If you’re in the Raleigh area and want to fetch it for me, I’d love to have it returned. Email agrosso at texas dot net and we’ll figure it out. Thanks.

- – -

But answers; you want answers. Here they are.

There are no clues on the cover. The redacted text, the numbers lines that look like highways, the topographical map, the dedication, the cards, the block of code, etc. Everything on the cover is either a blind or made up. None of it ties to anything. All dead ends.

Same with the inserts. The map, the codes around the edge, the bingo card, the map on the CD itself. All made up to look interesting.

All the real clues are words. Things you hear (except one). How would you know this? Two big signposts. The first is that the package is a CD – as opposed to a book. The second is the first words you hear once you push Play. “Listen child, listen well…” Not coincidentally, this is the only phrase that’s repeated in another song. This is also important. That song is “The Story So Far”.

“The Story So Far” is the odd-man-out on the record. It’s music with voiceover. It contains the roadmap for the hints. The story snips were created, not to tell a story or be rearranged, but solely based on the word “silver”. That word appears exactly five times (and this song is the 5th track), in this order:

she opened the fish with a thin, silver blade (8th word)

a key, a large and finely-wrought key, made of silver pure and laid with a blood-red stone (11th word)

the fish was very large; it would bring five silver pieces, if he was lucky (10th word)

where everything looks touched with silver, or edged with gold (6th word)

a line, a silver hook, and a greedy fish (4th word)

Where the word “silver” appears in each sentence identifies which song has each clue:

8. Ever Upward

11. My Silver Key

10. Got To Find a Way

6. In One

4. Where the Blue Meets the Blue

Clue 1:

Ever Upward is the state motto of New York. If you write out the lyrics, and read the first letter of each line, you find another state motto – “Eureka – I found it” (California). These were both found. No one, that I know of, found the third motto. If you take the first letter of the first line, the second of the second, the third of the third, etc. you get “Esse quam videri” the motto of North Carolina. The key is in North Carolina.

Clue 2:

My Silver Key – the first syllable of each line is phonetically a  letter. These spell, “next two capital” – two homonyms there, but the key is Next to Capitol. The capital of North Carolina – Raleigh – is almost never mentioned with Durham. The key is in Durham.

One idea that might show you’re on the right track: “next to capitol” means nothing for the other two state capitols. Neither Albany nor Sacramento have another city next to them.

Clue 3:

Got to Find A Way

An obtuse series of clues, perhaps, this song is riddled with park names in the Raleigh-Durham area. Off the top of my head (I don’t have my notes, I’m afraid) there are parks with the following words in them: East, Duke, West, Falls, Hill, and there may be others.

In addition to being the toughest clue (to me), it’s also the most annoying song on the album (to me).

Clue 4: In One

Clue 5: Where The Blue Meets The Blue

- Don’t hate me. I’m gonna hold off on those last two for a bit. I want to see if anyone wants to collect the key for me, first. But now you know where to look, at least.

As ever, thanks for playing along. I’m still rolling around the idea of another treasure hunt, and I’d have to hide the clues a totally different way.

I just deleted nearly 2,000 messages from this blog. Each and every one them spam. Strange. If I believed in the whole afterlife side of things I’d pull for a particularly awful spot in hell for those who made spam.

But you don’t care about that, you care that The Silver Key is nearing the end of it’s run, and perhaps you’d like to know where it is and how the clues were hidden. Well, I’d like to tell you, but I’ve hit a bit of a snag. I live in central Texas. The key is, well, far from here – let’s say 1,500 miles – that’s a nice, round number. I was hoping to be able to fetch it this weekend, but life being what it is, I am unable to. And while I could explain exactly where it is, I am reticent to as the key itself is still there – even if the prize money is no longer in play in a  couple of days.

So, I am asking for two months. Give me until Nov 15th to fetch the key. As soon as I have it in my warm li’l mitts, I’ll let you know and tell all.

In good faith, I’ll tell you this now: the key is hidden in North Carolina.

For reals.

- – -

I’ve gone back and forth with making another armchair treasure hunt, and I’ve decided to do it*.

“Hey,” I hear you say, “what’s with the asterisk?”

Well, I am going to try and pre-fund the next one via Kickstarter. Seems logical in that if enough people are interested I will get the funding to make it. And if too few people are interested, I then won’t lose a bunch of time and money making something nobody wants.

I think that’s all I had to say – and thank you.

Steve

But you don’t care about that, you want a hint. So here are two hints. Big ones. They will be the last. Good luck.

Big Hint Number One: close your eyes

Big Hint Number Two: follow the silver

Anyway, hints. Here’s the rub. I could give away the first clue. For instance, which state it’s in. I could do that. But I don’t think that would necessarily be helpful, at all, in doing what’s important. What’s important is figuring out what links the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 clues to each other. That is the crux, the pivot, the key, if you’ll pardon the pun. If one could grasp the key, the clues might lay themselves out like lines on a highway.

Or maybe they wouldn’t. Shit. It’s still pretty hard, I think. But if I do give a final clue it’ll be in the next week or so. And it will be a clue to how the problem as a whole works (or unlocks, if you wanna keep the whole key metaphor thing going).

Hmm. Back soon.

*The Weirdo Deluxe – “Full Body Kiss”. Printed in small quantities and given away. This one has some pretty amazing players on it, too. It’s late but it was lotsa fun to do.

I’m hoping this will stimulate some interest and enthusiasm in the hunt now that we’re about 9 months from the conclusion.

Part of me wishes I didn’t put a deadline on it. Perhaps, if I do another one of these (and I have considered it despite the spectacular lack-of-sucess this one brought), it will be totally open-ended. Hmm. Time, as they say, will tell. But I have other projects I’ve embarked on before I ever attempt another treasure hunt.

Enjoy 2011 – that’s what it’s here for.

There are 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 hints hidden in The Silver Key

First the state, then the city, then it’s down to the real nitty-gritty

How great it would be to find The Siver Key

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 it’s a quintuple dose, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 but you gotta listen close

Make a link, a connection, are you goin’ right directionally

To find The Silver Key?

Oo-oo you’re warmer, oo-oo that’s cold

Oo-oo you’re warmer – is it fool’s gold?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5 hidden in The Silver Key

Start off with number 47, maybe that’s the key to heaven’s tree

To find The Silver Key

Will you find The Silver Key?

I know I hurt you and I apologized

I know it makes me something smaller in your eyes

It’s not a nice thing to see

That’s not the kind of person I set out to be

You didn’t anger but I think that was pretend

I hope this won’t eventuate an early end

I don’t want you to go

I want to get back to the feelings that I know

Peace & love – and after that I want peace & love

And once you’re broken you’re never quite the same

I’m old enough to know that hearts is not a game

But still I want to play

But every time I do it never works that way

Peace & love – and after that I want peace & love

God knows it ain’t easy

God knows I’ve tried

And I get by

There’s nothing there to steal

And if you keep it to yourself it isn’t real

And you’ll know when you feel

Peace & love – and after that I want peace & love

Any time I see your face

Even when you’re half a day away

Exit into some better place

Teeter on the brink of dreams

Teeming with the thoughts of glowing gold

You-you in sapphire streams

O wont you be my silver key

See the agents of the grim

Aiming for the hearts of lonely  ones

People are letting them in

I won’t fall for that charade

Teeth and tears evaporate with sun

Only you won’t fade

All else grays - my silver key

Out, opposite of in, anytime you feel that you need new skin you got to find a way

Got to find a way through, over or around, maybe you’ll be lost and remain unfound but you got to find a way

Best, east over west, any other ways that you may suggest you got to find a way

Got to find a way past, take your falls, even when your lip runs red and you crawl, you got to find a way

Well I don’t know

Where we’ll go

By, look for a fluke, even if a king or an earl or a duke you got to find a way

Got to find your way clear of the insincere, rollin down the hill through the middle of the fear you got to find a way

You can tell how bored I am by the crosswords I play

Two or three a day

You can tell how lonely, too, all the things I do

Solitaire and Sudoku

The sun has it easy, he stands up every day

‘Cause he’s made that way

You can tell how scared I am in all the words I write

I’m drinking every night

You can tell how fearlessly I face world I see

Steady as an angry sea

The moon has it easy, she rises every night

To everyone’s delight