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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Monday, February 26, 2018

HOORAY FOR THE GONZO BLOG DOO-DAH MAN

The Gonzo Daily: Monday/Tuesday
 
Last night was not the most successful one in my chequered career. After a pleasant evening of eating scrambled eggs and watching the Netflix Unabomber series with Mother (thanks for the recommendation Shoshy) I went to bed and took my morning medicine instead of my evening meds. Therefore I didn't sleep, and when (at 4:30am) I discovered my idiocy and took an extra quetiapine, it was too late and I only had about an hour's sleep.
 
However, I am doing Colin's radio show at 1:00am tonight, so I spent most of the day asleep whilst Graham did various things that needed to be done to my computers, and I started my day's work at teatime. This is why my morning blogs are nearly twelve hours late.
 
ciaou....
 
Forgive me for always banging on about our webTV show, but it matters a lot to me, and I would be grateful for as many people as possible to see it, and spread the tidings of it far and wide:
 
 
And if you fancy supporting us on Patreon:
 
But for now, here is the news:
 
IAIN MATTHEWS IN THE NEWS
YES IN THE NEWS
MERRELL FANKHAUSER IN THE NEWS
THOM THE WORLD POET: The Daily Poem
THE GONZO TRACK OF THE DAY: Michael Des Barres - C...
 
Gonzo Weekly #275
THE APOCALYPSE WOW ISSUE
 
In this massively groovy issue we meet Martin Gordon (ex of Sparks and Radio Stars amongst others) to talk about his excellent, if apocalyptic, new record, Alan discovers an art enclave near Portsmouth, Doug goes to see Bananarama, and Jon watches Riverdale
 
Hail Eris!
 
And there are radio shows from Strange Fruit, AND Mack Maloney, although - for technical reasons beyond our control - Friday Night Progressive is on hiatus this week. TheRE ARE columns from all sorts of folk including Neil Nixon, AND the irrepressible Corinna, although Roy Weard, C J Stone, and Mr Biffo are on a break. There is also a collection of more news, reviews, views, interviews and southern dibblers who have gone for a snooze (OK, nothing to do with small marsupials who have probably got hangovers and have decided to have a little rest, 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:
 
Riverdale, Chic Ft Nile Rodgers, Wilderness Festival, George Harrison, Elton John, The Rutles, Soft Cell, John Lydon, Damon Alban, Strange Fruit, Mack Maloney's Mystery Hour, Shaun "Stormin MC" Lewis, Didier Lockwood, Little Sammy Davis, Boyd H. Jarvis, Billie Johnson, Klaasje van der Wal, William Franklin Graham Jr. KBE., Norm Rogers, Nuray Hafiftas, Rapee Sagarik, Barbara Dickson, Jessica Lee Morgan, Rick Wakeman, Billion Dollar Babies, Tangerine Dream, Martin Gordon, Doug Harr, Bananarama, Alan Dearling, Portsmouth, Kev Rowland, Playgrounded, Primitive Man, Pulsing Dark Absorptions, Riddlemaster, Scour, Security Project, Signs of the Swarm, Smothered Bowels, Hawkwind, Jon Downes, The Wild Colonial Boy, Martin Springett, Michael A. Duffy, The Beatles, Traveling Wilburys, The Who, Prince, Grateful Dead, Paul McCartney, Neil Nixon,
Wild Man Fischer
 
And the last few issues are:
 
Issue 274 (Steve Took)
Issue 273 (Live Dead 69)
Issue 272 (George Butler)
Issue 271 (Mark E Smith)
Issue 270 (Eric Clapton)
Issue 269 (Narnia)
Issue 267-8 (Happy New Year)
Issue 265-6 (The Who)
Issue 264 (John McLaughlin)
Issue 263 (The magic Band)
Issue 262 (DikMik)
Issue 261 (Leonard Cohen)
Issue 260 (Amsterdam Squat Festie)
Issue 259 (Out come thee Freaks)
Issue 258 (The Devil's Jukebox)
Issue 257 (Judge Smith)
Issue 255/6 (John Lennon)
Issue 254 (Mr Biffo)
Issue 253 (Dana Gillespie)
Issue 252 (Cropredy)
Issue 251 (Scott Walker)
Issue 250 (Jamms)
Issue 249 (Bill Bruford)
Issue 248 (The Selecter)
Issue 247 (Don Airey)
Issue 246 (Steve Hackett)
Issue 244-5 (Summer Special)
 
 
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 58 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?

MONKEY TOWN UPDATE by Liz Bitakaramire

Your writer has somewhat remiss.

I pledged to take photographs of all of the gorillas on the 2017 Monkey Town and then upload them on the CFZ bloggo for anyone who was interested to look at.

I forgot.

And then my phone that had the photos inside broke. Because I dropped it.

But I have managed to find copies of some and here they are...


Picture three can still be seen from Queens Park Road as St Luke's Primary School have located it in their Peace Garden by the road. 

BIGFOOT NEWS IN BRIEF




Claudia Ackley didn't just claim to see Bigfoot in my town—which is not traditionally associated with the controversial creature believed by mainstream scientists to be a myth—she's actually suing the state of California for not acknowledging (and therefore not protecting) the species. The bipedal ...

NESSIENEWS (Caveat Lector)




A total of 11 sightings – all including picture or video evidence – were recorded and short-listed by Gary Campbell, who keeps the official register of sightings of the Loch Ness Monster. Voting is now open to decide the best encounter from the entries submitted for the annual competition, which is ...

THYLACINES IN THE NEWS




Scientists have produced the first high-quality genomic sequence for the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), also known as the thylacine. ... “As this genome is one of the most complete for an extinct species, it is technically the first step to 'bringing the thylacine back', but we are still a long way ...

The extinct Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, bears an uncanny resemblance to today's canines. Like dogs, wolves and dingoes, it was a carnivore with a svelte body, long, narrow snout and strong hind legs. But the Tasmanian tiger was a marsupial, meaning it had a pouch like a kangaroo. And despite the ...
Bioscientists from the University of Melbourne used CT scans to peek under the skin of 13 juvenile Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, specimens housed collections around the world. By taking several X-ray images and compiling them, they created a virtual recreation of the joeys from every angle and at ...

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 - 1815 - Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from the Island of Elba. He then began his second conquest of France. 
And now some more recent news from the CFZ Newsdesk


  • The Author of This Physics Paper Is 7 Years Old (a...
  • New Zealand female-only stick insect produces 'rog...
  • Borneo orangutan found riddled with gunshots in la...
  • Romeo might be one of the last members of his spec...
  • Shoals of sticklebacks differ in their collective ...
  • Robotic fish can 'see' and mimic live fish
  • Mind-controlling molecules from wasp venom could s...
  • Hedgehog numbers 'down by half', warn wildlife gro...
  • Comprehensive study on Atlantic Forest mammals
  • The disappearance of common species
  • Scientists unlock the molecular secret behind long...
  • Underreporting in international wildlife trade-Fin...
  • Novel research approach sheds light on how midsize...
  • Polar bears finding it harder to catch enough seal...
  • Scotland's red squirrel numbers stabilise
  • Even small changes within an ecosystem can have de...
  • Toads Eat Beetles. Sometimes, Beetles Make Them Re...
  • All-female mutant crayfish that clone themselves a...
  • Spider-like creature with a tail found preserved i...
  • Mosquitoes infected with bacteria to make them inf...
  • Mountain lions often lose to wolves and bears, stu...
  • Big cat poacher is mauled to death and EATEN by th...
  • Fruit bat's echolocation may work like sophisticat...


  • In Pursuit of the Tortoise Smugglers! (Madagascar)...

  • 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)