Monkey Puzzle Press

“I think that if we are going to reform the world, and make it a better place to live in, the way to do it is not with talk about relationships of a political nature, which are inevitably dualistic, full of subjects and objects and their relationship to one another; or with programs full of things for other people to do. I think that kind of approach starts it at the end and presumes the end is the beginning. Programs of a political nature are important end products of social quality that can be effective only if the underlying structure of social values is right. The social values are right only if the individual values are right. The place to improve the world is first in one’s own heart and head and hands, and then work outward from there. Other people can talk about how to expand the destiny of mankind. I just want to talk about how to fix a motorcycle…”

- Robert Pirsig -

TONIGHT!

Open Mic at the Speakeasy, hosted by Baobob Tree Press and Illiterate Magazine – sign up starts at 7:30 – show begins at 8!

Special JD Salinger/Hunter S. Thompson Death Day Anniversary Reading – bring some JD and HST to read – SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL ARTISTS – SEE YOU THERE!

Where?
At the unnamed secret bar next to Cosmo’s on The Hill.

Questions?
E-mail Rob: rob_geisen@illiteratemagazine.com
Here’s some highlights from the January 19th inaugural event:

Poet/Performer Extraordinaire Jonathan Montgomery drinks something with alcohol in it.

In the speakeasy…

Rob Geisen opens the night. After strangling Helen…

Marcus Palmer berates the crowd.

The crowd, berated… Jonathan with mic in hand, at the bar.

Rob reading Helen’s eulogy.

The bar.

Ben Kaufman and guest.

Jessie Thayer and Rob Geisen belting blues.

Nate Cook with a sudden case of Bell’s Palsy…while his better half stretches her tricep.

Nate Cook and guest back Albums on the Hill owner, damnit, I forgot his name…

The following review of Searching for Suzi was featured in The Griffon News on January 20th:

Dark Stripping Secrets Revealed

Written by Daniel Donan

I love strippers. The whole concept is wonderful. When I think about the low lights and the bumping bass and constant motion of a strip club I smile. Maybe it is just because I am a guy but the idea of a dozen or so women in various states of undress writhing and grinding in wanting ways for just my arousal is one of the top five things I can picture for any day’s plans. I really love strippers. But outside of dating a few in my early twenties, I never really stopped to think about the mental landscape they must live in. Then I read Searching for Suzi by Nancy Stohlman.

This book is a fast firing flash fiction about womanhood, sexuality, exploitation, emotional evolution and the world of stripping. It is the tale of Natalie, a thirty-something mother who retraces the steps of teenaged beauty pageantry and stripping to search for the first woman she slept with. The trail takes the reader on a ride through time that reveals a life of emotional abuse, squalor and eroticism.

It makes the reader think about the lives of strippers and the esteem issues inflicted on women in a world that tells them that they have to be beautiful. It asks serious questions about the effects our sexuality has on our lives.

Without becoming porn, this book looks truthfully at the world of strippers and gets quite saucy. The shifting point of view keeps the reader feeling like they are flowing in and out of the consciences of the narrator. It forces you to wonder how you would feel if you were 17 and your high school principal just walked into the strip club you work at. It keeps a dark subject light in the right places by reviewing stripper tips, like stripper tip #6: underarm deodorant glows under black light or stripper tip #11: smoking pot in the bathroom only makes the night drag on forever.

Sure there are plenty of dirty words to keep your attention and at least two sex scenes that will make you look around to make sure you are alone while you read it, but better than that is the underlying understanding of the story. It is a story about the scars sexuality can leave on us, and how those scars shape us into the sexy little beasts we become. It is also about the connections that you make in life and how things change over time. It is a story about real life and I am glad I read it.

For the source article, click here: Dark Stripping Secrets Revealed