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, June 22, 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.



THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN REELS AT HIS OWN EXTREME CLEVERNESS

The Gonzo Daily: Friday/Saturday
 
It must be this growing older thing, but it truly doesn’t seem that it has been a whole week since I sat down and wrote a screed beginning “and so it is Friday, once again” or something like that. But, it is Friday once again, and—once again—the weekend is upon us. And—for the first time in a month—I truly hope that I can have a weekend untrammelled by people and things.
 
My thought processes are never particularly orderly at the best of times, but never so by the end of the week. And so, although I had a perfectly laid out concept of how this snippet of writing was going to go, about ten minutes ago, an excited IM from my old pal Richard Muirhead (whom I have known since 1970; longer than I have known anyone that I am not actually related to) telling me about a new species of extinct gibbon from Central China, described from bones found in the tomb of The creatures interred in the tomb are thought to have belonged to Lady Xia, grandmother of the nation’s first emperor, Qin Shi Huang. Naming their find Junzi imperialis, the scientists said the discovery is particularly noteworthy given the total lack of gibbons in the region today.
 
And for those of you who are interested in such things, the Gonzo Privacy Policy is here:
 
 
And the CFZ Privacy Policy is here: http://tinyurl.com/y7b9rlog And, yes,
 
 
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:
 
Zappa Interview Today Show 1993
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Barbara Dickson - Anot...
YES feat. ARW NEWS
COMING THIS WEEKEND
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
 
Gonzo Weekly #291
THE APPLES AND ALIENS ISSUE
 
Kev meets Alien Weaponry, the blue eyed boys of New Zealand Maori Metal, Doug waxes lyrical about ex Stray Cat guitarist Brian Setzer, Alan reads about Francoise Hardy, Jon encounters the Apple help desk and critiques Genevieve Ching. And there is Hawkwind and the lovely Corinna. Who could ask for more?
 
#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 Kev Rowlands AND the irrepressible Corinna, though Neil Nixon, and Roy Weard, and C J Stone, and Mr Biffo are absent this time arounf. 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:
 
houghty2, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Led Zeppelin, Prince, Black Grape, Johnny Marr, Morrissey, Robert Smith, The Cure, Richard Freeman, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Wayne Dockery, Philip John "Jon" Hiseman, Jaroslaw Kozidrak, Maria Butaciu, Neil Evans Boyd, Ras Kimono, Daniel David Kirway, Dominic Joseph Fontana, Jimmy Gonzalez, Eliza Carthy, Kate Rusby, Rick Wakeman, Paice, Ashton & Lord, The Mitchell Trio, Alien Weaponry, Kev Rowland, Doug Harr, Brian Setzer, The Stray Cats, Alan Dearling, Francoise Hardy, Black Royal, Machine Head, Nightwish, Bruce Lamont, Caba, Cave Bastard, Chris Bay, Coreleoni, Hawkwind, Matthew Wright, The Wild Colonial Boy, Jon Downes, Martin Springett, G.P.Ching, Iron Maiden, Elvis, Beatles, Sex Pistols, Jimi Hendrix, Franz Liszt
 
And the last few issues are:
 
Issue 290 (Frank Zappa)
Issue 289 (Misty in Roots)
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?

BIG CAT ROUND UP

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.

  • NEWSLINK: Police arrest 7 suspects over killing of...
  • NEWSLINK: Two secret government reports saying the...
  • NEWSLINK: Two Sumatran tigers to make new home at ...
  • CARL WRITES
  • PHOTO: Blue Mountains 'panther' caught on camera -...

  • PHOTOS: Rare one-month-old tiger cubs as they are ...
  • NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Friday/Saturday

    ON THIS DAY IN -  1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte abdicated a second time. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • New Zealand 'marine heatwave' brings tropical fish...
  • Humpback whale trapped in netting off Bondi beach
  • Giant Hammerhead Worms Have Been Invading France f...
  • Dolphin 'happiness' measured by scientists in Fran...

  • These Two Angry, Yelling Lynx Are Probably Fightin...

  • 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)