CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the Track: 01/04/14

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...

THE BEST THING I HAVE FOUND ON FACEBOOK...EVER

CFZ PEOPLE: Richard Freeman

He has the tact of an angry water buffalo but he is still one of my dearest friends and a valued colleague, and I love the mad little bastard. Happy Birthday, dude.

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN UNDER SEIGE

The Gonzo Daily - Saturday

www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html

The internet connection came back late last night but it is still as slow as a three-toed sloth on clomethiazol. Sadly there won't be a Gonzo Weekly this week because of this. Hopefully the call centre in Uttar Pradesh will sort it all out before next weekend. Thank you to all the people in Woolsery who telephoned or IMd me about the internet connection. It does appear to be something to do with this house rather than the whole village, but appearances can be (and often are) deceptive. All sorts of other crap is happening that I don't want to talk about, so lets hope the New Year starts in earnest with positive vibes next week.

Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_4.html

Today's Track of the Day is by the Everly Brothers. Phil died yesterday.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-gonzo-track-of-day-everly-brothers.html

Vangelis review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/vangelis-us-review.html

Joey Molland review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/joey-molland-rtm-belgium-review.html

Sky Architect review
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/sky-architect-italian-review-translated.html

Rick Wakeman and a peculiar parliamentary competition
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/01/rick-wakeman-parliament-contests-up-for.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?

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.

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 thatappear 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.