FOUND Last Friday

Davy Rothbart, editor of FOUND Magazine, spoke to a very crowded room at the University Bookstore Friday night. Rothbart is at the end of a tour to promote FOUND II, the second collection of materials from the magazine. FOUND Magazine collecting lost love letters, to-do lists, homework, greeting cards, and other discarded ephemera since 2001.

In place of the usual bare podium, there was a guitar, a shrink-wrapped homemade rice krispies treat, and a brown box marked 'FOUND DONATIONS'. Davy himself appeared a good fifteen minutes late (the man knows how to make an entrance); fifteen minutes spent by UBS staff in cramming more chairs and people into the reading area.

Rothbart, wearing a tweed beret, tearaway parachute pants, and a gold medallion, looked like he might have been wearing exclusively items sent in by contributors. He began by reading funny items he and other contributors came across: our favorite, a to-do list titled 'Shit That Needs To Be Done' that began with 'Play Drums on Airplane' (crossed off) and ended with 'Destroy Large Object in Cool Way' (not yet achieved). After several minutes of patter that resembled stand-up comedy, he turned the mike over to his brother Peter, who wielded the guitar and sung some songs inspured by the ephemera they've collected.

Both Rothbarts received a warm reception from the crowd of fans. Unfortunately we had to sneak away early, so we didn't see what become of the collection box or cereal-based confection.