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...




Friday, September 14, 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 PRAYS

The Gonzo Daily: Friday/Saturday
YER EDITOR SEZ:
And once again, here we are at the end of another week. I am not going to say that it has been a strange week - you can take that as read, I think. However it  has been a week, in which - despite all the nasty stuff about which regular readers have an inkling, I have witnessed members of my extended family being trampled underfoot by the increasingly implacable and faceless machinery of local government.
It seems that most decisions involving financial matters are now taken by algorithms rather than human beings, and we are beginning to see the results of this in terms of people being brushed aside; the opportunities which once they would have taken for granted, denied to them. Truly the 21st Century gets ever more dystopian every day.
As far as Corinna is concerned, I am afraid that there is still no more concrete news. Corinna - thank God - continues to be pain free, and although she has intermittent discomfort is doing rather well. We have been told that she needs more tests, and so the waiting game continues. Please continue keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I am convinced that the barrage of love and blessings you have sent us so far has borne remarkable results.
Meanwhile I continue to pretend that I am a popstar, because now I have sold five whole copies of my new album Coldharbour. If I continue at this rate I will get a silver disc sometime at the beginning of the next millenium. Coldharbour, by the way, can be found here: https://jondownes1.bandcamp.com/releases
I think it is really rather good, but then again I would say that wouldn't I?
ALL TODAY'S GONZO NEWS WOT'S FIT TO PRINT:
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
COMING THIS WEEKEND
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY:  Steve Hillage - The S...
ZAPPATHINGS
FAIRPORT RELATED THINGS
OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF FROM THE GONZOVERSE:
For those of you who are interested in such things, the Gonzo Privacy Policy is here:
And the CFZ Privacy Policy is here:
And, yes,
CHECK OUT THE GONZO STORES:
UK
US
AND OTHER STUFF FEATURING VARIOUS GONZO CONTRIBUTORS:
Our webTV show:
And if you fancy supporting it on Patreon:
And by the way chaps and chappesses, a trip to the Jon Downes megastore may seem to be in order:
AND THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE GONZO MAGAZINE:
Gonzo Weekly #301-2
THE PEACE AND LOVE ISSUE
In another fantastically fab issue, Richard meets Ringo Starr and goes into Therapy, Jon examines the autobiography of Cosey from Throbbing Gristle, John goes analogue, Doug goes to see Erasure, and Chris and Graham independently mention Eric Clapton, Alan gets the blues from Toby Mottershead, Raz goes to see Yes feat. ARW, Graham muses on Hawkwind and Arthur Brown, and Jon gets all apocalyptic and then releases an album.
#Hail Eris!
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney, AND Friday Night Progressive, AND there are columns from all sorts of folk including Kev Rowlands, Neil Nixon, C J Stone, AND Roy Weard and the irrepressible Corinna AND Mr Biffo are back on board.  There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and red kangaroos who've lost their shoes (OK, nothing to do with the largest extant macropods who are in a quandry with regards their footwear, 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:
Ken Worthington, John Shuttleworth, Apple Records, Ed Sheeran, Aretha Franklin, Neil Young, Daryl Hannah, Michael Jackson, Michael Raz Rescigno, YES featuring Anderson, Rabin & Wakeman, Bart Lancia, Peter Gabriel, Richard Freeman, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Lindsay Keith Kemp, Anthony Toby Hiller, Marvin Neil Simon, Edward Calhoun King, Leslie Carswell Johnson, Spencer Patrick Jones, Turgut Berkes, Khaira Arby, Jack Constanzo, Danny Pearson, Jill Janus, Collins Leysath "DJ Ready Red", Kyle Pavone, Elliot "Ellie" Mannette, Rick Wakeman, Michael Bruce, Natural Gas, Richard Stellar, Ringo Starr, Doug Harr, Erasure, Alan Dearling, Toby Mottershead, The Barrels Ale House, John Brodie Good, sound systems, Analogue, Stephen Fearing, Kev Rowland, Arena, Black Foxxes, Black Moth, Bob Arthurs & Steve Lamattina, The Bonnevilles, Bulletboys,Crosson, Roo, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Chris Stone, Eric Clapton, Hawkwind, Arthur Brown, Jon Downes, The Wild Colonial Boy, Martin Springett, Cosey Fanni Tutti, Paul McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Jim Morrison, Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain, Carlos Santana, Elvis, Neil Nixon, Diamanda Galas.
And the last few issues are:
Issue 301-2 (Ringo Starr)
Issue 299-300 (Aretha Franklin)
Issue 298 (Alan in Hungary)
Issue 297 (Shir Ordo)
Issue 295-6 (Robert Berry)
Issue 294 (Bow Wow Wow)
Issue 293 (Stonehenge)
Issue 292 (Rolling Stones)
Issue 291 (Alien Weaponry)
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 59 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?

NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)




The Loch Ness Monster is worth nearly £41 million a year to the Scottish economy, new research reveals. The total is £11million more than the ...

ONE is associated with a mysterious monster, the other is nicknamed the “green fairy”. Now drinks makers hope combining the two will make for major ...

NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Friday/Saturday

ON THIS DAY IN -  1812 - Moscow was set on fire by Russians after Napoleon Bonaparte's troops invaded. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Protection for dolphins and seabirds ‘weaker under...
  • Two new peacock spiders identified in Western Aust...
  • Drought spurs extreme measures to protect West's w...
  • Chinese snake milkers make $3m selling deadly veno...

  • 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)