Winter pre-order update #4 March 25, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Personal.add a comment
Chuck Loeb’s “Between Two Worlds” arrived 90 minutes ago. I’m about to rip the tracks to one of my external hard drives and I’ll get to listening to it tomorrow. I have heard the first track – “Let’s Go” – while filling out track information before ripping. It sounds great. Who needs keyboards? (It’s a keyboard-less album.) And if that’s any indication, I’m going to like this album.
Winter pre-order update #3 March 12, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Personal.add a comment
The Rippingtons’ “Modern Art” arrived in the mail on Tuesday and I spent yesterday and today listening to it. I love it! “Jet Set” is my favorite track so far.
Paul Jackson Jr.’s and Darren Rahn’s albums were good, too.
Winter pre-order update #2 March 1, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Personal.add a comment
I made three more pre-orders today.
Gregg Karukas, “GK” (3/31)
Marc Antoine & Paul Brown, “Foreign Exchange” (4/7)
Bernie Williams, “Moving Forward” (4/14)
I also ordered saxophonist Darren Rahn’s “Talk of the Town” album, which was released two weeks ago, and guitarist Paul Jackson Jr.’s “Lay It Back,” which came out on October 7.
I listened to Jeff Kashiwa’s “Back In The Day” and Pieces Of A Dream’s “Soul Intent” Wednesday through Friday. They were fairly good, but as always, it’ll take a few more plays for the songs to grow on me.
Latest 200+ Wii Bowling game February 28, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Bowling, Personal, Sports, Video Games.add a comment
Early this morning, I bowled the latest 200+ game in Wii Sports’ Bowling: a 202! I was able to get marks in every frame but the last, where I got a 6-7-10 split.
Here is a picture of the final score that I took of the basement TV, where the Nintendo Wii has been back in for two weeks:
A vidcap of video I shot while I had the Wii connected to the VCR:
And finally, the video itself:
Winter pre-order update #1 February 25, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Football, Jazz, Personal, Sports, TV.add a comment
The first round of pre-orders came out yesterday (Tuesday) and promptly arrived at my front porch. The items were:
Jeff Kashiwa, “Back In The Day”
Pieces Of A Dream, “Soul Intent”
“Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder” (DVD)
“Super Bowl XLIII Champions: Pittsburgh Steelers” (DVD)
After bringing everything in, opening the packaging, and unwrapping, I ripped (loaded CD tracks from) “Back In The Day” and “Soul Intent” to my computer. I didn’t get to watch the “Futurama” DVD or listen to the CDs, but I did watch the Super Bowl XLIII DVD. It was in widescreen format, which was zoomed by my HD upconversion DVD player. That’s why I love the player.
I’ll get around to CD listening in the next day or so.
Smooth Jazz for Scholars 2009 date/lineup February 17, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal.add a comment
I spoke to Jay Rowe on the phone yesterday and he confirmed the lineup for this year’s Smooth Jazz for Scholars concert in Milford, Connecticut, along with the date.
The concert is set for Saturday, May 16. The headliners are Chieli Minucci, Ken Navarro, Nelson Rangell, and Marion Meadows, who grew up in nearby New Haven. They’ll be performing with Jay and his band, Best Kept Secret. Besides Jay, the band consists of Rohn (pronounced “Ron”) Lawrence on guitar, Dave Livolsi on bass, and Trever Somerville on drums.
This will be my third year in attendance. I’ll post a recap within a week afterward.
Meanwhile, click here, here, and here for a look back at last year’s concert, and here for Mary Bentley’s review in last June’s SmoothViews.
7/18 UPDATE: A recap of this year’s concert can be found here.
New blog header February 9, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Personal.add a comment
Here is The Mike Chimeri Blog’s latest blog header:
Previously unposted WCWP aircheck February 9, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment
Last night, in my boredom, I went to the Musicradio 77 WABC tribute site. On the homepage was an interview with Joe McCoy, the former program director at WCBS-FM. In the interview, he reflected on the former WABC personalities he hired at CBS-FM. Those personalities included Harry Harrison, Ron Lundy, Bruce Morrow (a.k.a. Cousin Brucie), and Dan Ingram.
On the page housing the interview, there was an aircheck of Dan Ingram filling in for Ron Lundy over a three-day period in January 1991. Reading the interview and listening to the aircheck made me think back to my days at WCWP, and a show I recorded in June 2005. It was an evergreen show with a Classic Top 40 theme. I hadn’t listened to it since a month or so after recording it because I was ashamed of how I sounded. I channeled Ingram and Cousin Brucie at times, but felt I sounded corny and forced.
But I’ll let you, the reader, be the judge. Here’s the aircheck:
Classic Top 40 Evergreen – June 2005
Winter pre-orders February 9, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Football, Jazz, Personal, Sports, TV.add a comment
It’s time for another round of pre-orders on Amazon.com. The pre-ordered items range from jazz CDs to animation DVDs to a Super Bowl Champions DVD. Here’s the list:
Jeff Kashiwa, “Back In The Day” (2/24)
Pieces Of A Dream, “Soul Intent” (2/24)
“Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder” (DVD) (2/24)
“Super Bowl XLIII Champions: Pittsburgh Steelers” (DVD) (2/24)
Rippingtons, “Modern Art” (3/10)
Down to the Bone, “Future Boogie” (4/21)
Check back in the coming weeks for pre-order updates, which will come when the items arrive or if I pre-order anything else.
2/10 UPDATE: Chuck Loeb, “Between 2 Worlds” (3/24)
Scanning complete! January 28, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Personal, Pets, Photography.add a comment
On Saturday, I finished scanning all my old photo album pictures. After making a backup data DVD of all the files, four weeks of hard work were complete.
Sunday night through tonight (Tuesday night/early Wednesday morning), I separated all the pictures (after copying and pasting them) into different folders by year and date in the year. For example, there was a “1998” folder which featured “4-24-98” and “7-13-98” subfolders.
Then, I copied and pasted any pictures of my late male Chocolate Labrador Retriever, Cocoa, to the “Cocoa Memorial Folder” that I created two years ago after he was put to sleep. (That day and the days and weeks that followed were hard on me and my family.)
It was quite a trip down memory lane with all the pictures I scanned. I went from April 1982 to New Year’s Eve 1991 to July 1994 and all the way to September 2004.
Before going digital in October ’04, I had three different 35mm (millimeter) cameras, plus an additional camera that wasn’t mine. The first one was a Minolta F10. I got it in October 1994. The downside to it was the lack of a zoom. My second camera, which I got in 1997, was an Olympus Accura Zoom 105. As you can tell by the name, that one did have zoom capabilities. When it stopped working, I used a Canon Rebel G (I don’t remember the exact model) that featured a regular lens and a telephoto lens. That camera was my father’s. I switched from that and the Olympus in ’99 and 2000 for any sporting events I went to. In December 2000, I got a Nikon. I don’t remember the exact model for that either because I lost it. What I liked about this one was the datestamp. By the way, it also had a zoom. Though I lost the Nikon, I still have the Minolta F10 and Olympus Accura stowed away in one of my dresser drawers. I guess I keep them for sentimental value.
My next post will come when this blog crosses the 5,000 view mark, which should happen any hour now.
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