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...




Saturday, December 14, 2013

WELCOME TO CFZtv

We have been on YouTube seriously for about six years now, but I have never actually done anything about our YouTube channel, which has gone and got itself over 900 subscribers without me doing anything about it. Well, I am rectifying that, and for your delectation and enjoyment here is a video featuring Mama and a lobster....

http://www.youtube.com/user/cfztv

INAPPROPRIATE CORNER: Al Jolson dressed as a chicken




Now THAT'S what I call hentertainment

DALE DRINNON: Mystery pinnipeds, Caddy, Frontiers of Anthropology, Cedar and Willow, Benny's Blogs

New at the Frontiers of Zoology:

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

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 took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.




THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS FEBRILE

The Gonzo Daily - Saturday
 
At stupid o'clock this morning I finished reading Graeme Thomson's excellent George Harrison: Behind The Locked Door in which he does an Ivan T. Sanderson on us. He tells an old familiar story, but makes it almost completely unrecogniseable. Because here the story of The Beatles is told from the point of view of their sulky, spiritual, and immensely complex guitarist, John and Paul are relegated to being bit players. As always I find myself disagreeing with the author on musical matters. I have always been rather fond of the 'Dark Horse' album, and I think the follow-up 'Extra Texture' (despite the horrible cover) is a magnificent album that I would recommend to anyone. However, I do agree with him that 'Electronic Sound' is a goddamn awful noise. And whilst on the subject of this piece of experimental nonsense, I had heard that there were copyright issues regarding the record, but was not aware of the depths of George's perfidy until reading the book.
 
There is a full review in this week's Gonzo Weekly, which also features interviews with Percy Jones of Brand X, Pam Windo about her extraordinary career with her late husband Gary, Nick Mason from Pink Floyd and Robert Wyatt. We have Cyrille Verdeaux going through the Clearlight compilation track by track. We have Hawkwind live in Southampton, Doug Harr on Rick Wakeman, and Orrin Hare on the enigmatic L-Voag. We have a visit to a Victorian freakshow with Crystal Grenade and columns from C.J. Stone and Kev Rowland and more news, reviews, features and comments than you can shake a stick at. And its free. So as not to miss this week's copy subscribe here.
 
 
Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2013/12/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_14.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: www.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 54 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) and two very small kittens (one of whom is also orange) - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon, which he shares with various fish and sometimes a small Indian frog. 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 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 are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. 

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology, but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking. 


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  • OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

    Yesterday’s News Today
    http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

    Today is Monkey Day, a day on which monkeys and simians in general are celebrated and one can act like a monkey, should one wish.
    And now the news:

  • Stealth Maneuver Allows Nectar Bats to Target Inse...
  • New Species of Horse, 4.4 Million Years Old
  • Wild animal experimentation across Europe rises by...
  • Saltwater crocodile named world’s most aggressive
  • Formidable foe at feeding time: Two-headed piglet ...
  • Threatened Amphibians of the World – via Herp Dige...
  • NOAA: 11 Dead Whales Suffered From Malnutrition

  • The More the Better: Polyandry in Salamanders – vi...

  • If you need any inspiration for how to act like a monkey today this clip should help:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1Yu8eqRMVg