From Meng Qi on YouTube, via matrixsynth.
“Live Improvised by Meng Qi and Xiaodaner
mengqimusic.com”
Author: catsynth
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Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: The camera that you have
It’s always about the camera that one has on hand, especially with cat portraits that are in the moment. When Luna jumped on my lap for some affection the other day, the only camera I had was the iPad.
It is lower resolution and optics compared to the iPhone or my DSLR, but pointed correctly it still captures Luna’s features and essence.
This morning, I happened to have the DSLR on hand, and Luna was quite well posed. So it was time for an impromptu photo shoot.
The photos were a good reminder of what the good camera and lenses can do and the “iThingies” cannot. Here, one can control the optics to get a particularly rich and detailed portrait. Of course, it helps that Luna cooperated by staying relatively still, only moving her head into different poses like a professional model.
The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.
And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.
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Fun with Highways: I-587 in Kingston, New York (and Deep Listening)
Today we look at the city of Kingston, New York. Kingston is about 90 miles north of New York City on the west bank of the Hudson River. It was the first state capital of New York in 1777. For those of us in the world of electronic and experimental music, the city is the current home of renowned composer and musical innovator Pauline Oliveros as well as the Deep Listening Institute which she founded.
Kingston is also the location of one of the most obscure and oddest Interstate highways, I-587.
I-587, known as Colonel Chandler Drive, is co-signed with NY 28. It is a full freeway from it’s start at a traffic circle near the New York State Thruway (I-87) to its eastern terminus at an intersection with NY 32 (Albany Avenue) in downtown Kingston. Other than its termini, it has no exits. It also never meets its parent route, I-87, though the traffic circle at the western end does connect to Exit 19 of the Thruway. 
[By Mitchazenia (Own work) [CC-BY-SA-3.0;], via Wikimedia Commons]I-587 is signed along its route and at either end, but there is no mention of it on signs for Exit 19 on the Thruway. Thus, travelers on I-87 would never even know its there unless they took the exit and encountered the signs at the traffic circle.
By coincidence, I will participating in a performance of Pauline Oliveros’ The Heart Chant with the Cardow Choir at this year’s Garden of Memory event in Oakland. You can read past reviews of this unique yearly event and here. As for The Heart Chant itself:
This participatory Deep Listening meditation is a gesture of sonic healing for all beings and circumstances that need healing. It was created in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. “Ah” is a vocal sound associated with the heart shakra.
Anyone at the Chapel of the Chimes tonight is welcome to participate in singing this piece. There will also be numerous other performances by noted Bay Area musicians, and I hope to see as many of them as I can. You can follow along with me on Twitter @catsynth with hashtag #gardenofmemory.
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CatSynth video: Cat Percussionist!
Sometimes we feature cats with instruments that are more analog than analog.
If you have cat-and-music videos, you can share them with us via facebook, Twitter @catsynth, or by contacting us.
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CatSynth pic: Dr J looks worried
From Derek Morton on flickr, via matrixsynth.
“Dr J synth cat & eurorack modular.”
Quite a few of those modules look familiar.
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CatSynth pic: Brian Eno Purina ad
Yes, Brian Eno and his cat starred in a Purina cat-food ad (presumably from the 1970s). Reported by Xeni Jardin on Boing Boing, and submitted to us by reader Karen Martakos via our Facebook page.
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Weekend Cat Blogging with Luna: Gotcha Day Report
As regular readers know, last Monday, June 10, was Luna’s Gotcha Day. Thanks to everyone who sent her warm wishes. She certainly enjoyed her day.
We also made a special dinner that we could share together. These fish cakes, from the book Meow Chow are both quite delicious and safe for cats:
Luna was quite excited by the aroma of the fish cooking. And then it was time for her to enjoy her share:
The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Nikita and Elvira at The Opinionated Pussycat.
And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.
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CatSynth video: one kay (Eurorack modular live set)
From donaldjasoncrunk on YouTube, via matrixsynth. With Eurorack modular and a cat!
“live set – 3 seperate noises in one video for your convenience! happy to be celebrating my 1000th post on the best internet community in the world, Muffwiggler. thanks to my fellow wigglers for the awesome advice and the awesome music that i listen to constantly!
the first two sounds are more percussion oriented, the last more sequency. i premade the vocal loops to save some time and to save you from hearing too much of my lovely boyvoice.”
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Shai Kremer, Concrete Abstract & Notes From the Edge, Robert Koch Gallery
I am always on the lookout for art that celebrates the landscape and texture of the city in unique ways. Shai Kremer’s solo exhibition at Robert Koch Gallery in San Francisco, Concrete Abstract & Notes From the Edge, fits this goal perfectly. Through choice of setting and compositional techniques, Kremer presents views of New York that are outside the usual iconography of the city.
[Installation view. Image courtesy of Robert Koch Gallery.]In Concrete Abstract, Kremer looks at the reconstruction efforts at the World Trade Center site. The large-scale photographs feature overlaid images of the construction at the site between 2001 and 2012 and look quite abstract and fantastical even as they reveal real elements such as girders, concrete columns and pipes.
[Shai Kremer, Concrete Abstract #5: World Trade Center 2001 – 2012 (2013). Pigment ink print. Image courtesy of Robert Koch Gallery.]On one level, a viewer aware of the fact that these are from the World Trade Center site can look for elements that one expects in a large-scale construction project, as well as reminders of the destruction and recover efforts that preceded. However, one can also look at all the layers together to reveal and imaginary future city on an immense scale not yet realized, something out of Metropolis or any number of dystopian urban films. In Concrete Abstract #5, shown above, the concrete skeleton of the floors of the building with their columns become a three-dimension grid of city blocks, with the overlays providing the individual character of each block, some bustling with movement, others looking a bit forlorn.
In Notes From the Edge, Kremer focuses on details and landscapes at the periphery of the city, with the familiar shapes of the Manhattan skyline visible in the distance. The famous cityscape becomes a background to help frame the true subjects of the pieces.
[Shai Kremer, Waterfront, Brooklyn (2010). Pigment ink print. Image courtesy of Robert Koch Gallery]Kremer explores a variety of locations and elements in this series, ranging from the decaying structures on the Brooklyn waterfront shown above to the clean lines and geometry of the Liberty State Park memorial in New Jersey. There is a painterly quality to the photographs which makes the foreground elements seem like an imaginary projection onto the real city. In making real images of the urban landscape seem more fantastic, Kremer unites this series with the pieces in Concrete Abstract. Taken together, we imagine a city as an unimaginable hive of activity at its core and quiet haunted decaying spaces at its edges.
Kremer’s work in both series is technically strong and demonstrates how simple but unexpected elements can be combined to make views of the city that are unique and celebratory without being overly romantic. This is a quality that makes for great urban art (and great art in general).
The exhibition will remain on display at Robert Koch Gallery through Saturday, June 15. If you are in San Francisco this Friday or Saturday, I strongly recommend checking it out.
