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October 2021

Newsbytes archive for September 2021

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Your rating: None Average: 4 (2 votes)

Contributors this month include 2cross2affliction, BlindWolf8, dronon, and GreenReaper.

Of Lindsay Lohan, Canine Cartels, and NFTs

Your rating: None Average: 2.9 (9 votes)

Lindsay Lohan's Fursona Celebrities, gang references, and questionable measures of affluence are not the typical fare for a furry fandom news site. However, this trifecta from the underworld rose from the earth on the 30th of September in the year of 2021.

It all started when a celebrity known as Lindsay Lohan made a tweet prompting a pack of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) called the Canine Cartel, using a dog character designed for her which is being put within this 10,000 token pack. With each of the individual tokens being put up for auction, including her own.

Reception by the fandom has mostly been negative. Some pointing out the lack of ears on the character's art, some showing agitation on having anthro characters being used to promote NFTs, others indicating that this was just a celebrity doing some arms-reach appreciation of the fandom while avoiding actually working with those in the fandom.

Today we’ll go over this event, furries' relationship with NFTs and crypto, and why this event may not be as furry as people in the fandom and media are making it out to be.

Culturally F'd enters The Bone Zone

Your rating: None Average: 3.3 (16 votes)

Meet Rattles: Lives in bones, eats bad movies, pukes acid, vulture.The Bone Zone.

Our new Vulturally F'd host Rattles has a unique appetite. He eats terrible movies, looking for that juicy, so-bad-it's-good fermentation of cheesy old cinema. The lair he calls home is the Bone Zone, a hollowed-out corpse of a once mighty beast, nesting in an old video rental store.

With nothing but an old TV to keep him company, he shares his favourite meals with you, and warns you to steer clear of certain buffet items strewn about the floor of his cave. In proper Culturally F'd fashion, all the films Rattles will be reviewing feature anthropomorphic characters at their core. (Show trailer)

Fursuits and fursuiting survey by Charleston Rat

Your rating: None Average: 3.5 (11 votes)

Charleston Rat Some of you might be familiar with my Facts About the Furry Fandom video on YouTube. After it went viral, I decided to make a series out of it, following it up with More Facts About the Furry Fandom and Facts About Furry Meetups & Conventions.

The next video in the series will be about fursuits and fursuiting. However, unlike the previous videos, most of the information I'm looking for isn't easy to find via reliable sources like FurScience and [adjective][species]. Therefore, I've decided to take a different route.

I've created a short survey about fursuits and fursuiting which I'd like you to fill out. Most of it consists of "yes/no" and "choose what you prefer" questions, with a few exceptions. You don't need a fursuit to take part! You just have to be a furry.

Also, feel free to spread the word about this survey in other furry social media!

At the end of the survey, you can enter your name into a prize draw and potentially win $250. As long as you're over 18, and can accept a PayPal transfer, you're eligible for the draw if you complete the survey before the deadline. More details are in the survey's introduction.

The deadline is Friday, November 26, 2021.

Review: 'Star Wars Adventures: Ghosts Of Vader's Castle #2'

Your rating: None Average: 3.6 (5 votes)

'Ghosts of Vader's Castle' A-cover, by Francesco Francavilla 'Ghosts of Vader's Castle' B-cover, by Derek Charm

Kismet on a recent outing brought me into contact with an issue of this Star Wars offshoot, published by IDW Comics, which advertises itself in that usual, effective way.

Ghosts Of Vader's Castle #2, which offers a choice of subtitles between "Attack Of The 50-Foot Wookie" and "The Wicked Wookie", is a diversion of a diversion that hit distribution in September. It comes from regular writer Cavan Scott and is illustrated by mainstays Francesco Francavilla and Derek Charm. Permit me to guess your thoughts; no, Disney has NOT purchased Bucky O' Hare.

Streaming review: 'My Little Pony: A New Generation'

Your rating: None Average: 3.2 (15 votes)

'My Little Pony: A New Generation' movie poster And so it begins. Again.

The long running My Little Pony is introducing its latest toyline "generation" with what was supposed to be a theatrical movie. Due to the whole "ongoing pandemic" thing, that was mostly canceled (it was released theatrically in a few regions) and the whole thing moved to the streaming service Netflix, where any further spin-offs will also be held. My Little Pony: A New Generation is directed by Robert Cullen and José Luis Ucha with co-director Mark Fattibene, and has been available on Netflix since September 24 in most regions.

Not to beat around the bush, but the last time My Little Pony launched, it was kind of a thing. I'm sure the vast majority of Flayrah's readership is well aware of the "brony" subculture, but if you somehow missed it, or would just like a refresher, this Ursa Major-nominated video by YouTuber Jenny Nicholson is recommended – though you could always troll through Flayrah's "My Little Pony" tag. The upshot: there are higher expectations attached to this series relaunch than usual.

A new sort of animal: 'Lady into Fox', by David Garnett

Your rating: None Average: 3.1 (19 votes)

I don't feel the need to justify bringing up David "Bunny" Garnett's 1922 short novel Lady into Fox in a furry context. As the title suggests, the story involves a lady who turns into a fox. Technically, it is not a story about an anthropomorphic animal, and is in fact about the direct opposite of that, a zoomorphic human. Of course, this is a nitpick. I doubt anyone cares.

Sylvia Tebrick as a fox merrily chasing ducks in a cute little dress, from Lady into Fox

On the point of genre, however, there is one area where I would like to make a rather more controversial "take" on the subject matter. Though the novel was a bit unclassifiable when it was first introduced, with H.G. Wells (an author known for his use of anthropomorphic animals) praising it as "a new creation, a new sort of animal, let us say, suddenly running about in the world," a phrase that I imagine had him enthusiastically punching the air at his own cleverness.

More modern takes tend to classify it as a "contemporary fantasy". However, I find it to be entirely different: it seems nothing more (or less) than a tale of the supernatural; a ghost story whose 'ghost' merely requires a few scare quotes - or, put another way, a horror story.

Digging Up Positivity - October 2021

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Welcome to the October edition of Digging Up Positivity. This month we are pleased to see the conventions returning, and with that, all those lovely charities that they support. The featurette of this month is Cassidy Civet, known by many as that critter that appeared at the Eurovision Song Festival, but by all means, this feline is not limited by that. But first, lets start with this months charitable highlights.