The 2026 expo was dedicated to the memory of longtime staff member Terry Taylor, who died much too soon earlier this year. Several staff members donned caps that read “God Bless Terry Taylor.” Indeed. I don’t recall, but I’m sure I interacted with Terry at least once in all my years at LI Retro. He was memorialized in the Terry Taylor Vectrex Corner on the first floor, as seen via this Facebook post:
My three prior recaps were spread out over three posts per year. (This is post 1 from last year.) I feel I was judicious enough in my photography and culling for a singular, self-contained recap post. To help, for the first time, I’ve utilized page jumps (a.k.a. anchor links) at the top and peppered throughout.
I was quick to buy my weekend pass when tickets went on sale in winter, and I gradually built up my biggest budget ever. (I will not divulge the amount.)
In the days and hours leading up to August 8 (I didn’t go on the 7th), I had the usual performance and social anxiety that comes with being on the autism spectrum. I prayed for the strength and coping skills to get through any and all situations. So, you can understand why I needed many deep breaths as my mom drove me to the Cradle of Aviation Museum parking lot.
SPOILER: All that worrying was for nothing. I had a great time without any hitches.
ARRIVING AT THE MUSEUM Mom’s car pulled into the lot at 9:29 AM on Saturday, August 8.
Despite the high heat and humidity, I wanted to arrive as early as possible so I wouldn’t have to wait too long on line outside.
There were two lines: one on the left for those retrieving their badges at the box office via QR code, and one on the right for those who already had badges. Of course, the left line was the longer one and my Saturday destination. I’d be on the right line on Sunday.
The museum doors opened at 10AM and I reached the entrance (and air conditioning) at 10:07.
Once I got my badge, I affixed to a lanyard I saved from a year or two before and began walking around the first floor.
PHOTOS WITH GUESTS AND CANDID PHOTOS OF THEIR TABLES
Audacity Games with David Crane, Dan Kitchen, Garry Kitchen, and John Van Ryzin On the other hand, I overcame last year’s shyness and had a enjoyable interaction with the quartet of game design legends. “We don’t bite,” David Crane reassured me after I introduced myself and gladly bought all four games – new for the Atari VCS/2600 – that each of them developed. David designed Rescue from Poseidon’s Gate, Dan Kitchen’s game was Casey’s Gold, there was Alien Abduction! by John Van Ryzin (the spiritual successor to H.E.R.O.), with Garry Kitchen and David Crane co-designing Circus Convoy. Any or all of the games can be bought online here.
David Crane and Garry Kitchen talk to attendees at the Audacity Games table
You could even try them out on separate Atari 7800+ consoles:
As mentioned earlier, Ryan Burger publishes Old School Gamer, a magazine Tristan Ibarra is now involved in, on top of his author and designer credits. We’ll learn more about them in photos of their Sunday panel.
For now, here are Tristan, Walter, and Ryan:
My Life in Gaming with Coury Carlson and Marc “Try4ce” Duddleson Coury and Try were a late addition to the 2026 LI Retro guest list, and I’m glad they were booked. They were actually the first people I saw outside the museum Saturday morning before I got in line.
Try and Coury meeting an attendee and his son (out of view) who was cosplaying as Minecraft Steve
PANELS I limited myself to two panels each on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday’s were later and in the Main Theatre; Sunday’s were earlier in Panel Room 2, relocated to the first floor.
…have worked in the video game industry since the late 1970s. While they are known for their iconic game catalog on the Atari 2600 ([H.E.R.O.,] Pitfall!, Donkey Kong, Ghostbusters, Keystone Kapers, Crackpots…), they also bring a boatload of experience on NES, SNES, Gameboy, C64, Xbox, PlayStation, iPhone/iPad, PC/Mac and online gaming. Everybody knows Pitfall! and Donkey Kong, but did you know they also worked on Bart vs. the Space Mutants (NES), A Boy and His Blob (NES), AddictingGames.com (online), Transformers (C64), Shockwave.com (online), Candystand.com (online), and the infamous Desert Bus game from Penn & Teller?
Garry KitchenDan KitchenJohn Van RyzinDavid CraneQ&A…
The last photo perfectly encapsulates the mood of the panel. Garry, Dan, John, and David were full of interesting, engaging, and humorous anecdotes about their time in the gaming industry, working at Activision, and the many games they design and developed. (I especially enjoyed how Garry debunked a myth about Coleco’s Atari 2600 port of Donkey Kong.) They are a winning team.
Now, if only I could find John’s H.E.R.O. at a good price. Otherwise, I’ll play it in an Activision compilation.
Saturday Panel 2, 1:30-2:30 PM Main Theatre Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson CU Podcast Live!
My initial photos were taken on the right side of the first row as I deferred to an LI Retro staff photographer. Then, I went back to the center.
Among the topics for this episode The CUPodcast (Super Show #34) were:
Ian Ferguson and Pat ContriPat ContriIan FergusonThe Q&A portion of the podcast panel included a question from G Gracin (G to the Next Level).
I did not ask a question this year, and told Pat afterward what I would have asked. Part of my annual Christmas special viewing tradition includes watching Pat the NES Punk Christmas episodes, such as It’s a Wonderful Life, Punk. (RIP Billy Chaser.) Will there be a Christmas episode this year? We’ll find out in four months.
I won’t go into detail about G’s panel since they recorded it for a future YouTube video, but I will share it in photo form.
If you’ve watched G’s streams, you’ll recognize the emotes designed by their spouse and fellow streamer Rannchann.
The 2026 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo was where I made my Dreamcast dream a reality. First, I found two controllers and a VMU from one vendor. Then, I found the console by itself (no power adapter or cables) from a second vendor. And from a third, I bought three games, including launch titles NFL 2K (released on launch day) and NBA 2K (two months after launch). You’ll see all of that (and the Sonic fanny pack) in the pickups segment.
As of publication, G’s most recent YouTube video is this one:
…a discussion on preserving and celebrating the history of video games and the community that built it. Walter Day will share stories from his years at Twin Galaxies, the journey behind his books, film appearances, and trading card series, explaining how the cards were created not just to honor champions, but to recognize the passion and achievements of gamers from every corner of the hobby. Ryan Burger will explore growing up during the rise of competitive gaming, the books, television shows, and media that chronicled gaming culture before it became a global phenomenon, and how Old School Gamer Magazine now works with many of those pioneering voices to introduce their stories to a new generation. Tristan Ibarra will discuss his path from Air Force veteran to gamer, collector, author, graphic designer, and magazine layout artist, sharing his passion for documenting the hobby and organizing its scattered history into accessible resources for fans and researchers alike. Together, the panel will reflect on the people, stories, and communities that shaped gaming culture, while celebrating the generations of enthusiasts whose dedication has helped preserve its legacy for the future.
How does that compare to my description written before thinking of citing the expo description?
For one hour, Panel Room 2 was transported to the state of Iowa. Ryan Burger and Tristan Ibarra were our hosts and they set up Walter Day to share stories galore. Ryan promoted Old School Gamer magazine and an upcoming book. Tristan detailed his The Video Game Collector’s Field Guide and his upcoming …Video Game Dictionary for the Total Noob. To that end, there were ten trivia questions with ten terms in Tristan’s dictionary. (I photographed the answers, but for obvious reasons, I’m keeping them to myself.) After Walter asked trivia questions, it was our turn to ask.
Mike Ferrara, a.k.a. HighScorsese, topped the Twin Galaxies rankings five times!One Walter quip made Tristan laugh.This question acknowledged learning of Twin Galaxies through Electronic Gaming Monthly, also founded in the Midwest (Lombard, Illinois).Journey with Patrick expressed hope to appear on one of Walter’s trading cards by attending many U.S. and Canada conventions, per a list he’s kept.
This is where I would have gone to a second post. Instead, in this same post, we begin a photographic tour of as much as I could see on each floor of the Cradle of Aviation Museum. I couldn’t get everything, and some photos were too blurry to include. The photos that remain are here.
Remembering what Norm Caruso said, I tried the Pods myself.
More from the Cradle of Aviation Museum’s Pan Am exhibit:
PART THREE
DEPARTING THE MUSEUM The commercial aircraft were the last thing I photographed after coming downstairs from the Arcade Age Exhibit. That’s when I went back to searching vendors for a few more purchases, including that model 2 Sega CD. The last game I bought was Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse. Then, I went in the museum gift shop for three more plane replicas to go with the Pan Am plane I bought last year. And that was it. I took Lyft home to Wantagh with $44 to spare! It’s the first time I’ve ever left under budget!
Requisite exit photos:
PICKUPS What did Mike get? Well, let’s start with guest merchandise and business cards:
Thank you again, Sean Chiplock.
This is the fanny pack I won from G’s charity stream. Thank you very much, G.
Pixelated Pat [Contri] pin
Old School Gamer Magazine Issue 43, Mike Ferrara and Justin’s cards
Walter Day trading cards and his autobiography
The two bags full of games and signed cards from Audacity Games
This is just what I bought duringLong Island Retro Gaming Expo. I also bought many other things online to supplement some of my purchases. I won’t list them all, but they include VGA and power adapters for the Dreamcast and an Atari 7800+ to play those Audacity Games games. Furthermore, a VMUPro that I preordered months ago arrived Monday as I was wrapping up the first draft. (That process took six hours!)
CONCLUSION I’ve thanked many people throughout this post, but I owe a huge thanks to Ryan Shapiro, Joe Vincent, George Portugal (whom I didn’t get to see), and the rest of the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo staff for your support and accommodation. I am deeply grateful.
I’ll conclude this recap with the front and back of my badge and event program, the latter of which includes a photo of the late Terry Taylor.
Wednesday marked a twice in a lifetime experience for me. I got to see Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass & Other Delights at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, mere steps from the Abrams Communications Center, home to WCWP, on the campus of LIU Post. I was part of a capacity (sell-out) crowd!
Here is the Tilles Center exterior, as seen in December 2025:
Tilles’s north entranceThe Goldsmith AtriumThe south entrance, where my dad and I entered
51 weeks and one day had passed since the first time I saw Herb and his band at Jazz at Lincoln Center. Read the linked recap for more information on the set’s songs and their etymology.
Thanks to Bobby Guthenberg for giving away two tickets for me and my dad Bill. Bobby’s daughter Katie was also with us in row J. I was in seat 134, the aisle seat, with Dad in 133, Katie in 132, and Bobby G. in 131. Lori Downing and her friend Regina sat ahead of us in row H, and Jeff and Pat Kroll were in row G. (Jeff’s the biggest Herb Alpert fan I know.) For Bobby, Lori, the Krolls, this was also a twice in a lifetime experience after seeing the Lincoln Center shows. (Jeff and Pat were at Herb’s 90th birthday show last March 31.)
I’d be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge meeting fellow WCWP and then-C.W. Post alumnus Joe Townley outside the Abrams Communications Center before reaching Tilles’s south entrance. Joe is currently EVP of content, programming, and new business for the production company MyEntertainment.
As for the show, I was much closer to the stage at Tilles Center, and I have a better smartphone: an iPhone 17 Pro. (My Canon EOS R7 wasn’t allowed, meaning a return trip to Dad’s car before going inside.)
Admittedly, some photos required enhancements in Photoshop, and not just color filtering. I think you’ll like what you see, though.
The show began 13 minutes past the scheduled 7:30 start, but it was nonstop action after that.
“Olé!”: Herb and the original Tijuana Brass entered and signed in on What’s My Line?Herb’s grand entrance!
My dad loved Ray’s drumming, and Bill Cantos was delighted when I told him after the show that I knew Jay Rowe. Clasping his hands together, he said “tell him I said hi,” which I did (via text message) as Dad and I exited Tilles Center. I spoke to Jay on the phone back in the fall and mentioned the Herb Alpert concert on my pre-Smooth Jazz for Scholars itinerary. That’s when Jay revealed that Bill is another friend from his days at the New England Conservatory. (I already knew about Nelson Rangell and David Mann.)
The set list was mostly identical to last year’s. In fact, the first 12 songs were the same and in the same order. From there, the set diverged. Herb’s wife Lani Hall couldn’t make it this time, which meant no Sergio Mendes and Brasil ’66 medley. (Hearing their music on the sound system before the show made up for that.) Otherwise, four songs were new to this set: “Route 101,” “Mae” (partial), “Casino Royale” (partial), and “Up Cherry Street.”
Compare and contrast the set on this night with the one from last year. Some tidbits have been recycled. (The original album and release years are in parentheses.)
Mexican Shuffle (South of the Border, 1964) – If you’re keeping score, that’s four Sol Lake compositions in the set – Used in TV ads for Clark’s Teaberry gum (shown on the monitor), where it was known as “The Teaberry Shuffle”
This Guy’s in Love with You (The Beat of the Brass, 1968) – Herb’s lone vocal song of the set – Contrary to popular belief, the song was later reworked as “This Girl’s in Love with You” for Dionne Warwick and other female singers, not the other way around for Herb
Rise (Rise, 1979) (solo album) – Rap fans may recognize one part from its sampling in “Hypnotize” by The Notorious B.I.G. – The performance this year was almost as long as the original thanks to many solos
Encore 1-1: Smile (Midnight Sun, 1992; Catch the Wind, 2021) (solo albums) – Requiem for departed friends, including Sergio Mendes, Karen Carpenter, Burt Bacharach (co-writer [with Hal David] of “This Guy’s in Love with You”), and A&M Records co-founder Jerry Moss – “Smile” by Charlie Chaplin is not to be confused with “Sweet, Sweet Smile,” which was introduced and popularized by The Carpenters
Encore 1-3 (True Finale): Up Cherry Street (South of the Border, 1964) – Second composition of the set by Julius Wechter
Now that you’ve seen the set and know the band, it’s photo time.
“The Lonely Bull”:
Bill Cantos, Kerry Marx, Ryan Dragon, Herb Alpert, Ray Brinker, Hussain Jiffry, Kris BerghRyan Dragon, Kerry Marx, Herb Alpert, Ray BrinkerA close-up of Herb Alpert and Ray Brinker (as close as my iPhone would allow)
“Mexican Shuffle” with Clark’s Teaberry Gum commercial clips:
Herb talking to the audience between “Memories of Madrid” and “Whipped Cream”:
He noted that this was his first performance on Long Island since 1984 at Jones Beach Theater. Jim Carrey, then a stand-up comedian, opened for him.
Bill Cantos vocalizing at the piano during “Tangerine”:
Ray Brinker’s drum solo between “Tangerine” and “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”:
Ryan Dragon’s trombone solo during “I’m Getting Sentimental…”:
“Love Potion No. 9”:
The end of Hussain Jiffry’s bass solo, with Kris Bergh resuming the melody on trumpetThe end of Kerry Marx’s electric guitar solo, with Ryan Dragon doing the same as KrisKris Bergh’s trumpet soloOne of many standing ovations! You could say “This capacity crowd is on its feet!”
Despite Lani Hall’s absence, Herb Alpert still spoke of how Sergio Mendes played Cupid and matched him with her.
Sergio Mendes explaining the Brasil [year] origin in Portuguese:
Herb’s “translation” turned out to be the origin of the Tijuana Brass:
Sergio replied in fluent English that isn’t what he said at all.
Perhaps because an audience member requested it, the Sergio segment dovetailed into the origin of “This Guy’s in Love with You.” Prompting the audience to sing along, Herb performed a moving rendition of “This Guy’s…” (in a lower key).
The singing partThe trumpet partYou bet there was a standing O!
And there was another after “Rise”!
“A Taste of Honey”:
What do you think happened afterward?
The last song before the encore was “Zorba’s Dance,” known on !!Going Places!! as “Zorba the Greek.”
Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass gathered at center stage and took a bow:
Then, it was back to their posts – no pun intended at LIU Post – for the encore.
Encore song 1 was Charlie Chaplin’s “Smile.”
The mood lightened back up for the five-song medley that featured a little bit of “Casino Royale”:
The medley ended with “Tijuana Taxi,” featuring a marimba solo by Bill Cantos:
He also played a horn honk on his synthesizer.
A night to remember ended with “Up Cherry Street”:
The end!
One last ovation!
Herb Alpert has left the building…or at least the stage.
Before departing, I grabbed two selfies. One with Regina and Lori…
…and the other with Katie, Bobby G., and my dad Bill:
April 25, exactly one month after seeing Herb Alpert at Tilles, I’ll be at the Roosevelt School the south end of LIU Post for the WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony Dinner, honoring the Class of 2025 (revealed on Homecoming Weekend last September) and this year’s Arthur Beltrone Service Award recipient. Until I recap that, thank you for reading.
A special three-hour Christmas 2025 edition of Instrumental Invasion was recorded principally on December 1 with pickups recorded during quality control on the morning of the 3rd and again that afternoon in case the show didn’t only air on Christmas. Indeed, it aired Christmas Eve at 5PM and reran on Christmas at 9PM. (I use the past tense despite publishing on Christmas morning.)
Before I say more, here is the scoped aircheck:
What I said in the outro is true. WCWP/WXBA station manager Dan Cox hosted a Microsoft Teams meeting for alumni on October 27. When he opened the “floor” to questions, I had two:
May I contribute to the rotation of legal IDs voiced by alumni?
Would it be okay if I recorded a special Christmas show?
Dan said yes to both. Right after the meeting I recorded VO for the ID, which turned out this way:
I didn’t start work on the Christmas Instrumental Invasion until the following Monday, November 3, when Dan answered a follow-up email about show length. He said it could be as long as I wanted. So, I chose to make a three-hour show. The playlist, created and tweaked between November 3 and 15, was reworked from the playlist for what would have been the fourth and final Christmas show of my Wednesday night run. (2020, 2021, 2022 recaps) The renovation hiatus ended that run sooner than planned. 22 of the 23 songs from the unused playlist were incorporated into this one with minimal rearranging. 15 songs were added to pad out the three hours (all under an hour in length), and the 23rd song from the original playlist was changed due to time constraints in hour 2.
Annotations drafting began November 5, when I completed my first playlist draft, and tweaks followed along through the 15th. For the first time ever, I’m sharing the script. Work on that began when my initial annotations draft completed on November 10. Tweaks continued all the way into recording and pickups.
I had planned on doing as I did for the last two Homecoming Weekend prerecords (2024, 2025), by recording and mixing live on my Twitch channel from December 4 to 6. I even did like this year’s HCW show and preloaded the music and liners into Adobe Audition multitrack session files. However, I developed an obsession with the video game PowerWash Simulator 2, for which I have the Xbox Series X/S port. I wasn’t about to halt gameplay for three days when I was on the verge of completing the game’s career mode. (I did that on December 6 and completed the game entirely [in its initial form] two nights later.) So, I recorded and edited all 15 talk breaks (five per hour) in a three-hour span on December 1. Then, I mixed them into the preloaded sessions. All three hours were within the 58:00 to 59:59 range Dan Cox asks of show files with hour 1 skewing closer to the minimum at 58:20, which I reworked to 58:36. Hours 2 and 3 required reworking in the opposite direction to reach run times of 59:58 and 59:57.
The December 3 quality control session required a handful of pickups with truncating in the last two hours for even shorter times. I misinterpreted an email that afternoon, leading me to think the show either might not air on Christmas or wouldn’t be limited to Christmas. The resulting evergreen pickups worked in my favor as Dan chose to premiere the show Christmas Eve at 5PM and run it again on Christmas at 9PM. The end result hour by hour: 58:39, 59:52, 59:54. There was no dead air between files as legal IDs bridged the gaps. That meant the show after mine began before the top of the hour.
This paragraph was written December 9 after learning that Gordon Goodwin died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 70. His Big Phat Band were part of my show with “I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day.” It’s too late for me to redo the talk break for the set with the song as I’ve already sent Dan the show hour files. Gordon will live on through his music, not just with the Big Phat Band, but for the TV shows and films he scored.
“You wanna have a catch?” in the intro was a quote from the end of Field of Dreams where Ray gets to play catch with his father. The Colin Mochrie joke about “foreplay” (not Fourplay) is a sound command for my Twitch streams and was sourced from this Whose Line video:
“Pickup lines that would never work” (Scenes from a Hat suggestion)
NOTE: This recap will lead with photos at the venue; before, during, and after the concert. That will be followed by photos on the way to and from there: at Rockville Centre‘s LIRR (Long Island Rail Road) station, aboard the train to Grand Central Terminal, inside GCT itself, the long walk through Manhattan to Columbus Circle (including stops at Rockefeller Center and Serafina restaurant, entering 59th Street-Columbus Circle Station to take the 1 train to 34th Street-Penn Station, and watching the Babylon-bound train arrive on track 20 of Penn Station’s LIRR terminal.
Tuesday night, thanks to my friend Lori Downing, I finally got the opportunity to see Herb Alpert live in concert. Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass & Other Delights played two sold out shows in Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Frederick P. Rose Hall. The show I attended – along with Lori, Lori’s son Zach, and my mother Lisa (a mutual friend of Lori) – was the second of the two, one day after Herb’s 90th birthday.
I have been a fan of Herb Alpert since CD 101.9 played “Rise” and “Rotation” on a regular basis in the 1990s. I inherited my fandom from my mom and her dad (my grandpa) Artie. In the summer of 1999, I bought a compilation CD called Classics Volume 20 with some of my high school graduation money. It only covered 1979 to ’87, meaning no Tijuana Brass. I wouldn’t discover that portion of Herb’s catalog until getting another compilation called Definitive Hits. (Yes, I’d heard TJB songs in episodes of The Simpsons and on The Dating Game. I just didn’t have them in my collection.) In 2010, I began buying CD remasters of whole albums, from The Lonely Bull (1962) to North on South St (1991). Outside of Second Wind (1996) and Colors (1999), there’s a 22-year gap in my collection that ends with Steppin’ Out (2013). From there, I’m only missing The Christmas Wish (2017).
When Lori Downing and I attended Dave Koz’s 20th Anniversary Christmas Tour at Tilles Center in December 2017, I quipped that we were in the Bob Uecker seats since we were so high up (but not in the last row). It’s a nod to the infamous 1984 Lite Beer from Miller ad where Bob is at a baseball game and settles into a field level seat. An usher intervenes, telling him he’s in the wrong seat, and Bob says, “Oh, I must be in the front row.” After the ad’s tag, we transition to Ueck in the upper deck (of Dodger Stadium). He shouts to his friend, “Good seats, eh, buddy?,” and to an umpire, “He missed the tag! He missed the tag!”
Life somewhat imitated art on Tuesday. When we presented our tickets to an usher, she escorted us to seats at stage level, a handful of rows from the stage. Seconds after I settled into what I thought was my seat, the usher realized her mistake and referred us to another usher. When I got up, I acknowledged the similarity to the ad and repeated the “front row” line. The second usher had us go up two floors in an elevator to our true location. We were in the last row of the center balcony. Unlike with Dave Koz, we really were in the Bob Uecker seats. However, there wasn’t a bad seat in the house. The rows are arranged in a way that your view won’t be blocked by the person in front of you.
The view from my last row balcony seat, with my iPhone camera zoom at 3x
Before we see photos from the show itself, along with the complete set list and background info, let’s backtrack.
Using the clear backpack my dad bought for when we went to a Mets game in June 2022, a security guard cleared me in mere seconds. After riding an elevator to the 5th floor, we waited in the lobby until the Rose Hall doors were to open at 7:30.
Zach invited me to look at the view of Columbus Circle from a window at the lobby’s edge.
Then, I took a selfie with my mom.
There was even a WCWP connection to all this. (FM 60th anniversary/2024 Hall of Fame Ceremony recap) Jeff Kroll is an equally big Herb Alpert fan, and he and his wife Pat attended Monday’s 90th birthday performance. Jeff and Pat’s seats were at stage level.
On Tuesday, fellow alumnus Bobby Guthenberg, a.k.a. Bobby G., was among the attendees! Here he is talking to Lisa and Lori:
That brings us back to my last row balcony seat. I can’t show every photo I took, and would rather keep videos to myself (and to some the Discord chat servers I’m part of). What I will show are the photos where my phone could make out faces with its AI enhancement.
The lights went down at 8:05 and the monitor showed Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass as the Mystery Guests on a circa 1965 episode of What’s My Line?
Herb “enter[ed] and sign[ed] in, please,” adding “Olé!” below his name.The Brass assembled behind host John Charles Daly, while Herb sat next to John.
The stage lights came up, the new Tijuana Brass assembled, and Herb made his entrance.
It was nice to finally put faces to the names (Bill, Hussain) I’d seen in the credits to Herb’s solo albums since 2013. I’m connected with Ray Brinker on Facebook, and knew of him through his work with Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band. So, he was the only Tijuana Brass member I knew by name until Herb’s introduction toward the end of the first encore (spoiler).
Bill, Hussain, Ryan, and Kris provided background vocals on songs that called for them.
Here is the full set list (original album and release year in parentheses):
Mexican Shuffle (South of the Border, 1964) – If you’re keeping score, that’s four Sol Lake compositions in the set – I had no idea this was used in TV ads for Clark’s Teaberry gum (one such ad shown on the monitor), or that it was referred to as “The Teaberry Shuffle”
Encore 1-1: This Guy’s in Love with You (The Beat of the Brass, 1968) – Herb’s lone vocal song of the set – Contrary to popular belief, the song was later reworked as “This Girl’s in Love with You” for Dionne Warwick and other female singers, not the other way around for Herb
Encore 1-4: A Banda (Herb Alpert’s Ninth, 1967) – Fittingly preceded by band introduction (“a banda” literally means “the band”)
Encore 2-1: Tijuana Taxi (!!Going Places!!, 1965) – original composition by TJB guitarist Ervan “Bud” Coleman
Encore 2-2 (True Finale): On the Sunny Side of the Street (Come Fly with Me, 2015; Sunny Side of the Street, 2022) (solo albums)
I knew the title of most songs the instant they began. There were a few exceptions. I had to ask my mom about “Smile,” Zach confirmed “Tangerine” on the train ride back to Rockville Centre (via a set list for one of the Buffalo shows), and I confirmed “Tim Dom Dom (Chim Dome Dome)” on Wednesday morning via the Herb Alpert Presents… Wikipedia entry.
It’s understandable that I wouldn’t recognize “Tangerine.” I gravitated toward the more popular tracks on Whipped Cream & Other Delights. I didn’t really develop awareness and appreciate of the song until hearing it on She Was Too Good to Me, trumpeter/vocalist Chet Baker‘s 1974 comeback album.
Throughout the set, relevant video clips or still photos were shown on a monitor above the stage.
The best of the photos:
“Memories of Madrid”
“Whipped Cream,” with …& Other Delights cover model Dolores Erickson shown on the monitor
As Herb and the Brass played “Lollipops and Roses,” a promo for The Brass Are Comin’ (1969) ran on the monitor. Among those to recite the album title was Johnny Carson.
“Tangerine”
Ray Brinker’s drum solo before “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You”
Herb acknowledging his marriage to Brasil ’66 lead vocalist Lani Hall, thanks to Sergio “Cupid” Mendes
Lani’s entrance
Lani singing “Tim Dom Dom (Chim Dome Dome)”
A kiss after the medley
“Rise”
“A Taste of Honey”
“Zorba the Greek (Zorba’s Dance),” accelerando and all
The false ending
Encore 1 began with “This Guy’s in Love with You”
“What Now My Love”
“On the Sunny Side of the Street”
The end!
Herb Alpert has left the stage; you can literally see him exiting stage left
The rest of the band departs
In conclusion, there were 22 songs, 6 of the encores (4 in the first encore, 2 in the second). It was a night I’ll never forget, and I owe it all to Lori Downing. Crying happy tears, I hugged her and thanked her as we got up from our seats and walked back to the lobby.
There were no accessible stairs. So, we had to take an escalator from the lobby to a set of elevators. We and several other attendees boarded the first elevator to open and rode it down to ground level. From there, we exited back out to Columbus Circle.
The experience wasn’t all “Lollipops and Roses,” so to speak. I neglected to disable my iPhone camera’s flash and the flash light was on as I recorded “Memories of Madrid.” An usher had to come to our row and tell me to turn it off. I did as he instructed, and I deleted the video from my phone, but was quite embarrassed and miffed. I gathered my wits within a minute or two. I made sure the flash was off in photo and video mode the rest of the night, and there was no further trouble. I recorded 12 more videos (on top of “The Lonely Bull” before the intervention). Again, I’m opting to withhold them from this post.
Now, let’s turn our attention to the other photos, taken going to and from Jazz at Lincoln Center.
By this time, my iPhone’s battery state of charge was down 10%. So, I didn’t take anymore photos, but I had taken 154 photos and 13 videos on my phone, in addition to the two photos provided to me by Zach, which I cropped and upscaled for this post.
I don’t know what more I can say. Thank you again to Lori Downing for inviting me and my mom to see Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass & Other Delights on Tuesday night. And thank you for reading this recap. Check back in mid-May for recaps of this year’s Smooth Jazz for Scholars. Bye until then.
Today is not just my 42nd birthday, but the 55th anniversary of the infamous Heidi Game, an AFL game between the New York Jets and Oakland Raiders. My fellow WCWP Hall of Famer John LiBretto, inducted in 2017, was a log clerk for NBC at the time, and permitted me to share what he remembered from that night via our e-mail conversation on Tuesday.
This is John’s story:
A little background: I was a Log Clerk, which was my entry job at NBC (I had started in June of 1968). Basically logged all programming and commercials etc. for the local station (WNBC) and for the network.
I worked in a room with two TV monitors just next to BOC (Broadcast Operations Control), the area that was responsible for all programming output to the network and WNBC. Next door was Master Control, and just in front was the Control Room that switched between all the control studios, rolled the station breaks etc. etc. Busy place.
On any given weekend that had live sports, the Operations Dept issued Conditions that outlined what was to happen during various points in the broadcast day (i.e. handoffs between games and regionalization of games during the football season, and the end of sports into the prime-time schedule at 7PM on a Sunday night). Remember, while the NFL and AFL had announced their merger to take effect in 1970, they were still separate leagues in 1968. The AFL did not have the high ratings of the NFL, nor the clout over the network (in fact, it was said that NBC saved the AFL, and helped facilitate the merger).
There were times that the network would allow a game to run slightly past 7PM, and either slide the network accordingly (rare), or do a Join-in-Progress (also rare). The show on this particular Sunday, Heidi, was a very expensive adaptation of the story (music by John Williams, by the way), and the conditions specifically stated that, no matter what, the show would air to east and central time zones at 7PM. The big 4PM game was, of course, Jets at Oakland Raiders. The commercial control was in Burbank (NBC’s west coast headquarters), so the game was coming back to the east via the video/audio lines from NBC Burbank to Paducah, KY, where it was switched, by AT&T, into the main network via something called the Round Robin (the network signal left NY and traveled in a big circle, city to city, and eventually came back to NY…a big circle that allowed news feeds and regional commercials to be switched into the network as needed (not to mention regional football games).
A lot of set-up information for what transpired next.
As we got closer to 7PM, it was pretty clear the game was not going to end on time. Curt Gowdy had already promoted that Heidi would be coming up in the east and central time zones at 7PM; the game would continue out west. The powers that be (Julian Goodman, President of NBC) realized that this was probably not a great idea after all, and tried to call BOC to order a change (i.e. let the game finish, and slide the east and central feed of Heidi). By this time, the calls were coming into NBC New York from viewers and overwhelming the switchboard, so Goodman couldn’t get through in time.
Here’s the sequence as it aired on the East Coast:
6:58:40 Network Identification (NI) a :06 seconded, either a promo, or just “This is the NBC Television Network.”
6:58:46 Network goes to black for local station break
Somewhere in here, BOC got word from Goodman to delay Heidi and go back to the game…mind you, only 1:14 to accomplish this. That NI I mentioned was also a set cue for the AT&T facility in Paducah to reverse the eastbound feed from Burbank to the normal feed of the network outbound to the west coast. So, that already meant the game was never coming back to the East Coast.
7:00:00 NBC Color Peacock (The Following is a Special Color Presentation on NBC)
7:00:12 A little bit of the Heidi opening, followed by hash (yes, they switched to the incoming feed from California, which unfortunately had nothing on it). Hash is what happens when there is no usable signal on the incoming line (looks like grey fuzz on the screen).
Looked worse than it seems in the writing of it!
Finally, realizing there was nowhere left to go, BOC switched back to the studio airing Heidi and just let it play. The screaming in BOC was quite something, but they actually did everything correctly; had they NOT aired Heidi according to the conditions without Goodman’s authorization, they probably would have all been fired. As it turned out, two of us became quite busy Sports directors!
It’s a miracle Goodman got through at all; the switchboard completely melted down from the volume of calls. The surprise was so did the switchboards in Chicago, Cleveland and Washington. That’s how NBC discovered that the AFL had become a pretty hot property.
I remember all this because I had to log every single second of what went on the air that evening. Eventually, a flash caster was aired over Heidi giving the final score (Oakland scored twice in a matter of a few seconds and won the game [43-32], which further pissed off the New York market).
John LiBretto, via 11/14/23 e-mail
As a postscript to John’s story, here is David Brinkley‘s report and Curt Gowdy’s re-creation of the end of the game on the following night’s Huntley-Brinkley Report:
The Jets would get their revenge on Oakland six weeks later in the AFL Championship Game, beating the Raiders 27-23 at Shea Stadium. Of course, two weeks after that, the Jets upset the NFL Champion Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III.
The August 9 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the 175th Wednesday night show. It was recorded from July 4 to 6.
The playlist was created on June 6, before the prior two shows. Again, I lost track of when I made annotations, but I drafted the talk break script on June 29.
The theme, same name song trios, was a step up from song pairs in show 150, a reflection of my current three-song set format.
I recorded one segment ahead of random daytime fireworks on the 4th of July. At the office on the 5th, I recorded top-of-segment talk breaks for all but the top of hour 2. That was followed by the second talk breaks for the other two hour 1 segments as I mixed them. From there, I opted to pump out the remaining talk breaks before leaving for home. Naturally, I struggled and drove myself mad, but I completed them. I didn’t think I’d have any trouble editing those talk breaks and mixing them into segments, which means I did have trouble.
While I made up a 66-second surplus from the first segment, the first two segments of hour 2 left me with 76 seconds! I only made up three in the last segment. Since this was a themed show, I couldn’t throw in a short song to make up the time. So, I had to painstakingly re-record talk breaks in all six segments at a slower pace. I padded transitions between three songs further by adding bumpers. Mind you, any talk breaks with 175th show references required a pass for the evergreen version (scheduled to air September 27). (10/12 UPDATE: It was delayed to October 11.) I had to have both versions in a segment’s multitrack session so I could save the milestone mix, then swap out and save the evergreen mix. Three hours and a headache later, I succeeded in breaking even at 1:49:00. It cost me my morning exercise routine, but I gained a Young Frankenstein reference when talking about Tom Scott following his father Nathan‘s compositional “footsteps, footsteps.”
The May 31 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the fifth in a row with talk breaks recorded in one day, and third in a row/fourth out of five recorded in one day. That day was April 10, 19 days after last week’s show was recorded. I got a cold a few days after that recording (March 25) and used the time to work on playlists for this show and the next two. Pickups were recorded on April 13, April 16, and May 5.
The playlist was created March 19, 22, and 26, then tweaked on April 1 to add a track from Keiko Matsui‘s Euphoria album released the day before. Annotations were written from April 3 to 5, and the talk break script was drafted April 8.
The May 3 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded entirely on March 8, the first one-day recording since February 1 for the third anniversary show (airing March 29). Pickups were recorded on the 8th (after principal recording) and 9th, with an additional pickup on April 17 after learning Ahmad Jamal had died.
The playlist was created on March 1, except for the last segment on the 4th. Annotations followed on the 6th and the talk break script was drafted on the 7th.
My “May the Third be with you” at the top of the show was a nod to Star Wars Day the next day (today). Playing off the franchise catchphrase “may the force be with you,” the greeting on May 4 is “May the Fourth be with you.” One May 5, I joked “Cinco de Mayo be with you” on social media.
The language part allowed me to recite words and names in their native dialect. Whole sentences were another matter, which is why I leaned on Google Translate for my Spanish description of “Del Corazón.” (I wrote this paragraph on March 9, a month before I started learning Japanese, as noted in last week’s post.)
It’s time for the annual “audiobooking” post. Most are visible in the thumbnail, but here are all the audiobooks (with links) that I’ve listened to on Audiblesince post #7 last year:
I Am C-3PO: The Inside Story by Anthony Daniels with J.J. Abrams (foreword written and read by J.J., otherwise read by Anthony; “th” pronounced like a “t”)
Priceless Memories by Bob Barker with Digby Diehl (read by Bob; credits read by Robert Petkoff!) – I already have this as a CD set, but I wanted the Audible treatment
I got halfway through an audiobook by a New Jersey-based musician and actor who was part of a long-running HBO drama. Then, the author launched into a long political dissertation. I returned my credit and moved on to…
I only lasted five minutes or so on an audiobook about the media until it became clear this would mostly contain interview excerpts from the author’s podcast. So, I returned that credit.
That’s a total of 27 audiobooks (two co-written by O’Reilly, one wholly by Reilly), plus two returns. Everything from I’m a Still a 10-Year-Old Boy through Face the Music was purchased in October while Audible steeply discounted their catalog. Since then, I only use Audible credits on audiobooks over $14.95, the monthly membership fee. Of course, if I buy three credits for $35.88, then I’ll buy anything over $11.96.
Next year’s “audiobooking” post will be the ninth overall, but the tenth anniversary. Until then, happy listening.
5/26/24 UPDATE: I can no longer commit time to these “Audiobooking” blog posts. So, last year’s eighth post is the final post. Thank you for following my journey through audiobooks over the past decade.
NOTE 1: This is also a Garfield and Friends story with several montages among the city pop material. Those montages led me to city pop.
NOTE 2: I consulted my computer audio recordings of the Garfield and Friends DVDs to ensure the video embed caption quotes are verbatim.
NOTE 3: I even spend a paragraph on The Weather Channel tribute site TWC Classics, a simulator that re-creates the old local forecasts, and recently departed announcer Dan Chandler who lent his narration to the sim.
Nearly 50 years ago, Japan’s economy was booming and a new leisure class developed. That leisure class begat a new Japanese pop music genre, borrowing elements of various Western music genres. They called it city pop. What began in the 1970s, peaked in popularity in the ’80s, then fell out of the Japanese mainstream.
City pop found a new Western audience in the 2010s thanks to blog posts like mine (but earlier), Japanese reissues of the genre’s albums, and YouTube uploads of the albums’ tracks. From a 2023 perspective, I give YouTube most of the credit. Today, it is the best city pop recruitment tool.
On February 19, YouTube recommended a video with random clips from my favorite cartoon series, Garfield and Friends:
Jim Davis created the Garfield comic strip and CBS TV specials, but Mark Evanier (with Sharman DiVono for three seasons) spun comedy gold on CBS Saturday mornings from 1988 to 1994 (the last rerun aired in ’95). I can quote parts of episodes or even whole episodes. So, when watching the above clips, I knew what happened next.
The next Garfield and Friends clip in my recommendations came on February 20:
The evening of February 21 was my city pop entry point, but we’re not there yet. The prelude to the entry was this:
“Today [Monday], Garfield, we’re going to eat nothing but raisins!”
Full disclosure: I met Jim Davis at a signing in March 1995, but I was too shy and just had him sign a sketch. And I interviewed Jon Arbuckle voice actor Thom Huge (HUE-ghee) three times for The Mike Chimeri Show. (In retrospect, I would have held off on the first interview until his voice was back to normal.)
The Jon Arbuckle montage led YouTube to recommend this:
Whoa! What is that song that sounds vaguely like “Burnin’ Up the Carnival” by Joe Sample (from Voices in the Rain)? I scrolled down and saw the song was “4:00 A.M.” by Taeko Onuki (or Ohnuki). I searched Google on my iPhone and the Taeko’s Wikipedia entry (linked in the previous sentence) and found the song. That prompted the YouTube app where I heard the whole thing:
1:30 PM UPDATE: A member of the My Life in Gaming Discord server told me the album title was part of Taeko’s fascination with French media, which I confirmed after a Google Search yielded this 2017 interview. Still, Mignonne is one letter off from my friends of Italian descent.
3:10 PM UPDATE: I just finished reading the interview linked in the prior update. It was an interesting read, but I was disappointed to learn Taeko did not like Mignonne because of what transpired during production. The resulting disenchantment, and poor sales, made her take a two-year hiatus from the music industry. Anyway, back to the good stuff.
Taeko’s Wikipedia entry led me to the one on city pop. That’s what I heard and I wanted more.
I could not stop listening to “4:00 A.M.” Ironically, it kept me up past midnight, but not as late as 4AM. I was up at 4AM on March 4 when I drafted this blog post thanks to a period of strong easterly winds that buffeted my bedroom window. The song’s refrain may sound vaguely like the later “Burnin’ Up the Carnival,” but the song otherwise had more in common with the works of Bob James and Grover Washington Jr. The line “ima o” was phrased like “that’s the time” in “Feel Like Makin’ Love” by Roberta Flack, which Bob played on and then covered. The guitar solo on the ending breakdown sounded like it came from Eric Gale‘s hands. (It was from Tsunehide Matsuki‘s hands.) I have repeatedly imagined Grover Washington himself covering “4:00 A.M.” on alto saxophone, soloing (improvising) from the last refrain, through the breakdown, all the way to the end.
I should probably acknowledge that I am on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, formerly known as Asperger Syndrome. That probably explains my intense focus on one thing or another, and attention to detail.
While my “4:00 A.M.” obsession continued, YouTube had more city pop recommendations, including a modern music video for Mariya Takeuchi‘s “Plastic Love“:
Mariya only appears audibly through the original 1984 song. In ’82, she married the king of city pop, Tatsuro Yamashita. I was impressed that her English vocals were English, not transliterations.
Oh, and another Jon Arbuckle montage:
As the “Plastic Love” video wound down, I pretended to be Dan Ingram back-selling the song, quipping that it was better than polyurethane love.
My vocal city pop discoveries halted for the next few days when I found a city pop creation befitting my love of instrumental music: jazz fusion supergroup Casiopea!
I woke up on February 23 after a full night’s sleep and was greeted with two more Jon Arbuckle videos:
“He can’t cook! He can’t get a date! He’s Jon Arbuckle, and we’re giving him away absolutely free! In fact, we’ll pay you to take him!”
“Let’s not ask questions. Let’s just get out of here.”
As I listened to my radio show aircheck from the night before, I began extracting audio from whatever Casiopea albums were on YouTube (mostly via their “topics” channel), provided the cover art available online was clear and at least 1500×1500 pixels. If AI upscaling in Adobe Photoshop yielded poor results, I’d buy the CD myself and scan the artwork. That’s what I did for Flowers (1996), but I bought Euphony (1988) because it wasn’t on YouTube. I will eventually buy the actual CDs, but given the inflated import prices, collection take a while. Here’s what I do have:
I’m still working my way through the albums chronologically in my spare time. Flowers is gradually on its way from a Japan Discogs markeplace seller, so I jumped from Freshness to Light and Shadows. That’s where I am as of publication on March 5. (I got in eight hours of sleep the night before.)
The last item in this post’s Casiopea segment is T2norway‘s video profile of them, preceded by his city pop story:
Thanks to my college friend Phil Federico for bringing this to my attention. I can overlook T2’s mispronunciations of Harvey Mason and Lee Ritenour, who also appeared on Casiopea albums. In fact, they, Bob James, and Nathan East – future members of Fourplay – all appeared on Casiopea studio recordings.
The night of February 23, YouTube recommended two more Garfield and Friends videos. One was yet another montage:
And the other was a series review by Nostalgia Critic, played by Doug Walker (who was born the same day as me!):
I was let down by his critiques of certain characters and the animation style, not to mention his disdain for U.S. Acres. Nonetheless, I respect his dissent.
My city pop discoveries resumed on the night of February 25, related to “Plastic Love.” Leading off, a Super Famicom/Nintendo rendition:
That was followed by the infamous long version of the Mariya Takeuchi original (lyrics):
(As of March 13, the video was taken down. In the long version, one verse repeated and the ending chorus was extended, exemplified below.)
Since I was watching in a web browser, I saw recommendations on the right side of the tab. The one that caught me eye was an English version of “Plastic Love”:
*”Door” is lyrically transliterated “doa.” The full term means “midnight’s door (literally, door of midnight).” In another ironic twist, there were nights after discovering this song when I’d be awake around midnight as the refrain bounced around in my head. Sometimes, I imagined a fast tempo, “Spain“-esque Chick Corea version with a Minimoog solo. Others, I thought of McCoy Tyner.
Sure enough, Caitlin Myers wrote an English version of this, too:
Incidentally, I added both versions of “Plastic Love” and “Mayonaka no Door (Stay with Me)” to the WS4000 simulator, again using the five-minute local forecast flavor.
Knocking on afternoon’s door was the biggest discovery yet: Caitlin covered “4:00 A.M.”!
Caitlin and her two backing vocalists came closer to the gospel choir sound for the line “Lord, give me one more chance!”
My city pop journey had seemingly come full circle. Now, I had English versions of the first three vocal city pop songs I discovered to complement the originals.
The Garfield and Friends video journey definitely came to end on the morning of February 28 with this video showing one second of each episode from show (or rather from each cartoon in each episode):
However, there was more city pop to be had that afternoon. Other Caitlin Myers English adaptations were in my YouTube feed, and I felt I had to hear the originals before listening to hers.
“Do You Remember Love?” was adapted from its directly-translated Japanese title, “Ai Oboete Imasu ka.” Sung by Mari Iijima, it underscored the intense climax to the 1984 film, Macross: Do You Remember Love? I foolishly watched that sequence on YouTube instead of a straight recording of the song, unable to unsee or unhear any of it. (And I thought Disney villain deaths were rough.)
Lucky for you, the reader, I found a straight recording (lyrics):
And the Caitlin Myers version:
3/13/23 UPDATE: “Do You Remember Love?” was J-pop rather than city pop, illustrating how songs from the subgenre led me to ones from the main genre.
“Dance in the Memories” was next, written and performed by Meiko Nakahara (lyrics):
It was the third closing theme (tema) to Kimagura Orange Road, which I assume was a lighter anime series.
Caitlin’s turn:
She even matched the quirky “mem-morries” pronunciation.
Closing out my first week in city pop, “Telephone Number” by Junko Ohashi (lyrics):
Magical was a 1984 compilation. “Telephone Number” originated on Tea for Tears in ’81, co-written by her husband Ken Sato.
I had to make a 3-minute, 30-second local forecast flavor to accommodate the song’s 3:58 run time (3:59 for Caitlin).
Musically, Caitlin did a masterful job replicating the sound of each song she adapted into English. On behalf of city pop fans everywhere, thank you, Caitlin, for your efforts.
Thank you to the many city pop artists whose works inspired by our (the West’s) music have boomeranged back to us.
And thank you, the reader, for making it to the end of this post. Wish me luck on the rest of my city pop journey. Be sure to catch Instrumental Invasion April 26 at 9PM Eastern (April 27 at 11AM in Japan) on WCWP. It’ll be the first show with music by Casiopea, and about ten minutes into the last segment, I allude to some of what I laid out in this post because I play Scott Wilkie‘s cover of “Burnin’ Up the Carnival.” (5/2 UPDATE:Here is that show’s recap, along with my journey since writing this post.)
MikeChimeri.com 
