There’s this cool site, tweleve.org, and a bunch of folks looking for the key have opined there about what is what and different solutions. Also, I’ve had a number of emails and questions, and some people come up to me in person and postulate a variety of things.

As I’ll be releasing official hint(s) next month, I figured I’d put all the solutions that have been presented to me here. In one place. I may have missed some, and I’m sure others have solved things and haven’t told me about them. But I’ll make updates as needed.

Here goes.

1) The Bingo card: has some errors in it. If you take those erroneous numbers and apply them to a periodic table of the elements, you’ll be able to spell out, via the elemental abbreviations, the name of a city in the Pacific Northwest. Eugene, Ore.

2) The dedication has been traced to a bench that is, or used to be, in Silver Falls, a state park in Oregon. Benches there apparently decompose rather quickly what with all the moisture. However, it may have looked like this:

3) There are a number of roads/highways (?) in the artwork. Nobody has told me what these mean. Yet.

4) The map – no one has explained what the map is, the letters around it, or what appears to be a code beneath the letters.

5) The card sequence matches the title of one of the songs. 89KJ = HIKJ, the second song. What’s the significance?

6) The redacted text is from The Bible.

7) Both the topographical map and enciphered text on the inside of the package are unsolved.

One song has two sped-up bursts of Morse Code. They spell “hemily” and “sunflower”.

9) The first letters of each line of “Ever Upward” spells “Eureka, I found it”.

10) The first phonetic of each line of “My Silver Key” spells “next two capital”.

11) There’s some chatter at the end of “…Show Tunes” that says “O yeah he is, bloody good that boy. All the way across the Atlantic Ocean – I saw Charlie Chaplin once – nothin’ on ‘im.”

12) There’s a typo in the Rules & Regulations. It is not a clue, it is an unintentional typo.

13) Some videos got dropped on YouTube with a guy called Marvin in them. While interesting and amusing, they have no clues. They are silly. All the clues are in the actual album – the music & the art. That’s all you need.

That’s all I think.

Feel free to post questions or comments here. I’ll be as frank as I can without, you know, actually telling where anything is. You gotta sort all that out yourself.

best

Steve

Welcome back, I suppose. It’s been an involved summer.

I had a real vacation, and that was nice. Been writing lots of songs for a variety of uses. Playing ukulele and piano. Writing. A surprising bit of writing, too.

But you don’t care about that, do you? Probably not.

You want to know:

1) there’ve been some ads in GAMES Magazine of late, which will hopefully bring some more players to the game.

2) Facebook. Yes. We’re there. Go in and search for The Silver Key and you’ll see us. Please link and spread and all that. Also, as I clearly know next to nothing about Facebook, if you have any tips or tricks or whatever, I’d love love love to hear ‘em.

3) Hints. Clues. Yes. Between now and Sept 15 (halfway, dontcha know) I’ll have some art and at least one song. They are clues. Things that might help you sort out how to find the clues in the puzzle. AND I hope to blog soon with a roundup of the clues people have solved (or think they’ve solved) so far.

4) YouTube. Nope. Not there. There’s been a few folks who’ve asked me about the Marvin videos on YouTube. Let me be very clear about this: there are no clues there. None. Zero. This is not a false hint, a bit of misdirection. All the needed info is in the album.

Back sooner than last time. Promise.

The Weirdo Deluxe offers an incentive to buy it’s latest release, The Silver Key: cash. The Austin band has hidden a silver key somewhere in the continental United States. Find it first and you win $1,000, plus $1 for each copy of the CD that’s sold. The concept album’s 12 songs and packaging contain clues to help sleuths decipher the puzzle. Taken as a creative project, it’s a hit. But music isn’t the primary concern on the album, and the songs suffer, many of the tracks are campy, with the ballad “You Can Tell” being the exception. 2 stars (out of 5)

Anyway, since last I wrote I’ve somewhat immersed myself in some other art projects, very few of which are musical. As I’m not making a living with any of them (i.e. relying on them for income) I’m just sort of letting things flow where they seem to want to.

I have almost finished some songs for the annual album by The Weirdo Deluxe. Odd calling it an “album”. Dunno yet if I’ll press actual, physical CDs or just make it a digital only release. They tell me the music business is changing, but what do I know? I just make songs.

I’m really thinking about putting together a regular band thing – doing western swing and new orleans stuff – or maybe making our own category where those two things merge. Whatever. Gotta swing and have a clarinet in it.

And a hint. Yes. A hint for The Silver Key is coming. Actually, it will be hints. A small collection of three or four things: a song, a map, an image, perhaps a code or cypher-text (or what appears to be a song, map, image, & cypher-text). The song is written, the rest is planned: I know what I want to do, but haven’t created it yet. I called a drummer the other day to schedule a session, but it turns out he’s on vacation on Kauai. Nice. I’d l like to vacation in Kauai.

I have no idea when the hint(s) will be released. On or before Sept 15, though.

More soon.

Not exactly sure when, but there will be a hint, or a small group of hints coming. I’m hoping for summer, but at the VERY latest, the 1 year anniversary mark (9/15 for those of you playing along at home).

Watch here & at the site.

Then I threw my back out and spent a good number of days horizontal & not moving much. Not fun. Not very highly recommended.

April Fool’s Day came and went and I didn’t get pranked. Last year I was in on a rather elaborate plan to ensnare my grand-boss – he’s a pretty sharp guy, too, but we got him. He was embarrassed as he normally catches all kinds of people and prides himself on being difficult to fool. So I anticipated a reprisal at some point. But nothing happened. Perhaps next year.

Music? Why yes, I’ve been writing a bit, my fascination with the ukulele continues, and I have a recording session next Sunday (4/11). I still need to write the horn parts. I’m rather stumped, but pressure and deadlines have a way of frightening things out me, so we’ll see what pops out. I do hope it’s good.

Tomorrow: shoes. Probably some more Keens, probably from REI. I like Keen’s ’cause they’re wide enough for my toes. Many brands aren’t. I’m not 100% sure they’re ideal, but they’re damn close. And I am a firm believer in REI because of their customer service & return policy. It’s hardly ever come into play because they carry quality stuff, but it’s nice to know I can return anything, for any reason.

O – and it looks like The Silver Key will get a small spot of advertising in the near-ish future. And I’m contemplating some sort of hint: how to do it, how it will work, what format(s), etc. It’s fun. Almost as good as making the album in the first place. Watch here and/or the site for updates, etc.

AND, as if that weren’t enough, there will be a website for the Weirdo Deluxe shortly. I’ve seen the layouts, and it’ll be cool and simple with lots of music. Slim on wordy info (like, say, this post) but it should encompass most of the things I’ve worked on in the last 15 years or so. Which is a lot.

Sleep. Now.

How to start.

Well, I need some insight, some help, some opinions.

When I conceived of The Silver Key I guessed it would be a moderate success. I’d sell x number of copies, get a little recognition, maybe turn a small profit, and voila, things are ducky. However, while I think the game itself turned out well, I’ve sold very few. Very very few. And I’ve lost a tremendous amount of money.

Now when most people say “it’s not about the money” it really is about the money. And I won’t lie, I’d rather turn a profit than incur a loss. But. I made it to do it and am incredibly gratified that I did. More gratified than if I thickened my bank account.

I have: put together a great band for gigs, played on tv, sent out a TON of promos, hires two marketing companies (both with great track records), etc. And. . . . well, not much.

My question, my plea: what can I do to get the word out? What have I missed?

thank you

The dog is very kind, has never bitten anyone, a young lab mix. But apparently I bring out the biting in some animals.

Just got back from a session with Kyle, one of my favorite drummers, and George. That was cool – recorded a little ditty. And I haven’t seen Kyle since we recorded the last little ditty with George, which has since turned into a big ditty with a TON of vocal tracks. Lots and lots of fun.

I am now actively trying to contact one of the greatest living guitarists. We’ll see if I can get a message through. The message is this: Wanna play on my next album??

I have, I think, 5 gigs with The Silos over SxSW. At least one of them with Exene Cervenka. And that is rad.

And the new website has begun. The beginning has started. I’ll post more later when that is up but I spent a nice evening scanning this and that, then some time listing songs and looking through old albums. The site should have things going back to 1992 or so. Should be cool.

Looking for a 6-string ukulele. Like a Kamaka or a Kanile’a. Why? because they are devastatingly beautiful and sound lovely. I figured out what my attraction is (or at least one of them) to the ukulele. It’s that with this small, deceptively simple instrument, you can imply enormous, complex beauty. That’s something to treasure.

- – -

Apropos of nothing, the things that matter:

Food & shelter, love, laughs & smiles. The rest is the rest.

I get a few comments from the readers. Here and there, now and then. Which is great, I love it, and it shows that someone somewhere is reading – which is nicer than yelling into an empty well.

What’s odd though is the amount of blog spam I receive. Dozens each week. All wanting me to link to it click on links. Motorcycle and fire insurance, Russian brides and Viagra, generic Lipitor, internet banking solutions, carpet cleaning machinery. And the really odd ones don’t link to anything – just a sentence or two of random words that make no sense when strung together.

Why? What’s the point? They get marked as spam ’cause WordPress is pretty smart, and who do they think they’re gonna reach? I know, I know, there is no “who”, it’s all auto-generated, but someone programmed it to do this. Are they just casting a net as wide as possible and hoping to snare the odd guppy one-in-a-million times? Or do some bloggers actually post this stuff? I can’t imagine who or why except for some very lonely person or a spam-based art project.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it’s a weird world out there.

Anyway, I’m listening to Otis Redding sing “Don’t Mess With Cupid” which is a stone motherfucker.

He really is one of my very favorite singers of all time ever. Just stunning.

It’s more productive to listen to genius than ponder the mysteries of the internet. So I’ll turn up Otis.

Happy Valentine’s Day. Love is good.