We all have guilty pleasures, and it's embarrassing to admit this, but mine is the freebie magazine Cultural Affairs. It has some articles and columns (I guess a magazine has to), but the real deal is the photos of people at galas, balls and fundraisers all over Tampa. The holiday issue is out now.
The first party photos are from Smasquerade 2003. I'm not sure what that was because the magazine doesn't say, but Cultural Affairs editor, publisher, writer and photographer Marie Hamm appears in one photo with Susan Baisden, art gallery owner and frequent party persona, and Lisa Schreiber (don't know her). Marie is in another shot, same party, this time with a hunky Alejandro Guerrero (don't know him either, sorry).
Marie is in a few other photos, too - and well, why not? It's her magazine! She's pictured with Jim Wittlesey at a Merrill Lynch-sponsored tribute to the Downtown Arts Elite at the Tampa Theatre and again with Jim - only this time his name is spelled "Wittelsey" - and Carol Mathews at Pavilion, the Tampa Museum of Art bash.
There she is again in her holiday card to readers, with her poodles, Glory and Zachary, and an unnamed cat in her lap, wishing us, "A Wonderful New Year filled with Poodle Kisses (or the equivalent thereof)."
You can see her, too, in her publisher's note, as always elegantly at home with the dogs. This time she reveals that in an attempt to remember to take her vitamin pills, she put them by her dogs' things, and "I almost swallowed one of Glory's huge arthritis pills and a couple of Zach's Xanax."
The magazine takes a casual approach to identifying the subjects in photos. Correct spelling is optional; so is any name at all. For example: Under a photo of two women, the cutline reads, "Betty Wood and a lovely friend"; four young people are identified as "cute girl & Bryan Guyton, Amy Biondi & cute guy"; and in a shot of two couples, a comma takes the place of the first one: ", Sam & Terri Ellison."
Anyway, Marie gets around the party scene. For just this one issue she went to parties to benefit the University Community Hospital Foundation, the Muscular Dystrophy Association ("over one thousand red roses added a touch of elegance to the dinner that ended with a fanfare introduction for the Flaming Baked Alaska"), the Children's Cancer Center, Suncoast Gerontology Center, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, Tampa Theatre and Tampa Museum of Art.
Whew. No wonder she doesn't have time to ID the photos!
In most cases, it isn't necessary anyway.
The subjects are pretty much the same in every issue. I've seen smiling blond Realtor Mary Kelly so many times that when I passed her on the street, I almost said hello. I feel like Sandy Juster is my best friend. Now that Paul Wilborn is back in town, you can count on seeing him and fiancee Eugenie Bondurant, who is a head taller than he. Paul's boss Pam is everywhere, too, sometimes accompanied by husband Mark Woodard.
Everyone is dressed to the nines, except Pam, usually, but surprise! There she is in a black something with a plunging neckline at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center's Broadway Ball.
This is a season of serious cleavage. Apparently it is acceptable, even desirable, to attempt to show every inch of breast tissue except the nipples. And the rest is Wonderbra-ed into globes above the top of strapless gowns.
Erika Wallace, the young blond wife of recreational vehicle magnate Don Wallace, is photographed in a thin-strapped gown that is so impossibly low cut it would challenge Jennifer Lopez. Erika looks great in it, by the way. Erika always looks great. In photos Erika looks so great compared to anyone else it seems as though her image has been clipped from Vogue and superimposed into a group of Tampa residents.
So steer clear of Erika if you see Marie coming around with her camera.
I'm pretty sure the Gasparilla issue is next. I can't wait.
- Sandra Thompson is a writer living in Tampa. She can be reached at tampa@sptimes.com City Life appears on Saturday.
