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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Monday, September 28, 2020

NEW ZEALAND'S MYSTERY EXTINCT MAMMAL

The Thylacoline - it shouldn't have been in New Zealand at all.





now read on.... 

THE GONZO BLOG DOO DAH MAN STARTS A NEW WEEK



The Gonzo Daily - Monday/Tuesday
And so another week is upon us. Yes, I know weeks start on Sunday, but I have never managed to get my head around that. A bit like time zones. Anyone who has ever dealt with me, and who does not live in Britain will know that I completely cannot get my head around the fact that the world is round, and so I always screw up time zones, and at the old age of 61 I don’t think I’m going to learn them now.
There has been some unpleasantness on one of the CFZ Facebook groups, and several people have had to be reminded that if they can’t play nicely their heads will be mounted on pikes outside the palace gates. My old mate Ve Macrinnon left Facebook for awhile, and when he returned I forgot to reinstate him as a moderator on the CFZ Facebook groups, and most importantly, to his old role as Trollfinder General. I rectified this this morning, and so he is now patrolling the interstices of the CFZ Facebook groups ready to bang peoples heads together as and when this is necessary.
On a totally different subject, is there anybody out there who has one or more WebCams that they’re not using? With social distancing still very much on the radar, I want to expand the range of what we are doing with On the Track….
If you wish to remember Corinna in a formal sense, Donations to North Devon Hospice, please. They were absolutely wonderful to us all, and I cannot praise them highly enough; they deserve everything we can give them. I will certainly be doing something from the CFZ for them soon.
Many thanks to all of you who have written to me offering condolences and kindness. I am totally overwhelmed by your love and friendship. I will write back to you all, but my emotions are too raw at the moment.
But we do have a new episode of OTT
And a new edition of A&M for you
Like Marge Simpson, I never really knew what it meant, but keep on trucking!
The Gonzo Books site is now pretty well done, and there is also a new CFZ Publcations website at https://baboon.wixsite.com/website then tell me what a clever fellow I am. It even has a haiku to explain why some links are not finished:
"These links do not work,
now but they will do so soon,
we apologise"
ALL TODAY'S GONZO NEWS WOT'S FIT TO SQUINT
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 eleven 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?
AND THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE GONZO MAGAZINE:
Gonzo Weekly #409/10
THE COVID CONVERSATIONS ISSUE
This magazine continues to go off on strange tangents that I never expect, but I am very happy to see it do so. What is in this week? Ooooh lots of things. Such as The Flaming Lips, COVID Conversations, Fiona Apple and Auburn’s Liz Lenten, David Essex, Yusuf/Cat Stevens and oodles more, animal rescue with PAART, Reminiscences from Tony Klinger, and other stuff of interest.
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney and Friday Night Progressive, AND Merrell Fankhauser, and the Real Music Club, AND Strange Fruit, and Mr Biffo, there is a column from Kev Rowland, and one from Tony Klinger, and C.J Stone, but Mr Biffo, and Neil Nixon, are on hiatus. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and dibblers who have got the blues (OK, nothing to do with tiny marsupials who are listening to the new Bob Dylan album, 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!!!
..And the last few issues are:
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 a recently widowed old hippy of 61 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, three other cats, 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 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 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.

NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Monday

 ON THIS DAY IN - 1066 - England was invaded by William the Conqueror who claimed the English throne.

And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • MONGABAY: Two new Javan rhino calves are spotted i...
  • Australia whales: 90 dead in mass stranding off Ta...

  • 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)