Author: catsynth

Weekend Cat Blogging: Independence Day

July 4 is the big Independence Day holiday here in the U.S. So we at CatSynth are now scrambling to find a recent Luna photo with patriotic colors, and this is the best we can do:

Of course, we are taking full advantage of our extended holiday weekend:

Yes, we are taking some much deserved rest, and with it the opportunity to restore mind, body and our living space. We are also contemplating the newly empty lot next door:

A vacant debris-strewn lot may seem like an odd image for Independence Day, but it quite meaningful for us. And the gritty urban landscape represents our country as much as the images of family picnics and small town parades that are often used as symbols of the holiday.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Red, White and Boom edition is hosted by Sir Tristan Tabby Cat Longtail.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Mind of Mog.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Garden of Memory 2009

We passed another summer solstice a couple of weeks ago, and once again I marked the occasion by attending the Garden of Memory performance at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland.

For more views of the Chapel of the Chimes itself, please visit the review from last year. It is full of light and a mixture of large and intimate spaces, and a really interesting place to wander and hear different sounds.

The size of the event itself can be a bit overwhelming, with so many performers and galleries throughout the complex. One approach is simply to wander and discover the different spaces and music. But I tend more towards trying to go through the entire space systematically and see as much as possible, which I did with some success (I did unfortunately miss several performances).

Just like last year, I was greeted at the entrance by a performance by Jaroba and Byron Blackburn. Jaroba again had a gopichand in his collection of instruments.

In the main chapel, I saw performances by Sarah Cahill and the William Winant Percussion Group. I thought the latter sounded a bit like Philip Glass with its repetitive patterns, pentatonic scales and harmonies, and marimba rhythms. At the end of the performance, I found out it was in fact a piece by Philip Glass.

The more electronic “stage acts” were in the Julia Morgan Chapel at the other end of the building. Amy X Neuburg gave another of her charismatic and very tight performances that we at CatSynth have reviewed in the past. This was followed by Paul Dresher and Joel Davel, whose performance featured a marimba lumina as well as a large and intriguing bowed string instrument:

Musically, the performance began with repeated undulating tones, minor modal harmonies, and syncopated rhythms, with expressive bowing on the large instrument throughout. Gradually the performance become more “electronic” – even though the entire performance involved electronics from what I could tell, the sounds became more characteristic of electronic music – with more effects, noises and hits as the rhythmic pattern faded out. There was a “surprise note” followed by more percussive computer-like tones, bends and glissandi on the stringed instrument, looping and effects. The instrument was also “prepared” with metal objects during this part of the performance. Eventually the rhythmic patterns returned, but they seemed “darker.”

Matthew Goodhart’s installation in the Chapel of Patience (I really like the names of the different chapels and halls there) featured cymbals with transducers, producing long metallic tones and visual effects and they reflected the light:

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Leaving the cymbals, I then followed the sound of Gino Robair’s bowed gongs to find his performance along with Polly Moller and Tom Duff:


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My favorite moment during their performance involved Tom Duff singing God Save the Queen set against cymbal resonances and a perfect fourth by a tone tube (I forget the formal name) and Polly on bass flute.

In the previous two photos for the Goodhart installation and Gino Robair’s ensemble, one can truly get a sense of the setting. Each of the squares in the grids represents the location of cremated remains, someone’s final resting place.

I tend to be drawn to metallic sounds, so a next followed the hall to an installation Loving Kindness by John Bischoff. Although this was a computer-controlled electromechanical piece, with motors affecting the sound-making objects, it reminded me musically of Stockhausen’s Kontakte (a favorite piece of mine).

From metal we then move to strings, with Larnie Fox and the Crank Ensemble. The plethora of plucked string tones fit perfectly with the visuals of the musicians moving around a large square of cable. It was held in place by some of the performers while one moved around:

I did also notice the “live knitting”, which was an integral component of the performance.

Tucked away in a small chamber and easy to miss was an installation by Joel Colley featuring a macabre set of animal skulls atop stones, with ambient sounds in the background.

Over the course of four hours, it is not surprising that some performers will need to take breaks. It did mean I missed a couple of interesting performances which did not publish specific times. Pamela Z did publish performance times, so I did get to see part of her performance with the iPhone Ocarina application.

Michael Zbyszynski performed more traditional wind instruments, flute and saxophone, but with modern extended techniques mixed with jazz idioms, in the Chapel of Resignation.

Nearby, in one corner of the main atrium, Thomas Dimuzio and Wobbly performed on guitar and live electronics, respectively. The music unfolded as long ethereal sounds with strong resonances, and some bowed metal sounds as well.

Maggi Payne presented this cool-looking installation founded that blended quite well into the permanent elements of the room:

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In a nearby room was a performance by the ensemble Vorticella. We previously reviewed Vorticella, which consists of Krystyna Bobrowski on horns, Erin Espeland on cello, Brenda Hutchinson on aluminum tube and vocals, and Karen Stackpole on percussion, as part of the Flower Moon concert. Once again, the four very different performances produce a rich and complex music.

In the next room was a duo of Svetlana Voronina and Joe Straub with glockenspiel and electronics. Before hearing them perform, I wandered over during one of their breaks, and found their setup visually interesting:

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Upstairs, I caught part of a performance by the ensemble Natto, which featured electronics, flutes, strings and a Chinese lute (I believe it was a pipa). The music consisted of heavy strumming, electronic “wipes”, harmonics on the wind instruments and resonances and delays used for pitch effects.

In the upstairs section of the main atrium was a continuous vocal performance by the Cornelius Cardew Choir of Pauline Oliveros’ Heart Chant. The audience was invited to participate.

The upstairs of the atrium is also the place to arrive during the climactic moment of the evening at sundown. As sundown approaches, everyone is invited to ring bells – many people rang keychains. There was an interesting timbral and spatial juxtaposition of the sunset bell-ringing and Dimuzio’s and Wobbly’s drone sounds on the lower level.

The theme of bells and metal sounds continued as I left after sunset, passing a set of large chimes that seemed to mark the end of the event.

Hypnagogia, Climate Theater

Hypnagogia defines the state between sleeping and waking: the state in which our dreams can seem more real to us than the waking world, and which, depending upon the nature of our dreams, our limbo-selves seek to flee, or to sustain.

My primarily mission in attending Hypnagogia at the Climate Theater was to see the performance of The Flip Quartet by Polly Moller, as I will be part of upcoming performance of the piece in July. The performance featured Karl Evangelista, Jason Hoopes, Thomas Scandura and Bill Wolter. The Flip Quartet is a composition for four improvisers who move between four stations representing the cardinal directions (north, east, south, west) and the four medieval elements: earth, air, fire, water. Each station had a variety of instruments and sound-making objects to represent elements.


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“Earth” had drums, stones, and blocks. “Air” included various wind instruments and shakers. “Fire” featured metal instruments and electric instruments (keyboard, electric guitar, etc.). And “Water” included water-filled containers, but also acoustic string instruments – this was the only association I had a difficult time figuring out, with my own interpretation being “standing waves.” Each section of the piece starts with the performers “flipping” a timer. When the time runs out, they stop and move on to the next station.

The audience sat in the middle of the theatre, with half the seats facing one pair of elements and half facing the others. Since there were two performances, I got a chance to see and hear the piece from “both sides.” Musically, the piece unfolded as ever changing harmonies of the different objects, often very discrete and percussive, along with many theatrical moments such as attempting to balance on the “earth” elements on the head of a drum. My favorite moment musically was the combination of the Asian pipe (shown one of the photos above), lute, shakers and thunder tube.

The other musical performance was Philip Greenlief performing a solo work The Fourth World. The piece is based on Hopi conception of time and the Fourth World from Hopi mythology, and is a solo performance featuring Greenlief’s expressive and virtuosic saxophone playing. I am always impressed with his multiphonics, which he manages to make seem as easy to play as standard tones. Spatially, this performance was the opposite of The Flip Quartet, with the audience seated in a circle facing inward and creating a more intimate space.

In addition to the featured live musical performances, there were visual art pieces, installations, and media and performance art. Sean Clute, Jessica Gomula and Gina Clark presented a “video action painting and performance” entitled Slippery Dreams 2009.

Live video of the drawings being created were projected onto the screens, and I believe also used to control the sound that was generated.

Louis Rawlins presented the installation Sleep Patterns, set up as a bedroom or sitting room where one could relax and touch the ball of yarn on the table.


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The string (which included conductive thread) was used to generate sounds in response to the viewers interactions. Presumably, one could interact with this piece while asleep.

The were several video pieces of varying subject and quality. I did like Vanessa Woods’ What the Water Saw, a short film that originally was shot on 16mm/35mm film and transferred to video. It was meant to mimic ocean with the distortion of images through water, as represented by the intense layering and deep colors of the film. After looking at Woods’ website, I think I might have been more interested in some of her black-and-white films. Rebekah May’s Celestial Cadence for video on five iPod Touches was an interesting visual in itself, with its arrangement of abstract color and shape patterns:

Among the purely visual works that caught my attention was the undulating Circulation III by Julia Anne Goodman, a mobile work that was created from junk mail (and there is certainly plenty of that around); also Klea McKenna’s Taxonomy of My Brother’s Garden from Center of Gravity:


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Finally, as it was quite stuffy inside the theatre and gallery on this rather warm night, there was the welcome retreat to the rooftop, where VoxMaids performed rhythmic and traditional-sounding music for drums, accordion and voices against projections of astronomical objects. Alternatively, one could look at a real astronomical object, the moon, on this rather clear night.

ShanghaiPRIDE

This weekend is marks Pride 2009 here in San Francisco, and while the parade and other events here were huge (and occasionally over the top) as always, I found myself thinking of the much smaller, but nonetheless significant event I saw during Pride week in Shanghai on June 8.

I had the chance to attend the opening night event, which took place at a large bar in the French Concession district of Shanghai. There was a good mixture of both native Chinese and expats; of course, the attendance was a couple hundred rather than hundreds of thousands. But one must think about the significance of having an event like this in China, which is still a relatively conservative country and where gatherings of any sort can be complicated.

The open night featured screenings of two documentaries. The first was a film from Singapore entitled “Autopsy” which follows the filmmaker Loo Ziham’s dialogue with his mother about his sexuality. Following that was a documentary “Queer China”, a rather stylized look at the history of homosexuality and LGBT issues in China. The film interspersed images from traditional Chinese art and literature with historical footage from early years of the Peoples Republic, but focused primarily on relatively contemporary interviews. Those interviewed ranged from a young man who nearly committed suicide over his sexual orientation to an older man (I think he was in his 80s) discussing sexuality in rather open terms. Because of the way the room was set up, it was sometimes difficult to see the English subtitles, so I did miss some of what people were saying. One thing I was able to gather from the film was that much of the progress in terms of recognition and getting groups organized and sanctioned came under the heading of AIDS prevention – the one young woman interviewed noted the irony that AIDS was not a big issue for everyone.

In any case, it was quite interesting to see such an event in another country. And I leave wondering if Chinese can go out and take the cultural risk of participating in such an event, why does it have to remain “hidden” for people here in certain ethnic groups?

Weekend Cat Blogging: On the patio

Despite our busy schedule, we at CatSynth make sure to get some time to play outside on the patio.

Luna often just strolls around, but sometimes she seems to really enjoy stretching and rolling around on the (rather dirty) tiles:

Yet she somehow manages to still look clean and sleek and shiny afterwards…

Weekend Cat Blogging #212 will be hosted by Meowza at Mind of Mog.

The Carnival of the Cats will be going up this Sunday at When Cats Attack.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Carnival of the Cats #275

We at CatSynth are happy to be hosting Carnival of the Cats #275 as we celebrate both Father’s Day and the Summer Solstice. And what better way to celebrate that outside with family?

Our patio is looking a little “spare” compared to last year before the construction. We have not had enough time to really work on it, but that doesn’t stop us from enjoying an afternoon outside. And with that, let is continue with the carnival.

Freya’s dad is celebrating both Father’s Day and his birthday today, so go pay Freya and her a dad a visit at her new blog. You can also see a video of her being quite vocal in a mirror.

Sad news from Blog d’Elisson. Neighbor, the Mistress of Sarcasm’s Animal Companion, passed away peacefully in her sleep sometime early Saturday morning. We enjoyed reading about and seeing photos of the sleek black Neighbor Cat, and she will be missed. We at CatSynth send our sympathies.

There is a new arrival at the home of “Her Ladyship” at Elms in the Yard. Please welcome Catschka the kitten. Additionally, Rahel shares with us one of the best how-to sites for cats.

Maybe they could use some tips about raising a new kitten, courtesy of Strictly Anything.

The cats at Grace and the Kittens are celebrating International Cat Box Day 2009. Ruse curls up inside a paper bag, which is sort of like a box, right?

No special occasions, and no boxes, just a very sweet photo with a couple of cats on a sofa from Mind of Mog.

At The Poor Mouth, Robyn and Bebe wear green in support of opposition protests in Iran. We at CatSynth have been following the events in Iran unfold as well, and hope for the best for the people there.

Those who read or write blogs about cats at some point confront the question of anthropomorphism. Pet Chatter asks “What’s wrong with anthropomorphizing?” and discusses animals as sentient beings.

The ragdolls return at Mélange, where we meet the regal siblings Nick and Willow. As they approach their 11th birthday, it seems like many things about them and their home stay the same.

Catblogging has been a neglected activity at Texas Oasis. But there are no excuses for Purrsday night, and Jax is here to make sure of it.

A K T’s Scratching Post, the Maximum Leader goes on an expedition into the forbidden zone while they attempt to make a safe outdoor space in the backyard. Hopefully they can make the backyard in to a safe, protected area to enjoy the outdoors.

Aloysius poses with a filter (presumably full of his fur) at Catymology. They sent the photo to the 3M company, maker of the filters, who promised to send a coupon for a free replacement. Aloysius also hopes to get a gig as a spokekitty out of the deal.

Hemi enjoys his blanket and a little catnip while lamenting some of the mean attributes people ascribe to cats like “sneaky, mean and unaffectionate.” We suspect most of our readers of course know that cats can be very affectionate creatures, but very particular about whom they share their affections with. And since when is “sneaky” a bad thing? It sounds like they are also getting a new addition to the family soon.

So what are the Three Tabby Cats in Vienna up to this weekend? Kashim holds down the fort for Weekend Cat Blogging and supervises the installation of a new flat-screen TV, while his brother Othello celebrates his first anniversary.

Veronica B shares tips for caring for cats with cancer. Cancer is always a sad thing, but here are some suggestions for treatment and improving a cat’s quality of life.

More medical advice from Raising Whiskers about cat coughing: “Sometimes cat coughing can be an indication that there is something wrong with your cat.” Thanks Captain Obvious!

That concludes the Carnival for now. Thanks to all who participated!

And for those who haven’t had a chance to read it yet, please visit our report on the Cats of Tokyo.