We are now about three weeks from our close for our December/January issue. This is usually when things start to get fun. The text and images are starting to pour in and photo shoots are happening on what seems to be a daily basis (below, creative director Stephen Perfetto maps out a shot while our intern, Claire Grossheim and deputy editor Amy Palanjian look on).

 

 

It's also when things can get a little hairy (haven't used that word since the 8th grade by the way but I'm gonna go with it) as we're juggling a few things at a time: Getting October/November out there and starting to hear feedback, heavy into production for December/January, heavy into planning/assigning/executing for February/March, plus everything else going on. I've worked on a "nearly monthly" magazine before and can't even imagine what putting out a weekly (or a daily!) would be like so I'm not complaining, just saying, that's all.

 

Yesterday found many of us down the street from ReadyMade DSM HQ at photographer Kathryn Gamble's studio.

 

 

I opted to stay behind as I tend to just stress everyone out on shoots since I get all restless and fidgety. We're in the midst of shooting many different parts of December/January and it's looking like it's going to be a good one (below, getting prepped to make a drink whose recipe was provided by our mixologist, Alex Day. Oh yeah, and everyone was also getting prepped to eat breakfast, hence the bagel).

 

 

A lot of time and energy goes into to shooting "The Projects" section of each issue so we can deliver the goods right proper (below, get ready to learn how to make some excellent hard candy in December/January plus a whole lot of other stuff).

 

 

We've even been roping assistant editor, Alexa Fornoff, into modeling for us. Her hands may make a cameo in December/January.

 

Which reminds me of a story my good friend Luigi Marchese always tells. Luigi got his start in film when he was part of the crew for "Hair-Do U" in St.Louis. (That's kind of beside the point but that movie is a small wonder that I don't think I necessarily recommend but it does have some amazing early tracks by Nelly that I highly recommend). Anyhow, Luigi was also on the crew of a film called "Finding Home." During that film the directors didn't want to bring back the male lead for another day of shooting because it would be too expensive so they asked Luigi if his hands could stand in for the actor's hands. That's how Luigi got his feet wet as a hand model. If you ever see "Finding Home" and there are some mysterious hands massaging the female lead's knees, that's Luigi. Alexa, you never know where hand modeling may take you.

 

More next week from Behind the Scenes...