CATSYNTH

cats synthesizers music art opinion

Tag: cat

  • Autumn sun, Midnight Monday, and Site Improvements

    Well, I am back home at CatSynth HQ in California. That means back home with Luna, of course:

    Although she is calm and poised in this photo, it's been all purrs and cuddling today, even while I try to work. Not that anyone is complaining.

    Today we enjoyed what I traditionally called the “August sun”, that really deep yellow sunlight that gives everything, but especially green leaves, a rich yellow coloring, that feels warm even as the air cools down. It is difficult to capture in a digital photo, but here is one attempt:

    I think I should change “August sun” to “Autumn sun”, since the phenomenon extends well into September and even October. And not only here on the west coast. New York was exceptionally warm and getting plenty of “Autumn/August” sun this past week.

    I have been working on several improvements for this site, including upgrading our software. As usual, a few things break in the process (e.g., comment displays were a little off, the “tag search” featured on the highways page and elsewhere was completely broken, our “cats synthesizers music art opinion” slogan was missing, etc.). Those are mostly fixed, and now we can proceed to making actual improvments.

    Actually, the main change we need to make is in our hosting service. The good folks at A Plus net (the same people who messed up our domain name and left us stranded in the CatSynth FEMA trailer for a week) let us know that we have exceeded our CPU usage limits (not storage or bandwidth) and will need to switch to a more expensive hosting plan – all in a message from the friendly-sounding “abuse at aplus dot net.” So we could simply upgrade our plan, but since our lease is up on October 7 anyway, it might be a good time to shop around for an alternative. We welcome suggestions from our readers on good and bad experiences with hosts – please leave a comment or contact us. Of course, we have to act quickly on this matter…

  • Weekend Cat Blogging and more: It's all about Luna!

    Well, I am still in New York this weekend, and meanwhile Luna is home at CatSynth HQ in California. I thought it would be appropriate to share some photos taken during some previous trips by our pet sitter Ronni West:

    It's great getting to see these photos from Ronni, knowing that Luna is happy and being herself. Here we see her kneading some laundry left on the bed, which remains one of her guilty pleasures:

    I make sure to leave some laundry out when I go away, I think it gives her a sense of familiarity and comfort.

    Even though I do enjoy travelling, it's always great to come home and be reunited.

    Weekend Cat Blogging #121 is being hosted this weekend at masak-masak.

    The Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos is going on the Mind of Mog. The theme this week is catnip, and while I know Luna is getting to enjoy fresh catnip during my absense, I don't have the photographic evidence on hand (yet).

    The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this week at Life from a Cat's perspective. And of course the Friday Ark #158 is at the modulator.

    Finally, thank you to everyone who sent their kind thoughts this week, through comments here at CatSynth as well as via email or other media. I will try my best to answer individually as well, but wanted to say something here for everyone.

  • CatSynth pic: Rudy the Rack Cat

    From Ivan, we have Rudy the Rack Cat:

    I am curious about a couple of the items in the rack. For example, the unit labeled as a “PCA-200 Low-Frequency Synthesizer”, and it's neighor below. Anyone know anything about them? The only references I can find to “PCA200” are a measurement device and an old ATM networking device.

  • CatSynth pic: MisteryCat

    Submitted by jacksin of jacksin music:

  • Midnight Monday Studio Cat

    Luna wanders into the (somewhat messy) studio, where I spent much of this weekend working on several projects, including music you will probably never hear and the Sunday podcast. It's a rare shot of both the PC and Mac laptops along with the keyboards and other gear.

    Actually, I think the ketzela is more interested in those cushions and bedding than in any musical or technological mischief.








  • New Podcast: Sean Carson (del *.*), "resting tones 5"

    Click here to subscribe. You can also visit the CatSynth Channel page for more info or to listen live.

    Sean Carson is the first the first to take advantage of our open submissions for the CatSynth Channel podcast. And we are very to happy to have his piece “resting tones 5”, which very much fits our standard aesthetics, and includes “cat-like” sounds as well.

    one of my most bizarre pieces.

    there are some cat like sounds made by the cumbus oud. Its a steel string fretless instrument from Turkey

    To submit your own music, visit our submissions page. Anything is game, as long as it vaguely fits the aesthetics of the CatSynth blog and/or podcast.

    And kids, whatever you do, do NOT type that stage name into your Terminal window ;-).

  • Always time for Weekend Cat Blogging

    Even in the midst of an incredibly busy weekend, we at CatSynth always try and find a few minutes for Weekend Cat Blogging:

    Regular readers know that Luna is quite fond of towels, resting upon them, kneading them, etc. She has taken over this green towel which I left for her one day on the bed, and it has become a great spot for those all important afternoon naps/meditations.

    Yes, being unemployed seems to leave me more busy than I was before, and this weekend is no exception, with several upcoming shows, and major and software projects with looming deadlines (but which I can't talk to you about), revamping my main artist/professional website, and a lot of time on the phone in touch with friends, colleagues and others. But one of the best parts of this period has been spending lots of quality time with Luna, even if just for an hour here and there in between other events, or having her around while I work online or in the studio.

    Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Megan and the Bad Kitty Cats. It seems that their site is down while recoving from hackers. Very rude and incovenient, those pesky hackers. We hope they're back up soon.

    Carnival of the Cats will be at the House of the (Mostly) Black Cats this weekend.

    The Bad Kitty Cat Festival of Chaos #10 is being held at the *New* Tuxedo Gang Hideout. They have a great graphic to go with it, reproduced below:

    And of course, Friday Ark #156 is at the modulator.

  • CatSynth pic: Isis and Keyboard

    Submitted by Ryan B. Smith

  • Code 46 / "With All Her Heart"

    Our friend jellypizza posted this wonderful video of Taboo from 1997, peeking out from inside a drawer.


    I haven't embedded the video, but I do encourage readers to go see it (you can click on the photo or the “related link” below). In a way, it is also a posthumous “CatSynth Video” for Taboo, featuring the very ambiet/electronic/synthetic track “Mother” from the soundtrack of the award-winning film Code 46. (The soundtrack is also available at iTunes .) I really thought it added something to the video, giving what was already a very sweet moment a unique quality. Of course, one would expect music from a soundtrack to work well with video, but it's still interesting how well it worked given the stark contrast to the actual film.

    I had not heard of Code 46 before JellyPizza's recommendation, but did get a chance to see it last week. The ambient music is a backdrop to a tale in the near future where technology is more advanced but still very recognizeable. In the film, the world seems to be separated into a very high-tech “inside” world that includes major developed cities (e.g., in Asia, Europe, North America, etc.) and “outside.” People carry genetic IDs and bio-tech permits to travel. Additionally, the goverment or governments of the “inside” have genetically driven limits on who can and cannot have children together. This is all meant to sound very sinister, I'm sure, but I think the folks in this near-future world might have a point on the reproduction/population issue. And the world painted by the visuals and the music seems very inviting, both futuristic and very familiar at the same time. There is also an interesting take on fusion among “inside” languages (e.g., English, Chinese, Spanish).

    Check out the soundtrack or the movie if you have a chance, and then re-watch Taboo's video.

  • Chaos Festival: "Aquatic" Luna

    We couldn't let this week's theme for the Bad Kitty Cat Chaos Festival (hosted by Kashim and Othello) go unanswered. The theme is “water or rain.” Did somebody say “Aquatic”?

    Indeed, the CD does have an underlying water theme, and can be very relaxing to listen to, according to many who have either purchased or downloaded it. Although several of the order pieces had an aquatic sound to them (e.g., “Proportional Fish”), the idea to use it as a unifying element was largely inspired by living here by the ocean…

    Of course, all this talk about water makes us at CatSynth quite thirsty: