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, November 25, 2015

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN PRESTIDIGITATES

The Gonzo Daily – Wednesday
 
I have always been interested in the discipline of alternate histories; speculative writings hypothesis how the world would have changes as a result of one or more historical events having working out differently. Yesterday, was what I believe is technically called ‘a bitch of a day’; although it has to be said that Prudence disapproves of me using language like that. It was also Jessica’s 18th birthday, and was their for a long and emotional day. I went to bed early with a zopiclone, but was stupid enough to get involved with watching videos on my Ipad.
 
first of all I watched the final episode of ‘Brian Pern: A Life in Rock’ which I found massively funny, especially Peter Gabriel’s cameo appearance as the Grim Reaper, and the bloke from Status Quo trying to record a sensitive version of John Lennon’s famous Christmas song. But then I made the mistake which lead to my downfall. I went on YouTube, where I discovered the AlternateHistoryHub which has dozens of videos exploring a wide range of alternate history scenarios.
 
 
The zopiclone singularly failed to do what it was meant to do, and I didn’t get to sleep until past four. This afternoon I feel slightly as if a large mule has trodden on the back of my head. Damn you AlternateHistoryHub!
 
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Live: Hawktoberfest 2015
ERIC BURDON AND THE ANIMALS ROAR BACK ONTO THE CON...
YES ALUMNI: Ex-Genesis Guitarist Steve Hackett Dis...
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Manassas - Full Conce...
 
Gonzo Weekly #157
www.gonzoweekly.com
 
Daevid Allen, Gong, Real Music Club, Rolling Stones, Yes, Three Friends, Jethro Tull, Gentle Giant, PFM, Walter Trout, Prefab Sprout, Paddy McAloon, 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 (#157) is available to read at www.gonzoweekly.com, and to download at http://www.gonzoweekly.com/pdf/. It has Drones for Daevid on the cover and news on the Daevid Allen tribute CD inside. Doug returns from seeing Yes and various other prog rock greats on the Cruise to the Edge, Jon critiques a classic book about the Roling Stones, we go through the new album by The Raz Band track by Track, and Corinna sneers at some more tacky pop memorabilia. John talks about Prefab Sprout, abd nourbs the dead in the Paris Terrorist Attacks, 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. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and antechinuses wanting poos (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who are slightly constipated, 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:
 
David Bowie, Motorhead, Prince, David Gilmour, Paul McCartney, Jeff Buckley, Jarvis Cocker, Barbara Dickson, Eagles of Death Metal, Steve Ignorant, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Warren Mitchell, Cynthia Payne, P.F. Sloan, Nucleus, The RAZ Band, Mark Murdock, Brand X, Alexis Korner, 13th Floor Elevators, Daevid Allen, Gong, The Glissando Guitar Orchestra, Invisible Opera Company Of Tibet, Monty Oxymoron and Friends, Shankara Andy Bole with Elliet Mackrell, Mark Robson (Magick Orphan) with Elliet Mackrell, Andy Bole, Arthur Brown, Cruise to the Edge, Anglagard, Martin Barre, Haken, Moon Safari, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Saga, Three Friends, Yes, Marillion, Caravan, Michael Raz, Joey Molland, Joe Vitale, Davey Curtis, Walter Paddy McAloon,Bridget Wishart, Roy Weard, My Dad's LPs, A.J. Smitrovich, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, The Beatles, Xtul, The Rolling Stones, Buddy Holly, Michael Jackson, The Cure, Ringo Starr, Elton John, Metallica, Motorhead, David Bowid, Yes, Chris Squire, AndersonPonty, Billy Sherwood, Jon Anderson, Matt Malley, Neil Nixon, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt & Ry Cooder, Empyrium
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 155 (Pink Fairies)
Issue 154 (Steve Ignorant)
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?

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.

  • Trindade Petrel Bird Makes First Visit To Bermuda
  • BirdLife in Portugal publishes atlas of national s...
  • The birdie dance: fancy footwork of courting birds...
  • Three kiwi killed by hunters

  • West Nile virus killing millions more birds than p...
  • BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    The Bigfoot Diaries: Primate / Human Hybrid Report And Interview
    A real interview. A man gives testimony that he knows many secrets about Sasquatch, including an account of a great ape/human hybrid. He also may ...

    Watch: Family Has On-Going Bigfoot Activity
    The Paranormal Roads Podcast visit with a family that has an unusual problem. They seem to be plagued by on-going bigfoot activity around their ...

    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.


  • UK SIGHTING: Driver describes moment he saw black ...
  • NEWSLINK: Cougars Are Returning to the Midwest
  • CFZ YEARBOOK

    Dear Friends,

    The eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that there was no CFZ Yearbook this year. I intend to rectify this for 2016, and therefore, if you would like to submit an article for consideration, now is the time to do it.

    The CFZ Yearbook has so far achieved 16 volumes. It has always been intended as a place for longer articles, papers, and expedition reports that are too big to fit into our quarterly journal Animals & Men. However, it is not peer reviewed in any meaningful sense of the word, except by me as editor. Thus, it fulfils an intermediate rule somewhere between that of Animals & Men and the Journal of Cryptozoology which is published by us and edited by Dr Karl Shuker.

    Please do not hesitate to get into touch with me, either through Facebook or my email address: jon@eclipse.co.uk. I very much look forward to hearing from you.

    Best wishes,

    Jon Downes
    (Director, CFZ)

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Wednesday

    ON THIS DAY IN 1867 - Alfred Nobel patented dynamite. 
    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Conservation groups allege US has failed to protec...
  • Hedgehog numbers halve in rural areas in just 15 y...
  • What salamanders can teach us about baseball - via...
  • Philadelphia zebras: Six great animal escapes of t...

  • New Report: Spotted Turtle Among 10 U.S. Species M...

  • 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)