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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Tuesday, November 03, 2015

CFZ "PEOPLE": Prudence Downes

Ten years old today. Happy Birthday Pru

CFZ "PEOPLE": Sooty Taylor (2011-5)

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A river monster which gobbled Chinamen

The following bizarre story appeared in the Omaha Herald  of Oct 8th 1881

“ A RIVER MONSTER

The Creature in the Mokelumne River Which Gobbles Chinamen.

“Upon the highest celestial authority ,there is at the present time habiting the Mokelumne river; only a few miles from this place, a short distance above the Big Bar bridge, between Jackson and Mokelumne Hill, a water monster that has spread consternation and terror among our entire Chinese population. They assert that one day this week a number of them were on the river just below the old Boston mill site, when they saw what they supposed to be a large fish near the top of the water, and one of the party made  a leap into the river to capture the prize. But no sooner had he struck the water that the monster turned upon its would be captor and instantly drew him under, from whence he has not arisen at last accounts. The monster is said to have teeth like a dog,and to have powerful strength, as the man was as nothing in his grasp. The Chinamen who witnessed the tragic fate of their countryman concluded the thing was the devil, and fled for their lives. It is also claimed that another Chinaman lost his life in about the same manner near this place several years ago, and it is thought this is the same monster returned…”


Not so much the yellow peril then,but the yellow-fellow-eating-peril!


Another story from the Hartford Daily Courant of Jan 15th 1870:

“ The Rock Island Argus has an astonishing fish story about a Mississippi river monster, eight feet long,with a head like a snake, a body about half way between a seal and a lizard,and possessing many other marvellous characteristics. It was captured near Gilbert-town by a couple of farmers ,but escaped from them.”

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN IS CONFUSED

The Gonzo Daily - Monday
 
Yesterday was a mildly productive one, and all of the cock ups of the weekend were sorted reasonably easily. For example what had looked like a serious error on the part of Torridge District Council turned out to be nothing more than a computer glitch that had misprinted all of the payments slips, but didn’t effect the payments themselves. Graham managed to reinstate my deleted BT account, and we have ordered a replacement for the broken part of the oven, which has cost less than £9, so it could have all been much worse. But it is Tuesday, and Jessica has ridden into the office on her white charger, berating me for the mess, and generally taking things into her own hands. I truly do not know what I would do without her, and love her very much indeed.
 
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: CCS - Tap Turns on th...
YES ALUMNI: DOWNES BRAIDE ASSOCIATION STREAM MACHI...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Joey Molland of Badfinger
Review: Steve Hackett, Acolyte To Wolflight with G...
 
Gonzo Weekly #154
www.gonzoweekly.com
 
Steve Ignorant, Crass, Madonna, Canterbury Sans Frontières, Psychedelic Britannia, Dead Boy Detectives, Digitiser, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Mack Moloney, A J Smitrovich, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, Jon Anderson, Mack Moloney, and Yes fans had better look out!
 
The latest issue of Gonzo Weekly (#154) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Steve Ignorant on the cover and an interview with him inside. Doug goes to see Madonna,Jon interviews Martin Hudson, founder of the Classic Rock Society, John B-G critiques the BBC's Psychedelic Britannia, and Corinna sneers at some more tacky pop memorabilia. We review The Dead Boy Detectives, and Xtul are back in the deep woods. Neil unearths a hidden gem, Thom waxes all poetical like, whilst the legendary Roy Weard continues his regular column, C J Stone does his, A J Smitrovich continues thumbing through his Dad's LPs, and Mr Biffo has more of his regular slices of insanity from the world of Digitiser 2000, and there is a radio show from Strange Fruit, one from Friday Night Progressive and another from Mack Moloney, and as there was a full moon this week we also have a show from Canterbury Sans Frontières. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons wanting a snooze (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who stayed up too late last night, 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:
 
Lucifer, Fleetwood Mac, Black Sabbath, Noel Gallagher, U2, Boy George, Johnny Cash, Suede, Rod Stewart, Keith Richards, Eric Burdon, Frank Zappa, Ike Willis, Denny Walley, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Canterbury Sans Frontieres, Tony Van Frater, Diane Charlemagne, Hubert Leroy "Herbie" Goins, David Rodriguez, Lee Shaw, Leon Bibb, William Bradford "Bill" Keith, Maureen O'Hara, Brand X, The Raz Band, Johnny Winter, Alexis Korner, Nucleus, Spirits Burning, The Pirates, Steve Ignorant, Madonna, Martin Hudson, John Brodie-Good, Roy Weard, A.J. Smitrovich, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Hawklords, Dave Brock, Xtul, Louis Armstrong, Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, Elvis, Marilyn Manson, Prince, Michael Jackson,Take That, Yes, Toto, Rick Wakeman, Steve Howe, Jon Anderson, Billy Sherwood, Neil Nixon, Cathy Berberian, Aq Bure
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 153 (Martin Barre)
Issue 152 (4th Eden)
Issue 151 (Corky Laing)
Issue 150 (Roger Dean)
Issue 149 (Tony Palmer in Space)
Issue 148 (Wally Hope)
Issue 147 (Thom the World Poet cover)
Issue 146 (Bee and Flower cover)
Issue 145 (Dave Brock cover)
Issue 144 (Percy Jones cover)
Issue 143 (Billy Sherwood cover)
Issue 142 (Daevid Allen and Spirits Burning cover)
Issue 141 (Rick Wakeman cover)
Issue 140 (Jaki Windmill cover)
Issue 139 (Raz cover)
Issue 138 (Galahad cover)
Issue 137 (Chris Squire cover)
Issue 136 (Neil Nixon cover)
Issue 135 (FNP cover)
 
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.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 56 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 young lady called Jessica. 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?

NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)




To the delight of almost 900 children in the Scottish Borders, the Loch Ness monster paid a visit in November 1985. Fourteen different schools took ...

The Loch Ness Monster was 'invented in a London pub'
It's a legend that's mystified people for years and brought countless amounts of would-be Nessie hunters to the shores of Loch Ness in hope of ...

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.

CRYPTOLINK: Hippo spotted in Teddington's Bushy Park

Bushy Park's Hippo: Adult hippos can weigh 1,500kg (Credit: Susan Lindenberg)A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me. 
Africa's most dangerous animal has been spotted swimming through the mist in Bushy Park's boating pond.
The hippopotamus, typically native to sub-Saharan Africa, is fast becoming Teddington's answer to the Loch Ness monster, having been spotted floating through the pond on several occasions.

CRYPTOLINK: Why don't people see the yeti any more?

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me.
Bhutan villagerUntil recently it was common for people in Bhutan to share stories of their encounters with the Himalayan yeti. But with the arrival of modernity, villagers no longer need to climb high into the mountains, where they once saw traces of the yeti - or thought they did. So a legend is slowly fading away.
Perched on a mountainside surrounded by dense, virgin forest where tigers, snow leopards, and wild boar roam, is the remote village of Chendebji.
It's so isolated that up until seven years ago, before a hydroelectric plant was installed bringing electricity to the village, children here would only go to school for half an hour a day because no-one could afford to buy kerosene to light the classroom.
In the days before electricity, much of the day would be spent searching for firewood to light stoves and walking up into the high pastures to graze their yaks and goats.

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



Nick Redfern: Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Wild Men of Texas
Nick Redfern: Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Wild Men of Texas. Nick Redfern is one of my favorite authors. You can find his books here. While I disagree ...

1980 Bigfoot sighting remembered
The bigfoot evidence posted this article and I love older stories. Maysville Mayor David Cartmell looks at an archived copy of the Oct. 11, 1980 edition ...

ANDREW MAY: Words from the Wild Frontier

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

From CFZ-USA:

NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Tuesday

ON THIS DAY IN 1839 - The first Opium War between China and Britain erupted. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk



  • Florida ends black bear hunt after two days with 2...
  • New legal move to prevent Japan from whale hunting...
  • Brian May fails in bid for judicial review on badg...
  • Little Cousin: Human, Ape Ancestor Had 'Goggle Eye...



  • Dolphins suspected in whale attack off Sky

  • 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)