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, June 28, 2010

MAX BLAKE: ‘Azza

I first came across Ray Harryhausen’s work many years ago when “Earth vs. The Flying Saucers” was broadcast on television. At that time I was still young and impressionable, but Harryhausen’s animation struck me as stunning. Though clearly, thought I, an old film (being in monochrome, as it is), the animation seemed vastly younger than the rest of the film. The scene where the flying saucer flies over the car along the great flat roads of the American deserts was burnt into my mind for years afterward as I tried to find out the name of the film (being broadcast on BBC they did not play short intros to the film after advert breaks because there were none), as was the classic scene depicting the aliens frying a group of soldiers with a heat ray.

Though the flying saucers were easier to animate than puppets and dolls used in his other films, Harryhausen also animated the falling masonry seen repeatedly when the saucers attack buildings or crash into them. This gave the explosions an extra degree of realism above the usual noise, flash of light and cloud of smoke which had been employed before.

Much will have been said on this blog about his pioneering work, and loath though I am to repeat what will have already been said, Harryhausen was a man ahead of his time, a legend in cinematic history and a man without whom the science behind special effects would have meandered slowly along without the leaps and bounds that it did thanks to Harryhausen. Below are two of my favourite YouTube clips, the original trailer for “Earth vs. the Flying Saucers” and that fight scene from “Jason and the Argonauts”. And, purely because I mentioned Argonauts, there is an extra special video of them pootling around collecting air.

Anyway, Happy Birthday Ray, a true legend.












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