CHAPTER ONE Only Kirsten Kogan could make a cute bumblebee costume look sinister. This I knew before she punched me in the face the night before I lost my job. Kirsten and I co-taught a class at an alternative school in Chicago’s Rogers Park neighborhood. Well, Kirsten did most of the teaching. I was like her left arm, her muscle. My official title was intervention counselor and teacher’s aide. Really what it meant was I would take kids who acted up in class to a time-out room. At this school were a variety of “special needs” kids. Some would shit their pants, others would punch you in yours. Some did both. On our first day working together I had to clean up the bathroom…
Essays, Interviews, Observations, Pop Culture, Stories, and other Dodginess
Posts by Liffey
Coming Tuesday night (May 20) to The Dodgy. “The Asshole Book Club Part 3” and possibly a chapter or excerpt from the book “Finn’s Rain.” “The same fist she put through the windshield. The fist that belonged to a size two insect with evil blonde bangs.” Still to come later: The Young Martens Life, love, and death within a college (secret) fraternity.
Chicago. Several years ago in a Wicker Park loft. The first and last gig of UK Grief. “You assholes are in a band?” That can’t be the worse thing you hear when you’re getting in a lift with your bandmates and instruments. Especially when it’s from the mouth of Beer Belly Bob, a local nit who apparently left his bar stool at Mickey’s Tavern to be a pain in our ass at our friend’s Wicker Park loft. The “our” is UK Grief, a newly formed band consisting of myself (vocals), Chicago reclusive author Clive Javanski (keyboards), Aidan (bass), Franz (guitar) and Sasha (percussion and vocals – and back from living in Paris for a year). We were having what businesses call a “soft opening.”…
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