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...




Thursday, June 06, 2019

YES IT WAS ANOTHER MONTAUK MONSTER WITH ALL THAT THIS ENTAILS

Yesterday morning I came into the office to be greeted, almost immediately, by a headline reading something to the effect of "Is this another Montauk Monster?" and a series of pictures of a noisome carcass on a Staten Island beach.

Well, as those of you with long enough memories will remember, the so-called Montauk Monster was a dead raccoon, hairless and bloated, that washed up on a beach near the notorious Plum Island experimental Plum Island Animal Disease Center (PIADC) which was established by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) in 1954.

The raccoon had been found dead by a bunch of stoned surfer types who decided to give it a Viking Funeral, making a makeshift raft for it, and setting it all on fire before putting it out to sea. It was one of those ideas which probably made perfect sense when you were wasted, and although it has been a long time since I was in that condition, I recollect that mindset quite well. When the corpse washed up again near Plum Island, a lot of people jumped to unwarranted (though not entirely surprising) conclusions, and the legend of the Montauk Monster was born with several people who really should have known better jumping on the bandwagon.

When they sent us the pictures of the Montauk creature all those years ago, Richard and I took a good look, said that it was a small carnivore, possibly a raccoon or a skunk, and forgot all about it.

We were as a result ignored.

So, this time around I want to lay out our stall in advance. We have sent the pictures to four different people: animal bone experts @MelanieGbones and @Skull_Bloke whom I know from Twitter, our old warhorse Lars Thomas from Copenhagen, and my lovely wife Corinna.

The Twitter contingent have shot my original idea down in flames and said that it is not a North American River Otter (something with which Corinna concurs) and they suggest that it is another raccoon. Corinna suggests because most raccoon claws are dark and these aren't that it might be an opossum, but Lars went along with the raccoon theory.

No-one can say the CFZ aren't on the ball this time around.
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DEAD 'COON TIME AGAIN FOR THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN?

The Gonzo Daily: Thursday
And so it is Thursday,
and what have you done?
um tumpty tumpty tumpty tum
Yesterday was defined by the Staten Island "Monster" which turned out, not really to my surprise, to be a dead raccoon, and today I am designing and laying out the magazine. I also have a teensy weensy hangover.
Toodle-pip
YER EDITOR SEZ:
THE DIGITAL PRAYER FLAG
You guys out in readership land recently did massive amounts of praying for my wife Corinna. And that now - at least at the moment - she appears to be cancer free. I am convinced that these two things are related, with the outpouring of good vibes transmitted electronically, being a little like a Tibetan prayer flag. Having used it to such good effect - I want to try it on a larger scale. I am still trying to work out the details, so watch this space.
Find out more:
Blessed be.
ALL TODAY'S GONZO NEWS WOT'S FIT TO PRINT:
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Essra Mohawk-I Am the...
THE GRUMPY OLD POOLE SHOW
The Webb Sisters pay tribute to Leonard Cohen at M...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
YES REVIEW
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:
Meanwhile I continue to pretend that I am a popstar, because now I have sold eight whole copies of my new album Coldharbour. If I continue at this rate I will get a silver disc sometime at the beginning of the next millenium. Coldharbour, by the way, can be found here: https://jondownes1.bandcamp.com/releases
I think it is really rather good, but then again I would say that wouldn't I?
AND THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE GONZO MAGAZINE:
Gonzo Weekly #337/38
THE HAIL TO THE KEV ISSUE
And so, this issue we bring you Kev Rowland, the Antipodean maven of PROG, we bring you strange news from Sendelica, Steve Andrews’ remarkable new album, Hawkwind news, Psych and Reggae in Todmorden, whilst Jon gets all Erisian as well as bumbling on about Political Correctness
Hail Eris!
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney and Friday Night Progressive AND Strange Fruit AND 'cos there was a Full Moon last week, an episode of Canterbury Sans Frontieres, there are columns from Kev Rowland, Mr Biffo, C J Stone, and Roy Weard, but Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna are on hiatus. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and potoroos who are fallen for a ruse (OK, nothing to do with tiny marsupials who are easily obfuscated, 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:
Danny Baker, Michael Jackson, Woodstock 50, Jarvis Cocker, Bart Lancia, Cruise to the Edge, John Lennon, Zeestuff, Pink Floyd, Dee, Dave Harris, Richard "Rick" Wright, Richard Freeman, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Tardar "Grumpy Cat" Sauce, Edgar Leon Rausch, Michael Ray Wilhelm, Sol Yaged, Daniel Fernandez, Alfred Janson, Doris Day (born Doris Mary Kappelhoff), Eric Moore, Charles "Chuck" Barksdale, Melvin Edmonds, Fleming Begaye Sr., Malcolm James Prentice Black ONZM, Luther Jennings, Pekka Airaksinen, James Barney "J.R." Cobb Jr., The Fall, America, Michael Bruce, Joey Molland's Badfinger, Kev Rowland, The Progressive Underground Vol 1, Alan Dearling, Psych Night, Sistas in Reggae, Sherbet Tripod, Bonnacons of Doom, Amelia Harmony, Instrument of Jah Soundsystem, Sound Dimensions, Steve Andrews, Bloodlost, Crossing Eternity, Crystal Palace, Cyrcus Flyght, Dare, Deathgrave, Doomsday Outlaw, Fargo, Tony Klinger, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Chris Stone, Discordianism, Hawkwind, The Wild Colonial Boy, Jonathan Downes, Martin Springett, Thom the World Poet, Pilgrim's Guidebook, Bob Dylan
And the last few issues are:
Issue 339-40 (Kev Rowland)
Issue 337-38 (Zee)
Issue 335-36 (Raz)
Issue 333-34 (Nepal)
Issue 331-32 (Scott Walker)
Issue 329-30 (Charlie X)
Issue 327-28 (Hawkwind)
Issue 325-26 (Gonzo)
Issue 323-24 (Irvine Welsh)
Issue 321-22 (Discordianism)
Issue 319-20 (Brix Smith)
Issue 317-18 (Christmas)
Issue 315-16 (Steve Miller)
Issue 313-14 (Hawkwind)
Issue 311-12 (Extinction Rebellion)
Issue 309-10 (Steve Hillage)
Issue 307-8 (Michael Moorcock)
Issue 305-6 (Maartin Allcock)
Issue 303-4 (kOZFEST)
Issue 301-2 (Ringo Starr)
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 (Strangelove)
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 59 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, three other cats, 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 elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention Archie and the Cats?
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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.



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BIG CAT ROUND UP

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: Thousands of lions are being bred in brutal ‘farms’ to be shot by hunters are slaughtered for Chinese medicine

SIGHTING, New Zealand: Picton couple claim to have seen elusive black panther
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BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF







LACEY, Wash. — “The fact is that it is likely not a human,” says Chris Murphy. “It is something close to human.” The subject is Sasquatch. Since the ...


While Mulder and Scully never tackled Bigfoot during their tenure on The X-Files, it turns out the real FBI had beat them to it years earlier. We now ...


An Oregon man intent on proving the existence of the mythical creatures known as Bigfoot, Sasquatch, the Abominable Snowman and Yeti in 1976 ...
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LAKE AND SEA MONSTER NEWS

The hunt for Lake and Sea Monsters is probably the most iconic branch of Cryptozoology. Following our successful Mystery Cat and BHM Study Groups, we feel that these sightings should also be archived and published in a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. Curated by Sally Watts and Richard Muirhead.






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NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Thursday

ON THIS DAY IN -  1674 - Sivaji crowned himself King of India. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • Hunt for bogus asthma cure threatens pangolins
  • Native marsupial helping revive urban bushland in ...
  • Sea Turtles Return to Versova Beach After Lawyer’s...


  • Extinct 'Pig-Footed Bandicoot' Galloped Around Aus...

    • 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)
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