Thursday, February 01, 2018

HELLO SAYS THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

The Gonzo Daily: Thursday
 
Although I found visits to London to be exciting and enervating when I was a boy and a young man, any time this past twenty years I have found them successively more daunting, and I have always done my best to avoid them. Londoners have always seemed so self-involved in their own bustle that there was never any room for courtesy or compassion, and - in particular - I have always felt that British Rail employees were carefully chosen for their churlishness and lack of basic humanity, so the idea of my first visit to the capital city since I was unable to walk more than a few yards unaided, particularly daunting as a prospect.
 
How wrong I was, readers.
 
Everybody with whom we came in contact seemed to fall over themselves to be helpful, and I was treated with more kindness and consideration by a plethora of total strangers than I can ever remember having been treated at any previous time in my long and peculiar life. And the railway chaps and chappesses? I truly cannot fault them. Just one example being a very villainous looking Middle Eastern bloke with strange symbols tattooed on his arms and an unsightly cast in his eye, was standing by the turnstile, glowering at the general public, with a nasty scowl and with arms folded. However, when I came in the scene, he bustled into action, and - unasked - held up a queue of members of the general public just so I could limp from my wheelchair to the disabled person’s lavatory. And you know what? None of the people in the queue complained.
 
Although I think it doubtful that any of you will read this, thank you to everyone who was so kind.
 
ciaou....
 
Forgive me for always banging on about our webTV show, but it matters a lot to me, and I would be grateful for as many people as possible to see it, and spread the tidings of it far and wide:
 
 
And if you fancy supporting us on Patreon:
 
But for now, here is the news:
 
STEVE HACKETT ON CHRIS SQUIRE
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Patrick Moraz & Bill Bruford
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
RICK SPRINGFIELD NEWS
LEONARD COHEN NEWS
 
Gonzo Weekly #271
THE MARK HIS WORDS ISSUE
 
Gonzo Grande Fromage Rob Ayling talks frankly about his friendship with Fall leader Mark E. Smith who died this week, Alan concludes his surrealistic exposition featuring Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Nico and Alice Cooper amongst others, Neil explains all about Sharon Tandy, and Graham brings us up to date with Hawkwind as well as going into the studio with The Space Pharaohs Arizona’s leading Hawkwind tribute band. And meanwhile, Jn talks about the end of the world!
 
Hail Eris!
 
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, AND Friday Night Progressive, but Mack Maloney is absent this week due to problems beyond our control. The columns from all sorts of folk including Neil Nixon, Roy Weard, C J Stone, Mr Biffo are on hiatus this week, but we do have the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and southern dibblers who have gone for a snooze (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have probably got hangovers and have decided to have a little rest, 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:
 
Paul McCartney, Jack White, Erykah Badu, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Rod Stewart,Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Hugh Ramopolo Masekela, Preston Shannon, Terry Evans, Mario Guccio, James Walter Rodford, Derrick Coleman, Naomi Parker, Lari White Cannon, Ursula Kroeber Le Guin, Jeremy Inkel, Mark Edward Smith, Barbara Dickson, Jessica Lee Morgan, Rick Wakeman, Billion Dollar Babies, Tangerine Dream, Rob Ayling, Alan Dearling, Gala Dali, Salvador Dali, Andy Warhol, Jeff Fenholt, Sharon Tandy, Kev Rowland, Eigensinn, Empire, Engst, Enslaved, Entheos, Gnaw, Hangman, The Fright, In Search of Sun, In-Defilade, Hawkwind, Space Pharaohs, Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, Beatles, The Who, ELO, Pink Floyd, Neil Nixon, Bill Fay
 
And the last few issues are:
 
Issue 270 (Eric Clapton)
Issue 269 (Narnia)
Issue 267-8 (Happy New Year)
Issue 265-6 (The Who)
Issue 264 (John McLaughlin)
Issue 263 (The magic Band)
Issue 262 (DikMik)
Issue 261 (Leonard Cohen)
Issue 260 (Amsterdam Squat Festie)
Issue 259 (Out come thee Freaks)
Issue 258 (The Devil's Jukebox)
Issue 257 (Judge Smith)
Issue 255/6 (John Lennon)
Issue 254 (Mr Biffo)
Issue 253 (Dana Gillespie)
Issue 252 (Cropredy)
Issue 251 (Scott Walker)
Issue 250 (Jamms)
Issue 249 (Bill Bruford)
Issue 248 (The Selecter)
Issue 247 (Don Airey)
Issue 246 (Steve Hackett)
Issue 244-5 (Summer Special)
 
 
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 58 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?

OWLMAN IN THE NEWS


At the time, the mysterious man was having a moment of glory for taking part in a project to find and invoke monsters. He also allegedly saw the Loch Ness monster and took a picture of it. He lived in St Ives for years before moving to Ponsanooth but has now left Cornwall for Ireland. Tony 'Doc' Shiels ...

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

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Sasquatch may or may not be roaming through the woods of Washington state right now, but a bill is trying to make Bigfoot one of the state symbols. State Sen. Ann Rivers wants Bigfoot to be named our state cryptid, which is an animal that hasn't been proven to exist. Whether you're a

Bigfoot Evidence: What Is Bigfoot
Met this fella at a Bigfoot convention. Came right up to me in the front row, leans in my ear, and says, "You believe these creatures are inter dimensional right?" I LOL, and said there isn't any proof of that. He said him and his friends saw tracks that disappeared, i said, "Where's the proof".......Crickets!

NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)



Record Sightings Reignite Search for Loch Ness Monster
A record number of sightings of the Loch Ness Monster were reported in 2017, according to the BBC. Eight in total add up to more “official” reports than in any other year this century. While the “monster” moniker has stuck, the affectionate nickname Nessie is known around the world. Perhaps a more ...

NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Thursday

ON THIS DAY IN - 1793 - France declared war on Britain and Holland. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Dolphin, bear studies have paved the way to improv...
  • It's all in the ears: Inner ears of extinct sea mo...
  • How do so many iguanas get in Florida toilet bowls...
  • North Atlantic right whales on the brink of extinc...


  • 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).