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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Unlike some of our competitors we are not going to try and blackmail you into donating by saying that we won't continue if you don't. That would just be vulgar, but our lives, and those of the animals which we look after, would be a damn sight easier if we receive more donations to our fighting fund. Donate via Paypal today...




Monday, December 10, 2012

THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Sir Patrick Moore (1923-2012)

Sir Patrick inspired successive generations of stargazers with his TV series The Sky At Night and wrote more than 60 books on astronomy. He celebrated the 55th anniversary of the BBC programme in April, as it became longest running series with the same presenter. Brian May was among those paying tribute to Patrick, although he was speaking with his scientist's hat on, rather than as guitarist in Queen - he has a degree in astrophysics. He said: "Patrick is irreplaceable. There will never be another Patrick Moore. But we were lucky enough to get one."

Aged  just 11, Moore became the youngest member of the British Astronomical Association and in April 1957 he hosted the first edition of The Sky at Night - that is, before the Space Age began.

Away from his telescopes, and having musical 'perfect pitch', Patrick Moore played and composed for the xylophone from the age of 12 and his output included operas. Once, at the Theatre Royal Bath, he played 21 xylophone pieces, 19 of which he had written himself.

Politically, he was opposed to immigration and supported the Conservative Party until abandoning them because they were in favour of hunting. In recent years he supported the UK Independence Party, as he saw Britain becoming "a dumping ground" for economic refugees.

In the event of

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

From Nick Redfern's World of Whatever:

I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

So, here we go. Another working week begins  and at last Graham and I plan to edit down some of the Jefferson Starship and Auburn footage from October. Apart from that, I am reading a book about the plight facing our closest cousins  It is called 'Planet without Apes' by Craig Stanford. The other news of note today is that Patrick Moore has died. He was a remarkable man and the world is a poorer place without him.
 
We kick off today with this short but very sweet review of ABWH live at the NEC
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/abwh-review.html
 
News of the next Genre Peak album, vcourtesy of an email from main man Martin Birke
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/genre-peak-martin-birke-e-mailed-me.html
 
A few weeks ago Erik Norlander told us that there was a new single in the offing from Asia featuring John Payne. Now we have the artwork.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-new-single-from-asia-featuring-john.html
 
Our daily visit to Thom the World Poet, down in sunny Austin
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_10.html
 
A eulogistic review of the Atkins/May Project
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/atkinsmay-review.html
 
The saga of the lost Judy Dyble interview continues - now with added Punch
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/recording-calls-saga-continues-with.html
 
*  The Gonzo Daily is a two way process. If you have any news or want to write for us, please contact me at jon@eclipse.co.uk. If you are an artist and want to showcase your work, or even just say hello please write to me at gonzo@cfz.org.uk. Please copy, paste and spread the word about this magazine as widely as possible. We need people to read us in order to grow, and as soon as it is viable we shall be invading more traditional magaziney areas. Join in the fun, spread the word, and maybe if we all chant loud enough we CAN stop it raining. See you tomorrow...

*  The Gonzo Daily is - as the name implies - a daily online magazine (mostly) about artists connected to the Gonzo Multimedia group of companies. But it also has other stuff as and when the editor feels like it. The same team also do a weekly newsletter called - imaginitavely - The Gonzo Weekly. Find out about it at this link:
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html
 
*  Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

RICHARD FREEMAN SENT THIS: Gary Opit - Cryptozoology of Australia & New Guinea

DALE DRINNON: Bigfoot, big birds, Cedar & Willow, Benny's Blog

New at Frontiers of Zoology:

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES (CFZ)

In an article for the first edition of Cryptozoology Bernard Heuvelmans wrote that cryptozoology is the study of 'unexpected animals' and following on from that perfectly reasonable assertion, it seems to us that - whereas the study of out of place birds may not have the glamour of the hunt for bigfoot, or lake monsters - it is still a perfectly valid area for the Fortean Zoologist to be interested in. So, after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo, Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.


OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today



On this day in 1978 Ed Wood died. Wood is almost unanimously cited by film critics as the worst director to ever grace the silver screen (mainly because of Plan 9 From Outer Space) but a lot of these critics fail to take into account more modern directors like Uwe Boll who is in my opinion truly the worst director of all time (and if he wants to have a boxing match with me about that I'd gladly accept http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uwe_Boll#Critic_boxing_matches_.28Raging_Boll.29 )

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