Weekend Cat Blogging #89: V-day with Luna

A close friend of ours sent Luna this card for Valentine's day. Here we see her coming forward to inspect her new offering.

The card reads “For a Sweet Girl…”, and that she is!

Of course, for me and those who have come to know Luna in real life and online, her identity and gender are completely intertwined. I am curious if people would recognize her as a “sweet girl” if not for name and narrative, however. This speaks to the interesting idea of how we humans recognize gender in other animals, and thus in ourselves.

Anyhow, for more cute cats with less social/philisophical drivel, visit Weekend Cat Blogging #89, which is being hosted by…well, it looks like did not have an official host designated this weekend. But kitechnmage, Trubble and Drago have graciously offered to host this weekend. Looking at the URL, I was hoping to see “cats too L.A.”, but it's just “cats too lazy…” We at CatSynth wouldn't want to accused of conflating the two, though…






E-MU modular for $5.6K

Bidding ended today for this E-MU modular system at eBay. The final bid was $5600.

Among the listed modules are “11 filters, three oscillators, 6 VCAs, four transient generators, two preamps and a filter controller.”

I of course follow things from E-MU, past and present, quite closely. I might have considered specific modules, were they available, but not the unit as a whole. Anyhow, it looks like people still covet this historic instrument.




Fun with stats: V-day edition

Today's chart rates four ex-girlfriends against criteria from an article at everything2.com:

Just like how women can be treated badly, men can also be treated badly. And for some reason, men are socially engineered to take more crap from the woman. Here are some of the things women who treat men badly do:

S L M D
1. “Disapprove” of him and his likes in
attempt to change the man.		 X X
2. Keep reminding him that she wants to break-up with him on a
specific set date.
3. Taking for granted, his ability to understand and compromise. X X X
4. Taking advantage of his generosity. In this case, she
starts becoming a gold-digger.		 X
5.
Getting her way whenever there is a conflict. Some would argue the man may be
passive at this point. But usually, the only thing he wants to avoid is a
meaningless argument.		 X X X X
6. Flirting with other men either in front of him or behind his
back.		 X X
7.
Cheating on him.		 X X X
8. Not understanding that his personality can grow to
become more enlightened.		 X X
9. Having sex
only when she wants.		 X
10. Not respecting his private/personal life. X X
11. Arguing over every meaningless detail of either “what he
said” or “what he did”.		 X X X
12. Having little tolerance and patience of his own
“flaws”.		 X X X X
13. Not saying “sorry” when she’s wrong.
14.
Not admitting when she’s wrong and always trying to get him to admit he’s
wrong when he really isn’t.		 X X X X
15. Blaming him for everything or anything that goes
wrong.		 X
16.
Not going to important events with him. (e.g. his graduation, lifetime
achievement award ceremony, their wedding, etc…)		 X
17. Not sacrificing nor compromising anything of
hers for his benefit. (Aren’t relationships suppose to be a two-way street?)		 X X X X
18. Telling him “I don’t love you,” yet still wanting to
have sex with him.



men treated badly

Catsynth story: "Mewg"

Our friend and regular WCB'er whaleshaman posted this great story as a comment on the Waldorf Pulse and cats. I thought this was worth bringing forward as it's own article. Enjoy!

certainly without cats the synthesizer would never even have come into existence AS WE KNOW IT.

few know that robert “moog” really was a cat! his name is more correctly spelled “mewg,” but changed to hide his real identity.

he had a cute little sporty car with the license plate “moog,” which he parked on broadway near columbia university in the riotous good old days [late 60s, early 70s].

people used to stand around and stare, and through the fog of “herbal” smoke, proclaim knowingly: oh, man, he is SUCH a cool CAT. and btw, end the war but sieze the dean's office first.

i suppose you're wondering how he got away with being a cat and having a drivers' license.

apparently there was a motor vehicle office back in the 60s, on central avenue in white plains [near the county center where i went to music camp in the summer of '59]. the employees in that particular office were unusually corrupt [driven insane by the music camp's awful band rehearsals] and would license “anybody” who showed up.

so that's how bobby the cool cat got to drive a car on broadway.

true story — parts of it anyway.

I can vouch for the DMV office on Central Ave. in White Plains, NY. That's where I got my first driver's permit and then license!

Maybe Toonces should try them for his license as well…




RPM update

I haven't posted an update lately on my RPM challenge album. Needless to say, it hasn't been going all that well, you can read some musings/whinings on my rpm blog.

I'm hoping that getting restarted with a new more deliberate overall sketch of the album structure and energy, and a return to more experimental timbral-based tracks similar to my recent music for Dorian Grey, which is in a lot of ways the most inspired piece of done in a while. Can it save RPM? We'll have to wait and see…





Nora, The Piano-Playing Cat

This wonderful video features Nora, the piano-playing cat. Not a synthesizer, but it is a keyboard instrument.

In addition to the simple cuteness of a cat playing piano, I actually found myself listening to music itself. Clearly a lot of major and minor seconds, mostly because they are easy to reach with a single paw, but there is also the strong repeating rhythm. And she seems remarkably consistent over multiple brief “performances.”

I recommend listening to Nora's music without observing the video, as I am now, and you will hear an interesting minimal atonal piece that stands on its own. Many detractors of atonal and free-rhythm music often argue that “their five-year old could do that” or even that their pet could do that, but perhaps the fact that it captures childlike and cat-like innocence is part of the charm such music.

Weekend Cat Blogging #88 Round-up!

Luna strikes an elegant pose a la Bast for the big Weekend Cat Blogging 88 Roundup.

We're up bright and early – well, I guess it's about 10:30 and with the rain it isn't all the bright – to get started. Lying on the couch with both Luna and the laptop, we're an all black trio – and there's nothing like a purring cat to put the gloom of this past week into perspective. And between WCB and the RPM challenge, we've got a lot to keep us busy…

…so we better get started. If you want to join in, you can either leave a comment here, on the WCB call, or drop us a note.

First up, we have a blast from the past with Toonces the Driving Cat. This was one of those recurring skits that was funny because it was so obvious, with the same disaster happening over and over again. It's a “laugh at,” more than a “laugh with”.

Turns out Taboo at Jelly Pizza is a distant relative of Toonces. Let's just hope she stays on her royal thrown and doesn't get behind the wheel…

Kitikata-san is looking quite…um…furry this week. No, you're not fat. Cats look so soft on sweet spreading on the ground, though the camera can play tricks…

Our friends Upsie, Sundance and Sher send their regards from whatdidyoueat. Like us, they are experiencing some serious rain this weekend, but Upsie manages to stay dry while Sundance investigates a stuffed dog.

Kazon is the fearsome panther this week over at xenogere. Kazon and Luna have some similarities, don't they…

While we at CatSynth are whining about the cold California rain, our friends in the middle of the country have a real deep freeze. Over at Champaign Taste, Louis resorts to veggies and carbs in a desparate attempt to stay warm. That fettucine is looking really good, though. Maybe Louis and Lisa can save some for us…

Bustopher, Harmon, and Kate are also dealing with the extreme cold this weekend. I think Harmon has about as good a strategy as I can suggest…

Over at kross-eyed kitty, Mr. Mao and Ramona are enjoying a blissful sleep, last week's nightmare forgotten…

Kashim and Othello send warm wishes (and big hugs) our way from Austria, and also share with us their secret to extra soft fur.

Extreeeeeme closeup of a photogenic Fridolin can found at Rosa's Yummy Yums.

China Cat and Willow are two lucky cats who are keeping warm indoors from the midwest deep freeze. They also share with us a rather tempting recipe for Lucky Cat martinis. I might have to give that one a try one of these days…

Masak-masak presents a lovely marble stray cat who often comes by to visit. He is a neighbor and rival of the often-featured ginger stray cat, and the two have an uneasy truce. Hey, can't we all just get along?

To many of us, our cats are our babies. However, that does imply that they can grow up to be our disgruntled teenagers, as Puddy demonstrates in this exchange with his human Kate over a tablecloth. I have to admit, I'm with Puddy on this one, it's February, time to lose the Christmas decor!

Dragonheart just returned from Switzerland and has a great slideshow of his trip.

Coca and Mysri meet the new neighbor baby cat at Café Créole (from French Guyana). That new baby has lovely multi-color fur, reminds me a lot of the kittens we say last week playing with the Waldorf Pulse.

Ellen has five adorable foster kittens, all girls, at scamperdude. Those are some amazing cat photos. We hope all the girls find the permanent homes they deserve…

Ooo, another gatita named Luna!. Glad to have her joining us here.

Remember, it's never too late to join in Weekend Cat Blogging…well, at least until Monday. We'll keep posting more WCB fun throughout the weekend, and making improvements, perfectionists that we are. It doesn't look like we're going anywhere for a while…






Weekend Cat Blogging #88

Well, as the weather turned dark and stormy this week, so has life turned a bit darker, and a bit lonelier. It's been another rough week. But Luna is always here to bring some brightness and love into the dark places. Coming home to see her waiting and happy is one of the simple joys in life, one of the few things I can count on.

And on that note, Luna and I are hosting Weekend Cat Blogging #88. Please send us a note or leave a comment on your happy, funny or otherwise amusing feline experiences, and we'll post them in the big round up this weekend while trying to stay dry and warm.

(PS – we love your trackbacks here at CatSynth, and we've made some changes to get those working better, so WCBers are encouraged to give it a try).





CatSynth pic: synth studio, with cat

Another from our friend Knox Bronson at SunPopBlue:

This is a rather abstract representation of his “almost all-analogue synth studio.” Mars kitty can be seen in the bubble at the lower right (and in the enlarged clip to the right). The overall composition suggests a blend of the CatSynth banner with my Music of the (Blue) Spheres graphic artwork.

The original photo is from 2002, and Mars has since passed away. You can also see a close-up video at the original SunPopBlue posting.