Historical debates
Discussion: Did 'The Last Unicorn' change our views on single-horned horses?
Posted by Mister Twister on Sun 7 Oct 2012 - 08:50
It is no secret that the most well-known concept of unicorns is from Europe, in the Middle Ages. In stories from that time period, the creature will be a walking snorting virgin detector with a... ehem... phallic symbol on its head. The horse with one horn will be for girls, and is always male.
Enter 1968: a peculiar book comes out, the likes of which the world had never seen before. The main character is a unicorn. And it is a mare. Female. And instead of having been created by God to detect "proper maidens", she is a semi-immortal creature with a different role in the world. The story centers on her search for her kind, while exploring the concepts of emotions, immortality, and the source of the latter.
In other words, this unicorn was completely different from the existing folklore.
So how did Peter Beagle's book, and the subsequent animated adaptation, change our view of unicorns? Give us your thoughts in the comments!
Video: German fursuiter proves sky no limit in tandem dive
Posted by GreenReaper on Sat 15 Sep 2012 - 17:15German fursuiter Keenora, clearly not satisfied with bungee jumping, has participated in a tandem skydive in full suit, with video coverage produced by BigBlueFox. [Skippyfox]
Movies: 'Dorothy of Oz'
Posted by Fred on Sat 8 Sep 2012 - 16:40How many Oz movies have there been? The Wizard of Oz (1939), of course. Return to Oz (1985). Dorothy in the Land of Oz (1980). Dorothy and the Scarecrow in Oz (1910), The Land of Oz (1910), His Majesty, the Scarecrow of Oz (1914), and The Patchwork Girl of Oz (1914), all co-written or directed by Frank Baum himself. The Wiz (1978). The Wizard of Oz (1925), the silent version with Oliver Hardy as the Tin “Woodsman”. The Witches of Oz (2011). It’s not a movie, but the Broadway musical Wicked (2003). Does Zardoz (1974) count? Well … LOTS!
Now there is Dorothy of Oz (2013?), produced by Prana Studios in Los Angeles and Mumbai with a pretty impressive voice cast.
'Swami Ayyappan' rides tigers, fights demons, unites with idol
Posted by Fred on Tue 3 Jul 2012 - 00:13
Anthropomorphic? Noooo … But how can you not like an animated TV movie about “‘Swami Ayyappan’, based on the life story of a boy ‘Manikandan’ who became one with God worshipped by millions”?
That is on Indian TV, of course. Animation Xpress for 2 July reports that,
Swami Ayyappan is slated to premier on national TV channels and subsequently distributed as DVDs during the upcoming Sabarimala season in various languages like Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu & Kannada. [What, no Hindi?]
Sabarimala is a place of pilgrimage that welcomes devotees irrespective of religion, caste or creed. [Not many Christians, I’ll bet.]
'Zambezia' is for the birds in South African CGI feature
Posted by Fred on Mon 14 May 2012 - 20:12
Jerry Beck reports on Cartoon Brew (Ed: possibly incorrectly) that South Africa has just completed its first 3D animated feature: the CGI Zambezia, about a city of anthropomorphized birds, in which the young falcon Kai (voiced by Jeremy Suarez) travels to the avian metropolis of Zambezia (presumably no connection to the province of the same name in Mozambique) to join its elite Hurricane company of defenders, and saves it from both bird and reptilian predators. The feature is scheduled for release in Africa this year and in America by Sony next year.
Review: 'Death Drop' (D-Evolution, vol. 1), by Sean Allen
Posted by Fred on Sun 11 Dec 2011 - 10:39
Hoo-hah! Roscoe, does this bring back memories! Memories of all the rip-roaring space operas that I devoured during my junior-high and high-school years. Among my favorites were the Chalice of Death stories by Calvin M. Knox, in Science Fiction Adventures magazine; the last of which was the wonderfully-titled “Vengeance of the Space Armadas” (collected into Lest We Forget Thee, Earth by Ace in 1958).
A hundred thousand years ago, there had been a planet called Earth. It had been a proud world ruling a thousand vassal stars, but its stellar empire had turned upon and annihilated their conquerors, and wiped the name of Earth from the maps of space. ~~~~ But Earthmen still survived . . . a strange race of worldless men and women, by tradition advisers to rulers, but never themselves ruling. Wanderers through myriad planets, their origin was a half-forgotten legend. …
It was later revealed that “Calvin M. Knox” was a pseudonym of Robert Silverberg, who had hacked out the Knox stories in his spare time while a college student, for beer money. Silverberg said later that they made it hard for the critics to accept him as a “serious author”. [Ed Valigursky's 'racy' cover likely didn't help. Update: See Mr. Silverberg's comments.]
You know what? I’m damn glad that he wrote them, because uncritical teenagers need blood-&-thunder space opera just as much, if not more, as they need Serious Literature.
I suppose video games have assumed the popular-fiction role that pulp magazines such as Captain Future, Planet Stories, and Startling Stories used to fill. Kudos to Sean for bringing space opera back to print with his “D-Evolution” s-f novels, of which Death Drop is the first.
Pueblo, CO, Vintage Six Media, October 2011.
Trade paperback $19.95 (560 pages; Amazon), EPUB, Kindle, MOBI, PDF $9.95.
Furry Writers' Guild plan juried fiction award
Posted by GreenReaper on Fri 2 Dec 2011 - 16:19Progress is being made on the Cóyotl Awards, a juried award for furry fiction to be run by the Furry Writers' Guild, with the first winners announced at Rainfurrest 2012 next September.
While some details remain private to guild members, preliminary rules have been published. The award is currently to be presented in General and Mature sections for the best Short Story, Novella (over 7500 words) and Novel (over 40,000 words).
Each member may submit five nominations to each category for works they are uninvolved with to a five-member council, rating them on plot, character, setting and literary merit; the four works with the highest weighted average will be voted on by guild members.
Update (18 Oct): The restriction on the number of nominations was removed before the ballot closed.
SoFurry loses custom chat after coder copyright claim
Posted by GreenReaper on Sat 26 Nov 2011 - 16:29SoFurry lost its custom chat last weekend after a key developer responded to a ban by filing a copyright-based takedown demand. [Conan/vivisector]
Site leader Toumal responded with assurances that a new chat module would be provided, and made a call for donations. A temporary chat has since been implemented.
Furry Movie Award Watch: September
Posted by crossaffliction on Mon 26 Sep 2011 - 01:06September is an important month for next year’s awards. Major film festivals earlier in the month (which didn’t feature anything remotely furry, so this is their last mention), plus the beginning of screenings of studio hopefuls and even the first precursor award make September the unofficial beginning of “awards season” for movies.
Meanwhile, back in the furry fandom, a major player has had a setback, completely changing my Ursa Major predictions.
Anthrocon 2011 media coverage roundup
Posted by GreenReaper on Sat 2 Jul 2011 - 20:50
Another year has come and gone for Anthrocon's 4,400 attendees. But what did the media make of it all?
Local stations WTAE (video, slides) and WPXI (video) gave mostly superficial coverage, while the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (photos) went into a little more depth. [Higgs Raccoon, baracudaboy, Wild`Bill`TX]
The convention was also picked up by Reuters, who posted a short piece based on organizers' statements.
In a story likely to be repeated in 2012, furries were blamed for booking out local hotels. Conversely, Anthrocon's CEO complained of a lack of hotels, telling the Post-Gazette that "when downtown hotels became fully booked in mid-May, [registration] dropped off dramatically." This helps explain this year's growth rate of 3.8%, compared to double-digit increases in prior years. (Somehow the parade count rose over 19% to 854.)
Meanwhile, 10th St. sub mogul Cory Robinson reported two months of business in five days:
We love furries. They're just people having fun, and they don't hurt anybody.