CatSynth video: MiniBubbas – Life Underground

From noisythang on YouTube:

Another day, sitting around the old Electric Range. Bless the Andromeda Space Rockers!

Also on matrixsynth, where you can find more videos (sans cats) including this one:

“A bunch of stuff, all in sync and out o’ tune!
Just having fun with Synthrotek 16-step sequencer kit, and pile o’ goop.”

“16-step clock -> Oberheim XK sync in -> MeBlip
16-step step 1 trigger -> Bliptronics trigger -> Electric Western Phantastron Sync in -> ADSR
16-step gate (split 1) -> Pigronix ADSR
16-step gate (split 2) and CV -> Chimera BC9.

Somewhat out of tune, hey it’s a demo.

The synthrotek kit is a fun unit….. (i don’t work for them)”

Weekend Cat Blogging #303: Red Stripe

Our busy schedule here at CatSynth continues unabated, with preparations for a second photo event in a couple of weeks and a new music project that requires quite a bit of practice.  Yesterday, instead of the usual Saturday morning Weekend Cat Blogging, I pulled off the cover of the Nord Stage keyboard to practice, and dropped the distinctive red dust cover (everything related to Nord keyboards is bright red) on the edge of Luna’s beanbag.  But that didn’t in anyway discourage her in anyway from curling up to take a nap – indeed, the dust cover almost looks like a brightly colored blanket.

It’s amazing how Luna can nap through just about any type of music.  This morning it was songs by the Cardiacs – a little different than our usual fare, but fun and challenging. You can get a taste for what this sounds like (and what Luna is putting up with) below:

Then again, it can’t be more challenging than some the very artificial experimental sounds that she hears living here.


Weekend Cat Blogging #303 is hosted by Kashim, Othello and Salome at PaulChens FoodBlog?!

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted today by Billy SweetFeets.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Video and photography

For Weekend Cat Blogging, we present another video of Luna looking out the window.  She is exciting about something she saw and is chattering away.  There is also a very cute expression about 30 seconds in.

Yes, I have quite a few videos of Luna chattering or “window-hunting.” It’s in part because it’s one of things that makes me want to record video rather than take still images. There is no time to edit this down, as I am busy preparing for the photo show next week. Here one can see one of the featured prints being prepared, as Luna shows her disdain for the whole process.


Weekend Cat Blogging #302 is being hosted by Samantha and Clementine at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Pet’s Garden Blog.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Upcoming Photo Show

As casually mentioned on a recent post, I have an photo show coming up next week here in San Francisco. Here is the formal info:

Tuesday, March 22 at 4:00pm – April 22 at 1:00pm
Philz Coffee
4023 18th St
San Francisco, CA

Solo show of photographs by Amar Chaudhary on the wall of Philz Coffee in the Castro. The theme centers on graffiti and urban scenes from the Bay Area, New York and Shanghai.

The photos go up on Tuesday March 22. No formal opening per se, but I do expect to be there in the afternoon and evening if you’d like to drop by!

They will remain up for about the month during regular business hours thereafter (6AM-8:30PM weekdays, 7AM-8:30PM weekends).

It’s going to be relatively small, about 8 pieces.  At least half of them have appeared in small form on this site over the past couple of years.

A bit of good news: Japan’s “Cat Island”

Last weekend we mentioned Tashirojima, Japan’s “Cat Island”. The island is populated by perhaps thousands of cats and 100 or so elderly human residents. The fear at first was that the island, right near the epicenter of the earthquake and tsunami, was lost. This week, we saw this article Discovery News reporting that the island survived!

Tashirojima, otherwise known as Japan’s “Cat Island” due to its numerous feline inhabitants, is intact after the recent devastating 9-magnitude earthquake and resulting tsunami, according to Japan Earthquake Animal Rescue and Support. However, like so many others devastated by the disaster, both the human and feline residents of the island need help.

They quote the group Japan Earthquake Animal Relief, which reported the news on their Facebook page:

Just to give everyone an update on Tashirojima, the cat island. The people and cats are safe but short of food. A volunteer looked into transporting food by boat, but there is too much debris in the water. A helicopter is the only way. The army will probably get a helicopter ready soon so we are looking into the possibility of asking them to take cat food too.

Additional information via this blog post, along with some beautiful photos.

It is a rare bit of good news in a disaster that seems to be getting worse every day, especially now with the nuclear disaster. It could be another round of danger for this island and extraordinary number of people in coming days.

You can support the efforts of Japan Earthquake Animal Relief and see more information on Facebook. They are a coalition of at least two animal-relief organizations working together. World Vets also has a fund for disaster relief in Japan.


I didn’t think it would be possible to make this a “Cat and Synthesizer” post, but I did read via matrixsynth, that is matching donations to SXSW’s Japan relief fund with subscriptions. (Puremagnetik is a subscription service for sound/instrument packs for use with Ableton Live! and other software environments.)