Respected thoughts

We've just come back from Hamburg, where we attended the inaugural furry rock and metal dance, Winter's Embrace. I've been yearning for such an event for almost 20 years. The furry dance scene is very well-established, particularly in Germany, but many organisers have been very sniffy when it comes to anything outside of the usual electronic genres. I have always thought this was a mistake - the metal dances at NFC and CFz are both very popular - so there was no reason why a dedicated rock and metal dance shouldn't work. This was where Winter's Embrace came in, which sold out within the first week of tickets opening, meaning it was a full and riotous occasion. It lasted for ten hours and took place in the Stellwerk Club at Harburg train station. This is a club between platforms 3 and 4, which you can see on the main dance floor. It was fascinating watching all the trains pull in and out, as well as dancing in fursuit in front of the smokers who were sat on the bench outside. The signal box theme of the club (Stellwerk is the German for signal box) with a real semaphore signal in the corner was also fantastic.

The dance area itself was quite small but there was room for a dedicated moshpit. The styles of music varied between rock/metal and hardstyle, but it was quite synchronous. Unfortunately, due to technical issues, proceedings didn't start until about 40 minutes after they should have done. We had sponsor tickets so we were allowed to enter the club early, meaning we were hanging around for over an hour and a half just chilling and chatting. The bar were serving bottles of Ratsherrn craft beer for €5 a pop, although they did have an odd 50 cents Pfand system which didn't make much sense, while I did have an interesting chat with one of the bar staff who preferred cash over card for data privacy reasons. We also caught up with DASPRiD, who was hosting a heavy metal set at 8pm (moved to 8:40pm due to the delay). I decided to get into suit for this, spending the full two hours moshing and rocking on the dance floor. I have been very fatigued since summer though and it was quite difficult to remain in suit for so long, but I pushed my way through and rewarded myself with some Haribo suppositories at the end. There was a load of free food on offer, both in the fursuit lounge and near the bar, so I spent a lot of the evening grazing on Haribo and paprika-flavoured crisps, while at one point in suit, I was asked "Femboi or Scottish?" on account of me wearing a kilt. "Why not both?" I replied.

We ended up staying until 2am, eight of the 10 hours, largely because of my tiredness. Wolfie's leg, which has behaved all weekend, was starting to give him some issues by this point and with the music turning to hardstyle and the like, I had less interest. The highlight of the evening was DJ Fuchs's metal mix, which included loads of nu-metal bangers along with some pop punk too. I would have liked to have suited for this too, but alas I was too tried. Also, annoying, as soon as I had gotten into suit the first time, I needed a pee, which is a challenge as I have no zippers. We managed, but my aging weak bladder is starting to become an annoyance. Apparently, there was a reward for the best fursuit there - we were given stickers to give to your favourite one - but I don't think many people participated in this. Anyway, I didn't win, I know that. There were only a handful of full suiters there, so the changing area was pretty well-sized for us. It was in the main bar area, away from the smaller club area.

All in all then it was a fantastic event and one I really hope returns next year. Hansa Furs did a great job, while EF donated all of the equipment. I'm glad to see that a rock and metal furry rave is not only possible, but popular, and I hope more will spring up. I also hope it will convince other cons that there is demand for this type of music and there is nothing wrong about having some more diversity. Let's see what happens.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, but no less fun. We got into Hamburg about 20 minutes late at 10:30pm and checked into our hotel, the Holiday Inn niu. This was around the corner from the usual Premier Inn we stay at in Hammerbook. I wanted to try somewhere new and it was a little cheaper. I signed up to their membership program to get the free late check-out to 2pm, which was useful today, even if room keeping knocked on our door twice beforehand. They apologised at reception, saying sometimes people are drunk and forget to wake up, but it was a little annoying. As we had a bit of time before our train back today, we grabbed a burger at Burger Heroes, a local smash burger chain that conveniently had a branch right outside the train station. This was very juicy and tender, but the fries were the best, with the aioli sauce incredible. Once sated, we ended up in a simple bar at the train station as we had an hour to kill before catching our train. We sat with a beer and watched live coverage of three Bundesliga 2 matches simultaneously, with the coverage switching between all three. 

On Friday evening, after we had checked in, we headed to Craft Bier Bar, a place we usually go as it's the best craft beer bar in the city. So it was again, with a range of interesting beers on tap. Most of these were 250ml pours and Wolfie and I had one each. We usually share, but Wolfie still had the remnants of the cold that's been plaguing him for over a week. Towards the end, the man wearing flags was back singing Nessum Dorma. We stayed until closing and there was one angry man who told him to 'fuck off' and I don't know why. The barman tried to persuade this guy no to do his usual party piece, but he asked whether he could sing it just once. The barman acquiesced and I'm glad that he did. This guy is a bit strange, but harmless, and it adds character to the place. We also spent a good amount of time marvelling at a Namco Japanese shooter game from 1995 with shonky graphics and an even shonkier story line.

Little else has happened this week. The Trump tariff threats have overshadowed the weekend a little bit, but hopefully Europe will stand up to his insanity. I had a palaver over picking up a copy of The Wideness of the World, the Furry Historical Fiction Society book in which I appear. UPS said they couldn't deliver it on Monday, despite me being in all day, so they sent it to a pack station 35 minutes' walk from my house. They said I just needed my ID, but when I got there on Thursday, they insisted on a QR or eight-digit code, neither of which I had. I tried to ring customer service but it wouldn't connect, so I sent them an email once I had gotten back home, annoyed. Fortunately, they did send me a code on Friday and that meant I could pick it up, but it was a huge chunk out of both days. The only other writing thing that's happened this week is the launch of the Ursa Majors, in which I have two stories in the running. I'm currently canvassing for nominations, as it would be great to make the shortlist.

Conveniently, little is happening at work, at least with the main client. I am not sure how long this is going to last though and I think it won't be long before the arrangement comes to an end. This would be annoying financially, but I wouldn't lament losing the work, although it would be nice to find something else to replace it beforehand. I have been applying for many jobs, but have had little come back. You either get ghosted, rejected, or the job is no longer available. This latter situation has happened twice in the last six weeks now and is particularly annoying as both of these jobs looked very good. I spent a lot of time on the applications, so it is frustrating, but I guess I've just got to keep ploughing on. I would like a break though as a dedicated professional purpose would probably improve my self-esteem somewhat.