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...




Monday, May 12, 2014

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

From CFZ-USA:

NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)


Steve Feltham has been hunting the Loch Ness monster for 23 YEARS - Mail Online - Home - 14th ...
Steve Feltham has been hunting the Loch Ness monster for 23 YEARS. Steve Feltham, 51, spends his days scanning the murky water of Loch Ness in ...

Loch Ness Monster Sighting? There's Actually a Pretty Funny Explanation for This Photo ...
(The Blaze). “This shadowy form measuring around 100 feet long and seemingly with two giant flippers powering it through the waters of Loch Ness ...


THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HOPS UP AND DOWN AND MAKES VAGUE MEEPING NOISES

The Gonzo Daily - Monday
 
Last night was an exciting and eventful one. Just before eleven there was an explosion at the other side of the village, and all our power went off. "Power to the People!" I shouted, grabbing my blunderbuss and preparing to man the barricades. At last the revolution had started! OK I made most of that up. There was, indeed an explosion, and our power did indeed go off, but far from pledging myself to the cause like one of the Risorgamenti, I was actually stuck in my office until Corinna came with a candle to light my way out.
 
It turns out that the Transformer for the whole of the village blew up for reasons unknown to us poor mortals at the time of writing, but I very much doubt whether it was anything more sinister than an accident.
 
 
 
 
‘It was a perfect storm’: Trevor Rabin and Jon Anderson
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/05/it-was-perfect-storm-trevor-rabin-and.html
 
 
 

We actually finished the latest issue of Gonzo Weekly at a sensible time last night. It will be up on www.gonzoweekly.com very soon. All I have to do now is add the links and it will go live. This week's issue features a conversation between Jaki Windmill and the late Mick Farren, an interview with the mighty XNA, a feature on Crowded House, news about some recently uncovered Robert Calvert video, proof that Progressive Rockstars have a sense of humour, and a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and brindled gnus (OK, no specialised ox-like antelopes, but I got carried away with things that rhymed with OOOOS) than you can shake a stick at. And the best part is IT's ABSOLUTELY FREE!!!
 
The full list of artists covered in this week's episode is: Mick Farren, Chuck Berry, Led Zeppelin, Morrissey, Pussy Riot, Nirvana, Monty Python, Stonehenge, Galahad, Michael des Barres, Fish, Robert Calvert, Rab Noakes, Barbara Dickson, Sendelica, Erik Norlander, Rocket Scientists, Clepsydra, Rick Wakeman, Ginger Baker, Rush, Marillion, Strange Fruit, Sub Reality Sandwich, Jaki Windmill, Tim Rundell, Howard Smith, Elaine Sturtevant, Leslie Thomas, Jean Philippe Rykiel, Joey Molland, David Jackson, Rene van Commenee, Pierre Moerlen’s Gong, Clearlight, Planet Earth Rock ‘n’ Roll, Kevin Ayers and the Whole World, Ian Anderson, Damon Albarn, Mike Oldfield, XNA, John Lennon, Yes, Steve Howe, Steve Hackett, Michael Jackson, One Direction, Bay City Rollers, Bob Dylan,  Justin Beiber, Kataklysm, Lives & Times, Asmegi
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
Issue 76 (Rick Wakeman cover)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/05/gonzo-weekly-78.html
Issue 75 (Hawkwind cover)
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/04/gonzo-weekly-75.html
Issue 74 (Billy Sherwood cover)
http://forteanzoology.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/gonzo-weekly-74.html
 
All issues from #70 can be downloaded at www.gonzoweekly.com if you prefer. If you have problems downloading, just email me and I will add you to the Gonzo Weekly dropbox. The first 69 issues are archived there as well. Information is power chaps, we have to share it!
 
To make sure that you don't miss your copy of future issues make an old hippy a happy chappy and subscribe
http://eepurl.com/r-VTD
 
*  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 an orange kitten named after a song by Frank Zappa 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 kitten?

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES


What has Corinna's column of fortean bird news got to do with Cryptozoology?

Well, everything actually!

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. 



KARL SHUKER: Perusing the Pegasi - Pliny's Horse-Headed Mystery Birds


Karl Shuker ruffles the feathers of the pegasi - the horse-headed birds documented by Pliny.

Read on...

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 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. 

  • US SIGHTING: Town Crier: Montclair nighttime birde...
  • NEWSLINK: Big cat expert takes center stage at cir...
  • NEWSLINK: Now at Big Cat Rescue May 2 2014
  • NEWSLINK: A really wild time is guaranteed
  • USA SIGHTINGS: Mountain lion spotted on popular Bu...
  • NEWSLINK: Shania Twain Joins Big Cat Conservation ...

  • REVIEW: Hunting the big cat
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    BIGFOOT: The Beast of Kentucky: 05/11/14
    Northern KY Bigfoot Research Group Field Report 5-10-14. On 05/10/2014, the 3 primary investigators returned to the Trimble County habitation area ...

    Dean Cain Talks Bigfoot LIVE video from Answers.com Videos
    ... TV history to explorers who can prove Bigfoot exists. TV host Dean Cain and Bigfoot skeptic Todd Disotell join HuffPost Live to discuss the new show.

    Is The Show Mountain Monsters Fake? | Bigfoot Research News
    I find it odd that we struggle to get any sort of decent pictures or videos of a Bigfoot but these guys have all.sorts of pics and videos of a sheepsquatch.

    Bigfoot Evidence: Are These Recordings of Bigfoot Talking to Each Other?
    Bigfoot Evidence Matt K.
    Some people speculate that bigfoot have their own language, and communicate just like we do. Still others believe they have proof of this in audio ...

    Bigfoot Tracker News: Ricky Rant
    Rick is still claiming he shot and killed a Bigfoot but I don't know how Doll Boy expects anyone to believe him after five (5) failed hoaxes. One would ...

    Bigfoot Sightings in Ohio to be discussed - The Record Courier
    According to the Bigfoot Researchers Organization, Ohio is ranked in the top five states for Bigfoot/Sasquatch sightings, and Portage County has the 

    Todd Standing's Feature Film To Hit Film Festivals World Wide | Bigfoot Research News
    Todd Standing, love him or hate him, he is the talk of the Bigfoot land. He was recently featured in Les Stroud's Survivorman Bigfoot and now

    Top 10 Hairiest Bigfoot Stories | RedFlagNews.com
    (Animal Planet). Stories of man's encounters with large, hairy humanoids stretch back through history. Countless of them exist. Whether or not one 

    Bigfoot Evidence: The Price Just Climbed to $85,000 For This Bigfoot Replica
    Bigfoot Evidence Shawn
    A 73 year old man named Clifford LaBrecque from Norfork, (who claims he's holding on to a rare videotape of Bigfoot "in its natural habitat") tried ... 

    OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

    Yesterday’s News Today

    On this day in 1950 the actor Bruce Boxleitner was born. Boxleitner is most famous for staring in the greatest Sci-Fi film ever created, Tron (and no I don't care if nobody agrees with me or erroneously thinks 2001 was more worthy of the title)
    And now the news:

  • Improved monitoring gives Ganges river dolphin bet...
  • Diving pigs fad takes hold in China
  • Film showing hundreds of dolphins surging through ...
  • Animal amnesty event nets alligators, anacondas an...
  • Plans for new Hong Kong zoo condemned by Animals A...
  • Reports of using live animals as bait in trapping ...
  • Bee biodiversity boosts crop yields
  • Four stolen monkeys returned to Blackpool Zoo
  • Man finds live frog in fish's throat
  • The trailer for Tron: