Yesterday Husband and I went to Baltimore for lunch and an excursion to a favorite indie bookstore,Atomic Books. The occasion for our visit was a stop on the latest Found Magazine tour, the Denim and Diamonds Tour. We could have just waited til evening and gone to the evening appearance in DC at the Warehouse, but the rainy Sunday inspired us to get out of town for a few hours.
You can (and should) pre-order the new Found book, Requiem for a Paper Bag. I got a copy yesterday and I totally recommend it. It’s genius.
Over the years we’ve been able to share thousands of our favorite finds; now, we get to share some of our favorite stories about finding! When we asked our favorite writers, musicians, artists, and entertainers to share stories with us of their most memorable finds, we had no idea we’d be flooded with so many strange, profound, and hilarious tales. The new FOUND book, Requiem for a Paper Bag, contains 67 short pieces from an amazing clutch of contributors, including Chuck D, Sarah Vowell, Andy Samberg, Susan Orlean, Patton Oswalt, PostSecret’s Frank Warren, Tom Robbins, Dave Eggers, Miranda July, Jonathan Lethem, Chuck Klosterman, David Simon (The Wire), Jenji Kohan (Weeds), Katherine Dunn, Jim Carroll, Jesse Thorn (The Sound of Young America), Andrew Bird, Kori Gardner (Mates of State), Mike Schank (American Movie), Del Tha Funkee Homosapien, Steve Almond, Paulo Coelho, Billy Bragg, Kimya Dawson, Damian Kulash (OK Go), Devendra Banhart, and dozens of other fantastic folks.
I also snagged a copy of Davy’s short story collection, The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas, which he inscribed to me while I giggled happily like the, um, happily giggling fangirl that I am. I’ve only read a couple of stories so far, but I’m enjoying the book a lot. I’m curious which 3 stories Steve Buscemi has optioned to adapt into a screenplay, but I wasn’t thinking yesterday and didn’t ask.
As long as I’m going on and on about Davy Rothbart and Found, you should check out his guest post at the Utne Reader’s AltWire Blog. It’s about YouTube and it contains some fascinating clips.
While I’m doling out reading, watching and listening assignments, you should also check out his This American Life episodes. (I think he’s done 7 of them). I’m going to listen to episode 184 tonight. In Act One. Mr. Rothbart’s Neighborhood, Davy interviewed a group of people about their neighborhood conflicts and then went to see Mr. Rogers and had Mr Rogers mediate the conflicts. I could listen to it and then blog about it, but what sport would there be in that? Plus, I’m about to faint from hunger and I need to flee the computer for the rest of the night. Someone has been roasting a chicken for a couple of hours and I’m getting cantankerous.
Before I go – it would be terribly wrong not to mention Davy’s brother and wildly talented partner in crime on this tour, Peter Rothbart. Peter writes and performs brilliant, funny, heartbreaking songs that are inspired by Finds.
I can’t do their act justice so I’ll encourage you to check out the books and the magazine and listen to Peter’s music and, most importantly, catch the road show next time it passes anywhere near your town. It’s fun to laugh and bond with strangers. It’s also fun to sing along to The Booty Don’t Stop.
(I must admit that I was secretly hoping for Wiggle on the Floor, which we once got to sing-along to 5 years ago with a somewhat perplexed group of Senior Citizens at a Politics and Prose event).