Notes of Furpocalypse 2014
It's been a couple of weeks but I'll write a few points about my trip to Furpocalypse (RIP Furfright) '14. Because it's been a while since I posted something here:
------------------------
-I only spent a day and a half at the con this year. But I did snag a room in the main hotel thanks to probably a slew of last-minute cancellations that happen at every con. The fact that I arrived at the con on Saturday just before noon was significant as I, supposedly, missed a fire alarm/drill happening not too long before that.
------------------------
-Weather was pretty terrible; lately this con has marked unofficially the first "cold" weekend in the area, and this year was no exception. Rain on Sat. effectively killed the car show and kept the parade from venturing outdoors. Sunday was clear, but greeted by steady, chilly winds. Still better than snow, which two near-future cons I may consider attending have a plausible risk of running into.
------------------------
- I did take some photographs. Not many came out good though. It’s amusing...I guess thanks to every smart phone now equipped with a camera, people see you with a DSLR camera and automatically assume you are some sort of professional.
The irony of this, in my case at least, is that they could probably take a better picture with their phone than I can with my gear. I really don't know what I'm doing, and I'm not really motivated to figuring it out. I honestly got this camera to do something while attending a convention and not just stand around and twittle my thumbs. Which is probably what I would be doing if I didn't have it.
Don't know if I'll post them on Flickr or not. I'm busy with other things, and don't want to take the time prepping and sorting them out. We'll see.
---------------------------
-I need to be more talkative. This time I was very self-conscious of how silly I must have seemed mostly standing in one spot, or walking around silently, and occasionally taking a photo here or there.
---------------------------
- One person I did have a conversation with on Sunday Evening was none other than Belic Bear. It was nice seeing him there, especially when he wound up MC-ing the Fursuit Games, injecting his usual wit and humor into the proceedings, (which I believe he is one of best at in the fandom). The standing ovation he got at Closing Ceremonies was well deserved.
----------------------------
-Saturday night's traditional show of Rocky Horror (the unofficial “official” movie of the furry fandom) was amusing in that the sound wasn't working at first. So picture the scene that followed of three of the staff members all staring at the DVD player while the film was playing, wondering what to do. Occasionally, one would wiggle a wire from behind, but mostly they would stand there and stare. It looked as if it would a repeat of last year, when the audio kept buzzing out during the showing of the same movie.
But then from stage left, in came someone walking very determinedly to the DVD player, like a man on a mission. A minute fiddling with the DVD and suddenly, the sound was back on again. And, more crucially, they started the movie from the beginning again, meaning they didn't skip the opening song "Science Fiction, Double Feature", which is IMO the best part of the whole film.
Having said that, and I'm not one who partakes in audience interaction like others do, but crowd participation to the movie was much more subdued this year compared to other years. Which wasn't the only place I saw this at this con....
------------------------------
-Popeye’s fried chicken is better than KFC.
------------------------------
-The influx of teenagers into the fandom continues. Although thankfully, still not as overwhelming as is the case in other fandoms, but you noticed them if you paid attention to it. Also in a few occurrences what looked like their [i]parents[/i] tagging along as well. I bring this up mainly because of the next point below.
-------------------------------
-Was it me, or did it seem like the “Dead Dog” was noticeably “dead” this time, compared to previous years? It might be just a coincidence, or because of the change in the convention itself and its staff, and they didn’t plan as much to happen then (The traditional Second Parade on Sunday Night didn’t happen this time for example). But after they had the 40 pizzas delivered, and the attendees engorged themselves with it, everyone seemed to scatter and it was fairly subdued afterwards. So much so that I overheard more than one person remark about it.
Were there room parties going on at the time? Or is it… and I hope this isn’t the case… an indication in a change in the fandom itself. Furry conventions tend to stay pretty lively even after the Closing Ceremonies, but some appeared to leave earlier this year than usual (and this time it was not hurricane induced).
It put a damper before leaving for home that night, because the energy from the Dead Dog gave you a nice buzz before it was time to go. Maybe I just looking too much into this, and it really wasn’t anything at all. Whatever the case, I left at 9:30p on Sunday this year; earlier than I expected.
---------------------------------
-About that generous gift of free food on Sunday: watching a mass of attendees attack boxes of free pizza is like watching those old nature films of a variety of African wildlife feeding on the carcass of a downed wildebeest, or something like it.
---------------------------------
-Witnessed an (allegedly) off-duty cop have a confrontation with a supposedly obnoxious couple at a diner (not the Cromwell Diner, but one a few miles up the road) late Saturday night. I don’t know who was in the right, but that couple sure buttoned-up and left pretty quickly after it. A drunk guy with three women then occupied that same booth soon after.
---------------------------------
-I didn’t go to too many of the dances, but the short time I was at them I thought I picked up on something about the music. Most of it was still the usual Electro/Prog/Dubstep House and Trap they’ve been playing for the last few years now, but it sounded as if some were injecting a faster Techno-like beat to their mix. One of the DJs was even playing what sounded like progressive Trance at one point.
Is this an indication of a move toward Techno/Trance by DJs again, or am I just hearing things? Maybe I was hearing a genre I’m not too familiar with like Hardstyle; as I don’t really keep track on electronic music as others do.
If it was a subtle shift in styles, I could only hope that would be the case. I can’t imagine how much longer DJs can keep playing the same old Prog and Electro House stuff you see in places like the Beatport Top 100 without there being eventually some sort of rebellion of the masses.
---------------------------------
-It’s always the random things that make furry conventions the most fun, like watching a group of furs dry hump a Ford Fiesta ST.
---------------------------------
-As for the new staff of Furpocalypse and the change of the convention. Everything seemed to run well, and I have no complaints. But I can’t really judge since I was there for only about 36 hours.
---------------------------------
-As I left on Sunday night, and because I tend to do odd things like this, I partook in what has now become a sort of tradition of mine in the last few years driving home from FF/FP; which is listening to Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here.
Not just the song, but the WHOLE ALBUM of the same name, from start to finish. It’s one of the most melancholic of albums you can hear. And it fits perfectly with the setting driving on the cold, empty, highways, after a weekend of being surrounded by hundreds of joyous, colorful people. (Not surprisingly, W.Y.W.H. is a concept album that deals with the theme of “absence”)
I don’t usually suffer from it myself but if you get PCD after a con, this album will boost it to 10x the rate you normally feel, to the point of wanting to slit your wrists, and you’ll enjoy every little moment of it. It’s the good type of sadness, if there’s such a thing.
On that point Pink Floyd has just released an album of new music, something I never thought I would see again in my lifetime, but that’s a subject for another time.
------------------------
-I only spent a day and a half at the con this year. But I did snag a room in the main hotel thanks to probably a slew of last-minute cancellations that happen at every con. The fact that I arrived at the con on Saturday just before noon was significant as I, supposedly, missed a fire alarm/drill happening not too long before that.
------------------------
-Weather was pretty terrible; lately this con has marked unofficially the first "cold" weekend in the area, and this year was no exception. Rain on Sat. effectively killed the car show and kept the parade from venturing outdoors. Sunday was clear, but greeted by steady, chilly winds. Still better than snow, which two near-future cons I may consider attending have a plausible risk of running into.
------------------------
- I did take some photographs. Not many came out good though. It’s amusing...I guess thanks to every smart phone now equipped with a camera, people see you with a DSLR camera and automatically assume you are some sort of professional.
The irony of this, in my case at least, is that they could probably take a better picture with their phone than I can with my gear. I really don't know what I'm doing, and I'm not really motivated to figuring it out. I honestly got this camera to do something while attending a convention and not just stand around and twittle my thumbs. Which is probably what I would be doing if I didn't have it.
Don't know if I'll post them on Flickr or not. I'm busy with other things, and don't want to take the time prepping and sorting them out. We'll see.
---------------------------
-I need to be more talkative. This time I was very self-conscious of how silly I must have seemed mostly standing in one spot, or walking around silently, and occasionally taking a photo here or there.
---------------------------
- One person I did have a conversation with on Sunday Evening was none other than Belic Bear. It was nice seeing him there, especially when he wound up MC-ing the Fursuit Games, injecting his usual wit and humor into the proceedings, (which I believe he is one of best at in the fandom). The standing ovation he got at Closing Ceremonies was well deserved.
----------------------------
-Saturday night's traditional show of Rocky Horror (the unofficial “official” movie of the furry fandom) was amusing in that the sound wasn't working at first. So picture the scene that followed of three of the staff members all staring at the DVD player while the film was playing, wondering what to do. Occasionally, one would wiggle a wire from behind, but mostly they would stand there and stare. It looked as if it would a repeat of last year, when the audio kept buzzing out during the showing of the same movie.
But then from stage left, in came someone walking very determinedly to the DVD player, like a man on a mission. A minute fiddling with the DVD and suddenly, the sound was back on again. And, more crucially, they started the movie from the beginning again, meaning they didn't skip the opening song "Science Fiction, Double Feature", which is IMO the best part of the whole film.
Having said that, and I'm not one who partakes in audience interaction like others do, but crowd participation to the movie was much more subdued this year compared to other years. Which wasn't the only place I saw this at this con....
------------------------------
-Popeye’s fried chicken is better than KFC.
------------------------------
-The influx of teenagers into the fandom continues. Although thankfully, still not as overwhelming as is the case in other fandoms, but you noticed them if you paid attention to it. Also in a few occurrences what looked like their [i]parents[/i] tagging along as well. I bring this up mainly because of the next point below.
-------------------------------
-Was it me, or did it seem like the “Dead Dog” was noticeably “dead” this time, compared to previous years? It might be just a coincidence, or because of the change in the convention itself and its staff, and they didn’t plan as much to happen then (The traditional Second Parade on Sunday Night didn’t happen this time for example). But after they had the 40 pizzas delivered, and the attendees engorged themselves with it, everyone seemed to scatter and it was fairly subdued afterwards. So much so that I overheard more than one person remark about it.
Were there room parties going on at the time? Or is it… and I hope this isn’t the case… an indication in a change in the fandom itself. Furry conventions tend to stay pretty lively even after the Closing Ceremonies, but some appeared to leave earlier this year than usual (and this time it was not hurricane induced).
It put a damper before leaving for home that night, because the energy from the Dead Dog gave you a nice buzz before it was time to go. Maybe I just looking too much into this, and it really wasn’t anything at all. Whatever the case, I left at 9:30p on Sunday this year; earlier than I expected.
---------------------------------
-About that generous gift of free food on Sunday: watching a mass of attendees attack boxes of free pizza is like watching those old nature films of a variety of African wildlife feeding on the carcass of a downed wildebeest, or something like it.
---------------------------------
-Witnessed an (allegedly) off-duty cop have a confrontation with a supposedly obnoxious couple at a diner (not the Cromwell Diner, but one a few miles up the road) late Saturday night. I don’t know who was in the right, but that couple sure buttoned-up and left pretty quickly after it. A drunk guy with three women then occupied that same booth soon after.
---------------------------------
-I didn’t go to too many of the dances, but the short time I was at them I thought I picked up on something about the music. Most of it was still the usual Electro/Prog/Dubstep House and Trap they’ve been playing for the last few years now, but it sounded as if some were injecting a faster Techno-like beat to their mix. One of the DJs was even playing what sounded like progressive Trance at one point.
Is this an indication of a move toward Techno/Trance by DJs again, or am I just hearing things? Maybe I was hearing a genre I’m not too familiar with like Hardstyle; as I don’t really keep track on electronic music as others do.
If it was a subtle shift in styles, I could only hope that would be the case. I can’t imagine how much longer DJs can keep playing the same old Prog and Electro House stuff you see in places like the Beatport Top 100 without there being eventually some sort of rebellion of the masses.
---------------------------------
-It’s always the random things that make furry conventions the most fun, like watching a group of furs dry hump a Ford Fiesta ST.
---------------------------------
-As for the new staff of Furpocalypse and the change of the convention. Everything seemed to run well, and I have no complaints. But I can’t really judge since I was there for only about 36 hours.
---------------------------------
-As I left on Sunday night, and because I tend to do odd things like this, I partook in what has now become a sort of tradition of mine in the last few years driving home from FF/FP; which is listening to Pink Floyd Wish You Were Here.
Not just the song, but the WHOLE ALBUM of the same name, from start to finish. It’s one of the most melancholic of albums you can hear. And it fits perfectly with the setting driving on the cold, empty, highways, after a weekend of being surrounded by hundreds of joyous, colorful people. (Not surprisingly, W.Y.W.H. is a concept album that deals with the theme of “absence”)
I don’t usually suffer from it myself but if you get PCD after a con, this album will boost it to 10x the rate you normally feel, to the point of wanting to slit your wrists, and you’ll enjoy every little moment of it. It’s the good type of sadness, if there’s such a thing.
On that point Pink Floyd has just released an album of new music, something I never thought I would see again in my lifetime, but that’s a subject for another time.