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...




Monday, November 05, 2018

THYLACINES IN THE NEWS




... their frontier war and cruel exile on Flinders Island, bushrangers, cannibal escapees, sealers, whalers and the extinction of the thylacine.
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BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF




Exactly no one was asking for a movie about interspecies breeding with Bigfoot in New Jersey, but that didn't stop Edward X. Young from getting one ...
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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.



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THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN PRAYS

The Gonzo Daily: Monday/Tuesday
 
YER EDITOR SEZ:
 
I have been writing record reviews for years, but something that I usually don't admit - even to myself - is that the vast majority of records I review never get played afterwards. It is not because the Jon Downes personal playlist is - like that of so many people of my age - is conflined to music from my younger days, but because I am sent an enormous amount of new music, and only a portion of it will stick around in my head.
 
But I think that this one will.
 
Marianne Faithfull has released a beautifully gentle and contemplative new album full of songs mostly about death, loneliness and love. It is a perfect soundtrack to where I am this morning. She describes it as the most "honest" of her records, and reviewers have compared it with such late career highlights produced by Johnny Cash and Leonard Cohen. I don't think that it sounds like either, being far more introspective and understated; two words that one does not usually associate with the oeuvre of Ms Faithfull, who is someopne that I have admired for many years. It is a beautiful record, and one that I truly look forward to getting to know better.
 
Corinna is mostly pain free, and is being massively brave. I cannot tell you how much I love and admire that woman. Poor lass has to undergo another batch of tests, and we continue to forge on until something actually happens. Please remember us in your thoughts and prayers.
 
ALL TODAY'S GONZO NEWS WOT'S FIT TO PRINT:
 
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Paul McCartney & John Lennon 1968 Full Interview
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: The Riddle Overture by...
CELEBRATING LEONARD COHEN
SPIRITS BURNING: Belgium review translated
 
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:
 
Meanwhile I continue to pretend that I am a popstar, because now I have sold eight 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?
 
I do have good news to impart: Lars Thomas' book about the mystery land animals of Scandinavia and the Baltic States has been uploaded, and over at Gonzo the first volume of Kev Rowland's The Progressive Underground is also imminent. And at Fortean Fiction, my latest novel - 'Zen and Xenophobia' - vaguely a sequel to 2015's 'The Song of Panne' - is now available.
 
 
! would warn you that if you are of a nervous disposition, or easily offended, you will find parts of my novel both offensive and upsetting. There is sex, violence, drug abuse, occultism, pornography, firearms, politics, religion, and not a little sociology. But there is also love, kindness, faith, and redemption. And it's a cracking good yarn. Or I think so, at any rate. All I would say on the subject before bidding you farewell is Caveat Lector. And I'm not gonna explain what that means, because because if you don't know what that means then you probably shouldn't be reading the book in the first place.
 
AND THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE GONZO MAGAZINE:
 
Gonzo Weekly #309/10
THE WELCOME ON THE HILLSIDE ISSUE
(I wonder if anyone will get it?)
 
In another fantastically fab issue, Alan goes to a PsyTrance festie at Hebden Bridge and grooved to the sounds of Steve Hillage, System 7, Eat Static and more, we have a new interview with Rick Wakeman, Rob photographs Man in Cardiff, John goes to see Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, Jon writes about Chaos Chaos, Mary Epworth and The Who, and Hawkwind go orchestral.
 
#Hail Eris!
 
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney, AND Friday Night Progressive, AND as Lady Selene has been high in the sky, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, AND there are columns from Kev Rowlands,  AND C J Stone, AND Mr Biffo but though Neil Nixon, AND Roy Weard AND the irrepressible Corinna are on hiatus.  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:
 
Chaos Chaos, Nico, Merrell Fankhauser, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Queen, Roger Taylor, Bart Lancia, Yes, Man, Richard Stellar, Jamal Khashoggi, Daniel Pearl, Richard Freeman, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Valters Fridenbergs, Oli Herbert, Annapurna Devi, Theresa Hightower, Tim Chandler, Andy Goessling, Jon James McMurray, Al Atkins, The Chad Mitchell Trio, Spirits Burning and Michael Moorcock, The Gardening Club, Rick Wakeman, Simon Mayo, Alan Dearling, Hebden Bridge, Cabbage Festival, Steve Hillage and Miquette Giraudy, System 7, Mirror System, Daniel Gaudi, Mery Pepler aka Eat Static, Tetchi, Ozric Tentacles, John Brodie-Good, Nick Mason’s Saucerful of Secrets, Kev Rowland, Green Desert Water, Heartwind, Ira B Liss Big Band Jazz Machine, Jim McCarty, The Konsortiumm, L.A. Guns, Leila Abdul-Rauf, Lesoir, Carl Marshall, Mr Biffo, Chris Stone, Hawkwind, Cold Harbour Diaries, Jon Downes, The Wild Colonial Boy, Martin Springett, The Who, Dave Marsh
 
And the last few issues are:
 
Issue 309-10 (Steve Hillage)
Issue 307-8 (Michael Moorcock)
Issue 305-6 (Maartin Allcock)
Issue 303-4 (kOZFEST)
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?
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