There’s this incredible party that happens in Georgetown every August. There are carnival rides made of bike parts, bands, a bike race, and not only tall bikes, but tall bike jousting. I knew then that I had to be a part of this somehow.
Sarah Galvin
Sarah Galvin is the author of a book of poems, The Three Einsteins and a book of essays, The Best party of Our Lives. Her poetry and essays can be also found in io, New Ohio Review, Vice Magazine, and Pinwheel, among others. She is a regular contributor to The Stranger newspaper. She is a winner of the 2015 Lottery Grant, a 2015 James W. Ray award nominee, and was considered for what would have been the first Radio Flyer Wagon DUI in Washington State history.
Watch This: Cell Phone Demolition Derby
When my cell phone demolition derby began, I wasn’t even drunk. I was cleaning my apartment one afternoon and leaned forward at an angle that sent the phone sliding into a compost heap. I don’t even know what object in the compost was hard enough to shatter a phone screen—the bin contained 95% profoundly decomposed avocado skins.
Watch This: Lady Krishna’s Fairytale Mystique
You’ve seen Lady Krishna—hair dyed a glowing primary color beneath a dramatic hat of Fellini proportions, round mid-century glasses that would look at home in Warhol’s Factory. Talking to her, one feels like she’s really been on the sets of Fellini films, partied at the Factory, and a little of these realms’ magic is transferred by her hugs.
Watch This: Virginia is for Led Zeppelin Lovers
Prior to a vacation centered around visiting my Southern belle girlfriend Mary Anne’s family, I imagined the state of Virginia as a series of covered bridges and water mills and some sort of taxidermy-laden, water mill-themed version of Japanese love hotels.
Watch This: My Year of Smoking
My year of smoking ended at my thirtieth birthday party, where my girlfriend and I split a last pink Fantasia and threw its golden 22 shell-remains into the street.
Watch This: My Favorite Party Ever
The first Bowiemas I attended was held in a warehouse of questionable structural integrity overlooking Gasworks park. Santa isn’t real, but Bowie was real and as far as I’m concerned performed real magic.
Watch This: Royal and the Radio Flyer
One night my friends, fellow explorers of abandoned buildings who I’ll call Royal and #2, wanted to go far south where they had discovered some promisingly ramshackle houses.
Watch This: A Nose For Every Occasion
I spent my childhood riding any object that would roll in a relatively straight line and climbing anything vertical. I was cautious and durable—I came home from exploring notorious “Dead Man’s Cave” in Karkeek Park (so named because a corpse was once found in it) with...
Human Pyramids and X-rated Ghostbusters at the Legendary Crescent
My first Crescent experience coincided with my first grown-up Pride weekend. I was 18, so I can’t recall how exactly I managed to get in. This should not reflect negatively on the bar’s very thorough security—I was the fucking Batman of getting into bars underage. I’d...
Watch This: Women Try Cruising the Arboretum
Photo by Mary Anne Carter. Ever since a teenage summer spent devouring John Rechy novels (City of Night, Numbers, etc) I have completely romanticized the world of gay cruising. At an age when I sort of actually expected to run into the Ramones circa 1977 just...
Watch This: Ghost Communion at the Smith Tower
Illustration by Mary Anne Carter. When I was a kid my mom used to point at the glowing ball at the peak of The Smith Tower and say, “That’s where my friend Maura and I go to drink the blood of the gods!” I later discovered their monthly nights out were spent at the...
Watch This: Treating Homeless People Like People
There’s a group of South African guys who hang out in the park outside my apartment drinking, and police dump their beers out multiple times a week. Usually the bicycle cops do it—they ride across the park at a leisurely pace and surround the guys, write them tickets...