Expanding my collection May 16, 2013
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Jazz, Music, Personal, Travel.add a comment
The mental seed for expanding my music collection was planted at the first night of this year’s Smooth Jazz for Scholars benefit concert. One of the guest musicians that night was wind instrumentalist Nelson Rangell. He played one song from one of his albums and two covers not on any of his albums. The first of the two covers was a Return to Forever song called “Spain.” Nelson’s cover featured guitarist Marc Antoine, who was the first guest introduced that night. “Spain” was Marc’s fourth song in a row and followed Nelson’s contribution to his cover of “Mas Que Nada” by Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66.
Return to Forever (or RTF) is one of a few bands Chick Corea has led in his long career. I don’t have any of his solo albums, but I did have all but one by the Elektric Band (plus one Elektric Band II album).
That Friday night at the Parsons Complex, I was unaware “Spain” was an RTF cover. But the refrain sounded familiar and typical of Chick. The following morning in my hotel room, I did a Google search for spain jazz song. The top result was this Wikipedia entry. So, I listened to a little bit of the song in Spotify. The mental seed that was planted the night before was starting to grow.
At home a few days later, I looked into the rest of Return to Forever’s works. Bypassing their eponymous debut album, I liked what I heard on half of Light as a Feather (where “Spain” originated), but I haven’t listened to Flora Purim’s vocal contributions to the other half. I liked all of Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy, Where Have I Known You Before, No Mystery, and Romantic Warrior. But I didn’t like Musicmagic because it was all vocals. So, after a week of deliberation, and purchasing saxophonist Andy Snitzer’s The Rhythm, I bought Light as a Feather as an MP3 download and the four albums that followed it (Hymn, Where Have I, etc.) on CD. Some songs on those albums were good, but the rest were great, especially if they featured various synthesizers.
I will eventually buy Return to Forever’s recent live album, The Mothership Returns. The latest incarnation of RTF, after several hiatuses, features 75% of the band during most of its 1970s run (Chick, bass player Stanley Clarke, and drummer Lenny White) plus violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and guitarist Frank Gambale.
While I was waiting for the four RTF CDs to arrive, I remembered that I had a Chick Corea Akoustic Band album – the CD, at least – for six years and never ripped it to my computer. The CD arrived by accident in a jewel case that had artwork for the Elektric Band’s Beneath the Mask album. I eventually got that album’s CD, but never listened to the eponymous Chick Corea Akoustic Band CD. That changed last Thursday. I liked the jazz standard covers in the first three-fifths of the CD, but loved Chick’s originals that rounded it out. The Akoustic Band was the Elektric Band without saxophonist Eric Marienthal and the aforementioned Frank Gambale. That left Chick on piano, John Patitucci on bass, and Dave Weckl on drums. The four Chick originals were “Morning Sprite,” “T.B.C. (Terminal Baggage Claim),” “Circles” (a nod to Chick’s Circle band?), and a new arrangement of “Spain.” The one I got hooked on was “T.B.C.” because it reminded me of walking through airport terminals, particularly at Tampa International Airport. And since the album came out in 1989, I harkened back to plane rides I took to Tampa that year, and the joy of seeing my grandparents, who lived 45 minutes away in Crystal Beach, greet me in the terminal and walk with me and my immediate family to baggage claim. “Many bags look alike,” the baggage claim announcement included. (The rest of it was something about claim checks.)
As the RTF CDs came in, I also found the GRP All-Star Big Band album that I had been sitting on for just as long as the Akoustic Band album. That, too, featured a cover of “Spain.” And when my girlfriend shipped me Brian Simpson’s new album, Just What You Need, and Tom Borton’s 1992 album, The Lost World, I finally listened to the other album of Tom’s that I’ve had for eight years, Dancing with Tigers. I bought that one after learning excerpts from a few songs were used as Local Forecast music on The Weather Channel in the early ’90s.
As if all of this music wasn’t enough, I decided to give the later albums of Miles Davis a try. I’ve had downloads of “Tutu” (from the album Tutu) and his cover of “Human Nature” (from You’re Under Arrest) for years, but finally decided to buy Tutu and Amandla. The latter was Miles’ last album completed in his lifetime. (He died during the production of Doo-Bop.) Eventually, I’ll get Aura, You’re Under Arrest, Decoy, Star People, and maybe The Man with the Horn.
In three short weeks, that seed for expanding my music collection has blossomed into an enormous music tree. One song at one concert led to the purchase of five albums, then discovering two albums I never put on my computer, then buying two more albums, then receiving two more albums from my girlfriend which led me to give an album I hadn’t listened to eons another shot. Thank you, Nelson Rangell, for planting the seed in my head by covering “Spain.”
SJFS 2013 Night 2 recap April 29, 2013
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Travel.7 comments
Other SJFS recaps: 2008, 2008 meet-and-greet, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 Night 1
If at first you succeed, try to duplicate the success the following night. That was the task for the second night of Jay Rowe‘s eleventh annual Smooth Jazz for Scholars concert.
Kevin McCabe was the first to speak to the audience just before 8PM:
As you can see behind Kevin, before Jay and the house band came out, the show began with a performance by the Foran High School Jazz Band, under the direction of Jessica Shearer. Their song featured a solo by Jay. Pictures of what was visible can be seen later in this post.
The house band was made up of Jay on keyboards:
Jerry Brooks on bass:
Trever Somerville on drums:
Steve Scales on percussion:
The show took place on Steve’s birthday.
…and for eight of the songs, Rohn Lawrence on guitar:
SET LIST
1. Martinis and Bikinis (Jay Rowe)
Originally heard on: “Live at Daniel Street,” 2011
Featured musicians: Jay Rowe (keyboards), Rohn Lawrence (electric guitar)
2. Side Tracked (Jeff Golub)
Originally heard on: “The Three Kings,” 2011
Featured musicians: Jeff Golub (electric guitar), Rohn Lawrence (electric guitar)
Unfortunately, Jeff went blind a few years ago. But he hasn’t let that stop him from performing. He still sounds great. His courage and perseverance are admirable.
3. Freddie’s Midnight Dream (Jeff Golub)
Originally heard on: “The Three Kings,” 2011
Featured musicians: Jeff Golub (electric guitar), Rohn Lawrence (electric guitar)
4. Can’t Stop Now (Vincent Ingala)
Originally heard on: “Can’t Stop Now,” 2012
Featured musicians: Vincent Ingala (tenor sax), Rohn Lawrence (electric guitar)
5. Wild Thing (Marion Meadows)
Originally heard on: “Whisper,” 2013
Featured musicians: Marion Meadows (soprano sax), Vincent Ingala (tenor sax), Chieli Minucci (electric guitar), Rohn Lawrence (electric guitar)
6. Black Pearl (Marion Meadows)
Originally heard on: “Whisper,” 2013
Featured musicians: Marion Meadows (soprano sax), Chieli Minucci (acoustic guitar)
7. Dreams (Chieli Minucci)
Originally heard on: “It’s Gonna Be Good,” 1998
Featured musicians: Chieli Minucci (electric guitar), Vincent Ingala (soprano sax)
8. Crazy Eights (Chieli Minucci & Special EFX)
Originally heard on: “Genesis,” 2013 (to be released on May 21)
Featured musicians: Chieli Minucci (electric guitar), Vincent Ingala (tenor sax)
9. If I Could Fly (Vincent Ingala)
Originally heard on: “Can’t Stop Now,” 2012
Featured musicians: Vincent Ingala (tenor sax), Rohn Lawrence (electric guitar)
10. It Is What It Is (Vincent Ingala)
Originally heard on: “North End Soul,” 2010
Featured musicians: Vincent Ingala (tenor sax), Rohn Lawrence (electric guitar)
11. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (The Allman Brothers Band cover)
Featured musicians: Chieli Minucci (electric guitar), Jeff Golub (electric guitar)
12. Suede (Marion Meadows)
Originally heard on: “Player’s Club,” 2004
Featured musician: Marion Meadows (soprano sax)
13. Katy’s Groove (Jay Rowe)
Featured musicians: Foran High School Advanced Vocal Ensemble, under the direction of Theresa Voss
14 (Finale). Cold Duck Time (Jeff Golub; Eddie Harris cover)
Originally heard on: “Do It Again,” 2002
Featured musicians: Everyone
Various shots of Jay Rowe:
Jerry Brooks:
Trever Somerville:
Steve Scales:
Rohn Lawrence:
Vincent Ingala:
Jeff Golub:
Chieli Minucci:
Marion Meadows:
Just like in 2011, Marion began “Suede” by playing his way through the audience:
Vincent and Rohn:
Chieli and Vincent:
Marion and Chieli:
Marion, Vincent, and Chieli:
Chieli and Jeff:
Foran High School Jazz Band:
Foran High School Advanced Vocal Ensemble:
The Finale – “Cold Duck Time”:
The second night of Smooth Jazz for Scholars was now complete.
Jay: “We’ll see you all next year!”
I hope you enjoyed this pictorial journey through both nights of Smooth Jazz for Scholars. Until next year, so long.
SJFS 2013 Night 1 recap April 29, 2013
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Travel.8 comments
Other SJFS recaps: 2008, 2008 meet-and-greet, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 Night 2
This weekend, I made my annual pilgrimage to Milford, Connecticut, for Jay Rowe‘s eleventh annual Smooth Jazz for Scholars concert. For the first time in SJFS history, there were two nights of music to enjoy. This is a recap of Night 1.
Kevin McCabe had some opening remarks:
…and so did Jay Rowe:
Jay played his keyboards:
His house band was rounded by Jerry Brooks on bass:
Trever Somerville on drums:
…and Steve Scales on percussion:
The structure of this recap is different from previous SJFS recaps. Instead of combining the set list with pictures from the corresponding songs, I’ll list the set list first. Here it is:
SET LIST
1. Martinis and Bikinis (Jay Rowe)
Originally heard on: “Live at Daniel Street,” 2011
Featured musicians: Jay Rowe (keyboards), Marc Antoine (acoustic guitar)
2. Sunland (Marc Antoine)
Originally heard on: “Madrid,” 1998
Featured musicians: Marc Antoine (acoustic guitar)
3. Mas Que Nada (Marc Antoine; Sergio Mendes & Brasil 66 cover)
Originally heard on: “Cruisin’,” 2001
Featured musicians: Marc Antoine (acoustic guitar), Nelson Rangell (alto sax)
4. Spain (Return to Forever [Chick Corea] cover)
Featured musicians: Nelson Rangell (flute), Marc Antoine (acoustic guitar)
5. Turning Night Into Day (Nelson Rangell)
Originally heard on: “Turning Night Into Day,” 1997
Featured musicians: Nelson Rangell (alto sax)
6. Did You Know? (Nick Colionne)
Originally heard on: “Just Come On In,” 2003
Featured musicians: Nick Colionne (electric guitar), Vincent Ingala (electric guitar)
You read right. Vincent isn’t limited to one instrument. And if you’ve read the liner notes for some of Nick’s albums, neither is he.
7. Rainy Night in Georgia (Nick Colionne; Brook Benton cover)
Originally heard on: “It’s My Turn,” 1994; “Keepin’ It Cool,” 2006
Featured musicians: Nick Colionne (vocals/electric guitar), Nelson Rangell (alto sax)
8. Pusherman (Alex Bugnon; Curtis Mayfield cover)
Originally heard on: Upcoming album
Featured musicians: Alex Bugnon (keyboard), Jay Rowe (keyboards), Nick Colionne (electric guitar), Vincent Ingala (electric guitar)
9. A House is Not a Home (Alex Bugnon; notably covered by Luther Vandross)
Originally heard on: Upcoming album
Featured musicians: Alex Bugnon (keyboard), Vincent Ingala (electric guitar)
10. Poinciana (notably covered by Ahmad Jamal)/107 Degrees in the Shade (Alex Bugnon)
“107 Degrees…” originally heard on: “107 Degrees in the Shade,” 1991
Musicians: Alex Bugnon (keyboard), Jay Rowe (keyboards)
11. The Connection (Nick Colionne)
Originally heard on: “Feel the Heat,” 2011
Featured musicians: Nick Colionne (electric guitar), Vincent Ingala (electric guitar)
12. How Insensitive (Insensatez) (Antonio Carlos Jobim cover)
Featured musicians: Nelson Rangell (whistling/piccolo), Marc Antoine (acoustic guitar)
13. Harlem On My Mind (Alex Bugnon)
Originally heard on: “Tales from the Bright Side,” 1995
Featured musicians: Alex Bugnon (keyboard), Nelson Rangell (flute), Vincent Ingala
14. On the Strip (Marc Antoine)
Originally heard on: “Cruisin’,” 2001
Featured musicians: Test (instrument), Test (instrument)
15 (Finale). Cantaloupe Island (Herbie Hancock cover)/(James Brown-style jam)
Featured musicians: Everyone
In the finale, some musicians switched to different instruments. Vincent went from electric guitar to tenor sax; Marc Antoine tried out Vincent’s guitar, Steve’s drums, and one of Jay’s synthesizers.
With the set list out of the way, let’s get to the pictures.
We begin with various shots of Jay Rowe:
Trever Somerville:
Steve Scales:
Nelson Rangell helped out during Marc Antoine’s “How Insensitive” solo. Seconds before I took this, he struck the chimes:
Marc Antoine:
Nelson Rangell:
Alto sax:
Flute:
Piccolo:
Whistling:
Whistling like that deserved a bow:
Vincent Ingala on electric guitar:
Nick Colionne:
Hearing from the audience:
“Rainy Night in Georgia”:
Alex Bugnon:
Nelson and Marc’s “Mas Que Nada” call and response:
Jay and Alex’s dual medley:
Nick and Vincent’s “The Connection” duet:
The finale:
“Can I count it off?! (slow staccato): Can I count it off?!”
Nick in the audience:
Back on stage:
With that, the first night of the eleventh annual Smooth Jazz for Scholars was complete.
The fun resumed the following night. Click here to see.
Five years! April 15, 2013
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Personal, Technology.add a comment
Five years ago today, I took one giant leap into the blogosphere and launched The Mike Chimeri Blog. The blog was created as a replacement for the original MikeChimeri.com’s “News from Mike” page where I wrote about the latest events in my life. The problem with that was I would erase previous entries, which were in an occasionally updated text box on that webpage. (That site was created with WYSIWYG software.) Luckily, I cut and paste most of those entries to a Word document.
I kept the original MikeChimeri.com up for four years until I finally made the logical decision to recreate pages at the blog and transfer the MikeChimeri.com domain to it. And so it was on May 14, 2012, 11 months ago yesterday, that The Mike Chimeri Blog became MikeChimeri.com!
A March nor’easter and its wet snow March 8, 2013
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Media, News, Personal, Photography, TV, Weather.add a comment
It’s been a trying nine days for me. It all began last Wednesday night. Meteorologists began warning of a big nor’easter for the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic one week later. It would bring high winds and wet snow, a volatile mix.
In the days that followed, weather computer models from various media and meteorological organizations projected different paths for the storm to take and where it would meet up with a low moving from the Pacific to the Tennessee Valley. The center would be over Cape Hatteras or the Delmarva Peninsula. From there, it would go east, southeast, or northeast.
Meteorologists hedged their bets by making their forecasts based on what the most models were predicting at the time, but made clear that the forecast could change. It did. Long Island went from missing the nor’easter entirely, except for gusty winds, to getting its northern fringe. Worse yet, the storm was going to take longer to push east than originally expected. Thus, a one-day nor’easter became a three-day nor’easter.
March has seen its share of major nor’easters:
- The Great Blizzard of 1888
- The Ash Wednesday Storm of 1962
- The 1993 Storm of the Century
- The March 2010 Nor’easter (more on that below)
The worst of the 1993 and 2010 storms came through Long Island on the same date: March 13. When the ’93 storm hit, I was living in Freeport, three blocks away from Baldwin Bay. My cousins, aunt, and grandmother stayed over while my parents were in St. Maarten. They left two days before the storm and came back two days after. A few months earlier, there was an equally strong nor’easter. At the afternoon high tide, a few inches of water came into the first floor of the house. I was too young to remember our house flooding during Hurricane Gloria. So this was traumatizing. I don’t recall if water got in during the SotC, but I do know the first floor lacked a carpet for the rest of our time in the house. I also remember we had snow that was followed by rain. And according to AccuWeather, Freeport was in the 10-to-20-inch range:
1993 SotC snowfall
For the next week or two, the backyard looked like the North Pole because the rain-and-flood-soaked snow froze over. Air temperatures were stuck below freezing for a week. So, snow didn’t completely melt in some areas until the end of the month.
My family and I moved (for unrelated school reasons) to the Wantagh Woods section of Wantagh in July 1993, over a mile inland, where I live to this day.
Back in the present, as it became clear we were getting this nor’easter, visions of Sandy began dancing in my head as I feared the worst, even though the highest gusts would be nothing like Sandy. And the nor’easter’s duration brought me back to what began my high wind fears in the first place: a stronger nor’easter that began three years ago next Wednesday. I was without power then, due to uprooted trees, for two days. Then, in poker terms, Irene saw those two days and raised me five and a half. Sandy saw those five and a half days and raised me nine.
I also thought of a similar wet snow-producing nor’easter that came exactly one year before Sandy. New Jersey, Connecticut, and the Hudson Valley received a lot of wet snow, which weighed down still-leaved tree limbs, taking many of them down, or whole trees down, and the power out with them. The post-Sandy nor’easter also brought wet snow that weighed down still-leaved tree limbs – Sandy didn’t blow all of them off – but the ones in my neighborhood did not break off nor did they come down.
This week’s nor’easter came in under cover of darkness early Wednesday morning. The winds gradually increased, as did the gusts. Gusts of around 40 miles per hour plowed against my east-facing bedroom wall. But precipitation was scarce. As the day progressed, the wind direction shifted from the east to the north-northeast. The wind was no longer pushing against the wall, but I could still hear it.
As the night progressed, I was prepared for power to go out at any moment. I went to sleep around midnight and woke up seven hours later with the power still on. Not only that, but the wind diminished and there wasn’t any snow on the ground. Up to 6 inches of wet snowfall was originally expected for Wednesday night into yesterday, the first part of the nor’easter, but by mid-afternoon, the forecast dwindled to an inch or two. With little or no snow for Wednesday night, the concern shifted to last night into today when heavier wet snow was expected.
As you can tell by the pictures below, we didn’t get much:
More snow fell to my north and any area that received heavy snow bands. According to Newsday (subscription required), Syosset received 8 inches of wet snow and Jericho got 6 inches. Levittown, to my immediate north, received 4.5 inches.
The wet snow melted on most of my driveway, but stuck to the cars and garbage/recycling pails left at the curb for Friday pickup.
Five hours later, snow had tapered off and begun to melt.
As I publish this post, the wind has shifted to the north-northwest and is a mere eleven miles per hour. Most of the wet snow on the grass in the above picture is still there. With milder temperatures and abundant sunshine expected over the next few days, it won’t be on the grass much longer.
Whose Line is it Anyway? reboots this summer! March 3, 2013
Posted by Mike C. in Comedy, Internet, Media, News, Personal, Theatre, TV.1 comment so far
Ten days after I had given up on the return of Trust Us with Your Life, I learned of wonderful news (via The Hollywood Reporter, h/t Jonathan Mangum): Whose Line is it Anyway? is returning to television this summer!
The Whose Line reboot will air on the CW, which was home to Drew Carey’s Green Screen Show prior to the WB’s merger with UPN. According to THR, Whose Line marks the CW’s return to comedy. They’ve otherwise been known for teen dramas.
As with the first American version, Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie, and Wayne Brady will be the lead performers. Aisha Tyler will follow in the hosting footsteps of Clive Anderson and Drew Carey. (Clive hosted the original British version.) It’ll be interesting to see which house musician(s) will be on hand for musical games like “Song Styles” (or “Duet”), “Greatest Hits,” and “Hoedown.”
It’s a 10-episode run, but could be more if renewed or less if canceled. Based on the failures of the Green Screen Show, Improv-A-Ganza,” and Trust Us With Your Life, I’d say the latter is more likely. But as usual, I’m prepared to be pleasantly surprised.
Here’s part of THR’s story:
… Based on the U.K. format, which spawned the 1998-2004 ABC series led by Drew Carey, Whose Line will feature the return of Ryan Stiles, Wayne Brady and Colin Mochrie, who, along with a special guest each episode, will put their comedic skills to the test through a series of improv games. Prompted by ideas from the studio audience and [host Aisha] Tyler, the performers use the information and their imaginations to depict different characters, scenes and perform songs. A winner will be named at the end of each episode.
From Angst Productions and Hat Trick Productions, Whose Line is executive produced by Dan Patterson, Mark Leveson, Jimmy Mulville, Stiles and Brady. It was co-created by Patterson and Leveson. …
February 8-9 blizzard pictures, video February 11, 2013
Posted by Mike C. in Health, Internet, Media, News, Personal, Photography, Video, Weather.add a comment
Coming into February, it had been two years since a major winter storm impacted Long Island. The previous winter only saw one storm in mid-January that left merely a few inches. Other than that, there were minor accumulations left by premature mid-fall storms in October 2011 and November 2012, the latter coming nine days after Hurricane Sandy devastated my region.
But on Friday, February 8, Long Island was impacted by a major winter storm; a blizzard, in fact. Most of Suffolk County got over two feet of snow. And across Long Island Sound, parts of Connecticut got over three feet.
Newsday: Long Island snow totals (subscription required)
Woodbury-Middlebury Patch: Connecticut snow totals
Nassau County was spared the worst, getting around or under one foot. Winds were gusty, but power stayed on. In my neighborhood, I heard and saw Town of Hempstead trucks come by around the clock to plow my street.
The next few pictures were taken Friday night, as snow became heavy:
By the time I woke up in middle of Saturday morning, snow had ended and skies were slowly clearing. As I looked out my windows before going downstairs to shovel, this is what I saw:
Once outside, I shot a few more pictures before getting to work:
Three grueling hours of shoveling followed. About a half hour in, my sister checked on me. I asked her to bring me a ruler to measure snow in the middle of the driveway, which I had yet to shovel. The standard 12-inch ruler measured about 10 1/2 inches of snowfall. Newsday’s official total for Wantagh was 11 inches. Another half hour passed and my sister joined me in shoveling. Then, our neighbor came by with his snow blower to finish what we started.
After shoveling paths to the backyard and an extra path to the curb, I took out my Nikon D3100 and shot these pictures:
I also shot video on my JVC Everio HD camcorder, which you can see here, preceded by video from Friday night on the D3100:
I had been outside for 3 1/2 hours, coming inside for a little while to eat eggs and bacon, and drink a glass of orange juice, for breakfast. I was relieved to relax the rest of the day. Parts of my body ached, but by the time I’m posting this on Monday afternoon, those aches have subsided.
As night came, I took one more picture:
If this is the only major storm Long Island gets this winter, it was certainly memorable. But as lucky as my area was in getting under a foot of snow, I only wish my friends in Suffolk and Connecticut could have had the same luck.
Meanwhile, there could be more than one minor or moderate winter storm before spring; this Wednesday night, for example.
My Sandy experience November 10, 2012
Posted by Mike C. in Audiobooks, DVD, Health, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Photography, Radio, Sports, Travel, TV, Weather.6 comments
The nightmare known as Hurricane (or Superstorm) Sandy was thrust upon my attention on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 24, hours before seeing pianist David Benoit perform at the Iridium Jazz Club. The first report I read about the storm had a few scenario options, which included turning east out to sea and taking a sharp westerly turn toward the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast U.S and combine with an approaching cold front. By the second report, the latter scenario became more likely. With each passing report until it made landfall in South New Jersey on the evening of October 29, more and more models showed that worst case scenario. And with each passing report, I grew more and more paranoid and fearful of what would happen.
Sandy was so large that its effects were first felt through cloud cover on Saturday, October 27. The following day, October 28, showers and minor wind gusts began. I couldn’t stand hearing the wind plowing into the windows and wall from my Wantagh home’s east-facing bedroom. So, I slept in the basement that night.
When I woke up early on October 29, the worst still hadn’t arrived, but the wind was still strong, around 30 miles per hour with gusts in the 50s. Somehow, the power did not go out during the morning. But by 1:30 PM, the power began to flicker off and on. And at 1:45, the power went out to stay and wouldn’t return until nine days later. As the wind continued to howl upstairs, now approaching sustained winds of 45 mph with gusts to 60, back in the basement, I used my Sennheiser studio headphones to listen to audiobooks on my CD-playing Walkman. But spoken words were unable to completely drown out the sound of wind. So, rather than waste battery power on my iPod, I used the Walkman, which runs on AA batteries, to listen to music. I took two pairs of CDs that I used for my two recent WCWP Homecoming Weekend shows and a dozen albums. When I wasn’t listening to news radio for the latest on Sandy, or sports radio to forget about Sandy, I was listening to my CDs.
My parents, sister, and I were prepared with plenty of bottled water, bags of food, canned goods, AA batteries, C batteries, D batteries, and a generator. We didn’t use the generator until after the height of Sandy, which came around 8PM, shortly after it transitioned to a post-tropical cyclone. As the worst winds pummeled the house, gusting as high as 85 mph, we congregated in the living room where an extension cord ran from the generator in the back yard to the middle of the room. There, I plugged in a power strip and we plugged in a table lamp for light, and all our rechargeable electronics. For a little while, we watched DVDs on my sister’s laptop. After a couple of hours, my dad turned the generator off and we all went to sleep. I returned to the basement for that.
Outside of a tree falling in my next-block neighbor’s back yard, two shingles falling off our roof, a toppled-over garbage pail on the side of the house, and branches and leaves on the grass, I was clueless as to the extent of damage in my area. But a tree fell a block east of our house, which is why our power went out, and a few trees fell one block north and west.
At around 11AM on October 30, I walked around the exterior of my house to take aftermath pictures.
I began at my front patio worked my way around the house and then to the curb:
The pails on the west side of the house:
I fixed the pail that blew over about a half hour before taking pictures.
The container that covered the gas cans for generator fuel blew off:
When the power strip wasn’t connected to the extension cord, either the microwave or coffee maker were plugged in.
I turned this table upside down on Sunday and removed the tiles, stacking them on the ground near the wall:
The tile-less table was moved slightly by the high winds.
There had been a tree in the center of this empty space:
Part of it fell into our back yard:
Or it may have been from this tree which fell at around 6:00 the night before:
I was in the basement listening to a CD on my Walkman and could hear my dad in the kitchen saying “Tree down!”
You can barely see a tree down up the road to the east:
To the west, a utility poll was slanted (not visible in pic):
A week later, my sister took the following pictures on our street from east to west:
But the absolute worst hit areas were waterfront communities. Main floors and basements were destroyed. House and building fires that started after flooding began couldn’t be contained and had to burn out. Knowing all this gave me survivor guilt. I felt guilty that my house was hardly damaged and all I lost was power, while my friends in places like South Freeport, Baldwin Harbor, Island Park, Long Beach, Lido Beach, and Massapequa lost everything that wasn’t on the second floor or higher. The Rockaways and Staten Island were hit just as hard.
An example of how hard Freeport was hit can be seen in this video of damage to the Nautical Mile (Woodcleft Avenue), via The Weekly Freeporter YouTube channel:
Guilt aside, I developed cabin fever after two days at my powerless house (outside of generated power). So, on the night of Halloween, after riding out Tuesday night in my increasingly cold bedroom, I made the trip to a family friend’s house in Rockville Centre (power had just returned after only two days). I went on to spend the next week there while power was out at home. Of all the times for power to come back, on the afternoon of November 7, it was as a wet snow-producing nor’easter began to affect the Northeast. But unlike Sandy, the center of this nor’easter was far offshore and the winds were not very strong on Western Long Island. Somehow, the wet snow bent but did not break tree limbs and it gradually melted or fell off the following day.
While power returned on November 7, cable did not come back until two days later.
After experiencing the March 2010 Nor’easter, Irene, and now Sandy, I can only hope that it’s a very long time before another major storm of Sandy’s magnitude hits the East Coast.
We’ll conclude this post with a few pictures in Rockville Centre on November 7 as snow began to accumulate…
…and a picture on November 8, hours after shoveling the driveway at home:
Also:
Laura Donovan: The Domino Effect Of Hurricane Sandy: Why One Natural Disaster Changed Everything For Me
Peter Hoare: How Hurricane Sandy Ravaged My Town (Long Beach)
11/13 UPDATE: Yesterday, I walked my street from east to west to get a close look at the cut-up downed trees, and the damage caused by them:
As I took this last shot, Town of Hempstead sanitation trucks were making the way up the street to remove debris:
CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri on WCWP: 2012 edition October 20, 2012
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Photography, Technology, Video.3 comments
Previous CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri recaps: 2011
Early this morning at 2:00, CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri aired on WCWP 88.1 FM. It’s part of the station’s – and its university LIU Post’s – Homecoming Weekend, which started last night at 7:00 and ends late tomorrow night.
I recorded the show two weeks ago, on October 5, as seen in this picture…
And two vidcaps:
All of the above was shot on my Nikon D3100. The vidcaps were taken from behind-the-scenes video of the recording process. Here is the final cut of that video, which I produced last night:
And here is the finished aircheck, as recorded from the board.
As you listen, follow along with the complete playlist with written notes (click to view larger):
The “separate page” with the Jeff Lorber Fusion comparison table (click to view larger):
I’m heading up to LIU Post this afternoon for Homecoming festivities and the announcement of the 2013 inductees to the WCWP Hall of Fame. I’ll have a recap in a later post.
2012 in review December 30, 2012
Posted by Mike C. in Commentary, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Photography, Travel, Weather.add a comment
The following is an excerpt of an end-of-year post WordPress created for MikeChimeri.com. Scroll down for my editorial.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2012 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
Click here to see the complete report.
This site began in 2012 as The Mike Chimeri Blog, but in May, I did something I should have done four years earlier: combine my blog and my original website that I created through Yahoo Sitebuilder. After two weeks of uploading files and recreating pages, the new MikeChimeri.com was born.
2012 was the year I switched to a DSLR (digital single-lens reflex) camera, a Nikon D3100, improving the quality of the pictures you see in my posts. The first two posts featuring pics shot with the D3100 were Scenery Pictures in late June and the Brian Simpson recap in early September. The Matt Marshak recap from mid-November was the first post where all pics were shot with it. Despite the switch, I plan to hold on to my Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ8 as a backup. In fact, my last regular post of the year, pics taken westbound on the Belt Parkway, was all shot on the Lumix.
Unfortunately, 2012 was the third year in a row where a major storm hit Long Island, knocked out my power for more than a day, and left me to relocate until power was restored. This time, Sandy was the culprit.
Whatever comes my way in 2013, there’s a good chance I’ll post about it here. Have a happy and healthy 2013, everyone.