Eighty Six Magazine

About me:

The magazine is no longer being printed or updated online but the website is up so feel free to view centerfold pics, read interviews or pomes & short stories. You will find works by great writers like s.a. griffin & miles j. bell & get a laugh out of the editor's column (j. michael niotta) 'true tales of bar madness.'

Matt Torch (design/layout) is happily married.

Mike Russell relocated to Colorado to pursue another career.

J. Michael Niotta is living/working in vegas & san diego turning a wrench, playing bass in the female fronted band French Kiss Koma & hustling the word circuit peddling short stories & poems.

ORDER PRINT MAGAZINES FEATURING WORK BY J. MICHAEL NIOTTA thru his myspace page located on top friends slot number 1.


Sinister Compendium, Winter 08 Issue. Features short stories 'SF' & 'The Pope, The Cops & The Bums Of Skid Row.'
Released Dec 08. Click image for ordering instructions. FREE!


Fissure #5. Features short story 'Drugstore Cowboy' & pome 'Those With Nothing Only Need A Nudge.'
Released Feb 09. Click image to order!



Inside 86 you'll find articles, reviews, columns, interviews, artwork, pin-ups, pulp fiction & edgy poems. You throw away other magazines...we stay near the crapper & coffee table. Fiction you won't find in the New Yorker, centerfolds you won't find in Playboy & columns/interviews actually worth reading. Working class. Booze induced. Dive bar & rock n' roll influenced. 86 Magazine. Culture pulp for the seedy barfly.



Elvis Changed My Life On The Big Screen At The
Fox Theatre In Downtown Richmond, CA
by S. A. Griffin, El Lay, CA

my grandma would give me
35 cents for the double feature
& I’d walk down to the
always empty Fox Theatre
sitting in the dark
I’d dig The King up there
on that great big screen
surrounded by beautiful chicks
singin’ & swingin’
me thinkin’, “Oh yeah. That’s me man...
uh huh huh... awlll rye-ee-ight!!”

I’d drag my poor skinny young white ass
into the bathroom between flicks
pop a dime into the vending machine
& drop out a black ace

spread my legs apart
face the mirror & comb my hair
practice my sneer...
sing, “Angel... a-an-gel bay-ay-ay-beee...
oh, my sweet ayyyn-gellll...”

go back for the second flick
sit in the dark & believe that
it was possible
all over again
& again
at home I’d lay my
thick young mane back
into a racing slick pompadour
with gobs of Dixie Peach pomade
pull the front forward just like
Elvis the 19 year old truck driver from Memphis
Elvis The King
practice my sneer
in the bathroom mirror
sing, “Love me tender... love me true...”
dream of all those beautiful chicks & fast cars

all things possible
for a young boy from
the projects lorded over by a truck driving
stepfather from Nashville his mind
made mad by WWII & bisexual rage

he hated the sneer & the curl
dropping in front of my forehead
& hard as he tried
he couldn’t beat it out of me

he must be long dead by now
a victim of his own fear & abuse

the glorious Fox razed along with
the old neighborhood

as myself & The King rock on
singing, “One for the money...
two for the show...
three to get ready now
GO CAT GO!!!

But donchew... step on my
blue suede shoes!”

a pale blue sky surrounds me
it is Wednesday morning
a buzz saw eats everything
& I am writing this to you now
telling you that yes

it’s all right now mama

© 2006 S.A. Griffin



the living man walks toward death
j. michael niotta

in a one room hotel?
in a place where i will lay
face whiskered & eyes in wait
of death

i will work a hard or
lazy job that pays very little & i will
write miles of what will never be
read

& it will be an existence
unsurrounded unaccompanied & unwelcomed

i will play music
low
on the box
& get high off the bottle
slow-living in want of death

the walls will be written upon
& no one will come
& no one will call
& the quiet will be all around

it is so easy to see now
& it will be so hard to live then…
when all has gone—
luck
love &
opportunity

when all the fruit has fallen
some trees still grow

the living man walks toward death
no matter how many limbs life severs
no matter how many