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Instrumental Invasion, 2/8/23: Three-of-a-Kind Showcases February 9, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Game Shows, Health, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, TV.
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The February 8 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded in December 2022: two segments on December 20 and four (plus pickups) on the 21st.

The playlist was created on December 13 after realizing I’d be too sick to record anything that week. (Read about my flu experience in last week’s post.) Annotations for this show and next week’s milestone 150th show were written on the 14th and 16th with this week’s talk break script drafted on the 18th. I went 61 seconds over in the first segment and spent the rest of the show compensating. I did so at the expense of some extra information.

As noted during the show, the Three-of-a-Kind Showcase was a staple of The Mike Chimeri Show with each hour having a set of three songs in chronological order by an artist or group. I only had one hour to work with on the original The Instrumental Invasion, so there was only one showcase per week. The “showcase” part came from my love of The Price is Right, and I eventually introduced them by saying “[artist/group], this is your showcase.” Music cues I found on this YouTube channel, and saved as WAV files, meant I could introduce the six showcases in this show with showcase cues (and the main theme) from the Bob Barker era. I closed with Bob’s original “…saying goodbye, everybody” sign-off. (The spay/neuter version was implied.)

Eight songs made their second appearance, listed by artist/group (original date in parentheses)

That last one was also part of my live October 14 show (Homecoming Weekend).

For reference, these are the music cues used in order of appearance:

And I made another jingle hybrid, tacking the “ding” sound onto the end of the WCWP jingle:

Click here to download the scoped aircheck or listen below:

Next week, 150!

Instrumental Invasion, 2/1/23 February 2, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Film, Health, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Pop, Radio, Rock, TV, Video Games.
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The February 1 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the second consecutive show recorded in one day. This time, I did so out of necessity. More on that below.

The playlist was created on December 9, 2022, allowing me to focus on Festival of Games, then on the aftermath of cataloging pickups, editing photos, and drafting the recap. Playlist annotations came on December 12 with the talk break script drafted on the 15th.

Scroll to the bottom for the scoped aircheck (and a partial one for The Rock Show) if you don’t want to read the next five paragraphs.

I began to feel run down on the afternoon of December 11. I chalked it up to lack of sleep the night before from a mere two Snickers bars and excitement over the 42 video games I bought from Festival of Games vendors (including Pete Dorr!). I still felt run down on the 12th and by that evening, I couldn’t unclog my left ear. It seemed like deja vu from June (see August 17, 2022, recap) where I felt run down and stuffy with clogged ears, but twice tested negative for COVID. I went to my primary care physician on the 13th expecting a quick diagnosis of fluid in the ears, a prescription for Z-Pack antibiotics, and to use more of the nasal spray that I was prescribed in June. I was incredibly naive. Understaffing left me waiting around 40 minutes to be called in, then another half hour after my COVID/flu test (negative for one, pending for the other). And before I left for primary care, I developed nausea and lost my appetite. So, I only had one bite of my protein bar. My appetite returned after the examination, but following dinner at home in the evening, fever, aches, and chills set in. What had been a tickle in my throat in the morning became a strong cough. Come morning on the 14th, I was lethargic. I lacked the will to get out of bed, and had no appetite for breakfast at my usual time. I forced myself out of bed for breakfast at 8:30, and spent the rest of the day lying in bed or sitting up at my computer. Whatever I had, only knowing it wasn’t COVID, I figured symptoms would start to diminish 24 hours after starting the antibiotics.

It was at my computer the day before (December 13) where my radio show production plans shifted. With annotations complete, I created the playlist for next week’s show. This day (the 14th) would be for creating show 150’s playlist, starting annotations on both shows, and stopping work by mid-afternoon. While drafting the Festival of Games recap on the 15th, a nurse at my primary care called to let me know I tested positive for the flu! That’s what I had! As far as I know, this was my first bout with the flu in nearly 29 years – a memorably stronger bout in mid-January 1994. Maybe I had it in June 2022, as well. It’s a good thing I started getting an annual flu shot in October 2020. Otherwise, my symptoms would have been as bad as ’94. I finished show 149 and 150 annotations on December 16.

My voice was close to normal by the 17th, allowing me to finally record and produce a spot for WCWP’s CBB (community bulletin board/calendar), included in the December 21 show post. I drafted the script for this week’s show earlier that day and for next week on the 18th. Repeating what I said in the lead paragraph, I recorded the entire show on the 19th. No pickups were required on the 20th. (By the way, I’d resumed exercising on the 18th when only an occasional cough remained. I resumed treadmill running on the 22nd. And I took my last dose of cough medicine on Christmas Eve morning, the end of the 10-day dosage period.)

This week’s extra segment was 1985-95, allowing me a chance to play Dan Siegel‘s “Northern Nights” – first played on July 8, 2020 – after “Northern Lights” by The Rippingtons. I chose a cut from Peter White‘s Promenade so I could acknowledge learning the pronunciation of John Mahon‘s last name. As noted on the air, I learned from my mistake while watching the Disney+ livestream of Elton John‘s final U.S. concert, during his Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour.

My use of the phrase “exactly what it says on the tin” was an homage to the TV Tropes entry.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

Hour 2 was recorded from the guest room computer. I noticed that Mike Riccio was hosting a countdown edition of The Rock Show and wanted to aircheck that before my show on my computer. Unfortunately, I botched the timer recording in Audacity, which was set to stop just as hour 2’s legal ID ran. The January 11 aircheck was entirely from the guest room computer because I forgot to click OK on the last prompt when setting up the timer recording on mine. I changed the settings so that last prompt no longer comes up.

Here is Mike Riccio’s Grammy winners-themed Rock Show joined in progress:

I had to leave in “Theme from A Summer Place” (at the 19:32 mark), especially since I watched Max Steiner: Maestro of Movie Music on HBO Max earlier this week.

Instrumental Invasion, 1/25/23 January 26, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Rockabilly.
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The January 25 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third one-day record in four calendar weeks, done entirely on December 7, 2022. Pickups and remixing were done on December 8 with an additional pickup on the 19th.

The playlist was created on December 4 with annotations on the 4th and 5th, and the talk break script drafted on the 6th.

You never know who you’ll meet through ride-sharing. Thank you, Bobcat, for introducing me to your music on my ride home December 1.

It didn’t occur to me until drafting the script that I had crafted a travel and music touring themed playlist.

This week had an extra 1996-2006 segment.

“Turkish” by Rick Braun was first played on April 20, 2022. “No Two Ways About It” by Jeff Golub and “Malibu Dreams” by Kenny G are the latest pair of songs I’ve played after hearing them on Watercolors. That’s where I heard Randal Clark‘s “Missing You,” leading me to play the original “Daddy’s Gonna Miss You” by Yellowjackets. I learned while annotating that Randal’s version was personally reworked and retitled by Jimmy Haslip, and Jimmy reprised his bass on it. “Missing You” appears on Randal’s Stargazer album. I bought a CD copy, which means you’ll be hearing plenty of him in the weeks ahead, starting with “Missing You.”

It was about time I clarified the use of Ryan Grabow‘s “ripping good time” liner coming in or out of “Santa Fe Trail” by The Rippingtons, lest listeners think he was in the band. I had Cousin Bruce Morrow on my mind when I added the “cousin” prefix to trombonist Bruce Fowler on that song.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

Instrumental Invasion, 1/18/23 January 19, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Biking, Film, Food, History, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, Personal, Radio, Sports, TV, Video.
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The January 18 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded from December 1 to 3, 2022: the first segment on the 1st, the next three on the 2nd, and last two on the 3rd along with remixing and pickups.

The playlist was created on November 27 with annotations on 29th and 30th. The talk break script was drafted November 30 and December 1.

This week, the extra 2017-present segment was swapped for an extra 1985-95 segment. The last four segments only had two talk breaks each. The first two of hour 2 were made up of three songs in a row (a triple shot).

“Off the Top” by Kim Scott was originally played last April 6.

Since I brought it up after playing Wes Montgomery’s cover of “Windy,” I would have liked to attend the Dancing with the Stars Live tour stop at the Tilles Center last Tuesday, but the show was sold out when I looked for tickets and they were only available marked up through resellers on Ticketmaster. Oh, well. By the way, my “everyone knows it’s Instrumental Invasion” line going into “Windy” referenced a lyric in the song.

I included “Automat” by Yellowjackets after having seen a documentary on the titular fast food restaurants popularized by Horn & Hardart.

Here is a composite of CBS Sports’ coverage of the 1988 Tour de France, complete with John Tesh‘s music:

While skimming through the video, I thought John himself covered parts of the race, but the voice I heard (and face I saw) was Tim Brant.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

1:50 PM UPDATE: This is another of those shows where I don’t notice mistakes or oversights until after the show airs. Bob Mintzer played tenor and soprano sax on “Automat.” The phrase trumpeter Igmar Thomas borrowed on “Blues Vagabond” by Lisa Hilton was from “Killer Joe,” which Quincy Jones covered on Walking in Space. The song was originally written and performed by Benny Golson for The Jazztet‘s Meet the Jazztet record. “Chicken Joe” was by pianist Joe McBride.

I also missed a community calendar spot I recorded on Monday that ran during the last break:

The music bed is “Working Girl March #2 (Film Cue)” by Dave Grusin from the Tootsie soundtrack.

4:05 PM UPDATE: Oh, and this is the PAMS jingle I referenced going into “Wherever You Go” by Brian Simpson:

I clipped from part 2 of Jon Wolfert’s The History of the Musicradio WABC Jingles.

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.
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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:

Instrumental Invasion, 1/4/23 January 4, 2023

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, DVD, History, Internet, Jazz, Laserdisc, Media, Music, New Age, New Year, Personal, Radio, TV, VHS, Video, Video Games, Weather.
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The January 4 edition of Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the first show of 2023 and the second show in the last three to be recorded and mixed in one day. Fittingly, that one day was the 23rd of November, 2022, and thankfully, recording talk breaks wasn’t as physically taxing as the Christmas show.

The playlist was created on November 20, with annotations starting on the 21st and continuing into the 22nd, followed by the talk break script draft. As you can see, I went way over with the first segment and spent the rest of the show compensating. Ironically, I had to make that first segment even longer due to a surplus after principal recording.

“Just Like That” by Dan Siegel was first played on October 14, 2020, but I included it again as a prelude to Ken Navarro‘s “Just Like That.”

The video version of True North was on LaserDisc and VHS, then reissued on DVD in 1998. I bought a DVD copy for posterity, but haven’t watched it yet. “Whispers of Light” by James Reynolds was the latest in a long line of Weather Channel local forecast staples, as demonstrated here.

Not only did I play Mario Kart 64 back in the day, but I received the official soundtrack on CD for free through my Nintendo Power magazine subscription. I led off the January 25, 2002, edition of The Mike Chimeri Show with the game’s title screen cue, proclaiming I was back for another semester.

Norman Caruso, The Gaming Historian, chronicled the story of Super Mario Kart, the N64 game’s predecessor, in a video last month:

I ended the show with “Kukuc (koo-kooch) 2020″ the first track on drummer John Favicchia‘s new compilation CD Tangible. It coincided with the debut of a liner I had Fav record for the show. I neglected to tell him how to pronounce my last name, so I took the “sh” sound from Tom Schuman‘s liner and slowed down the “im” part. Here’s the end result:

And here are recaps of the last nine Dharma gigs I attended:

July 24, 2008

September 7, 2008 (preceded by Alan Bates)

June 4, 2009

July 30, 2009

April 8, 2010

August 19, 2010

September 14, 2011

January 16, 2015

June 24, 2016

Next week’s show recap will have photos from the first gig I attended on July 13, 2005.

For now, click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

Bonus: the “Kukuc 2020” video:

Instrumental Invasion, 12/28/22 December 29, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Christmas, Computer, Football, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, New Age, New Year, News, Personal, Radio, Sports, TV, Video, Video Games, Weather.
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The December 28 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was recorded one hour per day on November 17, my 41st birthday, and 18, followed by pickups and remixing. An additional pickup was recorded on the 19th.

The playlist was the third of three created between November 7 and 9. I created it solely on November 9, started annotating on the 9th and finished on the 12th, with the talk break script drafted on the 15th and 16th.

For the second year in a row, I played Christmas-adjacent songs the week after the Christmas show. “December Dream” by Fourplay was originally in mind for last week, but I replaced it to allow for a longer third song in its intended segment.

For the second show in a row, I played two versions of the same song, ending each hour with “Auld Lang Syne“; first by Kenny G, then by Jessy J. Yes, I know J is technically not her last initial, but for poetic license, it was in this show.

All of the last three shows have had segment gaps filled by songs less than three minutes long. And speaking of last initials, I searched my blazers for a suitable (no pun intended) nickname to go with “Armani B” by Brian Simpson. Jos. A. Bank made the most sense; ergo, “Joseph A. Bank M.” By the way, I bought a CD copy of Closer Still just before publishing this post.

“Busta Move” by Julian Vaughn was originally played on August 17.

I’m still not finished listening to my iTunes Christmas music playlist, which I’ve been listening to incrementally since early November. I got through big portions of it during a Christmas Eve party and then on Christmas Day at home, but there were over a hundred songs left. I’ll update this paragraph once I finish. 1/2/23 UPDATE: I finished this morning.

Mid-November Mike (another nickname) could not have foreseen a historic winter storm, an explosive cyclogenesis (“bomb cyclone” in media hype lingo), when he included “Black Frost” by Grover Washington, Jr. to fill out the first segment. Crazy as the storm and aftermath were here on Long Island – southwest winds ushering in cold air?! – it was much worse elsewhere, particularly in Buffalo! Here, temperatures plummeted from the mid 50s (Fahrenheit) to the single digits! That meant there was black frost ice on the roads, and patches of ice on the sidewalks, from floodwaters brought on by rain and coastal flooding. I haven’t talked to Ryan “A Ripping Good Time” Grabow since the storm, but I know from its Wikipedia entry (first link) that Central Florida – where he lives and works for the Orlando Fox affiliate – had a period of sleet and snow flurries in on Christmas morning! (Okay, enough exclamations.) Christmas also marked record cold highs for Fort Lauderdale and Miami: 49° and 50°F, respectively. Reading that took me back to similarly cold Christmastimes in 1989 and ’90 in Crystal Beach, Florida, in the Tampa Bay area; not to mention how cold it was outside LaGuardia Airport before flying to Tampa in ’90. Maybe weather conditions are cyclical.

I’m further reminded of a video I watched on YouTube five years ago that exemplified the cold Christmastime in ’89: the start of NBC Sports coverage of the Miami Dolphins’ Christmas Eve regular season finale against the Kansas City Chiefs at then-Joe Robbie Stadium in not-yet-incorporated Miami Gardens. As you’ll see in the video below, the game time temperature was 39° with gusty northwest winds. No wonder it was dubbed The Miami Ice Bowl.

Yes, that was “Carol of the Bells” by Mannheim Steamroller (from A Fresh Aire Christmas); yes, that was Charles McCord announcing (“NBC Sports presents…”); and yes, John Tesh‘s “Gridiron Dreams” was the NFL on NBC theme song.

Anyway, click here to download the last scoped Instrumental Invasion aircheck of 2022, or listen below:

See you in 2023!

Smooth Jazz for Scholars 2023 (20th anniversary!) dates/lineup December 22, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Uncategorized.
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Last Wednesday, keyboardist Jay Rowe officially announced the dates, lineup, tickets for his 2023 Smooth Jazz for Scholars. Celebrating its 20th anniversary, this two-night event in Jay’s hometown of Milford, Connecticut, benefits the city public schools’ music department. I’ve been on hand for all but one show since 2007.

Here was Jay’s official announcement:

JJ Sansaverino is making his debut at Scholars, but the other seven headliners have been here before. It will be Ken Navarro‘s first time back since 2011 and Kim Waters‘ first appearance since 2014’s first night.

Repeating the information about the 20th anniversary of Smooth Jazz for Scholars:

Friday, April 28
Chieli Minucci
Ken Navarro
Nelson Rangell
Marion Meadows

Saturday, April 29
Jessy J
Paul Taylor
Kim Waters
JJ Sansaverino

Location:
Veterans Memorial Auditorium in the Parsons Government Center
70 W. River St.
Milford, CT 06460

Tickets: $50 for one night, $85 for both nights

General admission tickets can be bought through Eventbrite, but reserved seating must be ordered by writing a check to:
Jay Rowe
P.O. Box 3723
Milford, CT 06460

I’ll end this post with recaps of the first night and second night in 2022.

5/18/23 UPDATE: Here are recaps for this year’s first night and second night.

Instrumental Invasion, 12/21/22: Christmas December 22, 2022

Posted by Mike C. in Airchecks, Audio, Christmas, Film, Internet, Jazz, Media, Music, New Age, Personal, Radio.
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The December 21 Instrumental Invasion on WCWP was the third annual Christmas special. All segments were recorded on November 16, the eve of my 41st birthday, making this the first show recorded in one day since November 2 (September 19). Pickups were recorded on Thanksgiving, November 24.

This show’s playlist was the second of three between I made November 7 and 9. It was created November 7th and 8th, annotated on the 9th and 11th, and the talk break script was drafted on the 14th and 15th.

Principal recording was a pain in the sleigh bells. I struggled with every segment’s second and third talk break. It was a Christmas miracle when I reached the end. I used up the entire 58-second surplus accrued in the first hour. That meant I had to tightly edit the second hour talk breaks, run short liners, and start some songs as beds, including the last song.

Click here to download this week’s scoped aircheck or listen below:

Not included in the scope was a new community calendar I voiced and produced on Saturday (as I was getting over the flu):

The music bed is Vivaldi‘s “Winter – Concerto In F Minor, RV 297 Op.8, No.4, II. Largo” performed by violinist Gil Shaham and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra. I received Shaham’s Four Seasons CD (with CD-ROM bonus material) for Hanukkah in 1995 after falling in love with excerpts throughout the year during local forecasts on The Weather Channel. I played “Winter I (Allegro non molto)” on my second Wednesday show ever, April 8, 2020.

And here is hip harpist Deborah Henson-Conant’s website, referenced after playing “We Three Kings of Orient Are.”

Merry Christmas.

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.
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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:

Sure enough, it’s Pete Dorr! I would definitely return to his table.

The board game section:

One of the photos taken here was posted to the museum’s Facebook page.

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.

I assume the title says “we have” instead “we’ve had” because the misattribution is more popular.
Coincidentally, the next day (Sunday) marked the 50th anniversary of the final Apollo mission‘s lunar landing. Their final EVA on the moon occurred 50 years ago Tuesday. Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean 50 years ago next Monday (December 19).
Then, I turned my attention to commercial aircraft and airports.
“Long Islanders see more commercial air traffic than any other people on Earth. How many of these planes can you name?”

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:

PC games…
The holiday games section, starting with a dancing R.O.B. quartet…
The middle TV shows the 1996 TV special Sonic’s Christmas Blast.
You may recognize the name Howard Phillips in the credits for Home Alone 2 on the Super Nintendo. It was a LucasArts game released shortly after Howard left Nintendo for LucasArts.
Arcade games…
A pinball machine

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.

As I stood in the lot, I photographed all my bagged pickups. (I put Pete’s games and ones from the second vendor in my backpack.)

Back at home, I spent nearly two hours photographing my pickups, removing price stickers, and cataloging the games.

Pete Dorr’s games are on the left, the ones from the second vendor are on the right.

Now, photos of all pickups by console, starting with Family Computer (Famicom):

Super Famicom:

Nintendo Entertainment System:

Yes, I passed on Deadly Towers again.

Super Nintendo:

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):

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.