Owlspotting

In a few days, check your (Romanian) newsstands for Esquire’s third issue. The cover features Sean Penn in his own Armani suit (he’s Sean Penn after all), and the story talks about his return to the director’s chair for Into the Wild. Penn’s movie is based on a non-fiction book with the same name by Jon Krakauer. But before Krakauer turned the story of a young man who died on an adventure in Alaska into a book, it was — you guessed it — a magazine piece. Those interested in great long-form journalism can read the 1993 Outside article here.

The largest piece of real-estate in issue #3 is superb collection – reported and written locally – of personal tales describing human experiences ranging from exhaustion to fear to bliss to love. It’s Esquire’s Romania first annual “What it feels like…” and among the things you’ll learn by reading these 16 pages is:
– what it feels like to play basketball for 80 hours
– what it feels like to be dumped by a girl when you’re 14
– what it feels like to be a sports play-by-play man
– what it feels like to be a blind tourist in Romania
– and many more.

I have done some writing of my own for issue #3, namely a feature on a wonderful group of enthusiastic guys who are working their butt off to put together an American football team in Bucharest (opening spread pictured below). They are the Bucharest Warriors and we’re devoting eight pages to their story. The photos were shot by my friend, the hard-working genius Andrei Pungovschi (see his blog for some of the shots).

Below are the two pages of contents. Click the thumbnails to see the larger version.

Other goodies in issue #3: Seven Romanian photographers pose for their own cameras in a stunning pictorial. Cristian Patrasconiu explains UDMR’s problems. And General Hari-Bucur Marcu offers some insight on Romania’s defense strategy. Hint: there is none. And feel free to stare at the stunning Dana Rogoz.

* Designed by the team of Raymond Bobar and Catalina Zlotea.

PS: Seen anything you liked in the last issue of Esquire? Tell us via e-mail: esquire /at/ sanomahearst /dot/ ro