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, August 14, 2015

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From CFZ-USA:
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WW2015: The cocktail party

And so, dear friends, the Weird Weekend 2015 has begun. And it began in typically eccentric style with over 30 people in a marquee on my lawn in the pouring rain. Tequila was drunk, and music was played courtesy of the lovely Stargrace and the equally lovely Dogleg. Later in the evening they were joined by my old mucker Davey Curtis of the up-and-coming blues ensemble Auld Man's Baccy.I have wanted to have live music at the Weird Weekend cocktail party anytime these past few years, and it seemed oddly appropriate that the first time we managed it, it was in the midst of a deluge of Biblical proportions. 

It all went very well. Nobody died. No one was injured. There were no fights. Nothing got broken and nobody got annoyingly drunk, not even me. Even the dogs behaved themselves, and my beloved Mother-in-law was seen with a glass of champagne in one hand nodded her head rhythmically to a raucous acoustic medley of Black Sabbath songs. A splendid time, as Mr Kite  promised, was had by all.

Today the focus of events moves to The Small School in Hartland. By the time assorted flower children got to Woodstock they were half a million strong; i am only expecting a fraction of this number to the Weird Weekend tonight, but all indications are that it will be an enjoyable and informative affair.














Om Shanti, Jon 
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THE GONZO BLOG DOO DAH MAN BUYS A QUILT

The Gonzo Daily - Friday/Saturday
And so, dear friends, the Weird Weekend 2016 has begun. And it began in typically eccentric style with over 30 people in a marquee on my lawn in the pouring rain. Tequila was drunk, and music was played courtesy of the lovely Stargrace and the equally lovely Dogleg. Later in the evening they were joined by my old mucker Davey Curtis of the up and coming blues ensemble Auld Man's Baccy.I have wanted to have live music at the Weird Weekend cocktail party anytime these past few years, and it seemed oddly appropriate that the first time we managed it, it was in the midst of a deluge of Biblical proportions.
It all went very well. Nobody died. No one was injured. There were no fights. Nothing got broken and nobody got annoyingly drunk, not even me. Even the dogs behaved themselves, and my beloved Mother-in-law was seen with a glass of champagne in one hand nodded her head rhythmically to a raucous acoustic medley of Black Sabbath songs. A splendid time, as Mr Kite  promised, was had by all.
Today the focus of events moves to The Small School in Hartland. By the time assorted flower children got to Woodstock they were half a million strong; i am only expecting a fraction of this number to the Weird Weekend tonight, but all indications are that it will be an enjoyable and informative affair.
Om Shanti, Jon
Daevid Allen, Spirits Burning, Gong, Don Falcone, Sophia Sage, Supertramp, Frank Zappa, Kate Bush, OMD, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#142) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Daevid Allen and Spirits Burning on the front cover together with an interview with Don Falcone by Doug about his collaborations with Daevid inside. Jon muses about Yes and fish (yes, the lower case f is intentional) and moans abput Paul McCartney whilst reviewing Alan Moore's latest. Doug also writes about Supertamp, John B-G talks about his memories of the Hammersmith Odeon, Lee remembers Orchestral Manouvres in the Dark. Thom waxes all poetical like, whilst the legendary Roy Weard continues his regular column. And there is a radio show from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and one from those jolly nice chaps at Strange Fruit. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and water opossums with something to lose (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials planning to pray to St Anthony of Padyua for an intercession, 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:

Yes, New Order, Martin Scorsese, Mick Jagger, Hugh Cornwell, Keith Richards, System 7, Steve Hillage, Elvis Presley, Steve Hackett, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, George Cole, Billy Sherrill, Lynn Anderson, Cilla Black, The Boomtown Rats, Karnataka, Rick Wakeman, Daevid Allen, Don Falcone, Lee Walker, OMD, John Brodie-Good, Queen, Robin Trower, Frank Zappa, Kate Bush, Bob Dylan, Supertramp, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Dave Brock, Sophia Sage, Patrick Moraz, Jon Anderson, Jean Luc Ponty, Chris Squire, Trevor Horn, Geoff Downes, Boy George, The Beatles, Neil Nixon, Barnes and Barnes, Slechtvalk

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, and a small kitten totally coincidentally named after one of the Manson Family, purely because she squeaks, 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, and the adventurous kitten?
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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.
  • NEWSLINK: Tiger-trade crackdown boosts lion-bone s...
  • ARTICLE: World Lion Day activists remember Cecil a...
  • NEWSLINK: Bangladesh shoots dead six alleged tiger...

  • NEWSLINK: Big cat specialist at Paradise Wildlife ...
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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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    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF


    Bigfoot Story: The Bigfoot Of Messenger Flats
    Youtube user Beyond Creepy shares this scary bigfoot story with us, titled The Bigfoot Of Messenger Flats. "In February 2001, two men decided to ...
    Classic Breakdown Video Bigfoot Captured March 2013
    When it comes to bigfoot videos, it takes all kinds. Including this one. A mystery video that showed up on Youtube in March of 2013. Not only did they ...

    Breaking: Raw Footage of Men Shooting at Bigfoot?
    Holycrap! Nothing is more scariest than a bunch of guys with rifles hunting down a big hairy beast in the woods. This videos looks pretty legit, and if ...

    Video Shows Possible Skunk Ape
    Hog hunter watches bigfoot kill hog in Sabine River bottoms. You Might Also Like. Bigfoot Evidence: TheForestPond Discusses Les Stroud & Todd
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    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Friday/Saturday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1248 - The rebuilding of the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, began after being destroyed by fire. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk
  • Sea Lion 'Aerospace': High-Thrust, Low Wake
  • The big business of trophy hunting in Iran
  • Newly identified tadpole disease found across the ...
  • What will make a difference to elephants on World ...

  • Bringing the Tasmanian devil back to mainland Aust...

    • 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)
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