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, September 25, 2019

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN GETS ON WITH STUFF

The Gonzo Daily: Wednesday
Crazy times. Nothing particularly nasty has happened, and I have nothing to complain about. But this is an insanely complicated time, and - as long as none of the various swords of Damocles that are dangling over my head actually fall and give me an unpleasant case of trepanation, then I will be glad whenever it finally fizzles out.
ER EDITOR SEZ: THE DIGITAL PRAYER FLAG
You guys have been doing massive amounts of praying for Corinna. I believe that the outpouring of good vibes transmitted electronically, being a little like a Tibetan prayer flag. Find out more:
Blessed be.
YESSYTHINGZ
ZAPPANEWS
FAIRPORT CONVENTION: amplified folk - archive, 196...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: The Beatles - Blue Jay...
THE GONZO PRIVACY POLICY
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 #355/6
THE ELFIN ISSUE
This phantasmogorical phaerie issue pheatures: Kev tracks down Elfin Bow somewhere in phaerieland, we hear abour airborne animal rescue from PAART, Steve Andrews eulogises David de Rothschild, we go Crossing the Tyne with Emerald Stone, Doug goes to see the legendary B52s, Alan visits Surplus People, Graham tells us all about the forthcoming Hawkwind album, we visit The Netherlands for the True Music Guide, and believe it or not, Jon praises...wait for it...Taylor Swift.
Groovy eh?
Hail Eris!
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney and Friday Night Progressive AND Strange Fruit, there are columns from Kev Rowland and 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 antichinuses who have lost their shoes (OK, nothing to do with tiny marsupials who are searching for 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:
Taylor Swift, Paul McCartney, Mick Jagger, Sinead O'Connor, Asia, Peter Hook, Jessica Hook, Melanie S Jane, Emerald Stone, Pittsburgh Aviation Animal Rescue Team, Richard Freeman, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Lavrentis Machairitsas, Camilo Blanes Cortés, Volodymyr Havrylovych Luciv, Jimmy Ray Johnson, Kylie Rae Harris, LaShawn Ameen Daniels, Les Adams, Laurent Sinclair, Adiss Harmandian, Terrance William Dicks, Donald Ray Fritts, Dan Warner, Rick Wakeman, Gerry Beckley, The Waterson Family, The Fall, Richard Wright and Dave Harris-Zee, Chasing the Monsoon, David de Rothschild, Doug Harr, B-52's, Alan Dearling, Surplus People, Nukli, Astralasia, Spacedogs, Dream Machine, Deviant Amps, AOS3, Shom, Sendelica, Captain Starfighter, Lockheeds, Lacertilia, Kev Rowland, Elfin Bow, Tony Klinger, Spock's Beard, Abhorrent Deformity, Omenfilth, Orange Goblin, Ordo Ignis Dei, Violation Wound/Cliterati, Hawkwind, Martin Springett, Christiaan Bruin, Skylake, Hasse Fröberg, HFMC, Jolly, Inventions
And the last few issues are:
Issue 353-4 (Melanie S Jane)
Issue 351-2 (Royal Affair)
Issue 349-50 (Experimental Sonic Machines)
Issue 347-8 (Gary Duncan)
Issue 345-6 (RDF)
Issue 343-4 (Auburn)
Issue 341-42 (America)
Issue 339-40 (Kev Rowland)
Issue 337-38 (Zee)
Issue 335-36 (Raz)
Issue 333-34 (Nepal)
Issue 331-32 (Scott Walker)
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 60 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?

THYLACINES IN THE NEWS



The thylacine and placental canids such as wolves, dogs and foxes, are perhaps the most striking example of convergent evolution. Through this ...

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.




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.



NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Wednesday

ON THIS DAY IN -  1493 - Christopher Columbus left Spain with 17 ships on his second voyage to the Western Hemisphere.
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • Minke whale washed up on Barra beach
  • Heavy metals and harmful chemicals 'poison Europe'...
  • Nest Predators and Rising Waters Threaten Rare Tur...
  • Scientists: Why we should appreciate wasps
  • Bonobo moms play an active role in helping their s...


  • 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)