photo hunt

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Lazy Cat?

For this week’s Photo Hunt theme of lazy, we have a photo of Luna napping in an extraordinary sun patch.

Luna being a Lazy Cat in the Sun.

While Luna may be able to enjoy a lazy time this weekend, I do not have that luxury. Both today and tomorrow are filled with band rehearsals – three rehearsals for two bands, including preparation for an album release next week – plus stops at an art exhibition and a cat video festival in Oakland tonight. Yes, a cat video festival. There are all of course rewarding experiences and I freely chose to commit to them, so I’m not complaining. But I do sometimes think there is wisdom in the path of the “lazy cat.”

I did hesitate to write this post because of the pejorative use of “lazy” to describe cats. It’s not uncommon to hear cats’ propensity for napping described this way, and I read frequent unfair comparisons to dogs. But domestic cats fill the roles they were bred for, and do so quite well. There are working cats, on farms, in wine cellars, and even at one of our neighborhood arts institutions, SOMArts. The role of the house cat is to provide companionship, an important social and emotional function. Luna does this spectacularly, as do many of the other cats I have met though blogs. And it not a role without risks, as companion animals are especially vulnerable to abuse (sadly, so are humans in domestic situations). So let us honor the “lazy cats” and maybe learn something from them about being in the moment.

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

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

And the Friday Ark is on hiatus this week, but will be back on May 17.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Quirky

We usually present Luna in an elegant or creative manner, but for this week’s Photo Hunt theme of Quirky, it is an opportunity to present her quirky goofy side. That is particularly visible when she gets a new scratcher and fresh catnip:

As one can see, she is quite happy and blissful, though perhaps a bit less dignified than usual.

The Saturday Photohunt is up. This week’s theme is Quirky.

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

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Monochrome

This week’s Photo Hunt theme is easy. We have tons of monochrome photos, from art photos to snapshots and everything in between. Here is a snapshot of Luna taken this morning with a black-and-white film preset on the iPhone Hipstamatic app:

This photo, with Luna walking among the chrome pillars around CatSynth HQ, could have easily worked for last week’s theme as well.

Looking back, I have definitely moved between periods of color and black-and-white in my photography. 2010 was probably the most monochromatic year for me. Here is a monochromatic close-up portrait of Luna I used for a Weekend Cat Blogging back in 2010.

We should do some more portraits like that again this year.

My video from last week’s performance came out quite dark, and ended up being a de-facto monochromatic piece with a purple tint. I encourage visitors to check it out in yesterday’s gig report.

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

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

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Steel

For this week’s Photo Hunt theme of Steel, we once again did into the CatSynth archives for a couple of views of Luna with our metallic modernist interior design:

Technically, some of this is chrome, but I am pretty sure the metal in the black table below is in fact steel.

We opted for archival photos this week because CatSynth HQ is not the best backdrop at the moment, between the cleanup inside and construction outside, which has many things here out of place. But the scaffolding used by the construction crew is also an example of steel:

Hopefully, we can put things back in place here by the middle of this month.

The Saturday Photo Hunt features the theme of STEEL this week.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt with Luna: Upper

For today’s Photo Hunt theme of Upper, we dug back into the archives for this photo of Luna on the upper ledge at CatSynth HQ:

Fortunately, she doesn’t walk up there too often (at least not when I’m around to witness it.)

We have embarked on a major clean-up of the upper level of CatSynth HQ. Compared to previous cleaning projects, this may be most extensive and ruthless in several years. Here, Luna sits in her favorite upper-level perch as various bits of detritus pile up before meeting the final destiny.

I was able to get a lot done last weekend (and Luna was of course on hand to supervise), but there is still a long way to go. This is as much a project of renewal as it is cleaning. Making way for the new…

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

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted tomorrow by the Florida Furrkids.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt with Luna: Promises

We have another exceptionally cute Instagram of Luna this week:

This is another instance of our morning ritual where I put on my shoes – indicating that I am probably about to leave – and Luna comes running over and rolls around on the rug. She clearly wants me to stay and play with her, but the best I can do is promise to come back later. This leads to a roundabout entry in this week’s Photo Hunt, where the theme is Promise.

The Saturday Photo Hunt is up, with the theme of Promise.

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

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Haven

I took this Instagram of Luna napping on her beanbag chair in the studio area the other day. What could be more peaceful than a cat curled up in a favorite spot for a nap.

The image also brought to mind this week’s Photo Hunt theme of Haven at multiple levels. CatSynth HQ is itself a haven that protects us from the outside world. But within the overall expanse, the studio area provides another level of enclosure or refuge. And sinking into her beanbag chair, Luna finds a haven within a haven.

The theme also brings to mind the town of New Haven, Connecticut, where I attended Yale many years ago. I don’t have any photos of my own from that time, though I did do a Fun with Highways post about the town back in 2007.

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

The Carnival of the Cats will be up on Sunday at iInfidel.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Song

Cats and music are core to what we do here at CatSynth, so the combination of Weekend Cat Blogging and the Photo Hunt theme of song would seem to be a perfect match. But when we interpret song more strictly as a particular type of musical composition, it becomes a bit more challenging. Here I attempt to get Luna to pose with some sheet music:

This is actually a page from the last song we need to record for our Reconnaissance Fly album. I also found another photo of Luna with sheet music (also from Reconnaissance Fly) in the archives:

Weekend Cat Blogging #371 will be hosted by Kashim, Othello and Salome at PaulChens FoodBlog?!. This edition is in honor of sher, a longtime participant of Weekend Cat Blogging and food blogger who tragically passed away four years ago.

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

Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Mind of Mog.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Texture

We at CatSynth have been absent for a few days. Most of my time that wasn’t spent at the day job was devoted to preparations for last night’s Night Light Multimedia Garden Party at SOMArts here in San Francisco. All the work paid off and the show went quite well, and I will be talking about that in a later article. But the combined silent-video-and-live-improvised-music piece featured several clips of Luna, including this one that is perfect for a combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt with theme texture.

This is a fun clip that combines cats, abstract digital imagery, and even highways with our I-80 sign in the background. You can see the short segment that appeared in the video below:

Luna black cat I-80 texture from CatSynth on Vimeo.

A sad note this week, our friend Meowza passed away suddenly last week. It was unexpected when we read of his passing in the comments for our Carnival of the Cats last week, he was so full of life. We remember him through the many images of him rolling around in the dry Arizona dirt:

We send our thoughts to Mog and all of Meowza’s family on their loss.

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by…no one this week. In fact, it looks like this week was completely left off the schedule, which resumes with edition 360 next weekend. But Elivra has stepped in to combine WCB 359 1/2 with Carnival of the Cats.

The Weekly Photo Hunt is up with the theme of Texture.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Sturdy

We return to a combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt this Saturday on the theme Sturdy. Here we see Luna passing by some of the sturdy support columns that hold up CatSynth HQ.

The wooden beams are quite thick, and fastened with multiple bolts and metal junctions both on the top and bottom.

The diagonal beam adds addition sturdiness, especially in the event of a seismic event. But the strength also has a modernist aesthetic quality that fits the overall style of our space.

Weekend Cat Blogging #356 will be hosted by Kashim, Othello and Salome at PaulChens FoodBlog?!.

The Saturday Photohunt theme is Sturdy.

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

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.