Friday, April 20, 2007

The CFZ April 2007 Newsletter

This just in from CFZ Director Jon Downes back in the UK:


Dear Friends,

This last few weeks have been particularly busy ones at the CFZ.

BIG CAT CONFERENCE:
At the end of March, Corinna, Mark, Oll and I attended the first annual British Big Cat conference hosted by the BCIB group. It was a very illuminating event, and a full account of it can be found at http://forteanzoolo It includes an exclusive piece of video of my interview with Di Francis and Jonathan McGowan.

ANIMALS & MEN ISSUE 40:
The latest edition - issue 40 - of our journal Animals & Men is now complete, and will be mailed out in the next few days. The contents (with page numbers listed) are:

3 Editorial
4 Faculty of the CFZ
6 Newsfile
17 Obituaries
21 Aquatic Monster Study Group
25 Bigfoot Notebook
29 Nick Redfern's Letter from America: The Man Monkey of Ranton
31 Canadian River Monster
38 Squirrel Attacks!
43 CREATURE FEATURE: The Monster of Llangorse Lake
49 CFZ People
50 CFZ News
51 Letters
55 Reviews
58 The Sycophant
60 Cartoon by Mark North

If anyone who is not a member wants to buy a copy they are £4/$US8 inclusive of postage. Payment by paypal using our account mailto:jon@eclipse.

YEARBOOKS:
The 2007 CFZ Yearbook is now available.
You can buy at at Amazon.co.uk here:http://www.amazon.

The contents for this issue are:
THE BLAKEMERE MERMAID OF MORRIDGE, AND MERMAIDS OF OTHER PLACES by Lisa Dowley
MAN-TIGERS by Jon Hare
THE MYSTERY MENAGERIE OF GLAMORGAN by Oll Lewis
IDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT by Noela Marshall Mackenzie
NUMBERED CATFISH by David Marshall with photographs by Dr Iggy Tavares
BOGEYMEN OF ARGENTINA by Neil Arnold
THE SEAL SERPENT The Case For the Surreal Seal by Robert Cornes

Despite our previous announcement to the contrary, the old yearbooks will gradually be re-released in perfect bound format. As the current ring-bound editions are sold out, we shall be reformatting them all.

The first of these reissues is the 2004 edition which will be available in about ten days price £12.50/$US25. If you want to pre-order your copy, you can do so at a special discount price of £10/$US20 via paypal using the http://us.f831.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=jon%40eclipse.co.uk account. To qualify for this discount, please mark your order "CFZ2004YB Offer."

PUBLICATION SCHEDULE:
The following books are currently in preparation, and will be released very soon:
Big Cats Loose in Britain by Marcus Matthews
Monster! The A-Z of Zooform Phenomena by Neil Arnold
Dark Dorset - Tales of Mystery, Wonder and Terror by Mark North and Robert Newland

The following books will be released by CFZ Press in the next few months:
The Man Monkey of Ranton by Nick Redfern
Extraordinary Animals Revisited by Dr Karl Shuker
Order of the Dragon by Mike Hallowell, Richard Freeman, and Jonathan Downes

THE CFZ MUSEUM:
Construction of the museum is well under way, and we hope that the rest of the floor will be laid today. We would like to thank Travis Perkins builder's merchants http://www.travisperkins.co.uk/ for having generously sponsored this leg of the project. However, the project is proving far more expensive than we had originally envisaged, and further stages of construction may have to wait until we can either raise the money, or get further sponsorship.

Here's your chance to help. If you go to:http://www.cfz.org.uk/mus/index.htm you can make a donation to help us proceed. Every dollar and every pound helps, so if you are interested in what we do please help us. If everybody on our mailing list alone was to donate just £5 or $10 we would have enough to complete phases 1 and 2 of the museum plans immediately.

The name of every person who makes a donation through this web-page will be placed on the museum website, and on a board in the museum itself, marking them as a benefactor. People can also sponsor a particular exhibit or animal for a year, and their name will be displayed prominently on the exhibit.

For news on how the building work is progressing, with a slide-show and a film clip:http://forteanzoolo

THE WEIRD WEEKEND CONFERENCE AUGUST 17th-19th 2007:
Weird Weekend tickets are now on sale. You can buy them through our eBay shop here:

http://cgi.ebay. co.uk/WEIRD- WEEKEND-TICKET- Three-Day- 2007_W0QQitemZ15 010034971QQcategoryZ8 8433QQcmdZViewItem

The Weird Weekend is the largest yearly gathering of mystery animal investigators in the English-speaking world. Having run unbroken for seven years, the convention attracts speakers and visitors from all over the world and showcases the findings of strange phenomena investigators.

Cryptozoologists, parapsychologists, ufologists, and folklorists are descending on Woolfardisworthy Community Centre to share their findings and insights. Unlike other events, the Weird Weekend will also include workshops giving tips to budding paranormal investigators, and even a programme of special events for children.

The Weird Weekend is the only fortean conference in the world that is truly a family event, although those veterans of previous events should be reassured that it is still as anarchically silly as ever! The event is raising money for the Centre for Fortean Zoology, the world's only full time, professional cryptozoological organisation.

At this stage - five months before the event - this timetable is ridiculously provisional, and the CFZ take no responsibility for disappointment caused by the non-appearance of any of the advertised speakers.

THURSDAY 7.00 p.m Cocktail party at the CFZ. All Welcome. Myrtle Cottage, Woolsery, Bideford, North Devon EX39 5QR

FRIDAY Noon - 5.00 p.m Open Afternoon at the CFZ Myrtle Cottage, Woolsery, Bideford, North Devon EX39 5QR
Community Centre Doors open at 6.00
6.45 - 7.15 Introduction - to cryptozoology and the Weird Weekend
7.15 - 8.00 JON McGOWAN: Britain's Secret Wildlife
8.00-8.30 BREAK 8.30 - 9.15 PETER ROBINS: Wilhelm Reich and UFOs
9.15 - 9.45 BREAK
9.45 - 10.30 MATTHEW WILLIAMS Crop Circles

SATURDAY Community Centre doors open at 10.00
11.00 - 12.00 MIKE HALLOWELL: The ghosts of Marsden Grotto
12.00 - 12.30 BREAK
12.30 - 1.00 OLL LEWIS: Lake Monsters of Wales
1.00 - 1.30 BREAK
1.30 - 2.30 Dr CHARLES PAXTON: Predicting the existence of Sea Monsters
2.30 - 2.45 BREAK
2.45 - 3.00 QUIZ
3.00 - 4.00 IAN SIMMONS: Alien Mythologies in Modern Music
4.00 - 4.30 BREAK
4.30 - 5.30 GREGORIY PANCHENKO: The Russian Snowman
5.30 - 6.00 BREAK
6.00 - 7.00 ADAM DAVIES: Dinosaurs in the Congo?
7.00 - 7.30 BREAK
7.30 - 8.30 NICK REDFERN: The Man Monkey of Ranton
8.30 - 8.45 CFZ AWARDS
8.45 - 9.15 BREAK
9.15 - 10.15 JON DOWNES, RICHARD FREEMAN ET AL: The Monsters of the Lake District:
2007 Expedition report

SUNDAY Community Centre doors open 10.30
From 10.30 for an hour Paul Vella will be conducting an informal workshop and presenting an exhibition of evidence for Bigfoot.
11.30 - 12.30 Dr. DARREN NAISH: Island Species; Extinct... or not?
12.30 - 1.00 BREAK
1.00 - 1.45 CHRIS MOISER: TBA
1.45 - 2.45 LARRY WARREN + PETER ROBINS: Excerpts and Outtakes: Stories that Never Made it into "Left At East Gate."
2.45 - 3.15 BREAK
3.15 - 4.15 PAUL VELLA: 40 Years of the Patterson Bigfoot Film
4.15 - 4.45 BREAK
4.45 - 5.30 RONAN COGHLAN: TBA
5.30 - 6.00 JONATHAN DOWNES: Keynote Speech and Closing Remarks.
EVENING: Dinner at The Farmer's Arms

WORKSHOPS: Wildlife Photography by Jon McGowan Making Monsters (Creaturama, Anthony James)
EXHIBITIONS: Big Cats in Britain (Mark Frazer, BCIB) Creaturama (Anthony James) Fortean Art Exhibition by Mark North Exhibition: Pictures of Monsters by the children of Woolsery Exhibition: Tropical Fish Photographs by Dr Iggy Tavares Exhibition: Metamorphosis - exotic insects.

As always we would like to stress that running the CFZ is an expensive business, and we need as much help as we can get. If there is anybody out there who is minded to give us gifts of time, expertise, equipment, or money then please get in touch.

If you are not a member, why not think about joining. You can do it online at our website or by post from the CFZ office. Subscriptions are £12 (UK) £15 (EEC) £22 (Rest of world). You get four issues of our journal, and the chance to join in our activities around the world.. Onwards and Upwards, Jon.

Jonathan Downes,
Director, Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ],
Myrtle Cottage,
Woolfardisworthy,
Bideford,
North Devon
EX39 5QR
England

Telephone: +44 (0) 1237 431413
Email: http://us.f831.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=jon%40eclipse.co.uk
Website: http://www.cfz.org.uk/ CFZtv http://www.cfztv.org/ yahoogroup: http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/CFZ_Volunteers/

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