Furry Report / Anthrocon Experience (original) (raw)

To begin with, let me talk about me and the Furry Fandom (forgive the lengthy rambling, I tend to do that):
First let me say that I am extremely newbie-ish when it comes to the Furry Fandom. I know so little about it, and this was proven to me when I made it to Anthrocon. I first became aware of the fandom like five – six years ago, hadn’t gotten connected to the net til I got to college. I’ve always liked anthro art (didn’t even know it in terms of anthro at that time though) and sometimes I would think of myself in a third person type of view as a dragon or various animals; many searches for web art came up with references to ‘furry’. Eventually I decided to look deeper, unfortunately I think I came up with a little too much information from the bad side of the net. Saw some anti-fur sites, some extremely graphic yiff and spooge sites, and generally a lot of stuff I was not yet prepared for and probably took out of context.

Although the initial experience left me curious, I didn’t really want to look again in case I did find myself thinking I was a furry – which like I said, looked bad at the time. It’s pretty hard to reconcile yourself to a viewpoint when all your info comes from the net, and I know I got some whacky brain functions as it is so it really did make me back off rather than risk falling down the rabbit hole. Then about three to four years ago I decided to look some more. I had found some less ‘yiffy’ fur sites that I could handle, actually had grown more and more to like the graphic stuff during this time also. So I decided to find out more about furry. Can’t say I did a good job of it, mostly I was confused with thinking yiff is = to furry and didn’t know more depth than that. During this time I mainly lurked around just a few sites, I hadn’t expected there to be so much information about the fandom so I ended up not looking very hard.

Fast forward to about a year ago. I’d gotten resolved about liking the tame and not so tame stuff. I found out more info about furries (still not enough it seems). And about six months ago I noticed a random fur site that mentions Anthrocon (http://www.anthrocon.org/info.cgi/index ). I click on that, and a couple hours later I sign up for it. Almost changed my mind a few times, kept getting these nervous twitches about whether I should go or not. I was still on the fence between knowing myself as a ‘furry’ or just someone that likes anthro art and characters.
You should also know that no one I knew knew anything about furry or had any interest in finding out – and I believed they would probably misunderstand anyways.
I had mentioned to a couple friends about the con I was going to, in the lightest of terms about furries (I think I told them its for people that like Bugs Bunny type characters). I mentioned to my parents I was going to a ‘comic’ convention (though now trying to explain why I had bought a tail why there are so many pics of people in fursuits {characters that are definitely not comic characters} is a little more difficult…I’ll get back to that).

Once again, this was my first con and first chance to meet other furs in RL. Okay, I’ve rambled enough…now for my verbose and probably incomplete con report:

Thursday (July 17th):
Took the train from New York to Philly, pretty quick I’d say and now problems with that transport. Took the bus to the hotel and nearly had my heart explode from the nuts driving by as I was trying to cross those streets.

Now you should note that in my newbie cocoon state I believed that Thursday would be relatively empty and easy to relax and maybe just walk around the city or something, afterall there’s no programming events for the day…right?
So I walk in and am treated to the sight of a full lobby of furs. And I know they’re furs because there is a full half that are wearing tails, almost all of the rest have plushies or other well-known furry accessories. It felt like a weird dream, like the beginning paragraph in one of those furry ‘horror’ stories. I was like ‘wtf am I doing here?’ I suddenly felt very out of place. I sign into the hotel and go up to room and change into a dragon t-shirt, hoping someone will recognize me as a fellow fur and join in conversation. Go back down to lobby and bum around for an hour or so just staring at random groups of people.

Mistakenly wandered over to the AGI Computer convention and they of course asked ‘Are you with the Metamorphosis Convention?’ ‘Yup.’ And then did some more wandering. Nice tame introduction to how others view furs I think.
I do remember eventually talking to some people, mostly towards registration time.
When registration started I decided to upgrade to Super-Sponsor (what the hell, enter the fandom with a bang). Got all my goodies and walked some more – guess you can tell I’m not too good with the mingling part.

Eventually they started Makoto (fun game that is a cross between Simon and DDR) and spent a good part of the day there. I think that was the only day I played, got a 61 as high score – nowhere near where the better players were at.

Got a Tarot Reading in The Zoo. For the most part it showed a lot of the same boring crap going on and on in my life. Only good thing was the near future prediction – something about me meeting someone within the next two years and having to change my life in order to be with them – considering what I think of my life right now, I can only hope I recognize when that moment comes and do everything to stay with that person.

Only day where I went to bed at relatively normal time (around 11pm). Oh yeah, I should mention that the Zoo looked a little too scary for me – everyone seemed to know everyone else, and me not even knowing what Furry Muck or other chat stuff places are.
Actually managed to use the pool.

Friday:
Before the con I had thought of joining the furs going to the Philly Zoo, but I just couldn’t condone missing the opening ceremonies. It’s where I first really got a look at Kage (although I had seen him running around earlier) – fantastic choice for the voice of AC I gotta say.

Hmmm, went to the art and dealers show. Saw some from the New York Furry Association (gotta look into becoming more involved with that group I think).
Sometime in the afternoon I decided that I need a tail and ears. Back and forth I went to different dealer tables looking for what fit me. Finally decided on getting a black wolf tail and black ears (black pretty much goes with anything I figured – unfortunately didn’t realize how poorly it shows up in pictures). Wore those two gems for the rest of my stay in Adam’s Mark – a lotta fun when you’re around the right group of people.

Went to a couple kewl panels: the Video Games and the Writing, maybe some others also.
Kept meeting up with a bunch of different furs and having conversations

Dance. I didn’t find out until the closing ceremonies that anyone can dance in the Fursuit Friendly dance – I was under the impression that only people in the suits could do it. Unfortunate because I love those things (here’s hoping for managing to make or buy one for next year). Plus, they played a lot more ‘dance-able’ songs during that time. When the regular dance started they mainly played techno, something I can only handle for a short period of time.

Met up with some kewl furs and bs’d until pretty late somewhere near the main ballroom.

Used the pool again at some point.

Saturday:
More of the same for the most part, it’s interesting how much time can be spent wandering the Artist’s Alley or the Dealer’s Room. Got a few artists to draw me some badges (two for my Freaky Lynx identity and one for my DarkBird identity – and I’m still not sure if either is what truly represents my furry identity).

The Super-Sponsor luncheon was pretty kewl. Sat at the table with a few navy type furs – lotsa conversation about those ships, most of which went over my head. I enjoyed Guy Gilchrist (Guest of Honor) saying how he really questioned whether he should go to the ‘furry’ convention – until a fellow artist convinced him. I remember him saying something like (remember my memory is not top-notch so it’s not exact words) ‘I’m having a wonderful time and everybody has been extremely nice. You guys are weird as hell but God bless all of you.’ And hearing it from someone with a southern type accent, well it really amused all of us. I’m thinking of myself as a fur and even I know it’s a bit beyond the norm to see a hotel filled with people wearing tails or suits (at least for now it isn’t a norm for me :b ) – but it’s fun as hell and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Anyways, Mark Rogers (other Guest of Honor) had to leave early for some panel or something. Somehow we ended up having Kage auction off his Chocolate Moose – the guy sitting next to me bought it for fifty (I mean, it was good…but was it that good?).

More panels.

Masquerade – very fun that one. I don’t think I could get myself on stage in front of such a large crowd or do any of the acts very well. So I gotta applaud everyone for managing so well, and another bit of applause for the great entertainment they gave.

The band Fear Liston (or Fur Liston as they were known at the con) played. I enjoyed their performance, too bad there weren’t more that attended (found out later that most were at the Comedy thing). They played a few ‘fur friendly’ songs (such as that one Cat song by The President’s of the United States). It looked to me that the drummer was a furry, from what some of the stuff they said and how he wore a few badges.

Dance – a little too much techno again so I didn’t stay long. Got one of those ‘halo’ glow sticks (looked nice on my ears) and then went upstairs.

Tried to get into the Comedy club near the end but it was filled to max capacity and I couldn’t hear much from the doorway.

Rocky Horror Picture Show – amazing that I never knew so many lines could be added by the audience. Have to applaud those that acted out the parts up front, all did a great job. Especially liked how ‘Rocky’ was represented by someone in a fursuit – after he was unwrapped onscreen the fur also got the headgear removed but rest of costume stayed on. Liked how many of the main fan characters were also wearing tails – it’s amazing how you can get used to something so quickly. You don’t get the full experience of that movie until you have a room full of people screaming in unison the often funny and sick phrases to that flick.

I was actually amazed I made it back to my room (18th floor) because I felt like I was going to drop asleep at any moment – luckily I got on the elevator before the mass behind me (should also mention that the elevators had been breaking down since Friday afternoon).

Sunday:
Was it really already Sunday? Wow time flies. I did some final auction bids, some walking around the usual haunts. Near end of day I found out that for the Auction I only won on two of my interests (a fantastic picture of an anthro wolf with flowing red robes and a very kewl coaster with a fox symbol on it). Well, maybe I won on more, I guess I’ll find out later if I missed any. I rushed to buy a copy of last years Highlights video and Kage’s story hour (they didn’t have the Masquerade tape).

Saw the closing ceremonies, a sad thing. Had Kage sign the story hour dvd. Lots of suggestions and stuff at the end. The staff mentioned that they are considering having Anthrocon take place in two hotels next year – in order to accommodate more panels and fans. Don’t know if that’ll work, lots of pros and cons – the audience was split evenly too, the security team (The Dorsai Irregulars) said they don’t have enough personnel right now to do two hotels.

Wandered around for awhile, managed to wander into a dinner that was just about ending in the main ballroom – got me some tasty brownies and soda for my din-din.

Zoo for most of the remainder of the day. Finally around 8:30 I joined the volunteer team (should’ve done that sooner but was too awe-struck by everything else). Met a couple kewl furs (mainly they talked about radio stuff – again it went over my head).
I should say that over the course of the con I kept bringing up how new to the fandom I was (even to myself I sounded like a broken record about how I’d never been to a con and this was my first time meeting other furs in RL). So I did manage to meet some very helpful furs that gave me desperately needed info – and again during the volunteer thing I met another fur who gave me some more useful info. Actually had him explain ‘scritching’, I had seen a lot of people do it during the con but seeing it is different from knowing the explanation (only heard the term in that ER episode so I knew my information was suspect to begin with). I can say I got scritched only a few times during the con, mostly I’m assuming that it is a greeting between furs that know each other to begin with (the discussion boards led me to believe there is a contingent of furs that shy away from the overzealous greetings some showed).

Finished volunteering around 11, not enough to earn anything but it was fun anyways. Went to the Dead Dog Party for a few minutes (enough to see tantalizing home-movies of furs in public) but then was kicked out by staff because they only wanted fursuits in that room – very unfortunate.

Went to the Zoo and wandered for a bit. Found out there was a party upstairs so took the elevators of death to the ConSuite. Did some dancing and met some more kewl furs. Eventually got bored (lost my voice for a bit by trying to talk with the music on) and went back downstairs to the main hang out.

The Zoo at this time was probably my best experience. Was a little better at going around and talking to a few people. Saw a lot of funny stuff on people’s laptops (already ordered the Happy Tree Friends dvd :b ).

Personally asked Jim Groat why everyone warned about not letting him touch your plushies – he had someone else answer for him (cuz a second later he was busy wrestling the guy in the samurai suit, uh don’t ask :b ). Basically he destroys the ultra-cute plushies – such as pokemon and stuff.

Hmmm, other stuff happened but don’t remember much. I do remember during Sunday there was a church group that started to arrive for their convention. I personally got the double take by someone who saw me with ears and tail. In elevator someone asked if I bite (jokingly of course) and I had to respond that I was ‘tame’. Then I remember the next floor someone in a full suit stepped in and the church guy acted so dumb-struck it was hard not to laugh.

Monday:
Got woken up by fire alarm – false crappy alarm of course. Packed up and left – managed to check out mere minutes before the masses. The hotel staff seemed a little testy that day, the counter lady didn’t ask for the keys so I had to backtrack when I finally remembered halfway to the bus stop. The door guy was a bit annoyed with giving directions to the bus stop. Unfortunate, before Monday all the hotel staff seemed extremely pleasant – oh well.
Travel home wasn’t bad, walking in NYC with a big suitcase was a bit annoying but I did survive to tell my tale, so it couldn’t be that bad.

You probably noticed that some details were a little too detailed, other stuff was glossed over. Mainly because my memory ain’t perfect and I didn’t write this report until about a week after the stuff occurred. Didn’t mention any furs by name cuz for most part I’m bad with names, I didn’t catch everyone’s name, and I don’t want to look like an idiot for mixing up names with situations – I’ll do better next time, I promise. Also didn’t mention some other stuff that is hard to go into, like how I was partly nervous about going to con because some idiot posted some crap on a website about how he wanted to be an annoyance at the con – shit like that pisses me off to no end. Nothing like that happened so either they guy wimped out or he’s got a sick sense of humor – probably both. Also saw some sights that I either can’t explain or can’t explain in context.
Main gripes are that I don’t think I did enough mingling and didn’t get a chance to do any room parties.

Overall I had a great experience, I now know I am a furry. My exuberance has made me mention more of the fandom to my friends (probably too much too soon) and hopefully they’ll be more open to such things. Time will tell, but some of my friends are pretty stubborn and against trying new things that I suggest. I might be able to get one of them to join me next year, I think that might make the trip more fun.

I’m hoping to make Mephit FurMeet next month.