The Gonzo Daily: Thursday
Yesterday was a peculiar one. I had a blood test, filmed a large chunk of
OTT, interviewed Nick Redfern and bought some gin. It was too bloody hot for me
yesterday, and today I have deployed the office fan for the first time in a
couple of years. Regular readers will be aware that back in January, Graham,
Charlotte and I took a party of games journalists and other folk involved with
Capcom's release of the videogame Monster Hunter World down to Common Moor - a
bleak area on the road to Shebbear in order to search for evidence of the
existence of the big black cats which have been reported so often in the region.
In a wonderful piece of happenstance that I wouldn't have believed if it
happened to anyone else, the head of the PR company found the skeleton of a
young deer with no external injuries on it, apart from the teeth marks of a
medium to large sized predator.
Excitement ensued.
The teeth marks proved to be those of a large fox, and subsequent
deployment of a trail camera got pictures of such an animal walking along the
road. We thought, from various hoof marks found in soft mud, that the location
where we found the skeleton was a regularly used road crossing for various
animals, so we re-deployed the trail camera to see if we could confirm this. We
retrieved the trail camera a few days after Graham returned from America and it
does indeed include several images of roe deer, which have crossed the road in
order to get there. However, there were not as many pictures of deer as we would
have expected, and we will be carrying out our investigations to see if we can
find out why.
We do now, however, have a tentative hypothesis to explain the deer kill.
Even the largest of foxes could not have dragged the deer very far, but Carl
Marshall has suggested that a car struck the unfortunate animal a glancing blow,
and that soft tissue injuries killed it. The skeleton was found only a couple of
feet from the road itself, and so he hypothesised that either the dying animal
crawled towards the crossing place with which it was familiar, or that the fox
pulled the carcass there post-mortem but pre-predation.
There have been a lot of 'big cat' sightings along this road over the
years, and we intend to continue our explorations of Common Moor. Partly because
of this, and partly because - being common land - we do not have to get a
landowners permission to deploy trail cams and carry on investigations.
Watch this space.
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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:The Chad Mitchell Trio ...
MOUNTAIN NEWS
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
SHUTTLEWORTH NEWS
Alice Cooper Group Guitarist, Michael Bruce Gives ...
LUTZ IN TOTNES
Gonzo Weekly #287
THE TARNATION ISSUE
I first heard the music of our cover songstrel fifteen years ago, whilst
driving through Nevada's Valley of Fire National Park more than slightly
chemically and herbally altered. I have been in love with her music ever since
so it's about time for our regular championing of the sublime Paula Frazer and
Tarnation whose new album is utterly awesome. John goes to see Nigel Kennedy,
Alan raves about the Mathis Haug Band, Jon rambles on about Ken and Daisy
Campbell and the Pagan Love Cult, while Roy goes on tour with Sniff n' the
Tears
#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, and Roy Weard, and C J Stone, and Mr Biffo and Kev Rowlands AND the
irrepressible Corinna . There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views,
interviews and tiger quolls who are havinga little snooze (OK, nothing to do
with small dasyurids who are a little sleepy, 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:
Pagan Love Cult, Merrell Fankhauser, Cavern Club, Beatles, Morrissey, Dave
Grohl, Michael Eavis, Rolling Stones, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive,
Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, William Gold, Robert Indiana, Reginald Grant Lucas,
Philip Milton Roth, Norman Eugene "Clint" Walker, Mike & the Mechanics,
Ashton, Gardner, Dyke & Co., Michael Bruce, Man, Karnataka, Doug Harr, Paula
Frazer, Alan Dearling, Mathis Haug Band, One Root Music, Griot Blues, John
Brodie-Good, Nigel Kennedy, Kev Rowland, Kaze, Infinitwav, Labyrinth,
Lione-Conti, Lord of Pagathorn, Magenta, Megalophobe, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard,
Chris Stone, Jon Downes, The Wild Colonial Boy, Martin Springett, Joanna Hodgin,
Nancy and Lawrence Durrell, Grateful Dead, Selena Quintanilla, The Beatles,
Michael Jackson, The Ramones, John Lennon, The Fugs, Hortus gin
And the last few issues are:
Issue 288 (Paula Frazer)
Issue 287 (Boss Goodman)
Issue 286 (Monty Python)
Issue 285 (ELP)
Issue 284 (Straqngelove)
Issue 283 (Record Store Day)
Issue 282 (Neil Finn and Fleetwood Mac)
Issue 281 (Carl Palmer)
Issue 280 (Steve Andrews)
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?
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