Turns out yesterday’s entry wasn’t the only peacock-centric illustrated book we found at the L.A. Times Festival of Books. Peacocks are known for their beautiful feathers, not for their beautiful voices — but what if there was a peacock who actually could sing? What would their fellows think about it? That’s the premise of The Unique Beak, written by singer/songwriter Estani Frizzell and illustrated in watercolor by Sophia Frizzell. “Sai is a kind young peacock who lives with his royal family. He has brilliant blue tail feathers that any regal peacock would be proud of — and Sai loves to sing! But his family laughs at that idea, and at him! They say his beak is too big while making fun of his singing voice. Saddened by their ridicule, Sai finally vows never to sing in front of anyone again! He hides himself away and doubts his dreams. Will he take their criticism to heart? Will he give up? Estani Frizzell’s spirited and unique story shows children how just one special friend’s support can make a difference in carrying us where our talents are meant to take us.” Available now from Greenleaf Book Group.
FurBid domain troubles: resolved?
Posted by Aatheus on Sat 23 Feb 2002 - 00:17Hiya everyfur
I have been informed by my registrar that the .ws namespace experienced some problems last night, resulting in a bunch of domain names being redirected to Under Construction pages instead of the correct IP addresses. Furbid.ws appears to be back online, for the
most part; the correct IP address has propagated again. Please let me know if you're still getting that Under Construction page. Contact address: aatheus@transfur.com
I've extended any auctions that would have closed during the domain name downtime. Let me reiterate: the furbid.ws disappearence was in no way related to FurBid's server or connectivity. Nic.ws screwed up our record's propagated data.
If you're still having trouble accessing FurBid, http://furbid.transform.to is still online, or you can access directly via IP (http://198.137.201.181). I apologize for their screwup.
Megaplex Gaming announces March 1 deadline for gaming submissions
Posted by Draconis on Thu 21 Feb 2002 - 16:46The gaming department of Pawpet Megaplex has announced the deadline of March 1st. Pre-register by March 1st and agree to run 10 hours of gaming to get free admission to the con!
Cows want to be free!
Posted by Teko on Wed 20 Feb 2002 - 14:14On Saturday, a cow broke free of its slaughterhouse pen, somehow climbed an eight foot fence, and has eluded Cincinnati police since that time. They've used night scopes, helicopter surveillance, and thermal imaging, but to no avail. The cow has even foiled traps set around the city, taking the bait and running.
The Tao of the Coca-Cola Polar Bears
Posted by Rigel on Wed 20 Feb 2002 - 13:06From The Independant:
Polar bears get away with a lot because they're so nicely dressed. Apparently they're every bit as grumpy as grizzlies. You wouldn't want to leave your children near them because they'd probably be eaten in seconds.
But polar bears are good in commercials, so their private life has been hushed up by the studio publicity machine. In advertising, bears are winsome and funny. In the Coca-Cola commercial – the latest in a campaign that's been running for several years now, on and off – the polar bears are great family people too. These bears – Mum, Dad and three cubs – live in a spacey blue-white right world, like the moon with added snow, round a pool with pixilated currents. The computer animation is so sophisticated that their white fur ripples and shines convincingly. You can see every hair, just as if they'd been using an expensive Victorian hair oil.
For the full story, click here:
http://news.independent.co.uk/business/news/story.jsp?story=120387
SuperCroc!
Posted by KT on Wed 20 Feb 2002 - 11:05The Houston Chronicle printed an article today (which I can't seem to find on their website) about a recently discovered prehistoric crocodilian, dubbed SuperCroc. It lived 110 million years ago, could grow as much as 40 feet long, and it ate dinosaurs! There's a website about it here.
"Schnozz," from the producer of "Shrek"
Posted by Rigel on Wed 20 Feb 2002 - 09:55From Yahoo News:
NEW YORK (Variety) - "Shrek" producer John H. Williams will develop a computer-animated feature based on "Schnozz," a British cartoon canine romp.
The picture concerns a crossbreed mutt and the coterie of rejected animals he meets as he attempts to follow in the footsteps of his famous police dog father. "Schnozz" was created by U.K. illustrator and character designer Gary Chapman and written by Jordan Katz.
The project marks one of the first to be developed by Williams' Vanguard Animation after it recently secured a $100 million indie production fund. Williams just produced the Jackie Chan picture "The Tuxedo" at DreamWorks.
Chapman designed the characters and story for "Junk," an animated musical in development at Warner Bros., and he designed the characters for Vanguard's upcoming production "Valiant," a parody of "Top Gun" portraying carrier pigeons serving in WWII Europe. Katz's credits include "Assault on Norway," a WWII thriller set up at DreamWorks.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=600&u=/nm/20020215/film_nm/film_schnozz_dc_1
The Lion King 3 And More Disney Sequels
Posted by Rigel on Tue 19 Feb 2002 - 13:35Yahoo News reveals more Disney sequels and their profitability factor, including The Lion King 3, Tarzan 2, Piglet's Big Movie (The Tigger Movie sequel), and Mulan 2 & 3 among others.
At least they're making more talking animal movies...
Follow the link below:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020219/film_nm/film_disney_dc_1&cid=600
Google's Furry Olympic Logos
Posted by Trickster on Mon 18 Feb 2002 - 19:23Google (www.google.com), one of the most popular search engines, has been changing its logo daily in tribute to the Winter Olympics. Each new logo shows one or more cute anthropomorphic critters of different species engaged in a variety competitive winter sports. (Today, a foxmorph does the ski-jump.)
It was cute the first time, but...
Posted by MelSkunk on Sun 17 Feb 2002 - 13:10You might remember the last time we reported on a lioness caring for a baby antelope, who was later eaten by another lion.
Well, it's happened again. She's found ANOTHER oryx, and is caring for it. Experts are much more worried this time because the mother of the baby cannot nurse it (it's understandibly terrified of the lion pride). The lioness is protecting the new baby so well that not only are other lions not able to steal it, humans can't take it away to give it some food. If this continues, it will likely starve in the next day or two.
Get rid of that stupid dog and those meddling kids!
Posted by Rigel on Sun 17 Feb 2002 - 10:26Text from cartoonresearch.com:
A petition to get rid of SCOOBY DOO!
Think the CARTOON NETWORK runs too much SCOOBY DOO?
Here's your chance to be heard. Petition Online.com has a "Request for the Reduction of "Scooby-Doo" Programming".
It may be too late - with a live action feature film due this spring, a new animated series in production for this fall - and more direct-to-video movies in production (not to mention Scooby's continued high ratings on Cartoon Network) - someone out there must like the show.
If you've had enough Scooby Snacks to last a lifetime, click here to sign your name to this petition.
Zoinks!
Jungle Book II, Dumbo II
Posted by Rigel on Sat 16 Feb 2002 - 13:23Money is money. References are made to further sequels to Disney classics in the works in this article from Yahoo, which also covers the mouse's other recent animated forays:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=493&u=/ap/20020213/ap_en_mo/wkd_disney_sequels_2
The Baltimore Oriole cartoon
Posted by Rigel on Sat 16 Feb 2002 - 10:08From animationblast.com:
Get Ready For The Fun Bird. Baseball's Baltimore Orioles will be adding a cartoon logo to their uniform and jacket sleeves for the 2002 season, the club announced yesterday. The character, called the "Fun Bird," was created in 1997 for the Orioles' "Dugout Club" kids program. Fun Bird was designed by Ken Mitchroney, an animation artist who has many TV credits and was a story artist on TOY STORY II and MONSTERS INC. So to all you out-of-work animators, here's a new potentially lucrative line of work: sports team cartoon characters. Think of all the possibilities - MLB, NHL, NBA, NFL, and all those minor league teams too...
M-I-C-K-E-Y M-A-Y-O-R
Posted by Rigel on Fri 15 Feb 2002 - 20:06Text from animationblast.com:
The 73- year-old mayor of Hurricane, West Virginia is a Mickey Mouse fan...make that a BIG MICKEY MOUSE FAN. For starters, he's got a Mickey lamp, stapler, clock and tissue box on his office desk and over a dozen Mickey watches. Read the CHARLESTON DAILY MAIL for all the mousy details.
A healthy breakfast of Mickey
Posted by Rigel on Fri 15 Feb 2002 - 12:08From Yahoo News:
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Cereal giant Kellogg Co. is relying on a little magic from Walt Disney to help counter a slump in U.S. cereal sales.
Kellogg, the country's No. 2 maker of breakfast cereal, unveiled Wednesday three new cereals based on Disney characters Mickey Mouse, Winnie the Pooh and Buzz Lightyear from ``Toy Story.''
For the full article:
http://in.news.yahoo.com/020214/14/1gdun.html
Coyote boards Portland's MAX
Posted by Baloo_Ursidae on Fri 15 Feb 2002 - 11:19Both links have pictures of the coyote aboard the train.
http://www.tri-met.org/pressrel/prfeb0203.htm
PORTLAND - An unexpected rider was spotted on Tri-Met's Airport MAX Red
Line on Wednesday, February 13 around 11:30AM. The small coyote boarded
at the Portland International Airport station. Port of Portland Airfield
Operations and Wildlife staff found the coyote and quickly released the
animal. Coyotes go out of their way to avoid humans and are more likely
to be afraid of people than vice versa. Tri-Met officials aren't sure if
[the coyote] had a valid transit fare.
2cross2affliction — 13 hours 40 min ago
CassidyTheCivet — 1 day 7 hours ago
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Acton — 1 day 11 hours ago