Syd struts down a Roland Juno 60 with maximum floof effect. From Moustafa Ismail via the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks.
A bit more on the Roland Juno 60, one of the classics:
Among the first in Roland’s amazing Juno family! Six analog voices of polyphony and patch memory storage!! The Juno-60 sounds great, however, like the Juno-6 it lacks MIDI control. The Juno-60 includes 56 patches of memory storage. The Juno-60 is still popular due in part to opinions that it sounds better (punchier) than the Juno-106. The Juno-6 and 60 are very rich sounding synthesizers and are great analog machines as long as you can withstand the absence of MIDI control.
It’s been exactly two years since Sam Sam made the long trip from southern California to come live with us at CatSynth HQ! And not a day goes by that we are not grateful to have her in our lives. I’m pretty sure she feels the same way.
Samantha, or “little Sam Sam”, had a complicated life. She started out (as far as we know) in the suburbs south of San Francisco, and then moved with her human to the high desert north of Los Angeles – we like to joke that she lived “out in back of Palmdale where the turkey farmers run” in tribute to one of our musical heroes, Frank Zappa.
When her human passed away, she then went to live with his sister, also in southern California. Unfortunately, the sister’s health was declining and another cat bullied Sam Sam, so this was not a happy chapter for her. As her new human was preparing to go into assisted living, Sam Sam needed a new home.
In December of 2016, I was still deeply grieving after Luna’s death – and also reeling for the shock and horror of the election. I hadn’t yet prepared to welcome another cat into my life, but when a friend and bandmate reached out to me that he needed to find a new home for a sweet cat whose human was headed to assisted living – and then shared her adorable photos, I said yes. How could I not?
At first, Sam Sam was exceedingly shy and skittish, spending most of her time hiding under the bed, coming out only for food, water, and the litter box. She was mostly silent but occasionally emitted these tiny squeaks. As she adjusted to her new home, her personality blossomed. She’s quite friendly, vocal, outgoing, and quite a ham.
And she has no trouble demanding exactly what she wants from her humans.
“I want food nooooowww!”
We close with this episode of CatSynth TV featuring Sam Sam is all her adorableness.
Please join me in wishing Sam Sam a very happy Gotcha Day!
Meet Miko, another of the cats that lives with our friend Charles Whiley in Arkansas. She assists him in the studio as he produces his wild synth jams; and she is absolutely adorable!
You can see Whiley’s previous contributes to CatSynth via this link.
Identification of the synths left as an exercise to the reader.
Cat sitting on an Akai MPC 1000 in a studio featuring various Roland instruments and a Nord lead. From Xeper Kalypso via the Facebook group Synthesizer Freaks.
My cat hates photos being taken of him, since he decided to do everything he could to not let me finish the work I needed to do in the studio, I took a photo
We at CatSynth took a break from our busy schedule of art, friends, and family in New York to visit the Brooklyn Cat Cafe.
The concept of the “cat cafe” originated in Japan, but has spread around the world, including at least three in New York. Like Cat Town in Oakland, it is an all-volunteer effort focused on finding foster and forever homes for the cats in their care. It is located in a small storefront on Atlantic Avenue in the shadow of the bridges and downtown Brooklyn, but a peek inside reveals a space covered in cats.
Many were napping, like the line above, but they are also quite playful and affectionate. They are, of course, cats.
This sweet black kitty greeted me with a nose kisses.
Hilda was perhaps the most playful on this evening, looking visitors in the eyes as she played with various toys. She especially liked this wires dangling from the main table.
Burton was a big fellow and quite a character. A very friendly cat, he minded me a big of our friend Marlon, aka “the big merp” in Oakland, but with Sam Sam’s markings.
One of the hardest parts of traveling is leaving behind my cats. So having cat cafes is in the cities I visit is most welcome. The change to play with cats, cuddle them, and pet them can brighten the stormiest night.
The cats are clearly loved and well cared for, and there are rules for visitors that help ensure a safe and respectful space for them. Most of these fall under the rubric of “don’t be a jerk”, but there are also reminders of the fact that each cat has a different level of comfort with human behavior. If a cat is wary of being pet, respect their boundaries. If a cat needs a break from human interaction and wants to hide (and I can certainly sympathize with that), let them. And the result is a place filled with love among human and feline alike, and many cats have found their forever homes through visits to the cafe.
The Brooklyn Cat Cafe is run by the Brooklyn Bridge Animal Welfare Coalition, which is dedicated to finding homes for cats and other animals in their community. They opened the cafe in 2016.
By our one-year anniversary in May of 2017, the cafe had welcomed over 35,000 visitors — an average of over 95 visitors cuddling with our cats per day — and placed over 250 cats in permanent adoptive homes.
To find out more about the cafe, including visiting, adopting cats, and how to donate or volunteer, please visit their website.
