Friday, June 11, 2021
BIG CAT ROUND UP
THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN LOOKS BACK
The Gonzo Daily: Friday
This is not going to go down in the annals of history as one of the most successful weeks in the life of Jonathan Downes. It started off with a half fledged blackbird brought into the house by one of the cats, But although we did everything we could, and the bird hospital in Bude was on standby for us, like 90% of creatures brought in by cats, it died.
Yesterday, Carl found one of the hens was in distress. He originally thought it had prolapsed, but when Graham and he took her to the vets in Bude (which is ironically where the lady who runs the bird hospital works) it turned out that she had an untreatable tumour which had become infected. So sadly she was put to sleep.
Now today, we have the latest part of the saga of the plumber.
Plumbers! Don’t talk to me about plumbers.
I have been trying to get a plumber to come here to fix or replace my immersion heater since February. It was arranged finally, After months of faffing about, and for different plumbers failing to turn up for arranged appointments, plumber number four was the most impressive, and eventually arranged to come at 8:30 this morning.
Because my bedroom is at the end of the corridor, and the faulty boiler is in the corridor, or rather in a cupboard halfway down the corridor, it was decided that I could get up early so as not to be disconvenienced by the plumber doing his thing whilst I was doing mine. Or, even worse, barricaded into my bedroom for several hours by the activities of a hairy handed man of toil.
As always seems to be the same when I am trying to get up early, I had a terrible night’s sleep. But I finally got to sleep at about 4:30. And like a good soldier, I was up with a fairly disgruntled lark, had done my ablutions, and was halfway down the stairs when Graham called to me to tell me that the bloody plumber had cancelled. Now he is allegedly coming sometime next week, and we will have to go through the whole bloody rigmarole again.
Bah!
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The latest episode of On the Track went up on Saturday and we are very proud of it.
This intriguing new episode features:
- Barry Tadcaster talks nonsense
- We mark the passing of Di Francis
- Bobcats in LA
- Jon mistakes a leopard for a jaguar
- Mystery monkeys of Hong Kong
- What is the pig tailed macacque?
- a brief history of HK Monkeys
- the mystery apes of Tai Tam
- Jon joins Bill Gates' robot army of the undead
So, if you want to attend a visual entertainment consisting of hard science and a smattering of weird shit, interspersed with us dicking about in an increasingly surreal manner, check the latest episode out:
And here we have another shameless plug:
My book ‘Wild Colonial Boy’ is the story of my early life in Hong Kong, and how I first became interested in Natural History, and more specifically cryptozoology, and there are several very little known cryptozoological mysteries discussed therein. It is very much like a darker analog of Gerald Durrell’s memoirs of his childhood in Greece, and I would’ve called it “My Family and other Sociopaths” if it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t want to be sued either by Durrell’s estate, or my family. You can find out more and buy it signed from the link below:
C’mon, make a curmudgeonly old bugger happy.
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:
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 Gardening Club,Pandemic stories, 4th Eden, Steve Davis' new band, Wino Tyrone, The Nicewun JM, Mark Thomas and much more...
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 C.J Stone, but Mr Biffo, Tony Klinger 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:
Issue 447-8 (Gardening Club)
This alphqanumeric issue disappearede into the aether
Issue 443-4 (Rubber chicken)
Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 439-40 (Prince Phillip)
Issue 437-8 (Yes)
Issue 435-36 (Hawkwind)
Issue 433-34 (Freda Payne)
Issue 431-32 (Kosheen)
Issue 429-30 (Ocean Aid)
Issue 427-8 (2021 ia Bosch)
Issue 425-6 (Paul McCartney)
Issue 423-4 (KLF)
Issue 421-22 (Christmas)
Issue 419-20 (John Lennon)
Issue 417-8 (gIG)
Issue 415-16 (Phideaux)
Issue 413-14 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 411-12 (Extinction Rebellion)
Issue 409-10 (Covid)
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?
NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Friday
ON THIS DAY IN - 1346 - Charles IV of Luxembourg was elected Holy Roman Emperor in Germany.
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk
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)