They had twelve sacks, so they ran sack races

[austin_dern]

There are other things going on, and other furry-related things going on, than just conventions. For example there was the big barbeque the weekend after Morphicon, held in a town just outside Detroit, and to which we went despite worries about it being a long drive, and taking us to East Pointe, which had been East Detroit for decades until they got afraid of the name driving down property values. But we do want to do more stuff, and it was a picnic, and a good-sized event and there was even talk about their somehow having a carnival; how could we turn down the chance of rides?

Although the satellite navigator tried to get us to take a road which, as best we can figure, just leads into a strip mall we found the spot, in a lovely park, and understood the carnival thing: the township just across the highway bridge was having a town carnival and this was great, convenient placement.

The picnic had the sort of relaxed hang-out atmosphere of the last night of a convention: hundreds --- literally; the official attendance count was 180 and they surely missed people --- of people milling around, many in costume or partial costume, with a tolerably pleasant day (it was a little cool, a little overcast, but never got around to raining during the picnic at least), people playing music, people eating, grilling, all this stuff. We brought some vegetarian burgers to the mix, although we would end up getting them back as surplus.

Among the happy surprises was the presence of Step, a coati fursuiter, who recognized my tail on sight. Now I just need to get my photo taken with Colby and I'll have the whole set of coati fursuiters met.

It shouldn't have surprised me so that many fursuiters took their heads off during the picnic, since while it was relatively cool, fursuits are still lined with molten aluminum and there's the need to cool off, and while there was a small tent it's not like a full headless lounge could be set up. It's still disorienting.

Some furries, particularly in suit, naturally got to the playground equipment and clowned around on or near it. A few actual uninvolved kids were around and delighted as you might expect to have bunnies and cats and huskies and all that climbing on stuff or going down the slide around you, and the parents seemed to take this all in stride.

Trivia: Life in May 1961 featured a cut-out version of the Parker Brother's Civil War-themed 1863 game, with the expectation people would try the magazine version and then buy permanent copies. Game sales were disappointing; the game did not appear in the 1962 catalogue. Source: The Game Makers: The Story Of Parker Brothers From Tiddledy Winks To Trivial Pursuit, Philip E Orbanes.

Currently Reading: One On Me, Tim Huntley. The cover promises itself to be one of those domed-city hedonist-utopia computer-ruled-dystopia books of the late 70s; that doesn't come out, but there's a fair bit of funny stuff to it, particularly in how the protagonist (an undocumented child in a child-free immortals setting) grew up on tri-D (remember when tri-D was going to replace TV?) and all he knows about, like, digging holes is you throw the shovel into the dirt, scoop a little out, then the camera cuts to when the hole is finished, and he's at a loss for what to do after his first couple shovel-fulls fail to produce the finished hole. It's apparently Huntley's only science fiction anything, but he's got a lot of movie and TV credits.

Comments

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

It's actually just one word, Eastpointe. Despite obviously being an attempt to convince people they have some affinity to Grosse Pointe.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Eastpointe. I was so sure I was going to mess it up that I hypercorrected myself out of rightness.

Well, either way it sounds like a strip mall trying to be upscale.

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

Ahh, memories (http://www.flickr.com/photos/greenreaper/sets/72157626775318356/). Sounds like it's grown a bit.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's the park.

[xolo.livejournal.com]

the game did not appear in the 1962 catalogue

It was subsequently published, because I was given a copy as a gift in the late 1970s. The design was way too abstract to support the civil war theme.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I managed to condense the trivia thing out of clarity. The game did get published in 1961, but didn't last long. I'm not sure if it flopped on its own merits or because the Life publication ate up too many sales that might've gone into the game.

(I'd imagine the magazine version to be a good thing; I would think anybody who tried playing a third time would buy the proper game. But then if the game doesn't stand up to a couple plays then the magazine version lets potential buyers know.)

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

I totally missed the Eastpointe rename, but it apparently happened about the time my grandparents headed to South Lyon, so I'm unsurprised.

Picnicy events have a lot more of the super-casual headpopped fursuiters, I've noticed. It's both the balance of heat and.. the more casual acceptance of That's Fred In The Suit among locals.

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

I imagine the fact there just can't be a headless lounge matters a lot. I wonder also if, as fursuits grow more common, the ethos of ``you're always performing once in costume! You mustn't break character!'' becomes something less seriously regarded.

(I don't intend to disparage anybody's attitudes about breaking the performance moment, here. But I am thinking of how some puppeteers, for example, are compulsive about not letting the audience get a glimpse of an unused puppet or a puppet being taken off the hand, while others aren't the least concerned about it.)

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I really like to try to maintain an old school attitude of "no talking in suit even at casual events, no changing in or out of suit in public" but it's actually kind of hard. Occasionally people get frustrated with my not talking to them -- I had someone in the con suite at FCN once tell me, "just break character already" -- and the "fursuiters and handlers only" rules in the headless lounge are often not respected, so I feel as though I may as well be changing in public. I think the worst I've seen of this was at Morphicon, where the assembly room for the Fursuit Parade was full of nonsuiters, including some taking pictures and video, which bothered me as I was worried about getting caught half-headed.

I realize what with my having a partial, that it's my persona character, and that I used to wear the four paws long before I had a suit, it probably seems like "BunnyHugger with head off" is identical with, well, "BunnyHugger." But I actually have made an effort to differentiate me-in-suit from me-out-of-suit. I don't wear the paws when I haven't got the head on, anymore. And a more subtle difference is that I don't wear the same shirt in and out of suit. I have a few shirts that are designated as suit-shirts and I change into and out of them.

I think that the little building with the bathrooms was actually designated as the fursuiter changing area at the picnic, although of course that isn't terribly private when people have to walk through it to get to the bathrooms.

[chefmongoose.livejournal.com]

and the "fursuiters and handlers only" rules in the headless lounge are often not respected

I find this rule gets more harshly enforced the tighter a space a convention has for fursuiters. 2011 and 2012, Anthrocon's was so packed, we had to rename it the 'Headless Zone' to remove the verbal notion of 'lounging'. In 2013 we've expanded the space[*1], but it's still pretty well Fursuiters, some handlers, and staff only at AC.

I like when people maintain character, but now and then if it's important to pass information, talking in suit to say "Dinner in one hour, meet in the lobby" at one person still makes sense over spending the three minutes on charades.

the assembly room for the Fursuit Parade was full of nonsuiters, including some taking pictures and video

We've had to be strict on this at AC, hanging curtains and such to block an elevated walkway. People behave after looking past it on Friday and seeing absolutely nothing. (On Saturday when there's the lineup, there's also a security staffer poking at people during lineup-and-photo-time.)

--Chi
[*1] It's probably about the size of, well, Morphicon.

[bunny-hugger.livejournal.com]

I like when people maintain character, but now and then if it's important to pass information, talking in suit to say "Dinner in one hour, meet in the lobby" at one person still makes sense over spending the three minutes on charades.

If it's actually something that specific and necessary, I whisper it in someone's ear (preferably Austin's if he's present).

[austin-dern.livejournal.com]

And I reliably feel like I should've realized it earlier when she does. I'm still a novice at reading her signs, even when it's terrifically obvious after the fact. Worse, I fear I don't learn from experience fast enough.