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...




Wednesday, May 16, 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.

Are emperor penguins eating enough?

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS RELATIVELY DILIGENT

The Gonzo Daily: Wednesday
 
And so today I am finally biting the proverbial bullet and getting down to the horrible task of making all our mailing lists GDPR compliant. Doing this is even more annoying than when I had to write up a Health and Safety compliance document for the Weird Weekend a couple of years back. I truly resent having to do this "ticking the boxes" stuff, and it was much more fun when Graham, Richard and I were the last gang in  town, playing fast and loose with every regulation that came our way, twenty years ago. But entropy only goes in one direction, and so I have to buckle down to it.
 
Changing the subject completely, is there anyone reading this who has any experience in coding apps? Even more importantly, if you do, would you be prepared to lend your expertise to us for a few hours? Email me please at jon@eclipse.co.uk.
 
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:
 
And by the way chaps and chappesses, a trip to the Jon Downes megastore seems to be in order: if you want to make me a happy fellow, you can:
 
buy my novel:
buy the record by the main protagonist of the novel who isn't me in an elephant mask, honest:
buy my single:
 
But for now, here is the news:
 
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY:  Osibisa - Pata Pata 1...
Hawkwind Documentary (Do not Panic)
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
YES NEWS
FRANK ZAPPA NEWS
 
 
Gonzo Weekly #285
THE AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT ISSUE
 
As Netflix streams (almost) the entire output of the Monty Python team plus a whole bunch of documentaries, we take a nostalgic look at these Titans of Comedy. Doug remembers Mr Rogers, Corinna looks at Hawkwind on eBay, John looks forward to upcoming gigs, and bemoans recent bankruptcies, Biffo talks about the toxic fandom of Ricky Gervais and Alan goes Busking.
 
#Hail Eris!
 
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, AND Mack Maloney, AND Friday Night Progressive, there are columns from all sorts of folk including Neil Nixon, Kev Rowlands AND the irrepressible Corinna, and Roy Weard, and C J Stone, and Mr Biffo. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and long nosed potoroos who have stood around waiting for other potoroos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have decided to stage a reading of the Samuel Beckett classic, 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:
 
Monty Python, Wayne Kramer, MC5, John Lennon, Julia Baird, Selfridges, Rolling Stones, The Beatles, Suede, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Vladimir Borisovich Sapunov, Dick Williams, Abi Ofarim, Tony Cucchiara, Stephen "Steve" Coy, Tony Kinman, Gayle Shepherd, Ben Graves, Carl Perkins, Big T, David William Goodall AM, Ashton, Gardner, Dyke & Co., Michael Bruce, Man, Karnataka, Doug Harr, Fred Rogers, Alan Dearling, Street Performing, Jonny Walker, John Brodie-Good, upcoming gigs, Gibson Guitars, Oppo, Shure, Business Catalyst, Kev Rowland, Birzer Bandana, Bleeding Gods, Broken Cross, Colin Edwin/Robert Jurjendal, Corrosion of Conformity, Discipline, Flaming Row, Martin Schnella & Melanie Mau, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Chris Stone, Hawkwind, The Wild Colonial Boy, Martin Springett, Jon Dunn, Jerry Garcia, Elvis, Beatles, Offspring, Victoria Beckham, David Bowie, Jimii Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Mark Fry
And the last few issues are:
 
Issue 284 (Straqngelove)
Issue 283 (Record Store Day)
Issue 282 (Neil Finn and Fleetwood Mac)
Issue 281 (Carl Palmer)
Issue 280 (Steve Andrews)
Issue 279 (Biffo)
Issue 278 (The Beatles)
Issue 277 (Auld Man's Baccie)
Issue 276 (Dukes of the Orient)
Issue 275 (Martin Gordon)
Issue 274 (Steve Took)
Issue 273 (Live Dead 69)
Issue 272 (George Butler)
Issue 271 (Mark E Smith)
Issue 270 (Eric Clapton)
Issue 269 (Narnia)
Issue 267-8 (Happy New Year)
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)
 
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?

THE LAST WEEK AT THE CFZ-USA BLOG

CFZ-USA


  • TIME TRAVELERS INVITED TO HAWKING'S MEMORIAL
  • GNOMES - DIMINUTIVE HUMANOIDS
  • MAN-FACED PIGS
  • LAKE KOSHKONONG MONSTER
  • BLUE RIDGE BIGFOOT
  • TEENAGE ENCOUNTER WITH BIGFOOT
  • BOOK NEWS
  • CHESTNUT RIDGE THUNDERBIRD
  • CANNOCK CHASE - WEIRD HOTSPOT
  • CRYPTIDS OF ASIA
  • TERRIFYING CREATURE IN AFGHANISTAN
  • ALIENS IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE
  • MODERN SIGHTINGS OF CENTAURS
  • BRIAN REGAL AND THE JERSEY DEVIL
  • JERSEY DEVIL
  • LEAPER OF EWELL ROAD
  • MUSTELID CRYPTIDS
  • STOA - SURVIVING DINOSAUR?
  • GROUNDHOG-HUMAN HYBRID
  • GOAT-HUMAN HYBRIDS
  • REAPPEARING SPECIES
  • CRAWLING CREATURE
  • SHADOW BEING
  • UNUSUAL NOTES ON BIGFOOT
  • RESURRECTING THE MAMMOTH
  • KETOS - SEA MONSTER OF GREEK MYTH
  • DRAGON WITH THREE HEADS
  • BIGFOOT IN OREGON
  • CHUPACABRA IN CHINA?
  • CREATURES OF RUSSIAN FOLKLORE
  • APE-MAN IN KENT
  • THE YETI
  • GLOBSTER IN THE PHILLIPINES
  • UPDATE ON PILSEN WINGED BEING
  • EVIDENCE OF BIGFOOT
  • MOKELE-MBEMBE - A QUESTION
  • MARRYING A MERMAID
  • BIGFOOT IN RUSSIA
  • CHUPACABRA ENCOUNTERS
  • MYSTERY ANIMAL AT BEACHY HEAD
  • INVESTIGATION OF NEW JERSEY BIGFOOT
  • DOGMAN SCARES CHILDREN
  • ABOUT 100 NEW SPECIES
  • VEGETABLE MAN
  • COWLIKE HUMANOID IN WISCONSIN
  • UFO FOOTAGE
  • BAT-WINGED BEING REPORTED AGAIN
  • ISONADE - LEGENDARY FISH
  • KIDNAPPED BY FOREST PEOPLE
  • IRISH LAKE MONSTER
  • LAKE MONSTER IN AFRICA
  • BIGFOOT IN THE DESERT
  • THE CHUPACABRAS CRAZE
  • TWO NEW CRUSTACEANS
  • BIGFOOT IN FLORIDA
  • BIGFOOT IN ENGLAND
  • PANGOLINS ENDANGERED
  • BASILISK
  • HUMAN-FACED HEN
  • SKOGSRA - WOODLAND SPIRITS
  • CHILDREN MEET BIGFOOT
  • DID GIANTS ONCE EXIST?
  • BRINGING BACK THE THYLACINE
  • CHUPACABRAS IN MEXICO?
  • CREATURE WITH MULTIPLE EYES
  • CAVEMEN OF DEVON
  • WINGED BEING IN TENNESSEE
  • IS NESSIE A PLESIOSAUR?
  • PRAYING MANTIS HUMANOID
  • DARK FIGURE IN CLOSET
  • TRINITY ALPS GIANT SALAMANDER
  • BRAIN FLUID LEAKS THROUGH NOSE
  • ATTEMPTED ABDUCTION BY BIGFOOT
  • TWO NEW SPECIES OF STARFISH
  • MILE HIGH MYSTERY CONFERENCE
  • BIGFOOT SIGHTING IN NEW JERSEY?
  • MAN WITH YELLOW EYES
  • REPRESENTATIONS OF THE WILDMAN
  • BIPEDAL REPTILIAN
  • WILDMAN - GENERAL ARTICLE
  • WHITE THINGS
  • BANDAGE MAN
  • LOCH NESS MONSTER CONSPIRACY
  • BIGFOOT AND DOGMAN
  • MAN CLAIMS TO HAVE KNOWN YOUNG BIGFOOT
  • VISITED BY BIGFOOT
  • WATER ON THE MOON?


  • A MARTIAN BIRD?
  • NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN -  1770 - Marie Antoinette, at age 14, married the future King Louis XVI of France, who was 15. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • Unprecedented wave of large-mammal extinctions lin...
  • Bottlenose dolphins recorded for the first time in...
  • First genetic evidence of ongoing mating between 2...
  • 'Environmental DNA' used to identify killer whales...
  • How cheetahs outsmart lions and hyenas

  • CRYPTOZOOLOGY ONLINE: Still on the TrackAND 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)