PlanetBears needs a new logo as well as banners. It's very simple - just make something incredible - you have 720x90 pixels (example) to play with for the banner and 250x250 pixels (example) for the logo. It must be in either .JPG, .GIF or .SWF (Flash) format.

This is a contest so the winner will get $100 as well as a lifetime membership to the PlanetBears Gallery and Video section. However ~ all those who send something in will get a year membership to the site, so just by participating you're going to win something (note: your work needs to be approved first).

This contest will run until the middle of August 2008. Send all entries via email or use the contact form. You can apply as many times as you like.

I am going to look for some sponsors as well so maybe I'll be able to give away some DVDs too. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate (or the legal age within your district).
 
Have fun with this one, be creative, make something cool. Logos help define a site so try and help me define PlanetBears ~ an international Bear news site with Bear galleries and videos.

As for the banners, if you want to make it a bit sexier, you can use any of the photos that I've chosen here for this contest.

To all those who have a membership with PlanetBears (and those who still have their membership since the bear-pics days) - please email me or use the contact form and I will give you a temporary username and password to the BearFoot Galleries which has almost a thousand photos of Roger.

Now I posted this very same article back in the middle of May (here) and I was expecting a lot of you guys to email me. However, I didn't even get the fraction of emails I was expecting... which says to me that a lot of people don't read what's on the net... and well... I know I don't read a whole hell of a lot so I guess it's understandable.

In other BearFoot news: when I wrote that article back in May, I got an email from someone who was interested in buying the domain name. Now this was not the 1st time someone wanted to buy BearFoot but this was the 1st serious offer I received... well... it turned out that it wasn't so serious after all and this guy was just leading me on... I don't think he had any intention on buying the domain name, and we negotiated for a month and even when he got his asking price, he declined, which tells me he was a scam with too much time on his hands.

So... whatever... he's a donkey and I wasted my time. The bad news is that I wasted a month when I could have been working on BearFoot. The good news is that I get to keep the BearFoot domain name.

Anyhow... back to the article... to all those who presently have a membership with PlanetBears, please email me and I will give you a password to the site. It is a temporary password but at least you will get to preview the site. But once the website is finished and we're ready to go live, the password will no longer be good.

So please - contact me... I have something good to give you... honest.

This feature of a TubeBear profile is sad... it's actually a profile that belongs to a couple - Duane and Lee - their profile being the ChubTickler. Lee (the younger of the 2) recently passed away just shy a month ago, and Duane is asking to keep up the profile as a way to keep Lee's memory alive. I thought that was a really touching gesture.

From their profile: "My Lee quietly passed from this world after a long battle with cancer. I have asked that his profile be kept up here in his memory. Lee darling I love you. you will always be in my heart, my sweet ChubTickler".

Every now and then Wikipedia features a guy who definitely could be considered a Bear. Today they are featuring the General Winfield Hancock. From Wiki: "He served with distinction in the Army for four decades, including service in the Mexican-American War and as a Union general in the American Civil War. Known to his Army colleagues as 'Hancock the Superb', he was noted in particular for his personal leadership at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863".

I'm not one who cares anything for wars, but soldiers do look good in their uniforms, and you gotta love this picture of the general, a picture of him taken after his warring days. You can see that he'd put on the pounds a bit and he's kinda busting a little at the seems in his old uniform which he probably had to dust off for the pic.

And that beard 'n stache... very funky... 

Here in Canada, we're just starting our summer season while on the side of the world, in Australia, they are now enjoying their winter ~ altho I doubt their winter is anything like ours in Canada. But just why am I talking about the seasons...? Simply because I found some pics of Sylvain, aka TeddyBear (Gallery) from February '06, pics I never got around to adding (because they are a little boring, to be honest) and altho it's warm and sunny and muggy here, I decided to add them today.

You can see these pics here. It's just pics of TeddyBear walking around a small town that's built on a frozen lake, a city for fisherman. Some of the huts are pretty 'out there'.

Russian artist Alexei Biryukoff (website - articles - profile) has a new out album to add to his incredible list of music that he's created. It's actually the soundtrack to 'Tamara and Demon' (cover) ~ a 20 minute 3D cartoon by Nikolai Aladinskiy and Petr Bobryshev of St. Petersburg, Russia. The album is available for free to download here from his site (and, all is music is available for download right here). The cartoon will be available on YouTube soon.

BearQuest is the first ever UK festival/camping weekend for Bears, Cubs and admirers. The dates are August 29th thru the 31st (which is the week after the August Bank Holiday).

This event be featured in a large circus style marquee with stage, DJ (top DJs confirmed - DJ Charlie from Brighton, DJ Dave Bear, DJ Ross Alexander), entertainment, with beer and food available, and there will be stalls and a large funfair as well as a campsite for guys to pitch their tents. They also have tents on site - 6 or 8 Bears shared tents. BearQuest will also feature a Bearlesque, the last UK tour of Mary Kiani, and there will also be a professional international wrestling show featuring hunky Bear and Cub wrestlers from around the world.

They have vacancies for bar staff, marshalls, stallholders, etc... so please email the organiser DaveBear.

Once again I scoured my archived files and came out with a few pictures of David (gallery - profile) and Eric Z. (gallery) which I never got around to adding to bear-pics, so I'm adding them here today. They were taken on a hot May morning in '05. We were all just sitting on the upstairs balcony and I took a few shots. We later went downtown and I took a few more there as well. View these pics here.

I didn't add them because I didn't think there was enough pics in order to make a set, and I guess there isn't actually that many pics, altho you do get a good view of David's legs. However I'm adding them because I'm accompanying these pics with a little 4 minute video... and this too I never added to bear-pics. This was taken in November '05 - it was around 9:30AM or so and my job was to get David and Eric up since we had to be somewhere for 10AM. They were sleeping in the guestroom that had my aunt's bed in it at the time (I refer to the bed being faggy)... they were slow to waking up so I decided to tickle them out of it. It's nothing more than a cute video (meaning - not sexual).

You can view this clip here (.wmv format - 45mb - you can right click to save) however it's much easier to view it via the net on PlanetBears' Video page (view it here).

There's a few news updates from FunFur.tv (articles - profile).

Firstly, there's their latest Bear chap - Tattooed Bear J. Go watch it from their site (you need to register - it's free) and if you enjoy it, download the hi-res version that's 24 minute for just $3. Secondly, more from the Bear Inspectors. You can see this from their YouTube page - this time they are hunting down some straight Bears. See it here. Third and lastly, they are looking for guys who classify themselves as Bears, Cubs, Daddies, or part of the Bear scene, and who can film a video project on August 9th and 10th as well as November 7th to the 9th, all in Manchester, UK. The end result could be a cash prize of £500. Email them if you interested for more details of what it involves.