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...

Search This Blog

WATCH OUR WEEKLY WEBtv SHOW

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON

SUPPORT OTT ON PATREON
Click on this logo to find out more about helping CFZtv and getting some smashing rewards...

SIGN UP FOR OUR MONTHLY NEWSLETTER



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...




Monday, July 24, 2017

MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: King Richard III and the basilisk

Image result for richard IIIContinuing my very very very occasional series on `British monarchs and strange animals`(in the sense that this is only the 2nd blog in 7 years on this theme!),I came across a British Heritage leaflet a while ago titled `Middleham Castle Sculpture What Does the Sculpture Represent?`

Apparently at Middleham Castle in Wensleydale in North Yorkshire there is a sculpture representing a basilisk on the back of King Richard who reigned from 1483-1485. Richard died at the battle of Bosworth in 1485. The link here shows an excellent panorama of the castle.Richard was sent to the castle as a small boy.The figures are allegorical,the white boar being heraldic. The tail of the basilisk or cockatrice curls over Richard`s right shoulder. The white boar is at Richard`s feet whilst the basilisk`s tail meets a demon`s head. Richard III is not the same Richard as Richard I ( Richard the Lionheart.)




THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN LOOKS FORWARD TO THE WEEK AHEAD

The Gonzo Daily: Monday/Tuesday
 
There have been all sorts of alarums and excursions today, but the most important thing is that my granddaughter Evelyn, together with her parents Olivia and Aaron are somewhere up the motorway near Bristol. I truly cannot think of anything else to say on the matter.
 
But now, here is the news:
 
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
John Lennon Meeting David Peel Interview -- 1972
Godsticks Documentary - The Making Of Emergence
Steel Pulse all that you didn't know about Hinds a...
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: DELIRED CAMELEON FAMI...
 
Gonzo Weekly #244/5
THE SUMMERTIME SPECIAL DOUBLE BUMPER HOLIDAY ISSUE
 
Herewith the Gonzo Magazine summer bumper holiday special thing featuring Jon and Neil talking about The Beatles, fifty years after their greatest year, Jon interviewing Tim Bowness, John B-G watching It’s a Beautiful Day, Gregg from Paradise 9 on a desert island, Alan on Pirate Radio, and lots of Female Dr Who bilge, plus news, reviews, radio shows and self opinionated
columnists...
 
Yup, and it’s all free!
 
And there are radio shows from Mack Maloney, Strange Fruit, and Friday Night Progressive. We also have columns from all sorts of folk including Roy Weard, C J Stone, Mr Biffo, Neil Nixon and the irrepressible Corinna. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and numbats with the right to choose (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have become eligible to vote, 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:
 
Dr Who, Michael Jackson, Radiohead, Pink Floyd, Neil Young, Loretta Lynn, Adam Ant, Strange Fruit, Friday Night Progressive, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Martin Landau, George Andrew Romero, David Zablidowsky, Graham Wood, Roland Cazimero, Chester Charles Bennington, Edwin Mahi?ai (Mahi) Copp Beamer, Mary Hopkin, Steve Howe, Ashton, Gardner and Dyke, Tim Bowness, Neil Nixon, The Beatles, Alan Dearling, Pirate Radio, Paul Harris, Phil Bayliss, Wickham Festival, John Brodie-Good, Summer of Love, The Liberators, David Laflamme, It's A Beautiful Day, Kev Rowland, Warner Drive, Wilderness Dream, Bloody Hammers, Da Vinci, Gateway to Hell, Intrcptr, Laces Out, Phil Campbell & The Bastard Sons, Dialeto, Dusan Jevtovic, Gregg McKella, Mr Biffo, Roy Weard, Hawkwind, Xtul, Milda Harris, Frank Sinatra, Elvis, John Lennon,Disney Camp Rock, One Direction, Keir Dullea
 
Read the previous few issues of Gonzo Weekly:
 
Issue 243 (Galahad)
Issue 242 (Steve Miller Band)
Issue 241 (Carol Hodge and Steve Ignorant)
Issue 240 (Midsummer Madness)
Issue 239 (Miss Peach)
Issue 238 (Hawkwind)
Issue 237 (Hawkwind)
Issue 236 (Manchester)
Issue 235 (Jon Anderson)
Issue 234 (Al Atkins)
Issue 233 (Richard Strange)
Issue 232 (Roy Weard)
Issue 231 (Allan Holdsworth)
Issue 230 (Curtis Womack)
Issue 229 (Larry Wallis)
Issue 228 (Space Pharoahs)
 
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 57 who - together with a Jack Russell called Archie, an infantile orange cat named after a song by Frank Zappa, and two half grown 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 Archie and the Cats?

THYLACINES IN THE NEWS





The Tasmanian Tiger, also known as Thylacine, has been shrouded in mystery since it was declared Extinct in the late 1930s. The last known ...

I WAS interested to read the article on the supposed sighting of a thylacine on the Yorke Peninsula (“Could this be a thylacine?”, Sunday Mail, 9/7/17).

GIANT wombat like creatures, flightless birds and Tasmanian devils and tigers roamed together around Kangaroo Island, a new fossil footprints site on ...

Dr Camens said there was no chance the Tasmanian tiger might still be prowling parts of the mainland or Kangaroo Island. "If we've got thylacines still ...

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF



Real or Fake? The Yellowstone Webcam Bigfoot Footage
Cryptozoology News on Youtube takes a look at the famous Yellowstone webcam bigfoot footage. The video surfaced in December of 2014, and took ...


Boy films bigfoot in backyard
Boy films bigfoot in backyard. Here is the video that will be discussed on tonights show: “11 year old uses his HD flip camera to capture the best image ...

White Bigfoot Video Enhanced
Residents of this small Pa town are concerned of recent sightings and strange noises being heard at night of what appears to be some sort of Bigfoot ...


'The Back 80' Documentary Explores Ohio Bigfoot Sightings
In the same-vein as documentaries Minerva Monster and Beast of Whitehall, The Back 80 explores the compelling, unnerving encounters of one Ohio ...


Young Bigfoot Gets Brave and Stands Out In Open
Robert Dodson chases after a young bigfoot that he caught standing outside his building when he came out. This particular one seems to be losing it's ...

CRYPTOLINK: Sea Serpent Stories

Image result for sea serpent
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. 


From the Loch Ness Monster to the infamous Kraken, enormous sea-dwelling creatures have captured the imaginations of generations of seafarers ...


Ever heard the legend of the “Sioux Sea Serpent?” Apparently we have our own local version of Scotland's Loch Ness Monster. Back in 1887 a group ...

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 - Monday/Tuesday

ON THIS DAY IN - 1923 - The Treaty of Lausanne, which settled the boundaries of modern Turkey, was concluded in Switzerland. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk

  • Flying ant day: The real reason these winged insec...
  • Dogs could sniff out Parkinson’s disease years bef...
  • Plan bee: parliament to produce honey to sell in s...
  • Exceptionally rare 'pale tiger' photographed in th...

  • Large invasive lizard spotted near Palm Bay school...


  • 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.