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...




Tuesday, April 19, 2016

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: Man claims this is a picture of Worce...
  • ARTICLE: 6 Reasons We Should Still Worry About Tig...
  • THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN GOES WOOP WOOP WOOP

    The Gonzo Daily - Tuesday
    I was being so bullish yesterday about not having overslept. And guess what happened today? I overslept. I have a reasonable excuse though. One of my favourite books has always been My Family and Other Animals by Gerald Durrell - the story of his childhood in Corfu. I have loved that book so much that I almost called the book I am writing at the moment (which is the story of my childhood in Hong Kong)  "My Family and other Manipulative Psychopaths" or "My Family and other Colonial Wasters" (the latter also giving a nod to our Rog) but I decided against it. Durrell's book has been dramatised several times and I have watched them all. Last night I sat up late watching the first three episodes of the latest version on ITVplayer, And I have to admit that - despite being somewhat cavalier with the timelines of the three books which make up 'The Corfu Trilogy' - that they were very good, and might even have captured the essence of Durrell's prose, and his brother Larry's book - Prospero's Cell - about the family's sojourn on the island, better than any of the others. Mind you I was drinking a couple of bottles of red wine while I watched it...
    THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Perfect Day, by La Fem...
    THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
    Jon Downes meets Keith Levene
    The Al Stewart Story - narrated by Alan Parsons
    Rick Wakeman in conversation, 1980
    And by the way chaps and chappesses, a trip to the Jon Downes megastore: if you want to make me a happy fellow, you can:
    buy my novel:
    buy my single:
    buy tickets to the Weird Weekend:
    Gonzo Magazine #178
    Viv Stanshall, Mike Livesley, Sir Henry at Rawlinson End, Fred Frith, Armando Gallo, French-Frith-Kaiser-Thompson, Ra ra riot, Arthur Brown, C S Lewis, Alfredo Zitarrosa, Astor Piazzolla, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Dogwatch, That Legendary Wooden Lion, Hawkwind, and Yes fans had better look out!
    Sir Henry at Rawlinson End is on the front cover, there is an interview with Mike Livesley who is the mastermind of the latest revival inside, together with Alan's notstalgic look at the original mastermind, Viv Stanshall. Doug raves about Ra Ra Riot, whilst John goes to see Arthur Brown. Jon goes all South American whilst Alan muses on French-Frith-Kaiser-Thompson, and interviews the legendary Fred Frith. We send legendary rock and roll photojournalist Armando Gallo to a desert island,  review a book about C S Lewis, and there are radio shows from Strange Fruit and Mack Maloney, as well as the return of Friday Night Progressive, the latest installment of the saga of Xtul, and columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna who this week has Elvis in her sights (uh huh huh). There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and pademelons ouyside zoos(OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have escaped from captivity, 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:
    Alfredo Zitarrosa, Astor Piazzolla, The Who, Ringo Starr, Bruce Springsteen, Alan Dearling, Tony Hawk, Led Zeppelin, John Ellis, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Robbie Brennan, Anthony Schmaltz "Tony" Conrad, Earl Solomon Burroughs (Jack Hammer), Captain Beefheart, Brand X, Osibisa, Pink Fairies, Gram Parson's The International Submarine Band, Gib Guilbeau, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Sons of Fred, Percy Jones, Norman Wisdom featuring Rick Wakeman, Viv Stanshall, Michael Livesley, Ra Ra Riot, French Frith Kaiser Thompson, Roy Weard, John Brodie-Good, Arthur Brown, Mr Biffo, Armando Gallo, Hawkwind, Xtul, Walter Hooper, C S Lewis, George Michael, Sex Pistols, Beethoven, Johnny Rotten, Neil Nixon, Paul Buchanan, Folkstone
                                                                                        
    Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
    Issue 177 (David Gilmour)
    Issue 176 (Joey Molland and The Raz Band)
    Issue 175 (Larry Sanders)
    Issue 174 (Keith Emerson)
    Issue 173 (Pink Fairies action figures)
    Issue 172 (4th Eden)
    Issue 171 (Keith Levene)
    Issue 170 (Wildman Fischer)
    Issue 169 (Wildman Fischer)
    Issue 168 (Wakeman/Bowie)
    Issue 167 (Paul Kantner)
    Issue 166 (Spirits Burning)
    Issue 165 (David Bowie)
    Issue 164 (Free Festivals)
    Issue 163 (Lemmy)
    Issue 161-2 (The Christmas Double Feature)
    Issue 160 (Frank Zappa)
    Issue 159 (Jon Anderson and Matt Malley)
    Issue 158 (Billy Sherwood)
    Issue 157 (Drones for Daevid)
    Issue 156 (Rick and Emmie)
    Issue 155 (Pink Fairies)
    Issue 154 (Steve Ignorant)
    Issue 153 (Martin Barre)
    Issue 152 (4th Eden)
    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.co.uk
    * 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 two small kittens, one 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. 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 kittens?

    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.


    BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



    Elk Hunter on horse back has encounter with two Bigfoot while looking for elk.
    Big Foot Evidence: Great report! Elk Hunter on horse back has encounter with two Bigfoot while looking for elk.

    NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Tuesday

    ON THIS DAY IN - 1012 - Aelfheah was murdered by Danes who had been ravaging the south of England. Aelfhear became the 29th Archbishop of Canterbury in 1005. 

    And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • LA, a surprise nature hotspot, is home to one of t...
  • UK couple discovers $70,000 chunk of whale vomit
  • Raising a racket: invasive species compete acousti...
  • Right whales threatened by planned seismic surveys...
  • More moose on the loose in a warmer Alaska


  • Biggest library of bat sounds compiled


  • 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)