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...




Friday, July 24, 2015

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.



WW2015: Introducing Viv Payne

There are only a few weeks left until this week's event, so I think it is time to showcase some of the attractions that we haven't talked about yet. For example:

Viv Payne describes herself:

"I've travelled around the world and lived in both Australia and America. Now I've hung up my hiking boots and live in East Devon with 4 cats, three guinea pigs, one rabbit, the Spare Room Mouse and The Things In The Loft."

She will be talking about her new book:




If you want more WW info:
http://www.weirdweekend.org/
If you want to buy tickets online:
http://www.weirdweekend.org/ticket.htm
If you want a picture of a comedy rhinoceros:
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/QOvIot-i6rY/hqdefault.jpg

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN RUNS ABOUT POINTLESSLY

The Gonzo Daily - Friday/Saturday
I don't understand the ways of the universe. On Wednesday when I wrote a cheerful blog post I had a terrible day. Yesterday when I wrote a gloomy one I had a lovely one. Thank you very much to everyone who wrote wishing me luck for my podiatry appointment. It appears that it has all healed up far quicker than expected and that everything is OK. There has been another sighting of the North American monarch butterfly - this time in Essex. However, Adrian from Bug Alert comments: "Please note that this species is now sometimes realeased in numbers at wedding ceremonies". Surely this has to be illegal. Section 14 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act: "prohibits the introduction into the wild of any animal of a kind which is not ordinarily resident in, and is not a regular visitor to, Great Britain in a wild state" and continues " This does not include species which occur only as vagrants or strays." Hmmmmmmmm.
The Gonzo Weekly #139
www.gonzoweekly.com
Raz Band, Joey Molland, Badfinger, Stills-Young Band, Barnstorm, Fleetwood Mac, Gram Parsons, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, and Yes fans had better look out!
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#139) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Michael Raz and Joey Molland on the front cover together with an interview with the Raz Man himself inside. Doug looks at the updated and remastered edition of Yes' Relayer, John B-G goers to see Fleetwood Mac and Jon examines a book about Gram Parsons. Xtul are very near to a climax. Thom waxes all poetical like, whilst the legendary Roy Weard continues his regular column. And there is a radio show from M Destiny at Friday Night Progressive, and one from those jolly nice chaps at Strange Fruit. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons with books to peruse (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials in a literary mood, 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:

Sir Paul McCartney, Brian May, Keith Richards, Madonna, Richard Hawley, Rolling Stones, Barbara Dickson, Val Doonican, The Beatles, Galahad, Mirror System, Steve Hillage, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Omar Sharif, Michael Masser, Camille Bob, Third Ear Band, Arthur Brown, Inner City Unit, Hugh Hopper, Pete Sears, Captain Beefheart, Brand X, Genesis, Armando Gallo, Paradise 9, Lee Walker, The Lotus Eaters, John Brodie-Good, The Grateful Dead, John Haylock, Glastonbury Festival 2015, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Yes, Rick Wakeman, Trevor Rabin, Elton John, Chris Squire, Anonymous, Xtul, Elvis Presley, Corey Taylor, Dean Martin, Frank Sinatra, Elton John, Alice Cooper, Neil Nixon, Awesome Colour, TrollfesT

Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:

Issue 137 (Chris Squire cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo135.html
Issue 136 (Neil Nixon cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo135.html
Issue 135 (FNP cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo135.html
Issue 134 (John Shuttleworth cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo134.html
Issue 133 (Liz Lenten cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo133.html
Issue 132 (Daevid in Brazil cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo132.html
Issue 131 (Boomtown Rats cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo131.html
Issue 130 (David Peel cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo130.html
Issue 129 (Clepsydra cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo129.html
Issue 128 (Louie Louie cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo128.html
Issue 127 (Roy Weard cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo127.html
Issue 126 (Atkins-May Project cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo126.html
Issue 125 (Mick Abrahams cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo125.html
Issue 124 (Karnataka cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo124.html
Issue 123 (Cream cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo123.html
Issue 122 (Anthony Phillips cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo122.html
Issue 121 (Annie Haslam cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo121.html
Issue 120 (Frank Zappa cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo120.html
Issue 119 (Eliza Carthy cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo119.html
Issue 118 (Dave Brock cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo118.html
Issue 117 (Daevid Allen cover)
http://www.flipsnack.com/9FE5CEE9E8C/gonzo117.html
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, and a small kitten 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, 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, and the adventurous kitten?

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: Forty-seven big cats, including 26 lions...
  • NEWSLINK/VIDEO: 'Giant cat' caught on camera prowl...

  • NEWSLINK: Motion detection camera captures what co...
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    The Day Bigfoot Showed Up at a Military Base
    The Day Bigfoot Showed Up at a Military Base. In the spring of 1982, a soldier training at Fort Leonard Wood Army Base in Missouri encountered 


    NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)



    Aberdeen Press and Journal

    Loch Ness is an area with a rich mythological tapestry and is also the top secret ... The group says a giant “chakra” – or energy centre – exists in Loch Ness ... Nessie, he replied: “We dont have any interest in the monster whatsoever.

    An error occurred.
    Roland Watson is a Loch Ness Monster expert. He resides in Scotland and has studied Loch Ness all of his life. He is the author of The Water Horses ...

    Despite Catfish Claims, Loch Ness Monster Hunter 'Not Quitting'
    The world's most dedicated Loch Ness monster hunter has scotched reports that he has finally given up looking for the legendary Scottish beast after a

    Monstrous Controversy Rages Over Loch Ness UFO Photos
    Very intriguing photo offers proof that Loch Ness Monster may exist ° 14th Jan 2015 , Controversy has swirled over the existence of the Loch Ness ...

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE - Friday/Saturday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1847 - Mormon leader Brigham Young and his followers arrived in the valley of the Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Myth Debunked: Boa Constrictors Don't Suffocate Pr...
  • UK suspends ban on pesticides linked to serious ha...
  • Rising seas could drown turtle eggs, according to ...

  • Changing environment caused some isolated kangaroo...

  • 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)