CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: 12/18/12

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...

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

CRYPTOLINK: The Bigfoot experience

December 10, 2012, 05:00 AM By Bill Silverfarb Daily Journal staff

In 1967, a couple of men filmed a creature unknown to science that has become affectionately known as Bigfoot.

Shot by Roger Patterson and Robert Gimlin along the Klamath River in the far north reaches of California, scientists mostly dismiss the film as a hoax but those who contend the creature is real say the film is the best well-known piece of evidence that shows the hairy human-like creatures are indeed real.

Frame 352 of the film shows what appears to be a female Sasquatch staring directly at the camera. Coupled with footprint castings of an abnormally large creature found in Northern California nearly 17 years before the film was shot, believers contend there is plenty of proof the creatures are real since there have been Bigfoot sightings in practically every state in the country and Canada, too.

Belmont resident Jerry Hein first saw the Gimlin-Patterson film in 1971 and became convinced the creature was real. Forty years later, Hein and a group of local theorists meet monthly to discuss the phenomenon and have even gone out on search expeditions together.

Together, the group makes up the Bay Area Bigfoot Research Organization, which is affiliated with the Animal Planet television series “Finding Bigfoot.” Hein knows the cast of characters in the television series and they are all serious about finding Bigfoot. “The goal is to prove they are real without killing or capturing them,” Hein, 59, told the Daily Journal. And there are thousands of such creatures, he said. Although they are not known to inhabit San Mateo County, Hein said there may have been a sighting in La Honda once. They certainly have been sighted in the Santa Cruz Mountains but most have been seen in Northern California and the eastern parts of Washington and Oregon, he said.

Read on...

CRYPTOLINK: Tales of Bigfoot from the Navajo reservation

FARMINGTON, N.M. -- A smashed watermelon is spread out in the middle of a dirt road in Upper Fruitland, a community where everything from giant pterodactyls to walking lizards to furry children have been reported. The watermelon happens to be for Bigfoot, another one of the inhabitants of the bucolic town on the outskirts of the Navajo reservation. "My grandma left it for him," said Felicia Frank, who lives nearby. "I said, 'Grandma, you're feeding Bigfoot?' " Down the road, Frank points out where several people have sighted the legendary, hairy being, along with other odd species. "Things like this happen all the time on the rez," she said, noting that it is not just in Upper Fruitland that these extraordinary sightings occur.

Read on...

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.

UK SIGHTINGS: Fisherman comes face-to-face with 'L...

FEATURE LINK: Big Cats in Crisis as Populations De...

FEATURE LINK: Lair of the Beasts: Britain's Big Ca...

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.

Vital Central American wetland under threat from d...

I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

Yesterday was a sad one. Helen and the girls were very brave but there was a lot of emotion, and a lot of hugs and tears as Travis passed peacefully into the next world and joined the Wild Hunt. Being unashamedly pantheistic I muttered prayers to both St Francis and to Pan as I always do when a much loved animal passes over. In other news Karl Shuker's colour cat book is finally available, and looks fab! I am still reading Peter Hook's massively funny book about The Hacienda, and I hope to be doing some more interviews over the next few days. So life goes on...

We kick off today with our daily visit to Thom the World Poet
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_18.html

Gonzo's track of the day is the new single by Asia featuring John Payne
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/gonzo-daily-track-of-day-seasons-will.html

This is very off topic but I was very touched by an item on Pete Townhend's blog where he paid tribute to three old friend's of The Who, who have recently died
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/off-topic-pete-townshend-pays-tribute.html

A spiffing new song from Mimi Page
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/new-music-from-mimi-page.html

More on JohnPayne's 'Raiding the Rock Vault' project
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/more-on-john-payne-raiding-rock-vault.html

The fourth and final part of our exclusive interview with Michael Des Barres
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/12/exclusive-michael-des-barres-interview_5134.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 - imaginatively - 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?

CATS OF MAGIC, MYTHOLOGY, AND MYSTERY IS NOW IN PRINT!!

Yes, my latest book, Cats of Magic, Mythology, and Mystery (CFZ Press: Bideford, 2012), is now in print! No more pre-ordering - now, nicely in time for Christmas, it can be directly ordered and purchased from the publisher at www.catsofmagicmythologyandmystery.com and should be available any time now on Amazon and elsewhere online too.

And if you need any further inducement, here's one particular cat of magic, mythology, and mystery giving it a full feline endorsement, ably assisted by the CFZ Press's very own publisher-in-chief, Mr Jonathan Downes, who looks equally delighted with it!