An anthology of writings on Music, Books and Politics by Jon Downes; Author, musician, filmmaker, manic-depressive, singer, grandad, editor, husband, stepdad, poet, cripple, cryptozoologist editor of Gonzo Weekly magazie, and Director, Centre for Fortean Zoology.
At the beginning of the 21st Century monsters still roam the remote, and sometimes not so remote, corners of our planet. It is our job to search for them. The Centre for Fortean Zoology [CFZ] is the only professional, scientific and full-time organisation in the world dedicated to cryptozoology - the study of unknown animals. Since 1992 the CFZ has carried out an unparalleled programme of research and investigation all over the world. We have carried out expeditions to Sumatra (2003 and 2004), Mongolia (2005), Puerto Rico (1998 and 2004), Mexico (1998), Thailand (2000), Florida (1998), Nevada (1999 and 2003), Texas (2003 and 2004), and Illinois (2004). Since 1994 we have been publishing the world's only dedicated cryptozoology magazine Animals & Men. This volume contains fascimile reprints of the first five issues and includes articles on Relict Pine Martens, Giant Sloths, Sumatran and Javan Rhinos, Golden Frogs, Frog Falls, Mystery bears in Oxford and The Atlas Mountains, Loch Ness reports, Green Lizards, Woodwose, The Tatzelwurm, Giant Worm in Eastbourne, Lake Monsters of New Guinea, Giant Lizards in Papua, Mystery Cats, Black Dogs on Dartmoor, Scorpion Mystery, Manatees of St Helena, Migo: The Lake Monster of New Britain, The search for the Tasmanian Thylacine, Mystery cats, Loch Ness, More on the "Migo Video," Boars and Pumas, The Hairy Hands of Dartmoor. PLUS: An introductory essay by Jonathan Downes, notes putting each issue into a historical perspective, and a history of the CFZ. This is a special collectors' edition.
A tired, crippled man in late middle age gets an unexpected visitor from his less then salubrious past. With him is something out of the pages of Greek mythology. The author finds himself deep in an arcane tangle of lies, half-truths and impossibilities. Against his better judgement, he has no option but to act. If this is a story, it's a bloody good one. If this is truth then the world you know is about to change forever.
Bob Girard from Arcturus Books in Florida wrote: " Cheeky, that's what this is - a cheeky investigation of a lead first inspired by "the ramblings of a cross-dressing drug addict and his elderly schizophrenic boyfriend." Intrepid members of the CFZ are up to the challenge, and manage to entangle themselves thoroughly in the bizarre trappings of this case. This is the soft underbelly of ufology, rife with unsavory characters, plenty of drugs and booze." That sums it up quite well, we think. A new edition of the classic 1999 book by legendary fortean author Jonathan Downes. In this remarkable book, Jon weaves a complex tale of conspiracy, anti-conspiracy, quasi-conspiracy and downright lies surrounding an air-crash and alleged UFO incident in Somerset during 1996. However the story is much stranger than that. This excellent and amusing book lifts the lid off much of contemporary forteana and explains far more than it initially promises... Now with a new introduction by notorious fortean Tim Matthews, and cartoons by Richard Freeman and other illustrations.
Three years ago, I wrote a book called The Song of Panne, which told the story of how my dear, long suffering wife Corinna and I ended up having a hairy humanoid forest Godling (to steal Kipling's nomenclature) living in the airing cupboard in what used to be my father's dressing room. You can take it as fiction if you like, or you can believe every word I say. Believe it or not, it truly doesn't matter to me one way or another. This book continues the story roughly from where it left off, although the vast majority of it tells the story of a few days in the Autumn of 2015, and explains some of the things left hanging in the first book. I would like to think that you can read this book as a standalone volume, although - as an impecunious author with wife, family, animals and forest Godling to support - I could always do with the cash if you would like to buy the previous book. Although some of the characters in the book are real (whatever that means), in order to protect my kneecaps, it is probably better if you assume that everybody here except for me and Corinna is completely made up. I would warn you that if you are of a nervous disposition, or easily offended, you will find parts of this book both offensive and upsetting. There is sex, violence, drug abuse, occultism, pornography, firearms, politics, religion, and not a little sociology. But there is also love, kindness, faith, and redemption.
For years I have augmented my income by working as a hack writer, penning throwaway articles for anyone who will pay me. Regularly, I would get the bus into Exeter City Centre, and sneak into W.H.Smiths and peruse the magazines for sale, and make a surreptitious list of any new publications whom I could approach to buy an article from me. One day in the late winter, I was doing just this when I found a copy of a magazine called Koi Carp. With my tongue firmly in cheek, I telephoned them, and asked whether they would be interested in an article - or even a series of articles - about the fortean aspects of their hobby. Much to my surprise and gratification they accepted, and so I started work on my first article. I had been so used to working for fly-by-night publications, that I had stopped taking a long-term view of my writing work. I was lucky if a series I wrote lasted three issues, so the fact that I knew next to nothing about the fortean aspect of koi carp-keeping didn't really matter. However, on this occasion, I was hoist by my own petard, as the series carried on for nearly two years! After six or seven issues, I bit the bullet, and started to employ the old journalistic adage that one should never let the truth get in the way of a good story. Some of the stories that follow are true. Some are mostly true, others have a germ of truth, and even the ones that I made up are based on true events. I think my proudest moment as a journalist came after the publication of "They Saved Hitler's Koi," when Simon Wolstencroft, an old friend of mine, and then editor of a sister-magazine to the one for which I was working, sent me the following email. 1.How did you think you would get away with having this printed? 2.How did you get away with it? For goodness sake, don't read these stories looking for any firm insights into the history and culture of koi keeping, but I hope that they may give you some little amusement, because that was the spirit in which they were written.
Since 1994, Animals & Men has been the world's premier cryptozoological periodical, covering all aspects of the study of unknown animals. As of 2015, new issues of Animals & Men can be purchased in two formats, as a printed paperback and as a Kindle ebook. In addition, a FREE "flipbook" digital version is available to read online.
EASTER 1976 - Two young girls playing in the churchyard of Mawnan Old Church in southern Cornwall were frightened by what they described as a "nasty bird-man" flying over the church tower. A few months later it was seen again, and the witness said: "It was like a big owl with pointed ears, as big as a man. The eyes were red and glowing. At first I thought that it someone dressed-up, playing a joke, trying to scare us. I laughed at it. We both did. Then it went up in the air and we both screamed. When it went up you could see its feet were like pincers!" Her friend added some details of her own: "It's true. It was horrible, a nasty owl-face with big ears and big red eyes. It was covered in grey feathers. The claws on its feet were black. It just flew up and disappeared in the trees." These were the first of a series of sightings of what has become known as 'The Owlman of Mawnan' - a series of sightings that has continued to the present day. These grotesque and frightening episodes have fascinated researchers for three decades now, and one man has spent years collecting all the available evidence into a book. To mark the 30th anniversary of these sightings, Jonathan Downes, the Director of the Centre for Fortean Zoology - the world's largest mystery animal research group - has published a special edition of his book 'The Owlman and Others' which was first published in 1997. A witness who saw the creature in 1995 likened it to"a vision from hell," and another witness (identified only as Gavin) describes how his Owlman sighting in 1989 has blighted his life ever since. The book also tells the story of Morgawr - the Cornish Sea Serpent, and the summer of 1976, which was not only the hottest on record, but was the year that the whole of southern Cornwall went crazy! "I have explored various explanations for the events in the book" says Jon, "and I am not completely sure which one is true. But I know one thing for sure. I wouldn't let my children play alone in those woods....
Although much has been written in recent years about the mystery big cats which have been reported stalking Westcountry moorlands, little has been written on the subject of the smaller British mystery carnivores. This unique book redresses the balance and examines the current status in the Westcountry of three species thought to be extinct: the Wildcat, the Pine Marten and the Polecat, finding that the truth is far more exciting than the currently held scientific dogma. This book also uncovers evidence suggesting that even more exotic species of small mammal may lurk hitherto unsuspected in the countryside of Devon, Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset.
Inspiration is the factor common to all composers throughout musical history - yet this is the first book to examine its source. Jonathan Harvey, one of Britain's foremost composers, here brings a specialist's insight to the relationship between the source of inspiration and the act of composition.
In research on 'mass killings' such as genocides and campaigns of state terror, the role of ideology is hotly debated. For some scholars, ideologies are crucial in providing the extremist goals and hatreds that motivate ideologically committed people to kill. But many other scholars are sceptical: contending that perpetrators of mass killing rarely seem ideologically committed, and that rational self-interest or powerful forms of social pressure are more important drivers of violence than ideology. In Ideology and Mass Killing, Jonathan Leader Maynard challenges both these prevailing views, advancing an alternative 'neo-ideological' perspective which systematically retheorises the key ideological foundations of large-scale violence against civilians. Integrating cutting-edge research from multiple disciplines, including political science, political psychology, history and sociology, Ideology and Mass Killing demonstrates that ideological justifications vitally shape such violence in ways that go beyond deep ideological commitment. Most disturbingly of all, the key ideological foundations of mass killings are found to lie, not in extraordinary political goals or hatreds, but in radicalised versions of those conventional, widely accepted ideas that underpin the politics of security in ordinary societies across the world. This study then substantiates this account by a detailed examination of four contrasting cases of mass killing - Stalinist Repression in the Soviet Union between 1930 and 1938, the Allied Bombing Campaign against Germany and Japan in World War II from 1940 to 1945, mass atrocities in the Guatemalan Civil War between 1978 and 1983, and the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. This represents the first volume to offer a dedicated, comparative theory of ideology's role in mass killing, while also developing a powerful new account of how ideology affects violence and politics more generally.
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