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, June 17, 2016

THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN SINGS

The Gonzo Daily - Friday/Saturday
 
I am not sure what the Transatlantic equivalent is here, but when I was a boy I used to read The Beano and The Dandy, two (sadly functionally defunct) comics which were published by a company in the Scottish town of Dundee. I say ‘functionally defunct’ because whilst The Dandy has gone the way of all flesh, The Beano is still published albeit in a form unrecognisable to those who - like me -  were aficionados of the comic back in the sixties.
 
Every summer there was a double issue, called the Bumper Book of Holiday Fun or something like that, and it was only since I reached Man’s estate that I realised that the reason for this was that the staff, probably specifically the folk who worked in the print works, could have their annual holiday. Well, just like most things that happen in Gonzo Weekly, this seems like a jolly good idea and I am going to nick it. Next week I have a family wedding in Staffordshire followed by a visit to my granddaughters in Norfolk, and there is a fair amount of pootling about the countryside on matters appertaining to my elderly mother-in-law, and I also want to go and see the Indopacific crocodiles at Thrigby Hall whilst we are in Norfolk, and I want to buy my granddaughters colourful sun hats, and so I am going to be away from home for about a week. It would be possible for me to try and mastermind the production and dissemination of the magazine from my ipad in some motorway service station somewhere up or down the M6, but it seems like a far better idea to take a leaf out of the rulebook of the creators of Desperate Dan and Corky the Cat and inaugurate the first ever Gonzo Bumper book of Holiday Fun and Games.
 
So this weekend you are going to get a double issue - The Gonzo Summer Special with a mixture of old and new stuff for your delight and amazement!
 
And now I am on the want again. It is time, once again, for me to remind you all about this year's Weird Weekend featuring our very own Steve Ignorant, sponsored by our very own Erik Norlander, compèred by me and the return of  Nuneaton's Mr Entertainment, Barry Tadcaster with his pal Orang Pendek, and featuring a whole cornucopia of high strangeness and cerebral silliness. It would make me very happy if I could sell some more tickets..
 
find out all about the Weird Weekend
buy tickets to the Weird Weekend:
 
And now the news:
 
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Erik Norlander - Sky F...
COMING THIS WEEKEND
Hawkwind interview by It's Psychedelic Baby Magazi...
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
Interview with Arthur Brown - The God of Hellfire
 
Gonzo Magazine #186
 
To mark the launch this week of the dedicated Facebook page for Neil Nixon’s extraordinary new book about Beatles
folklore we have an
exclusive extract, Alan goes to see Braniac 5 and The Green Ray, Doug
eulogises Talking Heads, Jon reviews a book about The Band and burbles on about Santana, Judy Dyble remembers Dave Swarbrick, while Corinna talks about jolly nice Traffic Wardens. Just another day chez Gonzo.
 
And there  are radio shows from Strange Fruit, and Mack Maloney, and Friday Night Progressive. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. 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:
Santana, Karnataka, Paradise 9, Ray Bennett, Quadrophenia, Abba, Brian May, Axl Rose, Paul McCartney, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progessive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, David Cyril Eric Swarbrick, Muhammad Ali, Robert Allen "Bobby" Curtola, CM, Rick Wakeman, Arthur Brown's Kingdom Come, Brand X, Third Ear Band, Captain Beefheart, Jim Jones, Gram Parsons, Mick Abrahams, Barbara Dickson, Neil Nixon, The Beatles, Talking Heads, Alan Dearling, The Green Ray, Brainiac 5, Roy Weard, Mr Biffo, Hawkwind, Xtul, The Band, Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Bob Dylan, Sebastian Cabot
 
                                                                                   
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 185 (Judge Smith)
Issue 184 (Mick Abrahams)
Issue 183 (Daevid Allen)
Issue 182 (Wally)
Issue 181 (Beatles)
Issue 180 (Beltane)
Issue 179 (Gregg Kofi Brown)
Issue 178 (Viv Stanshall)
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)
 
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?

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF




6 Times Bigfoot was Reportedly Spotted in Southern Indiana [VIDEO]
Take a look at reported Bigfoot sightings from over the years from Vanderburgh, Warrick, and Spencer Counties in Indiana among others.


UPDATE: The Hilarious Truth Behind the “Idaho Bigfoot” Drone Footage!
Well, that didn't take very long. Late last week we ran a clip showing an alleged bigfoot sighting in rural Idaho, as shot by a drone camera as it ...

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.






NEWS FROM NOWHERE: Friday/Saturday

ON THIS DAY IN - 0362 - Emperor Julian issued an edict banning Christians from teaching in Syria. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Alaskan Bears Enjoy a Whale of a Meal
  • Evidence supports theory that humans evolved in gr...
  • One snake's prey is another's poison: Scientists p...

  • Facts About Hyenas


  • 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)