Cat is Art Spelled Wrong edited by Caroline Casey, Chris Fischbach, and Sarah Schultz

Summary from Goodreads:
"Coffee House Press, a major nonprofit publisher, recently launched a Kickstarter for a book examining the Internet's cat video fetish. The book, if the Kickstarter campaign reaches its $25,000 goal, will be titled Cat is Art Spelled Wrong, and examine themes like what makes something art, whether art is good or bad, and how taste develops. In other words, cat videos can actually be . . . pretty serious."—The Washington Post

"Coffee House Press one-ups all boring Kickstarter campaigns with Catstarter, a campaign to fund a book on cat videos."—The Millions

"Coffee House Press's upcoming book, titled Cat is Art Spelled Wrong, takes the opportunity to examine a seemingly irrelevant subject from new perspectives—from 'the line is between reality/self on the internet' to 'how cat videos demonstrate either that nothing matters, or that any art matters if anyone thinks it does.' Thus, it's an earnest attempt to uncover more about human nature—especially in today's internet-driven world."—Cool Hunting

Fifteen writers, all addressing not just our fascination with cat videos, but also how we decide what is good or bad art, or art at all; how taste develops, how that can change, and why we love or hate something. It's about people and technology and just what it is about cats that makes them the internet's cutest despots.

Contributors include: Sasha Archibald, Will Braden, Stephen Burt, Maria Bustillos, David Carr, Matthea Harvey, Alexis Madrigal, Joanne McNeil, Ander Monson, Kevin Nguyen, Elena Passarello, Jillian Steinhauer, Sarah Schultz, and Carl Wilson.

Why do we like cat videos so much? Or Henri, the existential Chat Noir?  Or Grumpy Cat or Maru or share a video of a cat dressed as a shark riding a Roomba chasing a duckling so many times that the hit count is in the millions?  (Admit it, you've been obsessed with those recent videos of cats freaking out over cucumbers sneaking up on them from behind.)

Well, Coffee House Press's new book, Cat is Art Spelled Wrong, pulls together pieces of many different varieties.  Some concentrate on cultural criticism, some bubble over with enthusiasm, some make us snuggle our own balls of fur a little tighter.  Ander Monson contributes a stellar piece titled "The Internet is a Cat Video Library" which contemplates both internet culture and an actual small-animal lending library (btw, if you haven't read Monsen's Letter to a Future Lover get on that).  Kevin Nguyen contributes some insight into the I Can Has Cheezburger work ethic with "The No Sleeping Cat Rule."  And, yes, there is an Internet Cat Video Festival, detailed in Sarah Schultz's "There Was a Cat Video Festival in Minneapolis, and It Was Glorious."

My only regret is that it wasn't longer!

Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this book.

National Cat Day! Happy 10th Birthday to my cats!

October 29 is National Cat Day - and my fur babies turned 10 at the beginning of September so here's a little timeline of my babies from ~8 weeks to present.

I think one of the computer crashes wiped a bunch of pictures so I can only find one (ONE! *sob*) picture of the boys as fuzzy little babies in October 2003.

They were so tiny - barely bigger than my hand.  I took this picture the night I got home from the farm where they were born (it was raining like mad, cold, and my friend's elderly father had to come shoot a possum that had got into the barn).

But they adapted to their cushy indoor cat life well and soon started getting into all sorts of trouble like getting stuck under the dishwasher rack.

 And getting stuck in items meant for the recycling.

And had $1500 worth of abdominal surgery for an intestinal blockage as a result of eating thread (and other things on top of that including the spare wire for the mandoline cheese slicer - which was radiopaque, thank god) and then more charges for his wound infection because he licked the incision (the vet didn't make him wear a cone).  Chaucer-kitteh still (STILL) tries to eat strings and ribbons.  He doesn't learn.






And gained a lot of weight.  At his heaviest, the Dante-kitteh weighed 18 pounds.  We're around 13 pounds now, which is much better, and I get to laugh about his poochy little tummy.  It is the cutest.

It helped that I moved to a split-level so they had to learn about (very scary!) things like stairs.  When one has to go up and down the stairs to eat, use the cat box, and sleep on the nice, warm bed you get lots of exercise.  When we first moved, they refused to go downstairs without me for the first few days - they would sit at either the top or bottom and cry for me to come and walk with them.

They're about the most adorable, annoying things ever.  Chaucer is very good at begging (see left).  Dante knows exactly which drawer in the fridge contains the cheese - which is a favorite kitty treat - and comes running when he hears it open.

They drag their favorite toys all over the house and into bed while I'm sleeping (Chaucer likes to carry his around like a baby and make weird "mrower" noises).  They love to snuggle and can purr like a diesel engine.














They get into just about anything I'm doing - working, knitting, reading, etc etc etc.  They were the subjects of my most popular blog post for a while - "Die Katzen sind nicht amüsiert" - which expressed why they don't like spam comments.

Chaucer has become the more photo-ready of the two - he's a bit better at staying still while keeping his cute facial expression.

But Dante has his moments, too (his little face is getting whiter/graying, which makes me sad).

He is obsessed with the kitteh who lives in the mirror.  All the mirrors.
















Also, we are extremely vocal when we want something.  Like when I'm having supper and Chaucer-kitteh would like some, too - he sits at the table and meows incessantly.

I love them so much.  Which is why I spent a good 20 minutes taking pictures/video of them with their new catnip hedgehog and green-frog-with-tail (?) toys because they were so funny.

Happy 10th birthday Chaucer and Dante!!

Happy National Cat Day everyone!














ETA: Plz send treats.  Don't tell mommy.

Gratuitous Cat Picture Friday (9): The Story of Chaucer and the Lamp

Chaucer loves to bake himself under my desk lamp.  It is his special heat source, like that of a heat lamp in a baby chicken pen.

Observe:  I was getting set to do some work at my desk.  Chaucer wormed his way onto the desk and declared his intentions of getting in the way.





















And then he plopped down under the lamp....which typed about a 1000 '~' on my email.





















So I moved the laptop over and Chaucer just spread out.




















And then he laid on the computer keyboard again and got scolded.

I don't think he cared.




















But he decided to let me apologize by giving him a tummy rub.

BBAW 2012 Day 3: Blogging means to me....

Wednesday's prompt is very open-ended.  Amy asked:  What does book blogging mean to you?


Essentially, it means I can share my occasionally-articulate-but-sometimes-not opinions with a community of booklovers. 

We may not all have the same opinion.  We may not all have the same taste or genre preferences.  Some of us have a well-defined niche.  Some of us just read whatever we can get our hands on (*raises hand*).

But we all love to read and tell each other what we liked or found or dug out of the 50¢ bin at a yard sale and are fangirling (or boy-ing, depending on gender) about all over the Internetz.

And, from where I sit in the peanut gallery, the come-as-you-are mentality is wonderfully refreshing and inviting.

There's only one rule:  Don't be a jerk.

And if you are a jerk, beware: we book bloggers have sharp pitchforks lightning-fast response times.




Chaucer sez - yoo likes dis 'pooter too much, kitteh needs skritches!

#Bloggiesta: Tricks of Composition

Things to remember when taking a new header picture (since I'm getting a little looney - too much coffee):

1. Remember where the blog title/subtitle will go.  My first ten shots had no room for the text.
2. Iron your backdrop.  (I ironed and ironed....the remaining wrinkles will need to be Photoshopped out.)
3. Think about tying the color into the blog theme.  I went through soooo many piles of books until I found several that were representative of everything I read but had cover designs that wouldn't clash.  Ditto with the knitting.
4. You will not need all that stuff you gathered up for the photo.  My original set-up included a "Keep calm and carry yarn" knitting bag, Christina Rossetti's Complete Poems from Penguin, the Norton Anthology of Poetry, and my three-headed dragon puppet (he's blue, I like him alot) plus all the pointe shoes and books.  Oh, and Chaucer because he thought there should be a cat in the shot, too.  I took pictures and pared down and shot and pared down....  It took two hours.
5. Shadows = the devil.  The lighting in my house is terrible.  I jerry-rigged a desk lamp to help with the shadows.
6. Patience.  Patience.  Patience.

And pet the kittehs.  They get jealous and underfoot if you don't.

Gratuitous Cat Picture Friday (8): Not the ears!

So, I have an account on Posterous now to upload the majority of my iPhoneography pictures.  It is fun.  Yet, I think I'll still be sharing a few photos here and there on SSWB because of my furry kids.  They are too cute.

Good grooming is important!  (But does Dante really enjoy having his ears washed?)

Feline Beggars

This is the standard pose adopted by the cats when they want something. There are more cat photos coming - they are my captive subjects.

Gratuitous Cat Picture Friday (7): Ai! It's a alien!

I love it when Cheech Marin says that in Oliver and Company.  Appropriate here because I'm not sure exactly what Chaucer is going with the toys he is hoarding:

And then Dante was working on his nicest-kitty-ever pose (just don't look at the hairball in the corner):

Gratuitous Cat Picture Friday (6): Stuck on you

Poor Dante.  He's so staticky right now - rolling around on the floor caused all the paper bits from punching my own gift tags to stick to him (there're lots more on his tummy but he wouldn't let me take a picture).

Gratuitous Cat Picture Friday (5): Hai!

Oh, hai!  Wut r u doin mom?

Chaucer looked like a jack-in-the-box, repeatedly popping his head up from behind the laptop to look at me.

BBAW 2011: Community Zwei

Wednesday's topic: Community, part 2
The world of book blogging has grown enormously and sometimes it can be hard to find a place. Share your tips for finding and keeping community in book blogging despite the hectic demands made on your time and the overwhelming number of blogs out there. If you’re struggling with finding a community, share your concerns and explain what you’re looking for–this is the week to connect!

For a new blogger, community is what you make of it.  There are no obligations or hard-and-fast rules in the blogging community beyond one rule:

DON'T STEAL OTHER BLOGGERS' CONTENT

And one caveat:

DON'T BE A JERK (It's probably better to treat others as you would like to be treated).

Otherwise, find something you like and write about it.  If another blogger has an awesome meme or topic, give them credit in your post for the idea and then add your own opinions.  Find the place where you can comfortably exist without feeling like you are obligated to do every challenge, contest, and meme that comes along.  If you like having six challenges and five memes a week, go for it; if you don't, it's no big deal (trust me).  Start small - big trees come from little seeds.  Use tools like Twitter and Tumblr and Goodreads to help you find other bloggers and book-lovers and to spread the word about your blog (I'm on Ravelry, too, for the yarn addiction).

For me, I went too big, too fast.  The attempt to keep up with memes and challenges almost burnt me out the other year.  I accepted a few too many review copies this year (thankfully, not a great deal but it makes me a little self-conscious for not getting them read and reviewed promptly).  I had to admit that I couldn't write two things at once - I coudn't draft my book and write book reviews at the same time, I was hardly even able to read other books.  Twitter is actually what kept me going, connected to the community while I went on an unexpected radio silence I'm still catching up to.  I'm not shy about the fact that I post book reviews, movie reviews, pictures of my knitting projects, pictures of my cats, and just about whatever on my blog (althogh the majority of posts are about books in some way).  That's just me. 

And it's not Friday, but I think a gratuitous cat picture is necessary!

Unavoidable laziness on "hump day".

Gratuitous Cat Picture Friday (4)

In the jungle, the mighty jungle,....

Bugs are good cat toys (not such good appetizers, once the little hunters finished catching the bug Dante chewed it up and spit it out so Mommy could throw it away).














Hey, whaddaya mean "hunters"?  We are very nice kittehs.

Gratuitous Cat Picture Friday (3)

It's so nice that my babies are buddies:

They even intertwine their tails while asleep.

(Apologies for fuzziness, I had to stealth this one in the dark with my EVO instead of the good camera)

Gratuitous Cat Picture Friday (2)

The Chaucer-vulture lies in wait....

I haz a happee!

A happy new house!  Be prepared for a long post with gratuitous photographic displays!

 So Thursday, December 30, I went to the bank and signed my life away...but I got the keys to my new house!  I stopped by Lowe's for painting supplies, picked up some lunch, changed out of my suit (I, apparently, am the only person I know who dresses up for a house closing, but I have a suspicion that the loan officer is happier loaning a large sum of money to a person who looks like a professional, not a dumpster-dweller), and headed over to my new house with a few things.

Including the house-warming present from my bank.

Now that the house was mine, I could think about what I wanted to do with the rooms in the new house. 

The master bedroom needed a coat of paint, not too far from the starting shade of blue, but the original job was really shoddy (did they thin the paint before using it?).

The smaller bedroom, my office, needed several coats of paint to cover up that ghastly shade of Pepto-Bismol pink and some work to cover really bad drywall patches (this is not as pink as it should be but I was having trouble getting the correct exposure because the lighting in that room is really dank, also on the list of things to change).

Mom and Dad came down to help - Dad to help paint and Mom to get started on the kitchen (see below for what was up with the kitchen).  We weren't done with painting that evening - it was just too many walls to paint (even with Jess and Jackie coming over to help) and we needed another full coat in the office to cover the pink, even though we'd started with a tinted primer.  So back to the condo for bed:

Which was really the couch because I had to start taking the bed apart for the movers.  I didn't go to sleep until nearly 2am because I was also taking apart the stereo system and packing all the clothes in the drawers in my room.

Up at 6am and I took the cats over to the new house.  Which involved tricking two highly suspicious felines into their carriers (also known as giving up on doing it nicely and dropping them butt-first into the carriers), packing them into the car with all their toys, blankies, and new litter boxes, and taking a (mercifully) short car ride with two howling animals.  They were installed in the downstairs bathroom, known as "the cats' bathroom", for the day.  Then I raced back to the condo in time for the water heater guy to install the new water heater (old water heater was peeing water on the floor at the condo), the movers to come for my furniture, and the contractor to fix the drywall (I was practically paying the buyers to take my house).

 It was like a circus!! We found little kitty hoards under all the furniture. 

After the movers left, Dad and I worked on more painting - we didn't finish until Saturday (!) but the results were well worth it.


 

My bedroom has a much more saturated blue color - along with a more even paint job - so it feels very calm and peaceful.  The cats felt more at home once we got the bed made (when I let them out of the bathroom they wouldn't go anywhere without me, even crying to get me to come downstairs so they could use the kitty box; Chaucer would stand at the bottom and cry to have me to come down and get him).

My office turned out to be AMAZING!  The color is Bimini Blue and after a coat of tinted primer and two coats of color it looks exactly like the card.  I've got a little touch-up work to do, still (and we got a bit of paint on the woodwork), but I'm busily filling up my bookshelves with books.

So, do you want to hear about the kitchen?  The kitchen was a disaster.  The oven was beyond disgusting (I'm sorry I didn't remember to take a picture), like multiple-years'-worth-of-cooking pizza-directliy-on-the-racks-without-a-pan level of dirty; we had to vacuum the ashes out of the bottom after running the cleaning cycle.  My mother, who is quite good at getting kitchens in order, spent nearly three days cleaning cabinets, even borrowing the putty knife to scrape God-only-knows-what off of cabinet bottoms.  She made me promise that the next time I buy a house I request on the offer to have a professional cleaning done prior to close (and that goes for my brothers and sisters-in-law, too). 

In the end it turned out to be a very nice and clean kitchen with a low wall looking over the foyer where Chaucer likes to sit and vulture the food. 

I swear that I cleaned my condo unbelievably well prior to the sale on January 5 - it took two days and you could have eaten off the floor in the bathroom where the litter boxes sat. True story.

I had the carpet cleaned at the condo prior to closing.  It was so sad to see it empty - even though I am happy to be well rid of it, it was my first house and I cried when my realtor called to tell me the sale was completed. 

Bye-bye old kitchen, it doesn't even look like I lived there (or anyone, for that matter).

Among the surprises at the new house, I was gifted with a large porch swing (they asked if I wanted it and I said I didn't care because I already had a swing...so they left it) and multiple junk drawers full of old makeup, barbie shoes, hair-ties, nails, screws, keys, crap, about $3.50 in pocket change (which I fed to the Peanut-Butter Bear Bank), and these:

 

I think these are what I used to put notecards on but they were holding up the shower curtain in the upstairs bath!  Not only were they slobs, they weren't very smart because these bad boys rust!  Classy!

So my new house is slowly coming together.  The cats have settled in nicely (I found favorite toys upstairs on the third day, so they adjusted quite well; Dante has found his old hiding places again).  I've got a lot of boxes left to unpack - and I don't have any nice living room furniture as yet - but it feels like home now.

Welcome, friends! (My youngest brother and sister-in-law gave this to me for Christmas a few years ago - I never had a satisfactory place to hang it until now).