The Nyack-Founded Pink Monkey Magazine Releases Third Issue
by Max Cea
You’re probably wondering what “Sexotica” means. For now, though, that’ll have to remain a mystery. Why? Because the answer’s in the new Pink Monkey Magazine, and the magazine doesn’t arrive in Nyack stores (such as Kiam Record Shop, Pickwick Bookstore and Beast with a Million Eyes) until this weekend. However, I will say this: Issue 3 of the arts, adventure and absurdity magazine that I put together (alongside fellow Nyackers Sam Schieren and Emma and Charles Caster-Dudzick) is the sexiest, most exotic and erotic issue yet. It’s thick and juicy, and it’ll get you going. Porn? No. Literature? A little bit. A rollicking good time? Absolutely. Need proof? Below are a few small excerpts.
(Order the issue, as well as back issues, at pinkmonkeymag.com.)
From My Lesbian Life, by Wendy Caster
Kindergarten, 1961. She’s blonde and pretty and she’s twirling around in a blue dress. I can’t take my eyes off of her.
Girl Scout Camp, 1964. I’m off to the loo, and I happen to see one of the counselors getting dressed in her tent. I see her butt. It’s beautiful.
My Parents. My parents accept that I’m a tomboy. They get me a GI Joe rather than a Barbie. An erector set. A dart gun. No pink.
Junior High School, Late ‘60s. Friends start dating, and every single guy they date is not good enough for them. The guys lack élan. If the girls dated me, I’d know how to treat them right. Like a gentleman.
Sleepover at a friend’s house. Most of the girls giggle and have fun together. I find it stressful. Lois cries because she is adopted. The others find her to be a drama queen. I find her compelling in ways I cannot identify.
Girls start wanting to put make-up on me. There are many hints that it’s time for me to become feminine. Ain’t gonna happen.
From The Gallery: Photos by Greg Hazell
From Pink Monkey Interview: Sexmob bandleader, Steven Bernstein
What was the appeal of the slide trumpet?
It just sounded really cool. And I could do things that I thought about doing but couldn’t figure out how to do on a trumpet. You can’t make the sorts of “bl-blooah-blooaah!” sounds on a trumpet because there’s notes. And I wanted to make those sounds. I was like, “Why not play like that?” I mean, notes are cool, but most people don’t really give a shit. But when people feel emotion, they feel something. And when I was playing it, I noticed people reacting—because it’s such a pure emotional instrument. And in a sense, it’s that way because that’s how I play it. It sounds weird, but when it comes to slide trumpet I’m the king. If I play it, that’s the law, that’s the rule. Because who is to say otherwise? By king, I mean that I have absolute power. You can’t question it, because who else plays it? You can’t tell me you can’t do it; I just did it. But with trumpet, I’m following the kings. And I’m carrying on tradition and trying to add my own thing to it. But I am the tradition when it comes to slide trumpet.
At the beginning, I was trying to play like a trombone player. But then when I got done translating, I started finding things that no one had told me existed, because no one had ever bothered to try and find them. So literally, I’m just finding things all the time.
Now, obviously people have purchased the slide trumpet and learned to play something on it. I’ve talked to a bunch of older musicians, trying to figure out why it exists if no one plays it. Someone said their teacher in the army played it. Someone said someone played it on a song on a Woody Herman tour. But one of the things I found is this old picture of Louis Armstrong and then a famous picture of the guy before Louis Armstrong. So the best I could figure out is that it was vaudeville instrument. So if you go to see the circus, it’s like the guy playing the little mini trombone, playing something silly.
