Instrumental Invasion, 4/28/21 April 29, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, Rock, Travel, Video.add a comment
The April 28, 2021, Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over four days. One segment was recorded per day on March 23 (at home) and 24 (away on my laptop), and two per day on the 25th and 26th, both at home.
The playlist was created on March 21 and annotated on the 22nd, after which the script was drafted. While drafting, I forgot to include a tidbit about David Benoit‘s cover of “Your Song” by Elton John. The original came out in David’s last year of high school and he’s been a fan of Elton ever since. I added that tidbit in a March 27 pickup.
There were plenty more tidbits to go around, including one that required a pickup to make clear I was saying “funky” and not some other word. The personal tidbits are true and I have photographic evidence. Here I am in Florida at Christmastime in 1992, possibly the day that Cedar Walton‘s Manhattan Afternoon was recorded:
And this was taken during that trip on March 28, 2004, wherein I listened to “Expression” by Joyce Cooling and other songs on This Girl’s Got to Play:
One tidbit, however, was cut for time in the first segment:
Here is the cover of “Palladium” by Weather Report that I recommended in the outtake:
As for what aired, click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 4/21/21 April 22, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment
The April 21, 2021, Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days. The first two segments were recorded on March 16, the next on the 17th (St. Patrick’s Day) on my laptop, and the second hour back at home on the 18th. A pickup was recorded on the 19th.
The playlist was created and annotated on March 14 with the script drafted on the 15th.
After three weeks of mistakes, I finally achieved a flawless show…almost. While I knew I’d be playing “Sienna Step” by David Benoit for the second time, I forgot I had previously played “Tropical” by Jeff Lorber. Besides that, flawless. I was never short on time or had too much to fill.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Pardon the signal interference throughout the aircheck. To make up for that, here is a clean scope from segment files with a hard limit filter applied:
Instrumental Invasion, 4/14/21 April 15, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.add a comment
The April 14, 2021, Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was painstakingly recorded over four days. The first hour was recorded in the early morning and mid-afternoon of March 9. The second hour took three days with the first segment recorded on March 10 on my laptop through an Apogee MiC 96k, and the last two segments back at home on the 11th and 12th. Pickups were required for a talk break in the third segment of hour 1 and one talk break in each segment of hour 2.
The playlist was created and annotated on March 7, and the script was drafted on the 8th. For the second week in a row, I made a timing error. Worse yet, two timing errors. In the last segment of hour 1, I put in a 4:32 song rather than 5:32. The replacement song faded out incredibly early, which still left me with too much time in the talk break that followed. I had to vamp. I made the opposite mistake in hour 2, inserting a 4:55 song in the second segment when I needed 3:55. The irony is the first segment was mainly comprised of songs that I had to cut from the last two shows, one due to timing and the other because of a wordy talk break. (9:35 AM UPDATE: I forgot to account for the replacement, which was from 2011. That meant listeners heard me refer in the vamp to a 2010 song that they wouldn’t hear until a week later.)
The inclusion of “Outside Solaris” by Clifford Marshall Van Buren is another of my loving tributes to the heyday of local forecast music on The Weather Channel. You can find an example of its usage on Matt Marron’s TWC Classics tribute site. I don’t always do this, but I prefaced the description of Solaris with “according to Wikipedia” to acknowledge my lack of knowledge. You learn something new every day.
The “fun fact” preface to the Dan Ingram tidbit was an homage to a catchphrase on the Technology Connections YouTube channel.
Picking up on what I said coming out of “Whispered Confessions” by Lisa Hilton, here is a side-by-side comparison of the song’s melody and what’s played between levels in the NES port of Pac-Man:
That remains a pleasant coincidence seven years after hearing the song for the first time at Carnegie Hall.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 4/7/21 April 8, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Wrestling.add a comment
The April 7, 2021, Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded over three days. The first segment was recorded on March 3, the next three on the 4th, and the last two on the 5th.
The playlist was created on March 1 and annotated on the 2nd.
This was the first normal show in three weeks with the usual five segment formats in effect, including two segments with the same format.
For the second week in a row, I had to replace a song in the first segment during my recording session. This time, it was due to a timing error I made creating the playlist. So, Spyro Gyra‘s “Islands in the Sky” was replaced with “Oasis.” Luckily, I didn’t have to change many annotations; the personnel was similar.
My story about meeting The Undertaker at Tower Records in Carle Place, while back-selling “Bones Jive” by Joe Sample, was true. Here’s photographic evidence:
That was a fun Saturday afternoon, but I don’t remember much about meeting him.
Click here to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 3/31/21 April 1, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Video, Video Games.add a comment
The March 31, 2021, Instrumental Invasion on WCWP marked one year since my Wednesday night premiere. The show was recorded one hour per day on February 25 and 26 with multiple pickups recorded on the second day, and still more on the morning of the 27th.
The playlist was created on February 23 with annotations continuing into the 24th, after which the script was drafted.
This was an incredibly hard show to do. I had to improvise multiple talk breaks because there wasn’t enough time to read from the lengthy scripts. The second talk break of the show was so lengthy that I had to replace “Lakeshore Cowboy” by Ramsey Lewis with “Heartsounds” by David Lanz. In future playlists, I’m expanding the back-sell length to 50 seconds. That may not even be enough.
“Giant Steps” and “Fly with the Wind” were included days after acquiring John Coltrane and McCoy Tyner‘s albums of the same name. Giant Steps is the first Trane album I ever bought.
My “Giant Steps” curiosity had been piqued by several YouTube videos that either covered the song…:
…or adapted the changes into other songs:
So, it was only right that I acquaint myself with the original.
I played “El Camino Real” by David Benoit to make up for the factual error I made when I first played it last August 19.
Click below to download the aircheck MP3 or listen below:
MikeChimeri.com 
Audiobooking 6 April 4, 2021
Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Audio, Audiobooks, Baseball, Comedy, Commentary, Film, History, Media, Personal, Politics, Radio, Sports, TV, Video.add a comment
It’s been just over a year since the previous post. Instrumental Invasion has taken up most of my time, providing a necessary escape from the tumultuous reality.
I continue to listen to audiobooks on days where I workout and run, or even while editing photos. My source remains Audible, now as a paid member. When I’m billed at the end of each month, I use my credit on the next audiobook to listen to. As I type, I have a three-book backlog.
Here’s what I’ve been listened to since Andrea Barber’s memoir:
There, all caught up.
Until next year’s “Audiobooking” post, happy listening.