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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Thursday, February 06, 2020

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

  • OREGON: Sea Serpent
  • LAKE ERIE MONSTER
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF

    Regular readers will know that in recent years we have migrated the two specialist Study Groups – Mystery Cats (curated by Carl Marshall and Olivia McCarthy) and Lake and Sea Monsters (curated by Sally Watts and Richard Muirhead) – to their own standalone blogs, although when there are postings, notifications of them can be found here on the main blog.


    THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS DILIGENT

    The Gonzo Daily: Thursday
    I have just finished reading W Somerset Maugham's 1909 novel 'The Magician', which prompted accusations of plagiarism from none other that Aleister Crowley. Maughm admitted that the antagonist Oliver Haddo, was based upon Crowley whom he had met in Paris and strongly disliked.It is a much better nocvel than I had been led to believe, and I think - especially as it is available for free on Project Gutenberg - that I ecommend it to anyone with a taste for occult thrillers. The thing that I found particularly interestying is that Maugham's use of the English language is remarkably modern. One would never guess that it was written 112 years ago!
    Judge Smith sent me the new album by his band 'Towers Open Fire' this morning and I am listening to it now; It is very peculiar acousticish music steeped in multi-layered strangeness and his signiature wordplay. I look forward to getting to know the record better.
    The eagle-eyed amongst you will have also noticed that the Gonzo Multimedia websites have changed and are in a process of flux, so there are no individual sales links at the moment. But check out www.gonzomultimedia.co.uk for a thing of wonder.
    Life is still not easy, Corinna is still not well, my right foot is still infected and with all this and everything else that I am having to deal with at the moment, not ignoring the emotional fallout from mother’s funeral only a few weeks ago, everything is delayed. We will get there in the end, but remember us in your thoughts and prayers, please. On which point, thank you so much to all of you who wrote to us giving kind words about Corinna and/or condolences for Mother. I will be writing back to you individually, but there were a lot of messages, and my time is embarrasingly limited at the moment. So, if you are one of the kind people who did so, please don't take offence that you have not had a reply.
    YER 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.
    GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Daevid Allen - Deya Godess...
    ZAPPASTORY
    DAVE BAINBRIDGE EN PASSANT
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    EVEN MORE COHENSTUFF
    GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Frank Zappa - Bolero
    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 eleven 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 #371/2
    THE "BLOODY HELL WHAT WILL THEY THINK OF NEXT?" ISSUE
    In this frabjous issue Doug talks about how Big Sean helped him through a life crisis, Jon extolls Ransom Riggs and talks about gender, Graham looks at Hawkwind's forthcoming Hawkfest, we remember a night in Portsmouth with Pop Will Eat Itself, many years ago, Alan admires the paintings of Joie A. Pabilando, we are surprisingly impressed by the new album by Eminem, and unsurprisingly so by the new Pet Shop Boys record, and we go on Animal Rescue missions with PAART.
    And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney and Friday Night Progressive AND Canterbury sans Fronieres AND Merrell Fankhauser, but no sign of Strange Fruit this week, there is a column from Kev Rowland, but Mr Biffo, and C J Stone, and Neil Nixom abd Roy Weard, 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:
    Moore's Law, John Higgs, Ozzy Osbourne, Gorillaz, Lindsey Buckingham, Bart Lancia, The Dave Foster Band, Brian May, Pop Wil Eat Itself, Friday Night Progressive, The Merrell Fankhauser Radio Show, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Carmelo Esteban "Steve" Martin Caro, Chamin Correa, Guy Deplus, Hylda Sims, Dan Andrei Aldea, James Edward Heath, Robert Parker, Sunanda Patnaik, Thérèse Allah, better known as Allah Thérèse, David Charles Olney, Chris Darrow, Dennis Garcia, Terence Graham Parry Jones, Rick Wakeman, Gerry Beckley, The Waterson Family, The Fall, Richard Wright and Dave Harris-Zee, Chasing the Monsoon, Doug Harr, Big Sean, PAART, Alan Dearling, Andy Wood, Joie A. Pabilando, Kev Rowland, Kissin' Dynamite, Faerenus, Like a Storm, Lisa Larue, Millenium, Madsen, Major Parkinson, Carl Marshall, Geordie Jackson, Zombie Cinema, Tony Klinger, Jade Goody, Hawkwind, Jonathan Downes, Wild Colonial Boy, Ransom Riggs, Martin Springett, A Map of Days, Pet Shop Boys, Eminem
    And the last few issues are:
    Issue 375-6 (Big Sean)
    Issue 373-4 (End of the World)
    Issue 371-2 (New Year)
    Issue 369-70 (Christmas)
    Issue 367-8 (Register to Vote)
    Issue 365-6 (Rick Wakeman)
    Issue 363-4 (Focus)
    Issue 361-2 (Martin Springett)
    Issue 359-60 (Robert Hunter)
    Issue 357-8 (King Crimson)
    Issue 355-6 (Elfin Bow)
    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 and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention Archie and the Cats?

    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.

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Thursday

    ON THIS DAY IN -  1900 - The Holland Senate ratified the 1899 peace conference decree that created in international arbitration court at The Hague.
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • .
  • Boy oh boy! Twin male pandas charm Berlin zoo
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  • Is the Bible right? Newly discovered fossils show ...
  • Slow And Steady Could Win The Race Against Extinct...



  • 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)