Thursday, April 28, 2011
Visual Arts / Around town $10 art mystery
Posted by Debbie Michaud @DebsMichaud on Thu, Apr 28, 2011 at 3:10 PM
I just received an interesting package in the mail.
- Debbie Michaud
- Mail Call
It's contents:
1. An envelope inside the manila envelope, one of those standard white business envelopes with a clear cellophane address window revealing a $10 bill. On the front of the envelope it says: "for you." On the back: "Follow your narrative urge! #14."
2. A note, bookended with hearts, that reads:
Thank you for opening the envelope. The money is real. This is not an ad campaign or sales pitch — it's an art project. Please save the story fragment enclosed, use the hints and find me.
Let's play.
And is stamped on the back with a UFO and the text: "sited by Horace Burgess above the Biltmore House: UFO RSNQHDR (NOT LOW)"
3. A clue on a torn slip of paper that reads:
14. Southern women have a natural relationship with the earth. It may have been bred during the Civil War, when genteel ladies suddenly found themselves in charge of entire vast farms in the absence of their husbands.
Hmmmmm......
I'm intrigued, but also on deadline, so I thought I'd make this a group effort and open up the floor for ideas on how to proceed. I'll be the first to admit, I'm no natural born code cracker (although I'm pretty amazing at crosswords). Not sure what the $10 is for, but professional ethics prohibit me from keeping the moolah. So, if it doesn't get used somehow in the scavenger hunt, whoever figures out the mystery gets $10.
Leave your ideas in the comments below, or if you're feeling covert, e-mail me at debbie.michaud@cln.com, subject line CLUE.
Comments (55)
Showing 1-50 of 55
If this came in the mail for me, I'd feel slated to be the first victim of the soon-to-be-infamous "10-dollar art project serial killer." Yikes.
like
dislike
Um. That "Southern women" line is a line from one of my personal essays I wrote at SCAD.
http://graywrites.com/?p=190
Even before reading the essay, I was thinking someone should check out the Margaret Mitchell house. What can be seen from the yard? Any sort of neighboring tree house (a la Horace Burgess)?
@grayhchapman: that's kinda crazy
@kimgar: that was exactly my thought, too, when i first read it. I'm going to check it out today. Or maybe I'll just show up at Gray's house...
I also know someone who found a different clue hanging from a tree in Cabbagetown marked #49. We'll see...
Debbie, let me know how it goes! My leg's broken and I'm not terribly mobile right now. Meanwhile, I'm going to try to crack the RSN... code
Super weird. You can be sure it's not my 'art project' because A). I would've chosen a wayyy better sentence from that essay, and B). I never would have confused "sited" with "sighted."
Gonna go hide now.
Gray, it's possible that "sited" is a purposeful mis-spelling. Sometimes in these ARG puzzles/projects, they do that kind of thing...
As someone that's read Gone with the Wind more times than I care to admit... I think Scarlett found $10 in the wallet of the Yankee soldier that she killed. It definitely has something to do with GWTW, though.
I have one of these too - I found it in Cabbagetown. Mine is #48. The clue in mine is "Their figurative verdict, as before, will be decided in a distant room. My possible trickery speculated about." Same envelope and letter (but my envelope has '...' instead of an explanation point after 'follow your Narrative Urge'.
That drawing looks like the top of a building in downtown. Some sort of blue lit-up UFO type shape. I vaguely remember seeing it while having drinks in The Sun Dial.
Maybe that helps?
I hope we see more people with the clues find this thread and add too it. What a great idea someone came up with...I can't wait to see how this turns out.
I just got one of these!
#44 - How can the word "custody" mean "keeping, guardianship, care" in context and, in another context, "imprisonment,legal restraint"? My criminal friend lost both children in the divorce.
Everyone who got one of these needs to post their clues, let's figure this out!
I just got one of these!
#44 - How can the word "custody" mean "keeping, guardianship, care" in one context and, in another context, "imprisonment,legal restraint"? My criminal friend lost both children in the divorce.
Everyone who got one of these needs to post their clues, let's figure this out!
i just got one of these in east atlanta yesterday (may 10), in front of 'bound to be read' book store. i opened it after debating for a while and i didn't die of poisoning or get killed yet . . . so that's a great start.
mine is: follow your narrative! #10 - the letter in my envelope reads:' thank you for opening the envelope. the money is real. this is not an ad campaign or sales pitch - it's an art project, with stories. please save the fragment enclosed, use the hints, and find me. let's create more together. Henri Rechatin oct. 5, 1996 '
my torn clue says: ' 10. the blizzard of the world has crossed the threshold, and it's overturned the order of the soul. '
i looked that up and it's part of a leonard cohen song. and i looked up henri rechatin - who's a french tight rope walker. that's what i could find anyway. i couldn't find anything on that specific date regarding henri rechatin though.
pretty weird/fun stuff . . . .
#50
I did about as much research as manbear and then found this page…. my letter reads
(red heart) Thank you for opening the envelope. The Money is real. This is not an ad campaign or sales pitch - it's an art project, with stories. Please save the fragments enclosed, use the hints, and find me. Let's Create more together. (red heart)
Henri Rechatin
Oct. 5, 1996
the clue:
50. "When it's the real morning," she said, "remind me what I wanted to tell you." she rolled on her shoulder, turning away, and sank into the pillow and slept.
could not seem to find source of this but read the bit on the "author's" background
Place found; mens bathroom at Flat Iron in East atl….
i just found one last night too in the cabbagetown park
#22
Bitter lies that I told myself kept echoing in my head
Mine was mailed to me at the Wren's Nest, received today.
$10 bill, taped together and with the bottom right corner missing.
"follow your narrative urge!" on the back of the envelope. "for you." on the front.
Letter inside: "[heart] Thank you for opening the envelope. The money is real. This is not an ad campaign or sales pitch — it's an art project, with stories. Please save the fragment enclosed, use the hints, and find me. Let's create more together. [/heart]
Henri Rechatin
Oct. 5, 1996"
Strip of stationery: "20. How would we be different if we had grown up free of the shadow of loss that stalked us?"
Looks like my clue is a quote from the Jessica Handler novel Invisible Sisters.
The RSNQHDR I thought might just be a letter replacement code. I think it is, the (Not lower) is a clue, so if you go one higher on each letter it spells the word.
STORIES
Horace Burgess is famous for buildlng the world's tallest tree house in TN so he could be "closer to god", they also talk about the Biltmore House, which is actually the addition/condos next to the Biltmore Hotel in Midtown. The code translates to "Stories" so have to wonder if there's something way up on the roof there at the Biltmore House that looks like a UFO, with some sort of book/story attached to it?
Wow - that IS a quote from Invisible Sisters. I know because I wrote it (not a novel, btw, it's real.) Now I'm really intrigued.
If not low, then UFO = ten.
Ten stories? ten stories as in building or ten written stories?
I found one in front of our house in Cabbagetown.
#47. As before, I am trying to answer all of their questions with stories, but now with a single response to each. One response, no more. I've learned.
We got one at YB! #27
like when a clerk says, "we're out of those" or "we don't carry that'" smiling happy not to help. THe smile of someone caught in the jaws of a larger animal, slowly dying.
Henri Rochatin
oct 5 1996 is at the bottom of the letter
Dyana Bagby at the GA Voice got one. I found her blog about it. She found video of what Henri Rechatin was doing October 5, 1996.
http://www.thegavoice.com/index.php/blog/c…
NJgirl ... biltmore apts., tree house, and the hotel where rechatin balanced his chair are all 10 stories
There's an envelope at A Capella Books in Little Five Points, between the pages of "Women in Love," the Modern Library edition. "In less than a minute, Ursula had thrown off her clothes and had slipped naked into the water, and was swimming out ... "
Nobody browses Lawrence.
@traipsing: Both/all, please. Including "The Rainbow," shelved beside "Women," another ML edition. "The only way to leave her was to die. The only straight way to leave her was to die. His dark, raging soul knew that. But he had no desire for death ... "
Charis Books in L5P got one today in the new hardback fiction section. "11. About Women, I disagreed with my criminal friend. Especially I disagreed with him about...her."
Anybody know what it's from?
There’s an envelope at the Atlanta Book Exchange, 591 N. Highland, inside “A Literate Passion: Letters of Anais Nin and Henry Miller, 1932-1953.” (Hardcover, lightly used, clean and tight. Book VG, jacket G. Bargain for ... $10.)
“Henry, my love, tear up the letter I sent you today. Between two of Hugh’s caresses I want you desperately. I want your strength and your softness, your hands, all of you; you don’t know the things I remember and crave.”
I got one today, at work, which is doubly weird, especially since I rarely check my faculty mail slot. Who are you....?
#4 Images, the testers seemed to be saying can mean one thing and no more. Events the same, maybe. People. A flat world of prediction and control.
Found inside DH Lawrence's Women in Love (Modern Library Edition)
To try and help make sense of it all I've started (my first attempt at) a wiki.
http://10dollarartmystery.wikispaces.com
Feel free to add any information to it.
What is the $10 for? Why are some stamped with the UFO while others are signed "Henri Rechatin Oct. 5, 1996"? Is there any point to all of this?
others maybe have solved the UFO and rechatin (?). look at the posts by njgirl and guesswork. also if you read carefully, it sounds like the envelope at the book exchange was not picked up. i am too far away or i would find out. are there really 50? that's the highest # so far ...
What are the similar themes?
Atlanta sites, women, risk, loss, love and/or sex, letters & correspondence, literature...
I got nothin'.
jessica, i think all of those. i have been watching this. what's most interesting is that he or she is apparently blending passages from local writers with passages from his or her own (and from leonard cohen!) ... or maybe just finding passages from other literature we don't recognize, can't google ... but i don't think so. almost everything can be googled, after all. it looks like a big story.
another thing. this "together" poster? it's him or her! read the post ... it says "there's an envelope" not "i found an envelope" or "here's my clue." whoever is "together" is the person behind this! so "together" itself may be some kind of clue.
the other thing ... ok, i'll shut up after this, i'm sleepy too ... if the numbering is correct by whoever is doing this, there are 50 envelopes with $10 each out there! most people don't know about creative loafing's blog, or where to go, but holy crap, so they're not checking in, but that's a lot of money. what is he or she trying to prove? good night.
Hey Debbie, found your blog post about these mysterious clues just today. Today I got one too. I think it must have something to do with a book, since a lot of other bookstores got clues as well. Here's my clues:
"55. The craft (!) that brought me here proved sky-worthy enough, setting me down among strangers, some of them kind and open-hearted, others infected with black suspicions. Comfort found in dog parks, wine bars, coffee shops."
At the bottom of my letter it has the following:
"a site to see (haiku clue) robotic cranes dance in singapore. in taiwan appears tornados!"
10 stories has something to do with it. The robotic cranes are 10 stories high, the Taiwan tornado was 10 stories high. There's a design firm called Ten Stories, but they're in San Diego. This is going to keep me up tonight!
everything is 10 stories high. "site" is seemingly spelled wrong again, too, though probably not, since this is obviously literary. (student?)
frustrating. there may be a lot of envelopes out there, and if people knew where to go/how to find this blog or the wiki, more clues would be available
@Puzzlechick I think "site" is spelled that way specifically. You know, like a web site. I just can't seem to find a site for it.
CL contributor Wyatt Wiliams and I did some sleuthing. I'm afraid we're not much closer to an answer, although it was fun exploring the city. Maybe y'all will see something in our searching that we didn't? New post w/ updates: http://clatl.com/culturesurfing/archives/2…
I got one today! It was addressed to me at the boutique i work at.
"follow your narrative urge! #54"
It has a piece a paper that has the "thank you for opening this...", a ten dollar bill, and a strip of paper with another poem.
The strip of paper reads:
"54. Airplanes are something like angels. As passengers, we are closer to heaven than we'll ever get. This might explain why it's particularly devastating when they crash to the ground."
And my clue is:
"a site to see"
Robotic cranes dance
in singapore. in taiwan
appears tornados!
my boss lady came across this website when i told her about it, not sure if it's related: http://livedesignonline.com/excellenceawar…
I posted a photograph of the whole bit on my facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/KristinaDuttonPain…
Latest in Fresh Loaf
-
Drawing dance at the Decatur Arts Festival
CORE, Beacon highlight dance offerings
-
Paul Luna isn't finished with PARKatlanta 1
Chef files another lawsuit claiming private parking-enforcement deal violates city's charter
-
That poor baby beluga died 3
Experts say beluga deaths are unavoidable, but deaths in captivity are
- More »
More by Author
-
The Godfather, Deliverance to screen at 2012 Coca-Cola Summer Film Festival
Fox Theatre's line-up full of hits
-
Emory professor named American Academy of Arts and Sciences fellow, has amazing headshot
Eliot/Yeats scholar Ronald Schuchard to be inducted into prestigious national foundation
- More »
