Joe read and liked Steven's review of Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas:

"I love Klosterman, I know others don’t, but I do.

Premises from IV that made me think:

- Brittney Spears is either brilliant or a moron in not understanding her role in perpetuating the Madonna/whore dichotomy.
- U2 might...more I love Klosterman, I know others don’t, but I do.

Premises from IV that made me think:

- Brittney Spears is either brilliant or a moron in not understanding her role in perpetuating the Madonna/whore dichotomy.
- U2 might be genuine, they might be full of it, but they understand the concept that as long as they make money they can do whatever the heck it is they want.
- You can eat McNuggets for a week and it likely won’t kill you, despite what the movie “Supersize Me’ Might say.
- The line “corporate responsibility begins when corporations start breaking the law and personal responsibility never stops” is devastatingly accurate.
- Goth kids really aren’t scary and they like Disneyland too.
- Radiohead (and most (not all) of the people who think they’re brilliant) generally tend to bit pretentious jerks. That goes double for Thom Yorke.
- Armed revolution is likely extinct in this country. How do you revolt against and what the heck are your changes of success.
- Michael Stipe is very full of himself and also overrated.
- People are fooled into thinking Radiohead are brilliant by their lyrics, which are meaningless blank slates that allow you to place whatever meaning (why Bush is evil or your girlfriend doesn’t love you) you want upon them.
- Jeff Tweedy and Wilco are awesome, though I like Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt more.
- Billy Joel does not get the critical acclaim he so rightly craves. He is also a hopeless romantic and believes very much in the redemptive power of love.
- Choice makes us happy in the short term, but sadder in the long term because it robs of shared experiences.
- Klosterman’s essay on Barry Bonds is the best there is and I love his analogy to Bonds in this era as similar to Ali in the 1960s and Seabiscuit in the 1930s.
- There is a difference between an enemy and a nemesis and we need both.
- Val Kilmer is awesome (though pretentious) and very underrated. He feels he knows what it’s like to be Jim Morrison more than Jim Morrison does - now that’s method acting.
- The term “guilty Pleasure” makes no sense. There is no reason to feel guilty about liking “Road House,” “Thriller,” or gumballs.
- Any rock star can tell you that being with 1 woman 1000 times is way more interesting that being with 1000 different women.
- It is better to be a pirate than a chump.
- Culture is never wrong. Just because Nirvana is better than Limp Bizkit doesn’t mean that Limp Bizkit’s success means we are losing.
- In order to be with a beautiful woman for dorky looking guys, it is better to pick one that is already taken and not one that it single. With a single woman, you have to be better than all the people pursuing her, with a taken woman, you only have to be better than the person she is currently with. Breaking-up starts with the idea that modern society makes monogamy nearly impossible.
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