2016 — The Monarch Review — Page 3
Two Poems – Carrie Conners
Thursday, August 4, 2016 12:23 — 2 Comments
Sex Ed After my mom declared You’re just showing off when I asked at 12 years old if my bras had shrunk in the dryer I started going lingerie shopping with my former babysitter. On break from college, she’d pick me up in The Banana, her decomposing Volkswagen Rabbit—one day the turn signal wand snapped off in her hand at a Stop sign by the old Fostoria factory—and she’d drive us to the Stone & Thomas in Wheeling with my mom’s credit card in my pocket. As our thighs fused to the black vinyl seats in the summer heat, she’d […]
Capitol Hill Block Party
Thursday, July 28, 2016 11:48 — 1 Comment
Capitol Hill Block Party was a Sunday out of the sun with (mostly) Seattle artists. My plan for the experience carried a few rules: 1) My Block Party exposure would be Sunday only 2) I decided to just check out local bands I hadn’t seen live before (which I mostly stuck to) and 3) I had to be home in time to put my son to bed, so I’d cede the sprawling CHVRCHES set to all the young dreamers. Set schedules conspired to keep me indoors, hustling up and down the stairs between the Neumos and Barboza stages, out of […]
men in the moon – Charlotte Covey
Monday, July 25, 2016 20:37 — 0 Comments
aries. when you lived in the basement, i dreamt of going down there, finding you, kissing you, replacing an unnamed ache with thirteen-year-old love. i wonder if you would have let me stay. taurus. it was when you whispered, princess. when you held my hand in the dark, rubbed my back amid frenzy. when i took you on my knees, confessed every dirty thought i ever had. we forget what it was like not to know. gemini. i named you gemini. you cusp, you bridge. you moment of insanity. i never saw myself in you. never attached your […]
Widow Country – Anna Rowser
Thursday, July 21, 2016 0:34 — 0 Comments
The spring of their retirement, the husband and wife packed all the possessions they wanted to keep in a shipping container. They planned to resettle in the southern California suburbs once they found a house, somewhere closer to where they’d grown up and where their siblings still lived. Better weather than the east coast, even if it was widow country. Black widows in every woodpile, potentially lurking in any outdoor cranny or nook. And now brown widows too, a non-native variety that moved in closer to human dwellings. The wife led the operation of unpacking the container with the caution […]
CHANNEL Seattle Record Label Fest
Tuesday, July 12, 2016 13:55 — 0 Comments
On Saturday, the inaugural CHANNEL Seattle Record Label Fest takes over Fred Wildlife Refuge all afternoon and into the night. Over 30 record labels from throughout the region will be showing their wares, with live performances from Hibou, Gaytheist, SSDD and Roladex. While Seattle boasts internationally known independents like Barsuk and, of course, Sub Pop, CHANNEL Fest is focused on highlighting smaller upstart labels found throughout the winding catacombs of the local music scene. Participating labels run the gamut from Help Yourself, who’ve made waves with releases from Chastity Belt, Dude York and Childbirth to Neon Sigh, which is a […]
THE HIGH COST OF LIVING – Lee Todd Lacks
Monday, July 4, 2016 9:34 — 1 Comment
Mary Ellen Magner lay doubled over the tall, split-rail fence, blissfully unaware of what was about to happen. Dazed by the events of that sultry, summer morning, she could still feel Roy kneading her ample backside. The sweet-natured neighbor boy had been at it for twenty minutes when Momma walked in to catch him reaching up her dress. Mary Ellen laughed as she peered through the sheer gingham fabric, which now hung upside-down over her head. Between the split rails and her dangling legs, she could make out her mother’s shadowy form, trimming what appeared to be a slender, sapling […]
Ten Quick Questions For Chuck Klosterman
Tuesday, June 21, 2016 22:02 — 0 Comments
New York Times Bestselling author, Chuck Klosterman, who we wrote a Monarch Drinks With feature about in 2012, has written a new book called, But What If We’re Wrong? It’s a close examination of concepts that society holds to be obvious but maybe aren’t quite as clear as they seem. And in the spirit of the question, we caught up with Klosterman to ask him a few quick ones of our own. How has the age of new media – Facebook, podcasts – change how you think about writing a book? It hasn’t really changed the writing process at all. […]
At the End of Time (Wish You Were Here) – Jeannine Hall Gailey
Tuesday, June 21, 2016 10:33 — 1 Comment
I tried to call you one night but you were in Thailand. I was listening to Tool’s “Opiate†and reading about the particulate levels in China and the meteor that had narrowly missed us yesterday and realized I’d missed the recent eclipse and also missed you. I realized 40 years of learning were leaking through the lesions in my brain, names and faces and memories of us and I wanted to reassure you that I would still remember you but then maybe I won’t – like the radioactive water leaking from Fukushima burning the algae and sea lions – nature […]
One Super Important Question For Matt ‘Spek’ Watson
Monday, June 20, 2016 11:24 — 0 Comments
Matt ‘Spek’ Watson is a rapper, musician, producer, internet comedian and Facebook yeller. He’s also one of the most important voices in Seattle art and culture. He has a new record out this week, which he’ll be celebrating at Barboza in Capitol Hill on Thursday. We thought we’d catch up with Spek and ask him one super important question about music and the community in the Southend he calls home. JU: You’re just coming off what looks to be a super successful Station Block Party gig with tons of Southend artists celebrating Beacon Hill and the community there. What […]
Post-Pulse Rallying Cry
Tuesday, June 14, 2016 4:23 — 2 Comments
Although it was a lovely gesture, we didn’t need President Obama to officially declare June LGBTQ Pride Month this year. From the first Pride Parade in June of 1970 to the legislative victories granting marriage equality in 2013, this month has always been a time for queers to celebrate our community’s beautiful, hard-won freedoms. And love. The way that only we can love. But there’s a catch. Each victory carries us further from the fucked up, riotous place in which our community was born. It was not so long ago that queer America experienced our first mass killing, the AIDS […]
The answer isn't poetry, but rather language
- Richard Kenney
