“Hot Rods” Is a Hilarious Homage to Fire Island’s ’70s Gay Porn Past Meat Rack memories... by Christopher Rudolph 16h ago
Fire Island has seen its share of drama this summer, so let a new magazine take you back to the queer vacation destination’s simpler—and sexier—times.
Author and SNL producer Greg Scarnici—who you may recognize from his drag alter ego, Levonia—has previously released two collections of humorous essays, I Hope My Mother Doesn’t Read This, and Dungeons and Drag Queens—but his latest, Hot Rods, is a parody of ’70s gay porn magazines.
Hot Rods was shot on Fire Island, the place Scarnici calls home during the summer. The magazine features candid clandestine hookups on the beach, and at classic Fire Island locations like the Belvedere Hotel in Cherry Grove and the infamous cruising area known as the Meat Rack.
“I decided to recreate a vintage gay porn magazine here on Fire Island because I came across a few 70’s porn magazines at a thrift store a few years ago and they inspired me on so many levels.” Scarnici told Instinct. “The men all had lean, natural, un-manscaped torsos, the books were so over-designed and the stories were terribly written. Since I live on Fire Island all summer long, I thought it would be fun to recreate one of these magazines using vintage clothes and toupees with some performer friends of mine.”
Scarnici says that Hot Rods is “a tongue-in-cheek love letter to the bygone era of printed erotica and a time when style and design seemed to be the main focus of these kinds of magazines.” The “dirty mag” parody contains five pictorials—which were shot last year—that are accompanied by “erotic” tales that will be sure to “titillate your funny bone.”
So even if coronavirus has you skipping Fire Island this summer you can still go there with Hot Rods. The parody magazine is available on Scarnici’s website and at the General Store in Fire Island Pines and FIG in Cherry Grove. See some sexy pics from the book below.
