Student News Student Life News Weird Notes and Kinko's: FOUND Magazine's Davy Rothbart Visits Columbia
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Weird Notes and Kinko's: FOUND Magazine's Davy Rothbart Visits Columbiaby Anne Pilon, Journalism |
Images courtesy of Found Magazine
A few years ago in Chicago, Davy Rothbart found a note on his car windshield. The note was not for him; it was intended for someone named Mario. Seems his girlfriend, Amber, thought Davy’s car belonged to Mario, whom she thought had lied to her about where he would be that night. Amber was irate, but the note ended with a very calm “P.S. Page me later.”
Rothbart naturally found the note entertaining, so he shared it with some friends and found out that his fascination with random findings was not unique.
“I just love finding random things like that, so I showed some of my friends the note,” said Rothbart. “I was surprised how many of them had found notes to share. From that point it just seemed like a magazine would be the natural way to share all of our findings.”
He and his friends decided to start out small, unsure of how their idea would be accepted by the general public.
“I just wanted to make a little zine, about 50 copies at first,” said Rothbart. “But when we went to Kinko's to make the copies, we showed the guy who was working and he thought it was a great idea. He said we should make 800 copies and he even offered to help us put them together and give us a deal.”
Rothbart and some of his friends put together a release party to celebrate the launch of their new zine. They sold about 100 copies that night, leaving another 700 to sit around Rothbart’s apartment. He said he was nervous at first about not being able to sell enough copies but so many people started coming to his apartment to buy the zine that one of his neighbors called the police because they suspected he was selling drugs out of his apartment.
“Eventually, we started getting a ton of found stuff flooding in. And now it’s seven years later, and it’s been so much fun to see it grow,” said Rothbart. “I think of it as a giant community art project. My mom calls it people watching on paper.”
Today, FOUND Magazine is a nationally distributed yearly publication that has also inspired other community art projects such as PostSecret, and also led to FOUND books, FOUND merchandise, and FOUND events.
On November 4, one of these events will take place at Columbia.
At the event, Rothbart will read and show off some of his favorite findings – and he has a whole lot of favorites.
“I seem to have a new favorite every three days,” he said. “Love notes are always good, and I also like to-do lists, especially when people mix things like ‘go to dry cleaners’ with things like ‘learn to live free.’ It’s so interesting to get this really intimate glimpse into the life of a total stranger. Every day I look forward to going to get the mail to see the new findings.”
If you’re interested in hearing about Rothbart’s favorite finds, Columbia’s FOUND event will take place from 7 p.m. – 9 p.m. on Wednesday, November 4 at 916 S. Wabash on the 4th floor.
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