From the Facebook feed of Cats on Synthesizers in Space.
“Furbie Hancock” sent in by Paul Brocklehurst
It’s not every day that one of our greatest musical heroes is turned into a CatSynth pic 🙂
Author: catsynth
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An Update on Luna (and myself)
Luna has been doing well with her current treatment. The pill-based chemotherapy has brought the disease to a standstill so things aren’t getting worse, and it hasn’t caused her any noticeable side effects. And she has been happy and healthy otherwise. She plays, basks in sun spots, and particularly likes curling up on soft surfaces like the blanket in the photo above.
As was the last about a year ago during her initial treatments, I am also recovering from my own medical adventures. Nothing that would cause concern, but it has required a lot of rest and a lot of patience (which has never been my strong suit). Luna’s health, vitality, and affection have been tremendous comforts as I recover. We truly help each other.
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Pitta of the Mind at Lost Church, San Francisco
Today we look back at Pitta of the Mind’s set at Word Performances, which took place at the Lost Church in San Francisco. It was, in our opinion, one of our best performances. You can see and hear for yourself in this video.
[Video by Todd Siegel]It was a short performance, but very tight, mixing the poems with piano, theremin and acoustic elements. I like using the percussion instruments along with the electronics, as it adds to the timbre and theatrics. We will definitely do more of that.
The evening featured readings and dance in addition to music. Our host Cybele Zufolo read some of her writings while dancing flamenco with Damien Alvarez.
Colleen McKee read another of Cybele Zufolo’s pieces about her adventures as a show girl in Japan, in addition to some of her own writing. She even featured some singing in the set.
Daniel Berkman performed a solo set on kora a visually and sonically beautiful instrument.
Every set featured performative elements. For her reading, Zarina Zabrisky appeared as a super villain.
Overall it was a fun night, and we had an overflowing crowd. Many thanks to Cybele Zufolo and Todd Siegel for hosting us and all their work putting these shows together, and to the Lost Church for providing such a unique space in San Francisco.
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CatSynth video: Dicking Around with Braids, Rings, and other DIY crap
From Sean Pendleton on YouTube, via matrixsynth.
“Love Rings and Braids, need to build more of both. I can’t wait to build Clouds and Elements. Klee is controlling the Rings, Turing machine on the Braids. Drums are a Corny Rhythm controlling a Barton Analog Drum, Decaying noise, and Synthrotek DSM. Radio Music and Wogglebug are making noise in the background. Kept things simple.”
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CatSynth 10th Anniversary!
On July 19, we hit a major milestone: 10 years since our first post. And we celebrate as always with some stats:
2,982 Posts
14,031 Comments
4.7 comments per post
1088 Cat-and-synth pics, videos, etc.
430 Reviews, gig-reports, and related postsIn some ways, the blog activity has declined a bit since it’s height in the early 2010s. Much of the activity has moved over to Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. And more recently, we are looking to the future via our mobile apps – there is much more coming there in the not-too-distant future. Additionally, I find myself balancing time spent writing blog articles with an increasingly busy schedule of musical performances and such. All good things in their own way.
We are a bit late to celebrate this year due to some major personal and medical priorities on my part (all of which are going well, but also beyond the scope of this forum). It isn’t the first time our blog anniversary has gotten caught up in other things. Last year we missed the 9th anniversary entirely as we coped with Luna’s cancer diagnosis. And our first anniversary came amidst a major downtime for the site that took a week or so to fix.
As always, here is the photo of Luna that started it all on July 19, 2006.
Luna hasn’t aged all that much, retaining her youthful appearance. And that beanbag chair is still a favorite of hers. It’s where she hangs out in the studio, and over the years we have taken major photos of her with it.
The studio has certainly gotten more crowded over time.
Please join us in celebrating 10 years of CatSynth, and looking forward to many more!
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CatSynth pic: Cat and Roland MC-505
From Suren Seneviratne via the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks. This rather fastidious cat is guarding its Roland MC-505 and what appears to be another Roland drum or bass synth.
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CatSynth pic: Oscillate-purr…. (Black Kitten and Moog Mother-32)
Adorable black kitten with a Moog Mother-32 synthesizer.
From our friends at Moog Music, Inc. Also via matrixsynth.
“Oscillate-purr….#mother32”
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CatSynth pic: Cat atop Modular Synth
From Dennis Matana on a particularly fecund thread from the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks. Update, Dennis Matana has informed us that the cat’s name is Miep! We leave identification of the modular system as an exercise to the reader 🙂
