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Sunday Newsletter: Sam Sam’s 7th Gotcha Day!

Today marks the 7th anniversary of Sam Sam’s arrival at CatSynth HQ! Please join me in wishing her a Happy Gotcha Day!

As we have related in previous years, Samantha, better known by her nickname “Sam Sam”, had been through a series of homes, including (as I like to say) “out in back of Palmdale where the turkey farmers run”. Our friends who were looking out for her let me know that she needed a new home and knew that I had recently lost Luna. Grief is a non-linear process, and I had not yet been looking to welcome a new cat into my life. But I could say no to this adorable kitty in need. So of course, I said yes, and she made the long trip up from Southern California to join us at HQ.

She was very skittish at first, but soon grew into her new home, and of course, we have loved having her ever since. It’s hard to imagine life at CatSynth without her.

It’s not common for Sam Sam to get up on the desks in the studio, but she does get curious from time to time, as seen in the image above. In recent years, she has also become one of the stars of our Caturday Shorts series on CatSynth TV, along with her frenemy Big Merp.

We certainly hope to share our home and life with Sam Sam for a long time to come.

Sunday Newsletter: Beauty & Curiosity

Our most recent video, “Beauty and the Beast”, explored the surprising and fascinating collaboration between Debbie Harry (of Blondie) and horror-surrealist artist H.R. Giger, perhaps best known for his work on the alien in the Alien films.

It got me thinking about the “beauty” in general. I think of beauty as one of my core values, along with curiosity, and these permeate what I choose to share with the world in my music, in videos, even perhaps in writing. Beauty comes in many forms beyond what we conventionally think of with the word. I find it in the faces of my cats, modernist art and architecture, the music I listen to, and yes, sometimes even in fashion magazines marketing “conventional beauty”.

It “arrests the mind”, to use James Joyce’s term from A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, specifically in a way that pushes away other thoughts and emotions and leaves one with positive focus, even if just for a fleeting moment. To bring it back to H.R. Giger for a moment, there is a beauty in some of his work, even as it remains deeply unsettling. The image that I used as the backdrop in the video, which was taken from the set of the KooKoo music videos, would be an example. It reminded me of the bodies of woodwind instruments (clarinets, bassoons, etc.).

Beauty’s counterpart for me is curiosity. Always being curious about things, exploring, and sharing what I find with others. Sometimes the reward for curiosity is beauty. This is something I try to bring across in my math videos, like the recent Henon Map video.

One does not need mathematical expertise, just curiosity and openness to it, rather than a pat dismissal of “oh, math is too hard,” and the imagination to see where it might go. For the Henon Map, the reward is indeed the beauty of the three-dimensional map, an unreal terrain.

This is even at play in the highway videos, where music and curiosity come together as we follow the road wherever it might lead.

But highways are really a story for another time.

If you enjoy these Sunday posts, please come back here for more. You can also subscribe to these newsletters on Substack.

Sunday Newsletter: No Kings

[Note: we’re still figuring out the best way to offer email subscriptions, as CatSynth is self-hosted. We’ll get that up and running soon. In the meantime, if you’re on Substack, you can subscribe to this newsletter there.]

Like millions of others, we at CatSynth attended our local No Kings protest. It was a beautiful day in San Francisco, and people were in a joyous and defiant mood. I made a short video with highlights from the march up Market Street.

In the midst of the march itself, it’s hard to get a sense of its magnitude – 50,000 people by most estimates.

And this was, of course, repeated in cities and towns across the country, and even in other parts of the world. It gives one a bit of hope in this very challenging and sometimes demoralizing time.

As happens every time I cover one of these protests for CatSynth TV, I get at least one person complaining about my “getting political” and unsubscribing/unfollowing in a huff. I always politely say that I’m sorry to see them go, and remind them that the channel (and the blog) have always delved into political and social causes when I think it’s important to do so. And in this moment, it’s really important that people with platforms that “aren’t political” participate. For every person who complains or leaves, I’ve received multiple positive and encouraging remarks. For example, someone who appreciated seeing a “synthfluencer” that wasn’t just bopping along like everything was OK, and taking the time and effort to bear witness and push back against the regime.

It’s also worth noting that so many people get their information on politics and shape their opinions through channels that aren’t overtly political. I think a lot of us on the liberal-to-leftist side lost track of that in the last few years. In particular, a lot of young men seem to be influenced by channels ostensibly about fitness, men’s health, sports, and the general “manosphere” world, which mixed in a bit of right-wing populism with their sports banter and promos for health supplements. I think a channel about cats, synthesizers, culture, etc., can potentially reach some people who aren’t enmeshed in politics more positively and progressively. Even if we don’t change anyone’s mind, it might get someone who shares our opinion off the sidelines and involved in a way that suits them. There is no one right way or right medium to stand up to this increasingly fascist regime.

Did you attend a No Kings event yesterday, or have you been involved in other actions or events? Please do let us know in the comments.

Our First Sunday Newsletter

Also published to Substack.

It’s been a while since I’ve written an essay or such. It used to be a regular occurrence on the CatSynth blog. Between the photos, I wrote music and art reports, “fun with highways” articles, and the occasional opinion piece. Music, art, and highways all migrated to CatSynth TV, and slowly after that, writing dried up altogether, other than the year-end post and the occasional other short piece.

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I’ve wanted to reverse that trend for a while, as there are ideas that don’t lend themselves to videos, music, or the highly compressed bits of communication on social media. But writing always took a back seat to CatSynth TV, to music, and to living life in general.

So what is finally getting me off my tuchus, firing up the ancient Tandy m102 laptop and assembling these words that you are reading now? A few factors stand out. One, I am finally starting to observe free time amidst my usual busyness, given a few external commitments this month. Another is that I have started reading *How to Do Nothing* by Jenny Odell, and resonated with her thesis and examples on how to step back from the ever-toxic milieu we find ourselves in. And finally, there is the toxic milieu itself, which lends a sense of urgency to anything that resists it without running away from it entirely. I have my escapes, and we will talk plenty about them in the coming weeks and months. But for now, I think this is sufficient, being present in this moment outside on the patio at CatSynth HQ, typing on my cute little retro computer while my cat Sam Sam enjoys the cool, fresh air.

Please join me here on most Sundays for more wordy thoughts.

Farewell to 2024: Beautiful Dissonance

2024 has come to a close, so it is time for our traditional end-of-year collage and post. You might notice another kitty in the corner this year – that’s Golda, one of the wonderful cats I stayed with in Berlin. She is representing our European adventure this summer, along with Plac Grunwaldzki in Wroclaw, Poland.

It was a banner year musically. I am especially proud of the album, the best musical work I have done to date! If you haven’t heard it yet, you should. Opening the San Francisco Electronic Music Festival was a special experience. And we had numerous other musical adventures both live and recorded, and an ever growing community of musicians scattered across the country and beyond that are not just colleagues, but friends.

It was a banner year for CatSynth TV, our best to date in terms of viewership, subscriptions, and audience interaction. 50% year-over-year growth ain’t bad. January of 2024, with NAMM, was our best month on record. We even saw an uptick in blog readership, including a new cohort of loyal followers for our cat+synth posts and Wordless Wednesday.

Indeed, with CatSynth TV, I look not only at what we accomplished this year, but what was left undone. So many videos partially complete or in the ideation phase, waiting to be finished in 2025. We are particularly looking to jumpstart our interview series that was big in 2023 but took a bit of a back seat this year because of various circumstances.

The dissonance between things at a personal and CatSynth level, and at a national and world level, is deafening. The election here in the U.S. this year was tragic and heartbreaking, and this coming year is going to be difficult. This time, it wasn’t a fluke, it was a choice, and we chose…unwisely. In my usual cynical way, the best I hope for is sheer incompetence by the new regime, but even so, a lot of people will be hurt, including people who are a lot like me.

So we go into 2025 in a very strange place. The personal successes and hopes for the New Year, set against the fear and coming disasters in the world. All we have is forward motion, each other, and defiance.

Farewell to 2023

As is our tradition here at CatSynth, we look back on the year that draws to a close with a collage and stats. It’s always a challenge to pick photos to represent the year, these were just a few that covered some of the themes. We made more music than ever (mostly in the studio here at CatSynth HQ). We had many explorations and adventures. It was the first time attending the NAMM show since the pandemic. It was our first time going back to New York since the pandemic, and we went twice! In some ways, the year was divided into three sections based on different day jobs (or lack thereof), but the images and memories connected to them transcend these divisions. And as always, the arbitrary ending of a year leaves us with a full queue of things not yet done and still to do – and in this particular passing of the year a sense of dread, not so much for us at CatSynth but for the world around us. Again, the images and memories anchor to what is important.

And now, some stats. Here on the CatSynth blog:

195 Posts (including this one)
Top 5 commenters:
1. Ellen Pilch (15andmeowing)
2. meowmeowmans (Animal Shelter Volunteer)
3. Sandee (Comedy Plus)
4. Keith’s Ramblings
5. Patrick Weseman

And on CatSynth TV, it’s been a banner year. 35% increase in views, 30% increase in watch hours (that’s the big one they care about over at YouTube), double as many new subscribers as 2022. We launched “shorts” to complement our full-length numbered episodes. A few other stats for the year.

Most Viewed Videos

Most Popular new videos of 2023

It’s interesting that some of the most watched overall were not new this year. I like to think of that as representing that there is enduring interest in our videos from previous years over a longer period of time.

And that is the final thought heading into the new year, enduring and being resilient even has chaos, difficulties, and challenges abound. As always, we’ll keep doing what we do.

Our 500th Episode of CatSynth TV!

We are celebrating our 500th episode of CatSynth TV! Hard to believe we have made so many of these, but we have and we’re still having fun with it.

This one features numerous synthesizers, including the Octave CAT, Pocket Gamelan, and various instruments from Arturia, Cherry Audio, Moog Music, Strymon, MOK, Buchla, Metasonix, Make Noise, and more. There is also an appearance by Sam Sam at about the 1-minute mark.

CatSynth 17th Anniversary!

https://youtube.com/shorts/ncD81w0BZgI?feature=share

It’s our 17th anniversary. Hard to believe it was 17 years ago when we first posted that picture of Luna with the Novation keyboard.

We still miss her very much. The continuation of this blog and the video channel are her legacy.

Here’s to many more years of cats, synths, and all the other stuff that we do 😻🥂

Farewell to 2022

It’s that time when we at CatSynth post our traditional end-of-year image, along with a few stats and thoughts on the year that is coming to an end. It was a bit harder to settle on a set of images to represent this year given how much has happened. First, a few quick stats.

On the blog:

207 posts
142 “cat-and-synth” posts

On CatSynth TV

61 new videos
Most watched video made in 2022: Klaus Schulze: A tribute to his music and legacy
Second-most watched made in 2022: The Logistic Map: Attractors, Bifurcation, and Chaos (Part 1 of 2)

Although there were fewer videos produced this year, there were some ambitious ones, like the two “Red Robot Show” videos. We emphasized quality over quantity.

Compared to the previous two years, 2022 was active and busy. Even a bit chaotic and over-committed at times. Perhaps this is a form of “return to normalcy” after the deepest parts of the pandemic. We did continue the new tradition from last year of releasing at least one EP or album by the end of the year – I am quite proud of the way Merp Friend came out. I also traveled farther and more frequently than in previous years, reconnected in person with more friends, and will be off to visit New York at the start 2023 for the first time in 3 years (the longest I’ve ever been away in my lifetime).

For this coming year, I already have a new album in the works and lots of ideas for the video channel. I would like to see CatSynth TV grow – and this website could use some serious updates. The challenge is sustainability between music, videos, my personal life, and my “day job”. Finding that balance has been at a time challenging this past year, and continuing to develop my new organization and meditation techniques will play a part. And I of course look forward to spending as much time with my cat family – Sam Sam and Big Merp – as I have these past two years. Working from home has truly been a blessing that came out of the challenges since 2020. As my good friend G Calvin Weston says, forward motion.

Wishing you all the best for 2023 – and we’ll keep doing what we do.

CatSynth 16th Anniversary

Today marks 16 years since our first post on CatSynth. And of course here is the photo of our beloved Luna that started it all.

Although I still miss her dearly, I love being able to see her through my hundreds (maybe more than hundreds) of photos.

With everything that has been happening in the world and personally, I haven’t marked the anniversaries as much as in the past. But this year seems like a good time to do so, as at least some things from the past are beginning to re-emerge.

And with that, let’s look at some stats. The viewership for the blog continues to be down from its heights in the early 2010s. But we do still get a lot of visitors from all over the world.

According to our Google analytics, the greatest number of visits from July 2021 to July 2020 came from the United States, the United Kingdom, China (glad to see we’re not blocked by the “Great Firewall”), Ireland, France, Canada, Germany, and Sweden.

Our most popular blog post over the past year was NoiseKick FX Meme Screamer Plus (TS/Klon/Boost). And of course, we ended up buying that Meme Screamer pedal and presented it on CatSynth TV.

Speaking of CatSynth TV, the channel has continued to grow. We gained almost 1,500 subscribers and had well over 150,000 views. Perhaps small by YouTube standards, but I am proud of the work we have done and look forward to more growth. Our most popular videos were mostly old favorites including our many Arturia V Collection reviews and demos. Our tributes to electronic-music heroes also were among the most viewed, especially our tribute to the great Klaus Shulze. Again we welcomed viewers from around the world, with the largest viewership in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, and Japan.

We at CatSynth are looking forward to another year of cats, synthesizers, music, art, and so much more. And thank you for all your support from myself, Sam Sam, and Big Merp.