Luna

Weekend Cat Blogging:

For Weekend Cat Blogging, we present some new and interesting views of Luna:

Even though she is partially hidden by the blinds, this has instantly become one of my favorite portraits.  I really like the focus and the color contrast.

This photo captures Luna in mid-paw, claiming ownership of the office chair.

It’s rare that I have been able to get motion like that before, and I would consider this a happy accident.  And although Luna likes to own things, she is willing to share as well.  We are sitting on the chair together to write this.

Weekend Cat Blogging #251 is hosted by Pam at Sidewalk Shoes, where Smudge has a very nice black-and-white portrait.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at One Cats Nip.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Three

For Weekend Cat Blogging and today’s Photo Hunt theme of Three, we present a trio of images taken with our new camera:

The glass coffee table at CatSynth HQ has been a mainstay for themed photos, and it presents several representations of the number three:

There are the triangular elements with three sides, and there are the three glass surfaces.  I wish there were only three objects on the table instead of four, but you take what you get.  This picture was taken from above with a telephoto lens, and I really like the detail on the glass, particularly the refraction of the square patterns.

Next, we try out a portrait lens on our resident model:

Notice the overall detail and the color of Luna’s green eyes.  For a rather weak connection to the theme of three, there are three chairs present in this picture.

So now we go out into the world.  It does seem that spring has arrived, and we are ready for new adventures:

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by Billy Sweet-Feets with Nicholas

Photo Hunt 205 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is “Three”.

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

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Spiral

The theme of this week’s Photo Hunt is spiral, a shape that appears frequently in art, mathematics, nature, and of course in Luna’s expressive tail.

This is an old photo with a much younger Luna in our former home in Santa Cruz.  It is one of the best examples of the tight curl she often forms in her tail.  Here is a more recent example:

The spirals in Luna’s tail are all about motion, and often difficult to capture in a still photograph. However, you can see them very clearly in the recent videos from our performance.

With respect to music, a spiral was also one of the symbols I used in my recent piece for conduct your own orchestra night:

This is the classic Archimedean spiral, defined by the formula r = aθ. Essentially the distance from the center increases proportionally to the angle as one “spirals out” from the center. There are other formal mathematical variations on the spiral, such as Fermat’s spiral, which I find visually interesting.

Is mathematics, music and cats not a fine way to start the weekend?

Weekend Cat Blogging #249 will be hosted by our friends LB and breadchick at The Sour Dough.

The Photo Hunt is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is spiral.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And the friday ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Foreign

This week’s Photo Hunt theme is foreign. Cats often intersect with my foreign travels, and with the objects that I bring home. Consider the Suzhou painting silk cat and Maneki Neko from Japan in the photo below:

We have seen these items before, in discussions of cats of China and the cats of Tokyo, respectively.

Here, we see Luna near some of our art pieces:

Most of these, including the large watercolor on the left and small metal sculpture, are local. However, the mostly yellow geometric print is foreign. It is by a Cuban artist. I visited Cuba twice in 2001 and purchased this print in the town of Matanzas. The topic of visiting Cuba as an American (and the entire U.S. policy towards Cuba) could fill up an entire article.

Sometimes one may assume something is foreign when it is in fact not. Consider this photo of Luna from December:

The title may be in French and evoke a bygone era in Paris, but it is actually the work of an American artist, Ken Bailey.

We close with some more maneki neko figures:

All of the cat figurines in this photo are from Japan. There is one more cat, however, on the matchbox. This is not foreign, and created by a local artist.

A sad note this weekend. Gattina and family, who regularly host “Cats on Tuesday”, said farewell to their cat Lisa this week. Lisa was a little over eighteen years old, which is a good long life for a cat.  We send them our thoughts.

Weekend Cat Blogging #248 is hosted by Meowza at his blog iMeowza.

Photo Hunt 203: Foreign is hosted by tnchick.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Nikita Cat at meowings of an opinionated pussycat. We also wish Nikita a happy birthday this weekend!

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: post performance

Luna was a big hit at my performance last Thursday, where she was featured in the video 月伸1.

Here are more screenshots from her video debut:

The video quality in different sections is deliberately different, sometimes dark or grainy, sometimes really crisp, as these shots below (which were featured in previous posts that you can find here and here):

And here are some clips from the video:

The video was just part of the performance; I did live improvisation with electronic instruments to accompany it. I do have a video of the full performance, although I have not had a chance to review it. Look for a formal “CatSynth review” of the performance as well as Polly Moller’s Genesis in the near future.

Weekend Cat Blogging #247 is hosted by Nikita Cat.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Sniffie and the Florida Furkids.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Preparing for Thursday’s performance: Luna’s video

Over the last few days, I have largely been absorbed by preparations for my next performance. This one includes a more ambitious element, a 10-minute video entitled 月神1 featuring clips of Luna as well as abstract elements reminiscent of experimental filmmakers such as Stanley Brakhage or Gerhard Richter. The video will serve as a backdrop for live electronic improvisation – it is mostly silent, though I did include some sound at various points so the audience could hear Luna’s voice.

Here are a few example frames from the video:



Some of the video clips of Luna were featured here on CatSynth in the past, including her chattering video, or playing with her blue fish toy. The abstract elements were done is a software package called Processing, a programming language for images, animation and interactions.

Musically, I will plan to focus on a mixture of the Evolver and the Octave CAT synthesizers, along with software on the iPhone and laptop. Indeed, this is the first time I will be using the CAT live, mostly because I am reluctant to move it too often.

Of course, this will only cover about one third of the full performance, so I will be drawing from my repertoire of electroacoustic improvisation to round out the remainder of the time. Although I reuse elements, there is always something new to discover in them.

For those in the Bay Area who may be interested in checking it out, the full information is below:

Full Moon Concert Series: Quickening Moon
Thursday, February 25, 8PM
Luggage Store Gallery, 1007 Market Street @ 6th Street, San Francisco.

The Full Moon Concert Series is an experimental music series offered by Outsound Presents, in partnership with the Luggage Store Gallery. Each concert explores the traditional lore of the Full Moon, and in January, the second annual “Quickening Moon” will feature new music springing to life. First up will be Amar Chaudhary in a solo electronica set (collaborating with his wonder-cat, Luna), followed by the world premiere of a new work for twelve improvisers by Polly Moller, entitled Genesis.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Cuddly

This weekend we once again combine Weekend Cat Blogging and the Photo Hunt, taking advantage of the rather easy them of cuddly.

Of course, Luna is very cuddly, and we have hundreds of photos in the CatSynth archives to prove it. But she also seeks this quality from her environment and the objects around her. Readers may recall the blue fish that Luna received as a holiday gift. She took to it right away, and is still quite fond of it. A few weeks ago I found her carrying it around and lying down with it in the studio, much as child would treat a favorite stuffed animal.

I even found her using it as a pillow:

I think that clearly qualifies as “cuddly.”

Coincidentally, I composed a jazz piece almost 20 (!) years ago called “The Blue Fish.” It might be fun to dust it of and try playing it again one of these days…

Weekend Cat Blogging #246 is being hosted by Billy Sweetfeets. He is also celebrating his Gotcha Day.

Photo Hunt #201 is hosted as always by tnchick. This week’s theme is “cuddly.”

Carnival of the Cats #310 will be up this Sunday at When Cats Attack.

And of course the Friday Ark #283 is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna and Monome

This weekend we present a photo of Luna posing with the monome interface:

I like the desaturated grayscale version, but also the original color photo as well:

Notice that there is very little difference in the monome itself between the two photos. It is the new grayscale edition, with a silver front panel, white LED buttons and a black case. The monomes interface all have a very elegant minimalist design, but this edition is particularly well suited for our aesthetics.

I am hoping to use it tonight in a performance I am doing at a Lunar New Year party here in San Francisco.

Monome is a very small operation in the New York’s Catskills region. They design the interfaces and produce limited runs of each edition. We were fortunate to get one when they went on sale at the beginning of January. I thought this photo from their website, showing the team hard at work filling the orders, is quite appropriate:

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

Carnival of the Cats will be hosted by Nikita Cat on his blog Meowings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.