Gyroscopic Investing

No joke!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/35 ... for-cats-0

Thanks for a great share. We decided to contribute and get the CDs to try on our kitties.

There is a company that makes videos for cats.

The owner was on an episode of This American Life years ago.

I heard that in more recent years he has started doing grittier stuff like bird snuff films, but initially he was just doing fish tanks, balls of string and that sort of thing.  The cats loved it all, though the owner wearily pointed out that birds are basically the T&A of the cat video world.  He said that cat owners would start to get tired of watching their cats freak out to the latest iteration of "Birds on the Window Sill Gone Wild", though, so it was always a challenge to work a bird into an otherwise mouse or ball of string-centric storyline.

These two approaches seem like the difference between the sympathetic vs. parasympathetic nervous system. The former is active and the latter is calming.

Finally, Dave the Music Catcomposer sent this update:

"Kickstarter

18
The Album is Finished!
Posted by David Teie (Creator)
Fifty minutes of all-new music for cats is now in the pipeline

Dear MusicforCats backers,
This week the album will be mastered at Bias Studios and next week it will be delivered online and to the CD manufacturers. WOOHOOO!!! I can say that each of these five songs is a favorite of mine in one way or another:
Lolo’s Air 6:15 is the first “shared air”, music intended to be shared by both humans and cats. The melody that is first heard in the lower human range is echoed in the upper feline vocal range in sliding pitches. Later in the song, the melody in the cat range is answered in the human range - then the two coast along together in a duet. This song was inspired by the connection that leads so many to consider their cat as a member of the family. Although I hesitate to say that I favor any one song over another, this is the one most clearly designed to bring people and their cats together in a shared experience. It is my hope that the feeling of shared contentment that is possible through touch can be felt through sound as well when our two species are listening to the music together.
Katie Moss Catwalk 8:36 This song contains cellos and various purr and swish instruments and a cameo appearance by a little bird-like warbling of one of the melodies. This is the first and last song that I worked on. The recording began in the Czech Republic, was modified and expanded a few months ago, and finally was enhanced with music that was recorded in January.
Tigerlili and Mimi’s Mewsical 5:30 The sample on the website of the newly enhanced music for cats was taken from this song. It features some of the new purr instruments and a harp line that goes by at purrspeed. It also has a B section that is played once by the harp and at the end it is played on a one-of-a-kind August Forster piano with the purest upper treble tone I have ever heard on a piano combined with a flutter-tongue flute.
Scooter Bere’s Aria 17:47 (A song for the open road) The construction of this song was inspired by the six hour road trip taken by a couple whose cats would complain every time the music for cats was turned off and had to listen to the same few songs over and over. There are no melodies or interesting chord changes in Scooter Bere’s Aria. It is intended to flow like water - to be calming for the cats and pleasing to listen to for humans, but there is nothing that is contained in the song that will follow you around as a catchy tune later. Have you heard of the “hook” that songwriters try to put into songs? It is that sing-along tune in a song that you remember and stays with you. Not only did I not compose any sing-alongable tunes for this song, but I went back through it and de-melodified anything that I thought might be memorable.
Simon Says 11:42 This song has the widest range of instruments of any music that has been created for animals. I’ll try to keep myself from boring you with compositional details, but the requirements for the harmonic foundation of music for cats are too restrictive for me to build the music using most existing human music. In this song I managed to fashion a harmonic foundation that would be appealing to me even if it were not merged with cat music. I left this song for last because it ends with a coda cat duet that signifies to me the affection and connection that is often present between two cats in one home.
I hope that the music on this album will remind you, as it does me, of the central beauty of the cat/human connection - we can make their lives better than they would have been without us, just as they enrich the lives of so many of those who care for them.
- Your Catcomposer, Dave"

Awesome, I can't wait to get it for my kitties.  The move has been hard on them and they could use a bit of extra TLC.

Note that this is distinct from videos FOR cats.  There are a ton of these (for free) on Youtube.  One of my cats loves videos and will come running anytime the TV goes on.  It's hilarious to see him lounge on the ottoman with his eyes glued to the screen.

WiseOne wrote: Note that this is distinct from videos FOR cats.  There are a ton of these (for free) on Youtube.  One of my cats loves videos and will come running anytime the TV goes on.  It's hilarious to see him lounge on the ottoman with his eyes glued to the screen.

Does he hog the remote?

That's what mine would do.

A couple of computers ago I bought an Aquarium screen saver for the cat.  He loved it.  Not so good for the monitor.

Cool. This year, I'll be getting my first cat since I was a teenager.
Flying out to meet her very soon, and to test the wife for allergies.

Congrats dualstow!  What kind of cat are you getting?

They are a much more expensive and time consuming hobby than you might guess, but so worth it.  Not to mention how they jump on you at 2 am and then happily go to sleep on your leg.

WiseOne wrote: Congrats dualstow!  What kind of cat are you getting?

They are a much more expensive and time consuming hobby than you might guess, but so worth it.  Not to mention how they jump on you at 2 am and then happily go to sleep on your leg.

She's a tabby, one of a multicolored litter. My parents' neighbor rescued the mother, a stray, from the street. She was about ready to give birth right next to a noisy and dangerous construction site, and the neighbor, an MD, could not bear it. Animal control did nothing -- hey, it's Florida -- and my folks offered to let the birth happen in their guest bathroom. So far, the litter knows nothing about the world outside of that bathroom. 
I'll send you a photo when we get back from the trip!

Looking forward to those 2am wake-ups. 

WiseOne wrote: They are a much more expensive and time consuming hobby than you might guess, but so worth it.  Not to mention how they jump on you at 2 am and then happily go to sleep on your leg.

I HATE to be woken up.  There goes my dream. 

There you are MG!!!  We were wondering where you'd gone to.  Welcome back.

WiseOne wrote: There you are MG!!!  We were wondering where you'd gone to.  Welcome back.

Thanks, I missed you too!  But I won't be staying after this Easter weekend.  Too much reading to catch up on.  I should be caught up in another few months.

dualstow wrote:

WiseOne wrote: Congrats dualstow!  What kind of cat are you getting?

They are a much more expensive and time consuming hobby than you might guess, but so worth it.  Not to mention how they jump on you at 2 am and then happily go to sleep on your leg.

She's a tabby, one of a multicolored litter. My parents' neighbor rescued the mother, a stray, from the street. She was about ready to give birth right next to a noisy and dangerous construction site, and the neighbor, an MD, could not bear it. Animal control did nothing -- hey, it's Florida -- and my folks offered to let the birth happen in their guest bathroom. So far, the litter knows nothing about the world outside of that bathroom. 
I'll send you a photo when we get back from the trip!

Looking forward to those 2am wake-ups. 

Dualstow, did you get your kitten??  I'm still waiting for that photo!  It sounds like you have some time to wait though.  It's important for the kitten to socialize with its littermates for 2-3 months, to prevent behavior problems later on.  I hope your parents' neighbor is willing to keep them for that long.

The kittens live at my parents house and will be moved closer to our home in a couple of months. In the meantime, they have a few socks to remember our scent by. ;-) One more unofficial informal allergy test to go.

Emailing you photos right now...