Krist Novoselic held a book signing for his recent Of Grunge and Government: Let’s Fix this Broken Democracy on Astor Place in New York City this past Friday. I had arrived early to meet Bill and Tim before the lecture and book signing. As I wandered around the first floor, Krist walked in. A funny thing about meeting celebrities: through media hype, you come to imagine them as being larger than life. Meeting the 6'7" Novoselic was no disappointment. Suddenly, I snapped into the emotionless Tweed promoter, requesting an interview before he had the chance to take off his gloves and scarf. I guess that was my defense mechanism for dealing with the fact that I was shaking hands with one of my favorite musicians. After fumbling through my request, our conversation ended and I found myself entirely unsure of how to leave this suddenly awkward social situation. We were clearly done talking but were still in close, physical proximity. “Do I pretend to look at these books in front of me?” I thought. I walked out of the store.
Twenty minutes later, I was part of a crowd on the second floor of Barnes and Noble, anticipating Krist’s exit from the make-shift green room [a closed off book aisle]. After a brief introduction by the store’s manager, Krist began lecturing on several political points including Instant Runoff Voting (IRV), Super Districts, and the slow process of democratic change. The crowd reacted with a few laughs here and there but I noticed a few awkward gaps where applause was clearly appropriate. It seemed this New York crowd was not as excited about politics as one might expect. This is quite unfortunate considering the engaging topics and level-headed accessibility of Krist’s book.
