A few minutes ago I had a telephone call from my friend and colleague Chris Moiser. Clinton Keeling, the veteran zoo historian, promotor of `Zoologica` animal-exhibition, editor of `Mainly about Animals` magazine, and one time owner of a zoo in the Peak District died this morning. Apparently he had fed and cleaned out his animals, and was sitting down working on his new book when a massive heart attack killed him almost instantly. One could not wish anything more appropriate.
The thoughts and prayers of all at the CFZ go out to his widow Pam.
I knew Clin for many years, and although we didn't always get on, I always held him in the highest regard. The world of zoology is, tonight, a poorer place
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Justified and Ancient
I have just seen that Robert Anton Wilson died a few days ago aged 75. God Bless the old Bugger....
His last blog entry read:
"Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night
Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd. RAW "
He died four days later. He was a great man.
PS. O a completely different tack, the Mongolia movie has only been up a couple of hours, and 48 people have seen it already!
His last blog entry read:
"Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night
Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd. RAW "
He died four days later. He was a great man.
PS. O a completely different tack, the Mongolia movie has only been up a couple of hours, and 48 people have seen it already!
The lair of the Red Worm
The Mongolia documentary, filmed by Richard Freeman in 2005, and edited by yours truly over the last few weeks, is now up on CFZtv.
PART ONE: http://www.cfztv.org/red1.htm
PART TWO: http://www.cfztv.org/red2.htm
It is our most ambitious film yet, clocking in at just under an hour. It is in two parts unfortunately. The irony is that one of our media consultants told me some weeks ago that we should do this, explaining that the "MTV Generation" have short attention spans, and would prefer to see a documentary in small, bite-sized chunks.
My answer was unprintable!
I have a damn sight more faith in the people who watch CFZtv than that! I am perfectly aware that 90% of the stuff on YouTube is under three minutes, and aimed at the so-called "MTV Generation", but 90% of the stuff on YouTube is complete nonsense. In the same way as we refuse to dumb-down the content of our books and magazines simply to appeal to the lowest common denominator, even though it will sell more books, I will not do that with our films either.
If the "MTV Generation" really only have an attention span of ten minutes, then it is about time they grewq up and joined the real world! I really have no intenbtion of pandering to such idiocy.
Nope, the real reason that the film is in two parts, is that our production values are getting so complex now, that even though I have a brand new (OK it was brand-new in September, which probably means - in the current technological climate that the bloody thing is now practically obsolete), dual processor computer, I just did not have the processing power for one, full length, movie.
So maybe the "MTV Generation" have won out after all.
(But don't bet on it)
PART ONE: http://www.cfztv.org/red1.htm
PART TWO: http://www.cfztv.org/red2.htm
It is our most ambitious film yet, clocking in at just under an hour. It is in two parts unfortunately. The irony is that one of our media consultants told me some weeks ago that we should do this, explaining that the "MTV Generation" have short attention spans, and would prefer to see a documentary in small, bite-sized chunks.
My answer was unprintable!
I have a damn sight more faith in the people who watch CFZtv than that! I am perfectly aware that 90% of the stuff on YouTube is under three minutes, and aimed at the so-called "MTV Generation", but 90% of the stuff on YouTube is complete nonsense. In the same way as we refuse to dumb-down the content of our books and magazines simply to appeal to the lowest common denominator, even though it will sell more books, I will not do that with our films either.
If the "MTV Generation" really only have an attention span of ten minutes, then it is about time they grewq up and joined the real world! I really have no intenbtion of pandering to such idiocy.
Nope, the real reason that the film is in two parts, is that our production values are getting so complex now, that even though I have a brand new (OK it was brand-new in September, which probably means - in the current technological climate that the bloody thing is now practically obsolete), dual processor computer, I just did not have the processing power for one, full length, movie.
So maybe the "MTV Generation" have won out after all.
(But don't bet on it)
Friday, January 19, 2007
Who knows where the time goes?
I was appalled when I realised that I have not made a blog entry in the last six weeks.Back in the days before I had a blog of my own (I know this sounds like I am saying that it was in the dim and distant past, when it was only about eighteen months ago, but a heck of a lot has happened in the intervening year and a half),I used to sneer derisively at those folks who only managed blog entries every month or so. "Bloody idiots! Starting something that they can't be bothered to keep up!" I used to grunt to myself, sounding more and more like my irascible old Dad with every passing day.
Once again I find myself eating my words, which is something that happens more and more as I get older and wiser. Life is - as John Lennon once said - something which happens to you when you are busy "making other plans". OK, he got shot a few weeks after he released the song in which these sage lines appeared, which was probably more confirmation than he needed of what was undoubtedly a truism of the first magnitude, and although the stuff which has happened in the last few months at CFZ Mansions is a mere bagatelle compared to the events outside the Dakota Building on the 9th December 1980, enough things have transpired to prevent me from keeping up this blog as I would have wished.
I will draw a discreet veil over a plethora of family problems which boiled up to a head over what is euphemistically described as `The Festive Season`, but even without them, and I shall not bother to go into the lurgy that laid me low for the last ten days, but the CFZ has been such a hive of activity since the end of November that I have had to prioritise on what I have been able to do.
In the last six weeks we have published and dispatched 400 copies of the latest issue of Animals & Men, we have republished the last two books of our back catalogue which had not been converted into a paperback (perfect bound) format, we have finally published `Strength through Koi` (my extremely silly collection of short stories about fish, complete with one of the silliest covers that Mark North has ever produced: a spoof of the 1990 Led Zeppelin box set, with a giant fish flying over a crop circle in the shape of Adolf Hitler's face!
We have been working on a number of new books which will appear in the next few weeks.These include Ken Gerhard's book on the thunderbird, Marcus Matthews' semi-legendary book on British big cats, Neil Arnold's A-Z of Zooform Phenomena, and Karl Shukers, revised and expanded update of his seminal `Extraordinary Animals Worldwide`.
We have also pretty well finalised the Weird Weekend lineup for this summer (August 17-19). So far, confirmed are:
Ian Simmons
Adam Davies
Matt Williams
Jon McGowan
Darren NaishPaul Vella
Gregoriy Panchenko
Nick Redfern
Richard Freeman
Chris Moiser
Charles Paxton
Mike Hallowell
Ronan Coghlan
I think you will agree that this is possibly the best line-up ever to grace the stage of a UK Fortean Convention.
On top of this, I am now legally able to start major renovations to the house, and preparations for the building work on the museum, which will start next week. On top of this all, Corinna is in the process of moving in with me, and we have tentatively set a wedding date of July 21st.
And it's only the third week of the year! 2007 is also our fifteenth anniversary, and we have a hectic schedule of events planned for the next 12 months.
So, dear readers; It is my New Year's resolution to try and write this blog more regularly...........But I wouldn't bet on it.
Love, and a Happy New Year (if it ain't too late to say it)
Jon
Once again I find myself eating my words, which is something that happens more and more as I get older and wiser. Life is - as John Lennon once said - something which happens to you when you are busy "making other plans". OK, he got shot a few weeks after he released the song in which these sage lines appeared, which was probably more confirmation than he needed of what was undoubtedly a truism of the first magnitude, and although the stuff which has happened in the last few months at CFZ Mansions is a mere bagatelle compared to the events outside the Dakota Building on the 9th December 1980, enough things have transpired to prevent me from keeping up this blog as I would have wished.
I will draw a discreet veil over a plethora of family problems which boiled up to a head over what is euphemistically described as `The Festive Season`, but even without them, and I shall not bother to go into the lurgy that laid me low for the last ten days, but the CFZ has been such a hive of activity since the end of November that I have had to prioritise on what I have been able to do.
In the last six weeks we have published and dispatched 400 copies of the latest issue of Animals & Men, we have republished the last two books of our back catalogue which had not been converted into a paperback (perfect bound) format, we have finally published `Strength through Koi` (my extremely silly collection of short stories about fish, complete with one of the silliest covers that Mark North has ever produced: a spoof of the 1990 Led Zeppelin box set, with a giant fish flying over a crop circle in the shape of Adolf Hitler's face!
We have been working on a number of new books which will appear in the next few weeks.These include Ken Gerhard's book on the thunderbird, Marcus Matthews' semi-legendary book on British big cats, Neil Arnold's A-Z of Zooform Phenomena, and Karl Shukers, revised and expanded update of his seminal `Extraordinary Animals Worldwide`.
We have also pretty well finalised the Weird Weekend lineup for this summer (August 17-19). So far, confirmed are:
Ian Simmons
Adam Davies
Matt Williams
Jon McGowan
Darren NaishPaul Vella
Gregoriy Panchenko
Nick Redfern
Richard Freeman
Chris Moiser
Charles Paxton
Mike Hallowell
Ronan Coghlan
I think you will agree that this is possibly the best line-up ever to grace the stage of a UK Fortean Convention.
On top of this, I am now legally able to start major renovations to the house, and preparations for the building work on the museum, which will start next week. On top of this all, Corinna is in the process of moving in with me, and we have tentatively set a wedding date of July 21st.
And it's only the third week of the year! 2007 is also our fifteenth anniversary, and we have a hectic schedule of events planned for the next 12 months.
So, dear readers; It is my New Year's resolution to try and write this blog more regularly...........But I wouldn't bet on it.
Love, and a Happy New Year (if it ain't too late to say it)
Jon
Saturday, November 25, 2006
............I forgot
I forgot to add what a hive of activity this place is today either. Corinna is preparing dinner after having been proofreading all day. Oll is in the Dining Room printing out the CFZ Christmas cards, and Richard is printing out the latest edition of Animals & Men. Mark is doing the final tweaks to my 1995 book `The Smaller Mystery Carnivores of the Westcountry` (the last of my cryptozoological back catalogue to come out in paperback form), which will be available in about ten days, and I have just finished doing the final revisions to my long awaited book of short stories about fish.
It's called Strength Through Koi, and I find it mildly entertaining. To quote from the introduction:
"Koi carp were certainly lucky for me. As anyone who has ever read my autobiography – Monster Hunter – will know, the beginning of the 21st Century was a particularly bleak time for me. Beset with health problems, I was also facing the threat of imminent bankruptcy. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] was in the financial doldrums; it was costing an arm and a leg to keep going, and all of our regular sources of funding had dried up!
For years I have augmented my income by working as a `hack` writer, penning throwaway articles for anyone who will pay me. Regularly, I would get the bus into Exeter City Centre, and sneak into W.H.Smiths and peruse the magazines for sale, and make a surreptitious list of any new publications whom I could approach to buy an article from me.
One day in the late winter, I was doing just this when I found a copy of a magazine called Koi Carp. With my tongue firmly in cheek, I telephoned them, and asked whether they would be interested in an article – or even a series of articles – about the fortean aspects of their hobby. Much to my surprise and gratification they accepted, and so I started work on my first article.
I had been so used to working for fly-by-night publications, that I had stopped taking a long-term view of my writing work. I was lucky if a series I wrote lasted three issues, so the fact that I knew next to nothing about the fortean aspect of koi carp keeping didn’t really matter. However, on this occasion, I was hoist by my own petard, as the series carried on for nearly two years! After six or seven issues, I bit the bullet, and started to employ the old journalistic adage that one should never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Some of the stories that follow are true. Some are mostly true, others have a germ of truth, and even the ones that I made up are based on true events. I think my proudest moment as a journalist came, after the publication of “They Saved Hitler’s Koi”, when Simon Wolstencroft, an old friend of mine, and then editor of a sister-magazine to the one for which I was working, sent me the following email.
1. How did you think you would get away with having this printed?
2. How did you get away with it?
For goodness sake, don’t read these stories looking for any firm insights into the history and culture of koi keeping, but I hope that they may give you some little amusement, because that was the spirit in which they were written.
"
It's called Strength Through Koi, and I find it mildly entertaining. To quote from the introduction:
"Koi carp were certainly lucky for me. As anyone who has ever read my autobiography – Monster Hunter – will know, the beginning of the 21st Century was a particularly bleak time for me. Beset with health problems, I was also facing the threat of imminent bankruptcy. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] was in the financial doldrums; it was costing an arm and a leg to keep going, and all of our regular sources of funding had dried up!
For years I have augmented my income by working as a `hack` writer, penning throwaway articles for anyone who will pay me. Regularly, I would get the bus into Exeter City Centre, and sneak into W.H.Smiths and peruse the magazines for sale, and make a surreptitious list of any new publications whom I could approach to buy an article from me.
One day in the late winter, I was doing just this when I found a copy of a magazine called Koi Carp. With my tongue firmly in cheek, I telephoned them, and asked whether they would be interested in an article – or even a series of articles – about the fortean aspects of their hobby. Much to my surprise and gratification they accepted, and so I started work on my first article.
I had been so used to working for fly-by-night publications, that I had stopped taking a long-term view of my writing work. I was lucky if a series I wrote lasted three issues, so the fact that I knew next to nothing about the fortean aspect of koi carp keeping didn’t really matter. However, on this occasion, I was hoist by my own petard, as the series carried on for nearly two years! After six or seven issues, I bit the bullet, and started to employ the old journalistic adage that one should never let the truth get in the way of a good story.
Some of the stories that follow are true. Some are mostly true, others have a germ of truth, and even the ones that I made up are based on true events. I think my proudest moment as a journalist came, after the publication of “They Saved Hitler’s Koi”, when Simon Wolstencroft, an old friend of mine, and then editor of a sister-magazine to the one for which I was working, sent me the following email.
1. How did you think you would get away with having this printed?
2. How did you get away with it?
For goodness sake, don’t read these stories looking for any firm insights into the history and culture of koi keeping, but I hope that they may give you some little amusement, because that was the spirit in which they were written.
"
Same old, same old
I'm actually quite pleased how the last week or so has gone. Corinna is back down here with us again, which is always nice. She is in the process of moving in, and events keep on overtaking us, so the long, slow, process is taking what seems to be an intermanable length of time. Oh well, good things come to those who wait.
When I moved up here, I decided that I was going to keep my pet numbers to a minimum. I co-own an elderly dog called Tessie with Richard and Graham, and I have an exceedingly stupid cat called `Helios 7` named after a character invented by the immortal Mr Biffo.
However, I should have known better. The best laid plans of Animals & Men always seem to go pearshaped, and at the moment, in addition to the animals in the CFZ collection (which are exhibits rather than pets, even though both Richard and I have been known to talk babytalk to the amphiumas and caecelians), we now have two degus, a rabbit, two rats (called `Len` and `Sid`) and five cats as well as the dog. Most of these animals belong to my beloved, who is welcome to do what she wants because she can't do wrong in my eyes whatever she does, and the other two are the property of a friend of ours who is staying at the moment.
So, whereas for the past ten years my old, stone house was populated by my elderly parents and their cat, and latterly by my father alone, there are all the above animals, plus the ever growing collection of exotics in the kitchen and conservatory, and tonight there will be seven of us sitting down to dinner.
Weird how things go huh?
When I moved up here, I decided that I was going to keep my pet numbers to a minimum. I co-own an elderly dog called Tessie with Richard and Graham, and I have an exceedingly stupid cat called `Helios 7` named after a character invented by the immortal Mr Biffo.
However, I should have known better. The best laid plans of Animals & Men always seem to go pearshaped, and at the moment, in addition to the animals in the CFZ collection (which are exhibits rather than pets, even though both Richard and I have been known to talk babytalk to the amphiumas and caecelians), we now have two degus, a rabbit, two rats (called `Len` and `Sid`) and five cats as well as the dog. Most of these animals belong to my beloved, who is welcome to do what she wants because she can't do wrong in my eyes whatever she does, and the other two are the property of a friend of ours who is staying at the moment.
So, whereas for the past ten years my old, stone house was populated by my elderly parents and their cat, and latterly by my father alone, there are all the above animals, plus the ever growing collection of exotics in the kitchen and conservatory, and tonight there will be seven of us sitting down to dinner.
Weird how things go huh?
Friday, November 17, 2006
CFZ TV is back up...
Months ago I posted a blog entry about our burgeoning CFZtv project, and wrote that:
"we hope that we shall be premiering CFZ TV at the Weird Weekend, with outside broadcasts, interviews and whatever else the team can put together between trips to the off licence. "
I probably shouldn't have made the joke about the off-license, because - due to circumstances beyond our control - John Gledson and I were unable to deliver what we had hoped. There were a number of technical problems, server issues, and personnell problems to sort out, but finally we have a functioning CFZtv website with ten videos and even the beginnings of a Radio CFZ project.
This is only the beginning. For the time being, we have had to cut our coat according to our cloth and are using YouTube as a server. However, we are in negotiations to get a dedicated media server of our own, and things are looking very promising.
As well as hosting out own video shorts, we are working on longer projects (a 40 minute film of our latest expedition to Lake Windermere, with the cringeworthy title `Eel or no Eel` will be up in a few days, but we have other projects in mind. Have YOU got any footage of an unknown animal? A mystery cat? A lake monster? Send it to us, and we will include it in a new section of the CFZtv site.
We hope that eventually this will be a proper web-based TV station, with scheduling, and full-length documentaries - some of which will be available to buy on DVD. However, in the mean time, what we have will have to do.
But as I encoded the whole damn thing from scratch I am quite proud of it all....
"we hope that we shall be premiering CFZ TV at the Weird Weekend, with outside broadcasts, interviews and whatever else the team can put together between trips to the off licence. "
I probably shouldn't have made the joke about the off-license, because - due to circumstances beyond our control - John Gledson and I were unable to deliver what we had hoped. There were a number of technical problems, server issues, and personnell problems to sort out, but finally we have a functioning CFZtv website with ten videos and even the beginnings of a Radio CFZ project.
This is only the beginning. For the time being, we have had to cut our coat according to our cloth and are using YouTube as a server. However, we are in negotiations to get a dedicated media server of our own, and things are looking very promising.
As well as hosting out own video shorts, we are working on longer projects (a 40 minute film of our latest expedition to Lake Windermere, with the cringeworthy title `Eel or no Eel` will be up in a few days, but we have other projects in mind. Have YOU got any footage of an unknown animal? A mystery cat? A lake monster? Send it to us, and we will include it in a new section of the CFZtv site.
We hope that eventually this will be a proper web-based TV station, with scheduling, and full-length documentaries - some of which will be available to buy on DVD. However, in the mean time, what we have will have to do.
But as I encoded the whole damn thing from scratch I am quite proud of it all....
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