Instrumental Invasion, 11/8/23 November 9, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Japanese, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Language, Media, Music, Personal, Pop, Radio, Rock, smooth jazz.add a comment
NOTE: This is the last standalone Instrumental Invasion. I have agreed to end the run next week with three more shows airing on consecutive nights at 9:00: show 180 on November 15, 181 on the 16th, and 182 (the finale) on the 17th, my 42nd birthday.
The November 8 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was another two-four recording: the first two segments on September 25, the last four on the 26th. A pickup was recorded on October 21.
The playlist was created on September 7. Annotations were made between September 13 and 18, with the talk break script drafted on the 20th. Caitlin Myers might have planted the “certified bop” seed, which is why I quipped how “Grooveyard” was that.
“Prince Vlad” by T-Square is probably the most metal thing I’ll ever play and it was followed by Najee‘s very smooth jazz thing.
I had to sacrifice another segment format to allow for more songs from recent releases. Next Wednesday, those songs will make up the entire show.
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
As a bonus, here is the music video for “Beyond the Galaxy” by Casiopea 3rd:
Instrumental Invasion, 11/1/23 November 2, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Rock, smooth jazz, TV, Video.add a comment
There is a major announcement at the end of this post.
The November 1 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded on September 23 (first two segments) and 24 (last four). Pickups were recorded on the 30th.
The playlist was created September 6, and annotated with three other shows between the 13th and 18th. The talk break script was drafted on the 20th.
David Benoit‘s cover of “Then the Morning Comes” by Smash Mouth was originally played April 14, 2021. I played it in tribute to their late lead vocalist Steve Harwell.
My talk-up for “Junior” by Euge Groove – “you can call it Junior!” – was a nod to the late Bill Saluga‘s Raymond J. Johnson Jr. character. An example performance:
Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:
Before air, I made the following announcement on Facebook:
Before tonight’s show airs, I would like to announce that I am ending my run of Instrumental Invasion after show 186. If the FM stream is working by 9:00, show 178 will be airing. That means I will have eight shows left to air. Two are ready to be recorded and the last four have yet to be worked on. I have taken this show as far as it can go and am burned out.
Instrumental Invasion has been my longest-running production and my best work creatively. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share it with the world and will carry on with the name each October during Homecoming Weekend.
Instrumental Invasion, 10/25/23 October 26, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Baseball, History, Internet, Japanese, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Livestream, Media, Music, Personal, Photography, Pop, Radio, smooth jazz, Sports, Travel, Video.add a comment
The October 25 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP marked the return of original shows after a nine-week hiatus. It was to be seven weeks, but reruns were delayed while the WCWP transmitter was moved. The move was part of ongoing renovations to the Abrams Communications Center.
Before I tell you “how I spent my summer vacation,” let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way:
I was unable to resume radio show production until after finishing work on the Long Island Retro Gaming Expo photos and blog posts (part one, part two, part three).
I filled out my Casiopea and T-Square collections in July, I expanded my McCoy Tyner collection in September, and new smooth jazz CD preorders (plus one big band release) periodically arrived at my doorstep. Not having an outlet for those new releases required me to make up for lost time in this show’s playlist and the three that followed. I worked on all of them together, one at a time.
The show 177 playlist was created September 5 and 6, and annotated with the next three playlists between the 13th and 16th. The talk break script was drafted on September 19. The first four segments were recorded on the 22nd and the last two on the 23rd. No pickups were necessary during a quality control session on the 30th.
In all, it took me eight days to principally record shows 177 to 180, plus one day of checking for mistakes and mixing down segments. I continued my rerun-proof practice of leaving out dated references and will do so for as long as I’m on the air.
“The Bones” was one song I neglected to play from David Benoit‘s A Midnight Rendezvous last year, but I was inspired to end this show with his cover after he used it in a story post to his Instagram account. I made two “Dem Bones” references while talking it up and made sure to end with “‘The Bones.’ The bye!” The “ya see” ad-libs were icing on the cake.
I recycled the “I’ll Take Romance” tidbits from when I played Beegie Adair‘s by-the-books version nearly one year ago (November 2, 2022). An obsession with McCoy Tyner’s solos on his Blue Bossa arrangement led me to include it here. “Point of Departure” by Nelson Rangell was originally played on September 16, 2020.
“The Washington Post,” a John Philip Sousa march performed by the Band of the Grenadier Guards, was the middle song of the first segment due to a timing error I initially missed. While that error was caught before recording, the fourth segment error wasn’t. Like in show 176, however, it worked out for the best because I was building up a surplus.
Himiko Kikuchi‘s Flying Beagle was an additional music acquisition this summer, so expect to hear more from that eventually. “Fluffy” was a nice start, and good opportunity to share some of my Japanese learning. I originally learned of “fuwa fuwa” and other onomatopoeia from this Mochi sensei video. On the subject of Japanese teachers/Twitch streamers, I consider Misa an intermediate gamer, but not a pro. That doesn’t ruin her fun, nor the fun of subscribers like me. I began treating her ever-growing Dark Souls: Remastered death count (“YOU DIED”) like career home runs, syncing them to milestone home run calls when milestones arose. Her 400th is one example:
Misa racked up over 200 more deaths since that video, but 80 minutes before air, she finally defeated Ornstein and Smough! I set that triumphant moment to Russ Hodges‘ call of the Shot Heard ‘Round the World, via a retrospective on The Best Damn Sports Show Period. This time, I left in Misa’s audio. Enjoy!
Back at it next week. I’ll leave you with Anders Enger Jensen‘s “Borderline” video:
2023 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo recap: conclusion and pickups September 1, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Aviation, Baseball, Books, Education, Football, Game Shows, Golf, History, Hockey, Internet, Japanese, Language, Media, Personal, Photography, Sports, Technology, Travel, Video, Video Games.add a comment
If you haven’t seen them yet, read the first post here and second post here.
Sunday, August 13
After my last Long Island Retro Gaming Expo panel of the weekend, I made my way to the vendor marketplace and searched for games I didn’t have that were $20 or less. I bargained with each vendor, only spending close to $200. That’s the least I’ve spent since my first year (2017). The bulk of my purchases were for the Nintendo Entertainment System, my first video game console.
Satisfied, I exited the Cradle of Aviation Museum and waited for my mom to pick me up.
Exiting 
The opposite view from the establishing shot in post 1 
Cumulus clouds against the clear blue, sunny sky 
The American flag (I captioned the other two, so why not this?) 
My bag of combined pickups, led by the infamous Deadly Towers; I finally got it
Monday, August 14 and beyond
My attempt to make up for Saturday night’s severe storm-shortened sleep was unsuccessful. I woke up early Monday morning after five or six hours of sleep. Then, I went outside to look at the stars.
Back inside, as the sun rose, I unpacked the pickups from my paper bag and photographed them.
We’ll start with merchandise (and my badges):
- Pat Contri: CU Podcast pin, Pixelated Pat pin
- John Riggs: Ghostbusters Special Edition ROM hack
- Leonard Herman: ABC to the VCS: A Director of Software for the Atari 2600, Bill Kunkel‘s Confessions of the Game Doctor
- Mark W. Baer (gifted from him): copies of his father Ralph H. Baer‘s patent and of the Magnavox Odyssey licensing agreement between Magnavox, Atari and Sanders Associates
The front of the badges:
12 games for Nintendo Entertainment System:
- Athletic World (for Family Fun Fitness Pad/Power Pad)
- Cybernoid: The Fighting Machine
- Dance Aerobics (for Family Fun Fitness Pad/Power Pad)
- Deadly Towers
- Demon Sword
- Ms. Pac-Man (licensed release by Namco)
- Roger Clemens’ MVP Baseball
- Short Order/Eggsplode! (for Family Fun Fitness Pad/Power Pad)
- Star Voyager
- Strider
- Xenophobe
- Yoshi
Now, I have an NES Yoshi to go with the Game Boy version I’ve had since childhood. The Power Pad games and Star Voyager were the subjects of early Pat the NES Punk episodes (including one with Alison).
“Power Pad Fun!”, Part 1:
Part 2:
Deadly Towers got the Angry Video Game Nerd treatment (via fans’ script submissions):
Two for Super Nintendo:
The TV ads at launch tempted me into getting SimCity, but I never did. I haven’t even seen Judge Dredd the film.
Two Nintendo 64 games:
Another game show game for my collection – Jeopardy! for Nintendo DS:
One self-explanatory 3DS title – Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS:
Wrongly assuming the 3DS and Wii U Super Smash Bros. games were the same, I only bought for Wii U when I started collecting for the two consoles in 2017 (there’s that year again). Prior to LI Retro, I saw a Masahiro Sakurai on Creating Video Games video that set me straight (Japanese with English subtitles):
Good thing I found a copy from a vendor, eliminating the need to buy from Amazon.
And lastly, my first Sega CD game – Joe Montana’s NFL Football:
To quote the infamous TV ad (parodied here), I “still don’t have a Sega CD,” but after buying my first game Sunday afternoon, I bought 12 more games on eBay between Monday morning and Wednesday night. This included eight from four-game lots, and two Sonic CD variants. The complete list (in order of appearance):
- Lot 1: Ground Zero: Texas, Links: The Challenge of Golf, NFL’s Greatest: San Francisco vs. Dallas 1978-1993, Prize Fighter
- NHL ’94
- Sonic CD (not for resale pack-in)
- Lot 2: Ecco: The Tides of Time, Jeopardy!, NBA Jam, Tomcat Alley
- Mad Dog McCree
- Stellar-Fire
- Sonic CD (retail)
All the games on the shelf
Thank you for taking this photographic journey through the 2023 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo. Until next year.
2023 Long Island Retro Gaming expo recap: touring the expo September 1, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Aviation, Computer, Education, History, Personal, Photography, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.add a comment
If you haven’t viewed the first recap post yet, click here. Skip ahead to the third recap here.
Now that you’ve seen the panels, why not tour the rest of this year’s Long Island Retro Gaming Expo at the Cradle of Aviation Museum?
Before we do that, while editing on the Monday after (August 14), I noticed a familiar face in the bottom right of this Saturday (August 12) photo in the vendor marketplace:
What?! Clint Basinger (LGR) was there?! According to his Twitter activity, yes.
I was kicking myself for not knowing he’d be there, but John Riggs and LI Retro staff member Ryan Shapiro told me on Facebook that Clint was there as a paid attendee, not a guest. In their words:
He visited the show but did not host a panel. I was very excited to see him there.
Ryan Shapiro
I didn’t know he was gonna be there, either. There were quite a few YouTube people that weren’t on the list but showed up to hang out. Tells you how awesome the show is.
John Riggs
Hear hear, John. While I missed Clint in the moment, I did notice Justin Silverman walking along a separate row of vendors. I’d have said hello if we crossed paths.
Here is the latest LGR video:
The walking photo tour begins in earnest with a “good retro morning” greeting:
Most photos were taken on Saturday, but a small amount are from Sunday (August 13). (You’ll know by the filename.)
Vendor Marketplace:
The rest of the first floor:
Second floor:
The third floor was Tetris-themed:
I’ve been a fan of Tetris ever since playing the Game Boy version as a kid. I have that and 21 other variations of Tetris in my collection. This includes Tetris & Dr. Mario and Puyo Puyo Tetris. I also have the three ports of Tetris 2. The sequel gets a bad rap, but I enjoy it.
Anyway, that’s the end of the photo tour. Click here for my third recap post with a conclusion and pickups photos.
2023 Long Island Retro Gaming Expo recap: introduction, guests, panels September 1, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Audio, Aviation, Books, Computer, Education, Game Shows, History, Internet, Media, Personal, Photography, Podcast, Radio, Technology, Travel, TV, Video, Video Games.add a comment
Feel free to skip ahead to the second post (touring the expo) or third post (conclusion and pickups).
Introduction
The weekend of August 12 and 13 marked my fifth year at Long Island Retro Gaming Expo, held in the Cradle of Aviation Museum, situated along Museum Row in East Garden City. This is LI Retro’s second year as a three-day event, running from 4PM Friday through 5PM Sunday. Again, I opted to skip Friday and just go Saturday and Sunday. I had to last year since I used my ticket for the postponed 2020 expo, but I saved money this year by purchasing a three-day ticket. I would have gone Friday if I lived within walking distance or had a car of my own.
When LI Retro’s schedule was published a few weeks before the event, I planned my days around panels, three per day. I also hoped to catch musical performances, but time would not allow that. I did not allow myself to buy games from vendors until after the last panel on Sunday.
I brought my Canon EOS R7 (and compatible speedlite, which didn’t cooperate) along with a TASCAM DR-05 audio recorder. While panels would be posted online, I wanted personal recordings to hold me over in the meantime. As of this writing, I have yet to listen, let alone edit out the beginnings and ends.
I hoped not to go overboard with photography, which means I did. A whopping 831 photos (466 Saturday, 366 Sunday) were taken with the R7 at LI Retro, plus four on my iPhone 13 Pro. I spent a week and a half editing them all, spreading out 563 of them in three blog posts. (I couldn’t possibly cram them all in one.)
This first post contains the introduction you’re reading now, photos with guests, photos from the six panels I saw, and relevant links and media embeds.
We start with an establishing exterior shot taken Sunday morning:
Guest table photos
It was fun catching up with guests and staff that I’ve seen before, and meeting new guests for the first time.
Leonard Herman (right) and Mark W. Baer (left), middle child of videogame pioneer Ralph H. Baer:
Mark gifted me with copies of his father Ralph’s patent and of the Magnavox Odyssey licensing agreement between Magnavox, Atari and Sanders Associates. From Leonard, I bought his book ABC to the VCS: A Director of Software for the Atari 2600 and Bill Kunkel‘s Confessions of the Game Doctor. Each book was published by Leonard’s Rolenta Press company.
Leonard and Mark with Patrick Wong:
Me and Jeff:
LI Retro staff member Ryan Shapiro posed with Mark Baer prior to Sunday’s panel:
Me and John Riggs:
I bought another Genesis ROM hack cartridge from John’s table this year, but not one he made.
Pat Contri (a.k.a. Pat the NES Punk) and Ian Ferguson:
I congratulated Pat for 15 years on YouTube, and he and Ian on a decade of the CU Podcast. We talked about cameras, the upcoming N64 entry in Pat’s Ultimate Nintendo book series, and my merch purchases. (I also apologized for how my podcast panel question trailed off at the end. [SPOILER])
Sunday morning, Pat was interviewed by Margaret Sykes of WRHU, radio station for nearby Hofstra University:
She then spoke to Leonard and Mark:
Adam’s table had prototype consoles and a signed copy of Shenmue II:
Frank Cifaldi spoke to Lenny and Mark before his panel, my first of the weekend:
John Riggs talking to attendees:
John’s LI Retro vlog:
Travis McGeehan (TIKevin83) and the TASBot:
On to panel photos and relevant links, including video and/or audio.
Saturday Panel 1, 11AM-12PM:
Frank Cifaldi
Adventures in Saving Video Game History
After the panel, I ended up part of a conversation with Frank and fellow archivist Jason Scott. (I had no idea I was in the presence of greatness until a Google search Sunday morning.)
A selfie with Jason (sans top hat) and Frank:
Saturday Panel 2, 2PM-3PM
Pat Contri and Ian Ferguson
CU Podcast Special 2
Podcast audio out of the way, including my question:
The not-rare Black Tiger cabinet (in reference to this):
And the podcast videos:
While waiting to ask a question, I noticed my friend Daniel Greenberg of Winterion Game Studios in the audience with his wife Alex. I whispered hello and we spoke more after the panel. It turns out Daniel and Alex had visited LIU Post earlier in the day. As you’ll see in the photo Alex took, I was wearing a Post polo on Saturday:
Saturday Panel 3, 3:30-4:30 PM:
G Gracin
Growing Up Genesis with G to the Next Level (streamed live on Twitch)
Watch the Twitch stream VOD here.
G and me:
I tried to go to sleep early Saturday night, but I was wired from the long and exciting day I had. I figure I got four hours of sleep before being jolted awake by a severe thunderstorm just before 3AM. The peak came at 3:13 with two close (and loud) lightning strikes. Thankfully, conditions mellowed after that, though sleep was impossible. I got some editing done and prepped for a return to Cradle of Aviation at 10AM. Somehow, Lenny, Mark, Patrick, Pat, and my parents all slept through the storm.
Sunday morning was when Margaret Sykes conducted her interviews, and where I spoke to her about WRHU general manager John Mullen’s recent induction to the WCWP Hall of Fame.
Sunday Panel 1, 11AM-12PM:
Adam Koralik, Evil Rob Thanos, Sunshine (from Adam’s Discord)
Talking Console Prototypes: Sega Pluto (and hard drives), Atari Jaguar “Hot Rod” Dental Unit, Sony PlayStation Debugging Station, Nintendo GameCube NR Reader
Relevant videos:
Finally, panel photos:
While working on this post, I joined Adam’s aforementioned Discord. I was welcomed with open arms and given the nickname Mike Camera. I like it!
It’s where I found Squishchin’s LI Retro vlog:
10/11 UPDATE: Watch Adam’s travelogue on his second channel, Flying & Eating with Adam Koralik:
Sunday Panel 2, 12:30 PM-1:30 PM:
Frank Cifaldi and Rachel Simone Weil
Unraveling Nintendo’s Most Elusive Lost Hardware: The Nintendo Knitting Machine
Sunday Panel 3, 2PM-3PM:
Leonard Herman and Mark W. Baer
The Life, Time and Influence of Ralph H. Baer, The Father of Videogames
As noted in last year’s recap, Lenny grew to be like a surrogate son to Ralph. You can see the brotherly love between Lenny and Mark in many of the photos below.
This concludes post one. Click here for post two or here for post three.
WCWP donation and renovation announcement August 23, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Education, Media, Photography, Radio, Video.add a comment
June’s 2022 WCWP Hall of Fame Ceremony ended with a big announcement by master of ceremonies Dan Cox, WCWP station manager from 2002 to 2022.
Marjorie Abrams Hyman, daughter of Emerson founder Benjamin Abrams, graciously donated $500,000 to WCWP! The donation will go toward new equipment and a complete renovation of the Abrams Communications Center.
Dan will oversee the renovation, which began this Sunday, August 20. This meant the June 3 ceremony announcement was unofficial; for attendees’ ears only. We were not allowed to divulge publicly until the official release. Now, we can.
So, here are the photos I couldn’t include in my ceremony recap:
“To the tribe! I love you all!” 
Video of Dan Cox’s closing remarks:
There is no more uncertainty. WCWP is here to stay for at least another decade. Thank goodness. Thank Marjorie Abrams Hyman. Thank Joan Yonke. Thank LIU (Long Island University) and LIU Post.
Instrumental Invasion, 8/16/23 August 17, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment
The August 16 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was my last show before going on hiatus. It was recorded from July 12 to 14: the first hour on the 12th, the first segment of hour 2 on the 13th, and the last two (and a pickup) on the 14th.
An additional pickup was recorded on the 23rd. I was dissatisfied with my “to South Central while drinking your juice in the hood” add-on to the long title of The Jazz Crusaders album Old Socks, New Shoes…New Socks, Old Shoes.
The playlist was created on June 19, annotated over several unknown days after that, and scripted on June 30, July 1, and before recording on July 12.
This was yet another show where I built up a time surplus from short segments. It was as high as 47 seconds, down to 40 with two segments to go. So, I chose to record the last segment first and see what was left. There were 32 seconds left, but a timing error in segment five worked in my favor and allowed me to break even.
Click here to download the scoped aircheck or listen below:
Listen for me at least once on Homecoming Weekend, which starts October 6. October 11 is the date of my next new Wednesday night show. Until then, thank you for your support over 176 out of 177 weeks.
8/28 UPDATE: I will still return October 11, but Homecoming Weekend has been postponed until renovation of the Abrams Communications Center is complete.
9/14 UPDATE: The return date has been pushed back to October 25. WCWP and The Wave were off the air from August 30 to September 8 while the transmitter was moved, and I allowed station manager Pete Bellotti to delay my reruns two weeks.
Instrumental Invasion, 8/9/23: Show 175! Same Name Song Trios August 10, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Comedy, Film, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment
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.
Let’s get the scoped aircheck out of the way now:
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.”
Retreads:
- “After the Storm” by Norman Brown (11/4/20)
- “The Magician (El Mago)” by Nelson Rangell (4/15/20)
- “Shaken Not Stirred” by David Benoit (10/14/20)
- “Shaken, Not Stirred” by Pieces of a Dream (10/7/20)
One more show and my hiatus begins. It couldn’t come at a better time. (That’s how I felt on July 6.)
10/12 UPDATE: Here are the evergreen talk break variations heard last night:
Instrumental Invasion, 8/2/23 August 3, 2023
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, City Pop, Internet, Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Media, Music, Personal, Radio.add a comment
The August 2 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded one hour per day on June 28 and July 3. The gap between sessions came because my voice sounded nasally again as COVID continued to linger. I felt my voice was close enough to normal on July 3.
The playlist was created between June 6 and 11, same as the one for last week. Annotations followed in a period I don’t remember, but the talk break script was drafted on June 24. As you can see, I had to add a song – “Memorex Reprise” by The Jeff Lorber Fusion – to make up a 45-second surplus after the final talk break of the show. The surplus had been a whopping 116 seconds after four segments.
The following songs were played a second time:
- “3rd Degree” by Fourplay (4/29/20)
- “Catch the Wind” by Herb Alpert (11/24/21)
- “That Special Touch” by Kim Waters (1/4/23)
Click here to download the scoped aircheck or listen below:
Next week is show 175, with alternate talk breaks recorded for evergreen reruns.
MikeChimeri.com 