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, April 06, 2017

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




PanARMENIAN.Net - StudioCanal UK has released the first teaser trailer for animated comedy film "The Son of Bigfoot". The movie follows a boy ...

Montana Bigfoot Project Field Research #4
Montana Bigfoot Project Field Research #4. Duke writes “The second half and last part of the Skalkaho field visits in 2016. We spend the day ...

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.


THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS TIRED AND ....

The Gonzo Daily: Thursday
 
Rachmaninoff/Yes/Leonard Cohen/Thom/Spirits Burning
 
I think, with hindsight, that when my Daily Blog consists of half a dozen of Byron's more foul tempered lines and nothing else, then one could probably tell that something was up. Yesterday was an irritating day during which everything that poor Graham tried to fix for me got progressively worse, and we ended up having achieved nothing at all fairly painfully. But early to bed with some serious substance abuse (the substance in question being chocolate ice cream) and today seems considerably less fraught.
 
And now, here is the news:
 
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Rachmaninoff Prelude i...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
LEONARD COHEN IN THE NEWS
YES IN THE NEWS
SPIRITS BURNING REVIEW
 
Gonzo Magazine #228
THE TRAVEL BROADENS THE WASSNAME ISSUE
 
 
Graham travels to Phoenix, Arizona to meet the Space Pharoahs, a Hawkwind tribute band in a most unlikely location. And they even get raided by the cops! Meanwhile Alan is getting all arty in Vilnius, Lithuania, John goes to see Cary Grace and Mauve la Biche in darkest Somerset, Richard Freeman writes about Tura Satana, Richard Foreman about Neil Young's Jeans, Doug writes about Fleetwood Mac, Jon rants on about Krautrock, and The Man’s Daddy has a whole page of Brexit Jokes.
 
Groovy huh?
 
It’s all free!
 
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney, Friday Night Progressive, and Strange Fruit. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. 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:
 
Krautock, Gorillaz, RPO, Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Clem Curtis, Arthur Murray Blythe, James Dent "Jimmy" Dotson, Peter Shotton, Edward Grimes, Tony Ashton with Jon Lord, Ian Paice, Bernie Marsden, Micky Moody, Neil Murray, John Entwhistle, Zak Starkey (Ringo’s son), Z, Gastank, Lutz Ulbrich featuring Nico, Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come, Atomic Rooster, Mary Hopkin, Space Pharoahs, Fleetwood Mac, Alan Dearling, Vilnius, Lithuania, John Brodie-Good, The Cary Grace Band, Mauve La Biche, Neil Young, Kev Rowland, Wingfield Reuter Stavi Sirkus, Argos, Cairo, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Xtul, Martin Springett, Philip Wayre
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 227 (Chuck Berry)
Issue 225-6 (The Rites of Spring)
Issue 224 (Hibernal)
Issue 223 (Beatles)
Issue 222 (Cruise to the Edge)
Issue 221 (Deke Leonard)
Issue 220 (Larry Wallis)
Issue 219 (Martin Stone)
Issue 218 (Mark Reiser tribute)
 
 
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 57 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two half grown 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 Archie and the Cats?

NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Thursday

ON THIS DAY IN - 1199 - English King Richard I was killed by an arrow at the siege of the castle of Chaluz in France. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Wall lizard becomes accustomed to humans and stops...
  • Species on the move having a big impact
  • Seasonal warming leads to smaller animal body size...
  • Cornering endangered species


  • 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.)