Chuck Klosterman in Alaska

So this past evening, Amy, Hannah and I went to writer Chuck Klosterman's speaking engagement at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium at UAA here in Anchorage. Predicting that it would be ridiculously full within seconds of opening up, I got there at about 6:25, a full hour and five minutes ahead of time. Of course, even during the presentation it never reached capacity, making me feel a little stupid. Due to the fact that's how I regularly feel, I was okay with it.

Of course, this early arrival time allowed me to do a few things. Most interestingly, it let me talk to Zac Clark, the guy who was putting this show together for UAA and an events coordinator for the school. From him I found out comedian Brian Posehn was coming up (yes!) while I am in Europe (no!), that they're looking to keep getting bigger and better artists (he asked who I would love to see, and I suggested Sigur Ros - cross your fingers!), and that UAA Events coordinators have very, very little interest in you once they find out you don't go to school there. Whoops!

No less, the main event came and Klosterman was predictably an incredibly entertaining speaker. From Bill Simmons' podcasts with Klosterman, I knew before hand that his voice was bit odd, but when seeing him in person it's even odder. Such a tall guy, such a strangely nasally voice. Combined with his mannerisms, I turned to Hannah in the midst of it and suggested that he's like a 6'2" muppet come to life. It was really entertaining to watch.

While the engagement was called "Life Through the Prism of Pop Culture," Klosterman quickly shared with the audience that this was something his literary agent (or something of that sort) had created for him. Really, what he spoke about was his life and how he got his start in the industry, and some entertaining anecdotes along the way.

My personal favorite anecdote from him was probably the one where he revealed that in his first book (Fargo Rock City, a book about growing up listening to hair metal in North Dakota) he included his home phone number at the end of the introduction and encouraged people to call. While he stated that most of people who called were "drunk people who were listening to Motley Crue albums," one of the people who called was David Byrne from the Talking Heads. Apparently he was sitting in an airport reading Klosterman's book and loved it, and wanted him to speak at this engagement for McSweeney's in New York City before he went on. So in a way, Klosterman was opening for the Talking Heads, which was really freaking cool.

When we got to the Q&A section, amazingly enough the whole thing kind of slowed down a bit. I'm not sure if it was because of the questions asked or because Klosterman works better as a speaker rather than an interpreter of ideas, but either way, the event took a bit of a downturn. Actually, I know it's a bit of both, but I did want to share - one person at this event asked the single most monumentally terrible question I've ever heard at any sort of event like this. It was an impenetrable question about someone named "Rushkoff," things called Disinfocons, and the synthesis of media.

Klosterman, quickly trying to gather his thoughts to not embarrass the guy for asking what may be the worst question in the history of questions, effectively destroyed the guy by eventually admitting he wasn't even sure what the question was. Chuck, I hate to say it, but no one in the audience did. It was seriously so painfully awkward, I could hardly do anything but look absently away from everything to forget what was happening in my presence. Of course, I turned to Hannah afterwards and said "I called that," as this was the same guy who came across as the prototypical hipster type, even going so far to deny knowing who Michael Jordan was before the show as he discussed things with the people near him (yes, I am an eavesdropper).

Anyways, while that was a bit disappointing and the book signing afterwards was a little wham, bam, thank you Chuck Klosterman for me, it was still a really entertaining event and something I was very glad to see. Alaska has been getting better at providing quality pop culture events to its denizens, and this one was most appreciated. Now let's start working on improving our concert output, mmmk.

Food One in Anchorage

Popular comic creator and live art impresario/performer Jim Mahfood is in Anchorage for a signing, lecture, and live mural art demo. I've always liked the guys work, not my favorite style but it's definitely unique and he stands out amongst a crowd of other creators, and there is something to be said about that. I was at Bosco's getting books for the week and completely spaced that he was going to be there and forgot my Clerks books (amongst other Mahfood creations I own), but I got to chat with him for a bit and he seemed like a really good guy.

Today I caught his live mural art demo, and it was really cool. Essentially it's Mahfood making pieces of art live set to music, and you can see pictures from it below. The guys art is heavily influenced by music and grafitti, and you can definitely tell from what he was producing today at UAA. Thanks to UAA for bringing up a interesting and non-traditional guest to the state. Solid work there all!

Jim Mahfood working on his murals

Middle left mural

Far left mural

We need to learn more history!

Rory Stewart, Diplomat Extraordinaire

Rory Stewart, 34 year old wunderkind and diplomat extraordinaire, spoke at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium at UAA tonight. Kim and I attended this event, as it seemed like something that would be fairly interesting - this man has led an incredible life, and he's still very young. It was a very well attended event, and far more diverse in terms of age and gender than I'm used to at the Wendy Williamson (although that is in comparison to my times seeing Cursive and Bright Eyes there).

Stewart was a very intelligent and interesting speaker, and he dedicated about 40 minutes to talking about his experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the remaining 20 to 30 minutes taking questions from the audience. What did we find out? Well, I've included Kim and I's notes from the experience, as I find them to be really entertaining. I won't go into great detail, but here are some fun little things we learned.

• Diplomats are really diplomatic - Obviously they have to be, but speaking to an audience who had clearly come to hear him rip on the Coalition movements and actions in Iraq, he did not give them a single shred of what they wanted. Why?


• Rory Stewart is an idealist - I thought this was the most interesting aspect about the man, and he was a remarkably interesting man. Right, wrong, whatever, Stewart believed that that what he and other Coalition forces (the oft spoken of "we" - Aid workers, soldiers, and diplomats) were doing something that was inherently right and ultimately beneficial, and I had a ton of respect for the guy for going out and saying that to an audience looking for a good ol' fashioned Bush burning.


• Alaskans are obsessed with oil and are very angry! - I thought this one woman was going to run and punch him in the face after he did not give her the answer she was looking for in response to her question (Question: Where is Iraqi oil money going? Desired response: Bush's pocket. Actual response: Iraqi government).


• Afghanistan loves heroin! - Afghanistan produces 92% (!!) of the world's heroin, yet receives a ridiculous sum in International Aid yearly. Gooooooo world! Encourage that heroin growth!


• The job that the Coalition set out to do was not a bad one conceptually. It had a great plan, just one that was impossible to accomplish. Kind of incredible to hear someone admit to that.


• When in doubt, use big words and talk longer - Stewart was "thrown on his back foot" a couple of times by questions (even admitting so once, as you can tell from the quote) but he has a sure fire way to make further questions go away - use gigantic and complex words frequently, and take forever to answer questions. People will give up and assume that he answered it well.


• In his first four months as the Governor of Dhi Qar (a region in Iraq), 54 (!!) new political parties were created. - Stewart spoke often about how the variable that was most ignored in the Coalition's plan was the economic and political complexities that were entirely new to them when they arrived. I must ask though - how do you prepare for something as volatile as that?

Alright, that's enough factoids for the lot of you. I probably bored you to tears with this one, but I thought it was remarkably interesting and found that Stewart was a bit of a fresh thinker in a time of people only believing in absolutes. He recognized there were problems, but he identified that they were impossible problems and saluted the Coalition's attempts at solving them (even if they have been somewhat futile).

I say cheers to him for giving a wonderfully gray and two sided view on the situation in this black and white society we're in.