during Valentine's day I sent a letter explaining better what happened to me, I apologized for not being a good friend, he understood everything and said he has always been to help me, but my problem is that I feel impotence, because the two of them usually wear well and gifts between them are made, and my helplessness I can not do something for them, and I really do not know if I'm not doing something right or do not consider me as a good friend.
I do not know what to do, I do not have a credit card much less money to do something for them two, have perhaps been a bad friend? I can not speak more, because I have already done several letters explaining everything, what I can do? I am doing something wrong? Is there something I'm forgetting? are not the only ones with which this happening to me, just with some friends I feel like it was not someone important to them, please Papa Bear, help me, I am very confused and worried, I do not know to do. Thanks a lot for your time, and I’ll wait the time you need for reply, I’ll be grateful if you can help me in this situation. Needless to say I appreciate all
Sincerely:
Guilmon 1998 a.k.a Jake The Flamedramon/ Drake Daigo (age 25, Mexico)
P.S: all of them I know personally
* * *
Dear Guilmon,
Yours was a long and kind of confusing letter, but here is my reaction to what I understand of it:
The RP thing where you have a character commit suicide: the people who promptly left probably overreacted (unless you did it in a graphic, tasteless way, which I doubt). This is a bit of a case of dramaqueenitis. People need to get a grip; this is fiction, role play, get over yourselves. Sheesh.
As for the friendships: remember, friendship is not about giving gifts or giving money. And true friends who do give gifts should never expect something in return. If you are only giving something to a friend because you want something back, then that is not a sign of generosity.
True friends do not care if you are rich or poor. They care about you for who you are, including your flaws. How do you repay them, then, for their kindnesses? By being kind, respectful, and helpful in return. By giving them someone to talk to who offers sympathy and empathy.
Jealousy results from lack of confidence. When we are not confident in ourselves, we fear that people we want to like us will not see us as worthy and turn to other people for affection. Therefore, self-confidence is a key to happiness. You say you suffer from anxiety. Not sure if this is a medical condition or something that is self-inflicted. If it is medical, see a doctor; if it is self-inflicted, then the best way to relieve anxiety (and stress) is a thorough routine of meditation, exercise, sleep, and eating correctly. It will do wonders for your mental and physical health.
Finally, don't play games with people. For example, don't use furry art as a manipulative tool to gain friends or hurt people. Be sincere. Say what you mean and when you make a promise, keep it. When you are honorable and true to yourself and others, you will find that contentment follows, neither will you ever find an occasion when you need to apologize for your actions.
Hugs,
Papabear
Claw the Way to Victory, Edited by AnthroAquatic – Book Review by Fred Patten.
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Cover by Jenn ‘Pac’ Rodriguez
Claw the Way to Victory, edited by AnthroAquatic
Capalaba, Queensland, Australia, Jaffa Books, January 2016, trade paperback $17.50 (285 pages), Kindle $5.00.
Claw the Way to Victory is an original-fiction anthology of eleven short stories by nine authors, “each showcasing a different sport and [showing] just how the instincts of an animal matched with the intelligence of a human can help or hurt a player. Scratching? Biting? Against the rules? Not this time.” (blurb) It is published by Jaffa Books in Australia, but printed and also sold by editor AnthroAquatic in the U.S., and was released by him at Anthro New England 2016 in Cambridge, MA on January 21-24; hence the price in U.S. dollars and the Amazon Kindle edition.
In “Descent” by TrianglePascal (gliding), Anthony, a mallard TV reporter, interviews Lacy Gallant, a golden eagle who is about to attempt the first unassisted thousand-foot descent off a cliff into a sheer gorge in history – without a parachute.
“With the camera off, Anthony let himself slouch back into his camp chair, then eyed Lacy again. The eagle was watching the bear and the squirrel [Anthony’s camera crew] with curiosity while she sipped her coffee. She looked impossibly relaxed considering what she was going to be attempting that day. She was dressed in a tank top and a tight pair of shorts, both of them specifically designed to reveal as much of her plumage as possible. It showed off the impressive musculature that stretched from her shoulders down to her powerful arms. Despite how dirty and ragtag the rest of her looked, the flight feathers hanging down from those arms were more immaculately cared for than the claws of most supermodels. There was a healthy sheen about them that bespoke hours of daily care.” (p. 11)
The mammals in the sports camera crew think she’s crazy. Anthony, as a bird but not a hunter-diver, can dimly appreciate what she feels when she’s gliding.
“Discus Dog” by James L. Steele (discus) features Greg Rett, a young wolf in his first Major League Discus game, like football but much more brutal. The two teams are The Force, a nine-animal mix of three canines, four felines, and two reptiles, and The Pack, all wolves.
“The equine switched off his mic and walked up and down the gap between the two teams.
‘All right, you animals, here are the rules. Blood happens, and claws and teeth are okay, but no intentional wounds above the shoulders. Do not use the coin as a weapon against another player. Do not use the stadium walls as a weapon against another player. Do not …’” (p.27)
Greg, in the excitement of the game, bites a rival player’s throat out.
The National Discus League officials question him. The press questions him. No police question him. Everybody agrees that these things happen in the passion of the game, and Greg is a rookie who hasn’t yet developed self-control, so it’s okay. Greg feels that he committed murder (or at least manslaughter), and he can’t believe that he’s getting off so easily. He researches the history of the organized Discus games …
“Bottom of the Ninth” by PJ Wolf (baseball) is narrated by “six-year-old me”, the batter at the bottom of the last inning of Game Three of the Super Series. As he faces the other team’s tanuki pitcher, his musings about the game fill in the reader about animal baseball.
“Felipe Infante is a bull, and he’s paid – handsomely – to hit home runs. Had a pretty good season, too, with thirty-eight of ‘em. He isn’t paid to run the bases, which is why the rabbit is pinch-running for him.” (p. 57)
We never do find out who or what “six-year-old me” is, but we find out so much else about animal baseball that it doesn’t matter.
“A Knight’s Tale” by Eric Lane (tournament swordsmanship) is narrated by Jacob Harper a.k.a. Sir Michael Hemsworth, a coyote knight dueling a boar for the lordship of a modern renaissance fair. When he is gored by one of the boar’s tusks – an accident outside of the dueling rules – he loses his nerve even after he heals. Marcus Wen, his otter best friend, helps him get it back again. This is a well-written story with the knight-reinactors taking advantage of their animal traits, although the dueling is hacking with blunt flat-edged swords which Lane constantly refers to as rapiers, which are later thin-pointed swords used for thrusting. I think that Sir Michael Hemsworth should have been Sir Michael rather than Sir Hemsworth, too.
“Ping Pong Diplomacy” by Huskyteer (ping pong) is, no surprise, about an internationally-prestigious table-tennis tournament between teams led by Tux, a U.S. cat, and a Communist Chinese team led by a tiger.
“‘I’m Jun,’ the tiger rumbled. “It means ‘army’.’
That worked. The guy was pretty much an army all by himself.” (p. 102)
Tux has always been a fan and player of table-tennis, which is why he is chosen for the U.S. team invited to China. But the Chinese have developed table-tennis into a cross between a science, an art form, and a religion; and they are helped here by their animal nature.
“Only then did Tux have time to work out what was off-kilter about the game.
Jun wasn’t using a paddle. He was simply hitting the ball with the enormous pad of his paw, easily as broad as a competition paddle, and, Tux thought, remembering the pawshake, with just the right combination of firmness and flexibility, like a layer of rubber.
Was that even legal? And how was he supposed to counter it?’ (p. 104)
Tux takes advantage of his own feline instincts to stay glued to the bouncing ball. Huskyteer mixes the game competition with low-grade diplomatic espionage.
In “After the Last Bell’s Rung” by Patrick Rochefort (boxing), Balus Bubalis is an Asian water-buffalo by species but a Texas native. He was the Texas Pro-Am Heavyweight Champion in his youth twenty-five years earlier, but he never went professional, retiring instead to help his dirt-poor family. He later became a physiotherapist specializing in treating sports injuries. The unnamed narrator interviewing him and his old coaches for his life’s story focuses upon how having thick horns affects boxing. There’s no drama in this story, but a lot of heart. Balus is the sort of quiet man who was featured in lots of “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Ever Met” stories.
“A Leap Forward” by MikasiWolf (running) isn’t about a formal sport as much as using running training to stay ahead of the police. Lesaut (civet) and Liam (angora cat) are parentless street youths who have their own society, The Movement, on the rooftops of the city of Intersection. They practice the Art of Displacement, both a physical exercise and a philosophy to hone their speed and agility.
“Each day, the disciples of The Movement, known as ‘Traceurs’, would meet on their own mutually-agreed roof for dinner and socializing. And once a week, there would be a get-together known as the Gathering, in which everyone would share their own thoughts and encouragement they may have for the rest of the immediate community. Lessons learnt, job offers, and personal philosophies; everything went as long as it was constructive to one’s well-being.” (p. 142)
The older Liam asks Lesaut to mentor a newcomer, the 16-year-old horse Snoss, to The Movement. He doesn’t tell Lesaut that the police in the streets and subways below are looking for Snoss. Lesaut needs all that he has learned of the Art of Displacement to keep himself and Snoss out of the hands of the authorities.
“A Gentleman of Strength” by Dwale (sumo wrestling) is a polite translation of rikishi, a sumo wrestler, usually translated just as “strong man”. This is the story of the final tournament of Ame, an aging honey bear sumo wrestler, who is wondering whether he should keep wrestling until he attains the title of komusubi or retire before fading strength forces his retirement. The story describes sumo wrestling in depth, adding such animal traits as whether a plantigrade or a digitigrade stance is better for a sumo wrestler, the disadvantages of having a long tail, and so on.
“Nightball” by TrianglePascal (basketball) contrasts the playing of day animals and night animals. Never the twain shall meet – until a day animal, a cat, goes out for a nocturnal team. The attributes of the nocs (a skunk, an owl, a deer, etc.) are illustrated. The story is why the cat wants to play with them. None of the characters are named except for their species. They don’t need names here. This is the second story here by TrianglePascal.
“Eight Seconds and the Grace of God” by Patrick Rochefort (rodeo) is set in the macho world of cowboy poker players and rodeo contestants (of both sexes) in Alberta, where both the stallion and steer riders and the stallions and steers are sentient. This is Rochefort’s secod story here.
“The big, brown steer had a coat like cheap milk chocolate, and he stared down at Dawson in a way that mutt didn’t like, as if he was just measuring him up for how hard he’d have to stomp the dog flat.” (p. 226)
Barroom fights and fights in the rodeo ring. American and Canadian rivalry. Bradley Shoulders and Cameron McKenzie are both steers, but they sure aren’t friends. Cameron is friends with Dawson Chinook, the mutt. Dawson is hot to ride Bradley in the rodeo and win, to square up for his pal getting sucker-punched. But the hulking steer is three times Dawson’s size. Who the fuck cares!
“Marge the Barge” by Mary E. Lowd (ice skating) is a large Newfoundland dog with five rambunctious puppies. She’s a hockey mom in a figure-skating rink where all the skaters are little cats, small dogs like Chihuahuas, and squirrels. Marge suffered an injury that ended her hockey-playing days. Her only hope for staying on the ice is to learn to become a figure skater. But a huge Newfie amidst all those dainty animals performing graceful ballerina twirls and the like? Will Marge’s determination be enough?
Claw the Way to Victory (cover by Jenn ‘Pac’ Rodriguez) may be the best anthology that I’ve ever read, in terms of all of its stories being so well-written that they deeply held my interest even though I don’t have any interest in their sports (in ten cases; “A Leap Forward” is well-written but isn’t really about a sport). Ten different sports. Stories ranging from dramas of whether the protagonist will win, to a quiet human-interest piece. In a couple of cases, notably “A Gentleman of Strength”, it has taught me a lot about its sport while recounting a deep human-interest story. I feel safe in guaranteeing that you’ll really like Claw the Way to Victory even if you’re not interested at all in sports. And if you are …
Rik-Tikki-Tikki The Ivory-Fanged
New discoveries from this year’s WonderCon: Rikki is a full-color comic book adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s well-known mongoose-vs.-cobra story Rikki Tikki Tavi. The story was adapted and updated to a more modern setting by Norm Harper, with illustrations by Matthew Foltz-Gray. Originally created as a 4-issue comic book mini-series, after a successful Kickstarter campaign they re-released Rikki as a graphic novel in trade paperback, complete with the original Kipling story as well as a cover-gallery by the artist Christine Knopp. Find out more over at the publisher, Karate Petshop.
image c. 2016 Karate Petshop
TigerTails Radio Season 9 Episode 37
The Shadows That Linger, by M. Andrew Rudder – Book Review by Fred Patten
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Cover by Randy Thompson
The Shadows That Linger, by M. Andrew Rudder.
Dallas, TX, Argyll Productions, July 2015, trade paperback $17.95 (314 pages), Kindle $7.99.
The Shadows That Linger is a superhero comic book in text form, in a funny-animal world.
“Superpowers had begun to appear five years ago, and with those powers came superheroes. With superheroes simultaneously came supervillains, government agencies to try and sponsor, control, or extinguish them, and a different kind of warfare.” (p. 5)
Among anthropomorphic animals or humans. Well, if I suddenly gained superstrength, superspeed, the ability to fly or to phase through solid objects, invulnerability, or anything else like that, I don’t think that the first things I’d do are to design a flamboyant costume and name for myself, and get together with similar individuals to form a club of superheroes – or, if I decided to become a supervillain, to join others in a society of supervillains. But maybe that’s just me.
Let’s see: The Protectors in Seattle are the good guys. They include Thunderwolf, a “muscular wolf” with a “shockingly blue Mohawk crackling with static electricity”; White Magus, an arctic fox with shimmering fur dressed in a tuxedo, “brandishing a ruby-topped cane like a sword”; Pathfinder, the leader, “a husky, tall and muscular, dressed in segmented body armor that gave her freedom of movement while also protecting her from those criminals who preferred guns to lasers” who can track anything; Zahnrad, a diminutive female pine marten with a thick German accent “dressed in functional overalls” who can undo property damage – well, you get the idea. The Consortium are the supervillains, with Puppeteer, “a fox in black leather motorcycle gear” who controls minds; Firestarter, a superfast female dhole dressed in “a tight outfit in red, black, and blue, completed by a streamlined helmet with a tight visor over her eyes”; Dazzlewolf, garishly costumed who can create multiple copies of himself; and others.
Pariah is the newest member of the Protectors; a 19-year-old “fennec fox” with a thick Iranian accent “in white and green spandex with a green mask. There was a stylized green nightingale on his chest, and a cape billowed behind him thanks to Thunderwolf’s gales.” (p. 7) (Dazzlewolf’s costume also includes a “massive flowing cape”. I’m sorry, but I can’t take either superheroes or supervillains in capes seriously since seeing Pixar’s 2004 The Incredibles.) Pariah’s powers include the ability to heal physical injuries.
“He’d never healed this many people at one time before, and he was definitely tired, but he wouldn’t pass out or anything. He’d only joined the Protectors a month ago, and though his ability to patch up their comrades after skirmishes with the more destructive superheroes had been invaluable, this had been his first large-scale healing. Moving from person to person, letting his power course through them, pushing away their pain and repairing their bodies would definitely earn him a full night’s sleep.” (p. 12)
Pariah is cleaning up after their latest battle when he comes upon the mortally wounded Puppeteer, the leader of the Consortium, dying from one of Thunderwolf’s lightning bolts. Even though he knows that helping their enemies can get him expelled from the Protectors, he cannot refuse to heal anyone needing his aid. The cured Puppeteer promises not to fight him in exchange for having saved his life. The rest of the Consortium would never approve such mercy, so they both have a motive to keep this a secret.
Puppeteer, a 47-year-old red fox who can read minds as well as control them, now knows Pariah’s secret identity and past. He is Aziz Jobrani, who had escaped from the oppressive Iranian government’s genetic experiments, drugs, and torture that had resulted in his superpowers of flight and healing. By an incredible (and not really believable) coincidence, Puppeteer is Suleiman Madani, also an escapee from the same Iranian experimental labs after he developed superpowers. He came openly to America, used his mindreading ability to make himself a billionaire, and has amused himself playing a Seattle society leader and a supporter of the Protectors at the same time he has been building up the Consortium to oppose them.
Puppeteer is no Robin Hood, but he has only stolen from the rich who can afford their losses, and manipulated politicians into voting the way he wants. He has not considered the Protectors a serious threat – he is contemptuous of their only appearing where they can expect favorable receptions and media, not where they might be truly needed. Now he is impressed by its newest member’s genuine desire to help those who need his medical talent. He also knows that Pariah is secretly gay. And so is he.
The Shadows That Linger is intriguingly imaginative. The Consortium only works because all of its supervillains are intelligent, not psychopathic killers as in most comic books. If a crime isn’t profitable, they aren’t interested in it. They don’t slaughter masses of civilians or their own gangs just to demonstrate how evil they are. They don’t monologue at length about how clever they are, giving the heroes/the authorities/anybody plenty of time to prepare their counterattack.
The two groups maintain a wary communication between themselves, since these supervillains aren’t (usually) deliberately destructive.
When a new supercharacter appears in the world, both the Protectors and the Consortium try to recruit him or her until it becomes clear whether he/she will accept “do-gooder” work; is selfish, preferring to join a group devoted to self-interest; preferring to operate alone, whether for good, evil, or self-interest (for personal enrichment by legal means such as superpowers-for-hire); or is a murderous psychotic whom neither the Protectors nor the Consortium want running around loose.
One of the reasons that Puppeteer is not worried about the Protectors is that he has infiltrated them, disguised as Nocturne, a “mystery” superhero from another city who occasionally visits Seattle and “drops in” to socialize with them. [There are many different superheroes and –villains in other cities, such as Ricochet in Baltimore, a grey mouse “dressed in white tights with an orange line down the middle of his chest, with other smaller lines bouncing off of the middle. He did not wear shoes or gloves, but did wear a domino mask, and had an assortment of pouches on a toolbelt.” (p. 32)] That way he can learn their plans without getting too close to them. At least one superhero, Dissimulo, appears as a different “species, gender, sex, or civilian identity” each time he/she appears. I don’t recall any regular comic book in which a supervillain infiltrates the superhero organization in disguise.
In this world, both the Protectors and the Consortium enjoy considerable “down time” when they are in their secret identities as individuals. Aziz and Suleiman meet privately to get to know each other. They are both gay, and the young Aziz is impressed by the more mature Suleiman. It’s hard to say whether they become lovers or whether Suleiman becomes a willing comfortable father-figure.
They have hardly begun to meet when they, and all the Protectors and the Consortium, are confronted by a nameless and insidious menace that destroys by causing overwhelming despair:
“Swirling blackness engulfed the front of the Headquarters of the United Nations. Phantoms walked through it, some kneeling over those trapped within its depths, some whispering to the captives, others reaching for the press or superheroes. As Puppeteer stepped forward, the tendrils solidified into people, people the red fox recognized.
‘You killed us,’ one of the wolf guards from the facility in Iran whispered, floating closer to him.
‘You killed all of us,’ one of the other victims of the experiments said, a crow who had died when he’d set the building on fire.” (pgs. 90-91)
The Shadows That Linger (cover by Randy Thompson) tells how both groups, and Pariah and Puppeteer personally, are affected by and deal with this new menace.
There are several inconsistencies and amateurishnesses in the writing, such as introducing a new character as a stallion who is then referred to as “she”. But on the whole, if you are interested in costumed supercharacters at all, you will enjoy this. (I was amused for personal reasons by one sentence: “Since he [Pariah] didn’t have posters, framed pictures, or had even changed the colors of the walls, his room looked […]” (p. 47). When the Iranian revolution took place in 1979, many of the upper-class monarchist refugees settled with their wealth in Los Angeles. They almost all decorated their new homes and businesses with framed portraits and calendars of the deposed Emperor, or travel posters of scenic Iranian locations.)