Saturday, January 25, 2014

Here, Kitty, Kitty









Dear Viewers of Distinction,


I attended, a few days ago, a screening of the Internet Cat Video Festival.  You might be thinking... "Cat videos?  We needn't visit the Dodo for those- there are ten forwarded and unwatched ones sitting in my email in-box right now."  How about a little tune to put you in the mood?

It is an intriguing inversion- a crowd, an audience, a huge loud and messy tumbling group of people who elected to get out of their pajamas to watch You Tube videos together?  A 'curated' selection of cat videos?  This really turns the isolated loneliness of our living in the ether on its ear.  Doesn't everyone cringe at the phrase "online community?"

Needless to say, the cat videos said a lot more about humans than they did about cats. So, from the Walker Art Center's 2013/14 festival selection, I bring you just one clip:  Rufus Tower - It isn't the funniest, and it isn't even the cutest one, but I represent it here for two excellent reasons:  It is sweet, so sweet,  to build such a thing for a pet;  and it is enjoyable to watch these towers of Hanoi rise before us, in curious speed-o-rama video.


















PS
We have five on staff at the Dodo.  Feeling like more songs about cats?  Try this collection.

PPS
By the way, The Cat Came Back is another fine choice for guitar; only 4 easy chords, and the delicious themes of death, destruction and dismemberment.  Don't you want this to be the song you hear kids singing?  Instead of the unbearable contemporary misogynist anthems of Robin Thicke or Psy?