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...




Wednesday, October 17, 2012

ANOTHER PECULIAR TAXIDERMY STORY


Yarra Ranges Council e-communications officer Craig Major helps crack the case of the mystery of the stuffed cat at Yarra Ranges Council.Yarra Ranges Council e-communications officer Craig Major helps crack the case of the mystery of the stuffed cat at Yarra Ranges Council.
FOR 20 years a stuffed feral cat has graced the Yarra Ranges Council offices, with many wondering how and why it got there.
More than two decades ago the cat was caught causing havoc on Emerald Golf Course and then stuffed, after the Shire of Sherbrooke introduced controversial cat bylaws in the early 1990s. 
The cat has sat at the offices since.
Leader understands it has no name but is sometimes used for staff practical jokes.
The council has made no official comment, but ex-Sherbrooke shire local laws officer Rod Bezanovic, who caught the cat, said the feral cat population was a big issue at the time.
"There were no laws to regulate cats at all when council introduced a cat curfew which caused major issues within the community," Mr Bezanovic said.

Read on...

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: A CROCODILE IN A PRESTON,LANCASHIRE,ORCHESTRA PIT


“It`s that time again,when I loose my friends,go walk about, I`ve turned crypto-weird from pressure!” (with apologies to the  song writer of `Come Home` by James)


And the weirdness is this story titled CROCODILE FELL INTO PRESTON ORCHESTRA PIT in the Lancashire Daily Post of February 17th 1942:

An eight-foot crocodile, infuriated by a fall into the orchestra pit, its jaws gnashing and its tail lashing about smashing musical instruments and stands, provided an entirely unreleased thrill for the second house audience at the Preston Palace Theatre last night.

The crocodile one of six used by Koringa in her female fakir act is named Goebbels and, like his namesake, appears to be very keen on “putting himself over.”

He generally makes a bee line for the front of the stage but Koringa, whose mastery of the wild animals is remarkable, has always managed to haul him back. Last night was the exception.

Members of the audience, instead of being frightened crowded towards the orchestra. That was rather a foolish thing to do when one considers those saw like teeth, but steps have been taken to prevent any recurrence of the escape.

Mr Percy B Broadhead junior, Mr E Birns of the Palace management and Mr Leon Pollock one of the proprietors of the show all told a “Lancashire Daily Post” reporter that safety measures would be completed before tonight`s performance.

                                                                                        ON WITH THE SHOW

Koringa herself was down in the orchestra like a flash. While the musicians stood on their chairs or beat a hasty retreat she went after her rebellious pet, dragged him through the orchestra door, under the stage, up the steps and onto the stage again. There she “smacked” him and sent him off to his tank in disgrace.

The audience cheered her – and then she went on with the show as if nothing untoward had happened

Luckily there was no personal injury. The only “casualties” were a broken cello, a badly bent trombone and a damaged drum. All the same the musicians had a considerable scare.

Mr H.H. Charlesworth, the musical director, said that in a very long experience he had never had such an exciting few minutes. (1)


1. Lancashire Daily Post 17/2/1942


CROCODILE ROCK          ELTON JOHN     (Had to be, hadn`t it?!)  

 I remember when rock was young
Me and Suzie had so much fun
Holding hands and skimming stones
Had an old gold Chevy and a place of my own
But the biggest kick I ever got
Was doing a thing called the Crocodile Rock
While the other kids were Rocking Round the Clock
We were hopping and bopping to the Crocodile Rock…

And it`s good bye from Sir Elton and goodbye from Dr Devo. Good bye!

HAUNTED SKIES: Times (The) 11.1.69



http://hauntedskies.blogspot.com/2012/10/times-11169.html

DALE DRINNON: Bigfoot, the Memphremanog beast and Benny's Blog

Robert Lindsay is a Friend of mine on Facebook so I could have gone the route of going to him directly on this, but I thought it would be more prudent to let Bigfoot Evidence handle this one:
 
And also from Frontiers of Zoology:

 
And new from Benny's Blog, The Ominous Octupus Omnibus:

WATCHER OF THE SKIES: Today's Fortean bird news

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. So, after about six months of regular postings on the main bloggo, Corinna has taken the plunge and started a 'Watcher of the Skies' blog of her own as part of the CFZ Bloggo Network.




I'M YER GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN



Graham and I went to Southampton yesterday, and filmed a smashing gig of Jefferson Starship with our old friends Auburn in support. We got home just after 4:00 this morning and I finally got to sleep just before six, only to be woken up by a perfectly delightful fellow from UPS two hours later. He was delivering some posters for the show at Barnstaple Museum which starts on saturday. Whilst on the subject of the museum, we popped in for a few moments on the way to Southampton, and Jess and Ross have done a jolly good job. Well done, guys. Jess also has a job interview today, so good luck honeypie...
 
We start off with a whole slew of exciting news from Mimi Page.
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/exciting-news-from-mimi-page.html
 
Entering into the spirit of the Gonzo Daily 'Rolling Stones Week', Head honcho, Rob Ayling sent us two tracks by the one and only Chris Thompson...
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/chris-thompson-sings-rolling-stones.html
 
 
In the first of three Gonzo Exclusives today, the fourth and final part of our mammoth interview with Helen McCookerybook.
 
Another Exclusive: Just to prove that we were where we said we were last night, here is video of Jon meeting Liz Lenten
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/auburn-jon-meets-liz.html
 
Our third exclusive for today: Michael Des Barres meets Bruce Springsteen
http://gonzo-multimedia.blogspot.com/2012/10/exclusive-michael-des-barres-charity.html
 
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 Editor is an old hippy of 53 who - together with his orange cat - puts it all together from a converted potato shed in a tumbledown cottage deep in rural Devon. He is ably assisted by his lovely wife Corinna, his bulldog/boxer Prudence, and a motley collection of social malcontents. Plus.. did we mention the orange cat?

OLL LEWIS: Yesterday's News Today



On this day in 2009 Vic Mizzy died. Mizzy was the composer of the theme tunes of “The Adams Family” and the fantastic surreal comedy “Green Acres”.
And now the news:
A classic scene from Green Acres: