Submitted by Jeff Donovick via facebook.
Watch for the pan over to the cat.
Synths used:
analogue solutions vostok
analogue solutions leipzig
analogue solutions red square
analogue solutions semblance
studio electronics SE1-X [main acid lead]
vermona perfourmer
vermona DRM1 MK2
MAM MB33II [bass line]
Luna is back outside on the patio as we prepare for summer.
I think she is deciding whether or not to jump onto one of the gray cubes.
Weekend Cat Blogging #311 is hosted by pam at Sidewalk Shoes.
The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at CAT SMRT.
And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.
My cat making gabber for us.
Submitted on facebook by Ian Lambert of Daed.
Nord lead’s arpeggiator was producing the kicks and the DSI mopho was making the hoover sounds (Drum machine acted as a sync clock, and the x0xbox was being used as a sequencer for the mopho)
Bella picked up on it pretty quickly.
A black cat, Nord and Dave Smith Instruments, what is not to like?
From Sawa Masaki on flickr:
Also on matrixsynth, where the synth is identified as a Sequential Circuits Prophet-5
The theme if this week’s Photo Hunt is missed. So for our combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt post, we present Morty:
As one can see, Morty was a rather smart cat, and like some other individuals we may know enjoyed his coffee and newspaper every morning, and kept his cell phone nearby. Though it does appear that Morty enjoyed the department-store ads more than the news.
The cell phone definitely dates this picture, which I’m pretty sure was taken in early 2002. Seen in comparison to the current iPhone, it is definitely not missed. I still have that coffee mug, which I had originally gotten from a used store when I first moved to California several years earlier.
Morty was actually the first cat I lived with. He was a rather impish character, always getting into mischief but also seemingly aware that his cuteness would prevent him from getting in trouble. Even though he often drove me crazy, I still miss him once in a while. (As far as I know, he is still alive and well and still making mischief.)
Appropriately for a post featuring a tabby cat, Weekend Cat Blogging #310 is hosted by the “three tabby cats in Vienna”, Kashim, Othello and Salome.
Photo Hunt 265 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is missed.
The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday be Samantha, Clementine and Maverick.
And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.
After New York and San Francisco, Seattle has recently been among the top cities for this site and our Facebook page. So today we are paying tribute with a visit of some of the city’s highways.
Two of the major highways in the U.S., I-5 and I-90 meet in downtown Seattle at this massive interchange:
I did actually travel to Seattle through this interchange a few years ago, while on tour with the band that would later become Reconnaissance Fly. I-5 may look wide here as it passes under I-90, but further north it felt narrow and windy, more like the highways inside New York City, with buildings on either side of us. We took the exit for Madison Street and headed up the hill to our gig, not far from some cool-looking transmission towers (Is it weird that I actually remember these particular details?). It was a bit of a nostalgic trip to go back and read the gig report, and see how far we’ve all come musically since then.
To the west of I-5 is State Highway 99, the Alaskan Way Viaduct. This is a double-decked elevated highway along the industrial waterfront, and actually seems quite interesting, both looking at it from the bay and for the spectacular view of the city and bay that one would see while riding it.
In some ways, it seems like the former Embarcadero Freeway in here San Francisco, including the fact that it is scheduled to also be “former” soon. Plans are to demolish the elevated highway and replace it with a tunnel, and surface boulevard that connects the downtown to the waterfront. The replacement plans seem to be as controversial as the highway itself. Both fall along predictable lines, the typical reaction of many who see a highway like this as an “eyesore”, and those who are worried about the costs of replacing it. The bored tunnel seems quite impressive, and more walkable space seems like a good concept. The replacement of the Embarcadero Freeway here with an open and walkable waterfront space seems quite successful (it was all done before my time), but I still felt a little sad seeing those last vestigial bits of the old infrastructure get demolished last year. I thought they were architecturally interesting (and photogenic). These views (courtesy of Wikimedia Commons) show the underside and details of the Alaska Way Viaduct.
Hopefully the project works out well for Seattle. Demolition began earlier this year.
From burnkit2600 on YouTube:
Sick with a cold, Miette keeps me company while I take a 1st test drive of this portable little setup. I’m using my newly created iOS Midi Touch controller for the Moog Slim Phatty. I’m controlling the MSP arpeggiator and using it’s DIN MIDI output to play the drums on my circuit-bent Yamaha QY10. Also sloppily playing the tiny keyboard on the QY10. The audio from the QY10 is partially routed back to the Moog for processing. My bent megaphone toy circuit (red box) offers some echo on the unprocessed drums. The crappy Boss mixer & homemade stereo amp combo make the cats ears twitch. Fun.
Links:
QY10- http://www.burnkit2600.com/yamaha-qy-10/
Midi Touch- http://iosmidi.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=114
Moog Slim Phatty- http://www.moogmusic.com/littlephatty/
Miette- http://www.burnkit2600.com/graphics/ani-miette-sunbath.gif
I like how Miette just sits quietly there. It reminds me of Luna on her beanbag chair in the studio.
I will have to try out MIDI Touch when sometime soon…
“No Fooling, We Mean It!” at The McLoughlin Gallery is a show that is simultaneously playful and serious. The cavernous space of the gallery plays host to several large-scale works by sculptors David Middlebrook, Jeff Schomberg and Doug Thielscher. Each of the sculptors has a different focus, Schomberg on metal, Thielscher on stone, and Middlebrook on mixed materials. But all three present very serious well-constructed and polished piece (“no fooling”) with a sense of humor and fun (“fooling”). Additionally, all three are local artists, working and residing in the extended Bay Area.
The overall presentation has a sparseness, with lots of empty space and exposure of the gallery’s bare concrete walls that make it easy to focus on a single piece at any given moment. Even the larger stone works are not crowded and blend with structure of the space. I was most immediately drawn to Schomberg’s metal work, and in particular his pair of geometric wall pieces, Hinged and Unhinged.
[Jeff Schomberg, Hinged (2009). Found metal objects in steel frame. Image courtesy of McLoughlin Gallery.]
[Jeff Schomberg, Uninged (2009). Found metal objects in found frame assemblage. Image courtesy of McLoughlin Gallery. Click to enlarge.]
The rectangular frames serve as a boundary between the space of the gallery and the empty space within the pieces. Inside, each object is given room to be seen separately, such as the large circle in Unhinged or the intricate thin metal lines in both pieces that remind of my street maps. Indeed, the combination of geometric elements and metal coincide with my own focus on urban landscape and infrastructure. (See the similar elements in yesterday’s Wordless Wednesday post.) The circular elements seem particularly prominent in contrast to the mostly straight-line shapes of the found-metal components. Still other objects manage to retain their original functional shape and industrial history from before they became art. His mixed-media piece Trumbull takes the industrial theme one step further. An old rusted fuse box has been combined with a video of a fireplace and reassembled into a new piece of machinery. It is futuristic, in that delightful dystopian sort of way, even as it looks back on earlier electrical technology.
[Jeff Schomberg, Trumbull (2011). Fuse box with video. Image courtesy of McLoughlin Gallery. Click image to enlarge.]
These pieces, however, do stand apart within the overall exhibit. If there is one theme that cuts across all of the artists, it is “human-like forms that really aren’t human.” Among Schomberg’s metal sculptures are a series of small human-like figures with heads shaped like pipes or other pieces of hardware – probably the most humorous of his offerings. David Middlebrook’s assemblages have an organic look about them and some such as King of Things seem like they could get up and walk around. Think of Terry Gilliam’s cartoons or some of the creatures from the 1970s animated film Fantastic Planet.
[David Middlebrook, King of Things (2010). Bronze, aluminum, Indian gibble, cast expoxy. Image courtesy of McLoughlin Gallery. Click image to enlarge.]
The bronze box that serves as the base for the large stone egg in Middlebrook’s Carbon was an interesting touch. Doug Thielsher’s stone sculptures are the most directly figurative, but even here the figures are quite distorted, as in the two marble heads of The Ninth Circle that melt into one another. Thielsher’s sculptures were most noticeable for their use of the gallery space. From a distance, they seem like well-placed classical sculpture in a traditional art museum – and indeed they all draw from biblical or mythological themes. Up close, one sees the more surreal and humorous nature. Again, the one that most resonated for me was the most geometric. In Cain #3, the detached hand is almost lost underneath the large white cube and the black dot. Similarly, the hand seems to disappear into the large black cube of Cain #1.
[Doug Thielscher, Cain #3 (2006). Carrara and Belgian black marble. Image courtesy of McLoughlin Gallery. ]
The exhibit opened, appropriately, on April 1, and will remain on display though May 21. For more information about the exhibition and visiting, visit the gallery’s website.
