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...




Thursday, July 06, 2017

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.

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SUFFERS FROM ENNUI

Today is not working out to be the best of days. The car has broken down, near Rewe on the old Exeter-Tiverton road whilst Graham is on his way to try sorting out a particularly recalcitrant client of mine who owes me a grand and rising. And on top of that; only three weeks after we took out a lease on the new smart TV, with the fact that I can use it to stream a number of providers (particularly Spotify) through my sitting room hifi being upmost in the factors behind the decision, can you guess who has now withdrawn support for the make?
 
But now, here is the news:
 
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Badfinger - Baby Blue ...
BARBARA DICKSON IN THE NEWS
LEONARD COHEN IN THE NEWS
MARTIN STEPHENSON IN THE NEWS
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
 
THE ANORAKS IN THE UK ISSUE
 
Carol Hodge talks about the excitement of playing Glastonbury with Steve Ignorant’s Slice of Life, we meet a bloke who wants to make a giant bronze statue of Great Cthulhu in the Orkneys, Phil Bayliss’ reggae themed Listening Post, the details of Hawkwind’s legal victory and the Doctors of Madness box set.
Good ‘ere innit?
 
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney, and Strange Fruit, but Friday Night Progressive is on hiatus for a few weeks. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons outside zoos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have escaped from captivity, 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:
 
Carol Hodge, Steve Ignorant, Roger Waters, Iggy Pop, Banksy, Lady Gaga, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Stella McCartney, British Sea Power, Kris Kristofferson, Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Jimmy Nalls, Thomas Michael Bond CBE, Geri Allen, Dave Rosser, Gary DeCarlo, Mary Hopkin, Steve Howe, Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, Alan Dearling, Phil Bayliss, Bob Marley & The Wailers, Peter Tosh, Jacob Miller, U-Roy, King Tubby & Friends, Burning Spear, Ijahman, Morgan Heritage, Fat Freddy's Drop, Jeremy Smith, Doctors of Madness, Glen Vaudrey, Great Cthulhu, Kev Rowland, Tim Burness, Tyrannosorceress, 8Kids, Art Fristoe Trio, Barrows, Beasto Blanco, Evelyn and Iris, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Martin Springett, David Bowie, Sting, Bill Haley, Bob Marley, Beatles, Jon Downes and the Amphibians From Outer Space
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 240 (Midsummer Madness)
Issue 239 (Miss Peach)
Issue 238 (Hawkwind)
Issue 237 (Hawkwind)
Issue 236 (Manchester)
Issue 235 (Jon Anderson)
Issue 234 (Al Atkins)
Issue 233 (Richard Strange)
Issue 232 (Roy Weard)
Issue 231 (Allan Holdsworth)
Issue 230 (Curtis Womack)
Issue 229 (Larry Wallis)
Issue 228 (Space Pharoahs)
 
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 57 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two half grown kittens, 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 bulldog/boxer Prudence, his elderly mother-in-law, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention Archie and the Cats?

TODAY'S BIG CAT NEWS

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.

  • NEWSLINK: Tree plantation drive leaves wild cats a...
  • NEWSLINK: Big cats released into safari

  • SIGHTING, UK: Notorious Wildcat of Warwickshire on...
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF




    Bigfoot Watches Surfer in Northern California
    From PacWest Bigfoot: I am a surfer from northern California, and I am also a teacher at a private school, so I hope you do not mind keeping my name ...

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  • 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.)