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...




Saturday, May 25, 2013

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

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. So after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo Corinna took the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.


Hunter warned of bird massacre

DALE DRINNON: Bigfoot, Frontiers of Anthropology, Benny's Blogs

New at Frontiers of Zoology:
New at Frontiers of Anthropology:
New at Benny's Blog for Thelma Todd:
New at Benny's Other Blog, The Ominous Octopus Omnibus:
Best Wishes, Dale D.

THIS IS POSSIBLY THE BEST CICHLID-RELATED POST WE HAVE EVER DONE



A woman has spent the last 2 months training her fish to play... soccer?

In the video below Ilana Bram explains how she managed to train her pet fish Erasmus to, among other things, boot a soccer ball (football?) swim through rings and do a limbo dance. Apparently, it's a very rare feat, since most aquarium fish are not exactly known for their brain power.

But, Ilana Bram doesn't mind putting in the hours and, over the last few months, the training has paid off.

Erasmus is a popular kind of aquarium fish, known as the Pseudotropheus Socolofi Cichlid (or just Cichlid for short) famous for getting along with other, different breeds of their own size. Smaller fish beware, however, as this one is of the same family as the Oscar, a voracious, cannibalistic fish very popular with aqua-nuts.


Read on...

WHEN THE UNIVERSE TAKES AWAY SOMETHING...

...IT USUALLY PROVIDES A REPLACEMENT


On Friday evening Helen (above) and Jessica came in wildly excited, and asked whether we want a ginger kitten. It is one of a litter of orphaned kitties, and will be ready in three weeks.

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS LEFT TO HIS OWN DEVICES (and he probably will)

The strangeness continues. Graham, Corinna and Prudence were on their way to the vet in Bradworthy this morning when the car gave up the ghost entirely and they had to walk home. Prudence's leg is improving slowly, and the two mile walk didn't phase her unduly. I think, however, the car has pretty well bitten the dust, and that it is time to find a replacement. Ebay beckons.

The Gonzo Track of the Day is by Daevid Allen and Kramer

Another visit to our old friend Thom the World Poet

Judy Dyble on the radio tomorrow

Gonzo Weekly #27

EXCLUSIVE: Michael Des Barres interview

EXCLUSIVE: Ed Ochs interview

CABINET OF CURIOSITIES: The rarest Beefheart record?

A rare video of Huw Lloyd-Langton

The Louth Concert for the Bees

Yes is the answer. (What's the question?)

*  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: http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/11/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit-to-print.html

* 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 53 who - together with his orange cat (who is currently on sick leave in Staffordshire) puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. 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 the orange cat?

My mother's new pet dinosaurs

 


The Louth Concert for the Bees


The Louth Concert for the Bees

Sunday 26th May, 2013, 4pm
Playgoers Riverhead Studio Theatre

After reading about the premiere of my new opera The Silence of the Bees: A Science Opera, Biff Vernon, coordinator of The Louth Festival of the Bees,  contacted me about the possibility of producing the opera at Louth’s Bee Festival.  Taken with the idea of the festival, I immediately agreed. Practicalities and my fondness for recycling my works resulted in a new work.  Hybrid Pollination is a musical exploration of bee decline in the form of a cantata. ‘Hybrid pollination’ in biology is a type of controlled pollination in which the pollen comes from a different strain or species to improve or increase biological function.  Hybrid Pollination continues my interest in musical hybridity and refers to pollination as a metaphor for communicating ideas.  I hope that the work helps to contribute to the enormous amount of work that Biff, Transition Town Louth and others are doing to communicate and raise public awareness of important issues.

Kelvin Thomson Composer

Programme

Extracts from Melissographia
by John Burnside (poet) and Amy Shelton (artist)
Reader: Biff Vernon


Songs of Bees and Flowers (ca. 30:00)
Various
Singer: Kate Witney

Interval


Introduction to Hybrid Pollination
by Kelvin Thomson

Composed by Kelvin Thomson
Original text by Benet Catty and drawn from original sources
Narrator: Kelvin Thomson
Soprano: Danae Eleni
Mezzo-soprano: Sophie Yelland
Tenor: Patrick Ashcroft
Baritone: Andre Refig
Music Direction and Piano: Wyn Hyland
Additional piano: Kelvin Thomson
Oboe, Cor Anglais: Rachel Broadbent

HYBRID POLLINATION

PROLOGUE – Them
A short requiem for bees and a requiem for mankind’s ability to make good decisions.  A chant of extinct and endangered species of bumblebees and a nursery rhyme.

PART ONE
Perspectives
Tolstoy’s words remind us of the range of opinions life affords us, particularly in relation to bees.
Facts
The Scientist gives an introductory lecture about bees.  Three other characters introduce contrasting perspectives.  They are different aspects of her personality.
Memories
Short true-life stories of individual encounters with bees continue the big theme of perspectives.

INTERLUDE ONE


A setting of Jo Shapcott’s poem ‘The Threshold’.

PART TWO
Global
The Scientist’s alter-egos become more dominant, explaining some of the causes of the bee crisis.
Personal
The Scientist’s conflicted perspective on the issues becomes a conflicted sense of herself, for instance regarding her experiments in which she has to harm bees in order to help them. Her story becomes a symbol of the debate over bees.
History
A comparison is made between the plight of bees and the global warming story; that Man goes through the stages of denial, deceit, delay and disaster. The bees’ crisis is shown to be
representative of a wider story of human ‘progress’.

INTERLUDE TWO

Settings of Marcus Aurelius and Francis Bacon.

PART THREE SI – Swarm Intelligence
The Truth (As I See It)
The Scientist creates a bee crisis debate in which representatives of Science, Politics, Farming and Art state their cases in a familiar operetta style. Unity seems far off.
Science Fact / Science Fiction
Tensions rise in the debate. Lack of unity turns to seeing communication as a potential basis for progress. Answers lie in unity.

INTERLUDE THREE

A setting of Liz Bahs’ poem ‘Nest’.

EPILOGUE – Us
The epilogue reprises the bumblebee chant and themes of progress are restated.


Kelvin Thomson:
Music director, vocal coach, session musician (piano/keyboards), composer and arranger.
Recent compositions have been performed in London, Athens and Glasgow by Marilyn Wyers, Danae Eleni and Enrico Bertelli; CHROMA; Duologue; and the London Contemporary Chamber Orchestra. LCCO recorded Prelude and Interlude from Cha tig Mor in Dec 2010 and nominated the piece for a British Composer Award 2011 in the Making Music category. Incidental music composed for Theatre Counteract’s production of An Arrangement of Shoes, Indian premiere Bangalore, November 2011.
As Music Director, toured with Celtic Woman, USA (2006) and Riverdance, Europe (2004-5). Assistant Conductor: Southwark Playhouse’s production of John Adams’ Ceiling/Sky at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (1999) and Opera Omaha’s (USA) world premiere of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem Variations (1996). West End Associate Conductor, Zorro (2008-9) and Priscilla Queen of the Desert (2009-2011).
Recordings as pianist/keyboardist include: Movie Legends – The Music of John Williams – RPO, (2007); Songs My Mother Taught Me - Lorna Luft (2007); The Isles of Greece a song cycle by Donald Swann (Classic FM’s record of the month 2000); Awakening (1997) and The Music of Life, Joseph Curiale, RPO (2001).

Rachel Broadbent
Rachel studied at Birmingham Conservatoire and studied with Jonathan Kelly (principal oboe Berlin Philharmonic) and George Caird. Whilst at the Conservatoire Rachel was awarded the Rollason prize for performance and won the Birmingham and Midland Institute Woodwind Competition. She gained a 1st class B.Mus(hons) degree and then moved to Guildhall School of Music and Drama to study for a Post Graduate in Orchestral Training.
Rachel is now a busy freelance oboist working with many orchestras around the country, amongst which are the Brandenburg Sinfonia, , Southern Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra, London Concert Orchestra, British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Alongside her orchestral work Rachel performs as a soloist performing Concertos with various orchestras and working regularly giving recitals with her accompanist Kevin Vockerodt. Recently Rachel and Kevin gave the debut performance of a new work called ‘Songs Eternity’ by composer Kelvin Thomson.
Rachel is actively involved in teaching and encouraging people to learn the oboe. She has recently been employed to teach oboe at Guildhall School of Music Junior Department and also teaches at The Hall School in Hampstead, Haileybury College in Hertford and Beechood Park School in Markyate, Hertfordshire. She is also a published arranger and an arrangement of hers for 2 Oboes and Cor Anglais is available from Spartan Press. It is an arrangement of Brahms - Variations on a Theme of Haydn and includes the theme and a selection of the variations. In 2012 Emerson Edition will be publishing a further arrangement, also of the music by Brahms. This arrangement is of 3 Brahms Songs and is arranged for Oboe and Piano, Clarinet and Piano or Cor Anglais and Piano.

 
 

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today


Yesterday’s News Today

On this day in 240 BC the first recorded pass of Halley's Comet was made.
And now the news:
  • Cockroaches lose their 'sweet tooth' to evade trap...
  • Captive-Bred Wallabies May Carry Antibiotic Resist...
  • White Tiger Mystery Solved: Coat Color Produced by...
  • Australian politician injured in kangaroo attack
  • Erasmus the Soccer Playing Fish (Video)
  • Killer Donkeys Maul Pensioner To Death
  • Real Dragon Fossils on Display in China
  • Dogs Bring Swarm of Bacteria Into Your Home

  • I've seen some disturbing films in my life but this takes the biscuit; here's the trailer for the adventures of Mark Twain (where he and some of his literary creations go off to Halley's Comet. (it doesn't sound that bad from that description but believe me you'll end up in a corner of a padded cell if you try to watch the actual film without due mental preparation) :