black cat

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.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Light Stripes

For Weekend Cat Blogging and the Photo Hunt, we preset this photo of Luna with stripes of light.

This was once again taken with the Hipstamatic on the iPhone, using relatively simple lens and film effects that bring out the light.

Weekend Cat Blogging #340 is hosted by Pam at Sidewalk Shoes, with help from Coco.

The Saturday PhotoHunt has a new home. This week’s theme is Lights. Thank you to tnchick for hosting over the past years.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this weekend by Samantha, Clementine and Maverick at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Homecoming and Birthday

Both Luna and I returned to CatSynth HQ this week after our respective sojourns. And just in time for her 7th birthday this past Wednesday.

Luna received this birthday card from a close friend of ours in Canada.

It’s been a very busy week since returning, with both a curated show and a performance, a major application due, and a pair of shows next week as well. But we took time out to celebrate. Here Luna is enjoying some yummy food. Often she dismisses such offerings, but on this occasion she devoured it with abandon.

And then of course it’s time for play:

Good food and play. It’s just a normal day for a house cat (except for the card).

Weekend Cat Blogging #339 is hosted by Meowza.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Samantha, Clementine and Maverick.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

CatSynth video: Ghost Rider Modular (CatGirl Synth)


From FOCtv on YouTube, via matrixsynth.

“Mr. Hand demos a synthesizers.com patch utilizing a CatGirl Synth Sub Octave Divider module. The sequence is a facsimile of Suicide’s song Ghost Rider done with a Synthesizers.com Q119 Sequential Controller. It’s not the complete riff since Marty Rev’s riff is poly-rhythmic and I could only use 8 steps of the analog sequencer. The organ-like tonality is from the CGS Sub-Octave module which can function similarly to the divide down technology used in electric organs.”

Look for a black cat early in the video, and also the sounds with the CatGirl Synth module.