‘Found’ founder launches book tour in Midland
By Scott Tady stady@timesonline.com Timesonline.com
MIDLAND — He could have picked a big-city Barnes & Noble or some chic book boutique in a hipster college town.
But Davy Rothbart chose to launch his 75-city book tour Tuesday in Midland at the Lincoln Park Performing Arts Center.
“On the public sales date, no less,” said Rothbart, co-founder of Found magazine and a highly praised essayist.
“I came there once before, to the LPPAC,” Rothbart, an Ann Arbor, Mich., native said, slowly pronouncing Lincoln Park’s acronym to make sure he didn’t leave out any initials. “I had a great time and was really impressed with the school there, and the staff, and faculty and students, so I thought I’d start my book tour there this year.”
It won’t be a typical author’s lecture and autograph session. For one thing, there’ll be live music, supplied by Rothbart’s brother, Peter, a Seattle folk-rocker.
“It’s like a rowdy, energetic reading and music show,” Rothbart said. “I get a little carried away.”
Rothbart’s tour will visit 37 states publicizing “My Heart is an Idiot,” his new collection of quirky, comical and bittersweet essays based on his adventures criss-crossing the country, searching for a soulmate.
“This is a badass book,” rocker Kid Rock exclaims on the book’s jacket, under the quote, “I believe in Davy … he is a force to be reckoned with,” from Ira Glass, producer for the national radio show “This American Life,” for which Rothbart is as frequent contributor.
“My Heart is an Idiot” includes the personal tale of a Greyhound bus trip on which he met a 110-year-old whiskey-sipper named Vernon, who ended up being Rothbart’s wingman as the author pursued a beautiful Buffalo barmaid. Born during the presidency of Benjamin Harrison, Vernon still got carded by the bar’s unswayed bouncer.
Another “My Heart is an Idiot” essay outlines Rothbart’s lifetime quest for a woman mirroring the desolate beauty of Shadow, a character played by Fairuza Balk in the 1992 movie “Gas, Food, Lodging.” Rothbart thought he found his Shadow once after a lengthy phone interview with an Arizona college journalist. They spent many more hours on follow-up phone chats, agreeing to met for the first time — sight unseen in the case of Rothbart — who stubbornly refused to look at a beforehand photo of the woman, identified in the book as Sarah.
Rothbart flew to Phoenix to meet Sarah for the first time.
It would be their last time.
Sarah was attracted to him, but as they drove off down a desert highway, Rothbart’s optimism collided with his chemical reaction — or lack thereof — for her. The emotional wreckage wasn’t pretty after he mustered the courage to tell her the cold, hard truth — he just wasn’t that into her.
Readers might feel like a fly on the dashboard as Rothbart details Sarah’s reaction: “She leaned her face to her window for minutes at a time, looking into the endless dark, and then sat back, watching the hood gobble up each white, stubby dash painted along the center of the road. Time moved very slowly, and each mile seemed to last an hour or a week or a year … .”
That rough lesson was one of many Rothbart relived writing “My Heart is an Idiot” the past five years.
“I learned a lot about myself writing the book,” he said. “I can’t say my heart is not entirely an idiot anymore, but I have come a long way. I’ve figured things out a little.”
The book’s confessional nature is a payback, of sorts, for Rothbart’s magazine, Found, which publishes odd or funny notes, lists, letters, photos, doodles and other lost items that are found and submitted by people.
He came up with the Found formula on a snowy Chicago night a decade ago, after finding under his windshield a cryptic note: “You said you had to work then whys your car HERE at HER place??… You’re a LIAR, I hate you… P.S. page me later.”
The anonymous message writer had left that note under the wrong windshield, but Rothbart couldn’t stop thinking about it. He showed the peculiar, emotionally penned prose to friends, many of whom shared similar stories about mysterious items they had found.
One thing led to another, and soon Found magazine was cranking out an annual publication and corresponding website (foundmagazine.com) filled with heart-tugging, head-scratching messages; some poetic, some ridiculous; culled from items lost then found.
Found readers submit 10 to 25 “found” messages per day to the magazine’s mailing address, Rothbart said.
“What Found is all about is getting that peek into other people’s lives,” he said. “We’re all curious about the people we share this world with.”
At Tuesday’s talk in Lincoln Park’s intimate studio theater, Rothbart will read aloud some of his favorite Found messages, which his brother has put to music.
“It’s a really unique, memorable show if you like to laugh,” Rothbart said.
The free event is sponsored by Lincoln Park’s Literary Arts Department, which had hosted Rothbart for a May 2011 speaking engagement for the school’s literary and visual arts festival.
The following night, the Rothbart brothers will take their show and book tour to Dormont, for an 8 p.m. appearance at the revitalized Hollywood Theater. The charge there is $7.
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