Originally Posted by SmokingTarpan

So... Which furry were you? :P

Heh. The mundane with the Shroompicker/Garnac badge. No costume, like 85% of the crowd No tail, like 60% of the crowd.

I was paranoid about it at first, and was just going to keep it to myself. But after being through the convention, I found that in large part they were all just geeks like us, but who tended to embrace newer stuff like Internet memes, newer (<5 year old) anime, newer video games, rave, trance, industrial, (they thankfully shun emo), as opposed to say Trekies and old-school comic book fans. Fringe conversation included transhumanist thought, which I find comforting, and after seeing some real-life bioinformatics is something I believe.

Anthrocon does have a valid reputation for being a party convention, as opposed to say having a business, art, or child-friendly focus. In the daytime, panels were more tame. I will post some of the fursuit games videos I made shortly. I went to costuming and performance panels heavily, which by the way were mostly hosted by Ooga, a professional costumer and a very nice guy who you all know as the fat evil purple fursuit that is "I'm a firin mah lazar!" (he's PISSED at 4chan and Second Life for the meme, that's been his personal character for 12 years, but he has accepted his fate). Lots of artist panels, video games, and LARP, if you're into that, can be found as well.

Come late night, though, the partying starts. The improv and comedy acts with Uncle Kage, 2 the Ranting Griffin, Jib, and Alexander Adams got hilariously raunchy like any late-night comedy club act, and the dances they had every night are what you would expect at any rave or industrial goth setting, except of course they had fursuiters instead of X dealers. I think if you gathered any group of mixed-company sci-fi/fantasy fans and go, you will have a blast. I've heard that Further Confusion in California garners the same atmosphere, but I haven't gone yet.

Need a video to keep this post alive, so...

This video was played at the Opening Ceremonies. The guy in the lab coat is the revered chairman, Dr. Samuel Conway, but people just know him as Uncle Kage (hard G, long E).
[media]http://youtube.com/watch?v=9geXdSPDmjU[/media]
Right after the video ended, the three suiters in real life ran yelling like that across the stage with Ungle Kage in chase, where Kage then took a seat with the panel. They make fun of themselves a little bit... the type of "fanboy" you saw really can be found at Anthrocon, a minute but starkly noticeable minority.

This reporter seemed to feel right at home:
[media]http://youtube.com/watch?v=lI4SIcemOtg[/media]
Somehow, though, that news report managed to leave out the cutest of the suiters... Maybe they were at the group photo shoots that hour? I met half of the ones at you see at http://lacy.timduru.org/ http://www.mixedcandy.com/ and http://www.arendstudios.de/en/gallery/index.html

One thing about furries which I love dearly... Trekkies are fans of Gene Roddenberry's work, Star Wars fans are fans of George Lucas's work, Zombies are fans of George Romero... Furries are fans of each other. Unlike any other fandom, they have no one thing to anchor onto, they made it up all by themselves. At a furry con, everywhere you turn, you're encouraged to be part of the act somehow. You're directly responsible for your own and others' entertainment. Two of my videos were played on The Funday Pawpet Show, watched by a few hundred people that day, which makes me an actor in this big crazy play (You can see the rerun at http://pawpet.tv/index.php?show until Saturday, July 12, 2008). It's a stark and refreshing contrast to standard American entertainment, and that's what will keep me coming back for more.