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...




Friday, August 04, 2017

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS HUNGOVER

The Gonzo Daily: Friday/Saturday
 
Yesterday evening I received an instant message from Paul Vella's brother Dermot: "It was just to let you know that Paul passed away on Saturday the 15th [...] basically as a result of the health issues he had over the last year or so. He passed away peacefully seemingly without any pain. I'm just trying to contact as many of his friends as best I can to let them know. If you can think of anyone else that would like to know I would appreciate it if you passed it on."
 
As you probably all know, Paul was for many years in charge of the CFZ BHM Study Group, and will be missed by his many friends.
 
According to Loren Coleman he was 42, but I thought he was a little older than that I thought he was about ten years younger than me, and I am 58. He kept his personal life and his cryptozoological life very separate. I knew him for years, he stayed at my jouse several times, and even camped in my garden but as far as his personal circumstances are concerned I realise that I hardly knew him at all. And that is an incredibly upsetting thing to admit. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.
 
But now, here is the news:
 
COMING THIS WEEKEND
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Yardbirds - Over Under...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Café Chats: Archie Fisher MBE Interview
YES IN THE NEWS
 
Gonzo Weekly #244/5
THE SUMMERTIME SPECIAL DOUBLE BUMPER HOLIDAY ISSUE
 
Herewith the Gonzo Magazine summer bumper holiday special thing featuring Jon and Neil talking about The Beatles, fifty years after their greatest year, Jon interviewing Tim Bowness, John B-G watching It’s a Beautiful Day, Gregg from Paradise 9 on a desert island, Alan on Pirate Radio, and lots of Female Dr Who bilge, plus news, reviews, radio shows and self opinionated
columnists...
 
Yup, and it’s all free!
 
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney, Strange Fruit, and Friday Night Progressive. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, C J Stone, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and numbats with the right to choose (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have become eligible to vote, 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:
 
Dr Who, Michael Jackson, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Loretta Lynn, Adam Ant, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Martin Landau, George Andrew Romero, David Zablidowsky, Graham Wood, Roland Cazimero, Chester Charles Bennington, Edwin Mahi?ai (Mahi) Copp Beamer, Mary Hopkin, Steve Howe, Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, Tim Bowness, Neil Nixon, The Beatles, Alan Dearling, Pirate Radio, Paul Harris, Phil Bayliss, Wickham Festival, John Brodie-Good, Summer of Love, The Liberators, David Laflamme, It's A Beautiful Day, Kev Rowland, Warner Drive, Wilderness Dream, Bloody Hammers, Da Vinci, Gateway to Hell, Intrcptr, Laces Out, Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons, Dialeto, Dusan Jevtovic, Gregg McKella, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Xtul, Milda Harris, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, John Lennon,Disney Camp Rock, One Direction, Keir Dullea
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 243 (Galahad)
Issue 242 (Steve Miller Band)
Issue 241 (Carol Hodge and Steve Ignorant)
Issue 240 (Midsummer Madness)
Issue 239 (Miss Peach)
Issue 238 (Hawkwind)
Issue 237 (Hawkwind)
Issue 236 (Manchester)
Issue 235 (Jon Anderson)
Issue 234 (Al Atkins)
Issue 233 (Richard Strange)
Issue 232 (Roy Weard)
Issue 231 (Allan Holdsworth)
Issue 230 (Curtis Womack)
Issue 229 (Larry Wallis)
Issue 228 (Space Pharoahs)
 
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?

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: Did the mountain lion spotted outside St...
  • NEWSLINK: Bengal tigers get bigger sanctuary
  • NEWSLINK: Paphos Zoo tiger goes wild to boost popu...

  • NEWSLINK: Mumbai’s Film City shut down after five 
  • 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.



    NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)





    Tourists hoping for a glimpse of the famous Loch Ness Monster have been left disappointed - due to overgrown trees blocking the view. Nessie has ...

    THOSE WE HAVE LOST: Paul Vella

    Image may contain: 1 person


    I have just received an instant message from Paul Vella's brother Dermot: "It was just to let you know that Paul passed away on Saturday the 15th [...] basically as a result of the health issues he had over the last year or so. He passed away peacefully seemingly without any pain. I'm just trying to contact as many of his friends as best I can to let them know. If you can think of anyone else that would like to know I would appreciate it if you passed it on."

    As you probably all know, Paul was for many years in charge of the CFZ BHM Study Group, and will be missed by his many friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family.

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Friday/Saturday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 1914 - Britain declared war on Germany. The U.S. proclaimed its neutrality. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Orca Calf Dies at SeaWorld: Why Killer Whales Get ...
  • Why a New York Bay Is Crucial to Baby Sand Tiger S...
  • Viral video of child with 12ft snake sparks online...

  • Three Turtle Smugglers are Caught – via Herp Diges...

  • 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.