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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Sunday, August 05, 2012

BLOODY BIG FISH

Angler James Jones, 31, of Southminster


James Jones said he "had to shout for help" when he realised what had taken his bait. A chef and keen angler from Essex has caught what is thought to be the largest freshwater fish - weighing more than 10 stone - to be landed in the UK. James Jones, 31, of Southminster, caught the 144lb (65.3kg) wels catfish at the Oak Lakes Fishery, Essex.

In Britain, before records were suspended in 2000, the largest catfish caught weighed just 62lb (28kg).

Read on...

CFZ CANADA: Oh The Drama!


When is a crypto find a dead animal? Most of the time, actually. Yet folks continue to over-react and make outrageous claims over every carcass found. Read on...

HAUNTED SKIES: Times (The) 6.9.67.


I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

And so another working week begins, and there are six more days before I have to attempt to write poetry again. There is now less than a fortnight to go before the 13th Weird Weekend, the Fortean festival that I promote every summer. If you are interested in such things please check out http://www.weirdweekend.org/ - I am sure that you would not be disappointed. If you want more details please email me on jon@eclipse.co.uk.

We begin today with News of Rick Wakeman's forthcoming appearance at an Arts Festival in Suffolk. The Halesworth Arts Festival is apparently in is 11th year and is described as "Suffolk's favourite Festival". Rick will be performing his one man show, An Evening with Rick Wakeman at The Cut Arts Centre on Wednesday 17th October at 7.30pm. The original Grumpy Old Man arrives in Halesworth armed with stories, anecdotes and some virtuoso piano playing.http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/rick-wakeman-at-halesworth-arts-festival.html

Cathy Richardson, the new voice of Jefferson Starship is just about to embark on a solo tour, as well as playing dates with JS. Rocksucker, an online magazine who are quickl to point out that their moniker comes from the name of an obscure fish, and isn't as dirty as it seems, fired off some interview questions for her, and we intercepted them...http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/jefferson-starship-cathy-richardson.html

I really am a fan of Helen McCookerybook. Her blog is essential reading, if - like me - you like meandering stories about DIY, books, politics and being an unconventional female musician in a conventional person's word. The other day she posted such a delightful ramble which started off with her nearly sticking two of her fingers together with superglue and soon went on to recent books she has read. I was so engrossed in it that I felt duty bound to share it with you as the perfect antidote to a monday morning.http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/helen-mccookerybook-read-on-sister.html

As regular readers will know, Davey Curtis (mainman of Co Durham oddballs Happy The Man, and long time beer buddy of mine) is a regular contributor to the Gonzo Daily. Several weeks ago he telephoned me in a state of high excitement because Elizabeth Fraser, the notoriously reclusive singer with the Cocteau Twins back in the day, was playing at the Meltdown Festival in London (which I knew) and was doing a one-off warm up gig in bath (which I didn't). Davey had tickets, and wondered whether we would like a review. Of course, I said and then forgot all about it. Here it is...http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/davey-curtis-elizabeth-fraser-bath.html

As regular readers will also know I am an old hippy who usually doesn't admit it, and takes a childish delight in posting up reviews of Gonzo artists, especially when the reviews come from around the world. I actually managed to write a whole screed just now about the healing power of music and the global village blah blah blah, but then I managed to delete it (which is probably no bad thing). Herewith a Slovakian review of Michael Des Barres. And congratulations to Michael for landing a part in NCIS, which is apparently the top rated drama in America.http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/michael-des-barres-review-from-slovakia.html

Now, what can I say about Erik Norlander? The Gods have been kind to him; bestowing Nordic good looks, oodles of talent and a lovely wife. I am very fond of the two new CD/DVD packages that Gonzo have just released, and it seems that so are lots of other people around the world - like this bloke from Germany.http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/erik-norlander-german-review.html

And that (for today) is that. See ya!

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today

http://cryptozoologynews.blogspot.com/
On this day in 1874 Charles Fort, the father of the Fortean philosophy was born.
And now the news:

Three tigers die in India
Man Charged After Alligator Eats His Hand
In Fly DNA, the Footprint of a Fly Virus
Boy Hit By Bird On Kingda-Ku Rollercoaster
Captive Lion Reintroduction Programs in Africa Ope...
Identifying Dolphins With Technology
Poaching of tiger prey needs to be stopped as well...
N. Zealand school criticised for dead possum show
Birds' heads are torn off at zoo
A potentially deadly snake is on the loose after e...
Orphaned kangaroo Anzac and wombat Peggy become be...

Charles Fort makes an appearance at the Weird Weekend:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UU-bSAlRac

LARS THOMAS: A beast of a bezoar

This little piece of writing is perhaps not so much a matter of cryptozoology as a piece of magic - or at least pertaining to magic.

Quite a lot of us have read the Harry Potter books and have read the famous scene where Harry saves a poisoned Ron Weazley by shoving a bezoar down his throat. Now, I have always imagined bezoars, which are "stones" that forms in the stomach of goats and various other cloven-hoofed animals, to be rather small, and indeed in the Harry Potter stories that's exactly what they are, so imagine my surprise, when leafing through an old book about daily life in Denmark in olden days, I came across a picture.

Read on...

DALE DRINNON: Artificial Cranial Deformation/Bigfoot Evidence


Long-overdue article on artificial cranial deformation on Frontiers of Anthropology (It verifiably goes back to 10000 BC and arrives in the Near East along with the Neolithic economy):
http://frontiers-of-anthropology.blogspot.com/2012/08/artificial-cranial-deformation-in-proto.html

And another Bigfoot evidence posting on the possibility of "Bigfoot" in Spain, giving us a chance to refer back to older postings and add some new artwork on the Basajaun:
http://frontiersofzoology.blogspot.com/2012/08/bigfoot-in-spain.html

KARL SHUKER: The Mongolian Death Worm

It's not every day – or every expedition – that begins with a request from a country's head of government formally requesting that a specimen be captured of a creature so elusive, and deadly, that western science does not even recognise its existence. Nevertheless, that is precisely what happened in 1922 when eminent American palaeontologist Prof. Roy Chapman Andrews met the Mongolian premier in order to obtain the necessary permits for the American Museum of Natural History's Central Asiatic Expedition to search for dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert. And the creature that the Mongolian premier instructed him to procure? None other than the lethal allghoi khorkhoi – or, as it is nowadays commonly referred to throughout the world, the Mongolian death worm.

Read on...