Luna sits down to relax near the modular synth. The purple Monorocket case is completely packed with modules and a mess of wires that are the result of improvised patching. Fortunately, Luna seems to show no interest in the wires, but is more focused on her toys, such as the blue fish (one of her favorites).
The modular is currently set up in the living room for practicing ahead of my duo performance tomorrow night with David Samas. Apropos of Weekend Cat Blogging, the theme of the performance is leopard print. You can see a video of our past performance below and read more about it in this post.
Amar Chaudhary and David Samas at Turquoise Yantra Grotto, April 5, 2013 from CatSynth on Vimeo.
Carnival of the Cats will be up tomorrow at Mind of Mog.
And the Friday Ark is at the modulator. Our modular synth contains modulators 🙂
Earlier this week, we had rehearsals at CatSynth HQ for my Thursday-night performance as the poetry-and-music duo “Pitta of the Mind.” And Luna was on hand to supervise and support.
Her annoyed expression has more to do with the camera flash than anything else. She was very curious and hung out with us during the rehearsal, which was great to see as she is usually quite shy. And of course, she is quite used to the strange sounds from the iPad and modular synth.
The show itself was great, and will be the topic of a separate post in the near future.
The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted this Sunday by Samantha, Clementine and Maverick.
And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.
Living in Santa Cruz can be a challenge at times. One of the major challenges is getting to and from places in the Bay Area, where most of my musical, job-search, and social activities located.
For San Francisco trips, one takes Highways 17, 85 and 280 (or 101 as suggested below) into the city:
If I am not in a rush, highway 1 along the coast is always a rewarding experience.
For the east bay (Berkeley, Oakland, etc.), one instead follows highway 17, which becomes I-880, along the east side of the bay:
The trick is avoid the bridges. Sometimes this is unavoidable, and one ends up making a “grand circuit” to and from Santa Cruz around the bay.
The trip is about 70 miles each direction (slightly longer on the east bay side), and about 90 minutes unless one hits bad traffic. Really, it's not so bad, and I have been doing trips like this for years for music and art events, or to see friends, family, and such.
But when it becomes several times a week, and nearing every day, it starts to wear on you. Almost all of my job interviews are in the bay area. Then there is the upcoming performance schedule, back-to-back shows in SF and Oakland followed by the tour.
And this weekend will top them all:
Saturday. Rehearsal for Polly Moller and Company. Then br'er performs in San Francisco that night. It's quite a coincidence that br'er is touring the west coast right now, just as I am about to go on tour. Indeed we will also be crossing paths again in Seattle when we both play on October 20th.
Sunday. Rehearsal again. Then the :plug3: headphone festival in San Francisco. I have a solo set at 7:30PM.
Monday. The tour's kickoff show at 1510 8th Street in Oakland. I have a solo set in addition to our group show.
Tuesday. I need to stay overnight so that…
Wednesday. We leave on tour from SF and Oakland bright and early.
This is out of control. Not because of the activities themselves, which are manageable, but the fact that it is far from CatSynth HQ every day. I have options to stay overnight to make things easier (and will likely do so some of the nights), but that means being away from home, away from everything that needs to be done here, away from Luna (which also means setting up more cat sitting arrangements).
Living in Santa Cruz is becoming one huge liability. It was fine when I was working every day here and going up to the city once a week or so, but now my life and all the action in it seems to be back in the bay area. How long can I keep this up?
After a few weeks hiatus, the CatSynth Channel Podcast is back. This Sunday we are featuring a track from Not Made of Stone by Polly Moller and Company. Regular readers may recall this is the group I am going on tour with in a little over a week, and Suspension is one of several tracks from Not Made of Stone that we will be performing.
“A woman travels into space to forcibly remove the source of her anguish.”
We began are tour rehearsals this weekend, including some changes from our previous performances. A new guitarist, Bill Wolter; and new live electronics processing for flute and voice.
More information on the album and tour can be found Polly Moller's official website.
To subscribe, click the “Subscribe” button, or visit the CatSynth Channel page. As always, enjoy.
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