WELCOME TO THE CFZ BLOG NETWORK: COME AND JOIN THE FUN

Half a century ago, Belgian Zoologist Bernard Heuvelmans first codified cryptozoology in his book On the Track of Unknown Animals.

The Centre for Fortean Zoology (CFZ) are still on the track, and have been since 1992. But as if chasing unknown animals wasn't enough, we are involved in education, conservation, and good old-fashioned natural history! We already have three journals, the largest cryptozoological publishing house in the world, CFZtv, and the largest cryptozoological conference in the English-speaking world, but in January 2009 someone suggested that we started a daily online magazine! The CFZ bloggo is a collaborative effort by a coalition of members, friends, and supporters of the CFZ, and covers all the subjects with which we deal, with a smattering of music, high strangeness and surreal humour to make up the mix.

It is edited by CFZ Director Jon Downes, and subbed by the lovely Lizzy Bitakara'mire (formerly Clancy), scourge of improper syntax. The daily newsblog is edited by Corinna Downes, head administratrix of the CFZ, and the indexing is done by Lee Canty and Kathy Imbriani. There is regular news from the CFZ Mystery Cat study group, and regular fortean bird news from 'The Watcher of the Skies'. Regular bloggers include Dr Karl Shuker, Dale Drinnon, Richard Muirhead and Richard Freeman.The CFZ bloggo is updated daily, and there's nothing quite like it anywhere else. Come and join us...

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Saturday, March 28, 2009

THE MOST PECULIAR BOOK YOU WILL SEE REVIEWED HERE THIS YEAR


The CFZ is a very broad church. Its membership and associates include three Peers of the Realm (two of whom are distantly related to the Royal family), various eminent scientists, famous authors and researchers, at least two rock stars and a plethora of less famous musicians, lots of artists, more computer programmers than you can shake a stick at, various second hand book dealers, at least four publishers, two convicted drug dealers (one of whom who is in prison as we speak), at least three other inmates of prisons in the UK or the USA, three ex members of the IRA, several people with far right wing affiliations, four Christian priests/padres/vicars/preachers, an imam, members of at least seven religions, and Lord knows how many ethnic groups, and people ranging in age from eleven to 87. We also have a male stripper.

Now, what a person does in his or her private life is none 0f my affair, and quite a few of the people listed above are close friends of mine, and as far as the stripper is concerned - I have known him since he was in his late teens.

The only reason that he and his profession are mentioned here on the bloggo on this particular saturday night is because he has written a book about his adventures, and how he has used his stripping career to finance his cryptozoological researches, and although not for the faint hearted, it is a surprisingly good read.

Nick is a good writer, and I have been publishing his work in Animals & Men and the CFZ Yearbooks for years now. Indeed we are planning to publish another book of his, about zoological predators (I had to promise Corinna that he would keep his kit on in the cover picture) later this year.

It gives a dispassionate account of a world that most of us never knew existed and a lifestyle that I cannot imagine, but one is left with the impression of a decent man (albeit a decent man with more than the average amount of demons) who has adopted a non-standard lifestyle in order to do non-standard things with his life. It is jaw-dropping at times, and tells me more than I wished to know about the life of someone that I have considered a friend ever since the CFZ started, but I am glad that I read it.

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