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The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

charlesmingus.com

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Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#71

Post by noman-land »

jbigelow76 wrote: post #66
noman-land wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just a bass player but a legendary composer. Here's one of my absolute faves, Pithecanthropus Erectus. https://youtu.be/p0H2G_W-O0I

I got into Charles Mingus through "Mingus Plays Piano", I particularly like piano jazz when working, but any bop oriented jazz is good. Newcomers should give "Myself When I Am Real" a listen, it's a lovely composition. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk71dhCz7wM

Absolutely beautiful album, and Myself When I Am Real is one of the best tracks.

The whole record has little bits of studio talk before and after some of the recordings and you can hear Mingus feeling really shy and vulnerable playing alone. You can even hear it in his playing, I think. Pretty remarkable. Love that guy.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#73

Post by InvaderFizz »

garblegarble wrote: post #50
causality0 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're ignoring the ways the toilet is better than the litter box. For example, it's also unnatural for a cat to have to smell its old poop and also touch it while burying new poop. A toilet removes that source of stress and potential disease.

Although it's worth noting that there are other non-toilet alternatives as a middle-ground that also let the cat perform natural burying behaviour without there being old poop in there - like a self-cleaning litter box.

I have a cat genie, it's great, if you put it in a well ventilated outdoor space, have it run automatically after every time the cat uses it, and toss in a handful of citric acid every week to let it clean itself. Then every three months, take the whole thing apart and pressure wash everything.

It's better than scooping litter every day, by a factor of 3-5x. But it's not magical and wonderful.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#74

Post by kevinmchugh »

iainctduncan wrote: post #42

For folks who are like "who is that guy again?".... Mingus was one of the most important jazz bass players in 20th century and a key figure in both bebop and free jazz. And quite a character. This is but one of his legendary achievements!

I also like how he wrote his eggnog recipe, it's very much in his voice https://www.charlesmingus.com/blog/news/minguss-5-star-raptu...

I've never actually made it

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#75

Post by hedora »

garblegarble wrote: post #50
causality0 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're ignoring the ways the toilet is better than the litter box. For example, it's also unnatural for a cat to have to smell its old poop and also touch it while burying new poop. A toilet removes that source of stress and potential disease.

Although it's worth noting that there are other non-toilet alternatives as a middle-ground that also let the cat perform natural burying behaviour without there being old poop in there - like a self-cleaning litter box.

The failure mode on self cleaning litterboxes is worse than normal litterboxes or toilets.

We had one, and, as usual, got busy and forgot to clean it. The end result was a spotless, odor free and empty self-cleaning litterbox (all the litter had been auto-removed) and a male cat with a urinary tract infection.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#76

Post by kevinmchugh »

ubermonkey wrote: post #13

Given that the strip is now (ouch) almost 19 years old, it occurs to me that some folks may not have seen Nightlife Mingus' appearance in the web comic Achewood: http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=06202003

This is the strangest intersection of my interests I've ever experienced.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#77

Post by chairmanmow »

xtlyths wrote: post #12
throwawayjd wrote: post #2

I wonder if this is a joke or an actual technique. I'd be very interested to see someone reproducing this.

I successfully got 2 middle aged cats to do this. They have both since passed and I have two new cats. I haven't bothered to train them, but I think it's because my wife cleans their box and I haven't thought about it. The first two cats did this almost effortlessly. They didn't give us any trouble because we changed steps slowly.

I believe you, sounds like a bit of a bother to train the new cats as well. Makes me wonder though if once one cat was trained, if you got a new kitten whether it could pick up the behavior from the trained older cat. That'd be pretty great - the gift that keeps on giving.

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#78

Post by mdpye »

reaperducer wrote: post #68
ricardobeat wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My extended family has always had a ton of cats, and I don’t remember the last one that was seriously ill without it being due to old age. Most of them were “outdoor cats” in a small country town. Is there something in modern cats’ diet / habits that makes them more susceptible to disease? These concerns read like hypochondria, coming from this background.

Since we're trading anecdotes... My experience with six cats over the last 25 years is that the outdoor cats lived much longer and got sick less than my inside cats. I have no idea why, but i don't think it's diet, because they've all eaten the same food.

> they've all eaten the same food

Heh, that's what you think...

Ever watched one of those lighthearted documentaries where they GPS tag and attach cameras to a whole neighbourhood's cats? They mostly wandered around eating each other's food :D

Re: The Charles Mingus CAT-alog (1972)

#80

Post by natdempk »

jakebasile wrote: post #33
drakonka wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've had a Litter Robot for nearly a year and also really like it (wrote a more detailed review here[0]), although it's definitely not perfect. Mine is the Litter Robot 3 with the WiFi functionality (lets me keep an eye on how often they go even when I'm not home). I do believe the price isn't worth it for _most_ people, but do not regret the purchase. [0] https://liza.io/litter-robot-3-review/

Thanks for the review. Would you say it cuts down on smell? That is my biggest issue with cat ownership and I've been looking for ways to further reduce it (beyond better litter, baking soda, etc.). Edit: Thanks for all the replies. I am still on the fence about it, and may try further options to reduce the smell (at least enough so that a cat-person like myself can live with it ;))

One thing I've done to help with the smell is put a smaller air purifier on low next to it running continuously. This really helps a lot in my experience compared to having nothing. It can still smell a bit if the robot is full and nothing is cycling or one of the cats has just used it, but other than that there is largely no smell. The other thing that helps a lot is changing the carbon filter on the robot on a regular basis, maybe every couple or few months, since once that goes a lot more smell leaks out.
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