TODAY'S 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 should have a go at publishing a regular round-up of the stories as they come in. In September 2012, Emma Osborne decided that the Mystery Cat Study Group really deserved a blog of its own within the CFZ Blog Network.

Here is the latest tranche of news...

NEWSLINK: Irish calf killings

Not a very big tranche..

I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

I have been living a bachelor life for 24 hours now, and it is more fun than I thought it was going to be. Graham and I sat up eating curry last night, having a few drinks and generally putting the world to rights. I am now cheerfully typing away whilst listening to the new Steve Hillage live album, which is also more fun than I thought it would be. The music is excellent as we always knew it would be, but Steve is a surprisingly jolly fellow on stage. I must try and sort out an interview with him...

Gong have always been one of my favourite bands, and I am hoping to catch them on the new tour at some point, probably not Exeter for personal reasons. Today, however, we have a couple of exclusive pictures from their rehearsals..
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/gong-two-sneaky-behind-scenes-shots.html

An evening with Roger Dean and Rick Wakeman. That is a gig I would dearly love to see. And it's for charity
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/an-evening-with-roger-dean-and-rick.html

Now it's time for our daily visit to Thom the World Poet who is being extra specially insightful today...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/thom-world-poet-daily-poem_3.html

My father always used to annoy me back in the day by referring to 'Emerson, Lake and Palmer' as 'Freeman, Hardy and Willis'. I wonder what he would have done with 'Anderson, Bruford, Wakeman and Howe'? Here is another great review if 'the alternative Yes'
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/abwh-review.html

Herewith another great review of 'Carnaby Street' by the irrepressable Michael Des Barres
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/michael-des-barres-review.html

And finally today here is a nice review of the smashing new 4CD live set from Jefferson Starship
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/link-jefferson-starship-review.html

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 Editor is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

WATCHER OF THE SKIES: Today's Fortean bird news

After about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo, Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.

The Language of Birds in Old Norse Tradition

Bird Prank Bags Criminal Charges

Experts hail rare sandpiper success

Conservation Plan Addresses Decline of Grassland B...

Local Funding Supports Open Access Sequencing of t...

DOC'S NEW EXHIBITION

Painter, writer, magician and all-round showman Tony Shiels is marking the 350th anniversary of Punch & Judy's first appearance on British soil with a series of new paintings.

Not that there's anything unusual in his choice of subject, the satirical seaside figure of Mr Punch having been a regular part of the artist's output since the 1970s.

1. ​
   Mr Punchinello is one of several new paintings by Tony 'Doc' Shiels being exhibited in Marazion PHIL MONCKTON

Shiels, who lived and worked in Cornwall for several decades – where he built a reputation as one of the 20th century's greatest surrealists, as well as being a famed monster hunter and operating a travelling theatre company – is now based in Ireland. There he continues to paint – drawing on influences gained in Cornwall and constantly returning to his pet themes of sea heads, gunslingers, bullfights and Mr Punch.

An exhibition, including a number featuring Mr Punch, is now on show at the Market House Gallery in Marazion. And while it may be a disappointingly small collection by the bad boy of Cornish painting, it nevertheless acts as a reminder of just how exciting the visual arts can be – but rarely are these days.

Known by all simply as "Doc", Shiels was an important figure of what is now regarded as St Ives' artistic heyday in the 1950s and 1960s. He spent time in Paris and Spain as a young man, studying the likes of Picasso and Braque, moved to St Ives in 1958, and lived for 25 years at Ponsanooth, where he and his wife Chris raised a family of five.

As well as painting, writing and touring a series of ground-breaking theatre and music shows, he is remembered for documenting Morgawr, the monster of Falmouth Bay. During this time he also produced what believers regard as the most convincing colour photograph of the Loch Ness Monster. Now in his 70s and still painting full-time, he lives near Killarney in the west of Ireland.

His latest Cornish show features Mr Punch in a series of guises, from the stunning Mr Punchinello to Mr Punch Does A Card Trick and Punch And Jack Of Diamonds. Other titles include Cock Of The Bay, Black Kerry Bog Beast, People Dancing Near Here and Unchosen Harbour.

The exhibition is at the Market House Gallery in Marazion until the end of October. Admission free. For more details, visit: www.markethousegallery.co.uk

CRYPTOLINK: Sea Serpents of South Shore Massachusetts

SEA SERPENTS OF THE SOUTH SHORE: A HISTORY OF DOCUMENTED AND REPORTED ACCOUNTS OF THE SEA CREATURES OF HULL AND SCITUATE

By Kristen Good

Massachusetts lays claim as being the first state to document a sea serpent sighting. An Englishman by the name of Josselyn witnessed a creature “coiled like a cable upon a rock in Cape Ann“in 1639. In August of 1817, the same area would be spotlighted when “The Gloucester Sea Serpent” was first spotted, appearing first local fisherman. The great creature was seen by locals almost every day that month. Books such as “Gloucester’s Sea Serpent” by Wayne Soinim and “The Great New England Sea Serpent” by J.P. O’Neill chronicle the mass sighting. The subject of the Gloucester Sea Serpent was even the featured on an episode of Animal Planet’s “The Lost Tapes” in 2008. And in that same year, The Museum of Science held an exhibit about the legend.

While legends of sea monsters in the North Shore have been spotlighted in the media for years, the sea serpents of the South Shore have kept their secret locked in the memory of the Hull residents who remember stories passed down through generations about the Sea Serpent sightings at Nantasket Beach and the surrounding area. The details of the legends lie scattered in long-forgotten newspaper articles, spanning over 100 years.

Read on...

KARL SHUKER'S TOP TEN STRANGEST ALIENS

http://karlshuker.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/my-top-ten-strangest-aliens-close.html

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/

On this day in 1863 Abraham Lincoln designated the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving day. The Pilgrim fathers and a humbug surrounding them, along with the mysterious disappearance without trace of all the inhabitants of the Roanoke colony are some of the many things I'll be discussing on my walking tour of The Strange History of Plymouth this October, which takes place every Saturday this month (with extra tours on the 30^th and Halloween) leaving from the Shrimp on the Barbican. Follow this link for more details on how you can take a walk on the weird side (and be sure to click 'like' on the page to be kept informed of future events staged by my new company “Black Cat Planning” or to just show your support) :

https://www.facebook.com/BlackCatPlanning

And now the news:

• NSF, NIH Award Grants To Study Spread Of Diseases
• Psychology of Equine Performance and the Biology B...
• A year and 200 miles later, cat returned to owner
• Elderly alligator-attack victim stable after under...
• Butterflies' Astounding Tale Revealed in New 3D Mo...
• Fall Calls Bats to Hibernate, Scientists to Study ...
• White Shark Diets Vary With Age and Among Individu...

And as if by magic here's a song by Al Stewart about the Roanoke colony's disappearance:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQlPhkv0kZk