New on Cedar and Willow:
New on Benny's Blog:
Best Wishes, Dale D.
Thursday, December 13, 2012
DALE DRINNON: Atlantean Sahara, Cedar and Willow, Benny's Blogs
New at the Frontiers of Anthropology:
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...
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.
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.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
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_13.html
More on Michael Des Barres' excellent Christmas
single
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/link-michael-des-barres-sings-of-skinny.html
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/link-michael-des-barres-sings-of-skinny.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
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
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
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/my-favourite-picture-yet-of-auburn-live.html
We say goodbye to Ravi Shankar
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/those-we-have-lost-ravi-shankar-1920.html
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/those-we-have-lost-ravi-shankar-1920.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
* 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?
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.OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today
On this
day in 1577 Sir Francis Drake set off on his voyage to circumnavigate the
world.
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: