Left Bank Books announces an evening of literature, culture, and Cocoa Puffs with Chuck Klosterman on Thursday, July 5, from 7:00 to 10:30 pm. All ages are welcome. Chuck Klosterman, author of Killing Yourself to Live and Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, will be discussing and signing his book Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas (Simon & Schuster, $15.00), on sale at Left Bank Books beginning Monday, June 25th. This is the paperback release which contains previously unreleased essays. The hardcover edition is available now (Simon & Schuster, $25.00). This event also features a cash bar, the stimulating ambiance that only the Mad Art Gallery can provide, and Cocoa Puffs courtesy of Vintage Vinyl (milk not provided). There will also be a Jimmy Page Contest. Chuck Klosterman will judge and award a contest for the audience members who most closely resemble Jimmy Page, as seen in The Song Remains the Same (1976). Fabulous prizes provided by Vintage Vinyl. Mr. Klosterman's presentation will begin at 7:30 pm, followed by a Q & A and book signing. The judging of the Jimmy Page Contest will be held at 9:45 pm. This is a ticketed event. Two tickets are given with each purchase or pre-paid pre-order of Chuck Klosterman IVat Left Bank Books or at the event. Each ticket is numbered and will serve as your book signing line ticket. For more information, please contact Left Bank Books at (314) 367-6731 or visit www.left-bank.com. From the man who can explain why Madonna is an unsuccessful sexual icon while Pamela Anderson is a successful one ("Madonna is an unsuccessful sexual icon because she desperately wants to be a sexual icon. Pamela Anderson is the perfect sexual icon because she wants to have sex. You think that makes her dumb? Well, maybe you're right. But how smart are you while you're having sex? What part of sex is ‘intellectual'? Certainly none of the good parts"), who can enlighten you on the Sims videogame ("Why isn't my SimChuck happy? Because he's a self-absorbed, materialistic prick. This is perhaps the most disturbing element of The Sims: The happiness of the characters is directly proportional to the sh*t you elect to buy them"), and who visits Memphis to investigate whether or not dying is good for your career; comes the latest collection, Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas. This often hysterical, at times thought-provoking, and always entertaining volume is comprised of three parts: Part I: Things That Are True is a fantastic display of Klosterman's best profiles and trend stories from the last decade (including those from The New York Times Magazine, The Believer, Esquire, and Spin), such as "How Real is Real," in which he considers why exactly reality television is so interesting ("Imperfect fact will always be more interesting than flawless fiction. We are addicted to blurry lines") and "No More Knives," his essay on Radiohead, in which he sheds light on whether or not the album "Hail to the Thief" is, indeed, a reference to George W. Bush. Part II: Things That Might Be True is a collection of classic Klosterman opinion pieces: hilarious, perplexing, and ironic, such as "Monogamy," in which he offers a valid, quite probable view of this controversial topic: the reason people had such an easy time of it in the 19th and early 20th centuries is because life expectancies were so much shorter; nowadays, monogamy has a hard time competing with such long lifespans. And Part III: Something That Isn't True At All is the first published fiction of Chuck Klosterman. Yes, it's about a young journalist living in Ohio, contemplating music, dealing with his girlfriend, and working for a newspaper, but it's fiction. In "Southern Fried Sex Kitten," Klosterman takes on Britney Spears. In his introduction to the essay, he notes, "Britney Spears is the most famous person I've ever interviewed. She was also the weirdest. I assume this is not a coincidence." In his interview with the now Mrs. Federline, he explains what it is that makes her flawless: "What keeps Britney perfect-what makes Britney perfect-is that she can produce a video where people lick the sweat off her body (as they did in 2001's ‘I'm a Slave 4 U') and still effortlessly insist the song has no relationship to sex whatsoever (‘It's just about being a slave to the music,' she tells me)." Also included in Chuck Klosterman IV is Klosterman's controversial New York Times Magazine profile of Billy Joel, an assignment Chuck took because he liked Billy Joel, but one that ended with Billy Joel hating Chuck. Goth parties at Disneyland? Check. A cruise that includes a "morning staring at Bob Marley's childhood bed with twenty super-high soccer moms who haven't touched marijuana since Jimmy Carter was president"? Check. The original Chicken McNuggets experiment? Check. The difference between nemeses and archenemies, and how to recognize your own? Check. Chuck Klosterman was called "one of America's top cultural critics" by Entertainment Weekly, and there is a good reason for this. He is. If you haven't joined his cult following yet, now is the time... Chuck Klosterman is the author of 2001's Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota; 2003's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto; and 2005's Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story. He is a columnist for Esquire and a contributor to The New York Times Magazine and ESPN.com's "Page 2." He has written for The New York Times Book Review, The Believer, The Washington Post, The Akron Beacon Journal, The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead, Gear, Blender, Film Comment, The Village Voice, and GQ. He lives in New York. This event is hosted by Annie Zaleski who has been the RFT music editor for the last two years. Before that, she lived in Boston and was a freelance writer who attempted to mention R.E.M. in her stories entirely too much. Her work has appeared in and on Rolling Stone, Spin, Salon.com, the Los Angeles Times and the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
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