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, October 06, 2015

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SITS IN THE CORNER

The Gonzo Daily - Tuesday
 
I ended last year by promising that 2015 was a year which all sorts of welcome changes were going to happen at the CFZ. Well, so far this year, as well as all the books, we have produced three issues of our flag ship journal Animals & Men, and have started work on the fourth, which will be out before Christmas. This will be the first year since 2003 in which we have actually met the publishing schedule that we have striven for since we started back in 1994. we are also hoping that there will be a yearbook for 2016 and so, are appealing for contributions for both publications. If you have a suggestion or something that you fancy writing please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk or my assistant Jessica at cfzjessica@gmail.com there are other nice things in the pipeline as well, but I am childish enough to enjoy surprises so I’m not telling you just yet.
 
This morning I got s letter from who ever the company are who are doing the assessments on behalf of the benefits agency to see whether us poor cripples are scrounging scum who should be forced back into the market place, or not my appointment is on the 28th of November, but the last time we went to that building we were told that in order to use the life (which is something that I am afraid I need to do these days) one has to make prior arrangements. We telephoned them only to get an automated message telling us that “the system isn’t working”! Bloody hell guys I could have told YOU that!
 
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: The Return of Pan - Th...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Eric Burdon thrills the crowd at Harrah's Lake Tah...
Fairport singer songwriter Chris Leslie in Alvechu...
YES: Chris Squire from Yestival 94
 
Gonzo Weekly #150
www.gonzoweekly.com
 
Roger Dean, Geoff Downes, Mew, The Farm, The Raz Band, David Gilmour, Anderson Ponty Band, Barbara Dickson, New Order, Joe Vitale, Joey Molland, anarchopunk, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
 
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#150) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has legendary artist Roger Dean on the front cover together with an interview with him inside, Doug looks at Danish Alr Rockers Mew, Lee muses on The Farm and WW1, Jon intrerviews Michael Raz and critiques new albums by Jon Anderson, David Gilmour and New Order as well telling the story of the night we met Barbara Dickson. We review a delightful book about butterflies, and Xtul are back in the deep woods. Neil unearths a hidden gem, Thom waxes all poetical like, whilst the legendary Roy Weard continues his regular column. And there is a radio show Strange Fruit and another from Canterbury Sans Frontieres. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons wanting a snooze (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who stayed up too late last night, 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:
 
Kurt Cobain, Lush, Taylor Swift, Keith Richards, John Lennon, David Gilmour, Chic, David Bowie, Steve Hackett, Strange Fruit, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Phillip Wells Woods, Frankie Ford, Wilton Lewis Felder, Denise Lor, Brand X, The Raz Band, Johnny Winter, Alexis Korner, 13th Floor Elevators, Nucleus, Spirits Burning, The Pirates, Roger Dean, Mew, Michael Rescigno, The Raz Band, Joey Molland, Joseph Vitale, Lee Walker, The Farm, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Nik Turner, Xtul, Nirvana, Beatles, Jermaine Jackson, Jim Morrison, Elvis, Michael Jackson, Yes, Billy Sherwood, Geoff Downes, AndersonPonty Band, Rick Wakeman, Chris Squire, New Order, Barbara Dickson,Neil Nixon, Beck, SatanaKozel
 
And yes, we reach our Century and a half.
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 149 (Tony Palmer in Space)
Issue 148 (Wally Hope)
Issue 147 (Thom the World Poet cover)
Issue 146 (Bee and Flower cover)
Issue 145 (Dave Brock cover)
Issue 144 (Percy Jones cover)
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:
 
SPECIAL NOTICE: If you, too, want to unleash the power of your inner rock journalist, and want to join a rapidly growing band of likewise minded weirdos please email me at jon@eclipse.co.uk The more the merrier really.
 
* 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:Some giant people I wish I`d seen.

Hi y`all.

The other week I came across a strange newspaper story I reproduce below, from the Michigan Plaindealer of December 11th 1891.

GIANTS OF OLDEN TIMES

A Number Who Lived on the Road from long ago to now

In one of his recent lectures Prof. J.A.Williams alludes to the discovery of an enormous lizard 80 feet in length ,says the St. Louis Republic. The professor infers (as no living specimen of that magnitude has been found) that the species which it represents has become degenerated. The verity of his position he endeavours to enforce by an allusion to the well-known existence of human giants in olden times. The following is the list upon which this singular hypothesis is based:

A giant exhibited in Rouen in 1830. Prof Williams says measured nearly 18 feet in height.

Gorapius once saw a girl of 12 years who was 10 feet high.

The giant Galabria, brought from Arabia to Rome during the reign of Claudius Caesar, was 10ft high.

Fannum, who lived in the time of Eugene II, measured 11 feet 6 inches in height.

Chevalier Scrog, while exploring a cavern in the Peak of Teneriffe, found a skull which must have belonged to a man at least 15 feet high. It contained sixty perfect teeth of monstrous size.

The giant Ferregus, slain by Orlando, the nephew of Charlemagne, was 28 feet high and so heavy that no horse could be found that was strong enough to bear him.

In 1814 the tomb of a giant was opened at St Germain who must have been at least 30 feet high during life.

As late as 1850 a human skeleton 19 feet long was discovered at Rouen, France. The skull, which was perfect with the exception of the under jaw, held over a bushel of wheat.

In 1824, near the castle of Dauphine, a monstrous tomb was discovered. It was 30 feet long, 16 wide and 8 high. The inscription “Kintolochus Rex” was cu in the hard, grey stone. The skeleton was found entire, 15 ½ feet long, 10 feet across the shoulders and 5 feet from the breast-bone to the back.

The vicinity of Palermo, Italy, has yielded three remarkable human skeletons, one in 1410,one in 1516 and the last in 1550. The first was 21, the second 30 and the third 34 feet in height.

In 1815 a skeleton was dug up near Mazrino, Sicily, the skull of which was as large as a common wine cask. Each of the teeth weighed seven ounces.
                                     

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From CFZ-USA:

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.


NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Tuesday

ON THIS DAY IN 1847 - "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Bronte was first published in London. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Sometimes, it’s better not to fight the frog-killi...
  • Giant killer lizard fossil shines new light on ear...
  • Sneezing monkeys and walking fish among 200 new Hi...
  • Newly discovered mammal species survived dinosaur ...
  • Frog tongues: Sticky strips of pure muscle

  • Michigan farmer uncovers Mammoth skeleton

  • 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)