Thursday, April 29, 2021

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 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.

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN WAS IN THE RIGHT PLACE

 The Gonzo Daily: Thursday

What have I got to tell you today? Nothing really. Yesterday I filmed a unboxing video (unpackaging really) for the parcel from legendary musician Brute Force. Anyone who watched the last episode of my increasingly peculiar webTV show will know that he sent me a parcel before Christmas. However, it managed to get tangled up in the Brexit/Covid maelstrom and crossed the Atlantic at least once more before being returned to sender like a song by Elvis Presley about 10 days ago. He resent it to me and it arrived on Tuesday. All things being equal the little video will be up sometime today…..
Next Saturday’s episode of On the Track is finished and ready to go. It features a piece on bilateral gynandromorphism, the mystery of some strange bones found buried in the back garden of a house in the posh area of Ealing, and a country and western song about feline genetics. You truly couldn’t make this stuff up.
If you want to attend a visual entertainment consisting of hard science and a smattering of weird shit, interspersed with us dicking about in an increasingly surreal manner, check last weekend’s episode out:
My book ‘Wild Colonial Boy’ is the story of my early life in Hong Kong, and how I first became interested in Natural History, and more specifically cryptozoology, and there are several very little known cryptozoological mysteries discussed therein. It is very much like a darker analog of Gerald Durrell’s memoirs of his childhood in Greece, and I would’ve called it “My Family and other Sociopaths” if it wasn’t for the fact that I didn’t want to be sued either by Durrell’s estate, or my family. You can find out more and buy it signed from the link below:
C’mon, make a curmudgeonly old bugger happy.
AND HERE'S TODAY'S NEWS
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 #439/40
THE CHANGING ISSUE
This magazine continues to go off on strange tangents that I never expect, but I am very happy to see it do so. What is in this week? Ooooh lots of things. Such as Prince Phillip, Dutch Covid Fest, Louie Louie guitarist dies, Alien Jakes, Mik the Artistik,Incredible String Band, Bapu, Traveller's Tales
and more....
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney and Friday Night Progressive, AND Merrell Fankhauser, and the Real Music Club, AND Strange Fruit, and Mr Biffo, there is a column from Kev Rowland, and C.J Stone, but Mr Biffo, Tony Klinger and Neil Nixon, are on hiatus. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and dibblers who have got the blues (OK, nothing to do with tiny marsupials who are listening to the new Bob Dylan album, 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!!!
..And the last few issues are:
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 a recently widowed old hippy of 61 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 a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention Archie and the Cats?

NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Thursday

ON THIS DAY IN - 1661 - The Chinese Ming dynasty occupied Taiwan.

And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • Ivory bill?
  • Bear ransacked house
  • DURRELL: Earth Day 2021

  • 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)