Last weekend, I was out in East Atlanta and when I got back to my car, someone has left a flyer on the windshield for an upcoming show by a troupe called Varietease. A sort of cabaret / drag show / Vegas style song and dance performance. Normally, I just chuck the flyer to the ground and move on, but this time, for no reason I can explain, I just put the flyer in my back pocket.

A few days later, I noticed the flyer on my desk and picked it up to examine it again. The show was in a few days, and it occurred to me that I might be able to get some really interesting photos backstage if they would let me come in an shoot. So I sent off an email explaining who I was and what I wanted to shoot, etc. Done. Forgot about it.

A day later I received this email...

"Matt.... you are going to die when you figure out who's show this is......My name is Blue now but you know me as Laura.... wtf????? I just got your email and saw your name, the crazy thing is I just was talking about you two days ago because I came across the Shimmerzeen(sp) CD and laughed and told some good stories about us...."

I was stunned. Crazy coincidence? Maybe. I'm more inclined to think that the universe moves in mysterious ways and helps rearrange pathways when needed. Who knows why? I don't. But I don't care. I got my friend back and in the words of Forrest Gump, "we's like peas & carrots again..."

I spent the past three nights shooting her troupe and what a treat it's been! Part Cirque, part Drag show, part comedy... I could go on...

Dear Mom,

I keep this photo on the wall in my room. Looking at you helps me understand myself...

I was raised by a woman who was madly in love with a spy, endured six children, herded her brood from country to country, bought me both a ventriloquist's dummy and my first guitar, sent me to clown school, made sure I got my Eagle, got me to church every sunday, and taught me how to sew, cook, dress and fix my hair. All the while with a busted up, impossibly painful, mutinous lower back.

Mostly though, I was raised by a woman who found ways to leave her own demons behind, slowly, one by one, until in my mind she came to embody LOVE. Love for her husband. Love for her God. Love for her family. Love for me.

Anything in me of worth, beauty, or grace I owe to you. All things I still lack, I look to your example for inspiration. They say there is nothing like a mother's love. I say there is nothing like MY mother's love.

Happy Mothers Day!

All my love,

Matt

moustache club

If you happen to be traveling through Milwaukee (MKE) and need to kill some time in peace and quiet, there is a great little business center tucked away in Concourse C. I've walked by it each trip here, but really never noticed it till today. Since my flight was delayed again (Yay for spring thunderstorms!), I was meandering down the terminal (as opposed to hustling in a stress induced quick step) and noticed the tiny room, empty except for a bunch of empty cubes. Each cube has power, a little privacy and a really comfy business chair that is tethered with steel rope to the cube wall. Nice touch Milwaukee.

I've been able to sit in peace and quiet, do my expense reports, shoot off a few emails, and watched a few episodes of the Office on www.hulu.com. Hulu rules!!

So, it's no small thing to have a level F-2 tornado miss my neighborhood by just a few blocks -- in downtown Atlanta. It hit last night around 9:30 pm, doing heavy damage to downtown and to Cabbagetown a few miles away. Thankfully, there has been no damage to my building, or any buildings in my neighborhood that I am aware of. We were blessed.

Last night and today has been eerily quiet. The halls in the old loft building are pitch black, we are without power, and for awhile, without water. My phone died last night, so when I woke up today, I felt completely isolated. Although the damage to the city was minor compared to Katrina, Andrew and what not, I still was struck deeply at the feeling of desolation. I had a twinge of needless panic when I realized I had no drinking water, couldn't find my flashlight, had no food in the loft to speak of and no way to reach friends and family. Imagine if this had been worse -- an earthquake, a bombing, etc. It's time to put some real thought into how to better prepare myself for that unlikely, yet unforgiving event.

Anyway, I am safe, even though still without power for another few days most likely. I'm writing this entry from my laptop batteries, on a cell card. Thanks so much to all of you who have called or texted me to inquire if I was safe or not. I feel blessed to have so many people who care enough to check in!

I took a walk today and took photos of the damage downtown...

As many of you know, we've been developing and selling the ExchangeFrame.com platform to fashion designers and retail boutiques across the US. We've had some wonderful successes and continue to learn from our customers. In the past 6 months, we've added Inventory Management, Bar Code Scanning Integration, Online Payment services and more! It's very exciting!

One of the common pieces of feedback that we continue to get from our customers is the desire to connect more closely to their customers -- that is to say -- fashion conscious consumers. Our customers want to know what they wear, what they think of trends in fashion, how they mix and match pieces in an outfit, etc.

We knew we could build a fun application that would give consumers a chance to brag about their fashion tastes, but we didn't think it would fit well into the business centric platform that is ExchangeFrame. So we've built a stand alone site called MyDailyThread.com, exclusively for fashion conscious consumers!

MyDailyThread users can post information about what they wear, including photos of their outfits and items in their wardrobe. They can browse and rate other users outfits, rate them, comment and earn MyDailyThread points for their activity. Each month, we'll tally up the point rankings and users who've earned the most points will win actual merchandise, prizes, and special offers from major fashion designers and retailers from around the country.

We've even released an integrated version of MyDailyThread on Facebook.com! Later in the spring we hope to deploy to MySpace, Bebo, and more sites on the OpenSocial network. You'll be able to post an outfit in one location (Facebook for example), but still see your outfit information appear on MyDailyThread.com and any other social networking site that we support!

So, if any of my readers think they have a little fashion sense -- well, sign up (it's totally free) and post at least a few outfits for the community to rate and comment on! Trust me, if I can do it -- you can do it!

Photo by Montine

Christmas came and went so fast this year. Of course, setting up my new loft, decorating, work, holiday parties, shooting, walking Boris 3 times a day, makes the time fly by! Christmas was a wonderfully low key affair. Ashley and I attacked the kitchen with a vengeance, cooking up ham, potatoes, carrots, beans, wassel, snickerdoodles, brie, baked garlic, hot chocolate, etc. We spent the whole holiday basically just watching movies. 8 movies over 24 hours, to be exact. Each of us with a whole couch to themselves, trading animals to cuddle with. Yep, not too shabby. We watched:

National Treasure: Book of Secrets.
Love Actually
The Aviator
Reign Over Me
Tears of the Sun
Charlie Wilsons War
Underworld
Underworld 2

Oh yeah, the small red tree on the left of the photo is my place. Philips Arena, CNN Center, Bell South Tower are all in the background...

You added another this weekend. Thanks so much for the memorable time this weekend! Going to the game together, watching our team come from behind, screaming till we can't talk, and high-fivin' all afternoon long is a father-son moment I've been waiting on for a long time. I just didn't realize it until it happened.

You are one in a billion. I hope this year brings you the success, happiness, and joy you seek so diligently every day!

Love,

Matt

The best may be the promo VO:

"Van Damme is Back.
A Cop Left For Dead.
Vengeance on His Mind.
A Needle in His Arm."