Perhaps it’s because it’s what brought us all here to the planet – the “horizontal hokey-pokey”, the “old in/out, in/out”, the “mattress mambo” – that SEX hangs us all up the most.
And intrigues us the most. And sells … everything from beer to burgers, cars to movies. Just ask E. L. James.
Yes, 2015 has been very good to old E. L. and her 50 Shades Phenomenon. And to the gang at Airlift Productions as well.
New Orleans Voice Talent & All-around Audio Dude Micheal Ziants, Airlift Mike
So, as we wrap-up the old and prepare to unwrap the new (year), here at the Airlift Studios we’re, ah… well, unwrapping a few things too. Metaphorically speaking of course.
I’ve had quite the reaction from this audio file through the past months from both women and men, and after many requests to re-post it, I figured what the heck – let’s exit 2015 with a “bang”!
Or at least the prelude.
Unlike so many ofAirlift’s Productions, this one is raw. Naked. No music. No sound effects. No reverberation. Nothing. Except the human voice. Softly cooing into the human ear.
Airlift Productions Proprietor Micheal Ziants, in a photo shoot for Q-93/WQUE-FM back in the day, to promote that afternoon M&M Mike McCann
While the reaction from the movie version was mixed at best, this audio book sample has been rather warmly received. OMG. Plug in the ear buds and send the kids out of the room.
Its Airlift Mike’s rendition of a couple sassy & seductive pages from E. L. James’ “Fifty Shades of Grey”.
Oh. My.
So, as we exit the old year with a bang tonight, so to speak, and with tongue firmly in cheek, allow the Airlift krewe and me to wish you & yours a most fulfilling, scintillating, and titillating 2016!
“Micheal is an amazing talent. We were faced with several issues on a recent project and he was incredibly proactive in finding the perfect solution. He worked tirelessly and at lightning speed to create music that not only made our client happy but also garnered industry recognition.” ~ Charlyne Fabi, Creative Director, Right Hat LLC, Chicago, Illinois
As I pause to reflect on this Christmas Eve 2015, I am ever so thankful to have been blessed to live this most authentic life in this most authentic city… in the most interesting of times.
While way too many today commute to jobs they really don’t like, working at hours and tasks they really don’t care for, I’ve been fortunate to spend every single day of my life through the past thirty years living between the arts and the sciences. In New Orleans, Louisiana!
Music, Theater, Radio, Television and high-end, state-of-the-art technology all collide at hyper speed in the land of my dreams at Airlift Productions in NOLA.
Let’s start with music. Jake Landry, front man for the Right Lane Bandits, is one gifted spirit, I’ll tell you. He’s a cross between Jason Mraz and John Mayer, with some crooner Michael Buble’ thrown into the mix.
Together with his running partner Paul Piazza on backup vocals and harp/harmonica, Jake paid a visit to Airlift Productions just this past Saturday to lay-down tracks for one of his originals – “Playing You”.
Oh, these women.
*** Jake Landry & Paul Piazza “PLAYING YOU” December 2015 ***
They want to come back with the rest of the boys to beef it up a bit with bass, drums and keyboards, but even at this level, the musicianship, style, and talent are just off the hook, dontchathink?
Meanwhile, Christmastime trolls the internet.
Betsy, Taylor & Tyler cozy-up to the Airlift Studio mics for a Holiday Classic
Playing-off the original “Deck the Halls” tune, and inserting a few terrifically fun and funny interruptions accented by sleigh bells, I recorded this new holiday classic with a trio of very talented professors from our Loyola University here in New Orleans. Now playing at an internet near you.
And as if music weren’t enough, I get to warm-up the mics for myself as well. Gee, you can take the guy out of the radio… but you can’t take the radio out of the guy!
Mike Church putting in another day at the office on the VERITAS Network …. with some help from Airlift Mike
My relationship with the famous (or infamous, depending on how you choose to view him) Mike Church continues. Mike, of course, is known around the planet for having had the longest-running show in the history of Sirius/XM satellite radio, and has just recently launched his own network and channel.
Yours truly has been tagged to set the pace for the Crusade!
As Imaging Voice & Producer for Mike’s VERITAS Network and the Crusade Channel, I get to throw pop culture (?), movies, television and news makers into the audio Cuisinart – and hit the blend button!
** The King Dude’s ‘Blazing Saddles’ homage re-joiner **
Or imagine, if you can, mixing former Ambassador John Bolton with Homer Simpson — and adding Gregorian chants?
** Mike Church Imaging for the Crusade On Veritas **
My, my, my… this “Wonderful Life” of mine is certainly never boring.
And always a challenge. But forever a gift!
Airlift Mike working the Children’s Hospital Telethon in NOLA on WDSU-TV
To have found this most unique way to take all the skills and talents that I was born with – and then blend them into my own business and have it all play out from this most fascinating city is, to my way of seeing it, the most authentic way to live a life.
And it is my fervent Christmas & New Year’s wish and prayer for the reader of these words that, if you haven’t yet, you somehow find yours!
Merry Christmas! And here’s to Living YOUR Dream in 2016.
“My experience with Airlift Productions was top notch from the start. My company is based in Los Angeles and I had a client that needed to do a last minute VO session in New Orleans. Micheal was incredibly knowledgeable and accommodating, not to mention a blast to work with! Our session turned out beautifully.” ~ LIZZ RANTZE, Executive Producer, Rantze + Raves Productions, Los Angeles, CA
Chalked Memorial to the Sandy Hook Elementary boys & girls of Newtown
How sadly ironic that in the very week we commemorate the third year anniversary of the tragic heartrending loss at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown … that we hear just this morning of the closing of all schools in the Los Angeles school district due to a “credible threat” of intended harm to it’s students.
Amid all the Christmas decorations and office parties, Nativity scenes and holiday joy – must America now in 2015 add the word ‘terror’?
And whether the threat in LA came from within or from without these shores, the question on many lips this Christmas is this … has America lost its soul?
Or is this, perhaps, how we go about collectively regaining it?
From Newtown to San Bernardino; from Charleston to Aurora; are these gun-control issues or people-control issues … or maybe, just maybe, SOUL-control issues?
If, as the great soul Emerson so eloquently reminded us, “The ancestor to every action is a thought”, what are you thinking about?
Every thing here in the physical plane began as a thought. Every building, every bridge, every novel, every relationship … indeed every child begins with a thought.
The bright young souls lost in Newtown, CT three years ago this week, on 12-14-12
Every single child slain at Sandy Hook Elementary three years ago this week began, as the expression goes, as “a gleam in the old man’s eye”.
So, if you’re reading these words, nodding your head in agreement – GUARD your thoughts, POLICE your own actions, CHANGE the negative pictures! If you, the reader of these words, is not in charge of your own thoughts, I’d like to respectfully ask you – who IS?
In the end, none of us is able to change the cards we are dealt in life. Our only choice in the matter is how we play the hand. Play wisely.
Our fitting tribute to the victims of not only Newtown, but San Bernardino, Charleston, Aurora, Tucson, and a frighteningly-long list is this …
As Gandhi himself so succinctly phrased it – “BE the change you wish to see in the world”. And IncreaseThePeace.
“Christmas Eve in Newtown” ~ with thoughts gathered from the internet, music from Danny Elfman, produced and narrated by Airlift Productions’ Micheal Ziants
~ Christmas Eve in Newtown, recorded 12-24-12 @ Airlift ~
“Micheal is an amazing talent. We were faced with several issues on a recent project and he was incredibly proactive in finding the perfect solution. He worked tirelessly and at lightning speed to create music that not only made our client happy but also garnered industry recognition.” ~ Charlyne Fabi, Creative Director, Right Hat LLC, Chicago, Illinois
