SJFS 2023 Night 1 recap May 18, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Audio, Comedy, Health, Internet, Jazz, Music, Personal, Photography, Radio, Technology, Travel, TV, Video.add a comment
Friday, April 28, was the first of two nights for the 20th anniversary edition of Smooth Jazz for Scholars, hosted by keyboardist Jay Rowe in his hometown of Milford, Connecticut. The event, held on two nights since 2013, benefits the Milford Public Schools music department. It was the 19th SJFS overall (canceled by COVID in 2020 and ’21), my 15th overall, and 14th that I’ve seen it its entirety. (I only saw the first night in 2015 with that year’s WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony held the following afternoon back on Long Island.)
In the days and hours leading up to the Milford trip, I grew overwhelmed by the impending workload (photos and videos). I struggled to pack everything the afternoon of the 28th, having spent two hours editing most photos from the WCWP station dinner (for student and alumni staff) on the 26th. I didn’t want to go, but felt obligated to go because I didn’t want to back out of the commitment I’d made to Jay. I convinced myself this would be the last year. (SPOILER: It won’t be.)
I finally left house with my parents just before 2:00. We encountered traffic delays on I-95 in Fairfield County, Connecticut. Waze directed us through winding side streets in Westport. We were eventually directed back to I-95 in Bridgeport with little volume the rest of the way to Exit 36 in Milford (in New Haven County, if you’re wondering). Not knowing which would be the official hotel, we booked rooms at Hampton Inn a month or two earlier. Our rooms were on the second floor, facing opposite ends of the building. I chose the room facing the parking lot so I-95 traffic wouldn’t keep me awake.
After settling into our rooms, we went for dinner at Pasquale Pizza a short drive from the hotel. Since we were close to the hotel, I walked back after finishing my pasta. On the way, I passed a Gas & Go station:
That made me think of the Gasigo sequence in the “Heroboy” episode of Freakazoid! In the sequence, singing attendants delayed Freakazoid’s (Paul Rugg) attempt to reach the villain Gutierrez (Ricardo Montalban). They had to finish the jingle in Freak’s car. Watch:
The episode ended with the Gasigo attendants driving Gutierrez mad as they reprised their jingle:
South of Gas & Go was another gas station/convenience store: Cumberland Farms. I stopped in there to buy ice cream bars for dessert back in my room.
My friend Kelly drove down from Wallingford for the show and met me at my room door around 6:30. We hung out for a little while, then drove to the Parsons Complex. I had her stop at CVS on the way so I could buy a small notebook or pad for writing out the set list and side notes. I forgot to pack a notebook and my sleep mask. I got a cheap gray mask and stenographer pad (close enough), then went on to Parsons. We arrived close to 7:30, after the soundcheck, so the doors were open.
Before entering the Veterans Memorial Auditorium, I decided to take a chance on the 50/50 raffle. I took out my wallet from my coat’s right pocket and bought three tickets for $10. Little did I know I inadvertently knocked out my keys, and wouldn’t realize what happened until the next day. More on that in the Saturday post.
I got plenty of reassurance from Katherine Gilraine and Ron Hancox, my fellow photographers in the orchestra pit, along with friends like Jay Dobbins, Phyllis Abrams, and Robin Morin Stewart. I love what I do and I love the music. I shouldn’t put so much pressure on myself. I need to be present, enjoy myself, trust the process, and take my time. I don’t work for a media outlet. There is no deadline.
With newfound confidence, I set up my equipment on the center-left portion of the orchestra pit below the stage. Production manager Kevin McCabe came on stage around 8:10 to welcome the audience and thank the sponsors:
Then, he introduced Jay Rowe, who read his statement in the program that marked Smooth Jazz for Scholars’ 20th anniversary:
Here is that message:
20 years of Smooth Jazz for Scholars!! I certainly did not think I would reach this milestone when I had the idea to start this event 20 years ago. Doing these shows helped me to become a better musician and play with some of my favorite musicians and people!! In some cases, I was playing alongside my musical heroes like Jeff Lorber, Alex Bugnon, David Benoit, Marc Antoine and Peter White, while watching newer artists like Vincent Ingala and Eric Darius become superstars and amazing entertainers. There have been losses along the way such as the passing of Jeff Golub, Chuck Loeb, Nick Colionne [fan page] and Rohn [“Ron”] Lawrence. These guys are missed terribly in our musical community and will never be forgotten. I have learned much about how important music is in people’s lives and have examined my own relationship with music. I still love playing and I am grateful that musical dreams can still come true in advancing middle age!! I truly hope that the youth of Milford, Connecticut – the town I grew up in and still love to live in – can experience the joy I have when playing music in whatever they pursue when they grow up. I also hope they can have the wonderful friendships that I have had through playing music. Thanks so much to Ken Navarro, Marion Meadows, Chieli Minucci [“key-ellie min-oo-chee”] and Nelson Rangell for being there for me at the very first Smooth Jazz for Scholars show that we played back in 2003 at Foran High School. It is very fitting to me that these artists perform for the first night of our 20th anniversary weekend. It has been a pleasure working with all of the artists who have played at Smooth Jazz for Scholars over the years at various festivals, clubs and events all over the world. Thanks to all of the fans of smooth jazz who have supported this show for all these years. You have been the reason to keep this going to support music education in our public schools inspiring the next generation of artists and music teachers!! Thanks to our sponsors: Barrett Outdoor Communications; Milford Bank; Dr. Anna Cutaia, Superintendent for Milford Public Schools; Amy Perras, Instructional Supervisor for Music, Art and Library Media; Kathy Bonetti, Communications Coordinator for Milford Public Schools; my mom Mia DiStasi; my wife Deborah Rowe; Kevin McCabe; WRTC; Mike Stacy at WRCH; Gregg Roche, former host of The Sunday Smooth Jazz Brunch on WRCH; Steve Butler, my favorite booking agent; everyone in this ad book (program), all of the wonderful fans of smooth jazz and the great artists performing at this year’s shows. Enjoy this year’s shows and stay tuned for next year when Smooth Jazz for Scholars becomes an adult at 21!!
Jay Rowe, 2023 Smooth Jazz for Scholars program
As Jay said, all four headliners from the first show in 2003 were present on the first night 20 years later!
…and Nelson Rangell:
Jay’s house band had percussion by Steve Scales:
Trever Somerville on drums:
Dave Anderson on bass:
Andy Abel on guitar:
And directing it all, Jay Rowe on keyboards:
(Updated with videos on 5/31. The soundcheck was part of the original post.)
SET LIST
1. Every Woman Every Man (Jay Rowe)
Originally heard on: Smooth Ride (2016) (earlier version of this post incorrectly credited song to Groove Reflections)
Featured musician: Jay Rowe (keyboards)
2. Midnight Dance (Jay Rowe)
Single
Featured musician: Jay Rowe (keyboards)
3. Ballerina (Special EFX)
Originally heard on: Just Like Magic (1990)
Featured musician: Chieli Minucci (electric guitar)
4. George Can’t Dance (Special EFX)
Originally heard on: Catwalk (1994)
Featured musicians: Chieli Minucci (electric guitar), Nelson Rangell (alto sax)
5. Gratitude (Nelson Rangell)
New and unrecorded (10/5/23 UPDATE: It has since been recorded and will debut as a single tomorrow.)
Featured musicians: Nelson Rangell (alto sax), Chieli Minucci (acoustic guitar)
6. Smokin’ Joe (Nelson Rangell)
New and unrecorded; tribute to Joe Sample
Featured musicians: Nelson Rangell (alto sax), Jay Rowe (keyboards)
7. Smooth Sensation (Ken Navarro)
Originally heard on: Smooth Sensation (1997)
Featured musician: Ken Navarro (acoustic guitar)
8. When We Dance (Ken Navarro)
Originally heard on: Into the Light (2020)
Featured musician: Ken Navarro (acoustic guitar)
9. The Lift (Marion Meadows) (started in audience)
Originally heard on: Body Rhythm (1995)
Featured musician: Marion Meadows (soprano sax)
10. My Cherie Amour (Marion Meadows; Stevie Wonder cover)
Originally heard on: Body Rhythm (1995)
Featured musicians: Marion Meadows (soprano sax), Jay Rowe (keyboards)
11. Daybreak (Special EFX)
Originally heard on: Global Village (1992)
Featured musicians: Chieli Minucci (acoustic/electric guitars), Jay Rowe (keyboards), Dave Anderson (bass)
12. Sonora (Nelson Rangell; Hampton Hawes cover)
Originally heard on: Destiny (1995); My American Songbook, Vol. 1 (2005)
Featured musicians: Nelson Rangell (whistling/piccolo), Ken Navarro (acoustic guitar)
13. In the Sky Today (Ken Navarro)
Originally heard on: All the Way (2003)
Featured musicians: Ken Navarro (acoustic guitar), Nelson Rangell (alto sax), Steve Scales (percussion), Trever Somerville (drums)
14. In Memory of Elizabeth Reed (Special EFX; The Allman Brothers Band cover)
Originally heard on: Twenty Twenty 2 (2022)
Featured musicians: Chieli Minucci (electric guitar), Ken Navarro (electric guitar), Jay Rowe (keyboards)
Ken posted video of the soundcheck:
15. Marcosinho (Marion Meadows; Dave Valentin cover)
Originally heard on: Whisper (2013)
Featured musician: Marion Meadows (soprano sax)
16. Romantica (Marion Meadows) (ended in audience)
Originally heard on: Player’s Club (2004)
Featured musician: Marion Meadows (soprano sax)
17 (Finale). What You Won’t Do for Love (Bobby Caldwell cover, tribute to the recently departed singer)
Featured musicians: Everyone, Carla Z (vocals)
Marion was part of Bobby’s live band.
This part of the post is dedicated to photo galleries of the headliners. We start with Chieli Minucci on electric guitar:
Chieli on acoustic guitar:
Ken Navarro on acoustic guitar:
Ken on electric guitar for “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”:
Ken interacting with the band on “In the Sky Today”:
Marion Meadows starting in the audience for “The Lift”:
On stage:
Ending “Romantica” in the audience:
Nelson Rangell on alto sax:
Whistling on “Sonora”:
Whistling gave way to piccolo…
…and whistling while holding the piccolo:
Now, the house band, beginning with percussionist Steve Scales:
Drummer Trever Somerville:
Bassist Dave Anderson:
Andy Abel on acoustic guitar:
…and otherwise on electric:
Finally, Jay Rowe on keyboards (all but the first are from his “My Cherie Amour”):
On to medium and wide shots, beginning with Chieli and Nelson:
Chieli and Ken on “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed”:
Ken and Nelson:
Nelson and Jay:
Marion and Jay:
Last in this section, Steve and Trever:
Why not give audience and photographer shots their own section?
Andrew James, Ron and Nydia Hancox 
Estella Taylor-Greene, Dolly Moye, Nydia Hancox, Jay Dobbins, Norma Rohadfox 
Another photo of the fab five in my camera’s sports mode. Jay Dobbins spotted me again.
When it came time for the raffles (between “…Elizabeth Reed” and “Marcosinho”), I forgot to only check my tickets for the 50/50 portion. I was needlessly exasperated when my numbers didn’t match what Jay Rowe called.
I was rightfully dismayed when I actually lost the 50/50, but at least my $10 went to a great cause. The winner was Steve, who graciously donated back $200 of his winnings.
The finale, “What You Won’t Do for Love,” featured vocals by Carla Z:
As I was packing up my camcorder – Panasonic HC-X1500 with VW-HU1 and Rode VideoMic GO II – and tripod – Magnus VT-300, Lisa Arpin approached me to say hello. We had met during Jay Rowe’s Tito Tuesdays livestreams on Facebook during the early months of COVID. Afterward, I put the speedlight on my camera – a Canon EOS R7 – for flash meet-and-greet photos. (I was close enough to the stage that the RF-S 18-150mm lens was all I needed.) Unfortunately, the flash and low ISO (100) darkened the background and washed out the foreground. So, I turned off the speedlight and had photos taken at the settings I used during the show: 1/100 second shutter speed and ISO 2500. Later in Adobe Photoshop Elements, I’d bump up the brightness and contrast. (I have regular Photoshop, but mostly use it for upscaling, PDF automation, and graphic design.)
The first photo is of Jay Dobbins and Andy Abel:
Andy and “Jay Squared” (Dobbins came up with that):
I wanted to get in one photo, which Andy’s sister Janet gladly took (the next day was her birthday):
Once more from the auditorium, me with Jay Dobbins and Steve Scales:
Out in the lobby, I missed a chance to catch up with Chieli Minucci, but was part of a conversation with Marion Meadows and Katherine Gilraine about a documentary he was working on.
It took three attempts to get a photo with Jay Rowe, his wife Deborah, and Nelson Rangell (sorry to all three of you):
The last photo of the night, taken by Kelly, was me with Kristin and Ken Navarro:
Ken acknowledged Kristin during the show before “When We Dance.” It was very nice to catch up with them. Ken spotted me in the orchestra pit while playing “Smooth Sensation,” saying hi to me during a rest. After the show, he climbed off stage to chat with me. I talked about how I’d be debuting tracks from Love is Everywhere on May 17 (last night) at the end of the second Three-of-a-Kind Showcase edition of Instrumental Invasion. Ken liked the concept.
Kelly dropped me off at Hampton Inn around midnight. I wrote the following back in my room (in the vein of what I wrote earlier in this recap):
I had a lot of apprehension and performance anxiety ahead of tonight, the first night of the 20th anniversary Smooth Jazz of Scholars. The thought of taking hundreds of photos and having to edit them all scared me. And yet, I was at the Parsons Complex in Milford and had a great time. No way will I give up what I do. It’s too much fun in the moment. That’s what should matter. I have to remind myself to be present. I can’t look ahead in fear. I have to enjoy myself and snap away. I’m beloved by all that know me, and that was true tonight.
Mike Chimeri, Facebook post, 4/29/23, 1:22 AM
Watching part of a Twitch livestream got me through the late night/early morning hours as I transferred photos and videos from their SD cards. Then, since I shoot RAW now, I imported all the photos into Adobe Lightroom, then exported them as JPGs and deleted the RAW files.
Before retiring for the night/morning, I edited the meet-and-greet photos to include in my all-is-well Facebook post. I was able to get a few hours of sleep before my body decided I’d had enough.
Instrumental Invasion, 5/3/23 May 4, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Film, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, New Age, News, Personal, Radio, Travel.add a comment
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.
I played two Casiopea songs, one from their second album and one from their latest. To that end, language and travel came up a lot.
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.)
The travel part was highlighted by “I Love New York” (from Casiopea’s Super Flight [transliterated Sūpāfuraito, per my talk break]), “Tappan Zee” (from Bob James‘s BJ4), and “Chattahoochee Field Day” (from Patrick O’Hearn‘s Eldorado).
Speaking of John Patitucci and his Brooklyn project evoked memories of visiting my great-grandparents in Midwood. Here is a photo from one such trip:
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
8:35 AM UPDATE: Oh, I forgot I made a Don Sebesky reference. He died on Saturday.
Instrumental Invasion, 4/26/23 April 27, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Anime, Audio, City Pop, Education, History, Idol, Internet, Japanese, Jazz, Language, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, VTuber.add a comment
The April 26 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP went on the air at the end of the station dinner for students and alumni. The dinner was held at The View Grill, located off Long Island Sound in Glen Cove. I listened to much of the first hour during a ride home from my parents. Mom took a photo of Dad’s infotainment system while tuned to 88.1 FM:
3:47 PM UPDATE: Here’s a photo I took with my camera:
I caught the rest at home.
I have a lot to say, so I’ll get the scoped aircheck out of the way here:
The show’s playlist was created on February 24, annotated on the 27th and 28th, scripted on the 28th and March 1.
For the first time since December 7, I recorded out of sequence. Segments 6, 1, and 3 were recorded on March 2, followed by segments 2, 4, and 5 on March 3. I wanted to get the last segment out of the way because of the mammoth talk break that expounded on my city pop discovery, including excerpts of “4:00 A.M.” by Taeko Onuki and of the Caitlin Myers English version. My hunch was right, but I only managed to go 69 seconds over, plus another three seconds in the first segment where I first discussed city pop vis-à-vis Casiopea. I had little trouble compensating, completely making up for the overage over the last four segments without remixing.
After recording a quick pickup for the second segment on March 4, I redid the entire last talk break on the 5th. Taeko noted in a 2017 interview that Stuff drummer Chris Parker played on Sunshower, her precursor to Mignonne. Eric Gale was in Stuff. Maybe it was him. I bought a 2008 CD reissue of Mignonne on Amazon, planning on scanning the presumably Japanese liner notes once it arrived on March 6 and translating the text in the scan. Hedging my bets, the full talk break record said the soloist was Eric. Then, I did an alternate tack-on where I said it wasn’t. I played part of the solo in each.
Served me right for not noticing Discogs’ entry for Mignonne‘s 1989 CD reissue with its English credits. Nope, not Eric. It was Tsunehide Matsuki. I canceled the Amazon CD order, cited the Discogs ’89 CD credit, tacked that onto the earlier redos, and called it a night. I did one more pickup for this redo on March 7 because I was unsure of whether or not Caitlin Myers had more city pop adaptations in the pipeline. I did a separate pickup for the first segment on the 7th, with the precise Japanese transliteration of Casiopea, and a pickup for the top of hour 2.
For posterity, here was the original last talk break with all my nervous energy:
The redo where it was Eric Gale (and the Caitlin YouTube channel plug):
The redo tack-on where it wasn’t Eric:
Read about my early city pop journey in this blog post.
I’ll still include the relevant city pop videos, starting with the original “4:00 A.M.” by Taeko Onuki (or Ohnuki):
As Lou Monte would say (in “Lazy Mary”), the “British” version by Caitlin Myers (from the U.S.):
And T2norway‘s video about Casiopea:
[Removed on 5/3]
April 15 portion joined in progress:
Caitlin’s anime dubbing background inspired me to sign up with CrunchyRoll and watch select anime series. I started with the second season of Love Live! Nijigasaki High School Idol Club, featuring Caitlin as the introverted Shioriko Mifune, who slowly comes out of her shell as the season progresses. At first, I wondered “why the hell am I watching this?,” but by the third episode, I was hooked. So, now I can add idol/virtual idol to my diverse musical interests. (What I play on Instrumental Invasion remains my primary interest.) Incidentally, the English dub does not account for songs, meaning episodic numbers and the opening and closing themes are sung by the original seiyuu (Japanese voice actors).
On March 28, YouTube recommended a Ruri Ohama video, which led to a recommendation of a compilation video by JapanesePod101.com. After watching several of those compilations, I took the plunge by subscribing to the site itself and taking various courses. JapanesePod101.com is a division of the Franklin Square-based Innovative Language Learning. I always feel a sense of pride when I come across a Long Island-based company, past or present. Concurrently, I subscribed to Mochi real Japanese (Mochi Sensei) to learn Japanese from her videos. The teaching styles differ, but that’s okay.
[Removed on 5/3]
Back to what I wrote on March 3:
Ever since I watched Cronkite Remembers on DVD in the 2000s, I’ve had the introductory narration to Walter Cronkite‘s You Are There in my head. “We Were There” by Jazz Funk Soul always jogs my memory, but I never thought to play it on Instrumental Invasion until this show. The way I did the talk-up is how I’ve said the title to myself.
“Knee Deep in Rio” by Maynard Ferguson and Big Bop Nouveau was the song I moved from last week after realizing I wrongly placed it in the 1985-97 segment.
Robben Ford‘s “Magic Sam” was originally played on October 19 before I knew of the eponymous blues musician. Back then, I assumed it was about a magician, and I said that he “disappeared” as Jay Mirabile’s liner played on the fade out.
Tomorrow, I travel to Milford, Connecticut, to attend and photograph Smooth Jazz for Scholars. Wish me luck.
6:11 PM UPDATE: [Removed on 5/3]
My city pop discovery (and reacquaintance with Garfield and Friends) March 5, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Animation, City Pop, Comedy, Comics, Film, Game Shows, Health, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Phone, Pop, Radio, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.2 comments
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.
The rest of this post is about how I discovered city pop and recounts my first nine days as a fan. If you want to read more about the genre and its resurgence, I recommend Cat Zhang’s 2021 Pitchfork article and Wikipedia’s city pop entry.
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:
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:
Whoa again, it appeared on an album with the last name of a few of my friends, but with an extra N. Lyrics are here.
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.
I was busy with radio show production on February 22, but “4:00 A.M.” was in the back of my mind and I was intent on extracting the audio and assigning the WAV file to a vintage Weather Channel local forecast flavor in my WeatherStar 4000 simulator. Now, I could hear all but the last 36 seconds with the current conditions and forecast, peppered with Dan Chandler’s re-created narrations. (I was in touch with Dan for a few weeks midway through my tenure at WGBB, and he even called in while I was playing a song. I didn’t put him on, but relayed what we talked about, including “reading the sports pages” as he listened to the live stream. After writing that sentence, I’m sorry to learn that he passed away on February 7 [obituary].) The simulator was already populated by music cues from The Price is Right and adjacent Goodson–Todman game shows. See the February 15 Instrumental Invasion recap for more on that obsession.
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“:
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!
First, I found “Midnight Rendezvous“:
Then, “Eyes of the Mind” before the “the” was added:
Groups like Casiopea and T-Square (formerly The Square) have influenced generations of video game music composers.
I woke up on February 23 after a full night’s sleep and was greeted with two more Jon Arbuckle videos:
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:
- Casiopea (5/25/79) (Alfa)
- Super Flight (11/25/79) (Alfa)
- Thunder Live (4/21/80) (Alfa)
- Make Up City (11/21/80) (Alfa)
- Eyes of the Mind (4/21/81) (Alfa) – featuring the aforementioned Bob James
- Cross Point (10/21/81) (Alfa)
- Mint Jams (5/21/82) (Alfa)
- 4×4 Four by Four (12/16/82) (Alfa)
- Photographs (4/23/83) (Alfa)
- Jive Jive (11/30/83) (Alfa)
- The Soundgraphy (4/25/84) (compilation album) (Alfa) – I have the title track, the lone original recording
- Down Upbeat (10/25/84) (Alfa)
- Halle (9/10/85) (Alfa)
- Casiopea Live (9/25/85) (Alfa)
- Sun Sun (9/10/86) (Alfa)
- Euphony (4/25/88) (Polydor/Aura) – the CD reissue I have includes “Halle” from Casiopea Perfect Live II (7/10/87) as a bonus track
- Full Colors (5/25/91) (Pioneer)
- Dramatic (5/21/93) (Alfa)
- Answers (5/25/94) (Alfa)
- Asian Dreamer (12/16/94) (Pony Canyon)
- Freshness (5/19/95) (Pony Canyon)
- Flowers (9/20/96) (Pony Canyon)
- Light and Shadows (9/3/97) (Pony Canyon)
- Material (5/19/99) (Pony Canyon)
- Ta•Ma•Te Box (11/20/13) (Hats Unlimited) (CD tracks only)
- A•So•Bo (4/22/15) (Hats Unlimited) (CD tracks only)
- New Topics (10/12/22) (Hats Unlimited)
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:
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”:
The singer-songwriter was Caitlin Myers, also a voice actress with a focus in anime and video games. She has two YouTube channels: one in her name and one called Interlunium. I was unaware of the scope of her work as I watched this first video. (3/31 UPDATE 1: Interlunium is a virtual idol group where Caitlin portrays Junko.) (3/31 UPDATE 2: Caitlin’s version of “Plastic Love” was reworked with original instrumentation and new vocals for her 2021 compilation, City Poppin’.)
More city pop discoveries came way on February 26. Figuratively waiting at the door to this new day was “Mayonaka no Door* (Stay with Me)” by the late Miki Matsubara, recorded when she was just 19 (lyrics):
*”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.”!
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):
Caitlin’s turn:
Closing out my first week in city pop, “Telephone Number” by Junko Ohashi (lyrics):
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).
As a suburban New Yorker, I like Magical‘s cover art of Lower Manhattan featuring the original World Trade Center. I passed by One World Trade Center in 2014 while running the Tunnel to Towers 5K.
The hook – “ah-uu, 5-6-7-oh-9” – brought two things to mind:
- “Ah-uu”: “Werewolves of London” by Warren Zevon – of course, that’s “a-hoo,” not “ah-uu.”
- “5-6-7-oh-9” (56709): Foreshadowing SMS!
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.)
I’ll leave you with Caitlin Myers’ Japanese versions (lyrics by Datenkou) of “Never Gonna Give You Up“…
…and “September“:
Instrumental Invasion, 1/11/23 January 12, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Books, DVD, Internet, Jazz, Laserdisc, Media, Music, New Age, Personal, Photography, Radio, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.add a comment
The January 11 edition of Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded one hour per day between November 24* and 25. This show brought me back to a comfortable seven-week buffer.
*Thanksgiving, my parents’ 45th wedding anniversary, the 30th anniversary of Sonic 2sDay (release day for Sonic the Hedgehog 2)
The playlist was created on November 21, annotated on the 22nd, and the talk break script was drafted on the 23rd when not working on last week’s show.
Speaking of Sonic 2, I referred to video games and video game consoles again this week: the Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, and Virtual Boy. Jeremy Parish’s Virtual Boy Works video series can be viewed here and you can buy his book here. (Yes, my story about trying out the Shapp cousins’ Virtual Boy was true.)
I played another cut from the compilation True North, starting the show with “One More River Passing” by James Reynolds. Hear it in a Weather Channel local forecast at this link. Click here for a local forecast featuring “Down Hill Racer” by Patrick O’Hearn.
With only two new albums left that hadn’t met my requisite six tracks to play, I added a second 1996-2006 segment and moved the remaining 2017-present segment to the middle of hour 2. That allowed me to make up for not ending hour 1 with the live 2002 version of “Kukuc” (“koo-kooch”) by John Favicchia, the second week in a row with a version of “Kukuc,” both from Tangible. The second segment of hour 1 and first of hour 2 only had two talk breaks thanks to “Spain” by Return to Forever and “Kukuc.”
This week’s version of “Kukuc” was performed at Backstreet Blues in Rockville Centre, the venue where I was introduced to Fav and his Dharma All-Stars on July 13, 2005. Here are the photos I took that night:
Brad Mason (trumpet), Mark Gatz (tenor sax) (RIP), Mike Nunno (bass), Chieli Minucci (guitar) 
Frederic Las Fargeas (keyboards), Brad Mason (trumpet), Mark Gatz (tenor sax) 
The mostly-clear view from table: Frederic Las Fargeas, Brad Mason, Mark Gatz, John Favicchia, Mike Nunno, Chieli Minucci 
A close-up of Chieli 
This time, with the flash during “Kukuc” (the closer) 
A wide shot with the flash: Frederic Las Fargeas, Brad Mason, Mark Gatz, John Favicchia (out of view), Mike Nunno, Chieli Minucci 
Chieli and I after the set; it was his idea for me to attend; I’m forever grateful to him for that
Backstreet Blues is now known as The New Vibe Lounge.
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
Festival of Games 2022 recap December 16, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Animation, Aviation, Christmas, Game Shows, History, Internet, Media, Military, Personal, Photography, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.add a comment
Last Saturday, the second annual Festival of Games was held at the Cradle of Aviation Museum along Museum Row in East Garden City. The so-far one-day spinoff of Long Island Retro Gaming Expo (read about the 2022 LI Retro here) was my latest chance to walk and snap photos in as many sections as possible. Then, back to the vendor halls to add video games to my multi-console, multi-generation collection.
Thanks to my past recaps, I have made friends with the organizers, volunteers, and a week before this Festival of Games, the museum’s director of marketing and community relations, Jerelyn Zontini. I’m honored to know them and to promote special events like this.
I did not think to check the Festival of Games website for this year’s schedule, so I missed out on the panels in the main stage (planetarium) and classes in the classroom, but I saw everything else on offer, and was surprised to meet legendary collector, YouTuber, and streamer Pete Dorr at his vending table. More on that later.
To photograph the event, I brought my Canon EOS R7 with RF-S 18-150mm lens and Speedlite 430EX III-RT. When writing about my initial experience with the mirrorless camera, I did not lower the resolution on test photos. Considering the camera’s higher native max resolution (6984×4660) with the same 3:2 aspect ratio as my previous camera, it made sense while editing Saturday’s photos to increase my default blog post/social media resolution. Thus, going forward, photos will be no lower than 2000 pixels vertically, stepping up from my max horizontal resolution of 2600 pixels.
Again planning on a two-hour stay, my mother dropped me off at 12:43 PM:
Once inside (and having my bag searched), I presented my e-ticket printout to a box office attendant who stamped my left hand.
A promotional banner for Cradle-Con:
Each section I walked through at Festival of Games has a dedicated photo gallery. We start with the vendor hall gallery:
The board game section:
In all the years I’ve been inside the Cradle of Aviation Museum, I never observed its exhibits. I rectified that after passing the board games section.
MY ANSWER: Most of them, thanks to my proximity to John F. Kennedy International Airport. The planes are either on final approach or just took off. I also see general aviation aircraft coming to or from Republic Airport in Farmingdale, which is even closer to my house.
Back to video games in the free play area:
Tournaments:
On to the second floor:
Of course, most of the arcade games were housed on the Air & Space hall sky walk:
I chose not to play any of the arcade games or free play console games. I just wanted to buy games, and where better to start than at Pete Dorr’s table? I didn’t introduce myself to him right away, but he approached me after a few minutes of rummaging. That’s when I complimented him on his work. I ended up buying five Sega Genesis games from Pete’s table, which he gave me a great discount on. Then, we posed for a photo:
An hour of vendor-hopping yielded 42 games in all, including seven imports! Four games were for the Family Computer (Famicom) and three were for the Super Famicom. Final Fantasy V was a timely get as GTV Japan posted a retrospective the day before (last Friday).
Satisfied, I proceeded to the parking lot for my mom to pick me up.
Back at home, I spent nearly two hours photographing my pickups, removing price stickers, and cataloging the games.
Now, photos of all pickups by console, starting with Family Computer (Famicom):
- F1 Race
- Pac-Land (the first home port of the game)
- Super Mario Bros.
- Tetris (variant after Nintendo acquired the rights; thanks to Leonard Herman for bringing that to my attention)
Super Famicom:
- Final Fantasy IV (localized for SNES [Super Nintendo] as Final Fantasy II)
- Final Fantasy V (never ported to SNES)
- Super Mario Kart (champagne!) – This was timely, too, with a Gaming Historian retrospective posted on December 2)
Nintendo Entertainment System:
- Captain Skyhawk
- Goal!
- Gotcha! The Sport! (shown before Goal!)
- Ninja Gaiden
- Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos
- Nintendo World Cup – This and Goal! are still more timely gets as the 2022 FIFA World Cup was in the quarterfinal stage last Saturday. The final is this Sunday.
- Operation Wolf
- Ring King
- Skate or Die!
- Tiger-Heli
- Wizards & Warriors
- Xevious
Yes, I passed on Deadly Towers again.
- Best of the Best: Championship Karate
- Bubsy in Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind (Bubsy for short) (complete in box!)
- Cliffhanger
- George Foreman’s KO Boxing
- The Jungle Book
- NHL Stanley Cup
- Road Runner’s Death Valley Rally
- Super Black Bass
- Tecmo Super NBA Basketball
I didn’t notice a crack on the upper left of Tecmo Super NBA Basketball until cataloging later. I bought a better condition cart on eBay Tuesday night and put in an offer for another Looney Tunes game, Speedy Gonzales: Los Gatos Bandidos. I bought that on Wednesday when my offer was accepted.
Sega Master System:
Now, I have the original Zillion to go along with the sequel I bought last year.
Sega Genesis (Mega Drive outside North America):
- Bubsy – I bought this before the CIB SNES port
- Chi Chi’s Pro Challenge Golf (featuring golfer Chi-Chi Rodriguez) – This game always makes me think of Dave White’s [intentionally] mangled pronunciation during a Game Sack end skit (“Chy-Chy Rah-drigwez’s Pro Challenge Golf!”).
- Eternal Champions
- Space Harrier II
- Strider
- Super Hang-On
- Taz-Mania (I bought the SNES version last year)
- Tiny Toon Adventures: Buster’s Hidden Treasure
- ToeJam & Earl in Panic on Funkotron (maybe I’ll find the original next year)
- Virtua Racing
And one Nintendo Wii game: The Price is Right: 2010 Edition:
That last pickup was the culmination of all the time that I spent this year watching various winning pricing games and showcases from the Bob Barker era of The Price is Right, and with my resulting renewed obsession with Barker era music cues, many of which can be found on this YouTube channel.
It was another successful and enjoyable Festival of Games. Thank you to Pete Dorr and all the vendors I bought from, to the LI Retro staff including George Portugal (who I saw on Saturday), and to Jerelyn Zontini. It was great to meet her in person after she connected with me on LinkedIn a few weeks ago.
Instrumental Invasion, 12/7/22 December 8, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Christmas, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel, TV, Video.add a comment
The December 7 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded out of sequence on November 5 and 6. I did segments 1, 3, 5, and 4 on the 5th, and 6 and 1 on the 6th. Pickups were recorded on the 6th and 7th.
The playlist was created on October 28 alongside the one for last week. Annotations began on October 29 and didn’t resume until November 3. I went back to a script this week, which I drafted on the 4th and 5th. I’d have done it all on the 4th, but I had errands to run, including shipping the last of my eBay items referenced in my new camera post.
Like last week, I chose to record out of sequence so I could get the presumably short segments out of the way and bank time for the ones I expected to run long. Also like last week, I was still short after principal production, having to make up 15 seconds by reinstating my “fun fact” about Lynne Scott being friends with Laraine Newman.
The Futurama reference after “Robo Bop” by Fourplay dates back to an episode of Mike Chimeri’s Music Collection, my short-lived YouTube series. The excerpt I played was from this video (the title sequence for episode 4ACV17, “Spanish Fry”):
The November 7 pickups were for the second segment after missing an opportunity to link Amy Poehler and Laraine Newman as Saturday Night Live alumnae (that show has come up a lot lately) and memoir authors (Yes, Please and May You Live in Interesting Times). I met Laraine at New York Comic Con in 2019:
There were more callbacks to Homecoming Weekend this week. I returned the favor to Jett Lightning after he played the original “Blue Train” on his Sunday show, and I played two songs that were on my live Friday show. The songs are the respective artists’ current singles and previously heard on the regular Wednesday show (original air dates are in parentheses):
I was told not to play music from Lisa Hilton‘s new Paradise Cove album until after its release date last Friday. Since the title track shares its name with a favorite Russ Freeman composition, I bookended the show with each “Paradise Cove,” marking Lisa’s album’s debut on the show.
I referenced the Dutchess County trip yet again, doing so after “El Swing” by Hudson.
My “beat Army” line after acknowledging Dan LaMaestra‘s tenure with the U.S. Navy Band was coincidental. I forgot the annual Army-Navy [football] Game is this Saturday.
The Dan Ingram joke about Jack Jones stemmed from Dan’s backsell of “The Impossible Dream (The Quest)” on June 25, 1966 (heard in Rewound Radio’s The Life and Times of Dan Ingram: In His Own Words):
I excluded the 1984 and earlier segment to allow for an extra segment of music from 2022 releases. The Hudson song filled a gap.
Excluded for only the fourth time in 140 shows was David Benoit. He will be back next week.
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
Instrumental Invasion, 11/30/22 December 1, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Comedy, Dogs, Football, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Pets, Radio, Travel.add a comment
The November 30 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded out of sequence between October 31 (Halloween) and November 2. Three segments were recorded on October 31 (first, fifth, third), one on November 1 (second), and two on November 2 (fourth, sixth) followed by pickups.
The playlist was created alongside next week’s show on October 28. Annotations began on the 29th and were completed before recording on the 31st. To keep up my four-week buffer, I did not write a talk break script, going by annotations instead. Ironically, that made raw recordings longer as I searched for the right words to say.
“Tickle Time” by Herb Alpert makes me think of a video posted to Briar the Lab’s Instagram page: “Chomp the [imaginary] pickle. … Tickle, tickle, tickle, tickle!”
This week and next, I include(d) songs that were played on my live Homecoming Weekend show (also unscripted). This week, it was “Pioneer Town” by David Benoit and “Eddie’s Groove” by Gerald Albright. Those songs were previously played on Wednesday nights – April 20 and July 27, respectively. I was unaware “November’s Child” by Special EFX was their latest single when I made the live show playlist on the afternoon of October 7. I found out via Watercolors during the car ride to Dutchess County that evening. I almost forgot to include it this week, but as you heard, it was the last song of November.
As you also heard, Bernie Bernard played “Time Out of Mind” by Steely Dan during her show after the Homecoming football game, hence its inclusion this week. I did not expect to find my description of the song’s antagonist so funny while backselling Grover Washington, Jr.’s cover, but the reaction speaks for itself. It’s funnier to call him a “pretentious, pseudo-religious” meshuggener (crazy person) than to end on the word “crank,” as Stewart Mason did in his review (per the “music and lyrics” section of the Gaucho Wikipedia entry). Next week, a nod to Jett Lightning’s inclusion of “Blue Train” in his show. (Read about the entire weekend here.)
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
Bonus: the post-“Pioneer Town” (get it, Post Pioneers?) excerpt of a Jeff Kroll touchdown call from the 2017 Homecoming football game:
Instrumental Invasion, 11/23/22 November 24, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Animation, Audio, Blu-ray, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel, TV.add a comment
The November 23, Thanksgiving Eve Instrumental Invasion on WCWP took a while to develop, as Kenny Mayne would say. The playlist was created on September 27, annotations began on October 4 and weren’t completed until the 10th while in Staatsburg, the talk break script was drafted on the 12th followed by recording of the first hour, and the second hour and pickups were recorded a week later on October 19. I was going to record on the 13th, but my time mismanagement skills reared their ugly head, and I had a breakdown while rushing to complete errands. Thank goodness WCWP station manager Pete Bellotti talked me down. Per his advice, I suspended production on this show until after Homecoming Weekend, and production was completed on videos of two Saturday shows (Bernie Bernard; Mike Riccio and Bobby G.).
I usually have a wealth of inside information about this reference or that reference, but I’ve wasted enough time. So, click here to download the scoped aircheck or listen below:
Since writing the above text on October 19, I’ve published posts about Homecoming Weekend and what I now call the Dutchess County trip. Listening to “Far Away” by Robben Ford took me back to how far away I felt at times in the AirBNB on Connelly Drive. Watching A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving on 4K Blu-ray on Tuesday (November 22), I realized I forgot to acknowledge Chuck Bennett’s trombone was also the “voice” of the adult whom Charlie Brown spoke to on the phone.
Happy Thanksgiving. Here’s hoping you get the long end of the wishbone like Woodstock (the bird, not the town half an hour northwest of Rhinebeck/Staatsburg).
Instrumental Invasion, 11/16/22 November 17, 2022
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Baseball, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Travel.add a comment
The November 16 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded from October 4 to 6: one segment on the 4th, two on the 5th, and the last three on the 6th. Pickups were recorded on the 6th, 7th, and 10th.
The playlist was created on September 27, and annotated from the 28th to the 30th. Work on next week’s show and the backup Homecoming Weekend prerecord kept me from drafting the talk break script. By October 4, I was desperate to start recording. An opportunity to record opened up at my secondary location – the home of that heavily noise reduced audio due to the central air conditioning indoor unit running next to my desk (that probably won’t be an issue again until May). So, I attempted to record the first segment unscripted based on the annotations, but before I could record the second talk break, the opportunity disappeared. I scripted the first segment on the way home and recorded once I was home. The rest of the script was drafted on October 5 before recording the next two segments. Of course, the live HCW show (also with “Billy’s Bop” and “Forecast“) was unscripted, and I ultimately went that route for the show two weeks from now.
I needed a song to fill the gap in the fourth segment and I chose “Silver Street” by Chris “Big Dog” Davis. I didn’t know I had already played it last February 10 until cataloging on October 7 before the weekend excursion to Dutchess County. I drafted much of this blog post on my laptop at the AirBNB.
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
Postscript: Today, November 17, is my 41st birthday. My age is the same as the uniform number worn by my idol, New York Mets pitcher Tom Seaver (1944-2020), who was also born on the 17th. The photos below were in a Tumblr post.
MikeChimeri.com 
