Lost and FOUND
FOUND Magazine is yet another example of why print will never go out of style. FOUND began when creator/editor Davy Rothbart went out to his car one night and found a note meant for someone else. It read, “Mario, I fucking hate you. You said you had to work then whys your car HERE at HER place?? You’re a fucking LIAR. I hate you. I fucking hate you. -Amber PS. Page me later.” The car, of course, was actually Davy’s and the rest is history.
Davy, and the other editors at FOUND, readily admit they didn’t invent the idea of found stuff being cool, but to their credit they’re some of the most enterprising folks who think so. So enterprising in fact, that they started an annual magazine devoted to all things lost and left behind, thanks to the hundreds of people who are also inclined to unfold crumpled bits of the paper from the floor, pick up promising pieces of trash, or just find themselves on the receiving end of a misdelivered note; FOUND Magazine thrives on submissions from its readers. And yeah that’s right, I said annual, meaning it takes a full year to compile all the amazingly hilarious, mostly depressing, sometimes shocking and every now and then poignant scraps of of other peoples’ lives. It’s like a book-full of episodes of “This American Life” that you get to make up the storyline for. And when I use it as an example of the viability of print as a medium, as opposed to skimming the images of the found papers on FOUND‘s website, it’s because these are physical objects we’re talking about, and it just won’t do to click through them.