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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Friday, December 18, 2015

THE CRYPTODANE: The moose is back - and this time they mean business!

Inspired by the fact that on November 19th. five young Swedish moose arrived in Denmark, and is now galliwanting, or whatever it is you call the rather peculiar gait of a moose, around in a very big enclosure in Lille Vildmose in Northern Denmark awaiting the day next spring, where they will be set free and become the first officially sanctioned wildliving moose in Denmark for about 5000 years.

I use the words ”officially sanctioned” very carefully because there has been a number of cases where said large member of the deer tribe, has taken it upon itself to turn up in Denmark under its own steam, thus making a mockery of the 5000 years. Most people have no idea – and if you look a the general build of the thing, who can blame them – that moose are in fact excellent swimmers. The are not exactly sprinters, but they have incredible strenght and stamina, and they can even dive and swim under water for considerable distance and for several minutes on end. In fact I am quite convinced, that a large proportion of lake monster-sightings in the Northern Hemisphere are in fact sightings of swimming moose – but that’s an entirely different story.

Whereas Denmark lost its population of moose several thousand years ago, the Swedish population is big and healthy and has apparently been so for a very long time. So every now and then a moose takes it upon itself to swim from Sweden to Denmark. Nobody really knows why this happens, whether it is deliberate, or whether an animal simply gets disoriented and ends up in swimming in the completely wrong direction. It happens to migrating birds all the time, so why not moose? It doesn’t really matter how or why – it is a monumental feat. The shortest distance between Sweden and Denmark is 4 km, but that is between the towns of Elsinore and Helsingborg, an area with a lot of sailing activity and very powerful currents, and nobody has ever seen a moose in this area. So we are in fact probably talking about a swim of at least 6 or 7 km.

Read on...

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SINGS

The Gonzo Daily - Friday/Saturday
 
I have been paid, so this afternoon I go Christmas shopping which is not a task I enjoy. However it only comes once a year despite the efforts of the marketing companies. The blogs and magazines and things will continue over what is euphemistically known as the Festive Season, but I shall be far more laid back about things than usual...
 
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: The Beach Boys - I Get...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
YES FUTURE WAS IN DOUBT WHEN SQUIRE DIED - SHERWOO...
AUBURN – Mixed Feelings
50 Years Ago: The Byrds Avoid the Sophomore Slump ...
 
Gonzo Weekly #160
www.gonzoweekly.com
 
Frank Zappa, Dweezil Zappa, Genre Peak, Martin Birke, Faithless, Digitiser, Mr Biffo, Jaki Windmill, Tim Rundall, Roy Weard, Mack Moloney, A J Smitrovich, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, and Yes fans had better look out!
 
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#160) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Frank Zappa on the cover and a feature article about Zappa Plays Zappa and the new classic FZ DVD inside. Jon muses on the new marketing of music, we interview Martin Birke of Genre Peak, Doug talks about Änglagård and Corinna sneers at some more tacky pop memorabilia. John talks about Faithless, Neil unearths a hidden gem, Thom waxes all poetical like, whilst the legendary Roy Weard continues his regular column, C J Stone does his, A J Smitrovich continues thumbing through his Dad's LPs, and Mr Biffo has more of his regular slices of insanity from the world of Digitiser 2000, and there is a radio show from Strange Fruit, one from Friday Night Progressive and another from Mack Moloney, and Tim and Jaki are back with a new show. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and antechinuses wanting poos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who are slightly constipated, 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!!!
 
This issue features:
 
Carol Hodge, Steve Ignorant, Reverb Worship, Sharon Osbourne, Ozzy Osbourne, Robert Plant, Kula Shaker, Primal Scream, U2, Ringo Starr, Anonymous, Steve Hackett, Steve Hogarth, Marillion, Barbara Dickson, Strange Harvest, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Jaki Windmill, Tim Rundall, John Garner, Gary 'Magic' Marker, Isham Russell 'Rusty' Jones II, Holly Woodlawn, Johnny Winter, 13th Floor Elevators, Spirits Burning, The Pirates, Michael Jackson, Dee Palmer, Freddie King, The Selecter, Ducks De Luxe, Alexis Korner, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Frank Zappa, Dweezil Zappa, Zappa plays Zappa, Genre Peak, Martin Birke, John Brodie-Good, Faithless, Roy Weard, A.J. Smitrovich, Mr Dad's LPs, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Danny Owens, Xtul, Yes, Alan White, AndersonPonty Band, Chris Squire, Greg Lake, Geoff Downes, Jon Anderson, Neil Nixon, Carla Bley and Paul Haines, Genesis, Lonnie Donegan, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Posh Spice, The Osmonds, Distoriam
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 159 (Jpon Anderson and Matt Malley)
Issue 158 (Billy Sherwood)
Issue 157 (Drones for Daevid)
Issue 156 (Rick and Emmie)
Issue 155 (Pink Fairies)
Issue 154 (Steve Ignorant)
Issue 153 (Martin Barre)
Issue 152 (4th Eden)
Issue 151 (Corky Laing)
Issue 150 (Roger Dean)
Issue 149 (Tony Palmer in Space)
Issue 148 (Wally Hope)
Issue 147 (Thom the World Poet cover)
Issue 146 (Bee and Flower cover)
Issue 145 (Dave Brock cover)
Issue 144 (Percy Jones cover)
Issue 143 (Billy Sherwood cover)
Issue 142 (Daevid Allen and Spirits Burning cover)
Issue 141 (Rick Wakeman cover)
Issue 140 (Jaki Windmill cover)
Issue 139 (Raz cover)
Issue 138 (Galahad cover)
Issue 137 (Chris Squire cover)
Issue 136 (Neil Nixon cover)
Issue 135 (FNP cover)
 
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 an old hippy of 56 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and a small kitten 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, and sometimes a young lady called Jessica. 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 infantile orange cat, and the adventurous kitten?

FORTEAN BIRD NEWS FROM THE WATCHER OF THE SKIES

What has Corinna's column of Fortean bird news got to do with cryptozoology?

Well, everything, actually!

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.



BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF


Dread Central


Bigfoot is having a pretty good run through the indie horror scene these days, but few offerings tackle the legendary creature from a realistic ...


NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Friday/Saturday

ON THIS DAY IN 1903 - The Panama Canal Zone was acquired 'in perpetuity' by the U.S. for an annual rent. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Wounded Norfolk seal faces wait for treatment on n...
  • Cricket's chirp may have 'predatory roots'
  • Florida burglary suspect eaten by alligator after ...
  • Monkey business - Cruel treatment of primate pets ...
  • White fossil was 'Moby Dick' of the ancient sea

  • Herdsmen arrested for poisoning lions in Kenya's M...


  • 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)