Cats

Weekend Cat Blogging #300: Return to Normal

Luna looks on at the jumble of furniture, on which the dotara is sitting post performance.  I actually like the geometric formation of the tables pushed together during the construction, and the contrast of the curved musical instrument.

The big concert is now over and done. It mostly went quite beautifully, except for one technical flaw that disrupted the final piece (more on this in a later post).  The construction is also now done.  So we are looking forward to life at home returning to normal.

We now have the time and opportunity to put the apartment back together, and do those mundane but necessarily things that make up normal life. Oh, and to relax and enjoy a little down time.  At least until the next big creative project begins.  I think we will be starting on Tuesday.

Weekend Cat Blogging #300 is hosted by Mog and Meowza at Mind of Mog. Like us, they seem a bit dazed.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted tomorrow by Nikita and Elivra at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Some preparation for March 4 concert

A late evening preparing for the upcoming Regents’ Lecture concert, with an assist from Luna:

Here Luna poses with TouchOSC on the iPad, which is becoming one of the main control surfaces I will be using to control Open Sound World.  Last night I was building the synthesis infrastructure for the new piece, a combination of drum sampling and spatialized additive synthesis – at least four separate additive synthesis models that are algorithmically generated based on input from the iPad.  Against this will be electronic drum sounds and an Afro-Cuban rhythm detail.  I really won’t know the exact shape of this piece until I work with CNMAT’s speaker array.

I also learned from the Saturday’s performance in Oakland that I will need to refine the control on TouchOSC for the new implementation of my piece Charmer:Firmament.  It was very well received, with descriptions like “beautiful” and “meditative”, but it was difficult to control compared to the Wacom graphics tablet.  I will try a different mix of controls on the iPad to see if it works better.

Weekend Cat Blogging #299

Weekend Cat Blogging #299 will be hosted here at CatSynth.  It’s like hosting #300, but one less. This comes in the midst of a busy weekend, including a performance tomorrow night and preparations for a big concert one week from now, but with some proper rest we should be ready to handle everything.

As usual, to participate please leave a comment on this post with a link to your contribution, or you can tweet us @catsynth with hashtag #WCB.  (Note that we won’t get to the round-up until Sunday due to the performances and other commitments.)

And now let us get on with the round-up.

Cats love boxes.  It’s a well-comfirmed fact.  But if one needs even more evidence, check out this cute cat-in-a-box picture courtesy of Pam’s Sidewalk Shoes.

It looks like there is a campaign underway at Mom’s Sunday Cafe concerning someone’s desire for a new yellow truck with gray interior…or perhaps just an interesting color fashion statement:

Jules is a very patient model for his mom’s experiments with Photoshop at Judi’s Mind of Matter.  I do like the direction the image is going, pushing the contrast to an extreme, where only Jules and the wall sockets are visible.

Luna and Zulu T Katt share a photo of Zulu enjoying a drink in the faucet.  It’s interesting how some cats seem to enjoy running water while others do not – nowhere near the universal appeal of boxes.

We will continue with the round-up later this afternoon.

The Cats of Wildcat Woods have taken a more subtle approach to Photo Hunt: Mostly Black.  The tabbies and tortoiseshells including Woody, Chica and Joey all have black as part of their markings.  They are also looking for a home for mostly black cat Avon.  Please click on her Petfinder link to find out more info.

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At Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat, Elvira is enjoying her three two play cubes.

It looks like the last two have suffered from some rather enthusiastic clawing. She looks so innocent in that picture, though.

Finally, Tsunami is The Mighty Hunter Create with Joy:

We recognized Tsunami’s photo from this past Wordless Wednesday.

That concludes the Weekend Cat Blogging roundup for now. Thanks for being patient, and for the supporting words on the music events this week (last night’s performance in Oakland went quite well).

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Silhouette

This week’s Photo Hunt theme is silhouette, which is something that often happens with photos of Luna by chance if not by intention.

It is often a product of Luna’s black fur that the lighting extremes at CatSynth HQ.  But it can lead to interesting results.  I like the contrast of Luna’s black silhouette to the bright chrome and glass reflections in this next photo:

This was taken back on New Years Day.

Weekend Cat Blogging #298 will be hosted by Samantha and Clementine at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

PhotoHunt 253 is hosted as always by tnchick. This week’s theme is Silhouette.

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

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

CatSynth pic: Diego and Befaco Slicer Prototype

From comun y corriente, via matrixsynth:

Googlish translation from matrixsynth:

The other Diego had domestic problems that will prevent you bring your Spanish guitar, so you will be forced to play with this wild animal.

And another picture from amstrad on flickr, featuring Kiska:

Finally, an update from c+c via the comments on matrixsynth:

ust a brief explanation of what was going on here… This was published a couple of days before our first Corrientazo, a concert featuring many musicians using compact synthesizers and DIY stuff. So we were announcing that Diego, from Befaco, was going to play with a prototype of their new Slicer / 8 step sequencer, to be released later this month (more info soon!).

Then I heard news from Amstrad that he was no longer going to play spanish guitar + MFB 522 in the concert, because the cat ate the guitar! So he brought his DIY modular, from the Befaco workshops, instead; and played it via MIDI from his iPhone!”

I would be curious to hear the iPhone + Befaco performance…

Weekend Cat Blogging #297: Construction again

The on-again off-again construction at CatSynth HQ is finally on again for real. That meant Luna had to go back to boarding for a couple of days, but I brought her back home the weekend. Here we see her inspecting the state of the work:

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Hopefully it will be done early next week. The whole process has been a bit stressful for both of us. I hope letting Luna enjoy some time at home over the weekend is indeed better for her, and I’m not adding to her stress or exposing her to much fallout from the construction work. It’s certainly far less than what we went through in late 2008, so hopefully it’s OK.

Weekend Cat Blogging #297 is being hosted by Oliver and Noli at The Accidental English Teacher. This is their first time hosting!

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted by Nikita at Meowsing of an Opinionated Pussycat. This is definitely not his first time hosting.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator, back from hiatus.