Author: catsynth

First LolCatSynth "contest"

Remember this photo from a few days ago?

Well, this photo has inspired several lolcat captions, including on this original post:

“im in ur ether, changing ur capacitanz”

There are several more suggestions on this repost at matrix.

So am calling the first LolCatSynth contest, to write even more lolcat captions for this photo. Please leave your suggestions in the comment section.

There isn't really any “prize” or “winner” for this particular contest, though I will be happy to do the actual captioning for my favorite submissions, as well as post them (with credit) to the popular lolcat sites.

New podcast: POK-A-TOK-3 by deCouto

Click here to subscribe.

Tonight's podcast is another track from expire(ments) in patience bythe band DoCouto. From their page at the Internet Archive:

recordings made between 1995 and 2006. ocations include texas,new orleans,seattle and new york.

The track “patty hurts” was featured on a previous podcast.

This work was made available under a Creative Commons license that allows for free sharing and distribution. Click the icon below for license details:

You can subscribe directly via our FeedBurner feed at the top of this post, or for more info and options, click the CatSynth Channel icon in the upper right corner. And as always, enjoy!

Weekend Cat Blogging #108

WCB #108 is being hosted by Pet's Garden Blog, and in honor of the “bengal brats”, we are offering some more photos of our bengal-like neighbor:

On hot summer days, he sometimes would stop and drink out of the fountain sculpture in the yard.

The fountain is an original sculpture of mine titled Imbalance, completed in 2004 and then renovated in 2006. It has been featured on this site before.

Some neighbors do leave out water bowls as a safer alternative, though like many places there are controversies about outdoor cats. We prefer to simply think of them as part of our neighborhood.

Of course, it wouldn't be WCB without Luna starring, so here are some recent relaxing photos of la gatita bonita:

Check out all the other cats at Weekend Cat Blogging #108 and Carnival of the Cats #171 (at a still secure undisclosed location, I'll update when I found out where). We are also showing up late, yet again, for Friday Ark #145.

Speaking of strays, we're going to continue our experiment with Open Trackbacks for this post. Feline related trackbacks preferred.

Cats in Lebanon…Germany

Who doesn't love pictures of cute kittens?


Well, these kittens are in Lebanon, being cared for by members of BETA. Like many places closer to home, it is kitten season, and their shelter is overflowing with kittens who need homes. And this is on top of the cats and other animals that BETA has rescued from the recent confrontations and senseless religious/tribal violence still happening there.

Meanwhile, in Germany, a country famous around the world for its warm and fuzzy nature, animal shelters experience a summer influx of cats for very different reasons. According the the reports accompanying these photos from Reuters, many of these cats are surrendered to shelters, or simply abandoned, during the long European summer vacation season. You can click on the photo below for a second article.

They don't have pet sitters in Germany?

Theremin Cats

From Brian Sacawa: Sounds Like Now:

The context for this picture is Sacawa's lament that early theremin virtuosi concentrated on trying to get the instrument to play traditional western tonal music, rather than exploring the radically new ways of organizing pitch and structure afforded by the instrument. This is indeed something that concerns me about many of the efforts going on to “de-experimentalize” computer music and simply turn it into another tool for traditional classical or popular forms. The great promise of electronic instruments is to allow people to break with the traditions of acoustic music. But Sacawa concludes:

Maybe if more cats–unlike humans, who are so grounded in western tonal music–played the theremin we might witness the instrument's full potential.

And thus we have theremin-playing cats.

Check out this feline thereminist from YouTube:




CatSynth Correction: The Cats of 5lowershop

Like any publication, we make errors and when appropriate publish corrections. This is one is several months overdue, but I found myself thinking about it tonight. Last September, I played at the headphone festival in San Francisco at the club 5lowershop. It was one of the best live performances I did in the past year. In writing about the experience here at CatSynth, I mentioned a couple of cats I ran across while I there:

I immediately thought they were strays or perhaps neighborhood outdoor cats wandering through, and regular readers know I have a soft spot for such creatures. I am happy to say that I was wrong, as I learned when I received this comment at the end of February:

just an fyi : those kitties are pets too, and very loved. the grey kitty is momma to 6 of those black and white kittens. the kitten in your picture still lives at 5lowershop with mom's identical sister. mom lives with a friend of the family now. the other kittens all found loving homes with close friends. we live a few blocks from 5lowershop and have one of the kittens. they aren't feral, and they get along pretty good with the dogs (only 2 dogs hang out there, and they are quite nice when you get to know them. they pretty much ignore the cats)

seeing that you are such a cat enthusiast, i just wanted to let you know that these cats get spoiled rotten with love and attention. no need to feel bad for them!

It's good to know that those cats are loved, and if anyone associated with 5lowershop is still reading, I would love to come perform there again. I really enjoyed the gritty edge-of-the-city vibe, the people, and of course the cats.

Clintons take Mount Kisco

Our friend jelly pizza recently wrote:

speaking of sopranos, have you seen the clinton knock-off? i bet you'd recognize the diner given half the chance. i did on the first viewing, shouting “hey, that's the blank blank diner!!!”

Well, here's the Clinton's Sopranos knock-off video:


You can see the full-size version here.

Well, yes that is the “blank blank diner”, or more specifically the infamous Mount Kisco Coach Diner, on E. Main Street (Highway 117) in Mount Kisco, New York:

Mount Kisco is just north of Chappaqua, the “home of CatSynth and Hillary Clinton”, and this diner was one of the local late-night hangouts. It was easy to reach via either 117 or the Saw Mill Parkway, our local excuse-for-a-freeway.

It's great to see the Clintons making use of the hood for Hillary's campaign. And whatever other merits her candidacy may or may not have, Chappaqua, Westchester and New York would be a quite a change from that ranch in Texas…

It's also cool to see an ad sticking to a hip and minimal pop-culture reference with none of the usual schlock, like silly speech clips or waving american-flag graphics. Some seem to think that this is elitist – see the much reposted article by Ann Althouse. I'll avoid the sexual symbolism and focus on the charge of elitism, which seems to apply to anything that's not available at WalMart or a megachurch. To me, this simply seems like mainstream culture on the coasts. And if it is elitist, so what? It's refreshing for candidates to have decent taste (Giuliani is a big opera fan, I've heard). For some real elitist options, see this response by film critic Glenn Kenny:

The scene I most would like to see the Clintons reenact with their own particular spin is, of course, the finale of Michelangelo Antonioni's 1961 La Notte, with Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau.

I haven't yet seen La Notte, but it's going onto my Netflix queue (far ahead of any Sopranos DVDs). Antonioni's L'Avventura is among my favorite films, period. I love the completely disjointed yet still narrative story, and of course the crisp visuals of both the people and scenery are amazing.

Hmm, since they have some experience with diners now, how about recreating a scene from Seinfeld?