Freeze Frames
Ruminations about fashion challenges and more.
“Deadline.’’ Because I’m a journalist, it’s a word that has ruled my professional life (along with its more ominous variation, “drop-dead deadline’’). In the magazine business you have to work months ahead to make deadline. For our annual April spring fashion feature, that means staging an outdoor photo shoot in late February and hoping for warm weather. Usually we get our wish; this year we didn’t.
Our original shoot date was washed out by rain, and so we picked an alternate day, only to learn that the mercury wouldn’t get above 50 the entire time. But deadline loomed, and we had no choice. No problem: model Melissa of Modern-Muse modeling agency made it look like a balmy day at the beach (see photo above), even though the wind was blowing, sending the temp down to a wind chill of—well, who knows, but let’s just say that Melissa obviously is a real pro. (We did provide a token of our gratitude: a portable heater purchased at the last minute at Bed, Bath & Beyond to warm up model, photographer, stylist and others at our location, The Shores Resort & Spa in Daytona Beach.)
So that’s roughing it on the fashion scene. Also in this issue, we have roughing it in the scrub and woods with “Story of a Hiker,’’ in which trekker Sandra Friend tells about her experiences along the Florida Trail. (On day hikes, Friend has had to use her big wooden hiking stick to nudge snakes out of her way more than once.) Then we have a piece on the polar opposite of roughing it: pub crawls. There are plenty of organized sojourns around, including the chance to rent a Limo Cycle and pedal your spirited bunch through the streets of Sanford. Elsewhere, dining critic Joseph Hayes reviews the superb Basque cuisine of Txokos at East End Market, and columnist Greg Dawson wonders what to do with the annual arrival of prehistoric phone books at his house.
Finally, it’s prime time for big arts events in our area—the Florida Film Festival this month and, in May, the Orlando International Fringe Theatre Festival. Also in May is “You Are Here,’’ a showcase of photography master works at nearly two dozen locations. It’s the brainchild of Patrick Kahn, head of the Snap! Space gallery. In our feature story, writer Michael McLeod traces how Kahn ended up in Orlando after stops in Zurich, Paris and Los Angeles.
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