Found in Eugene!

Davy and Peter Rothbart, the brothers who started Found Magazine, brought their traveling show to Sam Bond’s Garage in Eugene yesterday. I’ve been looking forward to it for a couple of months. Last time I saw them in Eugene was probably 3 or 4 years ago. It was before Ancient Vivi was posted on the Found website, on July 24, 2007, before I met Chrome Toaster, Mona Lisa, Nightingale, Jonathan, Sarasara, Midlife Crisis and the others who post regularly. It was before I knew who Davy and Peter were. I heard about them on the radio in 2005 or so and after that I had the website as my home page, but never posted a comment before Ancient Vivi’s birth. Since then I’ve submitted many finds and I’ve had a bunch show up on the website. I’m not sure how many, but less than 10 and probably more than 6. The Stranger and Ramen Boy were two others that showed up after Ancient Vivi, around 2007. After that, I sort of lost track. The most recent was on June 9, 2009.

The show last night was great.. but it would have been more fun to have another Found-crazed person to go with. Daniel humored me by taking photos, and he really enjoyed the show. But he doesn’t really “get” the fascination with found items – his big goal is to toss more stuff into the trash, not to hold onto it!

Nevertheless, the event and talking with Davy was so cool (Peter didn't really seem very interested in talking with me, but that’s okay).. Davy listed off all the people he'd met on tour, like Turbo and Chrome Toaster and Nightingale and also Jonathan. And he didn't seem the least bit surprised to see me. I wasn't sure if he'd know who Clover was. But he did. And when I walked in, he smiled at me like he was expecting me. I guess maybe it's because of MySpace or Facebook; maybe he's seen my picture. Or maybe one of our other mutual friends emailed him to say I would be at the Eugene show? I don't have his email, nor a direct way of communicating with him. I don't know how much he reads the messages on the Foundmagazine MySpace. I've never written to him directly on there. Nevetheless, it seemed like we had already met before. Talking to him was like talking to an old friend.

I was disappointed because I didn't get as much time as I wanted, to visit with Davy, Peter and others who may have been in their entourage (I don’t know if there were others). I had a bunch of questions I wanted to ask them. But Daniel was tired at the end and wanted to leave, so he went on out the door immediately after the show finished, and waited for me. We had taken a few photos with Davy at the end, then I lost my glasses and panicked because I was afraid the waiter had bussed them off a table and tossed them in the garbage. I was blind (well, not quite, but everything was a blur) and I had to go outside and find Daniel and tell him my glasses were gone. So he came back in and found them on the floor. I had looked but hadn’t seen them there. I had taken them off briefly for photos (sometimes the flash reflects), laid them down on the table, and when I reached for them a couple of minutes later they were gone. Apparently they had been swept off the table accidently when it was bussed.

Anyway, I wanted to be able to visit with both Davy and Peter for a little bit longer. Davy had told me that he’d had to get on a plane because the wheel fell off their van, or something like that. I wanted to find out how that happened, where did it happen, and what did that mean they would have to deal with for the rest of the trip? But I didn’t get a chance to ask him about that. I’m hoping they’re keeping a travel blog like they have in the past, so I can find out about how that went. But this tour seems like a grueling pace, with one stop after another, a different city every night. It seems a shame that they can’t stop and spend more time in places like Eugene, where they would certainly find more like-minded souls who appreciated their art!

I thought it was so cool that Davy referred to the whole Found phenomenon as a collaborative art project, that we are all part of.. and he told me about meeting Jonathan (England) as well as others on tour, like Turbo in the Thunderdome, Chrome Toaster and Nightingale.

There was another odd coincidence. I bought a complete 5-volume gift set of the Found Magazines from Peter. It was tied with a pink ruffle cut from a girl’s dress with a tag that said “Claudia.” It's described it in the caption under the photo. I didn’t realize at first that they had used a scrap of clothing as gift wrap at firs. I just saw the tag with the name “Claudia,” so I asked Peter, "Why does it say 'Claudia'?" He said, "I don't know."

Well, the reason I asked is this: The day before we had just arrived home from a trip to the beach. We stopped to pick up our mail, and I got out of the car to get the mail from our mailbox (which is up the street and several houses up the street from our house), and after getting it out of the mailbox I was going to walk down the hill to our house. The neighbor, who lives across the street from our mailbox, was out in her yard, so I stopped to chat. We’ve waved at each other from a distance, but we haven’t really spoken in a few years. Her name is CLAUDIA. Her daughters, Jessie and Nicole, used to baby sit Heather when she was little. So we spent a few minutes catching up on what our girls are doing. Jessie is now 28 and she went to Italy for spring break several years ago and fell in love with an Albanian who was working as a cook in Italy. They married, and had a little girl who is now 8 months old, and have been living in Albania. Well, her mother, CLAUDIA, told me they are coming back next month to live in the US. And guess what.. the baby girl's name is CLAUDIA! The neighbor told me that Claude or Claudia has been a family name for every generation except her daughter’s and that Jessie brought back the tradition by naming her daughter CLAUDIA. Jessie pronounces it "Clow-deeya" the Albanian way to say it. (Claudia happens to be a name I’ve always liked, ever since I had a friend named Claudia Olig in middle school. I also had a friend named Claudette when I was working at Meier & Frank in Portland before I was 21. She was 25, and so worldly and sophisticated!)

Anyway, it shouldn’t have surprised me. This is a typical Found connection/coincidence. All things associated with Found seem to be bathed in this odd magical aura, which has been noted repeatedly – by Chrome Toaster and other found fanatiques..

Anyway, it was a fantastic show and a fun visit, even if too short! I can hardly wait until their next tour, when I hope some of my other found friends can join me for their show!