Hanging out on Ocean Ave. with Kari and Crystal:
After having worked in Taiwan and Japan where modeling is serious business and your castings and bookings are no laughing matter and actually consist of WORK, Miami was a complete and total vacation. Of course, being professional, on time and well rested are always a priority no matter where you go for work, the atmosphere on South Beach was layed back and beachy....to be expected, right? Models are lured to SoBe with tales of making great money and getting to play....a lot. The money comes mainly by way of German catalog clients and TV commercials, seeing as a lot of the fashion shows and magazine editorials pay in a much smaller scale. Clients come to SoBe to get good models and play as well. Why not turn your business trip into a vacation? I know I would!
Gotta love the Jetsons' style lifeguard stations that dotted the beach!
So, very unlike Asia, a busy day of castings would maybe see us running to 5 or 6 spots to see clients and photographers. The castings in Miami did take a lot longer since there were tons of models there and in Asia, agencies only bring in a small select number of talent per season. You also were left to your own devices to find your way around the beach and to all of the casting locations, no managers to take you around and act as a tour guide/model PR person. It was solely up to me thent to sell myself to the client after finding my way to whatever hotel lobby they were holding court.
Castings would almost always start in the afternoons and go into the evenings which made for plenty of time to sleep in and sleep off your hangovers as well as go lay out onthe beach to perfect that toasty skin (God, I miss being tanned!). I always knew that this was because the clients needed their mojito by the pool just as much as the next person, so why hold a casting in the morning? Needless to say, I loved this newfound freedom & lifestyle. There are times when I look back on my college days and think what a bummer is was that I could never afford to go on Spring Break....then I catch myself and remember that every time I was in Miami for work was like a prolonged, and much less raunchy version of Spring Break...so I can live with that. Instant halt to the pity party!
And with all of the free mornings, if we weren't working (in which case you would be expected on set before sunrise....this is great ont eh Circadiam rhythms, let me tell you....) Kari and I would go hang otu with our new friends and eat breakfast, lay out and just be lazy and happy. There was a lot of time spent walking around that city and enjoying its beaches. And since South Beach is so small, we got to know it like the back of our hands in no time. I also loved the fact that after a few weeks of being there we would always run into familiar faces everywhere we went....had friends call out to us fromt heir cars or mopeds as they whizzed by us. It was like a college campus really, only everyone you saw walking by was more genetically blessed than the next. Seriously, there are tourism flyers that tote how you can sit at a cafe in South Beach and watch models walk by all day long....I thought this was a tacky & kinda funny way to sell the place, but it really is true.
I fell in love with Miami right away. I loved that I felt like I wasn't in the U.S. even though I obviously was. The energy is so Caribbean island style, even the air felt exotic. And of course there was always the parade of the pretentious as you will find anywhere that is as balmy and beautiful, but that could be quickly overlooked......nothing really seemed that serious there. *Cue the Reggae music.*
I just love this picture. The colors are so beautiful and I love how the boys (Jason and John) were so into building this sand castle....they became kids that afternoon. The good life.
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