John Cage’s 99th Birthday

Today marks the 99th birthday of one of our musical heroes, John Cage.

In this video, we see Cage discussing sound and silence in his apartment on 18th Street in New York. There is a romantic quality to hearing his words, imagining music, and listening to the sounds of the city in the background, all in concert.

Although he is perhaps best known for his experiments in silence, sound and chance elements in music, I am most fond of his work for prepared piano and toy piano. Despite what was adventurous instrumentation at the time, the music itself comes across as traditional piano compositions. They were for a long time part of my rotation of morning music.

This is a good moment to simply stop at listen to the ubiquitous sounds of the urban environment here, including the ever present trains and traffic on I-280.

Weekend Cat Blogging #326

In between days at my current photography show in Oakland, we are catching up with a little quiet time on the patio:

It’s actually a typically foggy San Francisco morning, which may not be clear from the distortion in the Hipstamatic photos.

In the second photo, Luna is perhaps showing a bit of disdain for my recent absence – in addition to the photography show, I had a performance this past Thursday with my band Reconnaissance Fly. And lots of time rehearsing and hanging for both events over the previous week. So I think someone deserves a little extra attention soon.

Weekend Cat Blogging #326 is hosted by Pam at Sidewalk Shoes, with help from Patchouli and Coco.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator

CatSynth video: elka synthex demo by polynominal.com

In the midst of our busy performance/exhibition week, a little light fun with cats and synthesizers:

From polynominal.com on YouTube, home of Mimi. Look for some appearances by Mimi in the video (including a couple of photos that have previously appeared here on CatSynth.

If you have your own cat-and-gear photo or video to share, let us know via facebook, twitter @catsynth, or by contacting us directly.

Weekend Cat Blogging #325

We are sending thoughts for all our friends and family on the east coast of the U.S. today:

This graphic from our friends at the Cat Blogopshere is a reminder to take care of our companion animals during the storms as well. We hope everyone stays safe (and relatively dry). I am particularly watching events in New York, where I grew up and to which I am still connected.

Weekend Cat Blogging #325 is hosted by Kitties at Mom’s Sunday Cafe.

Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at iMeowza.

And the Friday Ark is on hiatus this week.

Fun with Highways: California Highway 114 (?)

I find myself on US 101 at least once a week for work, heading south from San Francisco to Palo Alto. A couple of weeks ago a started noticing a new route marker in a construction zone near East Palo Alto for Highway 114.

Highway 114? I did know there was such a thing. It turns out it is in fact a define short route along Willow Road between 101 and CA 84, leading to the Dumbarton Bridge, as described at cahighways.org.  It is only about one mile long.

I was also not familiar with 109, which runs along University Avenue in East Palo Alto but is unsigned.

So I wonder why 114 suddenly became signed as a detour route during this construction project? Is it perhaps a legal requirement, or maybe it will be signed in the future?

CatSynth pic: RMI DK-20 (USA) Digital Synthesizer…from 1980s

Image from an auction, via matrixsynth.

“Rare very early digital synthesizer from 1981/2. Three seperate outputs ~ bass/solo & treble ~ in zones across the keyboard. Preset or user-change. Non-velocity basic polyphonic organ/clavinet/lute/bass tones with vibrato variants and decay/sustain features.”

This is not a synth I had previously heard of.

“HISTORY Made in USA by RMI (of 368X prog-rock fame). Imported by KK… The DK-20 was RMI’s attempt at digital synthesis; in 1981 this was the beginning of an age of synthesizers…..ARP/Moog/Oberheim to name a few more famous….”