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May 17, 2008 |
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Drunk in Nevada City, CA
FOUND by Ulrike Christofori
in Nevada City, California
This note is written on the back of a metallic golden paper that smells a lot of cigarettes. I found it the day after it was written on Broad Street. The style of the note struck me as full of literary possibility... the honesty, the apparent urge to write down an experience, culminating in the BIG question we all face "What to do next?" Having never been drunk in a bar myself, I used to think of the people hanging around bars as a sorry lot, in kind of a dismissive way. This note sounds a bit tormented, and sensitive. Makes me look at the lot in bars just a bit differently.
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Can't Wait October 24, 2005 |
Why is This Man... February 21, 2006 |
A Grown Man August 21, 2005 |
Birthday Smile January 25, 2006 |
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We collect FOUND stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework,
to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, telephone bills, doodles -
anything that gives a glimpse into someone
else's life. Anything goes...
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That's the thing about a good find -- it makes you look at the world just a bit differently.
So much for feeling sorry for oneself. Ryan is a loser (or dead).
"If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with."
Couldn't we all use a little Ryan love right now, I think so
Ryan's not dead, he "ditched out", ie ditched his friend(s) and went home. Probably because he wasn't enjoying sitting in a bar with his drunk buddy. "Mine Shaft"--ironic as all get-out. Talk about touching bottom.
Ulrike sounds either British or influenced by British English..."the lot in bars" instead of "people in bars." In my college days I spent a bit of time sitting in a blue-collar bar in the evenings, people-watching. The sad part is that the regulars begin to see the bar as their "real home"--the place where they can be themselves, or just fade into the background and relax. Which tells you it's not something they can do at home. Few of the regs ever got drunk in the obnoxious, embarassing way--they didn't want anything to spoil their "safe" place.
Now, many people's "safe" places are chatboards etc on the Internet--which is sadder still. At least in a bar you see real people and can talk to them IRT.
Inner foil wrapper from a pack of smokes. Used it myself many times, when nothing else was available.
What an odd thing to do in a bar. I hope he's ok.
Isn't The Mine Shaft a gay S&M bar in New York City? Not the sort of enviornment in which one would expect to find a lonely poetic chap. I"ll bet Ryan was looking for someone a little more hard-core than the writer.
Well maybe writer just wasn't wearing the right kind of clothes.. Should try something a little more slinky next time. Dang its early!!
http://www.mineshaftsaloon.com/
"I wish he was ----- to hang out with me right now."
What is the missing word in there?
Margaroni,
The missing word is "around". "I wish he was around to hang out with me right now."
And there are many "mineshafts." I have seen them in Europe, all over the US (wisconsin, new york, Missouri, Illinois, Colarado, and Nevada) and in Canada too. I'm going to assume since the note was found in Cali, that it wasn't from the particular gay bar mentioned above that it located in New York. Just a thought.
Maybe the writer of this Find is the reincarnation of Charles Bukowski?
Isn't the missing word a last name???
Ooops, ok nevermind.
Interesting find. I wonder if it was really a piece he intended to keep - to write further about later, or use as a jumpstart for a story - OR was he just writing on something, anything, to just look like he wasn't a lonely guy sitting all alone. You know, did he do it to distract himself from the awkwardness he felt being there by himself?
I know I've done that - to 'look busy' or look like I have a purpose at that moment....kind of like now - typing this comment. When I'm really sitting here all alone & nobody else really notices.
God, Basil. Judgenmental much?
I don't like the handwriting at all. It's hard to read and like they're trying too hard to be artistic or different with the erratic lines and angles.
@you knew it was me - it's "judgmental."
That's quite a frequent spelling error in our Find comments that I don't understand. When you guys say the word out loud are you actually inserting the "en" in there, making it three syllables instead of two?
@Christina: it's THE classic Foundism.
http://www.foundmagazine.com/comments/901
@You knew, is that where judgenmental started? I knew it was a Foundism, but I didn't know where it first appeared. Oddly, I always thought it had something to do with salt and pepper.
This is a great Find. I like what Figaro said about the awkwardness of being alone in a public place, trying to look busy and not like a loser. Especially the first time you're in that situation. What next? Hopefully someone approached him and started a conversation.
What next? Hopefully he didn't get in his car and drive home.
Is this note written by Drunk Tina of a previous Find? I hope so, at least she got a ride home.
What to do next...? For crying out loud you're in a bar dumbass! It's only 8:00. The night is young! Have another drink, people will start rolling in and then you won't give a damn about where Ryan ran off to so he could beat his meat. Pretty soon you'll be rubbin up next to some hotties and shakin it like a salt shaker!
Either that or you'll pass out drunk by yourself in the ally.
I used to frequent bars (with friends) quite a bit in my single days. I've only been by myself in a bar just once or twice (after friends have left, etc.) and have never gone to a bar by myself. I always felt uncomfortable and ended up leaving almost immediately. I guess I felt like the other patrons were being judgenmental, wondering what a woman was doing alone in a bar.
Reading this thing makes me feel like I'M drunk.
I used to live in Grass Valley, next to Nevada City! I used to go on walks right past there!
I'm gonna go look for Puckhog!!
Anyone else get the feeling he was talking about Ryan Seacrest?
Why does everyone think this is a male?
Who couldn't use some Ryan love?
The beauty of this letter is, I doubt the author remembers writing it.
I'm glad this find changed the way at least one person thinks about people in bars. While, for the most part, they are a bunch of drunken idiots, I happen to write some of my best literary pieces while enjoying a brew or two in bars. There is plenty of interesting conversation, and inspiration.
And, to be honest, plenty of worthless pieces of crap, too.