Midwest Fur Fest 2003

U n d e r C o n s t r u c t i o n

Last Update 12/30/03

Thursday, November 20, 2003

I left home at 8:30am to pick up Freddy Praul, who would be sharing the drive and hotel room with me. We stopped at a Steak 'n Shake in Merrillville, IN, for lunch, then continued the drive to Schaumburg, IL, with Freddy taking the wheel. We arrived at 2:30pm... make that 1:30pm -- different time zone. We checked in and got a room overlooking the main lobby and courtyard. Back downstairs, we were promptly drafted to help bring in supplies for the art room and the con suite. With the manual labor done, we wandered around meeting other furs and fursuiters, such as Firepup and Dex (with his back to me).

Freddy had a friend that worked nearby. We left the con and picked him up from work, and went out for dinner at Chevy's Mexican Restaurant nearby. After dinner, we brought him by the hotel for a brief idea of what a furry con looked like. Soon, it was time to take him to the train station so that he could catch the train home on time. We got back to the con after dropping him off, and got in the registration line behind (L to R) Gina and DripDry; Piccolo; and Steve Plunkett and Gracie. After getting registered, we brought the rest of our luggage up to the room, then went back down to check out the Ice-Cream Social. I met KT there, who wanted to show off the "Kinky Turtle Productions" shirt he had found. I also took a candid photo of my travel partner, Freddy Praul. After the Social was more wandering around, socializing, and catching up with Chuckles to get a picture.

Friday, November 21, 2003

Friday morning started out with breakfast in the restaurant, then some more wandering. Freddy has a small radio controlled mouse, and he was running it in the hallway. Vix noticed it scampering around, and she couldn't resist the temptation to pounce it. I was able to get another shot of Dex, from the front this time, and a little later as he listened to Uncle Kage tell one of his stories. Kodiak and Max Skunk stopped to pose for some photos. Meanwhile, Tigerwolf was up in the internet room with a room full of unconnected terminals. He had requested the necessary information to establish a network connection well ahead of time, but got left behind. Then, the log-in information he was able to get wound up being wrong. It wound being Saturday before he could finally log the system on.

Outside the main ballroom, Animals for Awareness, the charity for this con, had an exhibit set up with some of the animals that they had rescued. Uncle Kage posed with a hawk... for a $5 donation. Inside the ballroom at the opening ceremonies, KT and his friend took a seat nearby. The ceremonies started with some kind of a skit involving vixen smuggling. When that was done, the Chairman came out to welcome everyone, and announced that there were already at least 640 registered, not counting walk-ins. He then introduced the Guest of Honor Thomas K. Dye of Newshounds, and the star of his strip, Kevin Dog. The next introduction was Uncle Kage with his friend Cubie from the charity group. Back out in the hallway, Chazz posed with Zeus.

This con had quite a number of panels covering several aspects of furry fandom not directly connected with the "active" (fursuiting, puppeteering, gaming, art, etc) aspects. These included about four Greymuzzle forums geared toward, but not limited to, the older furs; some spiritual or religion related gatherings; some on identifying with your chosen species; and even how to care for your plushies. I attended some of these, including some of the Greymuzzles, which were led by Robert "Bob" Parrish, Innerwolf, Fr. John "Kamau" Close, Camstone Fox and Smrgol.

On the way to Uncle Kage's Story Hour, I saw ScapeGoat in the hallway posing with a young con-goer. I got in line for story hour, and waited along with everyone else. About 15 minutes after it was supposed to start, Kage came out to explain the reason for the delay. (I don't recall what he was doing in this photo.) Eventually, we were allowed to enter, and Kage did the same opening routine as at Anthrocon this year... He enters the stage, sits down at a small table and motions for a waiter. 2 enters with Kage's wine selection and uncorks it (with some difficulty), then presents the cork to Kage for his approval. After distracting Kage for a second, 2 acquires a glass of wine for himself and leaves. Kage then sits back, reads the paper, takes a sip or two of his wine, glances at his watch, looks at the paper again before doing a quick double-take at his watch, and then jumps up and welcomes everyone. He then began his story-telling, stopping once in a while for another sip. His stories included:

The Wine Auction - His tuxedo had apparently "shrunk" over the years, so he had to rent one that wound up being the same style as the ushers were wearing. He also learned what a Wine Communicator is.
(About this point, Babs literally crawled down the row behind me to get to her seat.)
Used to live in the Chicago area, and went to O'Hare to pick up a couple of friends, Kelly and Timber. He met Kelly, but instead of finding Timber, they unsuccessfully tried to elude a bum who wanted to carry their bags for them.
His trip to Edinborough, Scotland, and trying to find a high-speed internet connection at the hotel, or an internet cafe by walking through the thick fog. The next morning, he had red eyes... not bloodshot, but full blood red! He was unable to contact his Dr. K., but was referred to a local Dr. K.
Krahnos(?), Matrix Reloaded, and Kage's Matrix outfit. (Photo 2)
A brief history of the American Red Cross, his days as a Red Cross volunteer, finding out what really happens to the donated money, and Volunteer Betty.

After story hour, I went back up to the video room to see what was playing. It was an anime titled Pom Poko(?), about a clan of raccoons that could morph from animal form to anthropomorphic to human. Since I came in part way through, it was a little difficult to follow. I stayed for the rest of it, and part of the next film before going back down to see "2 The Ranting Griffon's" comedy show. (Since I had gotten there late, I was not able to get close enough for a good picture.)

The last event for the evening was the Furry Variety Show at midnight:

Tiggaron waits for the show to begin. Like some other events, it started about 20 minutes late.
Our host, Anubis, welcomes everyone to the show.
Sly Rabbit performs "If Broadway Was More Fuzzy" with Bunny Bloom.
A dog puppet makes his first of several appearances to discuss or argue about something with Anubis.
The dogs sing about Dog Rules.
Jugular Jaguar finds a "Boom-Ba-Boom", and finds out that it is impossible to get rid of it. Even Anubis refused to take it.
Scarlett Fox (with Steve Plunkett) perform "Let Me Be Good To You". She also decided to "be good" to a member of the audience.
Quasi Skunk and a fox friend go shopping on eBay.
Rocky Raccoon, a human, and some other furs perform "Not Gonna Take It".
Twisted Puppets -- Again, with Nick Durahbit, George Monkey, and a ferret.
Jugular Jaguar again, this time performing to Leonard Nimoy's "Bilbo".
Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Raccoon, Raccoon
Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Raccoon, Raccoon
Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Snaaaaake, ahhhh Snake!
Ferret, Ferret, Ferret, Ferret... Vixie decides that she can't take any more.
Max Green performs on his unicycle.
A dog sings the "Balls" song from South Park
Ozark and Hayseed perform a parody of "Windy" called "Bitchy"... and Vixie is not pleased.
The dog talks with Anubis again.
A comic that should never be made into a movie. (I don't recall what comic strip or book it was.)
Bunny Bloom and the SwishyTails perform "Am I The Same Girl", and Bunny gets upclose and personal with the audience.
Velcro Tiger and Dex present the educational portion of the show, Proper Hug Procedures.
A Little Bit of Everything.
A polar bear with "You Could Be My Squeeze Toy".
The dog again, doing "No Is No".
Max Green is back again on his unicycle.
The raccoons (and at least one non-coon) perform the Raccoon Song.
All of the evening's performers come back out for the curtain call... without the curtain.

Saturday, November 22 2003

Due to the late hour of the variety show last night, I slept in this morning, and was able to catch the last part of the "Care and Feeding of Your Inner Animal" forum. When that was over, I wound up at the video room again, where they were showing Chuck Jones cartoons. I watched some of those, checked my email account in the internet room, and wandered through the dealer and art rooms while waiting for the fursuit parade to begin...

Parade 01 Parade 02 Parade 03 Parade 04 Parade 05 Parade 06 Parade 07
Parade 08 Parade 09 Parade 10 Parade 11 Parade 12 Parade 13 Parade 14
Parade 15 Parade 16 Parade 17 Parade 18 Parade 19 Parade 20 Parade 21
Parade 22 Parade 23 Parade 24 Parade 25 Parade 26 Parade 27 Parade 28
Parade 29 Parade 30 Parade 31 Parade 32 Parade 33 Parade 34 Parade 35
Parade 36 Parade 37 Parade 38 Parade 39 Parade 40 Parade 41 Parade 42
Parade 43 Parade 44 Parade 45 Parade 46 Parade 47 Parade 48 Parade 49
Parade 50 Parade 51 Parade 52 Parade 53 Parade 54 Parade 55 Parade 56

Parade 57 -- KT's "costume" from a different point of view.

Group photos of the parade participants
Parade 58 Parade 59 Parade 60 Parade 61, and from the other point of view -- Parade 62

After the parade, Cat and Sly Bunny posed for a few photos.

Later that afternoon, I stopped to listen to some piano playing in the lobby. First was Geofox, while Grolphy watched. Next was Scapegoat joined by Geofox and Nips. They both were very good performers.

Sunday, November 23 2003

To Be Continued...