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...




Wednesday, August 22, 2018

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




On Sept. 8, the foothills town of Marion will host the state's biggest-ever Bigfoot festival, a sasquatch tribute expected to draw thousands.


According to scientist Ranae Holland, host of the Animal Planet show Finding Bigfoot, Washington is the scene of more Sasquatch sightings than any ...


A North Carolina mountain community that gained national attention last year for a reported Bigfoot sighting is proclaiming the mythical creature its ...

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN WAITS

The Gonzo Daily: Wednesday
 
YER EDITOR SEZ:
 
Corinna went into hospital in Exeter yesterday for a biopsy, and returned via Graham Power yesterday evening. It was far less traumatic than the previous occasion, and - so far, at least - she seems to have avoided any of the horrific side effects about which we were warned. Today is my 59th Birthday, but having my dear wife home safe and sound last night is the best present that I could probably have wished for. All day yesterday Archie was whimpering and rushing from room to room looking for her, and has been ridiculously attentive to her since she returned, demanding cuddles and fuss. I know exactly how he feels.
 
ALL TODAY'S GONZO NEWS WOT'S FIT TO PRINT:
 
Dmitri Shostakovich - Into the Cold Dawn (Document...
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY:  Arthur Brown - Nightm...
The day a Cornish village barricaded itself agains...
BARBARA DICKSON IN THE NEWS
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
 
OTHER IMPORTANT STUFF FROM THE GONZOVERSE:
 
For those of you who are interested in such things, the Gonzo Privacy Policy is here:
 
And the CFZ Privacy Policy is here:
And, yes,
 
CHECK OUT THE GONZO STORES:
 
UK
US
 
AND OTHER STUFF FEATURING VARIOUS GONZO CONTRIBUTORS:
 
Our webTV show:
 
And if you fancy supporting it on Patreon:
 
And by the way chaps and chappesses, a trip to the Jon Downes megastore may seem to be in order:
 
AND THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE GONZO MAGAZINE:
 
Gonzo Weekly #299/300
THE RESPECT IS DUE ISSUE
 
In another fun packed and spectacularly Gonzoesque issue, Doug goes to see Bow wow wow and ABC and Belinda Carlisle and more at Retro Futura, Alan loves Courtney Barnett's new album, and looks at the return of the Necessary Animals, Jon bitches
about Fake News and praises snarky online book critiquing, Graham examines a Hawkwind rarity that isn't and there is poetry
from Thom and Josephine Dunn.
 
#Hail Eris!
 
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney, AND Friday Night Progressive, AND there are columns from all sorts of folk including Kev Rowlands, Neil Nixon, C J Stone, AND Roy Weard BUT the irrepressible Corinna AND Mr Biffo are on hiatus.  There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and red kangaroos who've lost their shoes (OK, nothing to do with the largest extant macropods who are in a quandry with regards their footwear, 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:
 
John Lennon & Yoko Ono, Alice Cooper, Richard Thompson, Caravan, Curved Air, ULU, Phil Collins, Rolling Stones, Joy Division, Richard Freeman, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Linda Mkhize, Jose Carlos Almenar Otero, Majid Al-Majid, Jett McKee (Scepaz), Navid Izadi, Randall Desmond Archibald, Aretha Louise Franklin, Rick Wakeman, Michael Bruce, Natural Gas, Doug Harr, Alan Dearling, Courtney Barnett, Josephine Dunn, Kev Rowland, Acherontas, Alight, The Amorettes, Andrew Neu, Auri, Axel Rudi Pell, Agnostic Front, Hell to Pay, Necessary Animals, Stephen Clarke 1980, Roy Weard, C J Stone, Hawkwind, Jonathan Downes, The Wild Colonial Boy, Martin Springett, Ana Mardoll, Neil Nixon, Charlotte Gainsbourg
 
And the last few issues are:
 
Issue 299-300 (Aretha Franklin)
Issue 298 (Alan in Hungary)
Issue 297 (Shir Ordo)
Issue 295-6 (Robert Berry)
Issue 294 (Bow Wow Wow)
Issue 293 (Stonehenge)
Issue 292 (Rolling Stones)
Issue 291 (Alien Weaponry)
Issue 290 (Frank Zappa)
Issue 289 (Misty in Roots)
Issue 288 (Paula Frazer)
Issue 287 (Boss Goodman)
Issue 286 (Monty Python)
Issue 285 (ELP)
Issue 284 (Straqngelove)
Issue 283 (Record Store Day)
Issue 282 (Neil Finn and Fleetwood Mac)
Issue 281 (Carl Palmer)
Issue 280 (Steve Andrews)
 
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?

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A selection of animal oddities from S.W.England newspapers

Hi I thought i`d put together a couple of old newspaper stories of oddities found in or near Devon or in Devon or S.W.England newspapers, as it`s Jon`s birthday today. 

1st one: The Western Morning News 
October 25th 1918

















This fish story from the Western Morning News of July 4th 1919


 
The Western Morning News Aug 18th 1921







The Sunday Post May 10th 1925




































Exmouth Journal Sept 16 1905


NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)





In the bizarre video – taken from the shores of Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands – a long, black object appears to breach the surface of the water.


NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Wednesday

ON THIS DAY IN -   1485 - The War of the Roses ended with the death of England's King Richard III. He was killed in the Battle of Bosworth Field. His successor was Henry V II. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Orangutan: How 70,000 years of human interaction h...
  • New wasps named after Crocodile Dundee and Toblero...
  • Paleontologists ID two new Miocene mammals in Boli...
  • Climate change linked to potential population decl...

  • 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)