This couldn't hurt... This is from the actual broadcast, this ain't no webisode! My mom & whitney actually saw the East Coast broadcast before me! Funny. All photos from the piece were by Noa of Feather Love

last week our friend michelle of Mint Julep Social Events asked me if i would play a last minute, top secret, high profile wedding. she said that it was some people from a show on mtv called the hills. (i stopped watching mtv when they stopped playing nirvana videos so i had no idea what i was in for)... anyway it was on again, off again like 5 times last week and the day before it was scheduled to happen it was on for real.

michelle pulled together a really great team! Brent Wang of Eggs Los Angeles created stunning floral arrangements, Sweet Gems made the cake, the venue was the Social Hollywood and of course yours truly behind the decks... i asked our friend noa of featherlove photography (who is one of my new favorite up and coming photographers) to come with me because i wanted to get a few shots for the blog... well, let's say i had no idea (and she certainly had no idea) what we were in for!...

people started filing in around 8pm and waited to catch a glimpse of speidi... at least Perez Hilton had the good sense to dance for awhile while waiting...

the royal couple made their way in fashionably late around 9:45 (they had the venue until 10) cut cake, & promptly had noa escorted out of the building (more on this on noa's blog)... most people pay a lot of money for a wedding photographer, ha! not in barbie land... their photographer is one of the few ways they actually make money!

anyway, there were some very amusing moments and we all had a really, really, good laugh over drinks up the street after. all in all it was a lot less drama and a far more low maintenance affair than i would have ever imagined. we all spend so much time in this little community of (pick your descriptive term here) alt / indie / d.i.y. weddings, so it was pretty amusing to see how the west side does it... i for one, am quite content on my side of the tracks thank you VERY much! There are a lot more pics on Noa's blog http://www.featherlove.com/blog/ and i guess michelle is going on E! and CNN this week and will be directing some traffic to the flashdance!... i'll keep you updated on that here

these are some stunning shots (i guess i'm biased though...)

the wedding season has officially begun. and the first two of the year have been memorable. below are a few samples (some you may have seen on my blog, some you may not have seen) from hanna + jacob and rachel + donnie. can't wait to share more in the upcoming weeks! ...also, a big congrats to jesse for being amazingly talented and just plain awesome. those images for pdn were, as usual, incredible. --max

Thought I'd put up this mix of what I like to call BBQ music. This is NOT a mix cd, just me pushing record and playing some records at the house, not mastered, not poured over, just as it came out of the needles. This is also NOT a wedding mix, just some (ok, A LOT of) pretty songs to listen to while you're reading every single post on the flashdance! Lots of 70's soul and jazz some popular, some really obscure. I'll put up a tracklisting on Friday or Saturday. Enjoy! **You really should download this because it is like 45 or more minutes long which is like 23 years in internet time! Here is the tracklisting... 1. Sylvia Striplin - Can't Turn Me Away 2. William Devaughn - Be Thankful For What You Got 3. The Isley Brothers - Living For The Love of You 4. Eddie Kendricks - Girl You Need a Change of Mind 5. Roy Ayers - Life is Just a Moment 6. JJ Cale - Let Me Do It To You 7. Rotary Connection -Tales of Brave Ulysses 8. Kay Gees - Ain't No Time 9. Sly and the Family Stone - Family Affair 10.The Temptations - Take a Stroll Through Your Mind 11. Eddie Harris - I Need Some Money 12. Bohannon - Save Their Souls 13. Sergio Mendes - For What It's Worth 14. Ann Peebles - I Can't Stand the Rain 15. 90% Of Me Is You - Gwen McCrae

Well, it has been a hectic few weeks over here at The Flashdance (I have been jumping through all these hoops this week to play a wedding for THESE odd balls...it's on!...it's off...well which is it jeez?!?) all the back and forth with NPR (still no new air date on the Marketplace wedding industry feature), and all of the excitement during Coachella (who saw Morrissey? What's up?)

Anyway, I am a bit behind on everything on the blog, but sitting on the top of my magazine stack is the new pdn, and I wanted to take a second and congratulate Jesse for winning as a finalist for PDN Top Knots 2009. This is a pretty huge honor and I am very proud of my good buddy! Then to add to the awesomeness one of my very favorite wedding photographers Anna Kuperberg got the cover! ***sidenote Jesse didn't get that free camera NIKON... They were thinking about changing too, guess that's out of the question now. Unless???

In related news Max was featured in the Daily Candy Spring 2009 Wedding Guide sheesh, that's the trifecta of awesome wedding photograhers! Good look guys.

Well, that's all for now. Keep your eyes peeled for some wedding shots from Max that will be going up tomorrow-ish...

Leonard Cohen is the last in a long list of artists, that are still alive, that I would have gone to Mars to see live, luckily I only had to go downtown! On a scale of 1-10 the sound was a 20, playlist 50, & performance 100! Hallelujah into I'm Your Man was as good as anything I have ever seen... Spoken word versions of 1000 kisses deep, Tower of Song, & If it be Your Will (Webb sisters killed this one!) had me teary eyed. He played Famous Blue Raincoat in the 4th or 5th encore! Jeez, life is really good sometimes. **Interesting sidenote** Leonard Cohen has worn a suit everyday of his life since he was 17! Now THAT is what I'm talking about...

We were literally jogging out of the theater after the final bow because he played for 3+ hours and we needed to get home to our sitter who didn't have quite as good of a time as we did. I came around the west corner of the building and there he was...Leonard Cohen! THE LADIES MAN! He was being escorted to his car but took a second to sign a few autographs and I stood not 3 feet from the most romantic poet in the world. I was like a deer in headlights for like 15 seconds before I finally mustered a "thank you Leonard", not exactly the depth of gratitude I was looking for, but he looked me right in the eye and smiled! I have been in a really good mood ever since.

This weekend I'll be filling a void in my soul that has been growing since the first time I heard this song which, coincidentally, was right around the last time he played in the states...

I'm fond of this one too.

I'll have a review next week. Damn, I am so excited!

This is the first, completely official, roll out the red carpet, Flashdance wedding and we couldn't have possibly set the bar any higher! We kicked it off on Our Labor of Love's home court in the good old ATL. You can learn a lot about Atlanta from these guys, and see things like this there, but let's get back to this wedding... Shana & Rob's wedding was flawless! I find something great in every wedding I play (well?!). But every single thing was great about this wedding. From the first phone calls with Shana over a year ago I knew this was going to be my kind of party... Then just a few weeks before the big day she called me with surprises that really upped the ante. #1 We want you to play Gn'R Sweet Child O' Mine after we stomp on the glasses (it was a Jewish ceremony). At first I wasn't quite sure, but you should have seen the way they sold it when Slash's opening guitar solo started. They were jumping in the air with a delight, the likes of which, I haven't seen in years... Brilliant! #2 Rob and I have a top secret first dance that we had choreographed by Gabriella at MatriMony Mony to "I Got You Babe" by Sonny & Cher. (Yes!) We will just come out on the empty dancefloor during dinner and stand back to back and that will be your cue to start it. They murdered it! Brought the house down, there were twirls, balet moves, air splits, dips, hootie hoos, and a bunch of moves that I don't even have descriptive words for! Stunner.

#3 (This was the part when I really lost my shit!) My bridesmaids and I have been rehearsing every move to Beyonce's Single Ladies dance from the video and we are going to perform it at the reception! Oh yeah, and it's top secret too, please don't even tell the coordinator (I love it!) It was all kinds of awesome. The initial crowd reaction was utter disbelief, shortly followed by ecstacy. More of that nonsense available here VIDEO

One 20 or so minute run of records in particular toward the end of the night had this group hyperventilating by the end, here it is in order. Poison - Bell Biv DeVoe Be Faithful - Crooklyn Clan Respect - Aretha Franklin Sex Machine - James Brown Kiss - Prince Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson Upside Down - Diana Ross The Breaks - Kurtis Blow Think (About It) - Lyn Collins Psycho Killer - Talking Heads Let's Dance - David Bowie Dance To The Drummer's Beat - Herman Kelly Please Mr. Postman - The Marvels The Tears of a Clown - Smokey Robinson La La Love You - The Pixies Stuck In The Middle With You - Strealers Wheel TNT - ACDC No Sleep Till Brooklyn - The Beastie Boys Hypnotize - Notorious B.I.G

There are a million other reasons this wedding ruled but there are some things that just can't be described without diminishing their impact. Let's just say they win and leave it at that. Here is some video and photos cleverly edited together by our most awesome partner in crime Shanghai...

a few days after the wedding I received an e-mail from Shana and it was so awesome that I wanted to put a bit of it here... dude!! i just wanted to send a quick thank you your way -- we are still getting complements on you and your work at the wedding! it was mind blowing! thank you for doing such an amazing job -- you are a genius at what you do. you made the party what i wanted it to be -- uninhibited, joyous fun. x, shana (&rob) Take a second and head over to Our Labor of Love to see the rest of the beautiful photos they shot. It is really stunning how many amazing images came from this wedding.