Luna

Weekend Cat Blogging: Grass!

It seems like a fine weekend to enjoy some grass:

“Rosy’s” is our favorite brand, in part because of the little black cat on the tag. It has appeared previously on this site.

Luna had been obsessed lately with the grass growing the flower pots on our patio, so it seemed like she was really craving it. Perhaps this is a trait picked up from our friend Mickey.

(A bit of trivia: the photos in this article are scaled to 420 pixels.)

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Samantha and Tigger of Life from a Cat’s Perspective, now at their new home in Texas.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at House Panthers, of which Luna is a proud member.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Electric

This weekend we at CatSynth sing the body electric (with apologies to Walt Whitman) and present another combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt.

Electricity and electronics are a central part of our existence:

Luna poses with an electric guitar, cables and our Mr. Echo delay pedal. Below we see Luna posing with another of our electronic devices, a Korg Kaos Pad:

Electricity permeates not only our music but art as well. Here we see a piece entitled Reflective by artist Roy Forest. It contains a red neon light running the length of bamboo tube.

For WCB, note the Suzhou cat and maneki neko on the shelf about the sculpture.

It’s interesting how there is a black and red theme throughout the images in this post. I only noticed that after completing it. It has a suggestion of fire to it, and fire and electricity have a strong connection.

More electricity. This morning, we were awakened by a large electrical storm with loud thunder and flashes of lightening. It’s a remarkable coincidence, as thunderstorms are quite rare in San Francisco. They lasted most of the morning, and some neighborhoods lost electricity. Our area was not affected by the outages, and in the end things just got a little damp.

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by our friends LB and Breadchick at The Sour Dough. We know they will appreciate the audio and music gear featured in this article.

Photo Hunt #178 at tnchick features the theme of electric, with the prototype image being an electric guitar.

Kashim, Othello and Salome are hosting the Carnival of the Cats this Sunday.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Luna and mouse

This weekend we have a video of Luna playing with one of her mouse toys.

She can get quite intense in her play. It is a delight to watch.

Visit Mind of Mog for Weekend Cat Blogging.

The Carnival of Cats will be happening this Sunday at Artsy Catsy.

The now monthly Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos will be hosted by Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: A triangle of light

This weekend, we have Luna basking in a triangular patch of light.

It reminded me of some of the architectural photos I have been taking, both the triangular shape and the stone surface. And it has a feeling of emptiness, though things can never be too empty with a playful cat.

Weekend Cat Blogging #220, is being hosted by Salome, at Paulchen’s Foodblog?!. This is no small feat as Astrid is away, but she is getting help from some of her human and feline friends.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Mind of Mog.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Artificial

For Weekend Cat Blogging, we selected a photo of Luna standing atop a table, i.e., someplace she is technically not supposed to be, but there is no stopping a cat from claiming every accessible surface.

The theme for this week’s Photo Hunt is artificial, which is an interesting and subjective term. One could say everything is the above photo except for Luna is “artifical” in that is was constructed by humans. But if one uses artificial to mean simulated or “fake”, then the banana is the most appropriate object. It is actually a musical instrument, a shaker.

In a sense, most of our Weekend Cat Blogging posts explore the contrast between Luna’s natural beauty and her artificial surroundings:

Then again, most humans and domestic cats live in artificial dwellings (unless they live in caves or trees), whether they think about it that way or not.

In the last photo, Luna once again poses on top of her scratching post, which is by now quite worn and will soon need to be replaced.

Weekend Cat Blogging #219 is being hosted by LB and Breadchick at The Sour Dough. They make the somewhat disturbing observation that August is already half over (it has been going by fast).

The Carnival of the Cats will be at Artsy Catsy this Sunday.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator. It’s edition 256, which is a good number.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Entertainment

We are once again combining Weekend Cat Blogging and the Photo Hunt, where this week’s theme is Entertainment.

Whether or not music is a way of life or entertainment is a question that has been debated since time immemorial. But if you accept that at least some music is entertainment, then we at CatSynth have no shortage of appropriate photos. We don’t even need to dig too deep in the CatSynth Archives to find intersections of Luna and music:


Click on any of the above images to see the full size photo in its original post.

Yes, we are doing a “clip show” this weekend. It actually works out well, though, as I need to rest a bit for medical reasons. Luna is great company when healing. It also gives me a chance to ponder future artistic directions, and that brings us full circle to whether art is a way of life, entertainment, or both.

Weekend Cat Blogging #217 is being hosted by Mog and Meowza.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Kashim, Othello and Salome.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Midnight Monday CatSynth pic: More Luna in the Studio

A follow-up of sorts to Weekend Cat Blogging. Luna paused in front of this rack and of course I had to grab the nearest camera and snap a picture of her posing.

If Luna represents the present, the gear represents the past. The Yamaha TX81Z has a long personal history, but the other E-MU and Yamaha modules are just there, filling up space. I can remember when these were coveted items and each came with a large price tag. But they do make a nice backdrop for a “CatSynth pic.”

Weekend Cat Blogging: In the Studio

Luna enjoys sitting behind the blinds in the studio area. She is always a welcome presence.

We were finally getting everything set up again at the beginning of July, only to have to once again unplug everything to support some of the live shows. It’s been a while since we at CatSynth have had a stable studio where I can just sit down, flip on the switches and do creative work. That is one thing I miss from our former home, the evenings in the downstairs studio room just spontaneously trying things out on the computer or other equipment, and Luna coming over to investigate. Now it feels like I have to constantly plug and unplug things and do heavy lifting just to make music at home. But with no shows of my own scheduled for August, it might be time to set things right.

Weekend Cat Blogging #216 is being hosted by our friends Samantha Black & Mr Tigger at Life from a Cat’s Perspective. 216 is actually an interesting number, but I digress.

The Carnvial of the Cats will be up this Sunday at When Cats Attack.

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

CatSynth 3rd Anniversary

Well, this site has now been running for three years. And we’re marking the anniversary the best way we can think of: with stats of questionable significance.

886 posts.
195,501 visitors.
4638 comments.
Over 15,000 spam comments squashed.
Over 400 cat-and-synth pics and videos

The top 20 terms (a term is either a tag or a category or both):

Cats   516
cat   356
Synthesizers   297
Luna   215
synthesizer   185
Music   171
News   146
weekend cat blogging   136
WCB   134
Personal   120
Art   115
Wordless Wednesday   96
Modernism   72
San Francisco   68
synth   61
Photography   61
Highways   60
electronic music   52
Reviews   40
cats on tuesday   48

The 11 most commented posts:

Dona Nobis Pacem   48
Wordless Wednesday: La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona   43
"Wayback" Wordless Wednesday: Green Kitties   42
Wordless Wednesday: A Great Moment   41
Wordless Wednesday: Luna Sun Triangle   41
Dona Nobis Pacem: BlogBlast for Peace!   40
Wordless Wednesday: 43   39
Wordless Wednesday: Cat and Geometry   38
Wordless Wednesday: Centered Cat   37
Wordless Wednesday: Alley behind 49 Geary   37
Wordless Wednesday: Maneki Neko   37

And the top comment contributors:

Kitty   451
Mickey   179
CatSynth   138
Gattina   136
whaleshaman   81
AndrĂ©e   73
Daisy   71
Dragonheart & Merlin   71
sher   65
SandyCarlson   60
jams o donnell   44
The Right Blue   44
kitikata-san   42
Hendrix   41
parker   40
Matthew James Didier   40
Katie   32
Randall   31
HotMBC   30
Gandalf & Grayson   30
Dennis the Vizsla   30

This list includes sites that are no longer active, and at least one person who has passed away.

I did also go back and look at those early posts from July and August of 2006, expecting to reflect on how much things have changed over three years. But instead I found myself noticing how much things on the site have stayed the same…