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...




Friday, August 28, 2015

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:

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SINGS

The Gonzo Daily - Friday/Saturday
www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk/about.html
 
I forgot quite how many little utilities I use without thinking about it, especially whilst putting the magazine together each week. So, although most of this issue was written hours ago, it is now coming up to midnight and the publication schedule is still all to cock if only because I need to wait until the morning in order to get some of the  relevant passwords from Graham,
 
Life huh?
 
COMING TOMORROW
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Inner City Unit - The ...
Celestial Fire tour and Sally Minnear tour for Dav...
Yes rocks on after Chris Squire’s death
 
Gonzo Weekly #144
www.gonzoweekly.com
 
Brand X, Phil Collins, Roger Dean, Percy Jones, Rick Wakeman, Luca Ferarri, Cream, Mike Taylor, Genesis, Musical Box, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#144) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Percy Jones from Brand X on the front cover together with an interview with him in which, amongst other things, he reveals how Phil Collins was planning to leave Genesis many years before he actually did, We also have an exclusive interview with Roger Dean about Wakemanfest and peculiar fishes, and an exclusive interview with Italian author Luca Ferrari about the enigmatoic Mike Taylor who is best known for having written several songs for Cream. Jon muses about reviews Gabriella Coleman on Anonymous. Doug interviews The Musical Box, and -I almost forgot - there is a personal message from Rick Wakeman. 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 the return of Strange Fruit with a football themed show. 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:
 
Libertines, Gene Simmons, Bob Dylan, Ronnie Wood, Adam Lambert, David Bowie, Steve Ignorant's Slice of Life, Sleaford Mods, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Daniel 'Danny' Sembello, Donald 'Bob' Johnson, Gordon 'Jaz' Summers, Rick Wakeman, Roger Dean, The Boomtown Rats, Karnataka, Percy Jones, The Musical Box, Luca Ferrari, Mike Taylor, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Alex Clifford, Yes, AndersonPonty Band, Toto, Chris squire, Geoff Downes, Billy Sherwood, Steve Howe,Alan White, Patrick Moraz,Steven Tyler, Elvis, The Beatles, Liberace, Joan Jett, Neil Nixon, Juliana Barwick, Calico Jack
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
Issue 143 (Billy Sherwood cover)
Issue 142 (Daevid Allen and Spirits Burning cover)
Issue 141 (Rick Wakeman cover)
Issue 140 (Jaki Windmill cover)
Issue 139 (Raz cover)
Issue 138 (Galahad cover)
Issue 137 (Chris Squire cover)
Issue 136 (Neil Nixon cover)
Issue 135 (FNP cover)
 
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:
 
* 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 56 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?

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: An anomaly within an anomaly- a wallaby slashing case in 1957 from Staffordshire

I recently came across an interesting twist to the story of the Peak District wallabies whilst looking for something else, as is often the case with me. The “anomaly within an anomaly” refers to the fact that we have the well known anomaly, that there have been wallabies living in the wilds of the Staffordshire and Derbyshire Peak District for many years, yet also this wallaby-slashing case, if that`s what it was as recorded in the Macclesfield Courier for October 17th, 1957. It is interesting to find an animal mutilation case that pre-dates the time when such cases became a part of the paranormal and UFOlogy “envelope”. There`s also a strong odour of class struggle here, in the Marxist sense with the landlord taking the poacher to court. Sir Philip was once an Antarctic explorer with a small zoo from whence the wallabies,yaks,etc escaped around World War 2. See my blog here for more info:
 
The headline ran: ` Mutilation of wallabies at Swythamley`. `Some Found With Their Tails Cut, Others Dead`.

“During the hearing of a case at Leek County Court on Monday, mention was made of wallabies on the Swythamley Estate being found with their tails cut and others either dead or distressed through being chased. The case was one in which Sir Philip Lee Brocklehurst Bart J.P. of Swythamley Park, Wincle claimed £25 damages for trespass and sought an injunction against Maurice Ephraim Salt, an 18-year-old apprentice brick-layer of Sandyford, Stoke-on-Trent, to restrain him from entering the Swythamley estate.

After Counsel for Salt had objected to a paragraph in the claim which contained allegations about wallabies, stating that Salt denied any connection with this, an amendment was made. Damages of 32 with costs were awarded and as Salt had given an undertaking on oath that he did not intend to go on the estate again, this was accepted by Judge H.A. Tucker. Mr G.L. Lichfield, for Sir Philip, told the court that on part of the estate wallabies had been found with their tails cut and others either dead or distressed through being chased. Sir Philip said that although people were allowed to go on his land on the issue of a card, on application being made, general permission was not given.

No person was permitted off the paths, or into the woods where the animals were kept. Replying to Mr W. A L. Allardice, for Salt,Sir Philip said it would take a rich man with a big staff of game-keepers to keep everyone out.


Not to poach

Salt said he first went to Hen Cloud (part of the Roasches) in December, 1955, for climbing and for a look round but not for poaching. He did not think he was trespassing as he had seen plenty of people up there. He had never been told not to go there because it was private property and that he would be trespassing if he did.” On an occasion just before Christmas, 1956, he saw a dead wallaby there. In June this year he went to Hen Cloud to take photographs not to chase wallabies or harm them.

He had  a gun with him because he intended to go to a farm and ask permission to go on the land where he knew there were plenty of rabbits. On that occasion the game keeper told him he was trespassing and was liable to a big fine. He had not realised before that he was trespassing. He had never been on the Swythamley Estate since and he did not intend to go there again.” (1)


1. Macclesfield Courier October 17th 1957 p.1

IT MAY SEEM A LITTLE EARLY, BUT...


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.


BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



New Bigfoot vocals recorded at Cuyahoga Valley National Park in Ohio
Ohio is once again the site for some very interesting new Bigfoot evidence with the recording of new vocalizations recently. The new 2015 Bigfoot ...

IS This Proof Of Bigfoot Using Tools? WARNING: GRAPHIC!
A man in Texas spots a bigfoot creature one winter evening while pulling out of his driveway. Soon after, his wife and step daughter come across a ...

NEW! Bigfoot Filmed At Bluff Creek California - Breakdown
Bigfoot Filmed At Bluff Creek California - Breakdown. This new/old video that is being looked at now but was taken in 2008 by MK Davis, is getting ...

NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Friday/Saturday

ON THIS DAY IN 1660 -  1619 - Ferdinand II was elected Holy Roman Emperor. His policy of "One church, one king" was his way of trying to outlaw Protestantism. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Humans are 'unique super-predator'
  • Seals, whales and porpoises regularly spotted in t...
  • Bison in Yellowstone: What can the US do with its ...
  • Cats vs dogs: Scientists confirm that felines are ...

  • Honey bees rapidly evolve to overcome new disease


  • 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)