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...




Monday, February 09, 2015

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

News and stories from the remoter fringes of the CFZ blogosphere...

From CFZ-USA:

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF:



Watch Bigfoot Hunters Stalk Bison At Yellowstone National Park
Four “Bigfoot” have been captured on camera apparently stalking bison near the Old Faithful geyser at the Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.


BIGFOOT?? Camera Captures Ape-Like Creature in Yellowstone National Park and there are ...
In a video that was meant to capture some Bison roaming the land it captured what is thought to be the elusive Bigfoot ....


Tim Fasano Has The Low Down On The Florida Bigfoot Video
We've been following the story about the Lettuce Lake bigfoot video since we initially released the video. Now Tim Fasano says he has the low down ...

Little Boy Tells Creepy Story Of Bigfoot Looking In His Bedroom Window
I think most of us would be terrified if we woke up to a bigfoot tapping on our bedroom window. I can't imagine being a little kid and experiencing ...

Skunkape/Bigfoot Found Jumping into Gator Infested Waters
Outside of Tampla Florida, a Bigfoot hunter & enthusiast named Matt M. captured a video while canoeing in the swamps of Tampla, Florida. What was ...


This 911 Bigfoot Call Is Terrifying
We're heard many phone calls to 911 dispatchers. This is one of our favorites. It's a short call, but it explains everything that went through the person's ...


Bigfoot Observed Using Sticks As Tools
"Dennis Wesley, along with a childhood friend, observe a bigfoot digging in the ground using 2 sticks as tools. One stick it reportedly pounded into the ...

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 IN A PICKLE

The Gonzo Daily - Monday
 
For the first time ever I saw a buzzard flying low over the garden. It was being mobbed by half a dozen smaller birds, mostly jackdaws. I know exactly how he feels.I will be out of action for most of today, until Richard comes up to discuss the forthcoming Tasmania expedition. What am I going to do about the other stuff on my plate? I truly don't know at the moment.
 
 
The Gonzo Weekly #116
www.gonzoweekly.com
 
Peter Banks, Sidonie Jordan, Empire, Ty Segall, Robert Wyatt, Jon Anderson, Yes, Hawkwind, and Daevid Allen fans had better look out!
 
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#116) will soon be available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has the lovely Sidonie Jordan, one half of Empire together with the late Peter Banks on the cover and a fascinating interview with her inside. We also have an interview with the author of the new Robert Wyatt biography, and we confirm, that sadly Robert has stopped making music.  We introduce you to the new co host of Strange Fruit, and Doug Harr explains why you all should check out the multi talented Ty Segall, whilst Jon waxes lyrical about the Prog Rock FAQ. We send Jeremy Smith to a desert island. Xtul are on the road to Norwich, and there are shows from Strange Fruit and from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and the titular submarine dwellers are still lost at sea, although I have been assured that they will hit land again soon. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and southern dibblers wearing new shoes (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials in search of snazzy footwear, 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!!!
 

Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
 

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:
http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/
 

* 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.com/…/all-gonzo-news-wots-fit
 
* 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 55 who - together with an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon which he shares with various fish, and sometimes a small Indian frog. 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 the infantile orange cat?

ANDREW MAY REVIEW

Andrew May gives us a mix of science fiction, fantasy and mild horror. I think this is a collection that works best for those who are well versed in these genres, as you will get the references and the cleverness of stories like The Call of Cool-o, which is an H. P. Lovecraft style plot written in the style of Philip K. Dick, or The Museum of the Future, which is essentially the same story (each set in 2012), told as the story would have been if written in 1912, 1932, 1952, 1972 and 1992, employing the styles and recurring themes common in each period. Quite often 'Fortean' themes are explored, something of a speciality of May's, using a story of real life weirdness* as a setting for the fiction.

If I had to pick out a favourite it would be the relatively long story (many are only a few pages) A Case for Crane, which sees the main character watching a 1970s US crime drama, which he gets pulled into at various levels, sometimes inhabiting the mind of the character, sometimes the actor playing the character and sometimes the author, giving a strange and mind-twisting meta-view of the story. This sounds messy, but actually works really well. And I'm a sucker for period tales set in Oxford or Cambridge, of which there are several, though I should point out that all the best Cambridge colleges have a Senior Combination Room, not a Senior Common Room as mentioned in The Rendelsham Magi, with its unusual twist on the star of Bethlehem.

Read on...

THE MIND BOGGLES

This was in my e-mail inbox this morning:

RAINES EXPLAINS: Finally electric sheep



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31188251

NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Monday

ON THIS DAY IN 1885 - The first Japanese arrived in Hawaii. 

  • Warmth gives ugly invasive fish brief reprieve fro...
  • Church of England may sell £3m stake in mining fir...
  • Chimps Can Learn Foreign 'Dialects,' Experiment Sh...
  • Genetics lab unravels mystery whale killing at sea...

  • Mystery tuna creature is tongue-eating parasite, s...

  • 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)