Primary Highways: Indiana

It has been a really busy week at CatSynth, but we're taking some time to continue our “primary highways” series with a visit to the state of Indiana. Appropriately for our series, Indiana is nicknamed the “Crossroads of America.” And that is how many of us know the state, passing from one place to another. It boasts eight major interstate highways: I-69, I-65, I-94, I-70, I-74, I-64, I-80, and I-90. These are indeed crossroads among major U.S. cities, New York, Baltimore, Washington, Boston, Chicago. Detroit, Seattle and are hometown San Francisco.

I have traveled through Indiana en route from New York to San Francisco multiple times on I-80, which is part of the Indiana Toll Road. (Anyone surprised that we are once again traveling along I-80 during this series?)This highway runs along the extreme northern section of the state, passing through farmland, old industrial cities, and the suburbs of Chicago to the west. One can imagine along this landscape the demographic divisions currently being portrayed in the media. One can also observe Indiana's well-known reputation for being flat, particularly in the north. Though in the south, towards Kentucky, the landscape becomes more hilly.

In the northwest, near Chicago, I-80 shares its path with I-94. To the west, I-94 splits off to become the major freeway in downtown Chicago; beyond that it heads towards Milwaukee, then Minneapolis and the northern plains. In Indiana, it hugs the coast of Lake Michigan “before heading east on the long road to Detroit“.

A bit of amusing highway trivia involves I-69, which extends from Indianapolis north to Michigan and eventually the Canadian border. There have been plans for a while to extend I-69 south all the way to Texas and the Mexican border, creating another north-south transcontinental route. Former representative John Hostettler from Indiana was a strong supporter of the extension of I-69, but he also led a campaign to change its designation. Apparently, some “religious conservatives believe 'I-69' sounds too risqu

Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos #43

We welcome everyone to the 43rd Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos. And, not surprisingly, we have some chaos with the official Blog Carnival site being out of service as the weekend began. But we still have many cats who joined us, so let's get started.

The theme of the week's festival is music, art and technology. And the cat boys Kashim and Othello get us started with their talents in singing and music criticism.

Over at Life from a Cat's Perspective, Samantha shows off her skills in the visual arts. Meanwhile, Mr. Tigger goes techno.

The kittens at Sleeping Mommy are all extremely cute . But Colby has found a pair of headphones, for some music and relaxation.

It looks to us like Cece is about to break into song at iInfidel. But he prefers this photo to the one posted at Mind of Mog.

Gree reminds us that “a sleeping cat is a work of art” at the House of the (Mostly) Black Cats.

Cheysuli takes to the road and presents Find Chey Friday posted at Chey’s Place.

We're not the only ones who thing about wild cats. As wild cats move into cities, it raises some significant issues. A few of these are discussed on Everyone Needs Therapy/

Meanwhile, at Pet's Garden Blog, SonnyBob wants to know .. where are da fishies

Upcoming Concert: Luggage Store Gallery (San Francisco), May 8

An announcement for upcoming show in the city:

Thursday, May 8, 8PM

Luggage Store Gallery
1007 Market St.
@ 6th Street
San Francisco, California
Admission $6-10 sliding scale.

I will be performing a live electronic set, with two laptops, standalone
synths, “circuit-bent” toys and my collection of Indian instruments.
Mostly ambient and experimental, with bits of rhythm, beats and familiar
sounds thrown in.

I might even pull out the old graphics tablet, which I haven't really used
in the last year and a half!

Regular readers may recognize the Luggage Store Gallery from previous articles, including music reviews and my show w/ Polly Moller and Company in Feburary.

There's a lot going into this show, which is my first solo in a while. Watch for some more details during the week…

Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos is coming to CatSynth

We are going to be hosting the Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos here at CatSynth this weekend.

The optional theme is music, art, or technology.

To participate, submit your aticle, submit your post to festivalofchaos at gmail dot com or contact us.

More fun can be found at Weekend Cat Blogging with Kashim and Othello and Astrid.

The Carnival of the Cats is coming this Sunday to Grace and Kittens.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend events in San Francisco (Music, Art and Cats)

Another busy weekend, especially with the number of things going on. We only have time for a partial review…

First, there a quick stop at downtown pub to see some friends/colleagues. Then a rush to BART to get across the bay to Berkeley and my old stomping ground, the Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT).

I was a few minutes late, but still had plenty of time to hear Joker Neils and Gino Robair performing a improvised duet. Robair has an amazing talent for getting electronic-like sounds out of acoustic percussion instruments, and did so again on this evening. Neils was primarily using custom synthesizers, both professional instruments as well as circuit-bent toys. We have discussed circuit bending previously here at CatSynth. He brought several well-crafted examples, including Suziki Omnichords with contact-resistance interfaces; and he also brought a tremendous enthusiasm to his performance and to his discussion of circuit bending in between sets.

Also presenting was Rob Hordijk, who designs custom synthesizers (or “works of art” as he described them). Among the technologies he employed in the “Blippobox” that he presented were chaotic oscillator pairs, where two oscillators feed back into one another to create non-linear modulation, and a filter that he called the “twin peaks” filter (presumably because it has two resonant peaks).

Amy X Newburg lent her vocal and electronic-music talents during the presentation and in the second half of the show – readers may remember her from a a recent music festival that we reviewed.

I had some interesting conversions with both Amy X Newburg and Joker Neils following the performances, which is always a nice coda to a concert.

It was another exceptionally warm weekend in San Francisco (I wouldn’t mind it becoming less exceptional), so more opportunities for walking events. First off I finally made the trip to the San Francisco SPCA to inquire about volunteer opportunities and see their much touted adoption center. The cat area featured large rooms, “kitty condos” as well as comfy areas to hide – it actually seemed on par with the “cat resorts” where I looked into boarding Luna. The SPCA is actually a short work away from CatSynth HQ (well, it’s at least short from my perspective).

Another short walk in the opposite direction from CatSynth HQ led to the Yerba Buena Gallery Walk. Open studios and gallery events are pretty regular occurrences, even within walking distance. Plus, there’s often free food and drink. I didn’t see too many things that truly interested me, except for some abstract paintings at 111 Minna that I had already seen during the first Thursday earlier this month. But that doesn’t mean the afternoon wasn’t without its attractions. Some of the galleries, such as Varnish, were in very interesting spaces, such as converted industrial buildings from the early 20th century. A view of Varnish is in the photo to the left. Additionally, some of the sights on a gallery tour aren’t the works of art, but the people viewing them – and this is even more true on a warm sunny day. Finally, I did have a delightful conversation with Jesse Allen at Chandler Fine Art – his very psychedelic/natural works aren’t what I am usually drawn to, but some of them did include abstract representations of cats and other animals and one “wild cat” in particular caught my attention.

More art on Sunday, this time photography. This Sunday was “Pinhole Photography Day” (who knew?) and the RayKo Photo center featured an exhibit, demonstrations, and most notably a ride on the Bus Obscura a school bus converted into a large camera obscura.

The bus obscura toured our South-of-Market neighborhood, providing a unique view via the pinhole-camera images. Small dots of blurry light would suddenly come into focus as a sidewalk or car or storefront.

Because the image were so localized, it wasn’t always clear exactly where the bus was, though every so often a familiar landmark would emerge. The ride was accompanied by live acoustic and electronic music, adding to the experience and making it different from the regular “tours” of our neighborhood.