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Roo and Tugs are joined in their portable studio by the (in)famous commediennes Margaret Cho and Selene Luna to talk about how they've found laughter while giving back to their communities and causes. During the episode we also learn about how they have had contact with the furry fandom, how they feel Hollywood perceives furries, and also read your questions to them on the air. Did you think we'd let these two lovely ladies escape without THE GAME? We didn't! We also have Space News, another reading from Fifty Sheds of Grey (the Furry Edition), Get Psyched! with Dr. Nuka, and an old-timey ad!



NOW LISTEN!

Show Notes

Nuka has re-recorded his panel from FC! If you’ve ever wondered about the furry fandom, now is a good time to watch this video!

Special Thanks

To our lovely guests - Margaret Cho and Selene Luna! You can check out their sites at www.margaretcho.com and www.seleneluna.com. If you're able, pay forward their generosity in your local community by speaking up! If Margaret or Selene (who are currently on tour together) are in your town, check them out, and tell them FWIW sent you.
T-Wolf
Husky in Denial (plus one for the awesome opening remix!)
Arrkay
Dronon
Syn Fox
Snare
Cane
Lynne
We had quite a few emails and tried to get everyone we could in! If we missed you, we apologize!

Music

Opening Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Margaret Cho Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2016. ©2016 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller– Cloud Fields (Radio Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Some music was provided by Kevin MacLeod at Incompetech.com. We used the following pieces: Spy Glass, The Show Must Also Be Go . Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License.
Space News Music: Fredrik Miller – Orbit. USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
Get Psyched Music: Fredrik Miller – Universe, USA: Bandcamp, 2013. Used with permission. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!)
worldsbestgrandpa – Pokémon – Polka Center OCRemix, USA: 2014. Based on Junichi Masuda – Pokémon Center Theme, USA: Pokémon Red Version and Blue Version, 1996. Used with permission. (Original here.)
Closing Theme: Husky In Denial – Cloud Fields (Headnodic Mix). USA: Unpublished, 2015. ©2015 Fur What It’s Worth and Husky in Denial. Based on Fredrik Miller – Cloud Fields (Chill Out Mix). USA: Bandcamp, 2011. ©2011 Fur What It’s Worth. (Buy a copy here – support your fellow furs!) S5 Episode 11 – Laughing While Giving Back (with Margaret Cho and Selene Luna) - Roo and Tugs are joined in their portable studio by the (in)famous commediennes Margaret Cho and Selene Luna to talk about how they've found laughter while giving back to the

Furry life is real life, kinda.

Ever had a furry friend disappear? That doesn’t happen in real life.

It’s an important event when someone close to you, non-furry, dies. Friends and family gather and mourn and celebrate and reflect on the life of the person they’ve lost. If the deceased was young, people lament the life that will never be lived. If the deceased is old, people talk about the value and brevity of a full life.

Celebrating life and death is important, and it’s something that is often denied to the furry friends of the deceased. Let’s say that I, your humble furry author, slip on some ice on Harleyford Street’s sloping pavement and get struck by an aggressively-driven number 36 bus this Thursday morning. You, gentle furry reader, will probably find out about this over social media a few days later.

You and I have a relationship, even if it’s only through you reading my words here on [adjective][species]. You will read about my death, just like we have all read about the deaths of other furries, and it’ll feel like I’ve been snuffed out without any opportunity for you to meaningfully participate in any sort of mourning process. Maybe you’ll read some comments here on [a][s], maybe you’ll have a quick scan through my Twitter feed or my Weasyl to see what I was doing or thinking in my last hours of life. You’ll probably feel downhearted, in particular for those people closest to me.

In the non-furry world, any vague acquaintance or family member will be able to participate in mourning my death. Someone with a distant relationship will be able to attend my funeral, pass on condolences directly and meaningfully, and be surrounded by other people who are sharing the experience. They will be able to process how a sudden death affects their relationship with life, and understand how it affects other people.

Mourning, even for a distant acquaintance, can be a valuable process.

Of course, all those non-furry acquaintances will only be celebrating a subset of my life. I have a second life, my furry life, and while the two lives intersect, that intersection is far from complete. The separation between those two lives means that furry friends immediately become second-class when someone dies.

It’s not just death of course. There are other life events that can only occur once, where furries must be either integrated or excluded: weddings, births, graduations, that sort of thing.

The need or desire to integrate one’s furry and non-furry lives drives many people to “come out” as a furry, to their friends and/or family. It’s often especially important for young people who aren’t independent from their parents – it’s tough to hide a big part of your life if you don’t have full control. This is often easier said than done, because—by normal societal standards—furry is weird.

I have heard Anthrocon chairman Uncle Kage advise young furries against “coming out”. To the best of my recollection, and I’m paraphrasing, his point is that if you treat furry like it’s something controversial, then it’ll seem controversial. Yet furry social structures can be different enough from non-furry life to be exactly that.

Furry relationships tend to transcend barriers that exist in the non-furry world. We get to know one another via a furry animal-person identity. And although our furry identities aren’t physically real, I believe that they are—ironically—a more honest and true representation of ourselves. Out there in our non-furry life, relationships only begin once we’ve sized one another up on the basis of social structures like class, race, gender, age, and affluence.

Our relative disregard for these social barriers is one of the best things about our furry life, but it’s also something that makes furry relationships seem weird or controversial to outsiders. Your furry friends probably don’t look like your non-furry friends. When you introduce your furry and non-fury friends to one another, those social barriers will be firmly back in place, and there is a real risk that the two groups won’t get along.

A lot of furry takes place online, of course, but little changes when we socialise in meatspace. Furry is still weird, and this is in contrast with other relationships that begin on the internet—perhaps online dating or fandoms—because these relationships aren’t forged in the unique furry social crucible.

The perils of being open about weirdness will be familiar to many of us, be that for unusual gender expression, or geeky interests, or sexual behaviour. It’s a terrible compromise to make, between being openly and genuinely yourself, and meeting the social expectations of others. And it’s worse that those people who fit comfortably in the mainstream often don’t understand the problem – they can be unable or unwilling to consider what it’s like to be a bit different.

If you are open about your furry life then a lot of new topics are on the table. The social structure of furry is complicated enough, but of course anyone with more than a passing curiosity will quickly learn about conventions, fursuits, and—of course—sex and pornography. These topics might—might—be okay with some close non-furry friends but are unlikely to be respected by a bigoted uncle. And of course furry can become fuel for gossip, and your message of furry fellowship can not be controlled in the face of rumourmongering and CSI episodes.

Many furries eventually come to some sort of uneasy compromise, where they are openly furry around a small subset of close friends and family, and share their non-furry social spaces with a small subset of their furry group.

This works well… most of the time. When something important happens, like death, our furry life is demoted to second-class status.

Worse is that we often never know what has happened when a furry friend disappears. There are a lot of reasons it may have happened: some furries leave the fandom, some change their furry identity, and some get hit by the number 36 bus. In many cases the reasoning is never shared online, and an awful lot of furs don’t many other furries in the offline world.

We asked this question—how many furries do you know in person?—on the Furry Survey up until 2013:

A huge proportion of furries know no other furries at all in person. Many of these furs will be young and/or live in isolated areas that make meeting close furry friends (temporarily) untenable. If something happens to one of these furries, the rest of may never know why. They will just disappear.

Grief is an important part of life. We furries rarely get the chance to properly acknowledge a death, and celebrate a life. Our friends and lovers and partners can simply fade away over time, in limbo, never quite gone and never to return.

With thanks to Jason from Marfed.

​My parents are highly against me being a furry. They have searched furry and all they got was furporn. I did not witness the search, so I'm not quite sure what they searched, but they are highly against it. I have a head of my own that I made, and I have many furry friends that go to school with me. Although, they still disprove of the fandom, they conform to the stereotypes that we all are into kinky, fetish, bestiality, having sex in suit stuff. I tried showing them Majira Strawberry's video about it, explaining that that is less than 30% of the fandom, but they won't have it. Each time they find a rogue angel dragon drawing or head base, they trash it without a second thought. I recently went through a major problem that got me and my boyfriend in severe trouble, and now we are restricted from communicating. He's 19 and is a furry, and I think that they associate our childish mistake with wanting to engage in kinky activities. Although, that was not our intention, we were just being dumb. But, I'm not sure how to tell them that I don't. I'm scared because they only like me to conform to their views of right and wrong. I don't know what to do.
 
Bloodlust (age 13)
 
* * *
 
Dear Bloodlust,
 
Hmm, well, first of all, if your parents know your furry name this is doing you no big favors. Second, and you will probably not like me for this, 13 is too young to be having a 19-year-old boyfriend, and if I were your dad I would be pretty darn nervous about that little development. Third, I would ask that you try to see things from your parents’ point of view for a little while and understand that they are trying to protect their baby girl. They are not trying to hurt you or impose insensitive rules on you or control your life. They simply care about your well-being. And, yes, that means they would like to see you “conform” to what they feel is right. After all, the only thing people can hold onto is their own sense of morality.
 
Ask yourself this: are your parents good people? Are they kind, and caring, and loving? Do they care about your life and whether or not you do well and are happy? If so, count yourself fortunate, for there are many children in the world who are not as lucky as you are.
 
What I’m trying to do in this reply, in case you don’t see it, is have you look at this situation from your parents’ viewpoint so that you won’t just think they are trying to be controlling and restrictive just to be mean to you.
 
There are many ways to be furry without getting anywhere near the kinky pervy side of it. For example, I would hope that your parents would not object to your seeing a movie like Zootopia. When I was your age, my Zootopia was Disney’s The Jungle Book and Robin Hood. I loved these animated features and watched them multiple times.
 
Bloodlust, let me tell you something here. As much as Papabear loves the fandom and knows that the majority of it has nothing to do with sex, the simple fact is this: the Furry Fandom is a fandom for adults and you, at 13, are not an adult. You might think you are, but you’re not. You’ll get there soon enough, though.
 
Therefore, my suggestion to you is to find ways to indulge your love of anthros that have nothing to do with the furry fandom until you are 18 years old (if your furry friends are into kinky stuff, it would actually be a good idea not to hang out with that crowd—you are too young). That might sound like a long time, but it will fly by. In the meantime! There are many things you can do such as watch furry movies, read comic books (G rated, please), watch TV cartoons, go on a Disneyworld vacation, and even be creative and learn how to draw or write stories.
 
So, Papabear is not going to give you advice on “how to convince my parents to let me be involved in the furry fandom.” The truth is, that ain’t gonna happen. Your parents are in charge of you until you come of age (and, frankly, sometimes beyond that). That is their right as parents. They recognize that the furry fandom is a fandom for sexually adult people (even though many furries themselves do not seem to recognize this). That is the simple fact.
 
Let me put it another way. Imagine there were a movie theater in which ticket buyers do not go into separate rooms where there is just one screen. Instead, there is just one huge room with multiple screens and they are all showing movies. Say 70% of these movies are clean, family-friendly movies, but the other 30% are X-rated films that leave nothing to the imagination. Would you want to go in there? Do your parents have the right to tell you not to go in there? The furry fandom—especially the online fandom—has almost no filters protecting the young from pornography.
 
Many young people believe that they can separate the porn from the G-rated furry stuff. Truth is, you cannot. The fandom has made it all too clear that porn is going to be in your face if you go to furry sites. Oh, sure, you can go to FurAffinity and click the SFW (safe for work) button, and you might even be able to avoid the kinky stuff for a while with some effort, but eventually, inevitably, someone is going to show you a picture of furries having sex.
 
Too many kids in American society are not allowed to just be kids. It’s become incredibly hard since I was your age to avoid images of sex and violence. Papabear does not believe this is healthy for those who are not yet sexually mature. Young people should enjoy some innocent pleasures for a while before they get mixed up in that stuff.
 
After reading the above, you might think Papabear has changed his mind about sex from earlier letters. No, I haven’t. I believe sex is a great thing and that imaginative and playful sex is fun and fulfilling ... for adults, and, I must emphasize, consenting adults.
 
Hon, give yourself a few years to enjoy the innocence of childhood. It goes far too quickly. Don’t rush. And don’t fool yourself into believing that you can avoid sexual imagery in the furry fandom. Finally, be grateful that you have parents who care about and love you enough to be involved in your life.
 
Hugs,
Papabear
 
P.S. Give your parents a hug now and then and tell them you love them. :)

Co-written by Patch and Pup Matthias. Find ‘Fursonas’ on the web and on Twitter.

2016 has been labeled The Year Of Furry.  Disney’s Zootopia is just the start.  There’s a surprising amount of other films to come with anthropomorphic animals. From Kung Fu Panda 3, Ratchet and Clank, The Angry Birds Movie, Secret Life of Pets, Sing, The Boy and The Beast, and TMNT 2 (yes it counts)… there’s a wealth of films for furries to enjoy (or love to hate) this year.

There’s a film apart from those that has surprisingly flown under a lot of people’s radars.  It’s not a big-budget blockbuster, and doesn’t have massive marketing. (With vast differences in “furry movies”, that’s why the headline is just to get your attention.)  Few have talked about it… but for this tiny fandom, it has special quality above any other.

Fursonas is a documentary directed by Dominic Rodriguez.  It looks at the fandom itself, to clear up fuzziness over what it’s about.

Dominic’s idea happened by accident. It started as a senior thesis project while he majored in filmmaking – in Pittsburgh, of course. His friend, Olivia, wanted to produce a documentary and she asked Dominic to direct. The original idea was to do something related to a local children’s hospital, but it never took off. Then Anthrocon 2012 drew notice. Dominic was able to convince his crew to check it out:

“I’d been interested in furry since I was about twelve-years-old. Over the years, I’d felt that no media had really done justice to the wonderful complexity of this community. I always wanted someone to make a good furry documentary, but I never imagined that it would end up being me.

I also should mention that I was a secret furry for the first two years of shooting this documentary. I didn’t tell me crew or the subjects that I had a fursona myself. It was important for me to approach this project as a filmmaker first and as a furry second – putting aside any biases that I had in order to make a good movie. However, I eventually realized that ignoring my bias was impossible and dishonest — so I learned to embrace it.”

 Dominic’s fursona art commissioned for the movie

Some of you might know him better as “Video”. His card-carrying, fursuiting fandom membership sets this movie apart from anything that has tried to involve us without being conceived by us.

In Documentary, there have been many attempts to explore/explain the furry fandom to outsiders.  The most well known is ‘Furries – An Inside Look‘.  Most are very short, and only lightly get into Furry 101, without much deeper philosophy about what furry means or why a person would feel it inside.

If you don’t feel furry, it can be hard to see deeper, let alone know the best starting point.  Is it history, artwork, games, literature, or movies?

There’s not much “canonical” furry media or even definitions in common.  Everyone defines what it means for themselves.  That doesn’t even get into the built-in schism of G-rated vs. yiffy stuff, which is hard to split apart from what people are into.  It’s truly a tough topic to tackle.

Dominic explains his intentions:

“I decided early on that I wanted to focus on fursuiting as my jumping off point for the interviews. Although we all know that you don’t need a suit to be a furry, there is something very meaningful and cinematic about these costumes. Obviously, if you own a fursuit, you’re passionate about the fandom and I wanted to talk to passionate people.

I understand that seeing so many suiters can be a red flag for some in the fandom, because many are worried about misrepresentation. I want to assure furries that the film goes way beyond the spectacle of fursuiting into exploring identity, community, media, and plenty of other things.

In 2012, with the first round of interviews, I felt it was important that the furries feel comfortable more than anything else. I allowed them to steer the conversation however they liked, because I wanted to make a looser, less manipulative film that allowed these people to speak in their own words. Over time, the subjects became more comfortable with me (as I did with them) so I was able to explore much deeper territory and ask more challenging questions.

It was a learning process, for sure. I was figuring it all out as I went along. I didn’t have much of a plan. It was just about getting as many different perspectives on furry as possible.”

Belonging and controversy is part of ‘Fursonas’.  One of its perspectives comes from Boomer The Dog – best known as the man who tried to make that his legal name in court, who makes his fursuit from cut paper. With his famous Dr. Phil interview, Boomer became a topic that leads some Furries to blindly lash out.

Boomer The Dog is a treasure of the community.  There – we said it.  There are countless members with standard ‘sonas and outward “respectability”.  There’s only one Boomer.  He’s harmless, as friendly as a real dog, and marches to his own beat.  Those who don’t know it might miss out on what makes this a fandom like no other.

Dominic addresses controversy:

“When I started this film, I imagined that some furries I would meet on my journey would disprove stereotypes, while others may confirm them. I knew that I didn’t want the film to be a slam piece, but I didn’t want it to be a boring PSA for the fandom either. I wanted it to be real.

Many furries have heard of Boomer The Dog or seen him on TV, but have not taken the time to get to know him. I had the advantage of living a mere 20 minutes away from Boomer, so I knew that if I was going to tell this story that I needed to reach out to him. One of the most common objections I hear about Boomer is that he isn’t a furry. From talking to him for four years, I know that he does indeed self-identify as furry. He also has more insight into the history and philosophy of this community than anyone I’ve ever met.

I’m sure if you’ve only seen Boomer on Dr. Phil or Nat Geo that you will seriously doubt the validity of that claim. I admit, I too was skeptical when I first set foot into his house. In those early days, I didn’t know if he would end up in the movie or on the cutting room floor. All I knew was that I had to talk to him. Today, I am happy to call Boomer a friend and I cannot implore furries enough to open their minds and to give him another chance.”

Fursonas had a long evolution to become a full-fledged feature film.  Daring to accept Boomer was part of the vision that took it to success.

Dominic started the doc as a short 12-minute senior thesis film, but he couldn’t image where it would lead.  Then in 2013, the crew was awarded a 10,000 dollar development grant from The Sprout Fund – a competition supporting short film makers to develop longer work, to nurture the Pittsburgh creative community.  It helped them to keep filming and broaden the scope of the documentary.

In 2014, two of the crew members, Christine Meyer (Editor) and Olivia Vaughn (Producer) became interns at Animal Media Group.  The production house let them edit ‘Fursonas’ at their facility.  After seeing the results, Animal offered to be their official production company for one final year of filming.

It gave Dominic support and resources to bring the film to another level, while keeping true to his original vision.  It led to film festivals:

“We submitted to dozens of film festivals around the world, and Slamdance was the first to accept us. It was an ideal festival for Fursonas because they emphasize real, raw stories from first-time filmmakers as opposed to big celebrities.”

For those not in the know, Slamdance is a big deal.  It focuses on emerging filmmakers and low-budget independent film. Notable names discovered at the festival include Lena Dunham (Girls), Benh Zeitlin (Beasts of the Southern Wild), Oren Peli (Paranormal Activity), and Christopher Nolan.

Not only did Fursonas get accepted into the festival, it was the opening film.  It won a “Spirit of Slamdance award.”  The reception was so positive, that it sold to a mainstream distributor right away.

We're so thrilled that the 1st screened film on our 1st day of #slamdance2016 acquired distribution!! @FursonasDoc https://t.co/VvlXQHEvKM

— Slamdance (@Slamdance) January 23, 2016

To repeat… A documentary about the Furry Fandom, made by a Furry, got to open one of the US’s most sought after film festivals.  It was picked up for distribution shortly afterwards.

It’s not just furry, it’s legit.  It’s both.

Zootopia may be what we want… but Fursonas is the film we need.  It may be minor in comparison to Zootopia’s $150 million budget – but spirit-wise, this is huge. No furry filmmaker has accomplished such a feat. Most do just music video or shorts or con videos. This sets a new bar for the fandom.

It promises a film that both Furries and Non-Furries can not only enjoy, but relate to. Dominic says:

“At Slamdance, the reaction was very positive. We received the Spirit Award for “putting good energy into the festival.” Non-furries tend to find the movie relatable, since it doesn’t sugarcoat the real struggles that the fandom faces in representing itself. That conflict between identity and community isn’t something that’s exclusive to furry–you find it in communities everywhere. I had always hoped that this movie would go beyond that label of “furry documentary” and be something more.

Of course, I’m much more interested to hear what furries will think. Fursonas was intended for both furries and non-furries, but I think that people in this community stand to gain more from the film. There were five furries in the audience at Slamdance, one of whom traveled 300 miles for the screening. All of them responded very well to the film, and I had the pleasure of discussing it at length with them afterward.

If traveling 300 miles is any indication, this fandom is hugely important to a lot of people. I realize that I have a responsibility to do right by furries, and how I do that while still making a film that’s honest and real is something I’ve lost plenty of sleep over. I certainly don’t expect all furries to love what I’ve done, but my hope is that it starts a real conversation in this community.”

The film will have limited screenings in LA, Chicago, and Atlanta.  Follow the movie’s publicity for more information and screenings near you.

Pittsburgh Premiere
March 10, 2016
with a Q&A and special guests!

Los Angeles screening
Sunday, March 20 at 8pm
ArcLight Hollywood

Chicago screening
Wednesday, March 30 at 8pm
ArcLight Chicago

Atlanta screening
Saturday, April 2 at 2:30pm
7 Stages Theatre

“The Atlanta showing is the EXACT SAME WEEKEND AS FWA!! which is an insane stroke of luck!”

News and reviews for the film have been positive:

• Deadline Hollywood: “Gravitas Sews Up Slamdance Furry Subculture Docu ‘Fursonas’”
• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: “Pittsburgh doc on furries finds distributor at Slamdance festival“
• Deadline.com: Slamdance Awards: ‘Million Dollar Duck’ & ‘Fursonas’ Among Indie Winners
• Furry Reddit: “Just saw the premiere of Fursonas at Slamdance!“
• Hollywood Reporter: ‘Fursonas’: Slamdance Review
• Forces of Geek: SLAMDANCE: FURSONAS (review)
• Hammer To Nail: FURSONAS – A Fantasy For All

Dominic is still in awe that his little thesis film has gained such amazing attention. Expect to see it streaming on Netflix or similar places this summer.

“I love that we’re getting a Video On Demand release because it means that furries all over the world will be able to watch the film and be part of this conversation. There will also be much more attention on the non-furry side of things. Whether more attention is a good thing or not will no doubt be endlessly debated. All I can say is that it’s important for me to be able to express myself as a filmmaker and to give other furries a voice.”

Unfurled is back for another night of podcasting. Vox has once more been devoured by the terrible nightshift beast. Tonight the cast discusses laptops vs tablets and Tal's design interests as well as the upcoming us elections. We want to thank Striker Cheguar for becoming our first Patron! You can help us out as well at https://www.patreon.com/unfurled Join us and enjoy the show! Episode -46 - Douche Saddle

Tiki Machine describe themselves as an “Indie/self-publisher featuring children’s books, art books, comics/graphic novels, and secret ancient tiki manuscripts”. Oh. Among the art books are a series of collections that feature different artists and animators illustrating a given topic. One of those is called Monster Mythos: A Folklore Bestiary. “A compilation art book of 50 legendary beasts, fiends and mystical creatures pulled from folklore and legend from the four corners of the world. Beautifully brought to life and interpreted by 18 animators and illustrators, whose hope is that the stories within will bring the same wonder and inspiration as they have for countless generations. Introduction by Dead of Night creator Dick Grunert.” You can pick it up over at Abe Books.

image c. 2016 Tiki Machine

A day before we head off to see Zootopia we pull up some not so silly news articles and make them silly.

Download MP3

Watch Video Media Discovery:

• Google Photos inside Zootopia
• Cyber Awareness Challange
• Zootopia animator wants fursuit pictures
• Radiolab special on “what is natural”

News:

• [a][j] The furry experience, statistical analysis
• Mother Warns About Seeds From ‘Suicide Trees’ After Death Of 22-Year-Old
• Lion, Tiger and Bear become best friends
• Homemade, cardboard license plate lands NY woman in jail
• Is it time to drop the T from LGBTQ?

Emails:

• Kashmir the Lynx – “Furry Etiquette? Need some advice on this…”
• LCR – “Fursuits computers and kickstarter Oh My”
• SketchyGenet – “Deer Lord”
• Nyan – “Meeting local furs in the Bay Area… without the internet?”
• Neon the Bat Angel Dragon – I need some help

FC-229 Truth Or Death - A day before we head off to see Zootopia we pull up some not so silly news articles and make them silly.

A day before we head off to see Zootopia we pull up some not so silly news articles and make them silly.

Download MP3

Watch Video Media Discovery:

• Google Photos inside Zootopia
• Cyber Awareness Challange
• Zootopia animator wants fursuit pictures
• Radiolab special on “what is natural”

News:

• [a][j] The furry experience, statistical analysis
• Mother Warns About Seeds From ‘Suicide Trees’ After Death Of 22-Year-Old
• Lion, Tiger and Bear become best friends
• Homemade, cardboard license plate lands NY woman in jail
• Is it time to drop the T from LGBTQ?

Emails:

• Kashmir the Lynx – “Furry Etiquette? Need some advice on this…”
• LCR – “Fursuits computers and kickstarter Oh My”
• SketchyGenet – “Deer Lord”
• Nyan – “Meeting local furs in the Bay Area… without the internet?”
• Neon the Bat Angel Dragon – I need some help

FC-229 Truth Or Death - A day before we head off to see Zootopia we pull up some not so silly news articles and make them silly.

A day before we head off to see Zootopia we pull up some not so silly news articles and make them silly.

Download MP3

Watch Video Media Discovery:

• Google Photos inside Zootopia
• Cyber Awareness Challange
• Zootopia animator wants fursuit pictures
• Radiolab special on “what is natural”

News:

• [a][j] The furry experience, statistical analysis
• Mother Warns About Seeds From ‘Suicide Trees’ After Death Of 22-Year-Old
• Lion, Tiger and Bear become best friends
• Homemade, cardboard license plate lands NY woman in jail
• Is it time to drop the T from LGBTQ?

Emails:

• Kashmir the Lynx – “Furry Etiquette? Need some advice on this…”
• LCR – “Fursuits computers and kickstarter Oh My”
• SketchyGenet – “Deer Lord”
• Nyan – “Meeting local furs in the Bay Area… without the internet?”
• Neon the Bat Angel Dragon – I need some help

[Live] Truth Or Death - A day before we head off to see Zootopia we pull up some not so silly news articles and make them silly.

A day before we head off to see Zootopia we pull up some not so silly news articles and make them silly.

Download MP3

Watch Video Media Discovery:

• Google Photos inside Zootopia
• Cyber Awareness Challange
• Zootopia animator wants fursuit pictures
• Radiolab special on “what is natural”

News:

• [a][j] The furry experience, statistical analysis
• Mother Warns About Seeds From ‘Suicide Trees’ After Death Of 22-Year-Old
• Lion, Tiger and Bear become best friends
• Homemade, cardboard license plate lands NY woman in jail
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Emails:

• Kashmir the Lynx – “Furry Etiquette? Need some advice on this…”
• LCR – “Fursuits computers and kickstarter Oh My”
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• Neon the Bat Angel Dragon – I need some help

FC-229 Truth Or Death - A day before we head off to see Zootopia we pull up some not so silly news articles and make them silly.

For March, our Book of the Month feature spotlights two books devoted to fantastic felines. The first, Cats and More Cats, is the latest anthology from editor Fred Patten and features authors from the fandom and beyond:

The not-so-humble feline has fascinated mankind for generations. From the noble jungle hunter, to the witch’s familiar, to the stray on the back porch meowing to be let in, cats have snuck into our hearts and dreams for as long as mankind has made homes. They have become our companions, and we tell stories about their secret lives and the strange magic they might possess.

This is a collection of those stories, gathering some of the best fantasy and science fiction stories featuring our feline friends, from authors like Clare Bell, Mary E. Lowd, Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, Bryan Derksen, Lawrence Watt-Evans, James M. Ward, and Renee Carter Hall. These fourteen stories will give you a glimpse into the world of cats, and leave you wanting more.

Trouble by P. M. Griffin
Bomber and the Bismarck by Clare Bell
… But a Glove by John E. Johnston III
Born Again by Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
Masters and Students by Bryan Derksen
Trixie by Lawrence Watt-Evans
Destiny by Kristine Kathryn Rusch
Three-Inch Trouble by Andre Norton
Defender of the Small by Jody Lynn Nye
The Luck of the Dauntless by James M. Ward
After Tony’s Fall by Jean Rabe
Magtwilla and the Mouse by Mary E. Lowd
A Spoiled Rotten Cat Lives Here by Dusty Rainbolt
The Emerald Mage by Renee Carter Hall
Furry Fandom and Cats by Fred Patten
A Bibliography for Bast by Fred Patten

Parental rating G. Available from FurPlanet.

 

The second book, The Necromouser and Other Magical Cats, features a variety of cat-themed stories from Mary E. Lowd, including four that appear for the first time in this collection:

An angry cat who discovers the techno-mystical ability to raise mice from the dead…

A starving kitten who discovers a secret hidden in the San Francisco bay…

A witch’s cat, a scientist’s cat, and a cat who recognizes no owner…

In this collection, follow the adventures of the beloved tabby cat Shreddy as he faces off with zombies, ghosts, gryphons, foolhardy dogs, and all sorts of household appliances.

Then meet a series of cats whose stories will take you from heartbreak to joy, showing the magic in our own world through the reflection of a cat’s eyes.

Necromouser contains four all new stories and five Ursa Major nominated stories, including “Shreddy and the Carnivorous Plant.”

Contains the following stories by Mary Lowd:

The Necromouser
Shreddy and the Zomb-dogs
Shreddy and the Silver Egg
Shreddy and the Christmas Ghost
Shreddy and the Dancing Dragon
Shreddy and the Carnivorous Plant
Songs of Fish and Flowers
Katelynn the Mythic Mouser
The Wharf Cat’s Mermaid
Magtwilla and the Mouse
Cold Tail and the Eyes
All the Cats of the Rainbow
In a Cat’s Eyes

Parental rating G. Available in print from FurPlanet and as an ebook from Bad Dog Books.

 

(The editor of this blog wishes to call attention to the fact that she did not use a single cat-related pun in this post. You’re welcome.)

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

The Art of Zootopia, by Jessica Julius. Preface by John Lasseter. Foreword- Byron Howard, Rich Moore.
San Francisco, CA, Chronicle Books, March 2016, hardcover $40.00 (160 pages), Kindle $16.19.

Here it is! The coffee-table animation-art book that you’ve been waiting for! Note that the blurb says, “This lushly illustrated book offers a behind-the-scenes view of the elaborate artistry involved in creating the film.” The villain is revealed, but if you want the film’s story in detail, get Disney’s Zootopia Junior Noveliation.

The Art of Zootopia presents 160 pages of Zootopia artwork in closeup detail, with commentary by the Disney staff. There are not only finished designs, there are preliminary sketches and models showing early designs that were discarded.

“In an early iteration of the film, prey animals were dominant in Zootopia, so the motifs used in buildings reflected ther reality. We used vegetable patterns, leaf shapes, and flower murals in the architecture. –Dave Goetz, production designer” (p. 21).

“In early versions of the story, this division was overt, with prey animals exploiting their strength in numbers to dominate predators, who were forced to wear collars that prevented accidental expressions of their natural aggression.” (p. 28)

Preliminary designs of Nick Wilde the fox show him wearing such a collar. There are almost a dozen designs of Nick showing him with more or fewer whiskers, dressed or in just fur and in different colors of fur, dressed suavely like a debonair secret agent or casually as he was finalized. Judy Hopps the bunny is shown from tan to gray fur, “bald” or with a prominent cowlick.

“A World Designed by Animals” (pages 15-25) describes what a civilization designed by animals of widely different sizes would look like. Actually, the Disney staff concedes that they built an animal city for land mammals alone. The challenge of trying to make it fit avians and marine mammals like dolphins and whales was too daunting. Zootopia is referred to as both a city and as a world, but they admit that, theoretically, there are avian civilizations “out there somewhere”.

“The Animals of Zootopia” (pages 26 to 41) is actually just Judy and Nick, in detail.

“Zootoopian Habitats” (pages 42 to 149) covers the rest of Zootopia and its suburbs, from rural Bunnyburrow and Judy Hopps’ family to downtown Zootopia with its City Hall and Police Headquarters. The movie’s supporting chacters such as Mayor Lionheart and Police Chief Bogo are here. This section of the book is large because all the divisions of Zootopia are shown: Bunnyborough, Savannah Central, Little Rodentia, Sahara Square, Tundratown, the Rainforest District, and so on.

Matthias Lechner, Digital

I wouldn’t want to accuse this book of containing errors, but Bunnyborough’s Woodlands Elementary School is described on pages 54 and 55. Its animal children are “woodland creatures like bunnies, squirrels, deer, and bears”. Bears may be woodland creatures, but they do not fit with prey animals like bunnies and squirrels. Worse, the book shows that the students include juvenile elephants, tigers, hippopotamuses, and leopard children. ???

“Filming Zootopia” (pages 150 to 158) includes location reference photographs, closeups of different types of animal fur, and colorscripts which are the latest evolution of storyboards.

As with other coffee-table animation art books of this sort, each rough or finished sketch, background painting, poster, architectural layout, vehicle designed to fit a specific animal physique, and so on is identified to its artist: Brett Albert, Manu Arenas, Dale Baer, Marty Baumann, Jim Finn, Mac George, David Goetz, Shiyoon Kim, Matthias Lechner, Cory Loftis, Borja Montoro, Nick Orsi, Armand Serrano, and many others. Almost all of the art is in color, with a few black-&-white sketches or storyboards. There are also many quotes by department heads.

“We couldn’t use leather, so the belt on Hopps’s uniform is made out of Kevlar, with heavy nylon pouches. The rest of her uniform is neoprene so that she will be comfortable in all the types of weather and condition of Zootopia. – Cory Loftis, art director of characters” (p. 32)

“Trains in Zootopia are multi-scaled for animals of different sizes, with the biggest windows up top and smaller windows at bottom, and little seats underneath the larger seats. Since the Bunnyburrough train station is built for small animals, it only serves the bottom part of the train. –Matthias Lechnr, art director of environments” (p. 48)

Cory Loftis, (Draw Over) Digital

“There are multiple animal species in Zootopia, and each species’ fur has its own specific color, lighting, shape and texture. The uniqueness of each animal was a great challenge to us. –Michelle Robinson, character look supervisor” (p. 148)

The overall text is by Jessica Julius, a senior creative executive at Walt Disney Animation Studios.

The Art of Zootopia is for those who are more than casual fans of the film. It is for those who want to know more about how the world of Zootopia was designed; why some choices were made and others rejected. See the movie, then read the book.

(An intriguing detail is that “Zootopia began as all feature films do at Walt Disney Animation Studios: as one of several different ideas pitched by a director to chief creative officer John Lasseter and president Ed Catmull. In the case of Zootopia, director Byron Howard […] pitched six ideas, including […] a 1960s B-movie-style story about a six-foot-tall mad doctor cat on a deserted island who turned children into animals […]” (p. 9) The sample described of “The Island of Doctor Meow” sounds like a cross between The Island of Dr. Moreau and the Pleasure Island sequence in Pinocchio. I’m glad that they ended up making Zootopia, but I’d still like to see “The Island of Doctor Meow”.)

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Amazon
• Zootopia Trailer

What makes for the best fursuit track? In our first episode of the new season, BCBreakaway and Huscoon call in to give their take on crafting a fursuit track and the best way for a fursuiter to get the most out of a convention experience.

Metadata and Credits Fursuiting!

Runtime: 37:28m

Cast: Wolfin, Levi, Huscoon, BCBreakaway

Editor: Wolfin

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 @chipfoxx, CC BY-SA 4.0

 

Fursuiting! w/ Huscoon and BCBreakaway - What makes for the best fursuit track? In our first episode of the new season, BCBreakaway and Huscoon call in to give their take on crafting a fursuit track and the best way for a fursuiter to get the most out of a convention experience.

Here’s what they say: “For five years, readers have looked at the Action Lab Entertainment logo and wondered, “Who is that dog with the jet pack?” Wonder no more! The story you never thought would be told is now an ongoing monthly title as Action Lab: Dog of Wonder comes to comic book shelves everywhere! With art by the Princeless: Raven, The Pirate Princess team of Rosy Higgins and Ted Brandt and a story by Stray co-creator Vito Delsante and newcomer Scott Fogg, this is the title for young and old alike!” We see the pitch now: “It’s a dog! With a jet pack!” See the variant covers and several sample pages over at First Comics News.

image c. 2016 Action Lab

Hello Everyone!

Tonight we talk about you again. If episode seven is about loving yourself, this episode is about accepting the darker, less fun parts of yourself and how to ensure you are not self-sabotaging your relationship. It's about accepting yourself-- faults and all-- and moving forward in life. It's a tricky subject, but we'll get through it together!

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

Thanks and, as always, be well!

FA 008 Owning Your Sh*t - How do you take ownership of your emotional baggage

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

Secrets of Bearhaven, Book One, by K. E. Rocha. Illustrated by Ross Dearsley.
NYC, Scholastic Press, January 2016, hardcover $14.99 (242 [+4] pages), Kindle $9.24.

Here is the first novel in another talking-animal series for 8-to-12s. 11-year-old Spencer Plain has grown up immersed in bears. His parents, Shane and Jane Plain (well, some parents do give their children goofy names), are bear activists; wildlife specialists devoted to bears and founders of Paws for Peace. They know all about bears and have taught Spencer all about them. They give presentations on bears to the public. But Spencer has never lived with bears – not in nature, or in a secret bear civilization in the forest; a high-tech society where the bears have communicators around their necks that translate their growls into English. He has never imagined working with bears to rescue his parents from human villains.

The book begins at a breakneck pace:

“Roooaaaaaarrr!

Spencer Plain raced through the forest, his heart pounding. He dodged trees and skidded across patches of slick moss, trying desperately not to fall. Now was not the time to fall.

There was a bear behind him.” (p. 1)

Or this:

“‘What’s going on, Uncle Mark?’ Spencer said, his voice coming out too high and a little shaky. ‘I talked to Mom and Dad this morning, and they were fine.’ It was one o’clock now. How could so much have changed in only seven hours?

‘Same here,’ said Uncle Mark, slowing the car to idle at a red light. ‘But then I got a message from your mom around eleven, and I haven’t been able to get in touch since.’

‘What kind of message?’ Spencer asked. He looked out the window, trying to get his bearings, but they were stopped at an intersection in an unfamiliar neighborhood in the middle of a long stretch of brownstones. None of them offered any clues.

‘Your parents made an important plan a long time ago, Spence. Your mom’s message today was that I should put that plan in motion …’ The light turned green and Uncle Mark shifted into gear, quickly pulling ahead of a garbage truck. ‘So here we are. In motion.’

‘What important plan?’

‘I’m taking you to a safe place,’ Uncle Mark answered.” (pgs. 10-12)

I don’t want to just quote lots of the suspenseful scenes that happen when Uncle Mark tells Spencer to run and keep running without explaining why, but there are over a dozen pages of them. Then there’s Bearhaven, the bears’ secret community filled with super-technology. The translator, glowing green around the bears’ necks, is a BEAR-COM – a Battery-Enabled Animal Reinterpreting and Communication device. (Didn’t we see something very like this with dogs in Pixar’s 2009 animated feature Up?) There’s a hologram looking like empty air masking the entrance to the bears’ home. They travel by TUBE – Transcontinental Underground Bear Expressway. They have human names, like Kate Dora Weaver, a cute little black bear cub who decorates her BEAR-COM with pink heart-shaped crystals; and the huge Fred Crossburger who leads other bears in exercise classes.

After describing the marvels of Bearhaven at length – the juvenile bears have their own video games about catching salmon — the plot gets moving once again. Spencer’s parents often went on long trips throughout the world to investigate reports of bear abuse, and to rescue the bears if necessary. Over the years they found allies, learned how to communicate with the bears, and they and the bears built Bearhaven together as a secret home where rescued bears could recuperate. Some of the bears have made permanent homes there, raised families, and created a bear community. The Plains and Bearhaven’s leaders also gradually realized that many of the incidents of bear abuse were connected. At the same time, those behind the network of bear abusers grew aware of the Plains’ organization as a threat to be eliminated. The bear abuser network is better-organized than the Plains’ group realized, and they made the mistake of underestimating them.

“Mr. Bee [a bear] cleared his throat. ‘To explain,’ he began formally, straightening the blue-and-silver-striped tie around his neck. Definitely a principal. ‘At the top of this ‘network of bear abuse,’ someone is implanting bears with microchips. Once implanted, the bears can be controlled physically, and, we suspect, mentally. Shane and Jane – pardon me, your parents – have made progress toward uncovering exactly who is behind the microchiping. At the time of your father’s capture, they were working to understand the motivation and technology behind the control.’” (p. 93)

When Bearhaven’s Bear Council (including Uncle Mark) won’t let Spencer join their current bear rescue mission (which may also lead to his captured father) because he’s too young and untrained, Kate offers to train him in Bear Stealth and other bear tactics. Spencer’s perseverance gets him onto the mission; an operative, just like a secret agent. They’re supposed to rescue a captured bear from a small Southern carnival that is using her in a bear baying show. But:

“‘I’ve got a bad feeling, Mark. Something’s off. And I mean more off than a bear baying. There’s more there than we realized, I’m sure of it.’” (p. 169)

Spencer’s first specific antagonists are cruel Margo Lalicki and her brutish brother Ivan, but they’re only low-level members of the network. Spencer is instrumental in beating them and making the rescue mission a success; with his next mission coming in Book Two.

This Book One is good light entertainment for older kids and undemanding furry fans. Kristin Rocha uses loaded language, as in this description of a large screen monitor showing Margo Lalicki:

“Goose bumps rose on his [Spencer’s] arms, and the back of his neck prickled. Who is she? Her expression was stony, her muddy brown eyes cold and ringed in dark circles, making her look hollowed out. Her hair hung straggly and thin around her bony face, blond, but greenish, too, as if her own hair was nauseated from having to be attached to such a creepy-looking person.” (pgs. 88-89)

This book is loaded with full-page illustrations by Ross Dearsley in black-&-white that are in full color in Scholastic Press’ 30-second promotional “movie”. There is “bear information”, some real such as the collective term for bears, a sleuth of bears, and the name for a mother bear, a sow bear; and some fictional, like Ragayo, the bears’ language. The book looks shoddy, though, with cheap binding and low-grade paper, implying that most sales are expected to be of the Kindle edition. Ross Dearsley’s cover shows Spencer, Kate, and B.D., the leader of Bearhaven’s Bear Guard.

– Fred Patten

• Buy on Indie Bound

Click here for our interactive species popularity vs age visualization.

Visualization by Ruxley. Species and age data taken from the 2015 Furry Survey. click through for the interactive version.