Month: March 2015

As originally Posted on mic.com

The news: For years, Josh Cooley worked as a storyboard artist at Pixar Animation Studios. His illustrations laid the blueprint for such family classics as The Incredibles (2004), Ratatouille (2007), and Up (2009). But on Feb. 25, he’ll try his hand at the publishing game with a new book entitled Movies R Fun!: A Collection of Cinematic Classics for the Pre-(Film) School Cinephile. So far, it looks pretty awesome.

Cooley’s book takes a series of iconic scenes, moments, and images from well-known R-rated and adult-themed films, and renders them in his trademark child-friendly style. The result has been advertised as a “hilariously inappropriate” “children’s picture book parody for grown-ups.” From Pulp Fiction and Fight Club to The Shining and Rosemary’s Baby, few classics are spared the Cooley treatment. Here are some excerpts, via Josh Cooley:

Magical movie moments. Two especially disturbing highlights are illustrations depicting the notorious “chest-burster” scene from Alien (1979), and the classic scene in The Godfather (1972) when a character wakes up to find the severed head of his prized racehorse in his bed.

Cooley’s book also captures some solid iconic lines to go with his illustrations. Examples include:

“’You want a toe? I can get you a toe,’ said Walter. ‘Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 p.m. this afternoon, with nail polish.’” – from The Big Lebowski (1997)

“’It rubs the lotion on its skin, or else it gets the hose again,’ explained Buffalo Bill.” – from The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

“’Yippee-Kay-Yay mother#@&*$$%!’ said John McClane.” – from Die Hard (1988)

And so on. The children’s book parody genre had a major success in 2011 with the now-infamous Go the F**k to Sleep, by Adam Mansbach and Ricardo Cortés. That book even received the Samuel L. Jackson treatment, which one could say should be the litmus test for any future classic. Based on these preview images, Josh Cooley’s upcoming work has the potential to be a similar cult favorite down the road. Meanwhile, fans will have to make do with this sneak peak.

As reported on Indystar.com

The organizers of Gen Con, the city’s largest convention in attendance and economic impact, are threatening to move the event elsewhere if Gov. Mike Pence signs controversial religious freedom legislation that could allow business owners to refuse services to same-sex couples.

“Legislation that could allow for refusal of service or discrimination against our attendees will have a direct negative impact on the state’s economy, and will factor into our decision-making on hosting the convention in the state of Indiana in future years,” said Adrian Swartout, owner and CEO of Gen Con LLC, in a letter sent to Pence just hours after lawmakers sent the measure to his desk.

Gen Con’s website describes the convention as “the original, longest-running, best-attended gaming convention in the world!” The conference attracted 56,000 people last year to the Indiana Convention Center and has an annual economic impact of more than $50 million, Swartout said in the letter.

“Gen Con proudly welcomes a diverse attendee base, made up of different ethnicities, cultures, beliefs, sexual orientations, gender identities, abilities, and socio-economic backgrounds,” she wrote. “We are happy to provide an environment that welcomes all, and the wide-ranging diversity of our attendees has become a key element to the success and growth of our convention.”

Gen Con is under contract to hold the conference in Indianapolis through 2020. Conference spokeswoman Stacia Kirby said there are no plans to break the contract. But the state’s adoption of the measure would factor into future decisions, she said.

INDIANAPOLIS STAR
Religious freedom bill headed to Gov. Mike Pence’s desk

Chris Gahl, vice president of marketing and communication for Visit Indy, the city’s tourism bureau, said the organization took a position weeks ago against the bill.

Gahl said Gen Con told Visit Indy about the letter before releasing it publicly. He said no other current clients have expressed concern but potential clients have emailed asking about the bill.

“Our concern is that there could be a misperception with this bill that doesn’t paint a picture of being a warm, welcoming, hospitable place,” Gahl said. “It doesn’t align with the brand that is Indianapolis, and for that matter, Indiana. Because it could impact our ability to win convention business down the road — and keep convention business — we raised our hand and said we do have a concern.”

Gahl noted, however, that 19 other states have a similar law, including Illinois. Chicago, Gahl said, is a top competitor of Indy’s convention business.

The NCAA men’s Final Four will be in Indianapolis next week. The NCAA also puts on the March Madness Music Festival, which includes the band Bleachers, whose lead singer, Jack Antonoff, has been outspoken in support of gay marriage.

“We are examining the details of this bill, however, the NCAA national office is committed to an inclusive environment,” said a statement from the Indy-based organization.

Pence, who has said he intends to sign the measure, was undeterred by Gen Con’s letter.

INDIANAPOLIS STAR
Salesforce exec criticizes ‘religious freedom’ bill

“The Governor has been clear on where he stands on this issue and we don’t have anything to add at this time,” spokeswoman Kara Brooks said.

Senate Bill 101 would prevent state and local governments from “substantially burdening” a person’s exercise of religion unless the government can prove it has a “compelling interest” and is doing so in the “least restrictive” means.

Supporters say the measure would protect people and business owners with strong religious beliefs from government intrusion.

Opponents say it would license discrimination, particularly against gays and lesbians. They are mounting a last ditch effort to persuade Pence to change his mind.

The letter from Gen Con is similar to one last week from Salesforce, which said the measure could impact the company’s decision to continue growing in Indiana.

The Republican-controlled Indiana Senate gave the measure final approval Tuesday afternoon on a 40-10 vote along party lines.

I swear I never seen anyone react so fast, all because IMVU took over FA. There are already some accusing them of stealing their art. Now hold on there, although some may not like this takeover, there is absolutely zero proof that any ones hard work is being stolen. Besides if you are worried you simply go to your FA account and delete it. I look at this take over as a good thing, because FA should not be crashing any more. I actually lost count the number of times FA, went down last year. Does anyone want to see that happen again this year? Not me.

I could go in to a long winded rant about this, after I already made my point clear. Calm down and relax. Then wait and see what happens next. That is what I am doing. Besides I have no plans on taking anything off my FA account.

Me on FA

As originally posted on FA

1) Why Sell to IMVU?
IMVU’s offer and their genuine desire to leave Fur Affinity as a completely independent group is what convinced me that this was the right thing to do. They offered us a budget and financial assistance to improve the site, while still leaving us independently run.

2) How does this affect me?
It does not. FA is run independently of IMVU, and will continue to be a furry site RUN by furries. The only difference you will see is IMVU will add some unobtrusive third party ads and, with their financial help, the site will improve. You get a better site in the end.

3) What are the details of the agreement?
Business documents like terms of sale are not shared publicly and this is not an exception to that standard. It falls under under NDA (Non Disclosure Agreement). In addition, there has been talk about IMVU being a publicly traded company – it is not.

IMVU (and their board) are well aware of our content and what we host, and are fine with the site as-is.

4) What does IMVU get out of this?
They get to use our site for advertising from their third-party partners who are interested in engaged users like ours who share a common interest – art. In addition, IMVU has a rather large furry segment which benefits from FA, and likewise, FA members can benefit from IMVU’s offerings.

5) Who is the site admin now?
Dragoneer, and he has been given complete independence and authority by IMVU to run the site as he sees fit, and has been given budget to make the improvements the site has sorely needed. He works for IMVU, and is tasked with improving the the site full time.

6) What about our content? Does IMVU now own rights to it?
No. IMVU does not own, have any rights, take commission from etc for any of your art shared/sold here. It is business as usual, and there are no changes planned in regards to that. You will not be required to sell your content as part of IMVU’s catalog, nor will IMVU have access to use your content as they see fit. Some quotes about “Section 9” of a document have been floating around but that section does not exist.

7) Do we have new content policies?
No. IMVU’s [Terms of Service and content policies do not apply to content shared/sold on our site. There is not going to be any banning of content/users. FA’s site policies that are currently in place will continue to be applicable. While there are minor changes (mostly clarifications) to the AUP coming next week, IMVU has not suggested, nor requested, any changes be implemented to the site other than some upcoming advertising changes. It is our goal to integrate the ads in a non-obtrusive way (like our current ads).

And on that note: all existing advertising will be honored, and will be kept as-is.

8) Have you given IMVU our information? Do they have access?
No, and the sharing of FA user data/personal information is NOT part of our agreement and thus will not be happening in the future. FA data is FA data, and will not be shared with IMVU or used for marketing purposes.

9) Are you going to have paid accounts/subscriptions etc?
We have no plans to introduced paid account/subscriptions. If that were to happen in the future it would be site’s the decision, and one which would have to be thought over very carefully. However, we have no plans to do so at this time.

10) Are any IMVU staff on the administration/mod team?
With exception of Dragoneer (who was brought on to IMVU staff to maintain and run the site), IMVU is hands-off and the site will continue to be run as it always has been: by furries, for furries.

11) How does this apply to FA United (www.faunited.org)?
Just like the website, nothing is changing in regards to the FA United’s direction (except that we may have a larger budget for nicer events!). The convention will still be held September 11-13, and the site is launching early next month.

12) What happened to the funds from the donation held in Oct 2014?
The money raised for the donation drive went to several things:
A) Upgrading our DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) protection from Cloudflare
B) Purchased a new server (replacement app/advertising server)
C) Upgraded existing servers (e.g. doubled the RAM in our main DB)
D) Extensions to the site’s SSL certificates
E) Purchased promised donor rewards

In addition, there have been rumors that the discussion of sale happened during this donation drive. This is incorrect. The donation drive (a reaction to constant DDoS attacks) was held mid-October. The sale of the site did not take place until January.

13) What is IMVU?
IMVU (www.imvu.com) is a 3D avatar-based social network with over 130 million registered users from around the world. It is available on desktop and mobile platforms. People come together to dress up, chat, role-play, make friends and express their creativity in various ways including creating products for the world’s largest virtual catalog with over 16M products. IMVU is free to register and play, with opportunities to earn Credits (IMVU currency) in multiple ways as well as purchasing them along with account upgrades. The community is open to 13+ users and does have an Access Pass section for mature-themed content.

We are proud to announce Fur Affinity has joined the IMVU (link) family. Fur Affinity (formerly a part of Ferrox Art LLC) was acquired by IMVU earlier this year in January 2015. We are looking forward to the partnership allowing both FA and IMVU to grow and foster the furry community and to celebrate its unique talents, creativity and self-expression.
As you know, IMVU has previously advertised their services to our community, which led to further discussions about the obvious overlap among our members. Both IMVU and FA community members love to socialize and connect anonymously with people from around the world with diverse backgrounds, talents, and creative histories. They both express their artistic and creative skills in a variety of ways – via artwork, storytelling, fursuiting, crafts and more! Our partnership was the natural and reasonable conclusion to bring these similar and often already connected communities together officially.
Going forward, FA will continue to operate independently but with IMVU’s support and resources to upgrade our services. We can now work on improving our infrastructure, adding more storage, making performance improvements and improved coding support to reach our full potential. As a community member, the only difference you will notice is a better, smoother experience and increased functionality of the site as time goes on.
FA started with a dream and a roll of duct tape, but grew and thrived thanks to the support of our community. We became one of the top 5,000 sites globally, 1,500 sites within the United States. The future remains bright, and together we can aim to reach even higher.
We look forward to having you continue to participate in our community, be creative, be proud, and, above all else, have fun. You are unlikely to notice any changes apart from an improved experience on the site and some added advertising.
Naturally, we understand you will have lots of questions regarding this change, and we are here to answer them. You can check the forums for the official question/answers (link). We’ll be compiling a Q/A to help address concerns and response to questions!
IMVU (pronounced M View) is a 3D virtual chat environment.
From IMVU’s site:
Company
IMVU is the world’s leading 3D social network with over 130 million registrants and the world’s largest user-generated catalog of virtual goods with over 16 million items. IMVU’s users seek and create new connections, lives, and lifestyles in a completely user-generated world that combines custom avatars, chat, community, content creation, commerce, and anonymity. Located in Mountain View, California, IMVU has won multiple awards for being a “Bay Area Best Place to Work” and is backed by venture investors Menlo Ventures, Allegis Capital, Bridgescale Partners and Best Buy Capital.
Management Team
Brett Durrett, Chief Executive Officer
James Birchler, Vice President of Engineering
Kevin Henshaw, Senior Vice President of Business Development and GM, Revenue
Mike Smith, Vice President of People and Talent
Matt Danzig, Co-Founder and Vice President of Creative
Jon Watte, Vice President of Technology
Stewart Bonn, SVP of Product

Interesting Responce to this on Flayrah