Two Poems – Patrick Ahlers
Friday, December 11, 2015 11:37 — 4 Comments
Introduction:Â My name is Patrick Ahlers. Outside of the occasional anger-poem, I didn’t put much in the way of pen to paper during most of my adult life. Then, in my early thirties, I found out that I have cancer. A little while later, my already grim prognosis was shredded even more to bits when they found the ivy-like reach of the spread of the disease. As I snuggle so closely to death, I find one of the easiest ways to be able to look at my wife and daughters’ beautiful faces – to be able to look at my life […]
Adele’s Hello Video
Wednesday, December 9, 2015 13:45 — 0 Comments
Adele’s “Hello†has, at the time of this writing, 651,735,775 views on YouTube (and inspired this SNL video with nearly 12,000,000 views). That means millions of people have had their heart broken and turned, just in the last few weeks, to Adele to feel their pain again. Adele has proven herself over the last handful of years to be the best breakup songwriter in the world and has brought more tears to eyes than sliced onions. To help process the heartfelt tone and tenor of “Hello†I imagined what five halves of ex-couples must have gone through when seeing the video for the […]
Jim Brantingham’s Traveling Light
Wednesday, December 9, 2015 11:47 — 0 Comments
Hello! Welcome to the announcement for the first book produced by The Monarch Review (available to buy below!). We are thrilled to say we’ve completed the editing, laying out, printing and production of Traveling Light by Seattle author, Jim Brantingham. Â You may remember Jim’s work in the first print edition from us, Monarch #1. He was the only author in the anthology to write a piece of fiction and a poem. Jim was also the first fiction writer we published on the Web site some five years ago. Traveling Light is a beautiful book filled with stories, memories and analysis […]
A Very Alan Thickemas
Thursday, December 3, 2015 11:40 — 1 Comment
Whether we know it or not, we’ve all had at least a minor obsession with the actor, TV host and songwriter, Alan Thicke. We’ve seen him on middle-class sitcoms, hummed his tunes and sung his cheesy lyrics. The man who was famous for the fatherly role of Jason Seaver on Growing Pains is also responsible for the theme songs for shows like Diff’rent Strokes and The Facts of Life. Thicke, though, is also the star and basis for the Seattle-based movie – and my new holiday season obsession – A Very Alan Thickemas, produced by Seattle-based film collective, The Beta […]
Hall of Fame DJ Marco Collins’ Top 14 Local Albums of 2015
Wednesday, December 2, 2015 18:50 — 1 Comment
Marco Collins changed millions of people’s lives in the 90’s as a DJ for 107.7 The End, making famous bands like Beck and Harvey Danger, and he remains one of the most interesting and important voices in the Seattle music scene today. He’s a friend of the Monarch (which is awesome!) and a thrower of great shows (like this one for MusiCares that we really suggest you get tickets for while they last). After you get your tickets to the show, check out these 14 bands and their outstanding records released this year! 1. Amos Miller- “SuperSquare†2. The […]
Against Where’d You Go, Bernadette – Alex Gallo-Brown
Tuesday, December 1, 2015 9:44 — 6 Comments
I recently moved back to Seattle after living away for almost seven years. One of the first things I read after I returned was Where’d You Go, Bernadette (2012), the celebrated comic novel by Maria Semple. I sought it out mostly because of its setting: urban Seattle. I had long been surprised by how little the city was represented in contemporary literature. As a young writer growing up here, I had looked for writing that spoke to the city that I knew and mostly found writing about the Pacific Northwest—stories that were set near the city but almost never inside […]
Sweet Amy Nicole: An Interview With Benefits
Monday, November 30, 2015 10:52 — 0 Comments
For lack of a better term, some might say Sweet Amy Nicole is a business woman, a working girl, or even a professional, but professional or no, she made me feel like a pro… I’m a Journalist, for an arts & entertainment magazine and my contemporaries might ask that I defend contacting a woman with Amy’s expertise, but I’m also a Gonzo Journalist, possessed by a demon. “Go for it-” it says, “Have another drink. Talk to her. The power of Journalism compels thee!” After a little foreplay, not only did Amy agree to an interview, but looked forward to […]
Prose Poem for Ardent Stamp Collectors – Melina Papadopoulos
Monday, November 30, 2015 10:21 — 0 Comments
Nobody knows why Tom collected only stamps with flowers on them. Perhaps he spent his final lucid days in his sunroom, penning letters to women who once courted him with their silence. When they spoke, their voices came in wispy penmanship, the ends of their S’s tucked meekly into the letters preceding them, like smooth legs folded under sheer camisole. Maybe he never wrote to anyone at all but simply mused over what it would feel like to gaze on, upward and unblinking like a sunflower and still get lost in the mail. Tom’s collection was abundant but not exhaustive. […]
The Seeker – Peycho Kanev
Monday, November 30, 2015 10:18 — 1 Comment
Looking for a word to describe the world tonight, the way the dark takes hold of the candle’s halo and declares its victory, or a word for the densest darkness oozing oily out of the chimney like the one in Dachau and a third word for the gloomy man standing at the doorway of a dilapidated house and humming a tune for morning to come.
Curiouser and curiouser – Bryan Merck
Tuesday, November 17, 2015 10:56 — 0 Comments
I am become. I am becoming. I cannot not be outside of the field. I travel through an inescapable ether. Around and through my body. The Kingdom of Heaven supercedes and suffuses fundamentally the spinning structure of my elements. My conflagration of cells. My point of being. My now. My life now is as brilliant as a welder’s arc, an amazing basic moment of contact, joining. I live within it and I help it maintain. (Lay your words down, brother. Tell about it. It. Work it out. Lay down your righteous word. Change reality. Loose your fate to a Spring […]
What am I?
Bioluminescent eye
That sees by the shine
Of its own light. Lies
Blind me. I am the seventh human sense
And my stepchild,
Consequence;
Scientists can't find me.
Januswise I make us men;
Glamour
Was my image then—
Remind me:
The awful fall up off all fours
From the forest
To the hours…
Tick, Tock: Divine me.
-- Richard Kenney
Book Release and Reading Feb. 6
January 6th, 2016
Hello fellow readers, travelers and Monarchians! Our first book, Traveling Light, written by Seattle author, Jim Brantingham, is now for sale! And we will be throwing a release party for it Feb. 6 at 6pm in Ravenna Third Place Books (on the corner of 65th and 20th NE). Jim will be reading from the book and there will be guest readers accompanying him. Space is limited, so we suggest you come early. Books can be bought through this link here or at Ravenna Third Place Books (which just ordered it’s second wave of books). We are super excited for this release and […]
