black cat

Weekend Cat Blogging 301: A Sad Day

March 11 was a sad day.

It is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our friend Mickey.

As mentioned earlier this week, he fell very ill and passed away on Friday. He (through his mom) first visited us in late 2007, and they have been regulars on our site ever since, as likely to comment on experimental music shows and photography as Luna’s feline antics. And in turn, we enjoyed getting to know them better through their site. Our thoughts go out to Mom Nancy and the rest of the family today.

We have been closely following the tragic events in Japan after the earthquake and tsunami. Images such as these are heartbreaking, and our thoughts are with the people of Japan right now. While every year brings multiple huge disasters, when it happens somewhere you have visited or affects people you know, it hits harder.

Our friends at Cats of Wildcat Woods have compiled a list of relief organizations. The Red Cross is always a good place to start, and now you can donate via text messages.

There is no information currently on Tashirojima, or “Cat Island”, which is off the eastern coast of Japan in Miyagi Prefecture, near epicenter of the earthquake and tsunami, but the fear is that the island was lost.

Weekend Cat Blogging #301 is hosted by Pam at Sidewalk Shoes.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Two Little Cavaliers.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

IWW General Strike Poster

Saw this poster on BoingBoing:

Hugh Electronic sez, “The I.W.W. hired Eric Drooker to design posters for a general strike which he is told, now appears imminent in Wisconsin. The Industrial Workers of the World asked him to design versions in Spanish and Arabic, for international solidarity.”

I doubt that general strike is actually imminent in Wisconsin, but one has to admire that poster. Of course, we love black cats, and black and red is great color combination.

Some preparation for March 4 concert

A late evening preparing for the upcoming Regents’ Lecture concert, with an assist from Luna:

Here Luna poses with TouchOSC on the iPad, which is becoming one of the main control surfaces I will be using to control Open Sound World.  Last night I was building the synthesis infrastructure for the new piece, a combination of drum sampling and spatialized additive synthesis – at least four separate additive synthesis models that are algorithmically generated based on input from the iPad.  Against this will be electronic drum sounds and an Afro-Cuban rhythm detail.  I really won’t know the exact shape of this piece until I work with CNMAT’s speaker array.

I also learned from the Saturday’s performance in Oakland that I will need to refine the control on TouchOSC for the new implementation of my piece Charmer:Firmament.  It was very well received, with descriptions like “beautiful” and “meditative”, but it was difficult to control compared to the Wacom graphics tablet.  I will try a different mix of controls on the iPad to see if it works better.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Silhouette

This week’s Photo Hunt theme is silhouette, which is something that often happens with photos of Luna by chance if not by intention.

It is often a product of Luna’s black fur that the lighting extremes at CatSynth HQ.  But it can lead to interesting results.  I like the contrast of Luna’s black silhouette to the bright chrome and glass reflections in this next photo:

This was taken back on New Years Day.

Weekend Cat Blogging #298 will be hosted by Samantha and Clementine at Life from a Cat’s Perspective.

PhotoHunt 253 is hosted as always by tnchick. This week’s theme is Silhouette.

Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at When Cats Attack!.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging #296

It looks like it’s going to be another beautiful morning here.  Luna maintains her routine on sunny mornings of bedding down on a dining room chair.  And while I am busy working, she is dreaming:

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted here at CatSynth tomorrow! If you would like to participate, please fill out the handy submission form.

Weekend Cat Blogging #296 is being hosted by Pam at Sidewalk Shoes.

And the Friday Ark has returned at the modulator.

Like many, we have been hungrily following the events in Egypt (if by some chance, you are not following this, you should be) – and excited to see hopeful changes for the people there. While the focus is of course on the major political changes and peoples’ safety, I did look into stories about animals in the land that once worshipped cats as gods. Through this article, we did read about Egyptian Mau Rescue, and browsed the Facebook page for the Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals. Ultimately, these visits ended up being a narrative about people and the challenges they face caring for animals amidst major upheaval.

Weekend Cat Blogging #294: Looking out the Window

While many of our friends were dealing with snow, we enjoyed a some sunshine here in California this past week, even a bit of warmth. Here we see Luna intently looking out the window in a patch of strong afternoon sun:

I like the warm colors in this one, and the way it contrasts with her fur.

I also made this video. The original came out rather dark, but it was good for experimenting with black-and-white, digital grain effects and contrast. Wait until the end to hear Luna’s sweet little voice.

Weekend Cat Blogging #294 is hosted by Billy Sweetfeets. (Watch the french toast video at your own risk.)

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Nikita.

And next week we will be hosting Weekend Cat Blogging here at CatSynth!