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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Friday, June 13, 2014

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS OUT TOO LUNCH

The Gonzo Daily - Friday
 
I still have no idea what I am going to do about the Weird Weekend. After my posting yesterday when I wrote about the second price hike in a week from the people in charge of the Community Centre, five different people contacted me offering to pay part or all of the extra money, and I am overwhelmed by their love and support. The problem is not really the money, however, but a matter of principle. Through no fault of ours, the ladies who have done such an excellent job of the catering for the last six or seven years are not able to do it this year. I asked the organisation which runs The Small School in Hartland, an institution with whom I have much sympathy, to do it. The Community Centre are now charging us a surcharge of £150 because the Small School is not from the village. The fact that they are from a small town five miles away seems to be irrelevant. I think that this is completely outrageous. On top of this, it has been made clear to me that the views we hold and have expressed about bloodsports and the badger cull have not made me/us popular in certain quarters. Against this background of bad vibes, I feel uneasy about holding an event that has always worked on happy co-operation and good vibes to produce a truly magickal experience. I am waiting to hear back from the Hall Committee before I make up my mind, but with the mixture of bad vibes and poor ticket sales and the number of WW regulars who will be unavoidably absent this year due to other commitments, I am tempted to cancel this year's event, and start again in a new venue in 2015.
 
 
 
 
Ike Willis with Zappatika, performing the music of Frank Zappa
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2014/06/ike-willis-with-zappatika-performing.html
 
 
 
 
 
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly is here to read at www.gonzoweekly.com. It has the lovely Pam Windo on the front cover and features an interview with her by yours truly. We also have news of Galahad's new bass player (who is actually their old bass player), Corky Laing gets an award, and a lot of people panic about Yes' lead singer's throat.  There are also new shows from the peculiar multiverse of Sub Reality Sandwich, from Friday Night Progressive, and from the multi-talented Neil Nixon at Strange Fruit and a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and high heeled shoes (OK, no specialist footwear, 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!!!
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
 
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?
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KARL SHUKER: The Partridge Creek Monster of the Yukon Territory


Karl Shuker warily follows in the (very) large footsteps of the Yukon's daunting Partridge Creek monster!

Read on...
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WEIRD WEEKEND 2014: The Current Position

I still have no idea what I am going to do about the Weird Weekend. After my posting yesterday when I wrote about the second price hike in a week from the people in charge of the Community Centre, five different people contacted me offering to pay part or all of the extra money, and I am overwhelmed by their love and support. The problem is not really the money, however, but a matter of principle.

 Through no fault of ours, the ladies who have done such an excellent job of the catering for the last six or seven years are not able to do it this year. I asked the organisation which runs The Small School in Hartland, an institution with whom I have much sympathy, to do it. The Community Centre are now charging us a surcharge of £150 because the Small School is not from the village. The fact that they are from a small town five miles away seems to be irrelevant. I think that this is completely outrageous.

On top of this, it has been made clear to me that the views we hold and have expressed about bloodsports and the badger cull have not made me/us popular in certain quarters. Against this background of bad vibes, I feel uneasy about holding an event that has always worked on happy co-operation and good vibes to produce a truly magickal experience. I am waiting to hear back from the Hall Committee before I make up my mind, but with the mixture of bad vibes and poor ticket sales and the number of WW regulars who will be unavoidably absent this year due to other committments, I am tempted to cancel this year's event, and start again in a new venue in 2015.
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CFZ PEOPLE: Mother (85 Today)


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ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From Nick Redfern's World of Whatever:
From CFZ-USA:
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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. 



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OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

Yesterday’s News Today

On this day in 1945 Whitley Strieber was born. Strieber first found fame as a writer of horror stories such as “The Wolfen” and “The Hunger” but in 1985 was abducted by a group of non-human beings he called “The Visitors”. Strieber has never (to my knowledge at least) claimed to know what The Visitors actually were with certainty and has expressed frustration when they have been automatically classified as alien abductors. He wrote about his experience in “Communion” and several subsequent books.
And now the news:

  • Virunga Park oil hunt in DR Congo halted
  • Bovine TB figures continue to fall across Great Br...
  • World's oldest cat Poppy dies aged 24 in Bournemou...
  • New fossil find pinpoints the origin of jaws in ve...
  • 15 people arrested in Hong Kong ivory seizure
  • Alarming rise in manta and mobula rays killed for ...
  • Citizen science app hopes to create buzz for bee s...
  • Finland: Elk romps through central Helsinki rush h...
  • Parade of Creatures Colonized Land After Dinosaur ...
    • A film was made, based on “Communion”, Strieber was not best impressed with the results though as he felt in deviated from his account too much, anyway here's the trailer:

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