[Vfw-times] Cloudchaser's Memphit Furmeet con report-Includes artwork :-)

[Rufinoform at aol.com]

Hello!

I said that when I got back from MFM that I would be sending out my con 
report, so here it is :-)  As before with my Anthrocon report, I apologize if 
anyone takes this to be a "here's what you missed, loser" type message as 
opposed to what I intend for it to me, that is, a "wish you were here!" type 
message :-)

FRIDAY
Unlike going to AC, no problems finding the hotel this time :-)  It was 
almost easier finding the hotel than it was driving around the parking lot 
trying to find the front door of the hotel :-)

As some of you already know, MFM is in a new hotel this year, having outgrown 
the old hotel.  I think the organizers made a good choice.  Large hotel with 
plenty of room to grow, right off the interstate, right next to the airport 
and the hotel's restaurant had breakfast, lunch and dinner menus at 
reasonable prices.  Also, unlike AC's hotel which had only 3 out of four 
elevators working, this hotel has 5 elevators and they all work :-)  Makes it 
a LOT easier to move between floors :-)

You all know how Borg ships are cubical in shape, right?  the con's two 
bulliten boards have a 4 sided cubical shape.  So they instead of "Message 
Board", they got tagged "Message Borg" :-)

I found that a good way to advertise a site at a furry con is to leave 
something on the flyer table/message board with the URL to the site printed 
on it.  I saw where someone had left cards advertising TNFur, a 
yahoogroups.com list for furs who live in Tennessee and I was one of at least 
3 furs that weekend who discovered that list and signed up for it because of 
those cards.

Also, I have yet to check the hits they got since last Friday, but I left out 
one set of cards advertising my main page, the page on my site that displays 
all the artwork and stories with Cassie the Rock Vixen and  the page on my 
site that displays all the artwork and stories with Vixina.  I also left out 
a second set of cards advertising my "Louve RSD Awareness Page" (see my 
signature at the end of this report for URL).  By when I got what was left of 
the cards back Sunday evening, 119 of the first set had been taken and 110 of 
the second set had been taken :-)

We were blessed with good weather all weekend.  True, it was cloudy and often 
raining most of the weekend, but that's the point.  Temperatures stayed in 
the 70's instead of being the usual near 100 that it is in Memphis at this 
time of year.

SATURDAY
Most of today was spent running around getting sketches done.

I did discover one negative thing about the hotel's location.  Remember where 
I said it was near the airport?  Memphis is the location of FedEx's 
headquarters, the hotel is less than 2 miles from the end of one of the 
runways and is almost directly under that runway's landing/takeoff slope.  So 
it was noisy at times.  Stll, though, good choice of hotel overall :-)

Anytime you have a full moon at midnight during a furry con, you can pretty 
much count on there being a howling.  That night at midnight, about 100 of us 
went out in the parking lot & gathered in a circle to howl at the moon just 
for the fun of it.  The amusing thing was that before we could get started, 
we had to step aside to let cars moving through the parking lot get by and 
every time we did, a few of the wolves would go running after the car.  Well, 
what do you expect canids to do? :-)


SUNDAY
The con staffers running the fursuit masquerade were nice to people with 
cameras, giving us first choice at the seats before they let everyone else in 
so we could get good places for taking photo or video :-)  I would have got 
photos of the masquerade, but I was taping it.

Video overall was dissapointing, the only video I got being of the fursuit 
parade and later the masquerade.

I would have liked to have taped Kage's Story Hour, but was told by the furs 
staffing the registration table that he wasn't going to be there.  I later 
found out the reason why I was told that.  All weekend long, I kept seeing a 
fur running around wearing a brown paper bag with brown paper ears & a black 
tipped white cone with whiskers & a thick white rope for a tail, all as part 
of what later got called "the cheapest fursuit ever".  He had "The Great 
Mysterious Furry" on his con badge, so nobody knew who he was.  Then at the 
fursuit masquerade mid-Sunday afternoon, he got unmasked.  I'll give you one 
guess who it was :-)

As many of you already know, Tiger Haven (tigerhaven.org), a big cat 
sanctuary near Knoxville, TN suffered a devestating fire in the last year 
that destroyed some of their buildings and killed four tiger cubs.  The 
charity auction and other donations raised over $6,000 that was given 
directly to Tiger Haven representatives that were at the con :-)  HUMAN 
representatives, silly!  Not actual live tigers! :-)

One really nice thing that I hope ets repeated was that ater the closing 
ceremonies, every con attendee that wanted it got treated to a dinner of BBQ 
chicken, mashed potatoes and beans with chocolate cream & walnut pie for 
dessert :-)


PHOTOS
http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/mf01ph01.jpg
Due to the fact that apparently nobody can make a one-use camera that can 
take decent photos in good light as well as bright light, I only 5 photos 
because they all came out so dark (I am seriously thinking about getting a 
digital camera that'll take better photos even though I'll hardly use it) , 
so I put them all in one image.  From top to bottom, two 2.5 week old kittens 
that the Arkansas Humane Association had at their table in the Dealer's Den, 
the view from my room on the 4th floor, the BBQ chicken dinner that was 
offered to all MFM attendees after the closing ceremonies, an unknown fur and 
two unknown fursuits posing for photos.

ARTWORK
Now for the final part of my con report.  This con, I got the most sketches 
overall, with a total of 1 of myself, 12 of myself pictured with Vixina and 
13 of Cassie the rock vixen :-)

MYSELF
All drawings of myself (and a few stories that I appear in) can be seen at
http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/Cloud002.htm

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/meac2001badge.jpg
Color con badge by Tiltwolfe


CASSIE THE ROCK VIXEN
All sketches of Cassie show her posing in her usual fancy dress, stockings 
and with her guitar, which is how I told artists to draw her.  A sketch noted 
as "action shot" means that Cassie is sketched as performing a show.  All 
drawings of Cassie and several stories that she appears in can be seen at
http://members.aol.com/Cassie.htm

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/bill_holbrook_01.jpg
Pencil sketch by Bill Holbrook

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/eric_schwartz_01.jpg
Pencil Sketch by Eric Scwartz (action shot)

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/james_donaldson_01.jpg
Pencil sketch by James Donaldson

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/koz_01.jpg
Pencil sketch by Koz (action shot)

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/ksharra_01.jpg
Inked sketch by K'sharra (action shot)

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/mathias_blackwolf_01.jpg
Inked sketch by Mathias Blackwolf (action shot)

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/miachel_higgs_01.jpg
Pencil sketch by Miachel Higgs

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/oscar_finlayson_01.jpg
Inked sketch by Oscar Finlayson

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/pelzig_01.jpg
Inked sketch by Pelzig

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/rags_01.jpg
pencil/blue pencil sketch by Rags

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/randy_entinger_01.jpg
pencil/blue pencil sketch by Randy Entinger

http://members.aol.com/cassierockvixen2/tiltwolfe_01.jpg
Pencil sketch by Tiltwolfe

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/zorro_re_01.jpg
Inked blue pencil sketch by Zorro Re


VIXINA AND I
All sketches of Vixina and I and a few stories that we both appear in can be 
seen at
http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/CldVix04.htm
I told all artists to draw Vixina and I in any clean romantic setting, saying 
that I go by the "would I show this to my mother" standard.  Instead of her 
usual tank top with her cutoff shorts, I had each artist draw Vixina wearing 
either her triangle top with her cutoff shorts or her dress.  Again, Vixina 
is a fictional character that's not even loosely based on anyone I know.

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme03.jpg
Pencil sketch by Tiltwolfe of Vixina (bikini triangle top and cutoff shorts) 
with a wide eyed look of surprise on her face as she looks at me down on one 
knee in front of her, you can probably guess from that what I'm doing :-)

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme11.jpg
Pencil sketch by Bill Holbrook of Vixina (bikini triangle top and cutoff 
shorts) and I looking at each other while we walk paw in paw.

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme01.jpg
Inked sketch by Brian McPherson of Vixina (dress) and I standing nose to 
nose, me saying something to her

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme02.jpg
Inked sketch by Bushycat of Vixina (bikini triangle top and cutoff shorts) 
supposedly having a picnic in a grassy meadow somewhere, but obviously having 
lost interest in the food.

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme09.jpg
Pencil Sketch by Chris Sutor of Vixina (dress) and I holding each other's 
paws and looking into each other's eyes.

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme05.jpg
Pencil sketch by K'sharra of Vixina (bikini triangle top and cutoff shorts) 
and I sitting poolside, legs dangling in the water, Vixina leaning towards me.

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme04.jpg
Pencil sketch by Mathias Blackwolf of Vixina (bikini triangle top and cutoff 
shorts) and I sitting face to face, holding paws, leaning close to each other 
and looking into each other's eyes.

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme12.jpg
Pencil sketch by Miachel Angel Pena of Vixina (bikini triangle top and cutoff 
shorts) and I in a rocky woodland setting, me having fallen asleep with my 
head on Vixina's lap (If you're wondering why the ears look the way they do, 
that's probably because Miachel likes to draw squirrels)

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme10.jpg
Pencil sketch by Rags of Vixina (bikini triangle top and cutoff shorts) with 
a happy look on her face as I offer her a flower.

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme06.jpg
Pencil sketch by Rags of Vixina (bikini triangle top and cutoff shorts) 
looking back at me while I hold her from behind.

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme08.jpg
Color sketch by Sammi of Vixina (dress) and I standing close, me touching her 
face & holding her arm, Vixina holding my arm, the two of us looking into 
each other's eyes.

http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/vixme07.jpg
Pencil sketch by Tigerjuice of Vixina (dress) and I standing close, me 
holding her waist, Vixina holding my arms, our eyes closed & noses almost 
touching.

Take care!  Hope you liked the report and the art and that you had as good of 
a Labor Day weekend as I did!  Wuff!

Cloudchaser Shaconage, a chocolate & peanut butter lovin' Red Wolf furry
Louve RSD Awareness Page-In Honor of Louve
http://cloudchaser.esmartweb.com/louversd.htm
Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, a devestating and painful illness that 1,000's 
of people including my sister Louve must live with every day.  Louve is in 
the final stage of full body RSD a.k.a. Dysautonomia, incurable and fatal 
after prolonged severe suffering than can last for years
http://www.ninds.nih.gov/health_and_medical/disorders/dysauto_doc.htm
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