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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Tuesday, May 12, 2015

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From CFZ-USA:

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A "ghost fair" in Wiltshire during World War One

I found this account of  a likely time-slip in The Northern Rambler of April 1942 ( vol 8 no. 72) recently:


QUEER TALES OF THE OPEN AIR (IX) THE GHOST FAIR

“ During the last war I was driving one evening in a part of Wiltshire which at that time was altogether unknown to me. It was a wet and cloudy day and my own desire was to arrive as soon as possible in the hospitable house towards which I was bound. I drove down one of the avenues of monoliths which I knew from hearsay were the approach to a well-known prehistoric temple, but which till that day I had not seen. A village has been built in the actual space originally occupied by the temple and here since prehistoric days generation after generation of simple country people have lived, unquestioning and at peace, without overmuch interest in their predecessors. Historians and archeologists dig and deliberate, whilst the natives earn their living and enjoy their holidays when they come.

It was one of these holidays that I came upon that evening. Of all rural festivities a fair is the gayest and most spontaneous and here in the middle of a village which itself had grown up, on the site connected with the life and religion of a race whose very names have almost been forgotten, the traditional sports were in full swing. If it had not been raining, I should have jumped out of the car to climb the embankment,and to run through the crowd to join in the fair. Shooting galleries, cocoa-nut shies, roundabouts,swingboats,and gingerbread stalls had attracted a small rural crowd clothed in non-descript garments…a few gipsies added colour to the scene. Darkness had not yet fallen, but candles or oil lamps already shone through some of the cottage windows, and the owners of the cockshies had lit their flares. There was nothing very brilliant about this typical country festival but it was a completely happy scene. I was sorry to leave it behind.

Several years later when I visited the place as a tourist I discovered to my amazement in the inn parlour a local guidebook which said that no fair had  been held there for over fifty years…The fair which I had watched with such pleasure that evening had no physical reality. The last to be held was more than half-a-century before.

Edith Oliver (“Country Life”, 9/1/42)   


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.



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.

  • FOUR PAWS step in to help animals at Thailand’s re...
  • NEWSLINK: Asiatic lion's total goes up, may touch ...
  • NEWSLINK: Mayfield Tigers Owner Accepts Plea Deal

  • NEWSLINK: Sariska tigers 'not breeding and losing 
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF




    Sunday, May 10, 2015
    Kelly Shaw writes: "Join us as we investigate a 30 mile long canyon that has been a hotbed of Bigfoot sighting reports going back dozens of years, ...

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN KNOWS

    The Gonzo Daily - Tuesday
     
    I was actually a damn sight more nervous yesterday than I wanted to admit. However, the good news is that I do not have Parkinson's Disease, not yet at any rate. However I do have something and the best guess is that it is either related to my diabetic neuropathy or is a side effect of one or more of the various bits of medication I am on. More tests loom. But having seen my father in the horrific end stages of Parkinson's you don't know what a relief it is to know that this is not the fate that awaits me. Many thanks and much love to everyone who wrote or telephoned yesterday with messages of support. It means a hell of a lot.
     
     
    The Gonzo Weekly #129
    www.gonzoweekly.com
     
    Clepsydra, Zenit, Eels, Jethro Tull, Valentina Blanca, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
     
    The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#129) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Clepsydra on the front cover together with an interview with Andy Thommen inside. There is a look at Eels live by Doug, and Richard Stellar looks at a new film interwoven with one of Jethro Tull's most poignant songs. Jon examines the British X Files, and presents a political parable whilst breaking the law at the Polling Booths, whilst the legendary Roy Weard starts a regular column.We send the lovely Valentina Blanca to a desert island, There is a peek at some rare Hawkwind and Yes memorabilia, Neil Nixon reports on an even stranger album than usual, Wyrd goes into the stone age, Xtul gets even more peculiar, and there are radio shows from Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the legendary Canterbury Sans Frontières is back. 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:
    The Who, Stuart David, Belle and Sebastian, Adele, Noel Gallagher, Dave Bainbridge, Iona, Karnataka, Joni Mitchell, Galahad, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, John Tout, Rutger Gunnarsson, Craig Gruber, Errol Brown, Guy Carawan, Ruth Rendell, Mick Abrahams & Sharon Watson, Tommy James, Hugh Hopper, Third Ear Band, WMWS, David Peel, Strawberry Alarm Clock, Eliza Carthy & Jim Moray,Clepsydra, Andy Thommen, Eels, Richard Stellar, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Valentina Blanca, Yes, Chris Squire, Tony Kaye, Alan White, Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, Wyrd, Mike Davis, Organik Reflektions, Xtul, Neil Nixon, And The Native Hipsters, Pink Floyd, Kate Bush, The Monkees, The Beatles, The Dave Clark Five, The Grateful Dead, The Ramones, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Therion
     

    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
     
    Issue 128 (Louie Louie cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo128.html
    Issue 127 (Roy Weard cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo127.html
    Issue 126 (Atkins-May Project cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo126.html
    Issue 125 (Mick Abrahams cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo125.html
    Issue 124 (Karnataka cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo124.html
    Issue 123 (Cream cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo123.html
    Issue 122 (Anthony Phillips cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo122.html
    Issue 121 (Annie Haslam cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo121.html
    Issue 120 (Frank Zappa cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo120.html
    Issue 119 (Eliza Carthy cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo119.html
    Issue 118 (Dave Brock cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo118.html
    Issue 117 (Daevid Allen cover)
    http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo117.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!
     
    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?

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Tuesday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1780 - Charleston, South Carolina fell to British forces. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Rhino poaching across South Africa reaches record ...
  • New species of diving beetle discovered in isolati...
  • Genetically isolated sloth bears rely on habitat c...

  • Warning to dog owners in the UK after a ranger fin...

  • 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)