The bowling alley was a relic from the 50s. A monument to neon and stucco built during an era when we all knew that America was a great nation and that we were headed into a wonderful future. Inside were people waiting for their shoes and balls getting ready for a fun night out with the family. Most of them had no idea the mass of weird that was heading their way fueled by the passions of the internet. Fathers were buying their first beer of the night and helping their kids tie on a pair of smelly rented shoes holding onto that dream of a bright and shining future for America. Then the Furries and Trekkies started arriving.
The internet got wind of a bowling night that for all intents and purposes was planned as a simple bit of fun between geek cultures. The Furries, known for dressing up in outfits that look like team sports mascots and doing strange things to each other, and the Trekkies, known for obsessing over an old TV show and being generally creepy and socially awkward, were getting together for a bowling tournament. The organizers thought it would be fun and everyone would have a good laugh. Then their flyer “Furries vs Klingons” showed up on Boing Boing and it was all over. The fun lighthearted event was morphed and devoured by the power of the net. Drama ensued. The klingon fan group hadn’t been involved in setting up the event and they got their panties in a wad. Rumors started flying all over in blogs and forums. Real world media started paying attention looking for a distraction from the issues of the day. The organizers felt things getting out of hand but didn’t change their plans. They were going to get together and have fun.
Saturday night rolled around and it was about time for the event to start. G4 tv and Fark tv were on hand, spectators were slowly spilling in. There were already some Trekkies on hand and a couple of fur suited Furries running around the bowling alley meeting kids and having a good time. The people who had come out for a night of bowling with their families were all confused and looking on with awe at this strange group. The event was taking up between 1/4 and 1/3 of the lanes and had an entire section roped off especially for them. It was $10 a head to go behind the rope and join in the fun. There were as many people on the outside there to watch as had shown up to bowl by the time things got rolling.
The Furries and Trekkies were having a good time. Both groups were enjoying all the attention and were all trying to get some time on air. The camera crews were obliging them all since this is what they had come for. It took almost an hour after everything was supposed to start before anyone actually got around to bowling.
The crowd of spectators were having a great time as well. Mostly they were looking for something weird to happen. The Furries to start humping each other on the lanes, the Klingons to start screaming in Klingon at the pins or both groups to get into some sort of drunken brawl. Despite the fact that none of that happened everyone around seemed to get into the spirit of the event. People chose sides some were for the Trekkies since they could identified with them. Others were for the Furries since they were more novel to most of the people around. Really who hasn’t seen a grown man wearing a prosthetic forehead bowling before.
The Furries had the best showing of the night of the two groups. There were more people in full fur suits than I would have imagined. And these suits were quite amazing. I expected to see lots of scarily low budget outfits making the person inside look like some sort of bad horror movie villain. Instead they were detailed and expensive looking. They could have all been costumed characters at Disney, or mascots for sporting events. Some of the outfits were probably better than either in reality. They had mouths that moved and allowed them to have drinks and snacks without coming out of character. The best one I saw could even blush. It looked like there was a mechanism in his nose that when squeezed caused his cheeks to light up. It was really quite brilliant and fun to watch him pantomime embarrassment. The furs were all hamming it up and having a great time running around in their costumes and having a good laugh at the people around them.
As I watched them I realized that’s what most of them were, people having fun in costumes. Like most people I have always viewed Furries as a sort of strange group of people that were all a bit crazy and believed that inside they really were these animals that they dressed up as. It was an elaborate fetish for them, the way they felt most comfortable and this outfit represented who they truly were inside. In a way I’m sure for some of them it is. But they didn’t come off as creepy to me. Sort of strange, but who isn’t these days. Outside of the suits though they were regular happy people. Not the scary examples that most of us have run across on the internet or seen in news broadcasts.
The Trekkies only had a few people in costume, and only a few of those were Klingons. They mostly stuck to the lanes closest to the walls and got outshone in presence by the Furries. The most bizzare thing about the Trekkies was seeing the Klingons in bowling shoes. There is just something wrong about a Klingon in bowling shoes. However, the Trekkies did have one crowning achievement. despite their smaller numbers they won the tournament.
The Trekkies and Klingons won. Which wasn’t really a shock to anyone watching. The Furs did their best but seemed to be a bit handicapped by the fact that they were wearing giant masks that I can only assume made seeing down the lanes difficult at best and well nigh impossible at worst. Add to that the lack of fursuit sized bore holes in the bowling balls and you had the inevitable. Half blind people granny rolling the balls down the lanes. With the exception of a few very talented furs the gutters saw more actions that night than the pins.
The bowling though really wasn’t what Saturday night was about though. It was about fun and bringing together two groups of strange individuals. There were even a group of Luchadors that showed up to talk trash and drink beer. They never could give a satisfactory reason why they weren’t bowling. Like everyone else though they came out to see what this night was all about. In the end they actually got to give the trophy to the winners. From the number of videos and pictures all over the net today it’s obvious that the tournament was a success. More of one than the coordinators ever expected I would assume. In the end everyone had a great time, the Furries, the Trekkies and the spectators all got a great night.
I’m not sure what the people who came out to have a fun night with their family thought of the whole thing. At the end of the night most of them still had the same confused looks on their faces they had when we all got there. This wasn’t the America they were used to. Some of them seemed to get it others just kept their distance. The Furries and the Trekkies brought their worlds together and out into public for everyone to see. In that little bowling alley in a questionable part of Atlanta America got another glimpse of the strange reality that actually makes up this wonderful world. I’m sure some of them came away thinking that these scary people from the internet had come out of the dark corners and intruded on their lives, but other seemed to embrace these odd fellows. And as one of the spectators I talked to said, “this was the best night of free entertainment I have had in a long time.” I agree.
~JN
My pictures from the night.
