Cats

Weekend Cat Blogging and Art Review: Street Cats in San Francisco

It is relatively rare for me to encounter cats on my frequent walks around the city, especially in the more downtown or industrial sections near home. However, once in while I do see them, and in September I managed to even find a couple that sat still long enough to be photographed.

I espied this cat in on a front stoop in the Mission District, on my way to the Moe!kestra performance at Cellspace:


[click to enlarge.]

Though his face suggests a “don’t mess with me” attitude, he was actually quite friendly. He came up to greet me and even gave a couple of head butts.

On my way from the closing performances of the APAture Festival to Cartography of the Synchronous Telemtrist at the Community Music Center (also in the Mission District), I saw this cat on the sidewalk, and managed to get this particularly good photograph.

On the same walk, I came across a series of art installations in windows on 24th street. There was one installation at 24th and Treat, a tribute to a cat named Fred who had recently past away.

The painting, by artist D’arci Bruno, presides over a series of photographs and notes of remembrance left by Fred’s human and friends and family. I came back the next day to get a better look at the installation, and hopefully learn a little bit more about Fred, or about the project. There has been a lot of recent storefront art in the city, including the Present Tense Biennial and a Art in Storefronts project of the San Francisco Arts Commission. However, this piece was quite touching, perhaps because it was the surprise that I just happened to walk by, and of course because it memorialized a cat.

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by LB and breadchick at The Sour Dough.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Mind of Mog.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Carnival of the Cats 290

We at CatSynth welcome everyone to the 290th Carnival of the Cats!

With our continued technical problems with CatSynth, it was a bit of a challenge to get this done before Sunday became a day other than Sunday, but here we are, and without further delay let us continue with the carnival…

First up, we have this textured and tender photograph from jams o donnell at The Poor Mouth.

More photography, this time a study in beige featuring Hakuna of Blog d’Elisson. Of course we prefer the official title of Latte e Cioccolatto.

At Elms in the Yard, Catschka is getting into all sorts of trouble. First she stalks an unsuspecting Her Ladyship, and then gets up on the neighbor’s sukkah without permission (for those unfamiliar with the Jewish holiday of Sukkot, go look it up). There is also a visit from Ms. Neighborcat.

Meowza’s activities are a bit more mundane, as he celebrates “Finally Friday” at Mind of Mog by washing himself.

Maddie of StrangeRanger has the right idea for this now-waning weekend: take it easy.

Diamond Emerald Eyes, who is also hosting Weekend Cat Blogging, has information on the HAPPY bill, a “very impurrrtant bill in House would allow pet caregivers to take a deduction on their tackes for pet care. We urge all humans, write to their representative supporting this bill!” It’s a start, but we at CatSynth would prefer to see the public option added to the bill.

At The Cat Post Intelligencer, there are lots of things the Cheysuli and family are thankful for this week, including this photo:

Autumn is coming, and Willow is enjoying the cooler weather, and very contentedly sits on the porch and watches for chipmunks.

Meanwhile, China Cat rediscovers her cozy bed as a preferred way to cope with the cooler weather. That certainly sounds like a good plan to us.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, and sammawow presents Jeter’s Mom’s Breast Cancer 3-day walk, where is taking place here in San Francisco this weekend. Please visit and find out more about this great cause.

A final note, our friends and frequent hosts of Weekend Cat Blogging Samantha and Mr Tigger are missing! We are sending good thoughts and hope they are safely home again soon.

That concludes this week’s Carnival. Thanks for joining us. Next week, the carnival returns to Mind of Mog.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Service Disruption

We had a major service disruption on CatSynth today. Basically, an upgrade that our service provider did this week led to a series of problems with images, comments and writing new posts. Fortunately, the tech support team was on the case:

and we have everything restored. But there is still some difficulty with writing new posts. We are going to try and press ahead with hosting Carnival of the Cats tomorrow, just expect that it might be a bit late.

Meanwhile, Luna has been able to catch up some important napping:

Our friend Diamond Emerald Eyes is hosting Weekend Cat Blogging, and we definitely did not want to miss it.

Carnvial of the Cats will be right here at CatSynth tomorrow. You can use the handy BlogCarnival submission form&trade or visit the main site for more info.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

History of Cats and Synths at Retro Synth Ads

The blog Retro Synth Ads, featured an article on the Octave Electronics CAT this past Monday. In addition to the ad itself, it included an extensive discussion of the phenomenon of cat-and-synth pictures:

Looking at this ad, it got me thinking about the whole cat&synth meme that currently exists on the Web. As far back as I can remember, discussions about cats and synth gear have existed both on- and off-line. Members of forums and e-mail lists such as Analogue Heaven have exchanged stories at least as far back as 1999.

The article also features quotes from me as the author of CatSynth, and our friend matrix of matrixsynth.

Do check out the full article.

Coincidentally, we did feature another Octave CAT advertisement in a previous post.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Twisted

The theme of this weekend’s Photo Hunt is twisted, which works for another entanglement with Weekend Cat Blogging

We have of course seen many photos of Luna around our musical equipment (such as our analog delay pedal used for some twisted effects by raising the feedback level):

or sometimes hiding behind it:

Musical gear often means tangled wires, which seems to spontaneously happen despite our best efforts. Just a series of seemingly inevitable Reidemeister moves.

Luna is remarkably good about leaving the cables alone, but she does have a weekness for the cable ties, the device we use in a vain attempt prevent our cables from getting twisted.

Luna is fond of these and the twist ties that come with packaging, and I have caught her carrying them around. The ties are of course immediately confiscated (much to her disappointment). I do my best to keep them stored away as I don’t think they are safe for cats.

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Sir Tristan Tabbycat Longtail at tabbylicious, who is also belatedly celebrating his “Gotcha Day.”

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at When Cats Attack. Next week COTC will be here at CatSynth!

And of course the Friday Ark is the modulator.