Flight's actually tomorrow, but I'm packed and already over at my parents so I figure "why not start the blog travelogue?" As before, I don't know if I will be able to keep it up but let's see! If not, I'll switch to note-taking and update post-fact.
The trip is to Latvia (and a little of France.) The flight over is in three parts: one small 'n short one first, then a 4-hour layover in Detroit (*snap* KEVLAR! I knew I forgot to pack something!), and then it's off to Amsterdam on an 8 hour f
I love the Furry Fandom. I love how weird, crazy, silly, creative, and open-minded the fandom is. Just like how every other fandom says they’re weird, crazy, silly, creative, and open-minded. But in all seriousness, I do appreciate what the fandom is and what it keeps trying to do. I am indebted to the Furry Fandom. My life would not be where it is today because of it. If I had any regrets in life, one of them would be to wish I knew about the fandom earlier so I could spend more years exploring
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Persimmon Takes On Humanity, by Christopher Locke
Los Angeles, CA, Fathoming Press, February 2015, trade paperback $14.95 (477 pages), Kindle $1.99.
Persimmon Takes On Humanity is blatantly a didactic novel. But it’s a powerful one. In its first few pages Persimmon, a happy-go-lucky raccoon; Scraps, Persimmon’s younger brother; her reluctant best friend Derpoke the opossum; and Rawly, an arrogant rival raccoon dare each other
So my presence will be lacking over the next week or so. Quite a few coworkers have taken vacation all at the same fucking time so I'm left to pick up the slack since I have no life. Imagine that.
Also, there was a massive brush fire nearby my home that started Sunday afternoon, and went straight to hell the next day. So when I'm not working I've been on fire watch due to the still smoldering ashes after the blaze was finally "contained". That hopefully shouldn't last another day if it rain
48 Hills: 50-year-old gay bar The Stud faces closure as rent triples
SFist.com: Saving The Stud
HUGE 4 part interview about Frolic with it’s founder, Neonbunny.
Pic by Loco
The future is as dim as the lighting at The Stud, one of San Francisco’s most loved dive/gay bars. The property is being swept up in a wave of real estate speculation and gentrification that shows no sign of ebbing. Some luminaries of local culture are just treading water, while many are sinking under. They just can’t
It's almost time for my vacation! Two and a half weeks away from work; a break I sorely need. I'll be going on a trip to Latvia with my parents and siblings. We're going to see the old country! My father's parents emigrated from there just before the WWII came to the country (in fact, my grandmother's apartment was apparently shelled not long after). Going to see some sights and try to reconnect with the past and some long-lost relatives. That will be the majority of the trip, though the tail en
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
The Lottery – Furry, by Karen Ranney
Seattle, WA, CreateSpace, April 2016, trade paperback $9.95 (232 pages), Kindle $2.99.
This book seems to have drifted in to this furry review site by mistake. Despite its title, and its label as Book 1 of The Furry Chronicles trilogy, it’s a werewolf novel – or more precisely a woman’s paranormal romance novel.
That’s probably natural since Karen Ranney is a New York Times and USA Today b
Anthrocon is coming! Where Furries far and wide come together to hang out, make friends, attend panels, dance, drink too much alcohol, and spend way too much money. I am so jealous of you guys. Stupid adult responsibilities keeping me away from all the fluffies. And the fine Fluffer Nutters at Furplanet have not 1, not 5, not 12, but 24 books debuting at AC. A combination of novels, anthologies, comics, and art books from a who’s who of writers and artist.
We at Dogpatch Press now present to yo
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Gods With Fur, Edited by Fred Patten, Cover by Teagan Gavet
Dallas, TX, FurPlanet Productions, $19.95 (453 Pages)
Fred Patten’s newest anthology, Gods with Fur, will go on sale at Anthrocon 2016 at the end of this month. Published by FurPlanet Productions, the trade paperback book contains 23 original stories by Kyell Gold, Mary E. Lowd, Michael H. Payne, and more, featuring the gods of anthropomorphic worlds and the anthropom
Their secret seal- get it on a shirt.
All hail Uncle Kage, Dark Lord and Master of Furry fandom… nah, he’s just one very visible and committed fan who wants to set an example for how to run a good con. The real power is with many con leaders who form a shadowy, secret cabal whose name cannot be spoken.
They’re watching me. (JL Martello/ New Pittsburgh Courier)
It’s called the Furry Convention Leadership Roundtable. And now I’m in biiiiig trouble.
I’m sharing a big list of cons below. C
Co written by Patch and Fred Patten.
Happy Pride month! Check out this short animation, Flamingo Pride. It screened in the 2012 annual Animation Show of Shows, an international touring festival. Read on about why the festival deserves your attention, and what this means to furries.
Ron Diamond, producer of The Animation Show of Shows, contacted Fred Patten:
The 2016 Animation Show of Shows will be the 18th annual edition. Fred has previously reviewed it for various animation websites (h
Art by Boilerroo
“What Is Furry Music?” It’s a topic that Rakuen Growlithe started on Flayrah. It can be music with furry themes, or music made by (or even popular with) furries, or both.
Rakuen dismissed much of the latter kind for not being furry enough. I don’t think that’s quite fair. Consider overlap with rave scenes and gaming. Music related to those things can carry furry culture or spirit without animal themes built in. Music has context – it even matters where you go for it (ya
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
The Art of Finding Dory. Preface by John Lasseter. Foreword by Andrew Stanton. Intro by Steve Pilcher.
San Francisco, CA, Chronicle Books, May 2016, hardcover $40.00 (176 pages), Kindle $17.49.
Here is another “all about” coffee-table art book about the making of a high-profile animated feature: Disney/Pixar’s Finding Dory, the sequel to the studio’s 2003 award-winning Finding Nemo, released on June 17, 2016.
But this is abou
SCALE is one of my favorite furry artists. Let me suggest that most furry art deals with somewhat kitschy subject matter – not that there’s anything wrong with that. (If I said there was, it could be like saying that cartoons are just for kids, but they’re not.) I’m just saying that in the world at large, furry art is considered “low” art. Scale’s art defies that expectation.
He accomplishes the weird trick of rendering classical figure paintings that manage to be super hot. It’s a cool, th
It happened to Lake Peigneur in Louisiana on November 20, 1980.
"The drilling crew, who had wisely abandoned the tilting rig, watched in amazement from ashore as their 150-foot derrick disappeared into a lake that was less than ten feet deep."
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Spirit Hunters. Book 2: The Open Road, by Paul Kidd. Illustrated.
Raleigh, NC, Lulu.com/Perth, Western Australia, Kitsune Press, May 2016, trade paperback $25.84 (395 pages), Kindle $7.99.
Spirit Hunters. Book 1: The Way of the Fox was published in September 2014, and reviewed here in January 2015. It contains the first three Encounters of about a hundred pages each. I said that, “Spirit Hunters is set in the realm of traditio
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Insect Dreams: The Half Life of Gregor Samsa, by Marc Estrin.
NYC, Penguin Putnam/BlueHen Books, February 2002, hardcover $26.95 (468 [+1] pages), Kindle $13.99.
Estrin’s fantasy is not so much a sequel to The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka (1915) as an unauthorized variation or continuation of it. It is witty and erudite, but it will never replace Kafka’s original novella.
In Kafka’s classic, Gregor Samsa is a young fabric sal
After the shooting tragedy at Pulse in Orlando, claims came out that a fellow furry named “Kodakoda Coyote” was among the victims. I thought, how sad… people need to hear. I did basic checking and saw a FurAffinity account for that name. There was no content but the name was 4 years old and not obviously recent. It was filling with comments of sympathy from other furs.
The original claims came from two places at the same time. (1) A tweet from “SebastianLoFR” and (2) a Reddit comment from “
See The Raccoon’s Den on Youtube. Thanks to Bandit and Pup Matthias for collaborating on this special guest article.
When I say the word ‘creator’ in the furry fandom, what do you think of? Mostly likely you would think of artist, writers, musicians, animators, game developers, fursuit makers, etc. One type that doesn’t cross most people’s minds are video creators. There are examples like EZ Wolf and Duke the Dog with their shorts and music videos, Culturally F’d with their educational vid
Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Florida, was the scene of a national tragedy in the early AM hours of June 12. News has spread far and wide about this worst mass shooting in US history. 50 or more lives were taken at a gay club, which is especially meaningful to many during Pride month. You’ll see a sea of rememberances at the celebrations everywhere.
Their event happened to be a Latin night, and comments to the Facebook page for Pulse mention that the event was shared by more than gay pe
Submitted by Fred Patten, Furry’s favorite historian and reviewer.
Timbuktu; A Novel, by Paul Auster.
NYC, Henry Holt and Co., May 1999, hardcover $22.00 (181 pages).
It can be argued that Timbuktu is the opposite of an anthropomorphic novella. It is about a dog, Mr. Bones, whose beloved human companion, the pseudonymous Willy B. Christmas, a homeless East Coast “street poet” is dying. Timbuktu does an excellent job of portraying the despairing thoughts of a mostly unanthropomorphized but exa
