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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Monday, June 28, 2021

ANOTHER WEEK BEGINS FOR THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

 The Gonzo Daily: Monday

The last few days have been strange ones. I don’t know enough about astrology to comment, but I think the fact that the full moon that happened last week happened just after the summer solstice knocked me for six is probably not coincidental. So I was running seriously out of kilter last week and then this weekend Olivia came down to collect a van load of her mother’s things, and even her mother’s ashes. That was never going to be a fun weekend, but Olivia was magnificent. As magnificent as her mother used to be when the chips are down and I am so proud of her I could burst, and that wouldn’t be very pretty.
So I apologise for having gone to earth a bit over the last 10 days. I have been hiding more than usual, but unusual times call for unusual remedies. On Louis’s recommendation I have bought a pair of smart bulbs for the sitting room. This means I can adjust the colour of the lighting to quite a minute degree for when I’m filming in here, and I have spent far too long playing with the new smart bulb controls on my iPad than actually sitting down and writing the deathless prose which I need to do each today.
Whoops!
But I am a big kid at heart, as all my nearest and dearest will no doubt attest, and as I am 62 in a few weeks time, I don’t think I’m going to change now.
Interview with Arthur Brown
The Beatles - Discuss Abbey Road, Let It Be, and t...
UNCLE RICK IS BACK ON THE ROAD
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: George Harrison ~ My Swee...
The latest episode of On the Track went up on Saturday and we are very proud of it:
Once again we have a mellifluous melange of Fortean Fun:
- Barry Tadcaster and Orang Pendek
- Jon reads a story from Douglas Adams
- The latest news from Wally the Welsh Walrus
- Has Prudence returned to haunt the pink bathroom?
- Doug Hjicek interview (part two)
- How Doug made Giant Squid history
- Doug's new idea for filming Bigfoot
So, 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 the latest episode out:
And here we have another shameless plug:
’Wild Colonial Boy’ is the story of my early life in Hong Kong. It is 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 I could have got away with it. Find out more and buy it signed from the link below:
C’mon, make a curmudgeonly old bugger happy.
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 #449/50
THE GRACE 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 Cary Grace, The Beatles, Paul McCartney Gemma Doyle Trilogy, Pandemic stories, Configa Introducing DJ Views, Alan's New Music and much more...
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney and Friday Night Progressive, AND Merrell Fankhauser, and the Real Music Club, AND Strange Fruit, 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:
Issue 449-50 (Cary Grace)
Issue 447-8 (Gardening Club)
This alphqanumeric issue disappearede into the aether
Issue 443-4 (Rubber chicken)
Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 441-2 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 439-40 (Prince Phillip)
Issue 437-8 (Yes)
Issue 435-36 (Hawkwind)
Issue 433-34 (Freda Payne)
Issue 431-32 (Kosheen)
Issue 429-30 (Ocean Aid)
Issue 427-8 (2021 ia Bosch)
Issue 425-6 (Paul McCartney)
Issue 423-4 (KLF)
Issue 421-22 (Christmas)
Issue 419-20 (John Lennon)
Issue 417-8 (gIG)
Issue 415-16 (Phideaux)
Issue 413-14 (Rick Wakeman)
Issue 411-12 (Extinction Rebellion)
Issue 409-10 (Covid)
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?

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.

NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Monday

ON THIS DAY IN - 1635 - The French colony of Guadeloupe was established in the Caribbean.

And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • BBC: Why has the sea off Scotland turned turquoise?
  • BBC: Scientists hail stunning 'Dragon Man' discovery

  • 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)