photo hunt

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Addiction

The theme of this weekend’s Photo Hunt is addiction, which leads to the obligatory catnip photo for Weekend Cat Blogging:

Of course, Luna’s real addiction seems to be grass:

Not only does she enjoy her little pot of grass, but will also immediately find blades growing out of flower pots on our patio (something I wish she would not do).

Lest we pick on cats entirely, we at CatSynth have many other “addictions”:

This is perhaps still my favorite red-wine photo from the archives.

Here are some colorful cocktails, which also symbolize our “addiction” to color and geometry:

Sometimes the visual aspect is better than the taste.

We at CatSynth are certainly addicted to our environment, our life in the city, the visual stimulation, our home, music, playing with cats. In truth, one needs only to browse the pages of this site or visit our photo gallery to witness images of “addiction.” Blogging itself is an addictive activity, and indeed must be in order to be successful.

Weekend Cat Blogging #255 is hosted by Pam at sidewalk shoes.

Photo Hunt 210 is hosted as always by tnchick. This week’s theme is addiction.

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

And the friday ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Vertical

For today’s combined Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt, we explore the theme of vertical with Luna. Certainly, vertical lines are part of the texture and geometry of our home, in some cases quite literally:

(This photo first appeared in February.)

Luna is also quite lean and tall which is apparent when she stretches as in the previous photo, or poses on her pedistal:

There of course other numerous vertical lines in the space around her.

Weekend Cat Blogging #253 is co-hosted by LB and Breadhick at The Sour Dough and Othello and Salome.

Photo Hunt 208 is hosted by tnchick, with the theme of Vertical.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted by Nikita Cat at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

And the friday ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Sweet

Sometimes a theme can be so easy that it becomes a challenge.  Such is the case with this week’s Photo Hunt theme of sweet. Luna is the embodiment of sweetness, and the number of images in the CatSynth archives documenting this can be a bit overwhelming. So we start with the present. Luna often parks herself nearby my workstation in the studio/office and watches quietly. There is something quite sweet about her presence:

There is something very sweet about a sleeping cat, curled up and peaceful:

and of course getting pets and affection:

In retrospect, this really was not difficult at all.

Weekend Cat Blogging #252 is being hosted by our friend Nikita at Meowsings of an Opinionated Pussycat.

Photo Hunt #207 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is sweet.

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

The Bad Kitty Cats Festival of Chaos will be hosted this weekend Samantha and Clementine.

And the friday ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Three

For Weekend Cat Blogging and today’s Photo Hunt theme of Three, we present a trio of images taken with our new camera:

The glass coffee table at CatSynth HQ has been a mainstay for themed photos, and it presents several representations of the number three:

There are the triangular elements with three sides, and there are the three glass surfaces.  I wish there were only three objects on the table instead of four, but you take what you get.  This picture was taken from above with a telephoto lens, and I really like the detail on the glass, particularly the refraction of the square patterns.

Next, we try out a portrait lens on our resident model:

Notice the overall detail and the color of Luna’s green eyes.  For a rather weak connection to the theme of three, there are three chairs present in this picture.

So now we go out into the world.  It does seem that spring has arrived, and we are ready for new adventures:

Weekend Cat Blogging is hosted by Billy Sweet-Feets with Nicholas

Photo Hunt 205 is hosted by tnchick. This week’s theme is “Three”.

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

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Foreign

This week’s Photo Hunt theme is foreign. Cats often intersect with my foreign travels, and with the objects that I bring home. Consider the Suzhou painting silk cat and Maneki Neko from Japan in the photo below:

We have seen these items before, in discussions of cats of China and the cats of Tokyo, respectively.

Here, we see Luna near some of our art pieces:

Most of these, including the large watercolor on the left and small metal sculpture, are local. However, the mostly yellow geometric print is foreign. It is by a Cuban artist. I visited Cuba twice in 2001 and purchased this print in the town of Matanzas. The topic of visiting Cuba as an American (and the entire U.S. policy towards Cuba) could fill up an entire article.

Sometimes one may assume something is foreign when it is in fact not. Consider this photo of Luna from December:

The title may be in French and evoke a bygone era in Paris, but it is actually the work of an American artist, Ken Bailey.

We close with some more maneki neko figures:

All of the cat figurines in this photo are from Japan. There is one more cat, however, on the matchbox. This is not foreign, and created by a local artist.

A sad note this weekend. Gattina and family, who regularly host “Cats on Tuesday”, said farewell to their cat Lisa this week. Lisa was a little over eighteen years old, which is a good long life for a cat.  We send them our thoughts.

Weekend Cat Blogging #248 is hosted by Meowza at his blog iMeowza.

Photo Hunt 203: Foreign is hosted by tnchick.

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Nikita Cat at meowings of an opinionated pussycat. We also wish Nikita a happy birthday this weekend!

And of course the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Cuddly

This weekend we once again combine Weekend Cat Blogging and the Photo Hunt, taking advantage of the rather easy them of cuddly.

Of course, Luna is very cuddly, and we have hundreds of photos in the CatSynth archives to prove it. But she also seeks this quality from her environment and the objects around her. Readers may recall the blue fish that Luna received as a holiday gift. She took to it right away, and is still quite fond of it. A few weeks ago I found her carrying it around and lying down with it in the studio, much as child would treat a favorite stuffed animal.

I even found her using it as a pillow:

I think that clearly qualifies as “cuddly.”

Coincidentally, I composed a jazz piece almost 20 (!) years ago called “The Blue Fish.” It might be fun to dust it of and try playing it again one of these days…

Weekend Cat Blogging #246 is being hosted by Billy Sweetfeets. He is also celebrating his Gotcha Day.

Photo Hunt #201 is hosted as always by tnchick. This week’s theme is “cuddly.”

Carnival of the Cats #310 will be up this Sunday at When Cats Attack.

And of course the Friday Ark #283 is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Twisted

The theme of this weekend’s Photo Hunt is twisted, which works for another entanglement with Weekend Cat Blogging

We have of course seen many photos of Luna around our musical equipment (such as our analog delay pedal used for some twisted effects by raising the feedback level):

or sometimes hiding behind it:

Musical gear often means tangled wires, which seems to spontaneously happen despite our best efforts. Just a series of seemingly inevitable Reidemeister moves.

Luna is remarkably good about leaving the cables alone, but she does have a weekness for the cable ties, the device we use in a vain attempt prevent our cables from getting twisted.

Luna is fond of these and the twist ties that come with packaging, and I have caught her carrying them around. The ties are of course immediately confiscated (much to her disappointment). I do my best to keep them stored away as I don’t think they are safe for cats.

Weekend Cat Blogging is being hosted by Sir Tristan Tabbycat Longtail at tabbylicious, who is also belatedly celebrating his “Gotcha Day.”

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at When Cats Attack. Next week COTC will be here at CatSynth!

And of course the Friday Ark is 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 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.