The mission of Blam!Blam! -- a new sensuality magazine created by two local women -- is pretty simple. "We want to turn women on," says creative director Jenna Leskela.
Inspired by a 'zine called Sweet Action and the "One-Handed Reads" on the last page of Bust magazine, Leskela and creative partner Michelle Scifers, who is Blam!Blam!'s editor, spent the past year figuring out what exactly women find hot.
They published their racy discoveries -- along with the work of writers and artists from all corners of the country and Canada -- in a 50-page quarterly. The premiere issue is themed "The Red Issue" and features original erotic stories, provocative photographs, an advice column by a very sassy Miss Kitty and movie reviews.
Contributing writers and artists live in a variety of locales, including Milwaukee, San Francisco, Minneapolis, Portland, New York and Canada.
Blam!Blam! content also includes investigative research involving a writer who puts aphrodisiacs like chocolate and horny goat weed to the test, and two womens' findings after being challenged to find steamy Web sites that made them feel -- as the British say -- "randy."
There isn't any full-on nudity in Blam!Blam! Stylistically, it's closer to the slap-and-tickle tease of burlesque than the jackhammer pulse of porn. "Women need more of a cerebral experience to get turned on," says Scifers, whose stepfather writes for Playboy.
Although -- at this point -- the magazine is aimed at arousing heterosexual women, Leskela and Scifers believe the magazine will appeal to straight guys as well as gay men and women. Neither woman defines herself as strictly hetero, and they both have a myriad of friends and magazine contributors who are gay.
The second issue, which comes out this fall, features the theme "Glam" and will blur sexuality lines a bit more -- something that seems appropriate considering the name "Blam!Blam!" is taken from a David Bowie song. Bowie, known for his androgynous image, wrote the line "she's a total blam-blam" in his 1972 song, "Suffragette City."
"People are sensual in general, not specifically just boys or just girls," says Scifers.
Soon, 5,000 copies of Blam!Blam! will hit the streets of Milwaukee and a few larger cities. Locally, it will be available at Broad Vocabulary, the Tool Shed and Jackpot. The cost is $10 per copy.
The 6x9-in. magazine is indeed "lie in bed size," and reads much like a sexual experience. The first third of it is light, but -- like sex -- Blam!Blam! gets hotter and heavier in the middle and end.
Even though there's enough in there to make the modest blush and the naughty snicker, Blam!Blam! is very artistic and beautiful -- like red velvet curtains and valentines. Wrapped around jalapenos, that is.
Molly Snyder started writing and publishing her work at the age 10, when her community newspaper printed her poem, "The Unicorn.” Since then, she's expanded beyond the subject of mythical creatures and written in many different mediums but, nearest and dearest to her heart, thousands of articles for OnMilwaukee.
Molly is a regular contributor to FOX6 News and numerous radio stations as well as the co-host of "Dandelions: A Podcast For Women.” She's received five Milwaukee Press Club Awards, served as the Pfister Narrator and is the Wisconsin State Fair’s Celebrity Cream Puff Eating Champion of 2019.
