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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Thursday, July 21, 2016

CFZ PEOPLE: Us (Nine years today)

Older, greyer, a bit more battered, but we are still going strong
Thank you for marrying me my dear


BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



FOODBEAST

Assumedly, BigFoot's dietary choices mostly depend on where he likes to hang out and what's convenient. While cryptozoologists 

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.







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.

  • NEWSLINK: Government to tap Tillari as tiger habit...
  • ARTICLE: Why Malawi is poised to be the next big s...
  • THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS QUITE.....UM

    The Gonzo Daily – Thursday
     
    My garden is only about a third of an acre, but it needs a lot of work. When my Father was alive he could afford a gardener. One of them - long dead now - was called Mr Shaughnessy so obviously he was known by me and my compadres as "Old Shagnasty". God knows what happened to him, but as he would be well into his nineties now he would probably be less than optimum use. However, this talk is academic because I couldn't afford him anyway. The latest incumbent is a charming young lady called Deanie (Nadine) who WW regulars will remember from last year as the pretty fourteen year old with blue hair. She is now a pretty fifteen year old with very short hair and she has been working very hard in the garden this afternoon. The bed around the top lawn (the circular one) is beginning to look like a flower bed again rather than a uncharted jungle somewhere in Southeast Asia. She was not particularly impressed by the two dead slow worms she found, but that is life.
     
    Last night was the first Weird Weekend meeting, and I would like to publically thank the Phillipson family for all they have done, all they are going to do, and all they are doing. My team of previous years has scattered like dust in the wind for a whole string of reasons (some of which I perceive as admirable others less so) and I have a whole new team for this year. I hope that I am wrong, but I have a sneaking suspicion that after seventeen years, this will be the final Weird Weekend, at least in its present form.
     
    Ticket sales for this year's Weird Weekend are the slowest ever. I strongly suspect that it is because of the financial insecurity that so many people are feeling at the moment, but I hope that it will turn itself around in the next few weeks. This year's Weird Weekend featuring our very own Steve Ignorant, sponsored by our very own Erik Norlander, compèred by me and the return of  Nuneaton's Mr Entertainment, Barry Tadcaster with his pal Orang Pendek, and featuring a whole cornucopia of high strangeness and cerebral silliness. It would make me very happy if I could sell some more tickets..
     
    find out all about the Weird Weekend
    buy tickets to the Weird Weekend:
     
    And now for the news................
     
    HRH TV - Rick Wakeman Interview at HRH Prog 3 in M...
    THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Judge Smith/David Jack...
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    "THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID.." - George Duke & Napoleon ...
    Carnaby Street Interview - Michael Des Barres
     
    Gonzo Magazine #191
     
    We interview Ian Jones from everyone’s fave Welsh rockers Karnataka, Doug muses on Rush, Alan grieves for music venues under threat, John goes to see Santana, and Jon expounds on hippydom and reviews a book by John Lennon’s mistress, while Biffo goes Ghostbusting!0
     
    And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney, and Friday Night Progressive. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a thrilling and slightly disturbing episode of Xtul. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons outside 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:
    The RAZ Band, John Shuttleworth, Yoko Ono, Dolly Parton, Jon Anderson, Trevor Rabin, Rick Wakeman, David Gilmour, Meat Loaf, Led Zeppelin, Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, Randy California, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Steven Young, Danny Smythe, Gladys Hermiston-Hooper (née Nash), Arthur Brown, The Beatles, The Golliwogs, James Young, Cymbalic Encounters, Richard Brautigan, Karnataka, Ian Jones, Rush, Alan Dearling, John Brodie-Good, Santana, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Xtul, John Lennon, May Pang,  Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Glastonbury, Paul McCartney, Neil Nixon, Cantona,
                                                                                      
    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
     
    Issue 190 (Erik Norlander)
    Issue 189 (Rick Wakeman at the O2)
    Issue 187/8 (Yer holiday special)
    Issue 186 (Beatles)
    Issue 185 (Judge Smith)
    Issue 184 (Mick Abrahams)
    Issue 183 (Daevid Allen)
    Issue 182 (Wally)
    Issue 181 (Beatles)
    Issue 180 (Beltane)
    Issue 179 (Gregg Kofi Brown)
    Issue 178 (Viv Stanshall)
    Issue 177 (David Gilmour)
    Issue 176 (Joey Molland and The Raz Band)
    Issue 175 (Larry Sanders)
    Issue 174 (Keith Emerson)
    Issue 173 (Pink Fairies action figures)
    Issue 172 (4th Eden)
    Issue 171 (Keith Levene)
    Issue 170 (Wildman Fischer)
    Issue 169 (Wildman Fischer)
    Issue 168 (Wakeman/Bowie)
    Issue 167 (Paul Kantner)
    Issue 166 (Spirits Burning)
     
    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 two small kittens, one 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. 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 kittens?
     

    CFZ PUBLISHING: Tales of the Damned: An Anthology of Fortean Horror


    The world's leading publishers of cryptozoology, forteana and fortean fiction, with over a hundred titles currently in print.


    The latest post on the CFZ Publishing Group blog begins as follows:
    Tales of the Damned is a brand new anthology of Fortean-themed horror fiction, edited by the CFZ’s zoological director, Richard Freeman. At 354 pages it contains 25 stories by 21 different authors including such well-known Fortean names as Neil Arnold, Andy Roberts, Lars Thomas and Dr Karl Shuker...
    Click here to read the whole article.

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Thursday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 1831 - Belgium became independent as Leopold I was proclaimed King of the Belgians. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Rare leopards released into Russian reserve threat...
  • Sampling Reptiles in the Anthropocene - via Herp D...
  • US Navy banned from using sonar that harms dolphin...
  • Turtle shells didn’t evolve for protection, study ...
  • No, the US Isn't Using Vaccine-Laced M&Ms to Save ...
  • Homo erectus walked just like modern humans, study...


  • 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)