black cat

Weekend Cat Blogging: Play with Me!

On sporadic mornings, I have been taking Instagram photos of Luna like the one above. She is often basking in the sunshine on one of the dining-area chairs, but on this occasion she was rolling on the floor with one message: “Play with Me!”

And it was a good message for her to give. Like many mornings, it was a bit frenzied with things pulling me in multiple directions. Luna made it clear what I should be doing, which was to drop everything and come play with her, even if only for a few minutes before work. And so this is a very roundabout way of interpreting this week’s Photo Hunt theme of DROP. Weak, perhaps, but it means something to us.

Weekend Cat Blogging #352 is hosted by Pam at Sidewalk Shoes.

The Weekly Photo Hunt theme is DROP.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Nikita and Elivra at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat. We also wish Nikita and his dad a Happy Birthday this coming week!

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna encounters the Skatchbox

Those who read yesterday’s review of Music of Invention concert encountered Tom Nunn’s musical invention, the Skatchbox. Today, Luna discovered this instrument for herself:

I chose this model of the limited-edition mini-Skatchboxes made specifically for the concert because of its visual aesthetics. It reminds me a bit of paintings of Kandinsky. As for the sound, it can make a variety of loud noisy timbrally rich sounds. They were a bit new to Luna’s ears:

I literally just scratched the surface (no pun intended). I wouldn’t yet play this in a formal musical setting. But it is loud, and a somewhat sneaky way to participate in this week’s Saturday Photo Hunt on the theme LOUD. Here is another image of Luna with the Skatchbox using the new America pack in the Hipstamatic app.

Those who have regularly seen my photos know I tend to prefer crisp images with high contrast, whether from the Hisptamatic or the DSLR. But this one seemed to work best blurred. And Luna was not going to cooperate for another take.

Weekend Cat Blogging #351 is hosted by The Bengal Business.

The Saturday Photo Hunt is up with the theme of LOUD.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by When Cats Attack!

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

CatSynth video: The Scanimate

Moog Little Phatty and the Scanimate

From experimentalsynth on YouTube, via matrixsynth where you can read more and see more images. A cute black cat makes a cameo appearance during the video 🙂

“The first attempt at controlling analog video animation with control voltage created by a Moog synthesizer. Learn more at www.scanimate.com and www.experimentalsynth.com”

“Scanimate is a 100% analog video animation system in use form the late 60s to early 80s. It was used on a number of popular films & TV shows including, Star Wars, Logan’s Run, Sesame Street & NBC Sports. Only eight were built and they originally sold for around $1,000,000.”

It’s interesting to consider in the context of the recently released LZX analog video modular synthesizer.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Heart

Our combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Saturday Photo Hunt features the theme Heart. We have a few images that blend the theme with our interests in music, mathematics and of course, cats.

Here Luna poses with a heart-shaped kalimba (thumb piano).

Luna peers at the iPad, which displays a plot of a cardioid. We used a mathematical function that produces the heart-shaped figure when plotted with polar coordinates. The formula for the cardioid is: r = 1 – sin(θ), where r is the radius from the center of the plot and θ is the angle sweeping around the center. The best way to visualize polar coordinates is using one of those old circular radar screens where the plotter sweeps in a circular motion.

The photo also features one of Luna’s favorite toys, a heart-shaped plush toy with the word “kitty” inscribed on it. We have had it for years now (indeed, it was featured in a WCB/Photo Hunt back in 2008).

Weekend Cat Blogging #349 (Valentines Day edition) is hosted by Meowza.

The Saturday Photohunt theme is Heart.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Meowzings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Fluffy

For our combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Saturday Photo Hunt on the theme of fluffy, we have some unusually fluffy and quite playful photos of Luna:

Luna is technically a short-hair cat, but in the winter her fur gets longer and thicker, and is more visible when she rolls around instead of one her more staid poses. Of course, it’s nothing like the “floof” one sees on some cats.

These photos were done with the “big camera” – the iPhone (either straight or with Hipstamatic) is too slow to capture the detail of Luna’s fur.

Weekend Cat Blogging #347 is hosted by Salome at PaulChens FoodBlog?!

The Saturday Photo Hunt is up. This week’s theme is fluffy.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Friends Furever.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Return to the Beginning

For our first Weekend Cat Blogging of 2012, we reprise the original photo that launched this site. Here is Luna with the Novation keyboard on the beanbag chair near the turn of the new year.

Luna is all grown up compared to the youngster in the original photo in 2006, but she still has the same fur and eyes.  And she still favors this particular beanbag chair as her own.  Indeed, it’s a favorite napping spot here in the studio area:

I didn’t realize until looking at the original against these photos how similar the windows look, even though the original was in a completely different place.

The studio is a currently a focus of attention here at CatSynth HQ in that I am trying to further make it into a better organized laboratory for musical and visual creativity.  And it also has to continue to double as the office, the place where the computers sit and where I pay the bills.  I expect that Luna will continue to spend lots of time here as well.

Weekend Cat Blogging #344 is hosted by Mog with assists from Meowza and Ritzi at Mind of Mog.

The Carnival of the Cats well be hosted by Kashim, Othello and Salome in Vienna.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Hanukkah Cat

For this year’s holiday edition of Weekend Cat Blogging, we have scenes from our rather casual observance of Hanukkah.

Luna inspects the iPad-based menorah after the fourth night (which happened on Friday). The iPad app is from an Israeli studio, and has simulated oil flames rather than candle flames. It has the traditional prayer in Hebrew, which I cannot read particularly well – growing up, we either said it in English or from transliteration.

We do have a real menorah as well, but Luna is not allowed near it. You can see it in this post from the past.

Luna did get some new toys to play with. She is quite fond of the catnip-filled variety.

Weekend Cat Blogging #342 is hosted by Jules and Vincent, at Judi’s Mind Over Matter. Check out their great black-and-white photos.

Carnival of the Cats will be hosted tomorrow by Billy SweetFeets.

The Friday Ark is off this week for the holidays.