A NICE gesture December 25, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Commentary, News, Personal, Travel.add a comment
The cherry on top of this Christmas and sixth night of Hanukkah was learning that the new Nassau Inter-County Express (NICE) bus–the private replacement of the MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) Long Island Bus–will be accepting MetroCards on their buses.
More from Newsday (subscription needed):
… [T]he MTA ironed out details of a “memorandum of understanding” with Nassau that will allow the bus system to continue using the MetroCard fare payment system. Under the agreement, the MTA will receive 1.75 cents per MetroCard swipe. The agreement also will allow for free transfers between NICE bus and MTA subways or buses. [Incoming NICE chief executive Michael Setzer] called the agreement “a big win for both MTA and NICE riders.”
Also, according to the NICE website, the routes and schedules will remain the same.
I’m ready to make NICE, starting next Sunday, New Year’s Day 2012.
Smooth Jazz for Scholars 2012 date/lineup December 25, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal.add a comment
Two days ago, I visited keyboardist Jay Rowe’s website to see if there was info on the 2012 Smooth Jazz for Scholars, the tenth overall. There was:
I am pleased to announce that next year’s Smooth Jazz For Scholars show featuring Paul Taylor, Nick Colionne, Chieli Minucci, Nelson Rangell and Shilts will be held May 5, 2012 at the Parsons Complex [auditorium] located at 70 West River Street Milford, CT. 06460. Tickets are now on sale for $40 each and the first 200 tickets sold will be reserved seating. Tickets can be purchased by sending a check or money order payable to Smooth Jazz For Scholars Inc. to P.O. Box 3723 Milford, CT. 06460.
This will be my sixth year in attendance.
Here is how the 2011 show went.
5/7 UPDATE: This year’s recap is up.
30,000 views! December 18, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, Personal.add a comment
Overnight, The Mike Chimeri Blog reached 30,000 views. It’s all because of you, the viewer. Thank you very much.
My 30th December 6, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Personal.2 comments
A few weeks ago, on November 17, I became a tricenarian (I looked that word up). I turned 30 years old. My mom put this milestone birthday banner up in the upstairs hallway of my house:
There was also a regular Happy Birthday banner put up in the living room downstairs.
Throughout the day, hundreds of birthday wishes came in on Facebook, through text messages, phone calls, and greeting cards with either gift cards or checks.
I didn’t have a party, but I went out to dinner with my parents and sister. Back home, it wouldn’t be a birthday without my favorite: ice cream cake, this one from Carvel:
Steve Cole at Houndstooth recap; Fall Foliage November 13, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal, Photography, Travel, Weather.add a comment
Later recap: October 2013
Updated at the end with feedback from Steve.
Last night, saxophonist Steve Cole performed at Houndstooth Pub, a few blocks north of Penn Station. For me, Houndstooth has become the new IMAC. December 4 will mark one year since my first show there.
I didn’t have a ride to the Wantagh LIRR station. So, I walked there in the late afternoon around sunset. (The days are short this time of year.) Along the way, I took pictures of noteworthy foliage.
This is a tree on Briard Street:
The corner of Briard and Island Road:
Stephen Lane:
Ella Road:
Beech Street:
Across from Wantagh Elementary School:
South of Bunker Avenue:
Then, I put the camera away and didn’t take it out of my travel bag until 8PM at Houndstooth.
Ed Tankus of Blue Plate Radio welcomed the sold-out crowd, introduced Steve Cole, and then Steve introduced himself:
Steve played tenor sax:
He was joined by Carl Carter on bass:
JJ Sansaverino on guitar:
Steve Williams on drums:
And Bill Heller on the keyboard:
When I walked down the stairs, I saw a Kurzweil PC3x keyboard and knew Bill would be in the band. It was a pleasant surprise.
SET LIST
SET 1
1. Off Broadway (NY LA, 2003)
2. So Into You (Between Us, 2000)
3. Just A Natural Thang (True, 2006)
4. Undun (The Guess Who cover) (Moonlight, 2011)
5. Angel (Sarah McLachlan cover) (Moonlight, 2011)
6. Got It Goin’ On (Between Us, 2000)
SET 2
7. Thursday (Spin, 2005)
8. Curtis (True, 2006)
9. When I Think of You (Stay Awhile, 1998)
10. Sugar (Stanley Turrentine cover)
11. Our Love (Stay Awhile, 1998)
“Got It Goin’ On” featured solos from Bill…
…and Carl:
JJ had a guitar solo on “Thursday”:
“Curtis” had a long and interesting backstory, which Steve told before playing it:
Steve invited up his friend Dave Hiltebrand to stand in on bass for “Sugar”:
Steve Williams’ drum solo:
The last song of the night was “Our Love”:
The last note:
This night is history.
Steve Cole is very entertaining, funny, wild, sensitive, and soulful. We saw all sides last night. Thanks to Steve, Steve Williams, Carl, JJ, Bill, Dave, and Steve Butler of Mighty Music Corp. It was a fun few hours.
11/14 UPDATE: This album began with foliage pics on my walk to the train station. I took a few more this afternoon in my front and back yards:
11/15 UPDATE: I linked to this recap on my Facebook wall and tagged Steve in the link description. Today, he left a comment:
Thanks for the kind words Mike! I’m so glad you came, and had a great night….
Video from around the house: 1994 and 2011 November 11, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Personal, Photography, Video, Weather.add a comment
July 25, 1994, was the beginning of my videography life. When I used my camcorder regularly, between 1994 and 2004, I would occasionally shoot video around my house. This was usually reserved for special occasions like a deep blue sky (especially in the middle of summer), fall foliage, and during or after a snowstorm. The videos below represent the first and second examples.
November 11, 1994, was a day off for me. I was in eighth grade at the time. Like today–also November 11, Veterans Day–trash and recycling was not picked up. We didn’t realize that in ’94, as you’ll see in the first video, but I checked the pickup schedule earlier this week and knew not to bring stuff to the curb. I feel sorry for those that didn’t know. I saw many houses with uncollected trash and recycling on my walk this afternoon. But I digress.
Earlier this year, I captured my old home videos on VHS (dubs of VHS-C), VHS-C masters, and MiniDV masters. I felt nostalgic enough today to retrace my steps (minus the primitive camera work).
Here then is what I shot on November 11, 1994:
And here’s what I shot today, November 11, 2011:
Today’s video was originally shot in 1080p, but I mixed two MTS files down to one MPEG4 file in 720p.
Snowtober in Wantagh October 30, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Internet, News, Personal, Photography, Politics, TV, Weather.add a comment
What was billed as “Snowtober” was “Rain-and-snowtober” or “Wintry mix-tober” in Wantagh for much of yesterday and last night. Just to the north and west (within Nassau County), more wet snow fell. The precipitation changed to all wet snow after 11PM.
What fell at my house only stuck to the cars in the driveway and to parts of the grass. Any cold surface accumulated snow.
Since it was the first snow we had in seven months, I took out my camera and took a few pictures. The first three pics are from around noon:
The last two were taken at 11:30, nearly twelve hours later:
A bigger concern for me was the strong gusty winds. The National Weather Service issued a High Wind Warning for Nassau and Suffolk until 6:00 this morning. This was, after all, a Nor’easter. So between that and wet snow accumulating on tree limbs, I feared downed trees, limbs, and power lines. I simultaneously flashed back to the Nor’easter of March 2010 and Irene of nine weeks ago. But the worrying was for nothing. The winds died down early this morning and the power never went out. That’s not to say it didn’t go out elsewhere on Long Island, but it wasn’t on the scale of either storms I flashed back to. I wish I could say the same for people north and west of the Island (2/11/13 UPDATE: The page I linked to in the previous sentence no longer exists).
11/3 UPDATE: Somehow, a link was made between this storm and climate change last night on NBC Nightly News:
BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: Everybody out East said the same thing about this freak snowstorm, “This kind of thing didn’t used to happen. This never happened before.” And while that is true, it may also be true that we’ll all have to start getting used to this kind of thing over the long haul.
I didn’t hear that. What I heard is what is noted later in Noel Sheppard’s NewsBusters post:
Yet October snows in the northeast though infrequent do occur. As AccuWeather reported Monday:
The last time that Central Park recorded measurable snow was on Oct. 21, 1952 when 0.5 of an inch fell. Prior to that, 0.8 of an inch fell on Oct. 30, 1925. […]
A record snowfall of 6.0 inches was set at Bangor, Maine, on Sunday. This broke the old record of 5.0 inches set back in 1963.
The point being that it does snow in this region in October.
…
One can only imagine what kind of storms hit this region during the Little Ice Age of the 16th through 19th centuries. But since Williams and Thompson weren’t alive, and snowfall records began in 1869, weather events earlier than that seem unimportant.
This of course is common for climate alarmists, so we shouldn’t be the slightest bit surprised.
In their view, whatever is happening today couldn’t possibly have happened before records starting being kept, and therefore all weather events outside “the norm” are considered extreme and therefore proof of climate change.
You think those still without power in Connecticut, New Jersey, and other affected areas care about that? Of course not. They just want their power back.
12/30 UPDATE: This storm was the #2 tri-state area news story in WCBS 880’s countdown of the top 11 stories of 2011:
Nineteen inches of snow in October? Even WCBS 880’s cautious chief meteorologist Craig Allen couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
“There’s no way you can play this down based upon these weather maps. Almost everything is in agreement,” Allen reported.
And these flakes were falling on full foliage. All it took was a couple of inches of snow to start bringing branches down.
Hundred-year-old trees snapped like twigs. Mother Nature’s mischief night was the Halloween snowstorm of 2011.
Three million people lost electricity. …
You can read and listen to the rest here.
CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri on WCWP; WCWP 50th Anniversary Celebration October 22, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Comedy, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, Radio, TV.1 comment so far
3/27/13 UPDATE: Scroll down for pictures from the WCWP 50th Anniversary Celebration.
Other recaps: 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022
Early this morning at 1:00, CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri aired on WCWP-FM. It’s part of the 50th anniversary of Homecoming Weekend which started last night at 7:00 and ends late tomorrow night.
I recorded my show a few weeks ago. And it’s a good thing I did because I’m coming off a cold and my voice isn’t quite at 100% yet. (I took my last of five antibiotics a half hour before writing this post.)
Below are the audio and video version of the aircheck recorded from the board a few weeks ago. The legal ID that played between hours of my show was recorded from the stream and added to the aircheck file. The video was recorded from my camcorder and mixed with the aircheck audio in Sony Vegas Movie Studio HD Platinum 10.0.
CJazzPlus with Mike Chimeri – 10/22/11 Aircheck
And this is the complete playlist with written notes (click to view larger):
The “separate page” was a scan of the liner notes for “Anything’s Possible” and “One for Shorty.” I originally credited everyone on those tracks, but had to edit them out for time.
This evening, I’ll be at the Top of the Commons at C.W. Post for the WCWP 50th Anniversary Celebration. I hope to have pictures for a later post.
10/23 UPDATE: Rather than upload pictures to the blog, I’ve made my Facebook album of pics from last night public. Click here to see them.
3/27/13 UPDATE: With the 2013 WCWP Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony approaching, and with WordPress now letting users insert multiple pictures at once, I can now share pictures from the 50th Anniversary Celebration. The pictures include captions that I originally wrote for the Facebook album, which is now only for friends or friends of friends, and some new captions. Here is the photo recap:
My parents drove me up to the C.W. Post campus at about 6:20 (maybe 6:25) in the evening. I arrived on campus at 6:50, just as a barricade was put up in the Hillwood Commons/WCWP parking lot and points west. Apparently, there was a show at the Tilles Center. So, I was let out one lot to the east, walked down the stairs, and walked inside Hillwood. I took the elevator to the Top of the Commons (third floor) and in I went.
Pete Bellotti:
After Pete’s welcomed fellow alumni, he invited Bill Mozer to the podium.
Then it was Dan Cox’s turn:
Next, Dr. Paul Forestell, Post’s provost:
Art Beltrone:
Nick Parker and Christina Kay:
Nick was Christina’s guest for “The Throwdown”:
The 50th anniversary cake:
The raffle table:
Jay Mirabile was Christina’s second interview of the night. He made a crack about Alan Seltzer as I took this pic:
Pete told Dan that the WCWP Alumni Association had purchased for the station a new Panasonic 50″ LCD HDTV:
Another big announcement was the forming of the WCWP Hall of Fame. Bernie Bernard listed the first class of inductees…
…the founders of WCWP: Art Beltrone, Hank Neimark, Prof. Virgil Jackson Lee, and Dr. Herb Coston.
I was fortunate enough to be in Dr. Coston’s presence at the WCWP Alumni Dinner in 2007.
Bernie then invited Art Beltrone and Hank Neimark to say a few words.
Art went first:
A toast to everyone involved with WCWP from the beginning to today:
“Cheers for WCWP”:
Hank Neimark:
Raffle time. First up, the 50/50 raffle:
Scott Perschke announced the winner:
After that, two pairs of Islanders tickets, donated by John Mullen, and the winner of the silent auction for an iPad:
Craig Stern and Allie LaRue (née Roderick):
Christina’s last two “Throwdown” interviews were with Bernie Bernard…
…and Pete Bellotti:
Then, Christina turned things over to Jay Mirabile back at the station.
It was a great night. My one regret is I didn’t have more time to mingle and catch up with my fellow alumni.
Here’s to 50 more years!
Matt Marshak with Oli Silk & Joey Sommerville recap October 2, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Music, Personal, Photography, Travel, Weather.add a comment
Other Matt Marshak show recaps: 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015
I was at the Houndstooth Pub last night to see Matt Marshak with Oli Silk and Joey Sommerville perform. Thinking the show was at 7:00, I left for the Wantagh LIRR station at 5:00 for the 5:18 train to Penn Station. Before I left the house, it still felt warm and barely humid outside, but on the platform at the train station, it felt cool and dry. It’s a good thing I brought a jacket. I also brought an umbrella, which came in handy for the four-block walk to Houndstooth. For the second day in a row, small bands of rain developed and moved their way north-northwest. The tri-state area was on the northeast side of an upper-level low pressure system centered over Pennsylvania. That’s still the case as I type. When I got to Houndstooth at 6:25, I was informed that the show was at 8:00 rather than 7:00. So, I had to wait in the entrance for close to ten minutes until the lower level, where the show was, was opened up.
Once the doors opened, the seats at the tables and bar (where I sat) gradually filled up. There were few empty seats left by show time. After an introduction from Eulis Cathey of WBGO (whose show I put on for a few minutes while writing the early part of this post), it was time to begin.
Matt Marshak played guitar:
Oli Silk on the keyboard:
Joey Sommerville on trumpet:
Kenny Harris on bass:
And Carl “C-Man” Anderson on drums:
I was there for the first set before they took a break. Here’s what they played:
(NOTE: Joey came to the stage after song 2, did not play on song 7.)
1. On the Rocks
2. S.O.S.O.S.! (Oli Silk)
3. Swag (Joey Sommerville)
4. Teddy P – Kenny Harris, vocals
5. A Silent Knowing
6. Moonshadows (Joey Sommerville)
7. Get Out Claws (Oli Silk)
8. Like You Mean It (Joey Sommerville) – Joey S., vocals
9. I Will Be With You – Kenny Harris, bass solo; Carl Anderson, drum solo/vocals
(singing): “Swing yo’ hips (4x) like you mean it!”
Joey took to the audience midway through “Like You Mean It”:
“I Will Be With You” had two major solos. First from Kenny Harris…
…and then Carl Anderson:
The C-Man got a standing ovation:
The last note of the set:
You couldn’t ask for a better night: a packed house and outstanding music from outstanding players.
10/4 UPDATE: Check out Katherine Gilraine’s recap.
MikeChimeri.com 
2011 in review December 31, 2011
Posted by Mike C. in Commentary, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, News, Personal, TV.add a comment
The following is a WordPress post for my blog, edited by me with editorials (like this one) in italics.
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.
Here’s an excerpt:
Click here to see the complete report (link removed).
Why did I remove the link? It drastically slowed down my browser (Firefox) and repeatedly crashed it. I’m finishing this post in Internet Explorer. Here’s the text I copied and pasted, saving in multiple drafts between crashes:
WordPress.com presents
The Mike Chimeri Blog
2011 in blogging
Happy New Year from WordPress.com!
To kick off the new year, we’d like to share with you data on your blog’s activity in 2011. You may start scrolling!
Crunchy numbers
The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,300 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.
In 2011, there were 43 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 225 posts. There were 861 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 1gb. That’s about 2 pictures per day.
The busiest day of the year was August 21st with 236 views. The most popular post that day was Bolder & Fresher Tour at Westbury recap.
How did they find you?
The top referring sites in 2011 were:
Some visitors came searching, mostly for joyce cooling, empty stage, wwe headquarters, ken navarro, and steve scales.
What is people’s fascination with a picture of an empty Parsons Complex auditorium stage that I put in my 2008 Smooth Jazz for Scholars recap?
Where did they come from?
Most visitors came from The United States. Canada & Italy were not far behind.
Here are the stats I screencapped before Firefox crashed one time too many:
People also visited from other continents, but I can’t risk crashing my browser again to see their stats.
Who were they?
Your most commented on post in 2011 was Bolder & Fresher Tour at Westbury recap
These were your 5 most active commenters:
Perhaps you could follow their blog or send them a thank you note?
Thank you, even if you disagreed with me. And thank you, Johnny Dollar, for linking to the recap. It was the only one online. Not even Newsday wrote about the show.
Attractions in 2011
These are the posts that got the most views in 2011.
Some of your most popular posts were written before 2011. Your writing has staying power! Consider writing about those topics again.
I don’t know why that FBN post continues to get attention. Cablevision added it in November 2009.
As always, thank you very much for visiting. Happy 2012!