Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

On Monday night, I attended a lecture by Chuck Klosterman at the Wisconsin Union Theater. While I've certainly heard of Klosterman, a journalist who is best known for his work on pop culture and his best-selling collection of pop culture esssays, entiteld "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto," I don't really know him. Turns out I never will.

During the lecture, Klosterman described that, "I’ve never met anyone I’ve interviewed—I’ve only interviewed them. I don’t know what they’re really like. They were in the position of basically marketing themselves or marketing a product. I was in the position of being a reporter who was having a conversation...Those just aren’t organic relationships.”

So I'd like to preface my thoughts and observations by saying that I will clearly never really know Klosterman. That being said, I thought Klosterman was a genius on all things related to pop culture and sports (which seems like an unlikely combo to me). He was also very exciteable (often flailing his arms mid-sentence), down to earth, and unbelievably hilarious. He took many questions from the audience, and spoke on several topics ranging from his favorite Wilco album ("Being There") to his thoughts on the demise of Brittany Spears. All of his answers were intelligent, thought provoking, and backed up with great examples and explanations. This was a great lecture, and I will definitely be reading more of Klosterman's work in the future.