Just like a good gumbo, a memorable radio jingle has to have the just-right ingredients to make it POP! Talented musicians + a catchy tune + the magic of a kids’ chorus = a Jingle that tingles! (too much?)
Frere Jean Salt-Free Cajun Seasonings, available all throughout southeast Louisiana, and on line, visited Airlift Productions NOLA to make their products “Sing”!
Brother John Rodrigue Laying-down “Yep! ‘Dat’s ‘da One!”
Frere Jean’s owners’ grandchildren – to punch-up the message with exuberant shouts & fun giggles – Ingredient #2.
Last, but certainly not least, add the voice of co-owner and namesake front-man for the organization – Brother John Rodrigue – tagging the whole effort with his “Yep! ‘Dat’s ‘da One!” at the tail – Ingredient #3.
Mix well, add Cajun seasoning to taste… and you’ve got one fun, catchy, memorable jingle! Think “the Von Trapp Family meets Rockin Dopsie”.
Broadcast Veteran – and Actor – Micheal Ziants, plying his trade at the Airlift Studios
Oh, OK, I guess I left out one ingredient. And that would be some nondescript announcer dude doing all the stuff that would be impossible to do in a jingle – descriptive info and a definitive call to action … Airlift Mikecloses the sale.
** Airlift’s Micheal Ziants delivers the Jingle ‘donut’ pitch **
A good jingle has to capture the essence of a company, what they’re really all about. And with a product name like “Frere Jean”, we had to emphasize Cajun-French heritage along with the qualities of Family & Brotherhood!
(L-R) NBC’s “The Voice” Finalist Terry McDermott, Greg DiLeo, Micheal Ziants at Airlift Productions NOLA
“I have been recording at Airlift Productions since 2010, and I completed my album in 2012. Micheal Ziants was a pleasure to work with, and he took my creative process and turned itinto something I am proud to have on iTunes for sale. Mike was like a second musical force in the room, moving the process along until we had a finished product I was happy with and proud to play. And he always brought the most beautiful sounds out of my instruments. I have a home studio with ProTools and all the bells and whistles added on, but I can’t get the warmth and presence that he pulls out of my recordings. Kudos to Airlift.”
~ GREG DILEO, New Orleans’ “Legal-Minute” Attorney by day, Big Easy Troubadour & Recording Artist by night
The S.O.S. call came into the Airlift Productions Studiosfrom London, England just this past Tuesday… with George Washington, Lord Cornwallis’ surrender, talk of Redcoats & that Tea Party thing in Boston well in the rear view mirror.
It was Geraldine from Brainstorm in the UK looking for some help on a project for one of their major clients – Jaguar. Or as the Brits pronounce it, ‘JAG-you-are’.
Apparently a couple of Jaguar’s demo team/drivers had been in New Orleans through the past month, across the river in Avondale at NOLA Motor Sports, and a film Brainstorm was working on needed a few audio VoiceOver patches done – now!
Jaguar Driver Brett Bogart, along with his boy, Records VoiceOver at Airlift Productions NOLA
Tim Scully of California and Brett Bogart from New Hampshire showed up at Airlift Productions on Thursday afternoon for a 4:30 session to do the deed.
So, let’s see, I’m coordinating a phone-patch recording session here in NOLA with guys from California & New Hampshire, on behalf of London concerns at 4:30 in NOLA – with a director, Jeffrey, while he’s on a cell phone getting off a commuter train in London at 10:30 pm UK-time!
Gee, I’ve got a strange life, huh?
** Brett Bogart VoiceOver Work for Jaguar via Airlift Productions **
Brett’s road-worthy & road-weary Jag
The session went splendidly. Brett, Tim and I ‘crossed all the Ts and dotted all the Is’, I watched my tongue and refrained from references that might seem too “dodgy” or “cheeky”, as Airlift Productions & I delivered the goods.
The big fat Aiff files were then sent via FTP site directly into the mac computers inside the edit bays of Brainstorm within one hour of our recording just like that. Voila!
As once again Airlift & I extend goodwill and hands/headphones across the waters … from the states – ‘England, Junior’ – to our mother country. Hey, I’m all about Beatles, Stones, and Bond – James Bond.
Airlift Productions Website Traffic from London & Brainstorm
Irony was further served … as I served Tim & Brett a Dos Equis beer after the session (hey, this is New Orleans), so now we’ve got a Pennsylvania-born engineer recording New Hampshire & California boys for the Brits in the UK … toasting the session’s success – with a Mexican beer!
Only in America, huh?
Which is, of course, what that whole tiff in 1776 was all about.
New York-based Award-Winning Audio Book Producer records with Airlift Productions
“Micheal Ziants & I have worked on a number of celebrity productions together. He’s a cool head in tight spots, keeping the talent moving ahead happily. He has a wealth of experience at the controls and behind the mic, and knows what he can and can’t get — a valuable and rare sense of proportion. Working at Airlift Productions remotely via Skype or phone patch is seamless. It’s like being in the next room.”
— JOHN F. McELROY, New York based Grammy Award Winning Audio Book Producer
Yin me, Yang me. From the ridiculous to the sublime, and everything in between, it sure has been a rather interesting late summer and early fall around the Airlift Studios here in NOLA.
Airlift Mike – like the local fireman down at the firehouse – ready to take the call
As footballs fly, leaves fall, and political mud gets slung, far be it from Airlift & me to not get a little on us. And just as the time-honored Yin~Yang symbol reminds us: Every Thing contains it’s opposite! We’ll never have the concepts of Heat without Cold, Up without Down, or a Hero without a Villain.
Recording studios and VoiceOver dudes and dudesses walk the same path… especially in 2015. Welcome to my ‘Silver Linings Playbook’.
Working alongside Nathan Ales and Todd Schmidt, lately we’ve tackled some pretty attention-grabbing television, for clients as diverse as high-end furniture outlets …
** Georgian Furnishing & Berger Home Labor Day Sale, asking the question “What will the Future Look Like?” ~ Ziants/Schmidt **
… to one-stop-shopping for plumbing, lighting & generators. And with the Louisiana State University Tigers having to cancel their home-opener last weekend on account of lightning & rain for the first time in nearly a hundred years, and sending over 100, 000 home early, the boys and I were almost prescient with this one ….
** Southland Plumbing’s ‘Best Seat in the House’ TV :30 ~ voiced by Micheal Ziants, Video Wizardry by Todd Schmidt **
I just LOVE working with these characters. Nathan Ales and Igo way back to radio days at Q-93 here in NOLA, I was afternoon air personality and he was super sales dude. Todd and I met only last year, but that meeting was on the common ground where creative sparks fly and alchemy & magic live. This guy just gets it. He’ll go into the field with camera in-hand and then edit, imagineer, and cut ‘n paste masterpieces!
But as they say in the advertising field – “That’s not all!”
The Yin~Yang continues.
The call came in from Manhattan about another job slated to air in California – San Francisco, to be precise. Andy would write the copy, cast the talent (four separate actors), the agency is in Boston – are you following so far – and yours truly, sitting here in NOLA at the Airlift Productions Studios would merely be the button-pusher engineer to make it all happen.
Sixteen edits in a :30 spot? Really. Airing now in San Francisco is this goodie on behalf of the Armanino crowd…
** Armanino Radio :30, produced by Micheal Ziants at Airlift **
And to wrap-up the ‘Yin~Yang’ fall post, as the Louisiana Governor’s race looms – Trick or Treat – the call came into the ‘firehouse’ for some help with some boys (ironically, also in San Francisco) heading-up an Anti-David Vitter TV ad campaign. Oh boy, oh joy!
Could I help out recording NYC-schooled, NOLA-born ‘n bred Jamie Neumann reading the riot act?…. shouting ‘fire’ in the crowded political theater… calling, in effect, the front-runner a whore-monger?!?!
Oh, sure, why not. Sample just a taste of the phone-patched V-O session from a week and a half back, here ….
** Jamie’s ‘Anybody But Vitter’ phone-patch session excerpt **
From New Orleans, a town that pretty much invented the ‘piano player in the cat house’ thing, and where the only thing folks like spicier and hotter than their food – is their politics, why not?
Besides, as a life-long political atheist and outsider, I say, “Hey, let the best man win!”
Fall in the air, fur flying, leaves falling, mud on the tires – and the flat screens. Things just seem to get more interesting all the time around the Airlift Productions Studios. More Interesting. And hotter!
“Airlift is THE place to go for a top quality demo. With Mike behind the board you are in very capable hands. His vast knowledge and command of all things audio blends with his laid-back fun environment to bring out the best in any voice. Airlift has the experience and all the tools necessary to make a voice-over reel that is on par with anything you would find in New York or LA!”
NOAA’s Official Track of Hurricane Katrina ten years ago in that Fate-full Summer of 2005
OK, as blogs go, this one may be a bit more painful than most. And as I sit today, comfortably in the A/C, at the Airlift Productions Studios in NOLA, it’s hard to believe that as I write this, we’re a decade down the road.
Frankly, I do not have enough fingers and toes to count all the people that I know personally who lost everything – homes, cars, all the worldly possessions of a lifetime – through the aftermath of this one storm.
Folks who, like me, packed-up the car with enough clothes and necessities for a 3-day evacuation, convinced we’d be back home, snug in our own beds by Tuesday.
Mother Nature … and that Mother Katrina had other ideas.
As the ‘homes’ they returned to were buried to the rooftops in Katrina & Lake Pontchartrain’s floodwaters!
And as if ‘things’ weren’t enough to lose, I even had friends who – in fits of despair and hopelessness – chose to end their very lives.
Like I said. A blog more painful than most.
Yet, as the Ten Year Anniversary rolls around – Katrina roared into town August 29th, 2005 – it’s time for NOLA and the Nation to reflect. Reflect on where we’ve been. And where we are.
Micheal Ziants mic-side with Norman Robinson, working on ‘Storm Challenge’ for Versatile Productions & Versabar
Through the past couple weeks I’ve had the pleasure of working with Paul Atkinson, producer/videographer with Versatile Productions, who hired me to record my old pal Norman Robinson for a documentary he’s working on about the storm, the aftermath, and repairs made – to both our infrastructure … and New Orleans’ collective human spirit.
While it was good to work with Norman again, and meet Paul, at times the sheer weight of the project loomed rather heavily in the Airlift Productions Studios.
Give a LISTEN to just a bit of what went down at the Airlift Productions mics on this project, remembering Hurricane Katrina….
Norman Robinson in the Airlift Productions Studios August 2015
Through ten very painful – and yet encouraging – years of rebuilding, along with all it’s survivors, I’ve heard all the aphorisms and cliches, but the one that reverberates most true is the classic – “That which does not kill us only makes us stronger”.
If indeed that’s true, to readers of this blog from around America, come on down! Come bring your tourist dollars, appetites & senses … and feel the muscle of America’s most fascinating & resilient city ~ New Orleans, LA!
E.R.I.C. the talking skull records VoiceOver at Airlift Productions
“No recording studio I have worked with has given such personal attention toward perfecting the ‘science of sound’ than Airlift Productions in the hands of Micheal Ziants. I thank him for the many voice-overs and sound effects he produced for my syndicated television shows “MORGUS PRESENTS”! ~DR. MOMUS ALEXANDER MORGUS, aka Sidney Noel Rideau
The UK’s TOBY KEBBELL – Dr. Doom – Records V/O for Sony Corporation At Airlift Productions
When ‘Fantastic Four’ opens today down at the mall cineplex , Airlift Productions & I will be watching it quite a bit differently than most. Let me tell you why.
I almost didn’t take the call that morning because it in no way looked familiar on my caller ID. Turns out it was a ‘Louise’ calling from Tag/Europe in London. She’d found my website in a google search, and was wondering if I had the time to help her on ‘a project’.
As it turns out, Tag’s client is Sony Corporation in Japan, and they’d hand-picked TOBY KEBBELL as VoiceOver spokesperson for all their Xperia-Z tablet computer TV ad campaigns.
Fantastic-4’s TOBY KEBBELL records V/O with Airlift Mike at Airlift Productions NOLA
Now, the problem was that in the UK the letter ‘Z’ is pronounced ‘Zed’, and their entire TV campaign – now destined for the US – needed re-voiced with the Yank’s sound … Toby was in NOLA at the time, and the call came in for some HELP!
Perhaps you’ve seen Toby already in ‘War Horse’, ‘The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’,’Dawn of the Planet of the Apes’, or ‘Prince of Persia : Sands of Time’. Today, he’s cast as Victor Von Doom in Marvel’s ‘Fantastic Four’ reboot. He’s a product of Nottingamshire, England, quite studly, easy on the eyes – and the ‘birds’ in the UK are just gaga over this dude.
In any event, Toby shows up at the Airlift Studios in a rent-a-car driven by his brother that morning… relaxed, unshaven, in shorts and flip-flops – hey, it IS a voice over session after all. And via the Airlift phone-patch, we joined forces with Louise in London … and her associate/client – in Japan!
Hey, all’s well that ends well (didn’t Shakespeare say that?), the session went splendidly – Toby laid down the tracks, they were approved by all the powers-that-be, and Airlift Productions & I delivered the big fat aif files into the mac computers at the edit bays within Tag/Europe in London within minutes.
LISTEN to just one track, destined for United States TV, and how well my new pal Toby says the letter ‘Z’ right here …
** Toby Kebbell speaks for Sony Corp at the Airlift microphones **
Not bad, huh? So when Toby – as Victor Von Doom – terrorizes and spreads mayhem versus those Fantastic Four dudes down at the theater during this smoking-hot summer of 2015, at least now you know what’s going on under the hood … of Doctor Doom!
Save some popcorn for me, stay safe out there, and I’ll see y’all at the movies!
“For Voice Actors, the demo serves as a calling card and is unquestionably the most important tool in the pursuit of voice over work. Micheal Ziants and Airlift Productions produced my first VO demo and within weeks I landed my first job in the industry! Airlift’s state-of-the-art recording studio combined with Mike’s wisdom and expertise provided me with an excellent demo as well as the confidence needed to achieve success.”
— JOHN DENNEY, Founder & Lead Singer for the notorious LA-based 80s Punk Rock band THE WEIRDOS, and aspiring Voice-Over Talent
Micheal Ziants – New Orleans Voice Over Talent & Airlift Productions Studio Owner ~ 2012 promo pic
It’s kind of hard for me to get my mind around sometimes, but I recorded my very first radio commercial in late 1971 just outside Columbus, Ohio in a little town called Delaware. At WDLR radio. For, of all things – a funeral home.
Today, in 2015, just a few years later, and literally thousands of commercials later, I find myself still perfecting the craft. And at the same time marveling over the fact that while many things in the industry have changed, at the heart of the art will always be the need for attention, engagement, entertainment and imagination!
From reel-to-reel tape to mp3s, from broadcasts to podcasts, from mixing consoles to digital audio workstations – the tool kits have changed but the heart of the art remains the same.
And one of the things that I’ve relished about my now-thirty years of running Airlift Productions here in New Orleans is that many of my clients have entrusted me through the years to not only serve as the voice and producer of the commercials – but to WRITE them as well.
So, let’s play and have some fun, while at the same time, lace-up the Adidas for a jog down memory lane.
Airlift Productions Client Legends Encore
This week I got my imagination racin’ and had quite the time writing copy, assembling bites, voicing and recording yet another radio thirty to help pack the night club known as Legends Encore here in the bosom of suburbia outsideNew Orleans.
Opening with all the intensity of a movie trailer, “Wine, Women & Song-2015 style” opens with battle axes on shields, horse whinnies, and sword play … and closes with Billy Crystal from “The Princess Bride” shouting “Have fun storming the castle!” The last thought? The night club’s name.
Attention + Engagement + Entertainment + Imagination = Memorable Radio.
See, while everyone else is trying to cram way too much information, and laundry lists of prices, items, phone numbers, addresses, yada, yada, yada …. Airlift Productions captures attention, has some fun, entertains, and delivers.
For client after client. Year after year.
Now, as to the ‘jog down memory lane’ part of the blog, just a couple quickie faves from the ’90s that I still get comments about….
I loved working with Archie Manning. Yes, Peyton & Eli’s pop was a client of mine for a couple years as he and his partner Steve Smith, a body builder from Mississippi, were co-owners of Archie Manning’s Gold’s Gym on Veterans Boulevard, and I wrote, voiced and produced all their radio ads for them.
I’ll never forget Archie rolling his eyes when I came up with this one: I’d be Santa Claus and he’d be the perennial kid sitting on my knee during December in the mall telling me what he wanted for Christmas! Really.
*** Airlift Mike with Archie Manning, “Gold’s Gym”, 1992 ***
Gee, and the Saints wouldn’t even smell a Super Bowl until a couple decades + later.
Although his boys sure have seen their fair share, huh?
Yes, radio spots, in order to be effective, must prove WORTHY of the imagination of the listener. And show RESPECT for the time that they’re investing to listen.
OK, just one more.
Cajun Comic & New Orleans Voice Talent LUNO BORDELON plies his trade at Airlift Productions ~ along with some help from his pal T-Claude
One of my favorite people on planet Earth is this wacky Cajun from Lafayette, LA named Luno Bordelon. In fact, just this past Tuesday night, while in NOLA on business, he spent the night with us here in Metairie.
Well, Luno and I were tasked with building the crowds at a local Mexican restaurant named “Jalapenos”, and I came up with the idea that this was “the Mexican restaurant that even a Cajun could love”.
So, I played intrepid man-on-the-scene reporter and Luno was, well, Luno! Check out the Lu-nacy here….
*** Airlift Mike & Luno Bordelon for “Jalapenos” ***
Wow! And after all these years, 1971-2015, this is still FUN!
As a guy who fell in love with theater and the human voice as a kid, then a mad love affair with the radio and tape recorders – it’s still today almost as if people are paying me to play with my train set.
Yes, when it comes to advertising, audio – and well-constructed radio ads – will always drive the emotional train. Allow me to be your engineer. All aboard! 🙂
“I have worked with Michael on a free lance basis for years. I continue to be amazed at his technical genius and amazing voice. His ability to make the average sound spectacular never ceases to amaze me! I have worked with Mike on a variety of projects, and he gets it done right the first time, every time! It is ‘one stop shopping’ for first rate results!”
*** Millie Stouse Fuselier, New Orleans Queen of VoiceOver ***
Walt Handelsman’s fun take on the whole Bill Cosby tragedy – courtesy the New Orleans Advocate
It’s long been said that the squeaky wheel will always get the grease. You also used to hear in those prehistoric days before the internet and digital, when the Sunday comics really hit home on an issue – “Hey, I’ll see ya in the funny papers!”
I’m reminded of these two thoughts every time I check out the New Orleans Advocate newspaper in print or online, because they’re fortunate enough to have corralled the outrageously and wickedly talented WALT HANDELSMAN.
The art of editorial cartooning has always fascinated me with it’s power, reach and stunning clarity. With it’s unique ability to cut through the bullshit and take us to the heart of a matter or issue – with humor.
Walt’s inspired take on the poker-hot issues of the legacy of Dixie, the flag, and N’awlins own Lee Circle on Saint Charles Avenue
Walt is simply the best-of-the-best in the editorial cartooning field! Accomplished, eerily insightful, and always entertaining, this two-time Pulitzer Prize winning genius plies his trade daily to the delight of New Orleans readers in need of a hearty laugh in hard times.
Walt Handelsman caricature of that Mike McCann (Ziants) guy on an old Airlift Productions note pad – 1994
He was launching an effort to promote his convention outreach program wherein he would stand in front of a convention crowd with an overhead projector and actually interact with the conventioneers and draw cartoons for them LIVE – along with their input.
Yours truly, Airlift Mike, was selected to help tell the tale.
Contracted by Lenny Delbert of Pan Am Communications, I worked with Walt across a remarkable afternoon to narrate his promotional video to help get this idea across to potential New Orleans convention meeting planners. The word “fun” hardly captured the whole experience.
In fact, enough with the introductions, MEET the inimitable genius of Walt Handelsman here ….
Squeaky wheels? Funny papers? Howzabout one more line?
It has been said that the pen is mightier than the sword. Yeah, I know, I get that. But this dude has raised it to an art form.
And, yes, even – and especially – Walt would appreciate the pun. 🙂
It occurs to me that my last several blogs have dealt with Life’s Rear View mirror (history), so let’s pump the brakes just a second and re-enter the 21st century – in fact, a poker-hot July at the Airlift Productions Studios in NOLA.
From the days of the Mad Men in the ’60s to today, let’s face it, SEX sells! Folks will part with their last dollar to find it, thrill to it, and hang on to it. The magic allure of sex is a well that the Madison Avenue crowd will always draw from. Always. And in all ways.
I was reminded of this just this past Wednesday as the phone rang from Madison Avenue in NYC looking for some help on a project for Yves Saint Laurent. The boys were curious if I could find some time to record an actor while he was filming for HBO in New Orleans.
Ah-h, sure, let me check my schedule.
So, in the middle of cranking out some new night club commercials (also involving sex and the search for same), I agreed to record Edoardo Ballerini on behalf of Yves Saint Laurent for Moritz & Company in Manhattan.
NYC-based Film/TV actor Edoardo Ballerini records VoiceOver for Yves Saint Laurent at Airlift Productions NOLA
Check this dude out. Perhaps you’ve already witnessed Edoardo’s talents on the Sopranos or Boardwalk Empire on HBO. It was further work with the Home Box Office crowd that brought him to NOLA. His new show, coming soon, is called “Quarry”.
What a stud. Edoardo blew through the Airlift Studio doors yesterday afternoon with all the swag of Johnny Depp … only with more talent! His zen-like, laser-focused mic techniques – honed through his recording of over one hundred audio books – were most impressive. Listen here to just a bit of this week’s magic captured by the Airlift Productions mics …
** Edoardo Ballerini talks for Yves Saint Laurent, 7-16-15 **
Ballerini on-camera playing shoot-em-up
This guy’s skill set is just off the charts. Not only is he bilingual, fluent in Italian as well, but he studied Latin while on a scholarship – in Rome. And his relaxed and self-assured looks allow him to fit into any era on film. And play good guy or bad – with style.
In fact, as we discussed his life yesterday after our session, while he banged on my guitar in the Airlift Studios Green Room, I felt somewhat envious. Edoardo jets between NYC and NOLA, playing out the lives of fascinating folks on sets and sound stages …. while yours truly makes a living from the solitude of a dimly-lit, tricked-out digital cave.
Airlift Productions, New Orleans
But it’s funny, ya know, the Great Spirit has kept things in such perfect balance that one cannot lose one thing without gaining another. One door may close, but a window will open.
And a fine digital cave it is. And I have my privacy. And flying is for the birds. And the inquisitive fingers of prying TSA agents.
Which brings us back to sex.
And it continues to sell – well at Airlift Productions.
** A couple recent radio thirties for the gang at Legends Encore from Airlift Mike & the Airlift Productions Studios **
“It has been my pleasure to collaborate with Mike at Airlift on a variety of projects from sound effects for museum films, to narration for corporate and commercial work, to high end deeply layered radio spots. In every case, he has maintained the highest standards of production that equal anything produced in New York or LA. He is dedicated, tireless, dependable and truly enjoys his work to the point of making the process actually fun. I would not hesitate to recommend his services to my colleagues or anyone seeking a totally professional sound track.” ~ DALE ANTHONY SMITH, Designer/Producer at Multi-Media Corporation, NOLA
Sidney Noel Rideau Records VoiceOvers and More at Airlift Productions New Orleans
As a close personal friend to the New Orleans & Late Night TV Icon Morgus the Magnificent and extremely gifted spirit Sidney Noel Rideau, it is with a heavy heart on this July morning that I pen this one.
Like most guy friendships, we can go months at a time without a chat and then pick right up where we left off, with a lunch or a recording session. So, in an entirely unrelated matter, I got Sid on the phone just yesterday only to find out that just months ago he had lost the one true love of his life – Donia.
While we had spoken often of her through the years, I only knew of her through her answering the phone or in the background during our many phone conversations between NOLA and the north shore of the lake.
Sid & Aldona met innocently enough in New York City back in the early ’60s while he was the struggling actor & radio dude and she was an interpreter at the United Nations. Really.
Their 52-year marriage included two beautiful children and a mutual love for the theater, the arts … and words. Oh, how they loved ‘words’.
Sidney’s wife of 52 blessed years Donia
It was ‘words’ that carried the lovely Aldona through Poland, England, Pakistan & Switzerland, all before even having met Sidney in New York. Catch up with just a bit of this woman’s spirit in her online obituary here Aldona Nalecz-Tyminska Rideau.
Sid’s beloved and adored Aldona served all through those turbulent & chaotic Morgus years as not only his silent partner … but as the wind beneath his wings.
Now, all this having been said, Sid would just kick my ass if he even knew that I was writing these words. Of all the people I’ve ever met in show business, radio or the theater – Sidney Noel Rideau would have to be the most personally private of all. Truly. He fiercely defends his privacy.
So, to the reader of these words, a simple request. For prayers. For the spirit of his beloved bride. For healing. And maybe one of thanks – for all the years of enjoyment & fun his on-air exploits have given generations of late night horror movie fanatics around America. And now, prayers for the woman who helped to inspire it all.
May God indeed bless you, Uncle Sid, and your lovely Donia.
“Don’t stand at my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep.
I am the thousand winds that blow….
I am the diamond glints of the winter snow…
I am the sunlight that ripens grain…
I am the gentle autumn rain.
Don’t stand at my grave and cry. I am not there. I did not die.”
Charlie Ziants – in a pic he sent home from Europe to his sweetie Phyllis – trying to look all macho and all that. I’d say, for only 21, he pulled it off.
So, what does a baby computer call its Father?!? Ri-i-i-ght. He calls it ‘Data’!
You know, a lot of truth is captured in this cutesy, pun-ny Father’s Day joke for the 21st century.
Everything that you – the reader of these very words – and I are … is the end result of that one split second of conception, when that sperm hit that egg, the DNA, the ‘data’ in your ‘Da-Da’!
Your eye color, the cut of your chin, your height, your default weight, your ability to process a thought, your IQ, your eye-to-hand coordination when you hit or throw a ball – is all predestined and pre-configured in a rather remarkable instant of the sharing of the ‘baby batter’.
Oh sure, mom had a hand in it, so to speak, but after all, this is Father’s Day weekend 2015, so let’s go there.
Charlie & Phyllis Ziants – Snowbirds awol from Ohio – Gulfport, MS, 1992
Meet mine. Charlie Ziants was sure a character. ‘Good time Charlie’ to the gang around the golf course or bowling alley, ‘Mr. Ziants’ to many around the power plant, ‘Chuck’ to his wife Phyllis of 40+ years … and ‘Sir’ or ‘Pop’ to my brothers and me.
Charlie Ziants quietly celebrating a rather good day on the golf course with his mates, Beaver Falls, PA, 1971
Courageous (a WW II & Korea Vet); Brilliant (Ohio State Grad & accomplished engineer); Trustworthy (raised five kids); Resilient (never without a job or paycheck); Loving (a pat on the head or kick in the pants when needed); Gregarious & Fun (always there with a joke, laugh & cold drink ); Supportive (a treasure trove of sage advice & counsel); Athletic (a true Bowling & Golf Ace); Musical (you should’ve heard him on piano or accordion)… and with a Voice and a Laugh that could really grab attention!
Rumi, the Persian mystic & poet once wrote, “When you are dead, seek for your final resting place … not in the dirt … but in the hearts of men.” Charlie even pulled this feat off too.
Pop, God Bless you, sir! Thank you for your service, both on foreign shores in the U.S. Army … and on these shores raising the tribe of Ziants.
And thank you – especially – for the Da-Da data!
My Pop Charles Edwin Ziants at his favorite place, the beach, enjoying his last year, 1995
