Thursday
May192011
GUS IS BACK!
Thursday, May 19, 2011 at 4:53PM I have nothing useful to say, but I won't let that stop me from saying something!
The below is from my current photography project, entitled "Friends 4-Ever."
I am exploring the artist-subject relationship as a form of mediated consumption (mediated by peanut butter, generally).
Reader Comments (103)
Gus,
It's so good to hear from you!
At least we now know that you made it out of the pantry..
to the Marshmallow Fluff aisle of the grocery store.
I like your photographic direction....Art is therapeutic.
AP
Such stuff as fluff are dreams made on.....
Good to here from you, Gus!
Sorry. I iz cannot type. Good to hear from you here, Gus!
Did you know that Marsh Mallow is a flower?
One more observation....
On the first 2 pages, there is a string of buildings across the bottom.
The Ternky Tower is on page 2...with the clock on the roof.
The 2 far-right windows on the 10th floor are blacked out.
(They are covered with the chainlink fence-cage.)
On the 9th floor, the 3 small left windows appear to be blacked out.
But looking at the close up drawing of floor 9, there does not appear
to be anything blocking those 3 windows.
Would the artist have drawn this detail with no purpose?
Ah, Fluffernutters...
The 12 can not be near Boston????
AP- I noticed that too, but don't know what it might mean, other than pay attention to the 9th floor?
Theda,
I could just be a way of saying "23"...which seem to be
numbers of importance.
Augustus (8th month ) Twintig (20 in Danish) III (3 in Roman numerals)
The 23rd state to join the union is Maine.
There is a "Washington, Maine".
I'm compelled to think as I eat a maple-chocolate mixed maplebar donut...about food esters and carboxy-acids. In chemistry class I had the pleasure of making banana, pineapple, and strawberry smells...wouldn't it be cool if our books had scratch n sniff clues hidden in Gus' art?! Oh, the manager at the cafe just told me this is called a "tiger-stripe" donut. He also asked me why pirates wear camoflauge underwear...A: to hide their booty, arrrrrrrr.Now I'm feeling haunted by Friendly Jerome.
AP -You have hit on a very interesting point about Maine; something I overlooked earlier. I'd like to share some relevant information with you regarding your observations. If you are on tweleve, PM me and I'll give you the details. You may be on to something.
Just noticed this: The pictures of the tenants along the bottom of the last two pages of the book are in descending order from left to right by floor....with two exceptions. Bevel Ternkey is placed dead center and the 4th floor and 5th floor tenants are switched. Mistake or clue?
Or artistic license? There are several things in the book that are "not right." For instance, the colors on the Brillo box are not quite right, and the Star Wars poster is off.
The Tardis on Floor 9 from Dr. Who says "Pub call box," not "Public call box." Plus, the windows are wrong, etc. Is this a case of not wanting to violate a copyright? Or is it an "in-joke," because a "pub call" is a prank call.
Additionally, the "pub call" aspect has been bothering me since Floor 9 turned out not to reveal the location of the 12 after all. And why "THE Gideon?" Why not just "Gideon?" I looked into some Star Trek lore, and found an episode called "The Mark of Gideon," where Kirk is transported to a "copy" of the Enterprise, where some events transpire— but the point is that it was not the REAL Enterprise. I don't know if this applicable.
And, I wish we knew if "238" was important or just a shout-out to Gus, a little "in-joke." Because if you figure out the elements on the chart on Floor 12 that are obscured by the rope— they add up to..... (drum roll)... 238.
Frizbee87, et al:
The elements obscured by the rope also contain the letters for "Fritz". Connection to the Fritz 9000 on floor 9 or to "Fritz was just a boy" or to the "frozen timepieces" on floor 11?
As for things that are not right, aside from the stolen items, there seem to be things from one apartment appearing in another: the plant from Floor 10 on Floor 7; a lemonade machine that looks like it came from Floor 7 on Floor 12. Also, Gus wrote that Bakula rang a silver bell, but the bell shown in the illustration appears to be brass or gold. Are these "not right" things in the illustrations and/or text linked to the errors already acknowledged by Gus? Ida = Linda, Ms. Sweet = Ms. Tse-Levy, Bud and Gus vs. Bud and Gene, etc.
Then there are the unexpected behaviors. Why does Klobberduck suddenly forget everything and serve coffee after he has been getting more and more upset about the intrusion in his apartment? Why does Dodge play a carnival game on Floor 7 or read a magazine on Floor 11?
Maybe closer examination of these oddities will help to move the investigation forward.
Speaking of lore, and there's lots more Star Trek stuff, I'm sure there's something from the Simpsons. The character Bart Simpson is voiced by Nancy Cartwright. The occupation of wagon repair is also called Wainwright and that compels me to consider a well known legal case of Wainwright vs Gideon...which may or may not have something to do with the 5th amendment.
With all the clocks telling various times, I tried using a semaphore alphabet (flags and arm positions) to decode something, but got nowhere. Any other ideas out there about the clocks?
Also, since the clock on Floor 1's mantle seems a little out of place (or hiding a snowglobe behind) do you think it's possible Dodge picked it up on Floor 11 and put it there for some reason?
Some great deductions are being tossed around. Theda's "Gus has been a bad boy" is my favorite. Sailor's got at least four fantastic points; its about time we focus on Klobberingduck. Friz, you devil, its like you have been inside that very building!
I think the adjustment of 2nd floors 1:80 timecode to 2:20 may be an important clue.
Gus,
Did you make it to a Corndog Festival on March 13th; National Corndog Day? Or were you off stealing what should have been popper's? I can't believe anything is more important than a Corndog Festival to Augustus Twintig III.
I thought when you came back that you would be all indignant and defensive with my accusations- and Eric's support of them. But all you talk about is friends and marshmallows.
Say it ain't so, Gus! Defend yourself!
Am I the only one romancing the notion that the 12 is still in Idaho?
"Friends 4-Ever" (Forever). I'm taking the Risker path leading to Madness.
Juliette-You would do Dodge proud-as an assisstant, that is. I think you may be right. I don't agree with the ARG people. Or the floor-to-floor map people. Or the electrical circuits and plumbing people. In the book. Something Dodge did or saw (or Gus, but the jury's still out on that one). Still s/h/m. I won't solve it, but that's what it'll be. I'd bet my last marshmallow on it.
Of Mallowmars and marshmallows...
In the US, Mallomars are produced seasonally at Nabisco. A graham cracker circle is covered with a puff of extruded marshmallow, then enrobed in dark chocolate, which forms a hard shell. Mallomars were introduced to the public in 1913, the same year as the Moon Pie (a confection which has similar ingredients). The first box of Mallomars was sold in West Hoboken, NJ (now Union City, NJ). Nabisco discusses it with a short story printed on Mallomar boxes.
Because Mallomars melt easily in summer temperatures, they can become difficult to find during the summer: they are generally available from early October through April. Devoted eaters of the cookie have been known to stock up during winter months and keep them refrigerated over the summer; though paradoxically, Nabisco markets other fudge-coated cookie brands year-round. Seventy percent of all Mallomars are sold in metropolitan New York. The issue of Nabisco's choice to release Mallomars seasonally became a parodied topic on a sketch delivered by graphic artist Pierre Bernard on Late Night with Conan O'Brien.
Marshmallow candy originated in ancient Egypt. It was a honey candy that was flavored and thickened with Marsh-Mallow plant sap.
does it really make any sense to still be looking at the apartments for clues? werent those clues there because the tenents left them on purpose? if so, that wouldnt really apply to where dodge is now. it seems like washington is defniitely relevant...but which washington? we should look for any other info about dodges personal life. one place is on the 6th floor, when he talks about his first case...that could be his hometown right??
Warren,
That is a good point about Dodge's first case!
Also the first floor apartment, being a copy of Dodge's apartment,
should give us some info on his likes, and preferences...or even his locale.
Here's my take on where Dodge may have hidden the 12.
Some have hinted at the possibility that the last place one would look for the treasure is where the treasure was hidden in the first place (or the first place the treasure was hidden - which would be Idaho).
What if it's the last place one would look for the clues is where the clues were hidden in the first place?!
I think Dodge may have decided to play only with clues from the original floor the 12 was hidden, thinking we'd never look there (or only there).
Everything is in the 9th floor - there are so many left over clues...
"Friends are 4-Ever".
It is forever.
It is 4-ever.
It is 48. (Ever = infinity = all the infinity loops around Munari's apartment, which look like eights.)
It is Arizona (the 48th state).
Do you remember that marshmallow graph Gus sent a while back, with those mesa-like formations?
Another possible state:
It is forever. / Gideon
You can extract Ore gon from those 2 messages.
Do you remember Gus' weird word extraction from the Feb 23rd posting (same one with the marshmallow graph)?
"See where suspicion gets us? It makes us "cion" "us" (plus a s and pi left over...hmmm: pie)."
That's how I get Oregon.
Both Arizona and Oregon have good possibilities for H/M that we can find on the 9th floor.
The only glitch is the fact that the Feb 23rd posting was before the Idaho site was discovered... without the 12.
So we go back to Theda's suspicion that Gus has been playing us all the time. He knew the number wasn't going to be found in Idaho...
Here's a free associative idea that will probably strike nobody as useful, but here goes anyways: I look at this image and I see "white" and "red". In the off chance that Gus is still helping us through an entirely free associative subliminal approach then my thoughts land on "wild strawberries", a 1957 film I studied in my scandinavian cinema class. The main character is named Isak Borg (Borg!? works well with some of the Star Trek references) and the actor who plays him is an old man named Victor Sjostrom, who is one of the most famous actors of all time in Sweden. He and the director Ingrid Bergman did a lot of work with Auguste Strindberg material. I can't recall for sure but there is a Henrik Ibsen connection and something about a play called "The Wild Duck". Sad story. Anyhow, I like the Strindberg connection because it is a name pronounced like Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek. Non native/swedish speakers probably don't know of the pronounciation difference, but BERG = BERRY.
That's all. Best of luck to anyone else seriously working on this.