Just before bed last night, I decided to check my twitter feed and much to my surprise - @CKlosterman (Chuck Klosterman) sent out a tweet alerting San Antonio residents that he would be doing a lecture at the University of Trinity, Ruth Allen Recital Hall.
I thought he was going to do a reading for a book he recently released (The Visible Man), but it turned out to be a lecture on pop-culture and the career of Klosterman.
Outside of reading hundreds of his articles and columns, I didn’t really know his back story so it was great to hear him talk about how lucky he got in terms of being at the right place and right time when he graduated from University of North Dakota.
My favorite part of the evening was an experiment of sorts, he performed with all the attendees. Klosterman apparently gets many emails from people who seek out advise on what they should do in life. Be it, become journalist, writers, etc.
He penned a column for Grantland.com but apparently the column he wrote was a little too weird for the website so it got turned down. He read the article and then put together 30 fictional scenarios where the audience would can choose to stand up (A public endorsement of the fictional scenario) or sit down (a public acknowledgement that you would not endorse the fictional scenario) depending on what gets asked.
I stood for the first 29 fictional scenarios… some were pretty silly, but I could see myself encouraging a person to go forward with any of the first 29 scenarios.
Scenario 30 was pretty hard to endorse - it went something to the effect - a person writes in and suggests that his goal is to meet Klosterman and fictional person has decided to commit suicide in front of Klosterman so that it haunts him.
The self infliction of death was tough to endorse so I sat down. Some stood for all 30 tho’.
Highlight of the night was a Q/A session. I got to ask the last question of the night. My question was a dorky music one involving the first 4 Sabbath/Led Zeppelin albums. His answer surprised me a little bit… but I was happy to hear him entertain my question nonetheless.