Rock and roll satyr? Guru of pan-sexual liberation?
Political subversive? Mad social visionary?
White Tantric yogi?
Backwoods spiritualist and ordained minister of the Universal Life Church?
As an experimental filmmaker, Rush Limbaugh accosted Pink's work
as a symbol of anti-establishment propaganda. In 1987 as the cold
war was in it's final days Pink's words of peace were broadcast
worldwide from the Soviet Union on the Moscow radio networks. Now
as leader of The Imperial Orgy, Pink has united his many sides into
a single kaleidoscopic force.
Pink's
journey through life is a dizzying barrage of strange events. Caeser
was born a "blue baby" to working class laborers in Lewistown, Pennsylvania, a small steel-mill
town hidden in a secluded valley of the Appalachian mountains. Although given an award as
"All American City" in the 1970's, it was a town torn between righteous
religious extremism and rampant drug and alcohol addictions, high
unemployment, and random violence. On the surface it was an idyllic
rural paradise, but lurking below was a nihilism that infected many
within the community, causing them to take part in self-destructive
behavior.
During his youth Pink was a social misfit who felt at
odds with his environment and oppressed by the conservative
values of the community. Pink became a
musician when he was seven years old and by
the age of thirteen was a weekend regular performing
in country and western bars and firehouse pubs in the region.
During high school he joined a punk rock band called Friction
that became an outlet for his politically radical views. Although
the band never reached beyond the level of regional cult status,
to their fans they were a voice which stood against the boredom
of conservative mainstream culture, 80's big hair bands, and the
hopelessness and decadence of working class existence.
Click thumbnail for larger images
Earliest known film footage of Friction
By age eighteen Pink was living in a twilight world of sex and drugs,
often mixing quaaludes and tequila before staggering onto the
stage to perform. Just as it seemed he was following the path of
self-destruction that was so common among the youth in his hometown,
he was seized by a shattering religious vision that transformed his
life and sent him into a Thoreau-esque hermitage deep in the Appalachian
foothills.
Surrounded only by trees, a mountain stream that ran through his
front yard, and a few chickens for eggs, Pink spent the next two
years in study and quiet contemplation. With no opportunity for
employment during the Reagen-era recession, he lived in extreme
poverty, often reduced to stealing food for survival, and living
without phone, television, hot water, and with only a small wood-stove
for heat.
After two years the tide turned when Pink won ten-thousand dollars
in a government lottery. Within a short time he used the money to
invest and accumulate a commercial recording studio, a home, rental
properties, and an extravagant collection of eastern artwork. But
at a time when most men might settle into a more traditional lifestyle,
Pink turned in another direction.
Feeling that the materialistic and mundane existence had become meaningless to him,
he threw away all of his material possessions and severed personal ties
in order to gain artistic and emotional freedom.
In the midst of this he was the focus of a vengeful conspiracy among
the sheriff's department and members of the local police force in
retaliation for a harassment charge filed by a state senator on
Pink's behalf. Soon afterward he was warned by the state Attorney
General's office that his phone was illegally tapped by an unknown
source.
Only days later he was taken into kangaroo court, thrown into
jail on invisible charges, and once inside, other inmates were urged
to beat him at the sheriff's request. Luckily the inmates
recognized Pink from his punk rock days and warned him of
the sheriff's intentions.
After
being forced to flee his hometown to escape the wrath of the local
authorities, his next two years were spent living on the edge.
While studying film at the Penn State University his life became
a hectic whirlwind of disastrous love affairs and dangerous forays
into the dark nights with the lost souls of America's under culture.
From being held at knife point in a New Orleans' projects, car-jacked
by one of New York City's 14th Street transvestites, to finding
solace among small time drug dealers, homeless vagrants, and cheap
prostitutes, as he watched friends be destroyed by drugs and suicide,
and lovers one by one collapse into mental breakdown while trying
to survive amid his chaotic lifestyle.
In 1994 as The Imperial Orgy began to experience their first rush
of local success, Pink's life spiraled out of control. Homeless
and living in the back of an old car, physically ill and mentally
disintegrating, he collapsed into what he refers to as a 'spiritual
death.'
By the time Pink arrived in New York City he was at his lowest
point. With no money for rent, he slept on the basement floor
of a friend's Staten Island home. His belongings, now reduced
to a few old crates with tattered books and CDs, were scattered
around him.
One morning as he lay on the floor a book suddenly fell from one
of the crates. The book, "The Politics Of Experience," by R.D.
Lang expressed an unconventional theory that some forms of mental
breakdown were actually a spiritual passage from one stage of
consciousness to another. A passage often spoken of in eastern
religions and ancient mythologies.
Pink used the concepts in the book as means of understanding his
experiences and a guide to begin the long healing process. This
experience of self destruction and rebirth was used as the basis
for The
Orgy Experience website that offers the visitor an interactive
journey of spiritual self discovery. The unique design and ideas
in the site landed The Imperial Orgy on the cover of Europe's
.Net Magazine.
Since arriving in New York City Pink The Imperial Orgy community
has undertaken a wide variety or projects and employed a large
array of mediums to communicate to a wider audience. Those projects
have included street theatre, art and fashion shows, poetry and
concert events, the creation of an underground TV series called
The Imperial Orgy
TV Show, experimental films, books and CDs, online chats,
radio broadcast, blogs, and a variety of websites.
Throughout this time The Imperial Orgy community has continued
to expand with an ever-growing and ever-changing cast of talented
artists, activists, spiritual seekers, sexual explorers, and social
misfits. While Pink uses the talents and energy of the community
to help create group works to express his message, he also provides
a platform for emerging artists to express their own creativity.
Often Pink inspires people to find courage and artistic focus,
acting as both medium and catalyst for creative, personal, and
spiritual liberation.
In January of 2000 Pink was ordained a minister in The Universal
Light church. In 2001 he embarked on a cross country road trip
to see America in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. In June of
2002 he presented a giant-sized counter-culture party in New York's
East Village called The
Imperial Orgy Erotic Masquerade Ball.
In 2003 Pink founded a non-profit organization called The
Arete Living Arts Foundation as a means to fund the promotion
and presentation of arts and artists who create works that express
a unique vision or are innovative in form. The following year
was spent in his economically distressed hometown where he used
the non-profit organization to offer free computer classes in
creative programs for video editing, web design, and graphic design.
2006 saw the release of The Imperial Orgy's Gospel Hymns For Agnostic
& Atheists CD to wide critical acclaim. Followed by 2007's
All God's Children CD and the publication of a book of poetry
and lyrics titled The
Orgy Hymnal.
Caeser Pink currently resides in the Williamsburg area of Brooklyn,
N.Y. His music is an emotionally raw and poignantly honest expression
of his thoughts and experiences. The intensity of his stage presence
lends an unpredictable edge to The Imperial Orgy's live performances.
The energy and ideas behind his vision propel The Imperial Orgy.