Top 10 90’s Music Videos – Marco Collins
Wednesday, June 3, 2015 12:13 — 0 Comments
Everyone in the Seattle music scene knows the name Marco Collins – he’s the affable, talkative, Hall of Fame DJ credited with breaking bands like Beck and Pearl Jam. He is the 90’s star-making DJ from 107.7 The End who was pals with Nirvana. He was the life of the party – to an untenable degree. Marco is also the central figure of a new documentary premiering at SIFF on Wednesday, The Glamour & The Squalor, a film about his life as a music lover, addict and, now, Emerald City fixture. To celebrate TG&TS and to pay tribute to 90’s music […]
Two Poems – Pete Mason
Monday, June 1, 2015 12:22 — 0 Comments
BRIGHAM ROAD AND THE FOLLOWING SUMMER At the clinic they gave you a paper bag of pills and none of us opened our mouths on the drive home. Our apartment full of flies born in empty beer bottles that were left by the fridge. Black tape hanging like streamers from the ceiling to gather tiny bodies in with some chemical pretending to be sugar enough to lick. You took the ultrasound from the nightstand, packed it away as carefully as a gift. We stripped the bed to its frame, sheets and comforter put in the back of a rusting van, […]
Hassan Hajjaj’s World Premiere and the Assumptions of Modernity – Ahsan Butt
Thursday, May 28, 2015 11:46 — 0 Comments
Hassan Hajjaj styles, photographs, installs, interior-designs, dee-jays—essentially, he arts. His works have featured in Brooklyn, Paris, and London museums. And now, he’s a documentarian. The world premiere of his first film, A Day in the Life of Karima: A Henna Girl, was hosted two Wednesdays ago at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s (LACMA) Bing Theater. The (free) event included a Q&A with Hajjaj and Karima herself. The film has been dubbed a companion piece to his most famous exhibit—‘Kesh Angels—which centered around a series of photographs of Karima and her henna crew posed on motorbikes while dressed in […]
Three Songs To The Head vol. 31 (by Robb Benson)
Tuesday, May 19, 2015 11:20 — 0 Comments
Hello and welcome back to Three Songs to the Head where we share three songs that moved us, three songs we love, three songs we can’t get out of our heads! Today, we’re featuring Courtney Barnett, Built To spill and Abraham.. and today’s post is written by Seattle songwriter Robb Benson. Enjoy! How can I describe how I feel about Courtney Barnett’s music without getting myself in trouble with my wife? Okay… it’s too late, my wife knows. My crush is innocent though, I swear, and there are probably thousands of guys and gals feeling the same way every […]
The President’s Hairdo – Beau Golwitzer
Monday, May 18, 2015 11:09 — 0 Comments
The President came out with a new hairdo. Previously, the President had sported, not by choice, a simple white ribbon of hair wrapped from the left side to the right side of his head. But now the President’s new hairdo was a big, 1950s-style blonde beehive. The first anyone saw of the new hairdo was when the President made an announcement of it in the Rose Garden during a July press conference. He started this announcement by saying, “Do you like my hair?†and then he touched the hair in a dainty little way. The press had a lot […]
Kris Orlowski’s Songwriter Sessions
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 12:07 — 0 Comments
While there’s no shortage of eclectic shows in Seattle, an entire night of solo performances is a bit harder to find. If there’s a trend in the culture, it’s bent toward maximalism – big vocal harmonies, horn sections, extra toms played by back-up singers, etc. – and this leaves a little less room for the intimate experience of the solo performer. So I was intrigued when I saw the promo for Kris Orlowski’s Songwriter Sessions. It helped that the bill was unannounced – my curiosity was further piqued – and I decided to check it out. On my way to […]
Fascinating Figures: An Interview With Sara Lanzillotta
Tuesday, May 12, 2015 10:46 — 0 Comments
Sara Lanzillotta’s dolls have been sold across the country, at fine art locations ranging from the avant-garde MF Gallery in New York, to the on-guard Seattle Art Museum. Her portfolio of hand-sewn sculpture includes monsters, burlesque dancers, circus performers and the sideshow oddities traditionally exhibited alongside them. Her studio is difficult to locate, but I found it, camouflaged beneath a blanket of wisteria… the face of a Japanese Oni hanging above the door. I knocked on the door just as Sara’s husband was leaving for a pool game, then tip-toed past the grimacing Oni as Sara (a 4’11”, pastel-Goth) led me into her boudoir. She’s known […]
Cutting – Bismarck Martinez
Monday, May 11, 2015 10:33 — 0 Comments
My father once brought me to the sugar fields Where the border between Haiti and our country Was not clearly marked. He handed me a machete And told me chop, and chop again, the tall stalks. I was careful at first, measuring each sweeping gesture By how far away my father stood and how much air My lungs permitted me to take in and let out. It didn’t take long for the machete to grow light in my hands. I pulled it back and struck down a cane with two swift chops Again, and again, just as he said I […]
Eli Rosenblatt’s Elephant Car
Tuesday, May 5, 2015 10:16 — 0 Comments
Eli Rosenblatt, a man the Monarch chatted with here for his Timber! performance, will soon be releasing a new album for kids and families called, Elephant Car. The 7-track record features playful lyrics and fun stories atop world music – from samba to klezmer. The record features performances by some of Seattle’s best musicians, ‘ta boot – from drummer Sam Esecson (Polyrhythmics) to trumpeter Ahamefule J. Oluo (Industrial Revelation). “The album is an unabashed, joyful celebration of rhythm, absurdity and love for humanity,” says Rosenblatt, “I hope it inspires people of all ages to absorb themselves in the music with […]
Three Songs To The Head vol. 30
Monday, May 4, 2015 12:48 — 0 Comments
Hello and welcome back to Three Songs to the Head where we share three songs that moved us, three songs we love, three songs we can’t get out of our heads! Today, we’re featuring Foghorns, Naomi Wachira and Carradin Michel. Enjoy! –Jake Uitti If you’re a fan of folk music, you’ve probably heard the stories about Bob Dylan steeling records from friends, taking them right from the house, and bringing them with him along his travels to listen to. These are the records that influenced his singing, his voice and his attack at the art of writing music. I imagine […]
The answer isn't poetry, but rather language
- 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 […]
