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...




Tuesday, March 03, 2015

WYRD: Mike's Birthday



WyrdAs I have intimated recently, Martin Eve and I are at the heart of a new venture - Wyrd Music. This is an extension of what I have been doing with music and theatre over the past ten years and is intended as a sister project to the CFZ Publishing Group. Working on vaguely Fortean and Anarchist, and strictly anti-capitalist lines, in the same way as CFZ Press, Fortean Words and the others put out books strictly because we want to read them, and because we think they should be out there whether they make a profit or not, Wyrd Music aims to do the same for music. Although it doesn't officially launch until April Fool's Day, a Blog, a website, a Facebook page, and some free music will be up in the webiverse in the next few days and will always be plugged shamelessly on the CFZ and Gonzo blogs. Why? Because I can.

It's Mike's birthday today (tuesday). So not only do we have him looking mildly sinister in my study and wearing a birthday present from his delightful sister Karen, but we have a new song for you all.


This song is particularly poignant; it was the song Mike played at his Dad's funeral. The bits of Día de Muertos video were my idea. Although I have been to Mexico and to Texas many times, I have never been there at the right time to witness this most singular of Latin American festivals...

Read on...

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.


THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN HOPS, SKIPS, JUMPS, AND GENERALLY MAKES A NUIOSANCE OF HIMSELF

The Gonzo Daily - Tuesday
Things always go more slowly than I would have liked, but I am happy to announce that the hard copy and ebook versions of Animals & Men #52 are currently in preparation. Just to reiterate the changes which have recently taken place with the CFZ Flagship Publication.
Animals & Men is no longer available by subscription. The membership package will now consist of a monthly newsletter, regular publications for members only and a series of discounts on CFZ publications and tickets to the Weird Weekend. All current subscriptions will be migrated to the new format, and a credit note issued for any outstanding monies held by us. That credit note can be redeemed against any of our publications including Animals & Men, so although we are changing the model, subscribers can still stick to what is basically the current plan if they wish. The first newsletter will be going out very soon and from then on will be on the first of each month. Because this is a radical rewrite of the membership structure, all members will be given a free 3 Month subscription on top of what is currently owed to them. For those not aware, the new look Animals & Men can be found for free  on the front page of the website.
However, both hard copy and ebook versions have been uploaded and will be available to purchase in the next week or so. Thank you for your forebearance while the CFZ (and partiocularly this grumpy old bugger) embraces the new cultural mores of the 21st Century.
It really does feel like spring today: the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and I will hopefully have a full complement of students here doing their various tasks. Graham is still away, so I shjall be gang boss today, but luckily all three are nice kids who are helpful, hard working and do as they are told. Thirty years ago, when I was trying to be the Brian Epstein of South Devon, I picked up a hitchhiker called Mike Davis travelling through Starcross. In all my years in the business he is still the most talented singer/songwriter that I have ever met! We have remained friends, and still make music together. And today is his birthday. Love on ya Mike.


The Gonzo Weekly #119
www.gonzoweekly.com
Eliza Carthy, Arthur Brown, Simon Phillips, Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Jon Anderson, Hawkwind and Yes fans had better look out!
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#119) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Eliza Carthy on the front cover with an interview with her inside. Doug Harr reports on legendary drummer Simon Phillips, and we send Liz Lenten to a Desert Island. Neil Nixon reports on singing drug addicts, Wyrd goes acoustic and Xtul gets freakier than ever. Jon does some reporting from the field, and there are radio shows from Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the titular submarine dwellers are still lost at sea, although I have been assured that they will hit land again soon. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons trying to choose (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials having difficulty in making choices, 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!!!
This issue features: Wilko Johnson, Noel Gallagher, Paloma Faith, Bjork, Radiohead, Massive Attack, Arthur Brown, Daevid Allen, Gilli Smyth, Bob Marley, Karnataka, Strange Fruit, Friday Night
Progressive,Leonard Nimoy, Warsaw Pakt, Hugh Hopper, Orlando Monday Allen, Dee Palmer, Badfinger, Ant-Bee, Billy Cobham, Tony Palmer, Homeostasis, Nolan Porter, Galahad, Mick Abrahams Band, Eliza Carthy, Jim Moray, Protocol, Liz Lenten, Hawkwind, Yes, Jon Anderson, Steve Howe, Tony Kaye, Alan White, Joey Molland, Robben Ford, George Harrison, Xtul, Elvis, Justin Bieber, Marillion, Metallica,
Beatles, Spurious Transients, The Relationships, Rocket Scientists, The Brits, Chasing Violets, Pest, Eliwagar
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!
You can download the magazine in pdf form HERE:
http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/

* 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/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit
* 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 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat 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 infantile orange cat?

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.


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  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Daily Herald

    Is the creature seen in the video filmed in American Fork Canyon Bigfoot?
    Yes! That is a video of the Sasquatch himself. Could be, it is too difficult to see in the video. No, this is not Bigfoot. There is no such thing as Bigfoot.

    Appalachian Man Has Photographic Evidence of the Kentucky Bigfoot
    The A.I.M.S. team interviews a local man who had a close encounter with the Midnight Whistler, the Kentucky Bigfoot. The photographic evidence he 


    Is Bigfoot In Arkansas? (Video)
    In our last blog post, many of you were not able to view the FOX16 Special Report on Bigfoot. The reporter finally uploaded the broadcast today.

    CFZ PRESS: News about Animals & Men

    Things always go more slowly than I would have liked, but I am happy to announce that the hard copy and ebook versions of Animals & Men #52 are currently in preparation. Just to reiterate the changes which have recently taken place with the CFZ Flagship Publication. 

    Animals & Men is no longer available by subscription. The membership package will now consist of a monthly newsletter, regular publications for members only and a series of discounts on CFZ publications and tickets to the Weird Weekend. All current subscriptions will be migrated to the new format, and a credit note issued for any outstanding monies held by us. That credit note can be redeemed against any of our publications including Animals & Men, so although we are changing the model, subscribers can still stick to what is basically the current plan if they wish. The first newsletter will be going out very soon and from then on will be on the first of each month. Because this is a radical rewrite of the membership structure, all members will be given a free 3 Month subscription on top of what is currently owed to them. For those not aware, the new look Animals & Men can be found for free  on the front page of the website.

    However, both hard copy and ebook versions have been uploaded and will be available to purchase in the next week or so. Thank you for your forebearance while the CFZ (and partiocularly this grumpy old bugger) embraces the new cultural mores of the 21st Century.

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Tuesday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1857 - Britain and France declared war on China. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • The Future of Madagascar's lemurs
  • Disease-carrying fleas abound on New York City's r...
  • How do you solve a problem like the 'Beefalo'?
  • Mapping lizard venom makes it possible to develop ...
  • Whale research vessel begins porpoise survey in th...
  • Sharp rise in experimental animal research in US
  • Sharks reveal new super memory

  • Flawed method may be over-counting numbers o

  • AND TO WHISTLE WHILE YOU WORK... (Music that may have some relevance to items also on this page, or may just reflect my mood on the day)