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...




Thursday, December 13, 2012

DALE DRINNON: Atlantean Sahara, Cedar and Willow, Benny's Blogs

New at the Frontiers of Anthropology:
 
New on Cedar and Willow:
 
New on Benny's Blog:
 
Best Wishes, Dale D.
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NICK REDFERN'S MOVIE MONSTERS

They range from a massive, city-destroying reptile to a monstrous ape, a glowing-eyed winged fiend to an oversized spider, a shape-shifting werewolf to a blood-thirsty giant worm, and much, much more. They have given cinema audiences thrills, shocks, scares and frights for decades. And they have achieved legendary status in the worlds of film-making and Hollywood. Some you will know, others may be less familiar. But they all have one thing in common: they fall under the banner of our personal, favourite monsters of the movies. So, sit back, grab a bag of popcorn and a coke, and read on.


My take on the top 20 monsters of the movies...
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THIS CHRISTMAS FROM CFZ PUBLISHING GROUP: Cats of Magic, Mythology and Mystery by Karl Shuker


Surveying an eclectic spectrum of feline anomalies existing both within and far beyond the perimeters of cryptozoology, here are homing cats and demon cats, king cheetahs and woolly cheetahs, ligers and leopons, winged cats and horned cats, belligerent nundas and evanescent marozis, the mythology of the tailless Manx cat and the origins of Lewis Carroll's Cheshire Cat, latter-day sabre-tooths and feline deities from around the world, dream cats, snow cats, and psychic cats, displaced panthers and out-of-place pumas, Janus cats of the double visage and the lost constellation of Felis, marsupial lions and Queensland tigers, green kittens and Runcible Cats, albinistic leopards and melanistic tigers, servalines, cheetalines, aquatic yaquarus, even a cat-headed serpent or two – and much, much else besides.

The result is a unique clowder of caterwauling curiosities all too frequently neglected or sorely restricted in previous works of feline non-fiction, but greatly deserving of ailurophilic attention, and lavishly supplemented throughout by over 200 remarkable illustrations, including many rare and never-before-published images.

So let Dr Karl Shuker be your guide as you journey through a feline phantasmagoria wholly unlike any cat book previously published - celebrating the magic, mythology, and mystery encompassing one of our world's most inscrutable and fascinating mammalian dynasties: Felidae, the genealogy of Grimalkin.

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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.
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I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

Things are actually going quite well today. I finally sorted out a seemingly insurmountable technical problem concerning Richard Freeman's book (or at least I think I have), and am feeling quite pleased with myself. I am saddened by the death of Ravi Shankar, and listened to the 'Chants of India' album that he made with George Harrison. I really am quite impressed by the way that my 83 year old mother-in-law copes with the madness that is my life. Strange people come and go, and odd music is listened to and esoteric subjects discussed, and the sweet lady takes it all in her stride. I am truly blessed.
We kick off today with our regular visit to the home of Thom the World Poet. (Also poetfreaks, read his eulogy to Ravi Shankar below)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_13.html
Part two of our exclusive interview with the lovely Judy Dyble
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/exclusive-judy-dyble-interview-part-two.html
Once again I have shamelessly nicked a pile of archive stuff from Helen McCookerybook's blog page. But I think that you will agree with me that my chicanery has paid off
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/more-helen-and-horns-stuff-pinched.html
I am very fond of Auburn - they are a brilliant band, and this picture captures their essence on stage
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-favourite-picture-yet-of-auburn-live.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?
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TODAY'S BIG CAT ROUND UP

The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. In September 2012 Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.



  • NEWSLINK: Tiger attacked, killed by other big cat ...
  • NEWSLINK: Forest officials on the trail of big cat...
  • FEATURELINK: Tracking the elusive snow leopard
  • FEATURELINK: Big cat wrangler
  • VIDEO: Rufus the Baby Bobcat Kitten - Big Cat Resc...
  • NEWSLINK: Big cat crisis: lion populations dwindli...
  • FEATURELINK: Big Cats - A Feline Fake or Cat Conun...
  • NEWSLINK: Tracking the Elusive Snow Leopard of Afg...
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    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today



    On this day in 1577 Sir Francis Drake set off on his voyage to circumnavigate the world.
  • Here's the "Bigfoot" the Smithsonian Institute is ...
  • Sea Turtle protection device plans shelved by NOAA...
  • 'Whale Skin' Cocktail: London Bar Raided
  • Whale Rotting On Malibu Celebrities' Beach
  • Rhino Crisis Round Up: Google Awards $5M to Help P...
  • Drought May Have Killed Sumerian Language
  • Molecular analysis supports controversial claim fo...
  • Vietnam's alleged last Siamese crocodile killed

    • One of the places Drake would have visited was Africa. Several hundred years later famines on the continent would have provided the inspiration for the world's most patronising Christmas song which included lyrics like “and there won't be snow in Africa this Christmas...” as if that was a bad thing. The mass shut-downs of any sorts of transport infrastructure we get in this country when it snows every year are bad enough, but imagine how bad it would get in a country situated on the equator where it has never snowed before ever! It'd be like the apocalypse:
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