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, January 12, 2018

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.




BLOODY HELL THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS GOING WOOP AGAIN

The Gonzo Daily: Friday/Saturday
 
I will be the first to admit that I have written the words "it has been a peculiar couple of days" or something of the sort on many occasions during the last few years, but I am going to do it again today. Why? Because it has been a peculiar couple of days for sure, but the most frustrating thing about it is that it is embargoed until the end of the month so I cannot actually tell you about it in full until then.
 
But the Janet and John version is that Charlotte and Graham and I have spent the last two days playing host to a disparate bunch of London journalists, and taking them to places where people have reported seeing what may be Alien Big Cats. We also showed them camera and sand traps, and they looked for hair samples. But none of us expected what happened next.
 
And to find out more you will have to wait.
 
Forgive me for always banging on about our webTV show, but it matters a lot to me, and I would be grateful for as many people as possible to see it, and spread the tidings of it far and wide:
 
 
And if you fancy supporting us on Patreon:
 
But for now, here is the news:
 
ERIC BURDON ARTICLE
VINTAGE YES INTERVIEW
BLOODY HELL
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY:  MARTIN STEPHENSON - G...
 
Gonzo Weekly #265/6
THE RING IN THE NEW ISSUE
 
In this first issue of 2018 we take a look at the best albums of 2017, John B-G’s review of the year and hopes for this one, Graham’s review of the year for Hawkwind, Alan’s interview with Matthew Smith about Exist to Resist, and his rave review of Canadians the Slocan Ramblers, while John makes sense of the novel by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu.
 
Hail Eris!
 
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney AND Strange Fruit, AND Friday Night Progressive AND 'cos it was a full moon last week, Canterbury Sans Frontieres. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Neil Nixon, Roy Weard, C J Stone, Mr Biffo and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and southern dibblers who have blown a fuse (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who are not good at household electrics, 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:
 
Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Bono, Steve Hackett, Procul Harum, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Nathan Strayer, Dave Christenson, Michael George Haynes (Michael Prophet), Richard Dobson, Ralph Carney, Kevin Bryant Mahogany, Jim Forrester, Leo "Bud" Welch, Reggie Joseph Osse (Combat Jack), Roswell Hopkins Rudd Jr., Halvard Magne Kausland, Jordan Feldstein, John Ray Sechler (Curly Seckler) Melton "Eahsaan" Mustafa Sr., Pam Warren (Pam the Funkstress), Roe Erister "Rick" Hall, Tony Calder, Erica Garner-Snipes, Barbara Dickson, Jessica Lee Morgan, Rick Wakeman, Billion Dollar Babies, Tangerine Dream, Roger Waters, Gorillaz, Neil Young, British Sea Power, Peter Perrett, Gogol Bordello, Tricky, Yusuf/Cat Stevens, Morrissey, Tim Bowness, Alan Dearling, Slocan Ramblers, Matthew Smith, Exist To Resist, John Brodie-Good, Kev Rowland, Richard Wileman, Secret World, Hollow Earth, Steelheart, Steve Hobbs, Sxuperion, Silhouette, Tankard, Threat Signal, Antisect, Trojan Horse, Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats, Simon Wright, Hawkwind, Xtul, Martin Springett, The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu, Pink, Michael Jackson, Prince, Queen, David Bowie
 
And the last few issues are:
 
Issue 265-6 (The Who)
Issue 264 (John McLaughlin)
Issue 263 (The magic Band)
Issue 262 (DikMik)
Issue 261 (Leonard Cohen)
Issue 260 (Amsterdam Squat Festie)
Issue 259 (Out come thee Freaks)
Issue 258 (The Devil's Jukebox)
Issue 257 (Judge Smith)
Issue 255/6 (John Lennon)
Issue 254 (Mr Biffo)
Issue 253 (Dana Gillespie)
Issue 252 (Cropredy)
Issue 251 (Scott Walker)
Issue 250 (Jamms)
Issue 249 (Bill Bruford)
Issue 248 (The Selecter)
Issue 247 (Don Airey)
Issue 246 (Steve Hackett)
Issue 244-5 (Summer Special)
 
 
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 58 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?

THYLACINES IN THE NEWS




What killed the Tasmanian tiger? The REAL reason the thylacines are extinct – and it's not what you think. Rapidly cooling climate changes which took place millions of years ago has been linked to the demise of the Tasmanian tiger. As wet forests turned into drier woodlands the Tasmanian thylacine ...

A study from the Australian National University has deepened the findings of an earlier paper that found climate change was the main cause of the extinction of the Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus). The study, written by the ANU's Shimona Kealy and palaeontologist Robin Beck ...
The last-known Tasmanian thylacine, which was the largest marsupial predator that survived into recent times, died in captivity in 1936. Today, after a comprehensive dated tree-of-life study of thylacines and other Australian tigers, which roamed the land millions of years ago, shows a dramatic climate ...
Although the Tasmanian thylacine was also hunted to extinction, with the last known tiger dying in captivity in 1936, the genetic health and ... and Dr Robin Beck, from the University of Salford in the UK, identified a strong link between ancient climate cooling and thylacine decline, coupled with separate ...

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF




The Bigfoot Coverup
Are there mountain lions in Pennsylvania? The state game commission says, no. However, there are countless number of people that claim they have seen them. From the outside it looks like there could be a cover up. Would they do the same with bigfoot?

World Bigfoot Radio #42 ~ Thwarted Abduction Attempt Triggers Battle!/Lynn Poole on Huffduffer
3 decades after the events recounted in "Charging Bigfoot eats Lead", a Bigfoot in the same area smashes a window and tries to grab a little girl out of her own home. Not surprisingly, all hell breaks lose, as the folks in this community all know about Bi...

Man comes forward with physical proof of Bigfoot
Peter is a brave individual and was generous to share his fathers discovery from back in the 1950s, who allegedly killed and preserved a genuine Bigfoot creature shot dead back in September 23, 1953. He has shared videos of not only a real Bigfoot foot but also a paw and the contents of the beasts ...

Illinois Had the Second Largest Number of Bigfoot Sightings in 2017
As you're driving down Illinois Route 2 between Machesney Park and South Beloit, or maybe even Meridian, you'll want to keep your eyes pealed; and not for the deer that are grazing the fields but for...Bigfoot? According to Fox 32 Chicago, Illinois had the second highest number of Bigfoot sightings in ...




NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Friday/Saturday

ON THIS DAY IN - 1519 - Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • Hope for one of the world's rarest primates: First...
  • Committed to relatives: Hounds and wolves share th...
  • A Tiny, 'Extinct' Marsupial Re-Emerges in the Aust...
  • Neonicotinoids at 'chronic levels' in UK rivers, s...
  • Sumatran rhinos never recovered from losses during...
  • Mysterious new seafloor species sheds light on ear...


  • 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).