About 6 weeks ago, I was introduced to Lanny West through Eileen Tilson (of Just West Entertainment). Lanny had recently closed a retail store on the west side of Atlanta, but since he was still on the lease for awhile, was looking for interesting business ventures for the space. He had previously heard from friends that the space might make a good photo studio, so Eileen hooked us up to discuss the possibilities. A few weeks later, and a few business plan interations later, Studio 1*FIVE*0 was born!

The three of us partnered together, and we converted the space into "Studio 1*FIVE*0". We attacked the space in phases. First we emptied the space of it's past contents. Then we hired a contractor to build us a coved cyclorama wall, which turned out beautifully! We painted, cleaned, rearranged, etc. Within a few weeks we had the space ready for our opening party which took place on Feb 28th. I can't tell you how exciting it was to actually light up the Cyc and start shooting on it!

We've already had our first few bookings for some photography and some videography. As with any new venture, it's going to be a bit of an uphill climb to market the space and win new customers. But the space is awesome, affordable, and those who have seen it really love it! We have high hopes.

Here are some photos of the construction of the space...

This is first time I saw the space...

Construction starts...

Construction continues...

The Cyc Wall is complete!

Studio Promo shot...

Category: News Desk | Posted by mattLandia at 02:04 PM | Permalink

Julian Smith totally nails this. Completely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQrEHYmC0gU

Category: News Desk | Posted by mattLandia at 08:07 PM | Permalink

Check out the mini-documentary film embedded below. Basically, Oasis leaked the sheet music of some new tracks to a bunch of NYC street musicians and let them debut the tunes to passersby in the subway. Their interpretations are amazing, reinforcing my belief the good music offers a skeleton from which anyone can offer new body, color and tone. My favorite quote of the documentary is at the end when Liam and the band are admiring the interpretations of their songs and he rambles, "...this is a shit idea actually...overnight I hate [our] record. That's shit, our version.. so yea ya fookas, nice one."

For me, Oasis is one of 'those' bands: the special exalted few that can't ever be dislodged from the soundtrack of your personal biography. Oasis is easily in my top 5. All time.

I remember exactly where I was the first time I heard 'Live Forever'. I was sitting on the couch at my parents high rise apartment in Miami Beach. I'd been in Miami Beach for about 6 months working retail, and trying to write music on my own with a shitty guitar and tape recorder. For the most part, not including my family, I was friendless.

I was a serious kind of lonely. The kind of loneliness where your bones feel like chalk, your insides are made of gray, and your voice doesn't seem to work so you resort to swimming in the ocean at dusk, desperately trying to telepathically scream at a passing dolphin to take you someplace new. Yeah. that kind of loneliness.

So I was sitting on the couch, watching the now defunct Box Channel, and 'Live Forever' came on. It was like someone just turned on the windshield wipers after months of driving in drizzle. Like the foreign film I was living in was suddenly in color and in English. Like maybe, just maybe, this four minutes and thirty seven seconds was the sound of a chapter closing and new chapter starting. The song finished, I got up and walked out the door on my way to Uncle Sam's Music to by a new CD.

Just like that, my inside parts re-assembled themselves and the rest of the 90's took a different direction for me. I started trusting in my own songwriting, moved to Atlanta, started a band, found MJQ v1.0, recorded music, made friends that are with me to this day, and left behind my bones of chalk.

So tanks to Oasis, ya fookin' geezahs. Nice one.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=50015059

Oasis - Dig Out Your Soul In The Streets

Category: News Desk | Posted by mattLandia at 01:17 PM | Permalink

A few notable observations, ruminations and otherwise miscellaneous thought nuggets from this past week.

OBSERVATION: Releasing a 25 track album only works if at least 23 of those tracks are worth listening to. Thankfully, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives (TSOOL) most recent effort "Communion" goes the distance. I've listened to this record at least 3 times through in the past week or so, and it keeps revealing itself to me. While I enjoy the quick-fix of saccharine beats, Moog synth and staccato guitar as much as the next hipster (ref: new Franz Ferdinand album), there is a LOT to be said for a record that is more a 7 course dinner with dessert.

RANDOM LIFE LESSON: I once saw TSOOL play a show at a small bar in Minneapolis (I think it was called BAR). Cato Salsa Experience opened, if memory served. Anyhow, at one point during the set, Ebbot Lundberg - a large rock n roll friar of a man - came out into the audience to sing, menace and cajole the random group of night owls at the show. At this moment, I had moved out of the main floor to the small bar just outside the main floor to order a drink. Unbeknownst to me, Ebbot had wandered up behind me and started singing/bellowing right into the back of my head. I about came out of my skin.

It was then that I learned that it is impossible to look cool, act calm, or keep dignity intact with a Viking rocker bellowing at you from behind.

IDEA FOR FURTHER EXPLORATION: I was laying in bed last night, trying to beat Tap Defense on the 'hard' level, when an idea came to me. A virtual, geo-tagged, photo scavenger hunt that potentially incorporates iPhone, iPhone apps (graffitio, camera), Flickr, etc. would be pretty damn cool.

I suppose the idea came to me after watching 'Traitor' with Don Cheadle and then virtual graffiting walls in my neighborhood. In Traitor, terrorists communicate with each other by creating email accounts, sharing the username and password between the various cell operatives, drafting emails with diabolical content, but never sending them. Thus they can communicate, without ever actually sending an email that might get netted in the eavesdropping magic of the NSA or FBI or Hogwarts or whomever. Instead of email though, I'd use Graffitio.

Graffitio is an iPhone app that lets users graffiti on virtual walls based on their location. For example, I could have a virtual wall that I can tag in 30313 where I could easily communicate with another user in my neighborhood. But you'd have to actually be in my neighborhood to see the message.

I could leave a bread crumb trail around virtual walls all over ATL, with instructions on what do to, what area to go to find the next virtual wall, etc. Thus, a virtual geo-tagged scavenger hunt.

I feel an event coming on.

Category: Deep Thoughts | Posted by mattLandia at 12:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The passing of another year. The passing of time. The passing of events and the birth of memories. I've felt pregnant with words for some time but I'm afraid to birth them for fear they will manifest themselves as deformed chunks of prose, better suited to swim in small formaldehyde filled jars than to join the cosmic discourse that skips from one IP address to another.

Resolution 2009.1 -- Give birth to words from a deeper current.

There. It's said. A resolution is recorded. Unfortunately, writing the resolution doesn't necessarily pave the way in effortless gold. Deeper currents are home to meatier, fleshier, more dangerous bodies of thought. Not necessarily dangerous to me, since they already live in the lagoon of my conscientiousness. There is danger in the peeling back of layers in front of those who may not understand, approve, or comprehend. Oh well, without danger, there is no story to write.

Perhaps the writing of deeper stories will beget some new stories of their own. For stories beget stories which beget stories which beget stories.

Resolution 2009.2 -- Learn conversational French.

Why French? Why now? I honestly don't know. I've never had much interest in French, France, Montreal or hockey, so even I'm at a bit of a loss. Maybe the brain is begging for a new mental exercise program. Maybe I'm traveling towards an intersection with fate that requires knowing how to order my tea with milk, in French. Maybe it's wanting to learn a language that has no real ties to my past, and offers access to new adventures.

Je voudrais aventure s'il vous plaît.

Category: Deep Thoughts | Posted by mattLandia at 07:58 PM | Permalink