I wanted to write this just for you, Uncoolkids.  Our site has become so barren…so lonely…which is really apropos for uncool kids. 

Last night, Prince Street’s McNally Robinson booksellers hosted The Dollar Store Show, the brain-child of Featherproof baby-daddy Jonathan Messinger and Jeremy Sosenko, who no longer co-hosts.  Jonathan sends dollar store items - various types of cheap chutney - to the participating writers, who sit and stare at the glue stick or comic book or show insoles; and stew and wait for the muse to just stop in when it feels like it, the way annoying in-laws do.  Then they write and then they read aloud.  The show is often sold out in Featherproof’s hometown of Chicago, and the Dollar Storeys were recently featured on public radio.  The show, in other words, does not suck. 

Last night’s writers didn’t disappoint.  Scott Snyder’s story took a sinister turn, which quieted the audience enough to hear the mohawked barista churning lattes behind us.  Bryan Charles story captured the mood of the common aching in relationships so well that it seemed uncommon.  Toby Carroll’s tale was inspired by an old walking cane, propped up on the table beside him, and the story was really well-done…but who knew that dollar stores sold wooden walking canes?

Then Jonathan Messinger read “Bicycle Kick” from his newly released collection of short stories, ”Hiding Out”.  It was a funny story about a guy who discovers he is a walking time bomb with two brain aneurysms, after suffering a soccer injury from another guy who will most likely live out his life with relative ease and fluidity.  Messinger’s language blends the affectedness of the children of the eighties with the simplicity of a timeless writer.  I haven’t finished the entire book yet, but the stories in “Hiding Out” are so engaging that I actually wish my train ride was longer so I could keep reading…even Bay Ridge to the Bronx wouldn’t be long enough.