Author: catsynth

Weekend Cat Blogging: Rest and Play

Well, the shows are now behind us. And so before the busy work week starts up again, we at CatSynth take a moment to relax:

and to play:

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted this week by Niko and Cloud of The Cats in Maryland.

The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is hosted by Diamond Emerald Eyes – you can’t go wrong with an event hosted by a black cat with emerald eyes.

The Carnival of the Cats goes up today at Life from a Cats Perspective.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Don’t forget, the Hallowe’en Edition of Weekend Cat Blogging will be hosted right here at CatSynth!







Upcoming shows: the details

For those of you in the Bay Area, here are the details the shows this week.

Things are looking up today. The program for the 16th is finally coming together – even the temperamental Mr. Echo is purring like a kitten. Fortunately, the computer has a minimal role in this, so I am OK without the MacBook. And I have the program for the Looping Festival on the PC laptop.

_________________
October 16, 8PM

Luggage Store Gallery
1007 Market St.
@ 6th Street
San Francisco, California
Admission $6-10 sliding scale.

I will be performing a new solo electronic set, combining custom software with hardware analog and digital synthesizers.
Dark and playful, combining noise, rich harmonies, strange rhythms and of course a sense of humor.

__________________
October 18, 4:30PM

Y2K8 International Live Looping Festival.
Pearl Alley Studios
120 Pearl Alley
Santa Cruz, California

In live looping, a musician records his/her live performance and plays it back while playing or recording new material on top of it, thus a single performer can create complex, layered music. I will be looping various electronic and folk instruments.

Preparing for performances next week.

With two performances coming up, next Thursday and Saturday, we at CatSynth are very busy preparing. Actually, it’s more crisis management. Luna’s serene appearance belies the fact that we at CatSynth are dealing with serious equipment failures. First, the Mr Echo pedal has been having its problems. It was mostly an issue with the power jack, which I was able to repair. But after an evening of fantastic practice and experimentation, it stopped working again. This time the power appears to be fine, but now there is no sound.

In the middle of all of this, our MacBook had a serious hard drive failure – or least that what it appears to be. One moment, we’re happily web browsing, the next a spinning pinwheel of death (SWOD), and after a forced reboot it simply will not come up.

I am of course doing my best to continue preparing for the show. I am shifting the focus to other pieces of equipment, and using the old PC laptop. Although now the PC, which is old and slow under the best circumstances, appears to also have some hard-drive issues.

Oh yeah, and I hear the entire world was having some financial difficulties last week.

It’s a good thing Luna is here for comfort and stability, We will also try and visit Weekend Cat Blogging with Salome and Astrid. And the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos with Sammy and Miles Meezer. And the Carnival of the Cats at My Big Fat Orange Cat.

Meanwhile, I’m on my way to a local music store, and probably the Apple Store as well, for a little help.

UPDATE: As of Monday evening, the pedal is working again. But the MacBook is out for repair.













Cat-Guitar pic with Luna

Cables have an annoying tendency to multiply. Luna seems oblivious to them.

Something that a few of our friends (including Mr Echo) might appreciate: the red pedal in front is an SIB Mr Echo.

I am planning to use analog effects pedals in my upcoming performances this month. And I am using some extended-techniques on the guitar as sound material (I don’t plan to play it live).



Weekend Cat Blogging: Triste

There is often a bit of sadness and melancholy in the air. Sad news from friends, anxious news in the world. And the first showers of the season add to the effect.

And that happens to be the theme of this week’s Photo Hunt, and the subject of our Weekend Cat Blogging.

It’s a good time to cheer up with a walk, even in the rain.

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by the Cats in Maryland. It is their first time hosting, so please give them a warm welcome.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up on Sunday at the Catboys Realm with Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And of course the the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

We at CatSynth are sending thoughts this weekend to our friend Breadchick of the Sour Dough. We also sending thoughts for Janice of the Criz Cats.



Domestic Violence Awareness Month

Domestic Violence Awareness badge

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Our friend Diamond Emerald Eyes has made the graphic above to help spread awareness about domestic violence as it affects both humans and animals. Diamond’s own story crosses domestic violence (fortunately, she hid under the bed and was safe), but has a happy ending. Not so for Norman, the orange tabby who was killed by bit actor Joseph Petcka. Petcka is currently on trial for his incredibly cruel act.

We’re in the middle of a nasty election season, and as such there is always talk about “family values” – this time it’s often from supporters of Proposition 8 here in California. Our request is that when people encounter those who claim to be “defending marriage and family”, challenge them to condemn domestic violence, and to punish those who hurt their partners, children or animals. Even if it means ending a marriage. An abusive marriage or an abusive family is not one worth defending, and any tradition that would excuse violence in the name of “protecting a family” is not a tradition worth preserving.

We hope all our human and animal friends will continue to have safe and loving homes.

You can read more at the National Coalition against Domestic Violence website, and here in San Francisco more information is available at Domestic Violence Consortium. The Humane Society has information about pets domestic violence.


Fun with Stats: Wordle vs. Technorati Tags

I was reading this article on DailyKos in which the author plugged the transcripts of the vice presidential candidates in tonight’s debate into Wordle. I think it’s quite telling that Sarah Palin’s top word was “also.” Actually it makes sense in light of her recent interviews.

Anyhow, we at CatSynth tried plugging our own RSS feed into Wordle and produced the following results:


[click to enlarge]

I did appreciate the results on an aesthetic level, being interested in text art and conceptual art. But I was also surprised by which words were the most prominent. Certainly, we at CatSynth are quite proud to represent “music” and “performance”, but a similar analysis of our Technorati Tags suggests a different focus:

analog art black cat california cats cotc experimental music friday ark mathematics moog photography rip san francisco soma synthesizer video weekend cat blogging bad kitty cats festival of chaos bkcfoc carnival of the cats cat cats on tuesday electronic music highways keyboard luna midnight monday performance wcb wordless wednesday

Of course, Wordle is counting words while Technorati is counting editorially specified tags. Nonetheless, the contrast is interesting. The word count is likely to change more dramatically over a shorter period of time, especially with music and art reviews in the mix, while the tags are likely to feature cats and synths. It would be interesting to try this periodically.