MATT SALUSBURY: ‘There Be Beasts' The First London Cryptozoology Club Mini-Conference - 13 April

I'll be helping out at ‘There Be Beasts ....’, the London Cryptozoology Club Mini-Conference is on Saturday 13th April 2013
11am – 7pm (first presentation at 11.30)
Upstairs at The Old Kings Head, 47-49 Borough High Street, London, SE1 1NA
Tickets: £5 / £2 concessions (students, OAPs, people in receipt of benefits)

To register and purchase tickets please emaillondon.cryptozoology@gmail.com or call James Newton on 07805 356461

Confirmed talks:

• “On the Track of Unknown Animals Worldwide” Richard Freeman, Zoological Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology



Richard Freeman of the CFZ at the Fortean Times UnCon 2010

• “Mermaids: A Natural and Unnatural History” Paolo Viscardi, Natural History Curator and Mermaid Anatomist (works at the Horniman Museum).

• “Current Developments in Bigfoot Research” James Newton, self-confessed Armchair Cryptozoologist. This includes recent research suggesting that Bigfoot may be much closer to us humans than we thought, not a Gigantopithecus at all but a manimal with a culture and a language, that knows how to stay hidden!

• “Does the Pink-Headed Duck Still Survive in Burma?” Richard Thorns, Writer, Ornithologist and Explorer

• 'The Legendary Parakeets of London and Friends' Scott Wood, Co-organiser of The London Fortean Society

Getting here: Nearest train: London Bridge (5 minutes walk)
Nearest tube: London Bridge (5 minutes walk)

Buses: 17, 21, 35, 40, 43, 47, 48, 133, 141, 149, 343, 381, 521, RV1

I've heard James Newton, Richard Freeman and Richard Thorns speak on these topics, all recommended!

See here for London Crytozoology Club's sceptical, pub-based "Tunbridge Wells Bigfoot" investigation earlier this year.

DOUBTFUL NEWS: bigfoot

Woman keeps hair she believes is from Bigfoot. She thinks they are out there and being killed. This story has a rather interesting twist, I found.

Bigfoot believer shares hairs: ‘I wouldn’t give it up for anything’ |  KVAL CBS 13.

Betty Klopp has been holding on to these strands of hair and bits of skin for nearly 45 years.

“Of course I’ve kept it,” Klopp told KPIC News. “I wouldn’t give it up for anything.”

She believes the clumps came from a bigfoot.

Her sasquatch keepsake comes from her parents. Klopp said her parents were driving along in the 1960s, towing a small trailer, when they swerved off the road to avoid hitting what they believed was a man.

The next day, her parents discovered pieces of skin and hair snagged on the trailer.

Whoa, shades of Harry and the Hendersons, there. But no body. The hair was supposedly tested but it was too degraded to show anything of value. Ms. Klopp made a comment at the end of this piece that caught my notice:

She decided to share her story after hearing reports that someone in Texas had killed a bigfoot.

“There are reports that someone has one and has shot it and is storing it in his freezer,” Klopp said. “I would like to know for sure.”

So what about this Bigfoot in a freezer? 

Read on...

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES (C...

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.

Sleep Consolidation of Interfering Auditory Memori...

•    Good breeding season for Critically Endangered bla...
•    RSPB raps failure to tackle to bird attacks
•    New agreements for bird sensitive energy developme...

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN COMPOSES BARBAROUS HEXAMETERS

I'll tell you something (although you should know it)

on sundays I become a poet
and I suppose it really could be worse
but I do the Gonzo Blogs in verse

Sometimes my rhymes are near the knuckle
but I do them 'cos they make me chuckle
and now I've let you readers know
its time to get on with the show

Now here's something you should understand
Zenit are a bloody good band
Their new album is excellent iniit
Its called 'The Chandrasekhar Limit'
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/the-gonzo-track-of-day-zenit-i-ching.html

I always think my rhymes will blow it
when you compare them with a real poet
like my mate Thom, let me take you down,
to visit him in Austin town
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-gonzo-track-of-day-zenit-i-ching.html

I used to be a true go-getter
but now I edit the Gonzo Newsletter
and I tell you with a joyous shout
#18 has just gone out
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/gonzo-weekly-newsletter-18.html

My friend Graham lives upstairs
sometimes he catches me unawares
like when he told me "take a look
at this groovy Hawkwind comic book"
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/cabinet-of-curiosities-hawkwind-at.html

Sometimes I get slightly psychotic
and these blogs wander slightly off topic
and the boss will sigh "for goodness sake"
but here's an interview with Greg Lake
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/link-greg-lake-and-squids.html

Regular readers will no doubt guess
I'm a pretty big fan of a band called Yes
so I've a treat for Yes fans now
a ten minute interview with Steve Howe
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/03/link-10-minutes-with-steve-howe.html

And that is it for my weekly rhyme
I'll be back next week at about this time
but don't worry there's no need to freak
there are stories here on prose all weel

*  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

* We should probably mention here, that some of our posts are links to things we have found on the internet that we think are of interest. We are not responsible for spelling or factual errors in other people's websites. Honest guv!

*  Jon Downes, the Editor of all these ventures (and several others) is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and his new orange kitten puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cats?

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

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: Flying Kites for Some Big Felines

NEWSLINK: Zoo working to finish specific large cat...

NEWSLINK: A big cat country

UK SIGHTINGS: Gloucestershire

NEWSLINK: Leopards In Human Habitats: Big Cats Liv...

FEATURELINK: HowStuffWorks "The Ultimate Guide: Bi...

NEWSLINK: Andrew Lancaster, Taxidermist, Sells Cat...

NEWSLINK: Lensmen break night ban, enter the big c...

NEWSLINK: State regulation of big cat, primate own...

NEWSLINK: Big leopard numbers in human habitats: S...

DALE DRINNON: Frontiers of Anthropology, Cedar & Willow, Benny's Blogs

New at the Frontiers of Anthropology:

http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2013/03/out-of-africa-date-brought-forward-or.html

 

New at Cedar and Willow

http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2013/03/planet-of-vampires-1965.html

 

http://cedar-and-willow.blogspot.com/2013/03/stella-who-and-ninth-doctor-and-fourth.html

 

New at Benny's Blog for Thelma Todd:

http://benny-drinnon.blogspot.com/2013/03/laurel-and-hardy-meet-superman.html

 

And at Benny's second Blog, The Ominous Octopus Omnibus:

http://bennypdrinnon.blogspot.com/2013/03/editorial-cartoons_22.html

 

Best Wishes, Dale D.

 

CFZ PEOPLE: David Braund-Phillips

My nephew David Braund-Phillips, whom I love dearly, and is the nearest thing to a son that I have, is 21 today.

I cannot believe how fast the last two decades have gone. David, my dear boy, I would like to thank you for all the joy you have given me over the past years. May you have a happy and fulfilled life.

When you were a very little boy I sat you on my knee and sang you this song:


May God bless and keep you always

May your wishes all come true
May you always do for others
And let others do for you
May you build a ladder to the stars
And climb on every rung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

May you grow up to be righteous
May you grow up to be true
May you always know the truth
And see the lights surrounding you
May you always be courageous
Stand upright and be strong
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
May your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young

And, David my dear, every single word has come true. Now you are a man. You have a promising career, a lovely girlfriend, and a bright future. I am proud to have been part of it all. Now forgive me for being long winded, but it is an uncle's privilege, but you have both Bo Diddley and Kipling to sit through...

IF you can keep your head when all about you 
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1874 the worlds greatest escapologist, Harry Houdini, was born.

And now the news:

Antarctic Lake Vostok yields 'new bacterial life'

Extinct frog hops back into the gene pool

New predator enters Australian waters

Wayward seal shows up at Mercy Hospital entrance

Amorous tortoise 'caused conservatory fire which m...

Australian woman says dolphins saved her and her d...

Fossils of Earliest Old World Monkeys Unearthed

'Casanova' Moths Use Mustache-Like Tufts for Court...

When trying to get out of unwanted appointments Houdini could never use the “Sorry, I'm a bit tied up at the moment...” excuse:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EbvZZsYZmEY