Wednesday, January 27, 2016

CFZ PEOPLE: J T Downes (1925-2006)



My father would have been 91 today. The little girl here is his eldest Granddaughter now studying at Oxford Uni. Blessed be.

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS


The hunt for British Big Cats attracts far more newspaper-column inches than any other cryptozoological subject. 

There are so many of them now that we feel that they should be archived by us in some way, so we are publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. 

The worldwide mystery cat phenomenon (or group of phenomena, if we are to be more accurate) is not JUST about cryptozoology. At its most basic level it is about the relationship between our species and various species of larger cat. That is why sometimes you will read stories here that appear to have nothing to do with cryptozoology but have everything to do with human/big cat interaction. As committed Forteans, we believe that until we understand the nature of these interactions, we have no hope of understanding the truth that we are seeking.

  • ARTICLE: How Jaguars Survived the Ice Age
  • ARTICLE: Protecting Asia's elusive snow leopards
  • 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




    Crew Finds An Area Where They Believe Bigfoot Are Killing Deer
    January, 2015: I return to the river in the North Georgia mountains where, 4 months ago I discovered a mutilated deer carcass near signs of a possible ...

    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN FEELS CONSIDERABLY BETTER, BUT HE DOESN'T KNOW WHY

    The Gonzo Daily - Wednesday
     
    I had to get up early this morning. And why? You know that bit in A Clockwork Orange when they clamp Alex's eyes open and put chemical eyedrops in? That is what happened to me at the Health Centre when I had my annual retinopathy test. It was not very nice. I would like to write something witty in Nadsat at this point but I am afraid I just don't have the emotional energy.
     
    Pah!
     
    THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Quicksilver Messenger ...
    CRITICS' CHOICE 2015 - STEVE HACKETT
    Barbara Dickson - My Donald (Live at Celtic Connec...
    Symphonic Rock Icons Renaissance to Tour The US & ...
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
     
    Gonzo Weekly #166
    www.gonzoweekly.com
     
    Don Falcone, Spirits Burning, Mack Maloney, Ekat Bork, Beatles, Miles, Zapple, David Bowie, Glenn Frey, Eagles, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard,  Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, and Yes fans had better look out!
     
    Don Falcone from Spirits Burning is on the front cover together with an exclusive interview with him inside. There is a feature on the extraordinary Ekat Bork, and Doug and John say goodbye to Glenn Frey. We examine Miles' first hand account of the rise and fall of Zapple Records, Corinna unearths a picture of some gorgeous Kiss groupies, and Jopn muses about our relationship with dead celebrities. There are radio shows from Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury sans Frontieres, and Mack Moloney, the latest installment of the saga of Xtul, and columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, A J Smitrovich, Mr Biffo and the irrepressable Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons ouyside zoos(OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have escaped from captivity, 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:
     
    David Bowie, Lemmy, Freddie Mercury, Frank Zappa, Lenny Kravitz, Elton John, Don McLean, Steve Ignorant, Slice of Life,Ozzy Osbourne, Geezer Butler, Black Sabbath, Steve Hackett, Strange Fruit,
    Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Glenn Lewis Frey, Andrew Johnson, Clarence Henry Reid (Blowfly), Mic Gillette, Terence Dale "Buffin" Griffin, Gary Alexander Loizzo, Pete Huttlinger, Lee Abramson, The Pirates, Freddie King, Denny Laine, The Selecter, Galahad, Wild Man Fischer, Rick Wakeman, Don Falcone, Spirits Burning, John Brodie-Good, Paul Whitrow, Ekat Bork, Roy Weard, A
    J Smitrovich, My Dad's LPs, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Xtul, The Beatles, Pete Sears, Elvis, Herman's Hermits, Michael Jackson, Kiss, Handel, Maria Malibran, Stephen Fry, Boards of Canada, Celtibeerian
     
    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
     
    Issue 165 (David Bowie)
    Issue 164 (Free Festivals)
    Issue 163 (Lemmy)
    Issue 161-2 (The Christmas Double Feature)
    Issue 160 (Frank Zappa)
    Issue 159 (Jon 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?

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1606 - The trial of Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators began. They were executed on January 31. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk
  • Remains reveal domesticated cat species arose natu...
  • The lizard of consistency: New iguana species whic...
  • Why do sperm whales wash up on beaches?
  • Attention: Terrapin! Invasive pond slider on the 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)