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, January 03, 2017

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.


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



A Doctor Shoots and Kills a Bigfoot in 1847
Youtuber Bob Gymlan shares some bigfoot history with us and talks about an incident from the mid 1800's where a man claims to have shot and killed ..

Bigfoot Outlaw Radio: Bigfoot Killed My Hog!
The outlaws write "In this episode we talk about bigfoot the meat eater! What happens when bigfoot decides to kill something? What does one look for ...

Scariest Dogman Encounters of 2016
2016 has been full of interesting creature sightings. Dogman seems to have been sighted a lot this year. Here are some of my personal favorite ...

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS BACK TO WORK

The Gonzo Daily: Tuesday
And now it is all over and the office staggers into some degree of functionality. In fact, we are doing much better than that, because yesterday BT managed to fix our broadband, and after six months of unsatisfactory workarounds, Graham finally got my email client working properly. and so today, Shosh and Gavin are just getting up in the sitting room, and all seems right with the world. And I have to say that the rumours proliferating about the interwebbythings that Messrs Drummond and Cauty are poised to do something of a situationist ilk are most intriguing.

And here is the news:

Complete Interview with Ken Dodd 1963 - The Beatle...
Binky Womack German review translated
AL ATKINS DUTCH REVIEW
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Leonard Cohen - Dance...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Gonzo Magazine #213-4
THE SUPER DUPER YULE DOUBLE ISSUE
In this bumper holiday issue, Doug goes to see ARW (Anderson, Rabin and Wakeman) in words and pictures, Jeremy goes to see Jimbob late of Carter USM, Alan enthuses over the Bollywood Brass Band, Jon rails about Nostradamus and presents his top ten records of the year. We also meet the mighty Sensorium Girliebox, Tony Henderson has more Pink Fairies sculptures, there is a competition to win ARW tickets, and Doug, Alan and John make some surprising choices when writing about festive music. And, yes, Corinna tells a story.
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney, and Friday Night Progressive, whilst Canterbury Sans Frontieres is back ‘cos there was a full moon last week. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons outside zoos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have escaped from captivity, 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:
Sensorium Girliebox, David Bowie, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Kula Shaker, The Divine Comedy, Shirley Collins, The Rolling Stones, Black Angel Drifter, Radiohead, Sexwitch, Leonard Cohen, Chic, Thom Yorke, Mick Jagger, CeeLo, David Bowie, Marillion, Elton John, Yes, Strange Harvest, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury sans Frontieres, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Robert Alan "Bob" Krasnow, Bunny Tekokiri Miha Wahi Walters, Elizabeth Taylor Pecanins, Barrelhouse Chuck, Mark Fisher, James Ellsworth "Jim" Lowe, Lionel Blue, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Henry Judah Heimlich, Spirits Burning and Clearlight, Vangelis, Al Atkins, Atomic Rooster, Rick Wakeman, Martin Stephenson and The Daintees, Archie Fisher & Barbara Dickson, The Pink Fairies, Tony Henderson, ARW, Alan Dearling, Gary Glitter,  John Brodie-Good, Gary Duncan’s Quicksilver, Lindisfarne, Lemmy, Bollywood Brass Band, Jeremy Smith, Jim Bob, Chris T-T, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Xtul, Martin Springett, Muse, Prince, John Entwistle, The Beatles, Connie Converse
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
Issue 211 (Phil Collins)
Issue 210 (Nico)
Issue 209 (Pink Fairies)
Issue 208 (Leonard Cohen)
Issue 207 (Tibet)
Issue 206 (Raz)
Issue 205 (Pink Fairies)
Issue 204 (Gas Tank)
Issue 203 (The Gardening Club)
Issue 202 (Gong)
Issue 201 (Auld Man's Baccie)
Issue 200 (Deep Purple)
Issue 199 (Yes)
Issue 198 (Steve Ignorant)
Issue 197 (Gilli Smyth)
Issue 196 (Paul May)
Issue 195 (Dave Brock)
Issue 194 (Auburn)
Issue 193 (Genre Peak)
Issue 192 (Rick Wakeman and Brian May)
Issue 191 (Karnataka)
Issue 190 (Erik Norlander)
Issue 189 (Rick Wakeman at the O2)
Issue 187/8 (Yer holiday special)
Issue 186 (Beatles)
Issue 185 (Judge Smith)
Issue 184 (Mick Abrahams)
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.co.uk
* 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 57 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two half grown kittens, one 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. 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 Archie and the Cats?

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:
  • New Articles on a strange 19th century animal and crocodiles in Ireland
From CFZ-USA:

NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Tuesday

ON THIS DAY IN - 1521 - Pope Leo X excommunicated Martin Luther. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Tuatara numbers boosted at Orokonui Ecosanctuary -...
  • Deer study shows bigger brains in females lead to ...
  • These dinosaurs lost their teeth as they grew up


  • 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.)