ALL THINGS EXIST in spacetime, including Mr. Searly. He's on someone's paper round, someone's Christmas Card List. A Ron Searly is registered at the Jonestown library. A car registered to a Ron Searly was photographed by a traffic safety camera as it ran a red light on some Main St. in Massachusetts (it is unknown as to whether Mr. Searly was present in the car at the time). A Ron Searly paid the cheque for a birthday lunch enjoyed by three unknown white females at a Steak-n-Cake in Reno. He never said a word - they only discovered his deed when they asked the mousey waitress for the cheque. A Ron Searley collected $18.71 winnings from a bookmakers in Brooklyn for a bet he placed on a dodgers game, April 27th 1998. A Ron Searley was there when Beefheart formed his first band. He is reported to have told the captain 'don't do it that way - there's no coming back'.

Note from an interested party:

Find the tokens for Saturday bowling sessions with the mysterious ‘jimmy’.
Find the empty tins of dogfood in his long island beach pad, with no other signs of pet ownership.
Recount the strange notes found scribbled in his phone directory on the page of a certain Xavier Rheiner, coworker in the Bentley Cane Refinery, Florida.
I want the FULL STORY of this guy…

My sources tell me: A Ron Searly has $3.51 of outstanding fines on his account at the North Carolina State Library and two overdue books - one on alternate food sources and an almanac of sewing techniques. Archival clippings from an April edition of the 1982 Pennsylvania Herald confirm that a teenage Ron Searley won second prize in the town's annual poetry contest, coming second to an R. J. Beasley, with poems titled 'Octopiithagoas' and 'From the Sun' respectively. Clippings from an edition of the Milwaukee Tribune, dated September of the same year, indicate that a Ronald Searley was cautioned after being found in a parking lot standing next to a bin fire with ash-tipped fingers and ashen face. He claimed it was like that when he found it. Without witnesses, the prosecution could not proceed with the case and all charges were later dropped. There is a bungalow in a southwestern suburb of Boston, the deeds of which bear the name 'Ron Searly'. No-one has ever seen anyone enter or leave the building, but delivery trucks are observed arriving regularly, sawing and hammering are often heard punctuating the afternoon calm, and the silhouette of a man was seen pacing between the two largest trees in the back yard after dusk a couple of weeks back. Neighbours have been known to ask 'what's he building in there?'

Appendix 1.a. poetry transcriptions

Octopiithagoas

Behold the
Eight
tentacled
plane vision of the
architects of night

they dwell here
among us dreamers
they construct our dream
from eight eyes
one for each hue
the eighth eye is the eye of dark light

the rods thread us
through the eye
of the needle hurricane
we are one

behold
this creature has no name

From the sun

Stript down t’ carburettor
Burnished sun eyes
From the sun

Spectral displays
Boreal lights
Flee the catastrophe

Youth seeks its own answer
Under t’ hood
Clouds parted by some Moses in corduroy
Beaming smile gracefully descends and then ascends
From the sun

Memo to Kojak 400asa:

Well, I am in a top secret training session today, so it is hard for me to man this operation first-hand right now. Fear not, though, as I have a good team sleuthing out Further Evidence of Ron.
One of my most esteemed researchers, a Miss C. Kingsbury, has presented me with some compelling documentation pertaining to our quarry's interest in the nautical.

Now, you're maybe not going to believe this, but there is evidence that our man had/has links to a boat refurbing company called - you'll love this, (though rather than providing answers, will only deepen the mystery); yes, the company was called WhitbyBoat. Read into that what you will.
To put it in context, here is a sample para from the document; Note, he is using the surname spelling of Surley here, as oposed to Searly, but that could easily be an editorial typo and in no way can be taken as proof that we are onto the wrong guy.

We have a Whitby Connection now - we are closing in on the beast... [document classified]

In Reply:

Good sleuthing from ms Kingsbury P.I. BA Phil.

The big fish is indeed in the water.

I note the mention of a certain Jack Vandeloo of Ottawa, and a Jose de Leon, both also ketch ‘enthusiasts’ who many investigators considered likely to be involved in the notorious quota fraud around the Halifax, Novia Scotia bay area in the early 1990’s. The same faces came up again several years later in the Baton Rouge area, after an interim period without any trace as to their whereabouts or activities. In Florida, they were suspected (but later released without charge) in the case of the poaching of young crocodiles to supply private zoos in Mexico. A certain Mr ‘Vermott’ was later to be charged and then convicted of a lesser charge associated with this same crime.

It is unknown whether Vermott was an associate of the other two, or if he was framed by them or others, or whether Vandeloo and de Leon were wholly innocent of the Florida accusations. Vermott was released early and subsequently has been untraced. An ex-work colleague from the Manatee Boat Supplies Company claim he had ‘always talked of visiting Mexico’. Vermott has no known associations with R Searley/Surley/Searly, however a Pasadena phone directory belonging to a James Long was found close to the wreckage of a Buick stationwagon in Maine. In this directory, the name of an R Searle is circled in blue ink with the word Vermouth under it followed by a question mark. Theories have been made that Vermott was an alias, however my contacts feel a more likely explanation is that Vermott used Searle as an alias, intending to pose as Searly, but based on incomplete or incorrect personal information. This supports the theory that both existed and did not know each other directly. Whether foul play can be suspected in the Buick incident, and whether this was conducted by Vermott to silence Long, is unknown.

Project 31:

The mysterious project 31 is thought to have arisen in the Michigan area around a crafts club for thirty-somethings. However, despite its beginnings as presumably a crafts project it clearly developed into something far more secretive and unknown. One ex-member of the crafts circle, hobbyist knitter Gert Schrubb, was heard to confess to a stranger in a bar ‘the whole thing started as a joke, but then so many boxes of the stuff started arriving – we had to go through with it. That’s when I bailed out…’ It’s unclear what the boxes contained. However in Duluth in fall 06 agent Harry Delacroix tracked down high school appliqué starlet Stacey Williams, then 24, and formed the following theory from her dealings on the edge of the Michigan. Harry supposes that an advert was placed on an online forum requesting materials to form a giant soft play version of Michigan, in actual size. When the boxes started arriving, he theorises, the small circle set to work and began the project. He doesn’t offer a theory as to where this actual size soft Michigan, once begun, was stored. Stacy Williams reports to Delacroix that she spoke to close friend of Gert, and one-time member of the circle, speed sewer, Jason Kendrick. Jason, who she claims developed a pill habit to maintain his edge, told her ‘we just loaded stuff on the tables to make some room down on the floor.’ The mystery deepened when core members of the circle all ceased to frequent local bars and coffee shops around the same period in 2005. Delacroix suggests they were by then working on the project ‘from the inside’. The theory of soft Michigan is of course too extreme to be believed…

When asked why it was called project 31, Delacroix declares ‘Michigan is the 31st state’.

Note to Warren Leno:

Anecdotal evidence from a Coloradoan known only as 'Pinsk' outlines further possible details of Project 31. As a specialist in pressurized storage facilities and the go-to man in the mid-south-west for sub-zero fluid delivery systems, he was often called on as a consultant by the US military and associated intelligence corps to advise on a narrowly defined field of operational activity. 'Pinsk' became a vauable military asset, assisting them for several years, even eventually coming to have a permanently reserved parking space at a govt. base stationed in the Rockies. In time he became so trusted that he could roam the base freely and was never asked to show an ID at internal checkpoints.

He was of course sworn to secrecy on all matters, but a traffic accident involving a Buick in Maine (which some theorists believe was a botched assasination attempt by the same black op agencies who had recruited him, their motive being the fear that he had somehow gained access to secret operational files and codestrings) left him horrifically injured and no longer able to work. He underwent intense reconstructive surgery and made a recovery beyond doctors' expectations. However, due to the severity of his injuries and subsequent surgery, he was physically unrecognisable from his former self, with vastly different facial topography and further disfigurements including distorted fingerprints. Pinsk basically became an Unknown Individual, unrecognisable, untraceable. In light of the accident and its suspected perpetrators, Pinsk decided it was in his best interests to remain an unkown, especially given that he had actually gained access to far more information than his former unofficial employees suspected.

One such clasified area of intelligence he was aware of was a Project 31. He believes that the basis of said project was to geographically relocate major US cities as a measure to avoid terrorist attacks. Methods proposed included making inflatable versions of landmarks which would discreetly replace statues, buildings, streets and eventually whole towns. the plan was to keep this secret from the general American populace as well as overseas threats. By doing it gradually and quietly in the night, the theory went, nobody would notice. Some parties, particularly a Harry Owl, voiced concerns that the idea was too far-fetched, but in the end an agreement was made to test the theory by trying to replace one state with an inflatable version of itself then, if successful, the operation would be rolled out nationally. 'Pinsk' belives that Michigan state was selected as the test area after a certain Mr de Leon had visited a boating supplies tradefair there and declared it the kind of state where you could get away with that kind of thing.

'Pinsk''s location and real identity are currently unknown, but in response to being quizzed on where the original towns were to be stored once replaced by inflatable effigies, he was heard to utter the words 'hollowed mountains' before silently slipping away into the shadows of the Pittsburg night.

In Reply:

Since the late fifties, this investigator understands that covert alliances were formed between national transport network strategists and the military. This alliance later sent feelers into the art and tech college scene, resulting in the development of op-art, as a means of improving visual cloaking technology. The result was the development of a ‘blindside’ area surrounding major towns and cities, whereby op-art techniques were incorporated into road networks, the close twists and spirals of fly-overs and switchbacks distorting time and space and distracting vision to the extent that entering a city seemingly at location 1 can actually take the driver many miles elsewhere to location 2 while still believing themselves to be in location 1. The Google search engine company have gained their global dominance by support given by the US govt in exchange for collusion in future ‘re-imaging’ of online photographic mapping images, to continue the illusion of town and city location. The one hole in this system has always been pedestrians, who, by crossing over roads while not being restricted within the road network, could more easily detect the visual illusions being perpetrated and see beyond the matrix of road systems to the ‘real’ space around them. As such, the crime of jaywalking has been heavily enforced, along with other measures such as out of town shopping precincts, lack of footpaths, and media car culture marketing, to ensure that non-car users were in effect outlawed from travelling in and out of major towns. Stories passed among the tramp subculture have trickled into the urban myth mainstream, suggesting the existence of a strange zone around certain locations, with roads cutting at strange angles veering suddenly into different counties; guard dogs patrolling fenced enclosures; wooden mock up facades hiding fake suburbs… Certain areas are as a result avoided by bums and hoboes. However some areas much like the west coast ‘Slabs’ eco city (itself formed on the concrete foundation remains of a ‘moved’ city) are developing as bum settlements in the locations marked on maps as major settlements and business centres. The supposed location of the headquarters of an IMF sub-division are actually a flat area the size of 20 baseball diamonds, currently occupied by the airstream caravans of hedgehog eaters.

Addendum:

It has been postulated that it was through dealings with college campuses in the mid sixties that now-Michigan-based ex- art students became involved in project 31. However it is unclear whether the recent soft Michigan project is a govt sponsored inclusion in project 31 or rather a counter culture retaliation to oppose the govt led project. If the latter is true, then the disappearance of all the soft Michigan circle core members could have a more sinister explanation. One informer vehemently maintains that the core were silenced, or removed, after a particular individual became aware of their activities and gained their trust. ‘This guy didn’t quite ring true. He had the terminology, like ‘that fabric’s sooooo the thing; my lovely little life…’, but he misused phrases occasionally; got words out of context. I thought it was odd at the time, but now I think he’d learnt it by rote in a short space of time – he was no genuine handicrafter.’
A third theory is that the circle did not know of project 31, but came up with the soft Michigan concept at random. However once word got out, the real project 31 people assumed they were ‘in the know’, and working against them. Perhaps they were indeed working against a secret military project without even knowing it…

Note to 'The Stitcher':

It is believed that Jose de Leon was involved in the research wing of Project 31; his reason for attending the Michigan boating trade fair being investigations into principles of buoyancy and large-scale cargo transportation. A sales rep who was present at the fair spoke to one of our investigators under condition of anonymity. He recalled a man of short stature with an out of town accent inquiring about large-scale inflation methods who referred to something possibly called the 'Michigan Flotilla'. The short man apparently displayed a physical nervousness which betrayed his calm eyes and wanted to know how to 'float something the size of a city'.

Whether he was an active member of the project or the suspected inside man working for the feds is as yet undetermined but the theory has been raised that he may have been the link between Pinsk, James Long and/or Vermott. The current leading theory is that 'Vermott' may be a codename for de Leon, who was assigned the task of silencing Pinsk by executing a staged crash in Maine for which James Long was made to look responsible. However, it could be that this theory is flawed and de Leon and Vermott are separate entities, either of which could have been an insider or an outsider with regard to Project 31.

Note from 'The Stitcher':

On 15 June 05 (before the disappearance of the soft Michigan core group), a mysterious letter was sent to a part-time Maryland woodland ranger by the name of Phipps. This letter was passed to a friend of Phipps, who herself was acquainted with the sister of a Baltimore man. This Baltimore man heard of our investigations after researching the subject of the letter online, and obtained a transcript of the letter for our researchers. It contains anonymous allegations claiming to be from a military source, that pertain to an alleged conversation between a military man and an Englishman known only as ‘Ike’. The military man, in some excitation, suggested that a city on a lake could be bettered by putting a city under a lake. He outlined a plan of individual vats which he called suspension chambers. The other man (‘Ike’) declared: ‘It is happening again…’ The military man, it is claimed, had a map on his wall of the US, with rings around 4 of the Great Lakes. A photocopied photographic image of this map accompanied the letter.

Latest development:

Researchers now reveal that the blog/internet forum of a US resident known as ‘Bezzie’, primarily devoted to knitting, contains references to reading up on the state of Michigan. It is suspected that at least some of those posting entries (many under pseudonyms) may be involved with the core group behind the Soft Michigan project. One individual called Melissa may be the same as Melissa Parrish, who struck up a friendship with Belinda Erkhart. Both are thought to have vanished. However, an ‘individual’ named Melinda Packett has been traced through pizza orders in the bay area. It is suspected by this investigator that both Melissa and Belinda are still at large, living together, sharing the pseudonym of Melinda Packett. This is substantiated by a bulk order for auburn ‘realcolor’ hair dye to a bay area address. They may have gone into hiding together after the disappearance of others involved in Soft Michigan. Another theory which arises, however, is that the whole group are in hiding, fearing a military clampdown on their work…

Pan-Euro Operation: Preliminary Report...

Investigations into the Michigan Flotilla have progressed to England, UK. The whereabouts of the mysterious 'Ike' as at this time unknown, though one of our agents has heard word of a loyalty group known as 'The Ikettes'; individual members of which are still unidentified as of this writing. However, this branch of investigation led us to make contact with a freelance photojournalist whom we can only refer to in this text as 'Safelight'. Safelight recounted to us a project he undertook a few years back, documenting the foot and mouth outbreak of 2001, a project which took him all over the UK for a period of 14 months.

One of the main methods of combatting and containing the outbreak was extensive culling of livestock, notably of sheep, and particularly of breeds which were farmed for their wool as opposed to their meat. Safelight's reportage made no attempt to hide the horror and inhumanity of this method of risk-management and in the text he wrote to accompany his images he continually expressed his digust at the government for forcing the farmers to bear the economic burden of their preferred solution, something which won him the trust of the rural communities.

This trust meant that legions of farm workers were prepared to confide their suspicions of the culling program to Safelight. Many farmers insisted that the structure of their farms meant that contamination was impossible unless intentionally carried out. There were signs of deliberate foul play at many of the infected sites, but most of the media reports centred around speculation from supposedly un-named locals that UFOs were seen in the area, with the hypothesis that biological studies of cattle were the ET's prime motivation for interfering with the livestock. However, both Safelight and our own investigators could find nobody in these small, close-linked communities who ever claimed to have spoken to the media about such suspected UFO activity. Several individuals, however, told us of a group of Americans who had visited various farming regions of the UK in the previous year - they were intially believed to be tourists but were later understood to have been enquiring about a large-scale transatlantic wool purchase program.

Safelight, based on evidence offered by several senior agriculturists, has proposed that the foot and mouth epidemic was a government-sponsored program carried out to provide a seemingly legitimate pretext to destroy a large proportion of its wool-bearing livestock. Threading such strands of evidence into a theory, it would seem likely that the UK government had become aware of the Soft Michigan Project (31) and was attempting to minimize the raw materials available in the Western hemisphere for the group to exploit, in order to reduce their effectiveness and level of activity. It is obvious that there would not be enough wool in the USA alone for a life-size replica to be reproduced in the country itself, and the project would sooner or later have to buy wool from abroad. Given the UK farmers' dire economic situation, it seems likely that the government was worried that the farmer's would accept the Michigan group's demands and so a pre-emptive strike was taken to undermine the available wool surplus for the next few years.

in Reply

Safelight’s suppositions would appear to be sound. This would follow the supposed straining of the UK-US intelligence relationship under the republican administration, and the ‘woolgate’ affair may have exacerbated this strain through further years. It points towards wool entering the realm of ‘power’ currency alongside oil and technology. Currently, the South Americas, politically dominated by the leftist governments of Venezuela and others, but with Mexico (central America) currently leaning more towards the capitalist western model, have a stronghold on the wool market, with the llama and sheep wool-unit being strong against its counterpart in the US. The nationalisation by SA governments of woolstocks, away from the control of US-dominated wool giants backed by the IMF, has further strengthened the hand of the leftist South Americans. Money was injected into the acrylic and polyester industries and polycotton-recycling technology in the US. Much of the actual labour was outsourced to the far east, with stocks of acrylic-mix wool returning by tanker. A plan to ship the product as helium-filled ‘clouds’, which would reach the US by trade winds, has reportedly been drawn up. (Anonymous source.)

However, real 100% wool, in particular merino, will dominate. As military insiders have reported ‘it’s just soooo much softer’…

Further Evidence of the SA influence in the Woolgate affair:

As investigations progress across Europe, Safelight is proving to be most insightful and has now provided further corroboration (as yet untested) of South America's role in Woolgate. He recalls a discussion he had with a fellow photojournalist while waiting in a temporary military installation to be flown out of the middle east circa 2004 after completing a 7-month embed with an unnamed batallion.

This photojournalist, believed to be Jacob Epps, recounted a project he undertook in 1996 to photograph the catacombs of the latin american region. In Lima, Peru, Epps claimed to have found (and taken photographic evidence of) a strange secret room in the catacombs which boasted a large map of the united states crudely yet accurately engraved on it's wall. There were minimal details and markings on the map - no towns or cities for instance, but apparently the Great Lakes were all marked on the map, with 4 of them distinguished with large crosses.

The strangest detail of this story as Safelight recounted it, was that Epps seemed convinced the lines from which these crosses were constructed appeared to look like two knitting needles overlayed in a cross arrangement. Whether this was deliberate or an accident achieved through the crude method used to make the engravings is as yet unknown, but Safelight has agreed to make off-the-record enquiries within his press contacts to track down Epps, or at least some of the photos he claims to have taken in the underground networks of SA.

Note from Kojak asa400:

This reminds me of the following incident this investigator picked up on. While investigating the mysterious Nazca Plains large scale engravings, a pair of drop-out crypto-geography enthusiasts from New Zealand, who later visited the UK, got talking to a local chilean family. They were keen to investigate the settlement growth patterns of mystery cults and ancient settlements, to see how clearly they followed the linear/nucleated patterns in the modern world. The pair questioned the family about the documented trance rituals of the ancients walking single file along the vast shapes of monkeys, snakes, and strange aparallel ‘runway’ lines engraved at a macro level on the plains. The son of the family told them ‘yes, it still happens; I have walked that path’. The pair were interested in connections with other ancient civilisations using vast building projects, such as the Egyptians, who it has recently been theorised were constructing a giant star map using pyramids. The son when questioned said ‘yes, they wanted to construct a replica of their own world. Now, who can tell which is which? Who can tell in which we now are dwelling? And is this a replica in a replica in a replica? Only the hermit can see it from above…’ This is merely meant as an anecdote, and is not meant to suggest any link with project 31, except perhaps a link of ideas. I do not know if ideas can travel abnormally, but different inventors are often noted to invent the same thing in different continents at the same time with no known links between them.

In Reply:

I recall a conversation with my wife's friend, Dr. Epstein, a professor in the fringes of quantum physics, towards the dusky end of a garden party last summer, where he explained to me the background of scientific research into recognised non-linear events. Epstein told of an experiment which registered simultaneous changes in two separate particles emitted from a shared source - some sort of particle gun (the finer details of such science have always escaped my comprehension). One particle would be somehow forced to split into two particles, which would travel in opposing directions - when any kind of characteristic was measured in one particle, the same could be found to be present in the other particle at the exact same time, even though the the two pieces of matter were geographically separate. This, he reasoned, provided proof of an instantaneous non-linear connection between two particles of common origin. The how or why of this is not something I was able to grasp, but Epstein assured me that this experiment produced reliably observable, measurable and repeatable results. If this is so, it is easy to extend this logic to apply to simultaneous shared realisations by unconnected individuals. Given that we all come from stardust, to put it in laymn's terms, it would seem common sense that unconnected individuals will from time to time hatch ideas, seemingly spontaneously, yet entirely in synch with one another - as the molecule fires across the synapse in one brain, creating the new thought, so must the connected molecule in the other brain, creating the same thought simultaneously. As I have stated, my scientific understanding of this is slight, but it would seem to me that this could be a possible explanation as to how two identical thoughts could occur simultaneously in peoples unconnected.

From Kojak 400asa

I assume ‘Dr Epstein’ and the mysterious photojournalist ‘Jacob Epps’ are not one and the same man? Coincidences do occur, especially with so many names floating about in investigations. To suppose that one must be a pseudonym or corruption of the other, in this investigator’s opinion, would be unprofessional, and amount to little more than an unfounded conspiracy theory. On this basis I will lay the similarity aside, and concentrate on digging up more on the case of Melissa Parrish and Belinda Erkhart living together in hiding under the assumed joint name of Melinda Packett while constructing with others a giant state replica from wool, with involvement in some form from the Peruvians.

In Reply:

Ah, your inquistive nature serves you well, as does your skepticism. You were absolutely right to suspect that Epps and Epstein are corruptions of the same name - we are investigtors by nature and profession, after all. However, you were also right to conclude that they are in fact different people - a coincidence which would be far too canny, something from the realm of fiction, even. I can assure you that I have met Dr. Epstein in person on several occasions over recent years, him being an acquaintence of my wife from her Ph.D. days. He is a brilliant yet quiet man, a professor of theoretical physics who lectures at a noted British university - I forget its name - not one of the big three, but certainly a well respected red-brick. To my knowledge, he has no knowledge of, nor interest in, photography, and has certainly never displayed any interest in my Nikon's when they have been lying around the home. In the interests of the profession, I am happy to casually raise the subject at our next acquaintence should you wish me to.

---

Investigator's notes...

... The Ellena Cortez [or Costa] and Earl Regan story related to an experiment called 'Black Cat'. Took place at the same time put in different hemispheres...Cortez and Regan never met, and by all accounts never had any communication - at least not in any obvious, tangible form.

Black Cat

Black Cat seems to be related to Paul Kozyra, a Polish immigrant and survivor of WW2. Disgustingly rich...the only link between Cortez and Regan, as a benefactor it seems. Claimed in his lifetime to have a host of extra sensory and paranormal abilities - in some places known as the real life Magneto a la X-Men - but proof of this is wholly anecdotal and is put down to myth building around the man.

Earl Regan came up with the Standardised Model for Creating a False Idol. A manifesto of sorts related to his creation of the Melanie Doll.

--
Query:
are you saying Kozyra was funding the Michigan operation,
or possibly some other wing of Project 31? OR was he involved
in promoting a false idol, such as Searly - a fake guy for the people
to believe in (not that i suspect Searly to be un-real, of course)?
--

you surmise that.

Regan's idea of a False Idol point to this, but a Standardised Model? Curious. Kozyra was a wealthy man, I'm working on his story at the moment, but it is possible he had a hand in the financing at least. What is funny is that Earl Regan rose from a largely unsuccessful plumber to be a eminent member of Black Cat and a conceptual artists [or 'imaginer' as he was called]. Though as yet i've yet to find any concrete information about Black Cat...

---

Regarding Kozyra. I have heard the angle that the wealth itself was a bluff – an image built up to mask huge debts from gambling on and investing in a variety of projects. The idea being to look rich enough for banks etc to lend him more. Of Kozyra, Earl Regan reportedly said: who is richer, ‘the banker or the shepherd?’

Three different interpretations of this statement come to me, all of which may be valid – firstly, that Kozyra is the ‘banker’ who may handle money, but is in real terms not rich from it. Secondly – a shepherd, in the biblical sense, is a guide, who supports and protects a group of people along a chosen path. Kozyra could be considered a shepherd in this sense, and could be considered richer for this role, successfully fostering projects by guiding them towards fruition, than any possessor of money. Thirdly, it could refer to wool being the new power currency, ahead of money, hence the shepherd being the possessor of wool, being richer than the possessor of money.

I don’t think the implication was that Kosyra was the shepherd in the third sense, ie. a dealer in wool, but I may be wrong.

Perhaps Kosyra was a pawn in someone else’s game, being controlled by those to whom he was in debt?

I haven’t yet heard back from my political marketing contact.

---

The false idol angle is an interesting one. Fabrication woven into reality. This ties in with the core concept behind the suspected enterprises of Project 31. Earl Regan and Ellana Costa are known Obfuscationists, thought to have a hand in the op-art affairs noted earlier. Reports from their rookie days, before they knew how to wear the mask, describe them as chalk and cheese, Earl being brash in style and always happy to tout the press, while Ellana kept a notorious low profile. All I have so far managed to find on record about her is an article in a marketing journal published in 1976. It doesn't give much away; buried in 2,400 words of the writer's speculation, the only direct quote from Costa was "me - hard to find? only a little".

Minnesota Marketing

My contact tells me that a think tank based in Minnesota has supposedly spent considerable time researching the means of elevating the mythology and iconography behind would-be political key players, to generate idolatry cults around such figures. It has always been assumed that this was purely for electioneering purposes, used by the right to generate gun-toting cowboy imagery, subliminally and more overtly, and also often used by the supposed left to generate false mythologies of hipness onto public figures among campus populations. This involves creating a fake underground, often intended to infiltrate the genuine underground.

Marketing teams behind the branding and creation of by-all-appearances ‘independent’ fashion labels and music acts actually generated by and owned by global corporations, have been consulted by the think tank, some actually joining the think tank. The lead singer of corporate rock act Stiltskin, an act created to sell clothing, appeared before the think tank panel, I am informed, and advised them: ‘Build your heroes as if they had built themselves. Rock and roll can start on the outside. Get the surface right – that’s where it counts; don’t keep it all inside.’ He added: ‘An illusion identical to a reality is itself a reality. Look at me, this is no mask, this is my face…’

It is thought that the think tank began to see further avenues for this approach…

---

The paradox of a marketeer, normally involved in promoting something into the limelight, being a seasoned pro at being elusive, makes sense to me. Know one thing and its opposite becomes natural too. It certainly ties in with project 31 – promotion of the false in order to hide the genuine. One story I feel to be apocryphal is that Costa herself infiltrated the soft core and struck up a personal friendship with Cate and Grant, the Michigan couple responsible for the ‘conception diet’ regime of low to zero carb. Costa took the strictness of this diet more seriously than the others (many of whom talked about it excitedly while also eating Hersheys on the side), and the story goes that this proved too much for her, leading to her abandoning the soft core and returning, one dress size thinner, to Earl Regan.

The adherence to strict diets could itself be a connection to Ronald Searly:

Recall the acquaintance between Searly and Captain Beefheart (a man who we should remember surrounded himself in aliases, and never called a man by his real name). Beefheart legendarily imposed a strictly controlled diet of plain pulses upon his musicians during recording sessions. Perhaps Searly taught this technique to Beefheart, or else learnt it from Beefheart. Either way, Searly may then have had a hand in the dietary impositions years later in Michigan State.

But what is the real purpose of such a regime?

---

Mid Point

The idea of a marketeer being an expert in elusivity is not such a paradox when viewed in light of modern marketing techniques.

In the nineties, the due to advances in satellite broadcasting, the population of the general western hemisphere became oversaturated with 24/7 advertising pitches and began to see through the mechanisms of sales persuasion. The marketing industry's response: to go covert - obscure the message; advertise without mentioning the product. Sub-conscious persuasion by evasion and mis-direction - car adverts with no mention of the product, except for maybe a manufacturers logo silently displayed ad the end of the commercial, are a classic example. It is a basic trick of the Obfuscationists, so beware. When they say 'look left', you better look right.

Further thoughts on the case so far: It seems I was presumptuous in my proposal that Kozyra was funding Michigan operations. there is no evidence to suggest this - as yet. One thing that struck me though, in light of the Black Cat experiments occuring in two locations at the same time. Following the theory behind the dual particle experiments I mentioned earlier, it seems possible that the real Black Cat experiment was actually taking place at the midway point between Regan and Costa's locations at the time; Regan and Costa's actions being a by-product of a much larger experiment being carried out somewhere equidistant from the two Obfuscationists. This surely merits some further investigation. If we can pinpoint Regan and Costa's exact locations during the Black Cat experiment(s) then we should be able to indentify the midway point where the possible larger experiment would have taken place.

---

Midway point between them: I assume you are suggesting midway epicentrally, ie. on the world’s surface, rather than euclidean midpoint which would be somewhere within the earth, at a depth depending on their distance apart, and increasing with distance apart to a theoretical maximum depth if located at opposite sides of the world (midpoint then being the core). Alternatively it could be a non-euclidean midpoint. Or perhaps a point located so as to form a (curved) equilateral triangle upon the world’s surface. This would produce two possible locations, if we knew their positions, dependent upon the latitudinal orientation of the triangle. I think of the supposed right angle triangle formed geographically by Stonehenge, the location in the Blue Mountains from which the stones were taken, and the mysterious island of Lundy (Island of the moon).

Perhaps the third point between Regan and Costa may even be a point in space, eg. a satellite?

To get a fix on this third location I suggest we revisit the instinctive insights of our colleague, centring on the Droitwich area. (The mysterious ‘Droitwich Fix’.)

I feel a new cosmological theory is close, leading to the postulation of a third state to accompany wave and particle, thus mirroring the solid, liquid, gas triplicacy. But is it a liquid zone between the solid particle and the gaseous wave, or is it a hazier state further beyond the liquid of the wave? We shall see.

---

A mid-point is a mid-point, and to me, all three which you propose seem equally valid. The idea of a euclidian mid-point is extremely interesting, given that we have already been told that a certain part of the Soft Michigan project involved moving things underground - hollowed mountains, submerged cities etc. Could it be that a city was submerged for the purpose of being utilized as a hard-to-find (possibly unfindable) operational centre? This deserves deeper investigation, literally.

I have further developments relating to other parts of the case. According to the police forensics report on the Buick which was found crashed in Maine, several types of wool fibres were recovered from the scene, including thirty-one different shades of Merino wool. Now, even a station wagon at maximum occupancy would not allow for this amount of different colours being accounted for by passenger clothing, even if they were all wearing odd socks. It would seem that the Buick had been used as a delivery/transportation vehicle by the Michigan core group for some time.

We are fortunate to have this information as, due to the unofficial nature of our investigations and the way we operate, we do not have approved access for police files. However, one of my underground contacts is able to bribe a certain law enforcement official in his neighbourhood whom he holds sensitive information on. In order to protect my contact, he must remain unnamed at this time. Suffice to say, his inquisitive nature and loyalties to our cause are a great asset. As my old mentor Bob Palindrome used to say, 'being a detective is not something you do; it is something you are'.

---

The Invisible Man

A strange white A4 ‘window’ style envelope was posted within the UK with dubious postage payment. The contents included a treatise entitled ‘Everybody Looks at the Invisible Man’. It essentially gave examples of the same techniques previously outlined. The notion was that what isn’t seen, or is very barely seen, or is noted by its absence, is picked up on subliminally by the mind, enabling it to gain widespread acceptance in the cultural psyche without anybody realising it overtly. Such a technique perhaps could be employed to spread illusions, such as the relocation of cities, for example. The full content of the treatise is thought still to be in existence, somewhere. However, it is not at present visible to the eye of this investigator.

----

Mixtape

Note:

31 different shades of merino wool found. That is an interesting numerical coincidence, but probably one to discard in any hunt for meaning.

The connections are suddenly stronger between the Searly affair and the Soft Michigan enigma. A theory: Searly acted as dietician to the soft Michigan core. De Leon and Vandeloon were go-betweens passing communications to and from the South American woolfields, through the Castro regime in Cuba, while based in Florida, but whether they acted for the genuine craft scene contingent of the Michigan core or for the military operatives involved in the same or a similar project, is unclear. Vermott I am still hazy on. Meanwhile Robert Long I assume impersonated Vermott (badly), and was silenced, by the military element? And the Buick? Where was it going? Was it perhaps used then abandoned and destroyed by the handicrafter core of soft Michigan, to hide evidence generally. Was the presence of the phone directory evidence that the handicrafter core silenced Long? I feel I’m trying to polarise everyone into good guys and bad guys with no middle ground. Perhaps really most of it is in the middle. But historically, I think polarisation is genuine. I need to find the third location. The threads are all there, but I just can’t yet get them all to knit together…

Recall in earlier forum excerpts from the Michigan core, the following:

but then again, we looove roadtrips.

see you then!

mostly i just stinking LOVE knitting.

really really happy.

I think we now know the vehicle and the purpose of these road trips. Things are coming together. I see Cate, Grant, Melissa, Belinda and Gert, perhaps with Searly, perhaps with Costa, on the road, hair flying out of open buick windows, speed knitting, sleeping, driving, collecting packages…

The mix tape tracklist recently unearthed from forum excerpts is enlightening (see below). I feel sure from the titles that it is self-recording, possibly by Grant and others, going on the reference to ‘his music’, (also below). I feel we should trace the singer/s behind these songs.

grant and i listened and danced to his music on valentines day

he is the perfect mix to me of blues and folk and funk and feeling

1 make stuff knit

2 april

3 fond of

4 Crochet Stack

5 noon 8

6 layering

7 7mos

8 afternoon

9 sleepy mama

10 waiting for me

11 Theres only one captain on this boat

12 Very Special Scarves

13 Michelle Williams ?

14 new drawing corner

15 the other side

16 Untitled

17 pride and joy

18 steven alan imitation

19 atthestove

20 Untitled

21 film207

22 hi

23 Working

24 Lashes

25 s t i l l morning quiet time

26 anthem for a 17 year-old girl

27 Untitled

28 reasons for staying

29 Untitled

30 book girl

31 Untitled

32 ships ahoy

33 juk box

34 [?]

35 grapefruit & new curtains

36 gams [?]

Note from Warren Leno:

Made progress, mentally, on the Earl Regan case. Found info from failed Art Journal interview with him...also, have diagram relating to something, you need to see it. with pictify. Enlightening views from a man...turns out regan also known as Stanford...s. earl? searly? a stretch too far? art journal writer passes a house called Woolly Knoll in the Wolds...hmm. Talks to a man called Saul.

Some good stuff on duality.

need to type up my notes.

anthem for a 17 year old girl - from the list - was a poem by Ellena Costa.

---

Why I Ran

Some interesting light has been shed on this case in the last 24 hours - the mixtape in particular giving us great insight into the scene we are dealing with. The connections are coming together like a healthy capilliary system, but we are still short of a main artery or two. The Searly connection is still vague, all we know is that it seems to involve automobiles, possibly roadtrips, nutritional strategy and the beefheart associations. To help turn the corner in the investigation, I have been reviewing my notes in an effort to further understand the character of our quarry.

Looking more closely at the man, we know he is a sports fan - the betting slips, bowling tokens and baseball tickets i found in his garbage tell us this. He is also a bookworm, possibly even a writer himself, going by the library fines and Octopiithagoas. His library account was highly active until eight months ago, then all of a sudden he stopped using it. It would have all the hallmarks of a missing persons case, except three weeks ago he apparently returned all borrowed books in his posession to a library in Boston, paying all due fines and renewing one book - 'Why I Ran' by Randy Loboda.

When I first saw the title on the library ticket, I read it as 'Why Iran?' and thought it was some political spook text, then I realised what it was - the autobiography of an eighties hotshot middle-distance college athlete who went off the rails in his early twenties who ended up fleeing police in a highway chase which went all the way from Denver to Los Angeles before he ran out of gas (ironically only 200 yards after passing a gas station). It is the third longest known police chase in America's history and Randy's crime never actually went on the record; his official final charge being that of a faulty brakelight. The book, published after seven years' silence, was intended to explain the motivation for his running both as an athlete and a fugitive. It was a commercial flop, but gained nortoriety as an unofficial manual of evasion techniques, becoming a cult text for those involved in underground movements wanting to avoid the authorities and providing source material for some of the early Obfuscationst manifestos.

It is interesting to know of such recent activities from Searly and his posession of this book provides some insight into his state of mind.

---

Note from Kojak 400asa

Simultaneous with these insights, about which this investigator is very excited, especially the woolly knoll meeting, the following can now be reported. A cryptic answerphone message, the voice recognisably that of investigator Harry Delacroix, was left on a hotel room phone, into which a mobile answerphone had been attached by our friend the room guest. The message was spoken without the natural emotion of straight dialogue, and so I feel it to be a reading of a transcription, and it has itself been transcribed as follows:

“I don’t know why they wouldn’t take it more seriously. I mean, sure, it was all a joke, but a serious one. We were gonna build this thing. It was a folly, yeah. But I meant it. No point going halfway, might as well just curl up. And there was no better time in my life before that – even the Tahoe days. Nothing like feeling the wind in your hair as you cut through the evening in the backseat with your comrades – yeah we were comrades, more than just friends, and I don’t mean anything political yunno. Wool everywhere. Needles dancing. That’s where it’s at. But we had to wrap it up – get it hidden. They made that clear… Searly… Message ends. Sometime 2006. See ya.”

I believe Harry found this old interview with a soft core member archived and got it out to reach us in this manner. The last word, Searly…

Note from Lone Wolf

It may be that Costa was associated with the Canadian music scene. A song "Anthems for a Seventeen Year-Old Girl appears on the album 2004-09-17: Austin City Limits, Austin, TX, USA. Broken Social Scene is a Canadian indie rock ..." group formed in 1999. (source: internet.)

However the similarity between song titles (one singular, one plural) may be a coincidence. Costa's singular version makes much more sense, for a single song. Alternatively, it may be the same song. Perhaps she ghost wrote for Broken Social Scene or was even a member of the band. I don't know how close to the great lakes scene the band was located. I feel they were either very close, or else vancouver-based.

Investigator's note

not sure if this is intra or extra investigations, but was synchronicitously sent the following link below, pertaining to the whole particles-connected-over-distance field of enquiry...

Subject: RE: viva la sangria
oh, watch this if you get a spare 10 minutes at work...is good stuff.
http://www.bbc5.tv/news/story/amazing-holographic-universe

[From this article:] “In 1982 a remarkable event took place. At the University of Paris a research team led by physicist Alain Aspect performed what may turn out to be one of the most important experiments of the 20th century. […] Aspect and his team discovered that under certain circumstances subatomic particles such as electrons are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. It doesn't matter whether they are 10 feet or 10 billion miles apart. […] A hologram teaches us that some things in the universe may not lend themselves to this approach. If we try to take apart something constructed holographically, we will not get the pieces of which it is made, we will only get smaller wholes. […] This insight suggested to Bohm another way of understanding Aspect's discovery. Bohm believes the reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one another regardless of the distance separating them is not because they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth, but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental something. […] Such particles are not separate "parts", but facets of a deeper and more underlying unity that is ultimately as holographic and indivisible as the previously mentioned rose. And since everything in physical reality is comprised of these "eidolons", the universe is itself a projection, a hologram.”

See the reference to 'eidolons' as a name for remotely connected particles (or different views of the same goldfish, in one theory). Eidolon - a false idol? A connection? I wonder if our colleague's chance summer evening conversation with Dr. Epstein was indeed more connected than we realise. Sometimes the agents of change and of enlightenment and of reconnection of the shards of the great self come along when we feel we are ready. During verdent wooded walks past hedgerows in the wolds; on patio edges with the smell of charcoal and sizzling fat and dry mown grass; in stuffy libraries to the sound of prolonged rainfall; in our dreams at 5am...

What, then, if it is true? Then we are free to re-believe; free to shape the great dream as we desire; to follow our pure folly and to quell suffering and spread joy in our own disparate pathways of awareness; free to believe in what magic we will.

Further thoughts on the case so far:

Many of the links between Searly and the Michigan group seems to involve de Leon, Vandeloo, Vermott and James/Robert Long.

Were these people Searly's go-betweens? His trusted messengers? I am increasingly leaning toward the theory that Jack Vermott and James/Robert Long are psedonyms for Jack Vandeloo and Jose de Leon. The only traces of Long and Vermott are entirely connected to appearances of de Leon and Vandeloo - it seems they are aither a tightly-knit group (excuse the pun), or two people with aliases. The similarity between the names Vermott/Vandello and de Leon/Long incline me toward the latter explanation, something which I believe we should take into consideration when viewing the wider picture.
Also, while trying to indentify the mid-point between Costa and Regan during Black Cat, it struck me that the only known link between the two individuals is Paul Kozyra. Kozyra is their go-between, the middle-man, and most likely was found at the mid-point between the two during the experiment in question. It occurs to me that in all likelihood Black Cat was Kozyra's gig and Regan and Costa were possible collaborators but more likely pawns in his game. Perhaps by looking more closely at Kozyra we will reveal the required knowledge of Costa/Regan and more importantly, the details of Black Cat.
I must hurry now as I am due to fly to Boston in a couple of hours to pick up the scent of Searly, starting at the library.

Investigator’s Notes:
On your travels, watch out for the chance meetings - they will come to you... You've just got to recognise them when they approach you. I have myself just been approached by an archaeologist researching an ancient site in the lowlands, keen to acquire antler, for comparisons with ancient samples found on the dig. This was while I was investigating thermafleece wool-based building products online (for my own non-case use - building things out of wool...). The archaeologist did not give me anything obvious towards the case, except for some kind of primitive spiritual non-verbal encouragement. But she was a soft sweet thing. Her name was unusual... began in a V, as pronounced, but spelt with a gaelic Mh. Vandeloo... Vermott.. You could very well be digging in the right place. Watch out for 'M's desguised as 'V's and vice versa. I feel it could be a lead.

-/-

INSERT MAP IMAGE

The attached image is from Harry Delacroix. The reference to Keegan and Rosta is clearly either an accidental or deliberate misnaming of Regan and Costa. Harry claims the map is from the personal belongings of a Canadian-born Religious Studies student who spent a few semesters in one of the new ‘prefab’ universities in the UK, in the late 1990s. A contact of Harry’s got the map from the R.S. undergraduate’s washbag while canvassing her halls of residence for an RPG club. He also claims to have seen an abundance of knitting paraphernalia in the room, and a Joni Mitchell album sleeve pinned to the wall, with ‘joni for ever’ written in the bottom corner in biro. Apparently, the undergrad was forced to abandon one course unit because some of her theories were too far out for the professors. She reportedly told them: ‘I can prove this’…
The ‘where have they gone?’ question on the map possibly refers to Regan and Costa rather than the larger disappearance circa 2005, if the dating to the late 90’s for this artefact is correct. Unless it refers to something else altogether.

-/-

The following piece of new age hokum comes direct from the spare parts collective, a group of unknown membership (possibly only one person with many aliases).

The tripartite ontology is as follows: the dream, the dreamer and the dreamt. The dream refers to the wholeness of experience; the dreamer is the consciousness witnessing this experience; the dreamt (or dreamee) is the consciousness created by the dreamer. One can influence the dream, but so long as one is within the subject matter of other dreaming consciousness, one is also being dreamt. In other words, it is harder to retain free will over the ones dreaming, if one is simultaneously the subject of other dreamers. One will find it harder to perform great feats if one is being witnessed by others who, by virtue of their beliefs about the nature of the dream, do not wish you success or believe you can succeed. They will try to shape the world in one way, while you try to shape it the other. Thus arises conflict. The universe as we see it is the sum total of the conflicts and harmonies of all consciousness and will.
A further result of this theory: Consciousness can create consciousness. Conjure up a being, and the being can conjure back… Unless, there are a whole host of false beings (unconscious but with the appearance of consciousness).
Is this the false eidolon?

-/-

An anecdote:

Here goes official account of my meeting two days ago at the Cumberland Club.

Thursday: Successful hitch to Ullapool with a young lady from Brighton (and her mother), the young lady is not relevant to the case except to point out that she had the most wonderful soft light brown hair on her arms, and was a wonderful human being besides. I was weak as a dog from throat infections. Bus journey to Edinburgh uneventful.
Friday: Kooper Bloomfield Stills Super Session acquired in backbeat, along with Patti Smith Horses also on vinyl. Also Pearl Jam Ten on vinyl acquired previously in Vinyl Villains.
Saturday:
8.00pm: Acquired around 12 black ballpoints from pizza express Sat pm. (The owner was dumping them after 10 mins of use, due to ease of acquisition and basic mental and emotional disassociation with resources) – sufficient ammunition for any remaining journalism to occur, though case was at this point forgotten to the investigator.
10.00pm: Approached the Cumberland Club. Drinking screwdrivers.
12.30: Contact A sighted, being interrogated by R.G.
1.00am: Contact A approached. Introduced by R.G. through accusation by R.G. of Contact A’s hair being flicked backwards into face of the investigator (false).
Name is Candy, from Port X on the coast of L. Huron. Various information. Investigator decided to come clean about the case. Contact A suggests L. Superior most likely location of the hidden State of Michigan; ‘because Lake Superior is bigger than the State of Michigan’. Contact A corrects investigator’s pronunciation of Michigan (Should be ‘Mishigan’, not ‘mitchigan’ as investigator had been saying).
1.30am: Contact B approaches investigator. Accent like Loyd Grosman only more drug-addled.
‘That’s my wife you’ve been talking to.’
‘I know’ (smilingly).
Contact B reveals he is a freelance photojournalist who tracks urban foxes. ‘There’s this one, but I can’t tell you, or they’ll...[slurring – I don’t know who they are or what they would do.]
Contact B tells investigator the location of said urban fox. For now at least, this investigator will refer to location as E.B.G. “My friends tell me send these pictures to the newpapers. I can’t do that…” … He is still on its trail. “I would give myself a 97% chance of tracking this fox.” At this point investigator has grabbed 1 of his ballpoints and is hastily scribbling notes on the back of contact B’s business card. He notices; looks alarmed or confused. ‘It’s okay, I’m just making a few notes.’

-/-

So, Boston. First Stop; the library. Speak to receptionist (short, darkhaired wiry man, namebadge calls him 'Ryan') about a 'friend' of mine who has been uncontactable for some time, whom it would appear had used said library branch at some point in the last month. I explained to Ryan that his family are distressed and since being made aware that his library card had been used, they had called on an old friend (me) to see if he could be traced. I give Ryan the name Searly and ask if he would be so kind as to check the account for activity. It would really help ease the burden and stress of uncertainty on the aging members of the Searly family if evidence could be found that he is alive and well, I tell Ryan. Classic story, always works, and Randy duly obliges to access the security tape of the day the account had been used.

With the timestamp on the account activity, it was easy to pinpoint which customer on the footage was Searly - fastforward to 2.38pm of March 26th and there he is strolling through the main door with a slow, long stride. The CCTV is an old system - 32 shades of blurry green with poor frame-rate, offering little to go on. 'Searly' is wearing a fisherman's hat and 3/4 length jacket, walking with a slight stoop and looking floorward the whole time. Possible beard, but hard to tell on this lo-res footage - could just be shadow. Looks a little like Serpico all the same. Library clerk who processed his fines and renewal on the CCTV footage barely pays attention to him, so I doubt she will be able to shed much further light on the encounter. However, Randy gave me her name - Sally Gainsbourg - and she is on shift tomorrow, so I shall call in for a chat with her and see what she can recall.

Forgot to find myself any accomodation in the midst of all this, so am sat drinking scotch in an isolated corner bar in an effort to dull my senses enough to sleep in my car tonight. I feel like the guy wearing the hat in Edward Hopper's Nighthawks.

-/-

Are Randy and Ryan the same man?

I wonder about the lineage of Ms. Gainsbourg. The mysterious ‘Cargo Cult’ involved in the disappearance of a Ms. Melody Nelson, as reported to us by a Mr. Gainsbourg, may be of relevance to the case. Did you pack a wah-wah pedal?

And remember, while sitting in car with scotch sleeping – ‘watch out for the polis!’ I was busted three times in one night once, while parked up trying to sleep with a bottle of beer. Guilty until proven innocent.

-/-

Randy as in Loboda? I do not believe Randy and Ryan to be the same person. Randy had a brief period of infamy and as such is a publicly recognised figure, though not particularly high profile in the collective conscious. Ryan doesn't fit the bill - too short, too old, too staid. This leads me to question why someone would use a pseudonym so similar to their real name. Is it due to ease of signature forging - the handwriting appearing more natural as it is closer to the familiar form of one's own real signature, or does it stem from something deeper, perhaps?

The idea that a name close to your original moniker allows for more natural reaction in a person-to-person setting. See low-grade tv actors/actresses who play characters which share their forenames, allowing for more natural reactions due to the multitude of historical instances where the person has been called by this name.

This investigator suggests that it would be better for a person wishing to hide their identity to pick a name very different from their own and put in the time and effort required to develop a natural handstyle for signatures and a natural response style to the new name in social settings.

I appreciate your concern that law enforcement may frown upon my vehicular sleeping situation, but I shall keep no grog in the car and shall sleep under a pile of old coats in order to make the car appear unoccupied. I am a seasoned pro at such an arrangement, which leads me to recall the time I slept in my car on the high street of the Holy Island after spending the evening drinking with priests in one of the charming local taverns. After meandering back to my car, located by the post office/bakery, I consumed two brandy and cokes before sleeping in the passenger seat, waking only to empty my bladder into my thermos, before falling once again into the dreamy realm and only surfacing back to waking life once the morning birdsong had reached its peak.

-/-

“I give Ryan the name Searly and ask if he would be so kind as to check … if evidence could be found that he is alive and well, I tell Ryan. Classic story, always works, and Randy duly obliges in accessing the security tape of the day the account had been used.”

To quote you. I don’t know if Randy is Loboda. I assumed Ryan had very briefly assumed the name Randy, then slipped back again after getting you the CCTV footages.
I recall the Holy Land pass-through on your way north. You had a camera and had some opportunity to take some great shots, if I remember correctly. Though perhaps limited by weather?
Midges are my only excuse for ever emptying bladder into a drinking receptacle. Though I hear sailors do it for the sake of drinking. I do recall you washing the flask very well. As for sailors, if ever at sea without drinking water, a far safer, and theoretically ongoing, system of imbibing waters, is to use seawater instead of urine, taken from the rear rather than orally. The lower intestine absorbs the water content, blocking out the saline content. After which I assume one shits a bit of salt.
If only the great explorers had known this technique, many lives could have been saved. Perhaps the Atlanteans knew. The magician, the physician, the rectal fluid intake technician…

-/-

i see. duly noted. a simple typo. amazing the confusion they can cause.

-/-

Who knows how the truth shall reach us. Quite possibly by misprint.

-/-

Indeed, indeed. I think 'Randy' is Ryan's 30-years-junior alter-ego, which i may have spotted in some sort of spritiual shape-shifting moment. I recall a record producer once telling me how he would watch Bob Dylan in the studio, appearance resembling an 80-year old bluesman and and 8-year old child within a matter of minutes, or even seconds. Said it was like watching a shape-shifter - 'he was that child and he was that 80-year man as much as he was his 54-year old self'. 'Randy' is who Ryan once was and who he would now like to be again.

Anyway, further developments on the Boston angle... Called in on Sally Gainsbourg, she barely remembered Searly and struggled to recall him even upon seeing the CCTV footage. Seems it was his first time in the library by all acounts - seven staff members viewed the footage and none recognised him. I asked them to call me if there is any more activity on his account, which they agreed to do so, viewing me as an impeccable family friend prepared to go to any lengths to reassure a worried ageing couple. (I left them a card which claims my occupation to be 'dentist'. Everyone trusts a dentist. Considering my options over a cream cheese bagel. Must remember to rent a short-stay room before sundown.

-/-

I never trust a dentist. Never. But that’s just me. I might trust you if you were a dentist – like I would maybe trust a 19 yr old T-shirted Californian smelling of reefer to inspect my teeth with sharp objects over the usual business-suit power-trip zombie tooth doctor who x-rays children’s brains and fills their gums with mercury to pay towards his holiday villa in Spain. Fuckers…
I can’t find it easy to think that these people will BELIEVE you to be a dentist. But maybe your disguise is good. Adding 10 years of wristwatch wearing classic FM squareness and subtracting 30 years of true knowledge. In which case you are truly THE master of disguise.

I assume nothing was learnt from Sally about the disappearance of Melody Nelson and the involvement in this of the Cargo Cult? Have you been down to the university campus for clues? The film and media department could be worth a try. Tell the professors you want to talk about the Wizard of Oz. Say you’re looking for ‘Dorothy’.

-/-

were The Cargo Cult involved in under-the-radar wool transportation? what evidence do we have of their operating from Boston? no-one in this town is talking - yet. just booked a room for the next 4 nights; must re-disguise myself and head for the campus, posing as an independent film-maker - attention-seeking youths are known for letting on more than they intend.

-/-

Attention seeking youths may indeed pass on more information than they actually know.

My French is not quite good enough to know if the Cargo Cult deal in wool trafficking. They may. I am as of 1 minute ago in conversation with a wool outfit based in Wales. I am seeking delivery information.

Independent film-maker disguise eh? I feel that is a case of the disguise being a lack of disguise…

-/-

Potentially Unrelated

Since a mental spring clean through action of whisky and strawberry milk while on investigations, cobwebs have been cleared out allowing fresh neural pathways to develop in absence of staid old brain routeways.
On the return journey bus I developed a technique of mirroring the formation of vivid, real, dream images by the mind finding and tracking real patterns on the diffuse random textured patterns of the retina/back of eyelid. Staring at a random pattern, one can either let the mind find whatever faces or figures or object images it will, in the patterns, or one can seek something in particular, at whatever level of detail you want, eg. find the shape of an angry face, find the shape of a bear, find a guy with his arm in the air, find some monster…
I was doing this by staring at the back of a bus seat (usual random textured plush fabric pattern not unlike the patterns you see with your eyes shut).
My feeling is that in sleep, the brain does this very same thing and finds the real actual images within the image seen with the eyes shut. (This being first thought likely by my previously waking up and noticing the lingering dream object having an actual location on the field of vision seen with shut eyes.)

In order to find moving images, one needs to search much harder in the patterns/textures of the field of view seen with shut eyes, to find frame by frame images of objects in various stages of movement. This, I assume, is the entire explanation for rapid eye movement – the eye is flitting about fast because one is searching for images with which to construct real time dream vision.

I don’t know how this relates to the case…

-/-

sounds like the same theory as the rorshach test.

also apparent, in my experience, when looking at the marble-effect vinyl floor tiles in my bathroom whilst in the relaxed state that comes with passing a stool. i've seen some marvelous monsters in those innocent vinyl squares, the effect being somewhat amplified by the ingestion of fungi containing psilocybe.

-/-

Right. Yes. That’s the kind of thing. So – the theory is, that the eyes are actually still able to see such random texture patterns when shut, and that we identify shapes within them, which are our actual dream images.

The natural progression from this theory is that our actual waking perceptions, of objects in an apparent 3D world, could similarly be our mind identifying shapes and image in a much much wider array of texture and pattern, which our eyes actually see, but which we select from. Hence two ways of seeing – change the focus and you can see the florescent fibres of the hologram… This whole world as perceived is one of many ways of viewing a selection of the whole of what sense data we actually receive.

-/-

Outline of a case-room

The case room is small; cramped; poorly lit. Desk piled high with cuttings, black and white photos, old receipts… Shelves of fossils; old keys; old phone directories… Empty bottles of cheap red wine litter the floor. The most recent one was an 8% ‘wine’ bought for around £3 – went down okay last night while listening to steve still’s wah on season of the witch and Patti Smith singing GLORIA. Red and blue lined diagrams on square ‘math book’ style A4 paper. One of those manoeuvrable lamps with about three flexible joints with springs like a rusty metal model of a dinosaur limb. A red bulb lightbox for studying transparencies taken in ‘aura-chrome’… Some great shots… Case notes on the backs of envelopes. Drawing pins in the walls holding overlapping depths of information like a busy shop noticeboard in November. It is a grotto… A cavern of information, most of it irrelevant and possibly half of it false... Corrugated cardboard coffee cups stacked on papers leaving golden olympic rings.
The balls of string dispense from the centre, cut by pocket knife to connect Wyoming with Winnipeg, and the Niagara with the Angel Falls. Maps of Europe, UK, U.S., Norfolk Broads, Antarctica, the Moon… Maps of city centres. Maps of the London Underground and the Trans Europa Express. Maps of the human brain… Maps of the eye. Maps into the human ear. Images of the back of busseats. Textures… Maps of the inked thumbprint of a stranger from a motel room in Duluth… Mazes… Labyrinths…

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A Hunch

I have a feeling that Searly’s poetry rival, who produced the winning poem ‘from the sun’, may be worth investigating. I hear that often rivalries in poetry result in bonds stronger than brotherhood. (See J. L. Borges – a story of two artists in Argentina; the rivalry between them occupies every fibre of their being – it is their main drive in life, without it they would be nothing. If such a rivalry did indeed form between Searly and the author of ‘from the sun’, then we may find the same man (if a man) throughout Searly’s adult life, always there, in the background, informing Searly’s choices throughout. Every Newtonian needs an equal and opposite force to react against… Without it we could not move an inch.

Just a hunch. I always go with a good hunch…

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Another Hunch

Just been researching Melissa Parrish. I have found her (though she is two people, remember – Melinda and Belinda sharing an alias. She claims a military education, now in the faculty at an Art School, along with marketing and health background. We have her… She’s hiding out in Wasington DC. Close enough to Boston for you??
‘property accounting chief’ – that sounds like hiding a city to me. I suspect the listing of two locations as main place of education must be to cover both individual…

Of course I now see I mistakenly supposed Melissa to be the alias of Melinda and Belinda, when of course, it is Melinda (Packet) who is the alias of the other two. Two many names to keep track of…
So… I assume what we are seeing is proof that Melinda has now separated back into her 2 individual elements, and that what we read is all pretty exclusively Melissa’s personal history. In which case, where is Belinda Eckhart? Another search required…

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North East

There seems to be an amalgamation of evidence in the northeastern corner of the american continent. is this due to the atlantic seaboard providing ports accessible from the transatlantic european shipping lanes? it would make sense, given the anglo-european involvement already uncovered.

This all has the effect of making more intrigued by the Buick wreck in Maine - it's just up the road from Boston, but isn't really on the way to anywhere in a northerly direction. However, it would be somewhere someone may pass through if they were going from, say, a northwestern shipping port such as eastport or calais, or even halifax, nova scotia to somewhere near the canadian borderline, such as the great lakes.

there are so many coastal towns in the nova scotia region which borrow heavily from british naming conventions; st. andrews, digby, yarmouth, chester, bedford, guysborough, truro, halifax. i am unsure if this is of significance or not?

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In Reply

Certainly, the historic link dates from the highland clearances – a mass migration caused solely and completely by… yes, you’ve guessed… the wool trade.
Huge swathes of Scotland, and in a different manner, England too, were cleared of indigenous resident sustainable populations by an elite with political and military power, in order to occupy the cleared lands with huge sheep farms. The wool trade was partly, I believe, serving to fuel the Napoleonic wars, though I forget what the English army used wool for. Today’s residual contingent of struggling UK sheepfarmers is largely a hangover from this not-too-distant example of ethnic cleansing – the previous sustainable populations kept cattle, pigs, grew oats… were foresters… coppiced… Now the hills are bare and the soil has no nitrogen content – the nitrogen went into the wool. Taken from the land and not put back… Fertility was lost. A culture was shifted, by sea, to New Scotland (nova scotia); to New Zealand (Dunedin, NZ city, named after the original Gaelic name for Edinburgh), to Australia, to Canada. With the exodus went knowledge. There is a theory that the grail is now in Nova Scotia.

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Note From Lone Wolf:
Earl Regan created the 'Melissa Doll' as part of his Standardised Model for Creating a False Idol.
hmmm.
lost in the Wolds currently. trying to unravel the web...
liking your work overseas...at some point we need a meeting to go over this. not sure how we'd co-ordinate.
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In the back of my mind, partly due to pouring over maps of Canada in my youth (or is that ‘pawing’? – I hear the expression but not seen it written down – just what exactly do they mean?) – anyway, in the back of my mind… has been the possible involvement of the two north Canadian great lakes – great slave and great bear. I have an inkling that they may have served as ‘wet run’ practise grounds for the project. My only Canadian contact is a peacenik based between the Yukon and Quebec. (If not including my recently formed contacts A & B, now both based in the UK.)
I’m going to investigate further.
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Further Notes From Boston
Been hanging around the Boston University campus these last 36 hrs looking for leads. Kids of every description hanging out all over the grounds - lone readers on the grass, athletic guys running round the lake in pairs - it's just like it is in the movies, and just like it was back when I was taking Social Theory classes at Ohio. Some things never change, and I guess campus life falls into that bracket. Not knowing whether to focus on the hip kids or the squares, i keep my enquiries vague and loose, so as to not give too much away.

A break comes when I am introduced to a guy called Zach Happy, a PhD student in town planning/transport networks. The guy has lived on campus for seventeen years, so has a better knowledge of the campus' recent history than most people. He's a good natured kid, but pretty serious with it. During our conversation, he recalled a time in the mid-nineties when groups of art students would often take roadtrips north, presumably to Canada or Nova Scotia. Happy mentioned how they would often come back with trunkfulls of fabric samples, citing a lack of availability in the States as the reason for their sourcing from north of the border.

Happy remembers a Canadian couple who used to visit the campus fairly regularly, something like once a fortnight, who would always mingle with the art students. One time, the girl turned up alone and Happy happened to pass by her as she was struggling to lift a box from her car, so he gave her a hand (partly due to philanthropy, partly due to a self-confessed attraction with the girl). He asked girl where her partner was, to which she replied 'Oh, Grant? He couldn't make it down this time'. Happy noticed that the box contained several copies of what appeared to be the same audio casette, boxed with identical handwritten inlay cards.

Sensing an opprtunity to strike up a friendship or possible romance, he tried to pursue a conversation with her, asking what the tapes were of - was she in a band? apparently her reply was 'erm, yeah.... something like that'. Happy asked if he could have a copy of the tape but was told 'Sorry, they are made to order for a certain audience, I can't just give them away'. Hurt, but still intrigued, Happy slyly stuck a copy of one casette into his trouser pocket when the girl was distractedly locking her vehicle. Apparently the tape was full of home recordings which included excerpots from tv adverts, lo-fi acoustic music and spoken word poetry, often with what seemed like knitting or tapestry instructions worked into the lyrics.
Happy is convinced that the tape and it's casing still exist somewhere in his dorm room, which he has promised to endeavour to find for me. All he can remember now is that the title of the tape was 'At The Haberdasher's Request'.

Zach Happy would seem to be a useful contact, and unless he is a fantastic actor, I think we can take him to be as innocent and unrelated to the core group as he appears to be on the surface. When i asked him if this sort of thing still went on around campus he claimed it had all died down around the start of the new millenium, presuming the internet to be a decisive factor. As he put it himself; 'Who would bother with a thousand mile round-trip when you can sit at home eating delivered pizzas and order what you need over the fatpipe. No-one has time for that real-world shit any more, being face to face with people is just too big a deal for most folks to handle. People just want to live in their bubbles and work enough to afford what they want, they don't want to experience the world first-hand, just read about it in magazines while they worry about their weight and wait for mail-order goods to arrive from abroad'.
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Note From Lone Wolf:
Invaluable find there.
Happy must be kept on file and on the quick dial.
just re-read earlier message from me...didn't qualify why i re-iterated the Regan thing...Melissa Parrish rang a bell with the Melissa Doll.
some elements are recurrent in the research..and have been highlighted by recent findings here. it's hard to step back from it at the moment, but here's my potted thoughts for the moment.
dreams and dreamers. was put onto some something Freud said about the dreams being the 'royal road to the unconscious mind'. been in discussion with doctor of art, conceptual artist and thinker...some good stuff coming through. and it all lands right in the middle of what were looking at.
also. concept of the Third Mind. specifically in relation to the collaboration between two people. there is the idea that a Third Mind is in play whenever this occurs. have some research to type up about Bill burroughs and a contemporary working in cut up and how they stated this third mind idea. also that 'cut up can predict the future'. Regan and costa worked independantly but collaboratively. Kozyra as a physical and facilitatory 'third mind'? i have some interesting visual evidence from the Wolds to further add to this.
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The Melanie doll is a Melissa Doll ??? I suspect the melanie doll was a codeword for some use of the substance melamine. Which I think is a plastic, but I’m not sure of the applications.
The third mind – indeed, just as the human brain is actually viewable as two brains/minds, in part but only part communication with each other through a fairly limited bridgeway between left and right hemispheres, so, two separate brains in communication can certainly be thought to result in a third mind. The theory exists that ‘God’ is simply the composite mind formed by the sum total of all minds. Whether minds have to be in communication with each other to form this composite consciousness is blurry – perhaps they are all communicating at various non-visible levels anyway – even monks in cells can read each others dreams perhaps. Perhaps more so than the hurrying flustered strangers saying words at each other in office blocks and on streets…
Zach’s astute analysis of modern fatpipe culture is certainly apt here. The group mind, with a wholeness of conscious awareness and perhaps an ability to make its own conscious decisions, hence an ability to control the actions of its parts in unison, may perhaps be rendered powerless by the deadening of connections between the individual ‘neurons’ ordering fast food in their settees. However, working against this is the theory that the internet forms a vast connecting network between us, such that the internet itself results in a vast conscious union between us. So the modern world could result in a sharpening of some kinds of connections, and deadening of others. Perhaps the emotional connections are deadened and the pure ‘data’ connections are sharpened. Perhaps we as individual components of the group mind should be concentrating on fixing any area where connections are lacking. For example, by establishing networks of positive emotional connectivity.

People often question ‘why is it of any real worth to fix ones own patch in the giant quilt of the land, if the whole quilt is going to the shit?’ Ie. Rather than growing potatoes and living as a hermit, one should instead be acting politically to influence others.
My feeling is that we should follow the notion that inventions in one area ‘magically’ lead to the same inventions occurring elsewhere separately and simultaneously.
Perhaps it is the group mind at play. So, fix your own patch, and other people will be more likely to do the same elsewhere.
Cate and Grant… So, did Zach get the impression that Cate and Grant were not a couple in the conventional sense – perhaps just comrades. ??
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The Melinda Doll?
interesting crossover of theories. perhaps the melanie/melissa doll are both slight typos for what could be the melinda doll - something which maybe acted as a benchmark for identity reversal, which was named after the technique developed by melissa/belinda, or perhaps it already existed, and they used the underlying principles of it to fake their own disappearances.
yes, it would seem that stay-in-your-home-with-multi-tv-channels-and-directly-distributed-media-and-sustenance lifestyle is causing individuals to become more isolated from one another on a real-world level, but more connected in the digital-realm. this closely mirrors the idea of a replica world overtaking the 'real' physical world and becoming the place where people primarily exist. Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Second Life, online PRGs etc. all contribute to this, creating a collective mind in cyberspace and leaving the physical realm as some sort of ghost world; an abandoned, largely uninhabited industrial space on the edge of a retail town.
Also ties in with the op-art-town-planning-herding/controlling of human movement manifesto.
I think Happy believed Cate n Grant to be a couple (assuming this girl was Cate), but possibly only because he was infatuated with her, so imagined her and her male companion to have romantic links. It is entirely possible that he was erroneous about this and that their connection comes down to being memers of a common group.
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Border crossings… It seems to make sense. Any shipments of fabrics have got to cross a border… Otherwise what’s the point? But where from and where to?
If fabrics were brought from Canada, for construction of soft Michigan in Michigan, would it be possible for the constructed Michigan to then be transported back to Canada? I doubt it logistically. Why source fabrics from Canada in the first place??
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'Availability' was cited as the official explanation for sourcing fabrics from Canada - Fashion Police having outlawed certain patterns and weaves from the United States as a reaction to hippy culture. It was this law which brought about the invention of the 'shell suit' in the '80's - something to distract the kids from tweed or floral prints and the leftist political leanings associated with such patterning.
However, 'official' explanations are rarely close to the truth. As my old mentor Bob Palindrome used to say 'when they say look left, you better look right'.

-/-

Yes, of course – Canada was the ‘country’ that the canned heat hippies moved up to, to avoid the Nam-draft games that the USA was playing. The Californians moved up the seaboard over the border and settled in Vancouver. They took their fabrics with them…
It makes sense shell suit being a political invention. It still lives, in certain poor inner city regions in my country, hung on neds as a symbol of their own stupidity. The ‘empty shell’. Plastic… In fact, it now lingers in Paisley – the now poor district of Glasgow which gave its name to the very fabric patterns that defined the counterculture. Sad but true.
Recall Eddie Felson, associate of nasa top brass in the early 2000s, illegally imported fashions from the UK, to bypass the politicos and bring loud cotton florals into the US. He got away with it by being ‘fast’, but it isn’t so easy for most people – CCTV will catch the loud colours. Unless the patterns are too loud and too grained to show – kind of stealth cloaking clothing…?
So, presumably the soft Michigan planned by the soft core was indeed non-military and in floral cottons… Unless an exercise in counterculture-hijacking? Remember Melissa Parrish’s military education background… I don’t know which to believe…

-/-
more connections between wool and the canadian music scene, as found in the UK music press. see the last sentence for validation that we are digging in the right area...
Album Review: Malajube ‘Labyrinthes’
How many Canadian bands have you loved? It’s worth a ponder while wandering Malajube’s aimless ‘Labyrinthes’. In fairness, the Quebec quartet often appear equally dubious of the indie-rock Montreal is known for; the kind that all seems filtered through Broken Social Scene or Spencer Krug and their Pitchfork-goading smugness. Startled by the prospect of a ‘safe’ 7.2, the record veers off along theatrical tangents that recall Muse or ELO as much as Sunset Rubdown but ultimately don’t seem to make sense, highlights ‘Casablanca’ and ‘Cristobald’ botched by over-eager forays into cock-rocking territory. Stranded, the record potters about not knowing what to do with itself. One for the woolly jumper crew.
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In reply:
That’s one for the soft Michigan set then. I wonder if Costa et al are involved in this band too. ‘Cock Rock’ I assume means macho posturings on electric guitar, but that doesn’t mean no female hand in the melting pot. I was listening to Patti Smith this weekend – beautiful electric guitar work on there, yes, though one might argue quite gentle and feminine, while Patti’s soaring high-emotion Rambo-Rimbaud ranting could itself be described as butch and masculine, perhaps. Maybe Ellena Costa/Cortez is less the soft fluffy chick and more the dangerous outlaw female. Maybe the soft has a hard interior. Women can be more kick-ass alpha scary than most men, just as half the guys down at the gym are gay. Malajube may well be a girl band, and Costa could be its ringleader.
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I recently discussed the case with a trustworthy contact, mentioning many of the key facts and figures, Searly, Kosyra, etc. They said to me it reminded him of events in Elberton, back in the late seventies. I questioned my source more – they just said to look up ‘Georgia Guidestones’. See below. Some similarities – large project, mysterious openly-pseudonymed guy with deep pockets (RC Christian) … Interesting parallels.
http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/magazine/17-05/ff_guidestones

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During the hundreds of hours he spent etching the guides, Clamp said, he had been constantly distracted by "strange music and disjointed voices."
Hmm. This sounds like a forerunner to a project the size of ‘31’. Interesting Yoko being up for dalliance with the new world order depopulation plans.
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I have found Mister ‘Christian’, the mysterious on-the-ground figure behind the guidestone project. He is now operating a guard-dog hire operation in Vancouver. Presumably this is in line with the piano-wire fence soya-mince hoarding mindset of the endtimers. When the apocalypse comes, the illuminati will need guard dogs…
I feel this to be of great importance and am scratching my stubbled chin right now. The dog squad have infiltrated hippie city, the Canadian source of soft michigan’s floral cotton reserves. They have crossed the border north. I don’t yet have a solid theory as to why. Also, it turns out that a Paul Kozyra can be found in the wolds area, working in 'construction'.
-/-

Spooky. So, our wolds-based investigator knew his stuff, it turns out. Kozyra doesn’t even use an alias. Unless someone else is posing as him. If it is really him, moonlighting as an ordinary DIY Joe, then I suppose he may want to be traceable to those who know him, his business contacts and associates of the last few decades. I wonder if he chose Elvington due to a likeness with Elberton, the location of the Georgia Guidestones? If he aimed for contactability, the similarity would perhaps confirm to close associates that this was the same Kosyra. If indeed he was involved (as I now suspect) with the guidestone project. My supposition is that Kosyra was a mastermind behind the design of the guidestones, intending them to act as a magical beacon-location on the earth, along with the likes of the nazca plains, the pyramids, and the Egyptian needle obelisks (stolen and transported to Washington DC and London). My supposition is that ‘Christian’, now based in Vancouver, was the ‘runner’ for the guidestone project, organising the deals with the quarrymen etc.
My friend suggests to me the theory that Kosyra is the same man as Christian (or ‘Kristian’, as she spells it), and that he is actually now in Vancouver, using the York based alias solely as an online contact route, and that in actual fact no such Elvington-based offices or company really exists. I am not yet won over by this theory, but it is not beyond the realms of possibility.
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Latest dispatches from secret source below (just received)
Items 4, 5 and 12 seem particularly of interest:
i recommend rounding your troops for a similar conversation, and a brainstorm session for how to prepare for what lies ahead. just sayin.
i love the color palette and obvious softness.
i am blocking my two latest projects today and will show them tomorrow.

The reference to two projects – one presumably is project 31 / soft Michigan. Is the other project Black Cat?
Also the reference to throwing dirty laundry in the laundry room and closing the door – I take this to refer to the fabric of soft Michigan being concealed. I wonder if the soft Michigan project actually involves some mechanism of contracting space in order to fit an area the size of a state in a small room? This would mean the soft core may have achieved what the military failed to contemplate – while they proposed hiding a city or a state either on or under a great lake, the soft core may have thought further out of the box, and squeezed a state into a cupboard. Is this too hard to believe? Which side would Kozyra be on in this? He is the only supposed magician I know of in the case so far. But then going on recent thoughts from your contacts Kingsbury PI and Palindrome, perhaps the magician is definitely not the guy saying ‘I’m a magician’??
But then on the other hand self-publicity / lack of disguise can be the best disguise of all. Shouting ‘I’m a magician’ is in that vein a good way of ensuring nobody believes you.
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Received a call from Boston Library late yesterday afternoon; Searly's account had been used again. I call in to see Ms. Gainsbourg and we go over the footage. It seems Ron Searly has changed his appearance - now a lean blonde kid with a sideparting in a v-neck sweater. Younger than the the guy on previous footage, he also appears to have a girl in tow - red/brown curls tied back with a hairscarf, patent shoes, summer dress and dark glasses. looks for all the world like a '50s pin-up.

This leads me to two theories - (a) Searly is active again, with a group, but is lying low and getting lesser-known members of the group to do his bidding in the public sphere; and (b) Searly is being held hostage by a group who are trying to pose as him in hope to gain access to whatever it is he has access to which would be of interest to them. I currently am not elevating one possibility above the other. Searly effectively disappeared 8 months back, suddenly and mysteriously. Was this of his own volition or was he forced underground against his will? I don't know. I thank Sally for her co-operation and print off a still of the couple from the CCTV footage to show Zach Happy when I head over to collect the mixtape from him.

I show Happy the still and ask him if he recognises either of the couple in question. Tells me they look vaguely familiar but he couldn't place where he has seen them. Says he's never had any actual contact with them but think they may have occasionally been on campus, perhaps one or two days a semester in the early noughties, but stopped visiting sometime circa summer 2005. I don't tell Happy, but this immediately strikes a chord with me, knowing that one of our other investigators found evidence of the mass disappearance of the soft michigan core group. I thank Happy for his help and take the audio cassette which he has no qualms about giving away to me, saying it reminds him of his foolish youth - something he seems glad to put behind him. The tape is titled 'All American Smile', not 'At The Haberdasher's Request' as Happy falsely remembered - I'll send you the titles shortly (some of them are most interesting), but want to take an evening drive around this city while i listen to the tape for clues.

-/-
Your recent diggings in Boston are rich indeed. I would like to believe the young couple are batting on the left side of the crease, but in the back of my mind is the warning – don’t trust the girl in the red dress.
Fifties glamour could hide a black suited interior.

I would never have come up with the theory of a Searly hostage situation. I feel it holds some degree of plausibility, but my gut instinct is against it. A third possibility is simply that Searly’s library card ended up in the possession of the young couple (perhaps via members of the Michigan core).
A further thought – is it possible that the couple are actually members of the core, eg. Grant and Cate?
To follow my mind’s windmills on their course, given my instinct to beware the hidden interior of the girl in the dress, and earlier thoughts on Costa as a music-scene wolf in sheep’s-wool clothing, perhaps Cate is Costa???

-/-

I've just driven round an early evening Boston, having listened to the mixtape twice as the sun came down. Great sunset - from an intense orange to an intense purple, it was like a colourshifted aurora borealis. Anyway, I digress; first the tracklisting, then the theories...

"All American Smile"

Side 1

1. Start at the seam

2. Ode to a lost cardigan

3. Cablestitch

4. Poet's Shirt

5. Waving, Not Drowning

6. Soak That Rag

7. Rode Trips

8. Loose as a Moose (Woddy Allen skit)

9. Melissa and me

10. Knit it, don't quit it!

11. Double Back

12. Cottonpickin' blues

Side 2

1. Tape-stry

2. Breakfast Song

3. Scarf-Ace

4. A friend in tweed is a friend indeed

5. Soft on the outside, hard on the inside

6. The needles and the damage done (with added 3rd verse)

7. Come in no. 31, your time is up.

8. Why I Ran

9. Luminous Fibres (extended)

Now the theory: All the songs on the tape are home recording, very much in the vein of the previous tape we acquired knowledge of. Most of the songs feature vocalised lyrics, mainly female voice, but occasionally male (particularly backing vox) which seem to be giving some kind of instructions. At first listen they seem to be based around knitting patterns, but the instructions don't seem to relate purely to knitting as I know it, rather, they seem to allude to something grander, of which knitting is only a part of. It's hard to tell - the home-quality recording makes for a muffled listen, something only compounded by the age and condition of the tape. Side 2 has untitled interludes between most tracks, which seem to be spoken word poems with unrelated lines in alternate French and English; for example:

vous vous asseyez à la table

i am not going to worry...about a thing.

il y a un restaurant minuscule

but so worth it.

It sounds to me as if a French/Canadian man is saying the English parts and an English/American girl is saying the French parts. My knowledge of French is limited, so it is hard for me to draw conclusions until I have had an interpreter review the tape. My theory of the tape(s) is thus: These mixtapes appear as innocent compilations made for a niche group of people of limited import or interest; but it is my belief that their intended purpose was to provide disguised instructions only decipherable by a select group of peopl who were familiar with the key to break the code.

This would provide a great way to send sensitive information across the country(ies) without it being detected. Even if discovered in transit, the authorities would most likely assume the tapes to be wholly innocent and of no special interest. Which college kid hasn't spent evenings sat with finger hovering over the pause button of his stereo, curating and creating a private 90-minutemegamix of favourites to pass among friends. Nobody, upon finding such an item, would be likely to suspect that it may be of greater importance.

So, I am picturing a core group of people recruiting peopleacross college campuses, nationally, then disseminating instructions to said recruits via a series of mixtapes delivered to campuses at regular intervals. This would explain the box of tapes 'Cate' was inposession of when Zach Happy made his amorous approach. At this time, I have no further thoughts, but realise I have forgotten to mention one thing - the innerside of the mixtape's inlay card spine bears the inscription 'compiled by Mr. Crafts'. Surely this is something of great interest to us. Who was Mr. Crafts? Is this a name used for Searly, or is it someone else? Kozyra?

-/-

INSERT SONG LINK

I acquired the attached song some time ago. Some glitches on it, seemingly from faulty recording software. Its central theme, which really only comes out in the outro, thru the last 2 to 3 mins, is of handicrafting the surface of the planet. I took it to be metaphor for positive world change, but it could be meant more literally. I’m not sure if it is the same ‘needle and damage done with third verse’ as featured on said mix tape. At the very least I suspect the producer of this one may have heard the original from the mix tape. Depending on your thoughts, I could try to recollect how exactly I acquired it. But perhaps it is a red herring.

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A quick warning – I may be in radio silence tomorrow. Bugs are kicking in – my skin is shivering all over. Nausea… I don’t think it’s swine strain, but it’s definitely influ-the out door. Your mention of the aurora – next peak of sunspot cycle around 2012 is according to certain untrustworthy sources going to be the big one, in line with mayan ‘long count’ end of millennia-long cycle prophesies… Geo-magnetic alignments… The current trough is certainly a ‘spring tide’ type trough, with particularly low sunspot activity in the last few years. I haven’t seen any aurorae for a good 4 years. I recall a brilliant display circa 86 in the north of the UK. Also an average one circa 88(?) in Yorkshire. Also a very good display circa 2000, in Northumberland, made more impressive by a night walk from Kielder area public house into the unlit darkness.

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Sad Sack

I have become aware of an individual known to myself only as ‘sad sack’. The individual drives a European licensed white Mercedes, and may be Belgian. My awareness of the individual began whilst I was researching (unsuccessfully) the poet R J Beasley. Later that night, I climbed on the roof of my old secondary school and gazed at the playing fields beyond. This was a short cut out of a cul-de-sac. My later acquaintance had been unable to find a way out of the atrium area, after a visit, accompanied by sad sack, to a kebab emporium in Stirlingshire by the name of ‘the fountain’. This fountain of knowledge, renowned for its late opening hours especially but not exclusively on Thursdays, provided sustenance at 2am last night, for the three of us (me, my later acquaintance, and sad sack. I had arrived earlier by public transport. From the roof of my old school buildings I could see the blurry image of the town beyond, however, probably in part due to watching high school musical 3 earlier that evening while half asleep, the important features seen from the roof were features of the roof itself – skylights; tarmac; plant pots – a roof garden. It wasn’t quite a Buddhist mountain retreat, but it was in the same vein. On the rooftop, I unfortunately awoke, but I feel I will return there. This morning I have been in heated debate about fonts, arguing vehemently the importance of frills; serifs; floweriness, against the notion that pure information is always best imparted through a runic purity and simplicity of font such as century gothic. My feeling is that warmth of feeling is of intrinsic importance to information content to be preserved and transmitted. I now realise that there is a connection between my visit to the Fountain, last night, and this font discourse. The font is the fount. The warm information has been imparted…

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Questions from Boston
Okay, my last full day in Boston and I feel like a stranger in a strange land. I think I need to ask some questions to get my orientation again, so let's see...
It seems likely, based on Happy's recollections, that Cate and Grant were two of the main protagonists when it came to the expansion and recruitment drive for Project 31. They were running things across the campuses of North America - tapes, for sure, but most likely people and fabrics too. Costa's songs are known to have appeared on the tapes, so there would seem to be some link between Grant/Cate and Costa. As one of our investigators so perceptively asked - is Cate Costa?
Also, are the instructions presented on the tapes Coasta's own, or is she relaying messages from a more central figure? Kosyra, perhaps, or Regan, or Searly, even. Perhaps the instructions are coming from 'Mr. Crafts', whoever that maybe (likely one of the 3 suspects just mentioned). Or is Grant 'Mr. Crafts' - we know so little about him beyond a connection with Cate and witness statements aligning him with the tape distribution?
Other thoughts - did Kosyra fund/design the guidestone projects? We know he was 'disgustingly rich' and that he works in construction (or runs a front company marketed as being in the industry); was 'R.C. Christian' his public go-between? Could be Regan? Could be Searly?
I wonder now about the mid-nineties disappearance of Regan and Costa, as proposed by the map found by the candian religious studies student when studying in England - where did they go and what were they doing all this time? Is their disappearance in any way related to the later mass-disappearance of all recognised members of the Soft Michigan core group? which, in turn, makes me wonder about the couple caught on CCTV using Searly's library card - according to Happy, they would seem to have some historical involvement with the Project 31 (having been spotted on campus with infrequent regularity until the disappearances), yet are not recognised as being Cate and Grant. Who are they?
Other questions - how does Sad Sack tie into all of this, and what is the significance of the missing mixtape 'At The Haberdasher's Request'?
I shall try to make a breakthrough before leaving Boston. The heat goes on...
-/-
Sir Lee
I have spent several nights under the angle poise. The bulb has stayed warm into the small hours. My semiotic investigations have picked up a few leads. Sir Lee Stack, an imperialist in Sudan, was assassinated by Egyptian anti-imperialists while in Cairo (home of the obelisks stolen by the imperial west as ‘papal magnets’ for various energies to be absorbed and/or perhaps transmitted). That’s Lee Stack. Stack Lee, on the other hand, is a sea stack, home of a large population of gannets, as part of the archipelago of St. Kilda, once home to an indigenous population of large toed gannet-eaters off the north-western seaboard of UK/Europe. Stack (R) Lee was also immortalised in a traditional American song, later becoming ‘Stagger’ Lee, as reimagined by Nick Cave in a murder ballad. (Stack Lee and Lee Stack thus both being involved in murder, the former the murderer, the latter the murdered. This all leads me to think that Searly was involved on the side of the military-industrial complex in geo-beacon work, but may have been silenced in some way, if not literally killed, by the anti-establishment soft core group. This may have been the event (in Maine?) which sent the soft core into hiding. It also leads me to believe that the soft model of Michigan was not (or not only) a monument, but a hidden enclave – a hiding place for a fragmentary remnant people. Dressed in floral print. All just theory in the warm glow of angle poise…
Any word on Melody Nelson or from the film and media department?

-/-

Melodic Development
Deep insights abound via the investigator's poise. I had never considered that Searly may have had the hands of a government man (either his own hands, or those of a government man placed upon him for 'steering'). I have been working under the assumption that he was involved as an outsider - one of the remnant folk, a pro-softness man. Your shedding of light via anglepoise now means I must question the whole case from a new perspective. Reassess.

Was Searly really a fully signed up government operative? Hard to believe. Maybe he was posing as one and got found out. Was he a soft-core member who got fingered by the law and 'agreed' to 'help' them in order to save his own skin, yet was really relaying his inside knowledge back to his fringe group of fabric-ators? Or was he really a military man posing as someone from a much more flowery subculture in order to infiltrate the soft Michigan core? Could a military man really pass himself off in such a manner? Do the authorities employ 'soft' guys?

If Searly is indeed tied to the Buick wreck as you describe, that would mean he very likely had dealings with 'Pinsk' or could even possibly be him. I could head there from Bosaton if any leads surface in the next 18 hrs.

Anyway, while you have been shining tungsten light on such matters, I have been bathing in glow of the halogen bulbs in the film dept of Boston Uni. Had to change my cover (no way could I pull off being a documentarian when surrounded by film/media lecturers and technicians. I am once again playing dentist, looking for my fiance, 'Melody', who has ran out on me with the kids - 'I must find her; for the kids' safety' I told the film guys - no-one questions a kid in danger. A couple of the technicians remember how a girl slightly older than typical students used to use the editing facilities occasionally, booking out the edit suite once a term under the name 'Melody Nelson'.

Told the film guys that she was my girl - tell me all you know, has she been here recently? Apparently not - she hasn't been seen on campus since summer 2005. The tie-in with the disappearances of other members of Project 31 is beyond co-incidence. I ask what kind of films she used to edit (to help me figure what she may be involved in and get an idea for 'what danger my children may be in') and am told that they were 'road movies of some description... super-8 footage of the Northeastern landscape receding from the rear windshield of an automobile... car full of young hip-kids... soft fabrics... home knits... Canadian border crossings... picnics... acoustic guitars... quilting'. On a hunch, I show the techies the CCTV still of the 50's girl at the library, telling them it is the most recent picture I have of her, and is the evidence which led me to Boston - was this 'Melody Nelson', I ask. 'Damn straight' comes the reply, 'those old clothes are a dead giveaway - she only ever wore natural fabrics'.

So, we have a positive ID, but no current whereabouts or idea of recent activity, though we can now connect her to Searly via the library card.

-/-

My feeling is that ‘Melody Nelson’ and at least some others from the soft core are still out there, in hiding from some, but active and at large. It is a coincidence (or rather, perhaps it is no coincidence) that one of the other parties we have traced as being at large since 2005 is Melinda Packett / Melissa Parrish. I don’t know what to make of the Melody / Melanie / Melinda Doll – perhaps many members of the group are at large using these common aliases. Perhaps not. I would agree with your supposition that the cargo cult is once again active. I have a feeling that Sad Sack, the European stranger I guessed to be Belgian, is a dream spirit named Serge Brel, or possibly Jaques Gainsbourg, who has got in touch with me to aid his own longstanding search for Melody. I had previously suspected Sad Sack of being female, but either I was wrong, am wrong, or else Sad Sack is multi-gender or gender-changing. Or perhaps the spirit of Serge/Jacques takes the form of his image of Melody.

My French is better in dreams than in waking life, so I shall quiz him/her further soon. Last night I became lost in an area of forestry commission pine plantation as darkness fell. I found a network of bumpy tracks used by forestry vehicles and followed. Eventually I came out to a visitor’s centre building where some kind of seminar was in progress. I believe semiologically this was Kielder Forest – or Kilda, by its northern spelling – the visitor’s centre was the mysterious lodge in the enclave of St. Kilda. I may return there tonight.

-/-

What is concerning me as much as the geographics of the case is its timeline. Who disappeared in the late '90s, and why; who disappeared in 2005 and why. If Melody Nelson disappeared in 2005 and now seems to now be getting active again, is this a sign that the cargo cult is back in operation, and will the other 'disappeared' of 2005 now resurface?

-/-

I think a fresh time map is essential for this case. I shall prepare one as soon as I have the time. A quick calculation of Searly’s age, based on teenage poetry from 1982, is as follows: Octopiithagoas – analysis: leanings towards science/metaphysics suggesting the construction of a personal ontology, peaking around age 15 in most cases (cf. Freud: ‘Sex and Science – the making of man, lecture, 1903’), however the poem’s more fantastical wordplay suggests a later stage of poetic development, re-entering the imaginery period, constructing the unreal following the initial construction of the supposed real. From this I put his age at 16-17 at the writing of Octopiithagoas, and assume date of writing same as date of publication/competition entering – the stage of self-doubt over ones juvenilia not having been reached; ie. publication very soon after writing.
This puts Searly’s age in 2005 at 39/40, I believe. Older than average if a member of the soft Michigan core. Many older males can be associated with hip younger circles, so this is not impossible.

-/-

I failed to locate sad sack last night while traipsing Whitby charity shops in the rain, however, in the shelves and boxes of a cramped sidestreet bric-a-brac shop, I did find a secondhand CD box set sampler of material from Joni Mitchell’s 4 ‘missing’ early albums, including the album ‘bisonine and …[?]’ containing the song ‘Urge for Going’. This was a really important find. I had heard ‘urge for going’ once, several years ago on radio Scotland. The song does exist outside of dreamland. I have often tried to locate it, but now know why I have failed – it is from one of 4 missing early albums, dating from the days of live performances in Greenwich Village coffee shops in the early sixties. I believe the song was one of the first to make Joni her name on the NY coffeeshop scene. The radio Scotland playing of it indicates that a genuine recorded version does exist in the mainstream. The presence of 4 whole albums of such early material is as the Grail itself to this early-Joni-ite. Albeit if they exist only in dreamland. I must channel the material somehow.

I feel that in reference to our current quest the finding of the teaser box set from Joni’s lost albums in the dream represents missing soft core road trip mix tapes being discovered. At the haberdasher’s request may be about to resurface.

Nb. In the dream I didn’t purchase the CD set (priced I think at £39.99). The knowledge that somewhere the 4 albums exist is for now enough. I will hold out for the vinyl of the full 4 albums, and will expect Lake Tahoe needlework references on them.

-/-

Examinations of the dreamworld are always of value, even if not of intended value. Inights abound in the dark as well as under the anglepoise. Another way of considering the significance of your dreams signs, as well as the discovery of lost mixtapes, is to look at the definites within the dream, such as the Joni songtitle 'Urge For Going'. I suspect this to be of at least as great a significance as the dreaming of lost recordings themselves. An 'urge for going' could represent the cargo corps practice of crossing borders and making inter-campus recruitment drives, it could represent your thoughts on the principles behind the disappearances (an urge for going off the radar/disappearing), or it could be a manifestation of your desire to spread your wings.

Further examination of musical evidence, specifically listening to 'the needle and the tailoring done' I can conclude that this is not the same recording which is present on All American Smile, but there are definite similarities; for one, the song itself having a common basis - both being adapted from Canadian folk-rock artist Neil Young; the similar lo-fi recording style (I don't believe they were recorded at the same time or place, but both utilized near-identical recording equipment), suggesting a similar approach by both artists, which further suggests the one was aware of the other. A time-based analysis indicates that the recording on the tape found in Happy's posession, being recorded some 15+ years ago (placing the recording date at 1993 at the latest) is the earlier of the two, with the version supplied by one of our associates prior to the case most likely being recorded in the last 8 years or so. I would be interested to know how the second recording came into your posession before drawing any furhter conclusions.

Of course, as discused earlier, it is entirely possible for two individuals to both have the same thought independently of one another, non-locally, at the same time. Two people having and acting on the same idea at different times is therefore plausible and cannot be ruled out.

-/-

2 recent developments/thoughts...

1: last night, after travelling through the inner ring-road routes of Edinburgh, I became embroiled in a close-up battle in a small warehouse building. I along with 2 others took on the shapeshifting morphing government agent type beings. The fight went our way eventually, after some moans of fear audible to the none-dreaming. The episode involved particular use within the battle of angling projectiles/energies along curved arcing boomerang-like flow lines. These same lines I had earlier constructed atop of a map of the US, as an alternative transport network for road trips and as representations of curvy ley-line-like energy routes. The image will be copied to you shortly. Its whorling fingerprint shapes are convincing. The use of similar line-forms in the battle struck me as meaningful.

2: You had asked about the source of ‘needle and the tailoring done’. I do not recall much about how I got it. Your estimated timescale etc I feel is accurate. From the vocals I feel it to be by a UK-based singer. I do remember, however, the third verse of ‘needle and damage done’ contains a reference to a girl in a red dress [baby wears red and I think of home, baby wears blue and I know she’s gone, baby where’s the keys I need to get me some]. I wonder if this is a reference to the dual nature of Costa/Cortez the songwriter – the wolf in sheepswool, the yin and the yang combined, the red and the blue on the same person. However would she write these lines about herself, or someone else write them about her?

-/-

Keep working the dream angles, or curves; who knows where they will lead us. As Palindrome used to say to me, 'I do some of my best work in my sleep'.
I anticipate reviewing your linear fingerprint based evidence and hope to discern something of use from it.

I have spent my last few hours vainly searching for further leads in Boston but turned up nothing so am heading back to my hometown office to assess the timeline of the case. I get the feeling Boston was once a hotbed of activity, but is no longer such; though it is definitely somewhere along the path to/from current activity hotspots. There are people in this town who know things, but nobody is prepared to tell me anything explicitly. Back at my hotel this afternoon, I went for one last swim before heading to the airport (from where I am writing this missive). Returning to the changing area after a few lengths of the pool I discovered a handwritten note in my locker which simply reads "He's Not Here. Time to Move On" signed by 'The Boston Rat'. I can only assume that the 'he' referred to is Searly and that the Boston Rat is one of the tech guys who knows more than he let on initially. I am taking this as friendly advice rather than some kind of threat or warning. Most likely he wasn't prepared to admit his knowledge in front of his coworkers. There is no point in pursuing information from a man who does not want to be known - I feel if I tried to work him out and talk to him alone, he still would not be forthcoming, so for now I am heading home to reassess the case, review my notes and produce a timeline of the case in hope of gaining further understanding of this whole circus.

-/-

Last night, between double rums in a bar I cannot remember the name or location of, I was chatting to a barmaid at last orders. My compadres were already moving on back towards the pad. I lingered. I have no idea what this has to do with the case other than a sneaking feeling that something of importance did happen next, possibly something was said, or something alluded to, which I now forget. If it comes back to me I will pass on. So much is lost in a haze of sleep and double rums that remains forever forgotten. One cannot remember half of ones genuine lived experiences - understair liaisons; window hangings; skies the colour of fire… just as one is oblivious from one body of all ones other experiences in the multitude of other seats and armchairs and deckchairs of consciousness throughout the universe.
Mr Palindrome speaks wisely as ever. I believe I met him once. The only thing I recall him saying to me was ‘Yunno in Atlantis they bred some good swimmers…’
The age of the parable is not dead. Recently I have had a number of books and failed new age journals and zines scattered over my desk, amassing as much parable as I can lay my hands on. I see parable as one of the richest sources of information – a veritable soil – a loam. Parable speaks through its silences as well as its words. Parable is the finger pointing into the middle distance. Parable is the slightly surprised and joyfully bemused expression which says ‘behold!’.

At a parable count of several hundred, from Aesop’s fables to Kafka’s amorphisms, taking in all the saints and charlatans and bums and philosophers and conmen, I’m approaching a better familiarity with the language and fear I may soon find I cannot speak outwith parable.

I wonder if the Boston Rat is acquainted with the ceremony known as the ‘Boston Mass’. I have heard numerous references to this ceremony, and assume it to be a local celebration, possibly semi-secretive. It may be of relevance to the Dog Squad religious right, but I suspect not as they have no known association with the North-East.

-/-

It came back to me. The barmaid I met the night before last was a singer-songwriter. I met up with her and her boyfriend briefly last night. They are living in an airstream on the edge of town. Parked up in a layby under some deciduous foliage cover. He is some years younger than her, I feel (unless she just has an ‘older soul’ as people sometimes say). She played and sang part of one of her songs. It contained the refrain ‘doing the Boston Mass’. Her picking work was very harp-like – lots of open strings and semitone intervals. Not unlike early Joni on Songs to a Seagull. The couple very much had a feel of being ‘on the run’, but without the weary faces of having been on the road for long. I think they are recent fugitives. I don’t know how long they plan to stay in town – presumably a while if she’s got bar work. Maybe for the season, before the urge for going kicks in.
I’ll try to run into them again. If I do I’ll ask her to play the Boston Mass song again, so I can memorise some of the words.

-/-

Interesting. Perhaps the leads I failed to find in Boston will come to you from your local Joni. It seems fitting that as soon as I leave the town, a possibly significant reference to it shows up elsewhere. It bears hallmarks of the Obfuscationist modus operandi; You look right, there's nothing there; you look left and they tell you to look right again.

I was unaware of the Boston Mass and now wonder if this is some kind of religious (or quasi-religious) festival or a celebration of something large in physical scale or scale of production. Or rather, even, Boston Mass is some kind of condition providing gravity through mass to attract all things. Perhaps due to Boston Mass, all things must gravitate toward [or from] Boston.

Your mention of the album title Songs To A Seagull causes me to recall the French artist and funambulist Philippe Petit who, while crossing an illegally rigged highwire between NYC's World Trade Centre towers in the '70s, paused to lie back on his 3/4 cable hundreds of metres above the Earth's surface and carry out a dialogue with a seagull circling a few tens of feet above him. It strikes me now that perhaps Searly is in a metaphorically similar position and is, as such, untouchable by the man of average means. Perhaps we will have to wait for him to cross the threshold at the time of his choosing and once again become accessible in a more general capacity.

-/-

Funambulist? Obfuscationist? I don’t see much difference.
Your outside-the-box theory of Boston Mass being a gravitational concept is too good not to be true. It may be other things too, but I certainly thing it is an attractive, and possibly also repulsive, force associated with Boston – a focal point already in our investigations. I will examine my flow map of the states later and ponder the significant centre of activity in the Boston area in light of this new insight. My quark work back at MIT in the seventies may be of use here. I might contact some of the old faces in the kipper tie brigade. Time for more coffee machine coffee, I feel.

One further idea I forgot to pass on earlier. I have the theory that a road trip route may have followed as closely as possible the boundaries of states. By travelling along boundaries, one remains ‘nowhere’, constantly able to evade all state troopers and state laws. This would appeal to a group wishing to remain hidden, and fits with the needlework notion of sewing along hems and borders. Perhaps even a static community may have been established on state borders. Don’t just cross the stateline to evade pursuit – stay on the stateline to evade pursuit from all sides… Walk the line like Johnny Cash.

Mister state trooper please don’t stop me…

I recall that the crypto-geographers who I spoke to about the nazca lines were researching linear settlement patterns. This would be a prime example… a linear network settlement in no location.

-/-

Back From Boston. Arriveded home to discover a package from Kingsbury PI amongst my mail. It contains a document entitled Fabrics Of The Future, which is explained in her accompanying letter as relating to a current Phd proposal by a student called Dan Stairs.

Whilst I was away, Kingsbury has attended a public viewing of a design competition featuring a selection of Phd research proposal posters. It was here, her letter explains, that she found the document I mention, given as a handout to accompany the poster on display. Allow me now to relay a few excerpts for your consideration...

Fabrics of the Future
Dan Stairs (Ohio University)

This practice-led project explores ways of using sustainable textile fibres. Through creative experiments with newly developed natural fibres and closed-loop synthetics, to produce solutions to sustainable textile 'products'.

Aims
To examine eco-design theory, exploring emerging ideas about the life-cycle of textile 'products'.

To design and develop innovative textile 'products', using ecologically and environmentally sustainable fibres.

To research closed-loop production methods.

To disseminate findings in academic and manufacturing environments.

Methodology
... Practical experiment to explore the results of findings and test theories in the area of study, which will lead to realising new paradigms in the field of textile design.

Now, let's examine this; note the opening gambit - 'a practice-led project'. This means actually carrying out what is being examined, not just reseraching it. Stairs is planning on acting out whatever it is he is 'studying'. Next sentence speaks of 'creative experiments'. More action for 'research' purposes of dubious nature. Look at the aims and other ambiguous terms jump out; 'eco-design' 'closed-loop production methods' - what are these? eco-design sounds like designing ecological systems to me and 'closed loop production' is a perfect descriptor for the private network of individuals, who seem to exist outside of normal social circles and communication channels, that we are dealing with.

Note the final aim - 'to disseminate findings in academic and manufacturing environments'. Is this not exactly what Project 31 could be described as doing? the talk of a 'new paradigm' sounds ominous. Why would one want ecologically sustainable fibres for any other reason than creating an environment which would be sustainable with the current natural one? One other thing of note is the use of inverted commas with every mention of products. That is sheer ambiguity - a calssic Obfuscationist trait.

Unless I am being paranoid and overcompensating for failing to sight Searly in Boston, this would seem to a good insight into the closed loop soft core network. It would seem that Dan Stairs is an Obfuscationist and a part of the Cargo Corps who has secured funding for the operation under the guise of academic research. The alternative view is that he is a government plant and is monitoring academic reserch in the textile field on behalf of the military. As of writing I am unsure but my gut is leaning toward to former. I was hoping for at least a days rest now I am home, but can't shake the imperative to research Stairs.

-/-

further sifting of my communications has brought to my attention your theory of existing on the stateline as a means to evade the law. It is out of the box yet obvious all the same. A fantastic theory which could, if achieving a certain threshold density, exist as a self sustaining organism, or culture, akin to yeast in the demijohn of a home winemaker. This is something worth investigating, but given their lack of discovery, the likelihood is that such communities, if they exist at all, must do so in destinations remote from urban or other densely populated areas. Of course, living subterraneanly would allow one to evade the law by vertiginous means.

Heard from Lone Wolf, who has also been pursuing dream-based investigations. I quote; "Had a dream the other night about someone named Epps. Thought it was someone we already mentioned, but the Epps surname was an acronym." There could be mileage in this.

Also in the mail was the white window envelope of dubious postage. Who knows how long it has been sitting there in the hallway corner, slightly raised by the curled corner of the straw mat? Its contents tie in with recent revelations. The idea of what isn't, or is barely seen is still there, is at the foundation of our investigation. One thing I forgot to mention about Dan Stairs' proposal is that he was proposnig fibres which would allow for the owner to remodel them at will by the means of easily achievable conditions. Take your t-shirt, stick it in the microwave for a minute then mould it into a bowl to eat your soup from; wash it out, soak it in warm water and mould it into a pair of sandals. Think of the implications if such attribute could be achieved on a architectural scale.

-/-

In reference to microwaving clothing. It is actually an old technique, but for other purposes. I have done this already, circa 1994. As a setting method for heat-setting dye for creation from thin white tee of the ‘angel tee’ – tye dyed rose-pink a la Melissa George soap character Angel. With Angel, said tee was only ever part showing – a sleeve hem here under thin blue denim shirt – a neck line there under a lacy vee neck. For myself I recall said garment worn during five-a-side, uncovered. Possibly on the very occasion of a certain Wolds reporter’s deep-in-own half swerveball strike placing itself in net behind me, aghast. I know not now where the garment lies. Possibly in a dusty drawer of a parents’ house. But that ball travelling slow motion past me will forever be on my conscience… Some things even sleep cannot erase.

-/-

It is a brave man who wears pink tie-dye in full view. Circa 1994 would be around the time that the soft-core group is believed to have risen to prominence, increasing in stature for a few years before the 1998 disapearances. Perhaps you have previously been closer to the Michigan set than you dare to realise. Perhaps not - the same idea independently manifesting in two separate places at the same time has already been discussed as being possible. Your talk of a swerveball reminds me of your description of the whorling lines witnessed in your dream. Why is is that sporting metaphors are so widely applicable? Searly, as a sports fan, must know more than most about this.

--
I have been working on oh-five as main soft core disappearance. But according to RS student someone disappeared before oh-five.

It’s a game of two halves. The rich seam of analogy and parable contained in the annals of sports punditry is unsurpassed. For those of you watching in black and white, the brown is the ball behind the blue…
--
Our investigator’s recent snooker analogy speaks volumes. I new when I saw his calling card ID image (thin moustache, trilby, mean gaze, fingers ready to snap at the bar staff, but not for drinks – for answers…) that he was well acquainted with the smoky green baize world of snooker halls. My own experiences from Denver to Duluth and from Stirling to Saltburn are enough to know the worth of the snooker hall as a breeding ground for rumour, off-the-record conjecture, and discourse with unknown strangers, associates, hoods, old boys, local figures, crooks… The balls chime like bells and then vanish. The cannon, the swerve… The amount of investigator’s notes written in blue chalk is testament to the worth of the pool hall. I once got into a frame of doubles with Johnny the Shark. Gone was the hard man image – at the table he was a pussy cat – all talk. Sweet talk at that.

I recall one snooker hall incident – struggling to see the table through clouds of cigar smoke, I went to the wrong table. Setup was roughly as remembered – reds opened but not fully – most still in a huddle behind the pink like nervous sheep. Cue ball up top resting somewhere near the D. No clear lines for a pot. I went to play a nestle shot into the pack, nice and gentle – leave it sitting in amongst those infantrymen. Up steps a stranger. I’m bent down by now lining up. Cigar haze too, remember. ‘Yunno Jack’, the stranger says, ‘I say we spring it Saturday next.’ I glance up at said stranger. ‘I say not,’ I tell him, in a gravely voice. ‘Never do on a Saturday night what you can throw on a Friday. Twice the recovery time, see.’ Stranger looks at the balls. I have a change of heart, play the ball glancing off corner red to return back up top again. Get lucky – it settles behind the brown nice and tight. I walk back into the fog. Find my double rum, and then find my table. Play the same shot all cocky on my own green, only mess it up this time and sink the white in the corner hole. My associate laughs. It’s always more rewarding impressing strangers anyway. Friends already know what you can do. A week later I read the paper to see the local bank got hit for a few rows of noughts on a Friday evening. I feel proud to have masterminded it, but don’t hand myself in.

-/-

Indeed you are as insightful and correct as ever. The snooker or pool hall is a breeding ground for low level hoodlums and criminal activity. Something to do with providing men too young to drink a place to hang out and smoke, I have always thought. In fact, if such premises were to keep a signing in book, it would read as a aeritable who's who of minor street criminals. Such activity, left unchecked, could easily develop into capers such as bank robberies and grand larceny. The charge of larceny contains some interestingly subtle clauses, for example (this is a classic example taken from an old law book which resides in my library) '

...the thief must not only gain dominion over the property he must move it from its original position. The slightest movement, a hair's breadth, is sufficient. However, the entirety of the property must be moved. As one commentator noted critically this requirement is the difference between rotating a doughnut (larceny) and rotating a pie (not larceny), as all of the donut is moved through rotation while the pie's exact center remains in the same place when rotated.

This leads me to ask the following metaphorical question - is Searly rotating a donut or a pie? I have been digging into his past for clues and have theorised the following: Searly grew up in the NE corner of America, most likely Milwaukee of Pennsylvania (going by early poetry submissions). Both of these locations border on the Great Lakes, either side in fact. searly probably gained knowledge of the lakeshores and surrounding areas through family picnics and camping trips during his childhood.

My guess is that his father was a military man who favoured the outdoors and tried to pass this prediliction on to his son. Military fathers are known for their strictness and desire to see their offspring suceed along predetermined paths. My guess is that Searly went to University in line with his parents wishes, but once away from their immediate presence, he began to drift into fringe circles and most likely dropped out to pursue his own aims, but kept in contact with academic social circles. Became involved in some kind of political network and oversaw operations involving fabric experiments in some capacity, either for the government or an independent subversive group. His knowledge of the local area and the Great Lakes soon made him a great asset to and central figure in the group.

His role would seem to be more strategic than operational, possibly becoming so after the incident with the Buick in Maine causing a scare that he may have gone too 'overground' and was in danger of being discovered. Since then, he appears to be more or less invisible, yet is present in everything. He is like the air pockets between the fibres of a chunky home-knit.

This of course, is all just my own speculation based on a re-examination of my early case notes in light of post-Boston revelations. It should also be noted here that I failed to locate the Bungalow registered to Searly on the SE edge of Boston, so am no closer to revealing what he is building in there.

-/-

The paradox of the doughnut and the pie that you raise cuts to the very heart of this case so far. The empty central space of the doughnut is the virtual centre of the object’s gravity, yet is massless, and in effect gravity-less. It is the eye of the rotating storm. Imagine a hollow planet. If you reach the exact centre, you could float in the perfect equilibrium of opposing pulls from every direction. It is like the donkey who starves to death unable to decide which of two identical bails of hay to eat from.

I feel Searly has conducted, or is conducting, or plans to conduct, the perfect crime. He has rotated the object, but as you so aptly ask, was it a doughnut or a pie?

Nb. A doughnut can be rotated in various ways without conducting larceny. I could provide diagrams. It can be spun as a coin is spun, rather than as a flying saucer spins. However this requires finding said doughnut balancing on its edge, or else possibly hung on a string. Alternately it could be rotated about a point on its edge, or about any point containing doughnut dough.

I feel it was definitely a nut that Searly was/is spinning. The coastal ring around the great lakes themselves form a doughnut ring around a central emptiness (water as the void area).

There is a definite theme of space and non-space developing – groups trying to dwell outwith normal space. The gaps in the jumper that you correctly identify – the source of its strength and power, yet an absence. It is the air in the wool, not the wool itself, that is of importance.

-/-

This massless gravity you describe could well be the phenomenon the term 'Boston Mass' refers to. The concept of an empty centre and the idea of something that exists, but isn't seen are both applicable to the case. Also, A donut could be described as a closed loop. I now presume that Boston may operate as a hollow centre for (at least some of) the operations. This would explain why evidence of Searly has been found in the surroundings of Boston, but Searly himself is not there. The ring of habituations arcing from Nova Scotia to Wisconsin should be examined in more detail. This would extend north through Canada and down to the mid-Eastern states.

Incidentally, while working a case at the request of Bob Palindrome in Croatia back in 2006 i met a guy called Evan (oe maybe Ethan, details are sketchy) from Wisconsin, a happy-go-lucky type. I was gathering evidence of a music festival which was relatively unknown at the time and attracted maybe less than a thousand young European revellers. Two things struck me about Ethan the evening I met him at an open-air bayside restaurant, one - he was the only American at the festival I had met, two - he appeared to be there completely on his own - quite unusual for a foreign festival-goer.

His behaviour was described by some people in the group I was shadowing as 'friendly', while others referred to it as 'annoying'. Being a tolerant man, these attributes eventually led to him spending quite a lot of time talking to me. He did strike me as an interesting character, slightly out of step with the rest of the crowd. I recall eating grilled tuna steak while he told some elaborate tale of how he came to be there, involving mis-dated work contracts and holiday leave, but I fail to recall the details. In fact, all I remember concretely is him teaching myself and Kingsbury PI the vogue-ish hand sign which accompanied the territorial phrase 'Wisconsin Baby!' favoured by the local youth there. See attached picture for reference.

I have no further memory of anything Ethan told me, as it did not seem pertinent to the case I was working back then. Had I been handed the Searly case earlier, I could have used this opportunity to ask 'Ethan' of the local wool subculture. Such misfortune can only be attributed to poor aim by the arrow of time.

-/-

Absolutely.

The ‘west-side’ style W-sign as taught by Evan/Ethan (the guy to the left of frame I assume) is inherently important to the case. The northern states have that looming proximity to ‘otherness’ lacked by the more central localities. While the southern states, texas, NM, Ca, have a sunny Mexican other pervading their psyche, the boundary fringe to the north is saturated by something altogether more mysterious – the encroaching rain-curtain of the North – the mist, the winter darkness, the blue-grey sky over the wheatfields that comes along in September like something out of Van Gogh – You can read it in the faces of those northern border-watchers. Like they can hear the static of the rain and know that if they wanted to they could tune right into it…

Why Croatia? Was Evan/Ethan just travelling through, or there for some reason? Was he an important figure, or just a neutral carrier of Wisconsin information for you? The festival circuit would be a good place to recruit strangers for some cause. Just as the circus scene was (/is?) a haven for runaways, fugitives, and those seeking cheap travel and adventure, so the festival circuit is a means for the same old longhaired guys you might see loitering on the dodgem boards to travel discretely and undetected from town to town, country to country, selling falafels and day-glo jester’s hats to teenagers, or screwing together highhats and setting up mic stands. Was Ethan part of this scene? Why was he alone?

-/-

Donut Law

A donut is indeed the perfect closed loop. We seem to be looking microscopic and macro-scopic at the same time. Closed loop Boston Mass on large scale, and molecular closed loop technology in fabrics, on small scale. Perhaps doing the same job and utilising the same physical processes at both levels? Party size and king size donuts, but what about the middle ground?

Would it be theft to eat a donut but moving oneself upwards slowly while eating, such that donut stays in same place? Plus, how does donut law allow for earth’s spin, earth’s orbital movement, galactic spin, even tectonic drift – Einstein claims all motion to be relative. Over a long enough timescale there is no measurable absolute spatial position, even relative, in relation to, say, a location on the planet. Of course it is one purpose of such monuments as the pyramids, stone circles, the guidestones even, that they are markers trying to give an absolute position. As absolute markers on this planet they naturally ‘track’ the wider movements, the seasons, the precession of the equinoxes, etc.

If I was in court I would claim donut theft is impossible as the donut is already in non-linear, even non-euclidean, motion. By moving a donut further one could be attempting to put it back where it came from…

-/-

wool and vinyl - simultaneously spinning natural and synthetic materials wool and vinyl - simultaneously spinning natural and synthetic materials

Both. I have, partly to understand more clearly what we are dealing with here, begun spinning natural and synthetic materials simultaneously, in something approaching what I suspect was behind the report dug up by Kingsbury PI. The natural material I chose was unwashed and uncarded highland-grown white sheepswool. The synthetic was medium-density black vinyl, sourced from Ullapool area junior highland games indoor sales area, specifically N Young’s first solo album, and the seminal Warhorse album, both picked up for £2 a hank, along with More soundtrack original-ish pressing, early Queen, and ‘Taste’ (Rory Gallagher’s band). There was also a wealth of prog, in particular Yes albums, which I left. Said highland games included 1 male senior event (over 21 yr old dads), for which I narrowly ensured no photo-finish was required.

The spin-source I chose for closed loop natural material spinning was an Ashford dark-rosewood wheel fitted with jumbo flier for greater width flexibility. Foot-Action operated. The spin source for closed loop (if indeed a spiral-groove 45 counts as closed loop, as opposed to the rare continuous-play closed groove discs) was a black turntable circa 1995, I forget the manufacturer. Powered by mains electricity.

Both spins were started near-simultaneously, without any CERN-style hiccups. Spin was allowed to continued for some time (1-2 hours). The bobbin filled quickly with approx 4mm width off-white coarse wool cordage, and was emptied and refilled once. Apparatus were then shut down, again close to simultaneously. The scaremongers’ fears of adverse reactions between the two mediums producing an uncontrollable chain reaction of spin, were this time at least unfounded.

I recall while working with Sam Ting at MIT, the same feeling of quiet achievement quickly giving way to the desire just to get on with the next test…

The next process in this case was the dyeing of the natural spun material. For this I chose mixed lichens from the lichen repository out back of the facility building, along with solar-distilled and re-acidified streamwater, balsamic vinegar, sea salt and onion skins. After bringing to critical point temperature in heating chamber, I added the first skein of post-spin material, and reduced heat to low. Second skein was then added. The hue began a deep magenta from the lichens, then after a night cooling in the chamber, turning to a rusty orange. The material is now airing naturally on a medium to high humidity external sill. I will use said material soon and pass on further findings and conclusions.

-/-

Timeline has now been produced, ranging from formation of the earth through the pre-cambrian, the cambrian, the pleistocene, the age of atlantis, into the dawning of the age of aquarius, to current modern times, taking in the construction of the water-weathered sphinx and the great pyramids, calanais and stonehenge, the guidestones, and the assumed beginning of construction of soft Michigan. Also taking in Ronald Searly’s poetry competition and the often forgotten ‘bin-fire’ incident, of 1982, at which the probably teenage Searly claimed no involvement in said bin-fire. An incident in which I have great interest.
The main new lead I have from laying out known knowns upon an axis of time, is as follows:

In the mid nineties, a Canadian RS student went from North America to the UK, and there left a map of the great lakes seemingly questioning the location of ‘Keegan and Rosta’ (Regan and Costa). Previously we had surmised that this implied a disappearance of Regan and Costa at that time (in advance of the main soft core disappearance around 2005).

However, it was not until 2004 that material was released by Broken Social Scene, which we know to have been penned by Costa. Three theories could explain this. Either, Costa disappeared in the 90’s, but her material was in the hands of the Toronto music scene before then, later being released by BSS,
or Costa disappeared in the 90’s but nonetheless disseminated material to BSS after her disappearance,
OR Costa did not ‘disappear’ in the nineties at all. On this third theory, which I favour, the following scenario is possible:
The Canadian RS student, possibly already acquainted with Costa (and Regan) directly or indirectly, is seeking out Costa and Regan, in the UK. She travels there specifically to find them. Whether she succeeds or not is unclear. Costa, possibly with Regan, possibly also with the Canadian RS student, returns to Michigan, and is involved in ensuing road trip activity as part of the beginnings of the soft Michigan project. Costa is also involved with the Toronto music scene directly or indirectly, in years/months directly leading up to the 2004 release of her material by BSS. It is then not until 2005 that Costa becomes untraceable, either from retreating into Soft Michigan, or else from going ‘underground’ to evade various groups, eg. military Project 31 operatives.

I must however check dates suggested by recent Boston contacts including Zac Happy. Did anybody disappear in the 90’s? Melody? When did Zac say the travelling mix-tape couple stopped coming by? When did he say the road trip activity began?

-/-

The Big Fox

I believe I know who / what EPPS is. I have met him (or rather a member of the group) without knowing it. EPPS is none other than the Edinburgh Photographic and Photojournalistic Society, a covert branch of IPPS, the International Photographic and Photojournalistic Society (also sometimes referred to as the International Photo-Press Society). Bells rang when I first investigated the online works of Contact B, met in the Cumberland Club. It included stuff that could only be considered journalistic – including images of war graves and international conference attendees. The Cumberland Club, I now realise, is the base of the EPPS. Contact B may even be the very same member who took photographic images while exploring the catacombs of Peru. He certainly will be aware of the images taken, with a personal interest due to his own great lakes background. I believe his allusion to an urban fox he has located, of which he refuses to tell the authorities the location, can only be code. An urban fox is a perfect symbol for an underground fugitive living undetected within a city, like so many of the individuals involved in this investigation. Certainly, Contact B (B for Brian EPPS, perhaps), does also photograph real urban foxes, however I am now certain that he and I were thrown together on that fateful night for reasons other than the discussion of actual ‘foxes’. Rather, it was understood that the fox in question was a ‘big fish’ in our investigations.
I feel sure from our investigator’s earlier contact with EPPS that they must also be following the case closely. They may know more than ourselves. They may even be in contact with the group/s or individuals involved, possibly in a partisan, non-neutral way. Certainly, my Brian EPPS was insistant the cover of the BIG FOX in question was on no account to be blown.

I must return to the Cumberland Club…

-/-

The whitsun sun is warming the light sea breeze… A number of investigators are Out of Office. My own anglepoise lab is vacated. My mind turns once more to conversations with Sam Ting, Gershon Goldhaber, Martin Perl, and others in the old quark team. Once a wildcat, always a wildcat, as they say. People often ask me: ‘what’s happening at CERN?’ ‘What’s going on since the big switch flick?’ I tell them go research.
Meantimes, I sit on seafront, eying for brown ion pipes and other usable objects recycled in that sea out there. That was meant to be brown iron pipe – an ion pipe is something altogether different, more of use to Sam and the MIT boys. Cornetto wrappers in bins are testament to the changing seasons. Still light enough to spin wool (and vinyl) at 11pm now, with a clear sky. An old face from Edinburgh turned up at the weekend, up with Edinburgh Kayak Group, with his latest belle in tow. I need to give some thought to superstring theory. I believe the theory views all particles as ‘closed loops’ – circular strings of energy – thin donuts. There is also a theory among cosmologists that, 4 or 5 dimensionally speaking, the universe is donut shaped. If both theory is correct, the smallest and the largest are then identical – the universe and the particle. And naturally from this, one can suppose that the universe could be a donut particle in a larger universe, and that each donut particle could itself be a donut universe of its own.
All this talk is getting me hungry.

Superstringfellow Hawk

-/-

Prolongued radio silence leads me to believe that our agents in rural yorks and (recently) Boston have entered a new realm of investigative depth. Perhaps the net is drawing in. Perhaps they are drawing the net in. A dragnet an ocean wide, for the big fish. I must reveal that last night, I aided the hurried removal from a city squat of my and another agent’s stuff. We left the place with the filth of years of decay – strange rusting gas pipes that light up like some oil refinery display. Cupboards with broken hinges, full of green and brown stubby bottles of cheap lager, some still half full from strange forgotten nights. On leaving, this was all visible at the surface, after several days (or has it been months?) of it being hidden by our temporary presence – Orange throes (or throws? – a query for Kingsbury PI to answer) and purple wall hangings were pulled up from damp furniture to make haversacks for swift transport of file notes; audiocassettes; dictaphones; emergency garlic cloves. From 2am or whatever hour it was, I slept on the carpet – the damp from accumulating winters of discontent made the sofas and mattresses an unattractive prospect. A sudden and bright start at dawn. Vehicle pulls up at the door, and away. Key hidden in usual place for future users of this facility, future victims of this squalor. The driver is alert; ready; a true getaway man. A safe pair of hands. I close my eyes and sleep the early morning away. Wake on a B-road from dreaming of a cat scraping at my windows. Or was it the other way round? Did I wake to a cat scraping the window from dreaming of a B-road. I may never know…

-/-

Consider the prolonged radio silence now broken. I have been catching up on the non-case aspects of my life since returning from Boston. Also, feraing they may be investigating us, i thought laying low on communications may force them to operate less covertly and come closer to us. This would appear not to have been the case, at least from my perspective, and we still appear to be working 'under the radar' so to speak.

Allow me to clarify my position on Ethan/Evan, for I fear I may have given a false impression of his significance (ot lack thereof): I was in Croatia based on a tipoff from one of Safelight's photojournalism associates, who had told me something unique and unknown was occuring there (details of which I cannot discuss at the time, though can confirm they are irrelevant to the Searly case). E was unimportant then and is likely so now; I mention him purely because he is the only Wisconsin kid I have met in person and may have been able to unwittingly pass on information of the local subculture, wooly or otherwise. Why he was alone I did not determine, which is why he stands out in my memory - as a detective I have a natural tendency for the unresolved to stick in my mind like a thorn. It is only with hindsight that he seems possibly significant, though I am not investing much in that 'theory'. Croatia does not seem to have any connection to the Searly case, though any coastal region can perhaps not be fully discounted without satisfactory evidence to the contrary.

Btw: Congratulations on your sporting achievement, though it is a shame there was no photo finish - I hate to see a good photo oppotunity go to waste. I pciture you with dark locks streaming behind you in the wind as your opponent drifts gradually behind with cheeks puffing and eyes popping in exaperation, camera panning to record your victory against blurred backdrop of black n white treeline in distance. Perhaps a member of EPPS was there to capture it.

Speaking of EPPS, it is good to have this new lead courtesy of Lone Wolf's dream and your 'chance' meeting at the Cumberland Club. The question now begs, why would someone from as far away as Edinburgh be covering the catacombs of Peru? Some journalistic project perhaps, or something more sinister? If Contact B is well known as being someone who takes 'some great shots' he could be an in demand go-to guy for such specialist projects. I believe, based on recent revelations, that Contact B warrants further investigation. Perhaps you can find the missing catacomb images.

I will attempt to answer your further questions post haste.

-/-

re: donut law

You ask if it would be theft to eat a donut while moving upwards to counter the motion of it falling into your stomach. Einstein does indeed claim all motion to be relative. A discussion with Dr. Epstein at dinner the other night (only now do I notice the similarity to the name Einstein) illustrated this idea to me further. Only a person in freefall (moving at the same speed as gravity) is truly motionless against the backdrop of spacetime. So, eating the donut while falling from a great height would be the only way I know of eating someone else's donut with a clear conscience. Of course, this could prove medically disasterous unless the eater-with-conscience was equipped with some sort of parachute-easque apparatus to aid the fall. I'm not sure where stealing one of your MIT boys' donuts in an anti-grav chamber stands in respect to the law.

Your non-linear defense has merit but such laws only apply to a single viewpoint. In Borges' The House of Asterion, the number 14 is used to signify infinity. In a courtroom you have twelve jourors along with the prosecution and defense, which totals 14. Perhaps this number is of cosmic significance - the first integer above some osrt of cosmic threshold. [one number beyond the unlucky 13, which is perhaps the tipping point. Thought of as unlucky in foiklore but actually just unpredicatable, giving results which fall either side of this cosmic threshold.] So, maybe with 14 viewpoints, we actually have infinite viewpoints, thus non-linear may be inapplicable as evidence.

I do not know if this helps with the case.

-/-

The reference material sent on Closed Loop fibres revealed a detail which may be of note regarding the fibrous aspects of the case. See mention of a special fabric as follows...

Cinchilla: A cotton, wool, and even synthetic fabric of sateen or twill construction with extra fillings for long floats.

This is a fabric which can be made from natural and synthesised sources and bears a cutely disguising name. Note the talk of 'long floats'. Combining this with the name of the fibre suggests to me a Flotilla, something highly pertinent to this case. Perhaps the Michigan crew were looking at shipping/manufacturing such a fibre for use in their various operations. Perhaps your novel simultaneous spinning experiments are something akin to this manufacturing process, though may need some kind of modification or change of variables to get the desired results.

Are you aware that certain models of turntable favoured by audiophiles and disc jockeys have a pitch adjustment facility which allows, by means of a slider, many (14) speeds of rotation. It enables music to be played between the notes of conventional key structure, similar to the effect of detuning an instrument, but on a song-wide scale. I hypothesize that perhaps an unorthodox rotational speed could create some kind of resonance between the two spin sources, allowing for a qualitative change in results. This could operate as some kind of vibrational/resonant cipher - find the right combination of rotational speeds in the two sources and information may be cleaned from the beat notes of the resulting cross-rhythm like some kind of low frequency morse code.

With regard to working out some kind of timeline of 'disappearances', Perhaps Costa's mid-90's 'disappearance' was her dropping out of the state education system to form a band (possibly an early guise of Broken Social Scene), with the interim years spent touring the low-level festival circuit until the band's profile was raised enough to force her to return to the overground. As previously noted, the festival circuit can be a great way to fall of the radar should one wish to do so. Though, as a known Obfuscationist, she could easily disappear and yet be active at the same time, most likely under a pseudonym.

Happy said the mixtape couple stopped visiting circa 2005. He doesn't recall when they first began appearing on campus, but says he became aware of them a couple of years into his studies, around summer 1995. I do not know how this fits with your theories.

-/-

Our Boston man’s dispatches fit perfectly – road trips either cease or go more underground in 2005. The theory of Costa’s low key festival circuitry is 99.7% likely, I feel. Slipping back into the fog when the band ‘make it’.

Chinchilla fabric – a ‘hold-all’ term capable of containing the natural and the synthetic without revealing whether one or the other or else ‘wool mix’ combination.

The speed adjuster controls of a good mixer double turntable set up are indeed a potential means of achieving a variety of beat frequencies from waveform interference.

In the city squat this investigator abandoned overnight recently, such a two turntable set-up was included among the original paraphernalia present. The investigator recalls the fullsome sound of such interference some years previous. I have recently been researching non-electric wind-up turntables (originally called grammaphones, due to their frequent presence in the upper year social rooms of grammar schools, where 15 year olds would listen to swing, ragtime and early jazz). Standard grammaphones would have an analogue variable speed control. Later machines would have an analogue 3 way control between 78, 45 and 33. What I could do with is something capable of going lower – say 22. That way I could do the ’45 played at 33 speed’ trick on 33s, and listen to a whole album at ‘mong-out’ speed. I know of no modern manufacturer of wind-up, non-electric grammaphones. There may be one.

Approx 40 min ago, this investigator was on a bumpy old-tarmac / dirt track road, a regular tourist walker route towards the base camp of a large mound of highland mountain, when rounding a puddled corner there was an elderly lady, of short height, blocking said road, arms waving in air. I came to an easy halt among the puddles. She held a walking stick – Walking stick in one hand, wrinkled healthy-looking complexion, vibrant face, wavy white hair, with a look of eccentricity and foreignness to her. I walk over to her, sidestepping between puddles on this barmy hot day. In what I think is the broken English of an northern/eastern European accent, she asks for a lift, in upfront, confident terms. I reverse to give her a puddle free access route to passenger side of the vehicle, though she heads towards driver’s side at first – a giveaway of one used to left-hand drive cars. I run her towards a village restaurant – she has been up in the foothills, and is parched and hungry – overheating. I half understand her side of the sparse but friendly conversation. Just before reaching destination, she reveals that she is a tourist from Oregon.

But where are you from originally, I ask. I expect her to be German, for example. She says she is originally from Canada – that is the accent, she explains. West Coast? I ask. Yes, the west.

The strange appearance in the road of this elk convinces me I have something to learn from the encounter relevant to the case. A Canadian, with an accent I could have sworn was European, who lives now in Oregon. I suspect that she is the Old Laughing Lady, who can be seen in many mythic sources including the cover of Neil Young’s After the Goldrush album. This album is about the exodus of the hip culture from the US west, or the passing of that culture into hiding.

On the cover image, the red Indian laughing lady is moving in the opposite direction to Neil, however the overlapping alignment between them on the ‘great shot’ makes it appear that she is actually riding in Neil’s backpack (and so actually going in the same direction as Neil, but facing backwards – like a rear gunner). With every movement I feel an opposite flow probably occurs, as per Newton’s third law. So, if this Canadian woman went from Canada to the US, she is the reverse of the movin’ up country hippies who went to Vancouver to avoid nam. Just like Neil, in fact, who travelled from his roots in Canada to the US west.

-/-

Addendum to case notes:
Why do you think De Leon and Vandeloo headed South straight after their research trip to Nova Scotia? It is obvious now. After investigating the flotilla project in the Nova Scotia boating scene they made straight for the ‘long float’ material source – Mexican chinchilla.

-/-

Nota bene, coming tour dates for BSS:

3 Jul 2009 / Rothbury Festival / Rothbury, Michigan
4 Jul 2009 / 80/35 Festival / Des Moines, Iowa
11 Jul 2009 / Harbourfront Centre / Toronto, Ontario
26 Jul 2009 / Wanderlust Festival / Lake Tahoe, California

This is no coincidence. Within a month they travel from Michigan to Toronto to Lake Tahoe itself, California. The roadsters are returning home…
We must act fast.

-/-

This investigator took the wekeend off the case to indulge in some much overdue and impressively intense sunshine and only now has he picked up the immediately impending development in the case, ie. the immediacy with which BSS are 'toueing' from Canada to California. This strikes me as pertinent for the following reasons - we have already established that festival and musical touring circuits are ideal ways to move poeple and goods around the continent in a fairly undetected way. We also know Costa is either in BSS or has close links with them. This suggests to me that Costa may use a BSS tour as a means to achieve her own ends, with or without the band's compicity (she is a known Obfuscationist, remember, and as such would have no problem hiding her true intentions while being close to the band). The band may even be a front to hide less universally accepted operations, such as the promotion of wool-based lifestyles or products of closed-loop synthesis, with promotional methods possibly adapted from those used by the Minnesota thinktank (I recall Costa being quoted in a marketing journal from years ago, which suggests she either worked in marketing or pretended to work in marketing to gain knowledge of their obfuscatory techniques [i strongly suspect the latter]).

It seems to me that the BSS tour is likely a smokescreen to transport a portion of the Michigan operation (people or products) down to california for some purpose, or perhaps to collect something from the southern state to bring back north. The California connection cannot be ignored - Searly's act of philanthropy at the Reno Cake-n-bake suggests the California route has been active for sometime, and Melinda Packett is registered to a Bay Area address. The California connection could well be a base for managing the South American connections - this investigator for one is definitely aware that products made from llama wool are readily available in the fields designated for corporate-sponsored rock festivals, though how popular such things prove to be in the california heat, this northerly located investigator cannot confirm.

-/-

Astute indeed. Is there a place for llama knit bobble hats in summertime? This investigator knows the double use of woollens as both warming and cooling aids – just like leather or antifreeze, the fibres (or the gaps between them) have a dual quality for both extremes of temperature - keeping warmth in when cold outside, but also cooling when hot outside. I believe wool does this partly by allowing moisture out, thus utilising the cooling effect of latent heat of evaporation. Far better than moisture-trapping synthetics… There may be a market for woollens in California for this reason. This investigator’s back is burnt, but not as badly burnt as it would have been without frequent use of light blue ethnic cotton shirt. I do like the term ‘ethnic’. All of us are ethnic, hence it implies humanity as opposed to artificial, made by a genuine human being as opposed to a machine… Perhaps even made by a genuine free-feeling alive human being as opposed to a factory slave drone… Maybe some sweat, but not shop sweat… maybe some dollar changed hands, but hopefully some donation made to an orphanage or something. A new village well, that’s not owned by coca cola…

I wonder if the road south is a case of the hippies going home, back to the canyons, back to Lake Tahoe?

-/-

Enlightening wool knowledge there. I now wonder how wool knows which way is inside and which way is outside, and thus which way its heat transferring properties are to be implemented.

One thing i forgot to mention - my initial suspicion regarding the girl you came across singing about 'Boston Mass' was that she was Costa, possibly on a recreuitment drive in the UK, or else meeting a connection there and filling in time playing solo spots as some kind of coded call to arms to any UK followers she may have. However, in light of the BSS Ca-nad/lafon-ian tour, it seems unlikely she would be in the UK sans band, unless she was undertaking some low-key gig practice to work on her solo performance skills prior to the tour dates. It is entirely possible that she is no longer in the band, having trained them to function autonomously, though possbly still receiving her instruction from afar.

Another explanation as to the identity of the Boston Mass singer is that she is the religious studies student who had assocations with costa in the '90s. She was known to be UK-based (at least during her studies) so would no doubt have acquaintances there- people who could provide her with shelter and find her work if needed. The fact she sings of some kind of 'mass' suggests that she is/was religiously minded, possibly abandoning Christianity or whatever her denomination was, in favour of some more fringe-based belief system. I certainly don't think she is connected to the religious right dogsquad, but I may be wrong. Perhaps she is in the UK to locate contacts in the Droitwich reason (the theory was mentioned to this investigator that the 'Droitwich Fix' is a specialist stitching method used for heavy-duty repair work when a woven object's lifespan seems othewise at an end.

A varitation of this theory is that the term 'Droitwich Fix' refers to using an otherwise impaired object to serve a function different to that it was originally designed for - ie. using an old hat which no longer fits the owner's head as a tea-cosy, or fashioning a steel-bodied guitar from a broken oil drum (something this investigator has personally seen evidence of). Such things could be examples of the Droitwich Fix. Either way, this theory, as put to this investigator, identifies the Droitwich Fix as a method of extreme object salvage when all other hope seems lost - aomething out on the edge of the repair/reuse/recycle culture which has been subordinated and marginalised by modern capitalism and its constant promise of shiny new goods to those who subscribe to its culture.

-/-

This is a lot to digest. I will take one thing at a time, if I can slow my excited mind enough to do so.
First item: mass singer. I have operated on the assumption she was purely a dream guide, and was nonrationally working on the basis that she is Sadsack. However, as I have said before, who knows whether I dreamt of her then awoke to the morning light cat noises, or met her, then fell asleep and dreamt of the cat. In which case perhaps you are right, and she is a real UK operative. The RS student theory has much going for it – the RS – Mass link in particular. I’m now working on the basis that you’re correct. I haven’t seen her again since dispite several nights frequenting the usual bars. She may resurface when I least expect it.

Second Item: Droitwich Fix. This is a central tenet of self-sufficiency. For every item its use. Throw nothing away! There is no ‘throw away’. Tin cans planted under apple trees to improve the yield. Old sewage outflow pipe rescued from the sea for a chimney. I am sure the inner handicraft core will be well aware of this from years of living on the edge; on the border. I feel the term probably refers both to this and also to the heavy duty stitch. It is a perfect name the soft core would choose for such a ‘fix stitch’.

I await diagrams, images and drawings.

-/-

At approximately 7am today I was contacted in a dream by the wife of James Long. She was wanting information on his disappearance. I gave no information, as I have none.

Later, on the way to the day job today, I saw a fine example of the Droitwich Fix – sweet lady waiting in the post office with glimmering silver and green purse – I comment on it, and she shows me – it’s made with old drinks can ringpulls, threaded together with green twine. I have a belt made of ringpulls too, she says. Heavy duty stiching technique – utilising second-generational-usage scrap metal to create a chainmail-style ‘fabric’. Very effective.
I have become aware through theorising of an opposite principle to the Droitwich Fix. I found its name yesterday but it has slipped from my mind. More information on this when it returns.

Nb. Once on a visit to the outer rim isles (North Uist, from which St Kilda can be seen hazily out in the void, and then on to South Uist), I became aware of the ancient hand symbol supposedly of Jesus. On the catholic southern island, a stone statue of the mother and child shows the infant raising said salute: First and index finger raised, other fingers down – identical to the peace sign but with fingers together rather than apart. Yesterday I discovered the reason for this hand signal. Jesus had given up waiting on a bus, set off on foot, and was waving to passing vehicles while still holding his busfare in his hand…

For myself, the bus caught up with me some time later, and left me at desired beach location, along with two young campers, without charging me the fare.

I now recall part of the name of the anti-Droitwich Fix. It is the [something] itch. I suppose it may include the throwing away of something still of use. It is also the making and pushing of something with no actual use, its intended use being a mere charade. This would be a tactic well used by the Minnesota marketing people. It is a classic technique in the development of money generation and population-regimentation/control through the mid-20th century: must-have products, with a swift decline in any notion of what the product actually does. Often the product will do something, but not what they tell you it does. A classic result of the meeting between the marketers and the early obfuscationists…

-/-

Did you ask the woman where she learnt the stitching technique? If yu see her again, I suggests you try to glean if she ever spent any time in the vicinity of Droitwich. I take it that this is a wholly different lady to the old laughing elk you met in the road last week (the image of such a scene in my head makes me thing of 'Grandma Death' from the film Donnie Darko). Old ladies are often wise beyond expectations and the insights possible from such sources should never be underestimated. Allow me now to recount what was gleaned from another Old Hand from the labs...

The evening with Dr. Epstein (in which he explained the guilt-free method of donut theft) yielded the following unexpected discovery of sorts... As the jazz music filtered through the post-dinner chat, there had been metion of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes and the mistaken belief was held that they were redcorded in 1968. An hour or so later, a copy of Thelonious Monk's Underground was noticed on the table, copyright information showing an original relase date of 1968.

The artwork on Monk's record depicts the artist in an underground bunker, a basement of sorts.In this basement, Monk is at his piano surrounded by assorted objects thus: cheese, grapes, guns, a haybucket, several wine bottles and glasses and a gestapo officer tied to a wooden chair. In the background (the image has a strong sense of depth) is a woman holding a rifle, staring at the viewer from a distance. Monk also sports a gun, strapped to his back out the way of his hands for freedom on the keyboard yet in easy reach should he decide he requires it's use. A detonator connected to a string of explosives lies at his feet in the foreground and Viva La France is grafittied onto one of the walls [above the nazi]. The image is rendered in dark earthy hues and has a natural textural quality to it.

Now, i happen to know the Dylan record fairly well and am familiar with it's sleeve art. the two are very similar. The artist is also situated in a basement with his instrument of choice (in Dylan's case a mandolin, being played in the manner of a fiddle). Earthy tones, seemingly random objects and characters abound. There is also a man in military dress similar to Monk's Gestapo prisoner. A woman also stares at the viewer from the back of the picture.

Working on the assumption that both records were released in the same year, it struck me that these two pieces of work were a further example of two people haveing the same idea, separately, but at the same time. However, upon returning home and checking my copy of the Dylan record, I discovered that it was in fact released in 1975 and so would not seem to be the evidence I initially supposed. One further thing did strike me about the two covers - both artists are wearing wool - Monk a fine suit and Dylan in a striped cardigan reminiscent of South American patterns and colouring.

Now, I am not for a 16th note suggesting that these two seminal musicians were involved in the beginnings of the soft-core group, but I have a hunch that there may be some significance in all this similarity and mistaken belief. If the softcore group have been in hiding for the last 3 years, where have they been? based on the insights gained from these record sleeves, I have a strong suspicion that when the group went 'underground' they did so literally and have been living subterraneously. Given their suspected plan of trying to submerge a city, or even a state, it seems likely that they would possess the means to hide themselves underground also, something mentioned as a possiblity with regard to the stateline existence you hypothesized recently.

Of course this theory would have so much more weight to it if the two records in question had been released in the same year.

-/-

You forget one vital thing. With a poetry competition, I supposed that release of material was immediately subsequent to penning/recording. However, not so with basement tapes. They were indeed recorded in 68. Release occurred years later.

Grandma death, grandma time, old laughing lady. Yes – many names but I think one person. I managed to avoid running down a sweet highschool girl called Jena though. If such a sweet highschool there had been standing nearby, I would maybe have hit grandma death…

In answer to your earlier question – she didn’t stitch the bag herself. I believe it was purchased in a shop owned by a middle agent who imported goods from a producer, possibly with one or more further middle agent handler/importer between the shop owner and the producer. As with branching drug dealerships, this can make the producer very hard to trace… Perhaps it was made in Boston or, as Lone Wolf has suggested to me, Droitwich itself.

Nb. I assume the monk was toying with the French resistance roots of much dance music. A great comparison there. 68 both.

-/-

Using washroom-based channelling techniques I have accessed some of the words of the song (do the) boston mass… There is a mama cass rhyme in there. And long strings of seemingly random rhymery, eg. ‘I’d light a fire if I had a match / I’d dress as a pirate if I had a patch / I’d throw a ball if I could catch / I’d lay an egg if I could hatch / I’d open a window if I had a latch / I’d build a roof if I could thatch…’; and ‘you’re gonna have to stand up when you land on your ass / you’re gonna have to ham it up when the’ve canned all the laughs / you’re gonna need a candle when they’ve turned off the gas / you’re gonna need a pratfall when they’ve banned all the gaffs…’ . Pretty inane stuff and devoid of much relevant meaning, it would seem. Perhaps I am channelling the wrong song…

-/-

In reference to recent basement work regarding the monk and the band:

The basement has long been a stronghold of the underculture… As one investigator suggests, one place the ‘underground’ will naturally hide is in the actual underground. The underground stream, a below-ground flow of water, has long been a symbol of secret cultures, knowledge or traditions. The esoteric strands of crypto-religious and crypto-anthropologic study such as the nasorean / templar / celtic Christian traditions are one example. This example also, as with our case, supposedly utilised the literal underground, taking cover in catacombs under the temple of herod, for example, and leaving fish symbols on the walls. Our crossed knitting needles and 4 lakes found by ‘Epps’ in catacombs in South America, are comparable to this.

The basement, however, is no river, it is a lake. It is no tunnel, it is a cave. An enclave - a slab of crumbling concrete rather than a tarmac road. It leads nowhere geographically, but it persists. (On a four dimensional drawing of course, it would be a tunnel, a road, a river – spanning along the time axis as long as it persists to exist.)

If the basement is the cave / lake / cracking carpark, then the tunnel / river / road must be highway 61.

I have long been associated with an individual, a filmmaker of some avant-garde standing, working on a film treatment for a literal translation film version of the song Desolation Row. The film, as yet unfilmed I believe, is to be a veritable nighttime circus of characters. Einstein will have his electric violin; Ophelia will have her sad red light. The blind commissioner will be on the tightrope with a hand in his pants… The main dilemma of the film will be who is in and who is out of Desolation row. Who peeks into the place, and who mails postcards out of it?

As a row, ie. a street of dwelling houses, it is part cave, part tunnel. A basement that can be reached by tunnels - populated with the same characters as fill the covers of Monk’s and the Band’s 68 subterranean works. The circus is in town…

See also, the laughing lady – perhaps she ventured into the basement in Neil Young’s backpack, as he lay there with the full moon in his eyes, dreaming of replacement after the gold rush, and hoping what his friend said had been a lie. His friend could be Dean Stockwell, the spirit guide of Sam Beckett. The thing he said could be: ‘the gold rush is over; the gold is all gone’. Dean lived on the neighbouring ranch in the same canyon as Neil, and wrote the film screenplay of After the Goldrush, for which Neil wrote the soundtrack. The ‘band fair blowing’ in Neil’s head could be the Band, playing in Neil’s basement.

All just thoughts… Perhaps irrelevant to this particular case.

-/-

Why Droitwitch, I have been wondering? Is it at all related to the UK location? Is it an allusion to an equivalent location in the US? Why the Droit Witch?

Could it be related to salt, or transmitters?

The town is situated on massive deposits of salt, and salt has been extracted there since ancient times. The natural Droitwich brine contains 2 1/2 lb of salt per gallon - ten times stronger than sea water and only rivalled by the Dead Sea[1].

Near Droitwich there is the central longwave broadcasting facility of the UK (Wychbold BBC transmitter), which is also used for transmissions in the medium wave range, Droitwich transmitting station. It was sited near Droitwich because the huge block of underground salt provided a good ground earth and increased signal strength (as related by Mr. Humphreys, Chief Engineer for many years).

In which case, it is reasonable to assume that the US homologue of Droitwich is in Utah – Salt Lake City. But what does this tell us?

-/-

droitwich could be some kind of conflation of detroit and something else.

i suspect this purely because the location of detroit is within the boundaries of the heart of the investigation. the detroit witch? the Detroit Wick ('wick' being how i believe 'wich' is pronounced) could be some sort of device for draining a great lake by wicking away it's water content to somewhere else (in detroit?), thus allowing the water level to remain at the same height even as large scale habituations are sunk beneath the surface, combatting the physically obvious sign of water displacement which would otherwise surely give the game away.

but then, lone wolf, our uk-based agent, keeps promising esoteric drawings and scans of some nature, which may perhaps explain the role of droitwich better than we could imagine.

-/-

A fine Archimedian postulation. I would point out that, after settling, the lake’s water level would not actually rise from addition of submerged buildings, as rivers outflowing from the lake act as an ‘overflow valve’ – a bath constantly gaining water from the rain tap will reach the natural level of its overflow and then, no matter how many objects are placed in the bath, after further settling, the same level will be maintained. However, looking at the whole system, the floor will be that much deeper in water as a result of objects in the bath. ie. Sea levels would rise.

You are right that the 'wich' equals 'wick'. It also equals 'witch' as in wicker man (or wicca man). I have visited the wicca stronghold of Summerisle in the past, and feel that the activities of groups being investigated in this case are not in any way reminiscent of the strange activities there. As such I favour the wick hypothesis you identify. The same wick technique is used for draining the reservoirs of the human ear (wax removal). My map of the ear in my caseroom demonstrates this potentiality. I have never experienced the method, but I understand that a short hollow wick is inserted into the ear canal and is then lit at the other end. The wick and flame act as a parafin lamp, with the wax of the ear being the fuel reservoir, which is sucked along the wick. I believe the technique is usually used as a means of emptying the ear of wax, rather than as a means of utilising a fuel source in order to achieve lighting, but in dark conditions, it could be used to read in the dark. It would presumably require a sufficiently long wick to hang down below eye level, for this purpose. I have heard various urban myth stories of reverse osmosis principles being used to extract water from a substance, for example as a means of distilling spirit or as a means of concentrating birch sap to achieve birch syrup (or in america, maple). I think that is a different principle from the wick. So, where, if your supposition is correct, is the water stored once syphoned to detroit by wick? Perhaps, if droitwich itself can be taken as an example semiologically at least, it is stored in a vast salt reserve under detroit? The salt could absorb the water, trapping it below ground. Perhaps the collapse of the US motor industry has been caused by the resultant brine from this project flooding up and rusting the steel lying in motor city storerooms ready for cutting into car shapes. Perhaps wool has been planned to replace steel in a wave of new industrial development. All just thoughts. I returned to the warehouse last night and developed further use of energy arcs, achieved through a number of kung-fu style poses and stances. I also developed a shrinking technique, scaling up or down ones surroundings by will power imposed upon ones field of vision.

-/-

A conversation with one of the MIT boys during quark research has come back to my mind. I don't know if this is a false lead, but I remember the following conversation thread. I think it was with Sam, but I may misremember things - it could have been with the olive skinned oriental girl Lana who used to hang out by the water cooler when the lab hit 30 degrees on late July doubleshift data collating evenings. Either way, I was asking their views on the next stage of particle accelerators. They said: 'of course, without doing the whole ringworld space thing, the biggest we could hope for would be a ring going right round the planet.' The suggestion was that a submerged ring shaped (or donut shaped!) particle accelerator constructed right around the circumference of the earth would be the biggest achieveable and would be capable of splitting into the heart of bosons and beyond. It was suggested that if it was lined up to gain the additional speed of the earth's spin AND the additional magnetic propulsion force of the earth's magnetic poles/core, then it would be a truly great particle accelerator. I never heard any more of the supposition. CERN took over as top 'nut, and the MIT facilities were soon enough made obsolete and mothballed. But a 'nut that size - now that could be capable of splitting gravity particles, time particles, thought particles and god knows what else... I don't suppose for a minute that this is what they are building down there. But then who knows. It's possible. What's to stop them? I mean, what's to stop them?

If a civilisation built a 'nut right around the circumference of a galaxy - now that could be far reaching. I recall the piece in New Teenage Metaphysical postulating the interstellar stick to relay information in contravention of Einstein's special theory. I must do the maths on what exactly a ring that big could do.

-\-

So many elements have recently been atatched to the case that this investigator is wondering where exactly he should be focussing his energies. Should I concentrate on closed-loop systems or be looking underground? Should I be looking for leads relating to Stairs' activities in Ohio or be trying identify large areas in the Detroit region with the potential for large-scale liquid storage/absorption? Should I be looking south of the border or walking the statelines? there are so many angles to this case that a 3D rendering of it would be one of the most ambitious engineering projects ever undertaken by man; up there with the Georgia Guidestones or a planet-sized particle acceleration donut. Perhaps Searly already knows how the case will end and is building such a 3D case model in his bungalow on the outskirts of Boston?

With regard to your planet-szied nut theory, I do not know how feasible this is, or what the capabilities could be, but it strikes me now that perhaps donut law apllies to Black Cat. Remember, this was an experiement with an unidentified central location - perhaps this central point is as invisible and non-physical as the centre of a donut and as such may never be found. Perhaps it is, as one investigator suggested, actually in space, and therefore 'empty' by common standards.

Last night, while listening to Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska LP, I picked up on the following points in the song Highway Patrolman, which I feel echo elements of our case...

The song tells the story of two brothers from Ohio and involves a scene where the patrolman of the title is chasing a suspect in a Buick through Michigan, deliberately allowing it to escape over the Canadian border as it is being driven by his brother.
Hearing this sequence of events unfold in the song immeditaley made me think of the case: The chased Buick and activity in Michigan and Ohio having particular resonance, along with an escape over the Canadian borderline.

This brings to my mind the idea that perhaps Searly was 'allowed' to 'disappear' intentionally by at least one individual or some small splinter group within the larger operational group. This would imply different members of the group had/have different agendas. The most likely explanation for this is, as suspected, that both an independent group and the military were working in the same area of operation; either working to the same aim but with a different agenda, or working in a similar field with different aims.

I am leaning toward the idea that either the military started the operation, recruiting help from academia circles who, somewhere along the way, began to use the operation for different ends to the military's intention, or the Michigan craft club started proceedings which the military subsequently became aware of and infiltrated for their own purposes. Of course, the two groups could have had the same idea independently at the same time. Perhaps this is the case and Project31 is related to the Black Cat experiment[s] in this way.

As explained here, the Nebraska LP is actually made from the Boss' own 4-track home recordings rather than been done in a studio. Such an approach ties in with Costa's recroding methods, as heard on the mixtapes so far discovered. The song is set in the '60s but was actually written and released in the early '80s, which would have been an influential period for members of the Michigan soft-core, many of them being in the adolesence at this point. More details of the song's content can be found here. As explained here, the song was used as the basis for the film 'The Indian Runner' released in 1991, again a likely period of influence for Project 31 members.

Springsteen hails from New Jersey, which falls within the bounds of our theorised North-eastern donut of activity and is a likely candidate to have had influence on members of the Michigan group at a critical period prior to the project's beginnings. With Neil Young being from Canada and Dylan from Duluth, it would seem that we are looking in the right area, musically speaking. Even Monk hails from North Carolina, which borders on the South-eastern edge of our theorised donut of activity. I'm sure even this great jazz pianist has held a harmonica to his lips on occasion.

-/-

Neil Young, CSN and Bruce Springsteen will all be in the same area of the UK over the same weekend, in about a fortnight’s time. I don’t have a ticket. It should be a good focal point for various forces, with an ancient somerset tor and a pyramid-shaped stage increasing the transmission potential of energies from the locality. Meanwhile, today for me is a day of great strangeness and great liability for changes. I met and lingered with my old Australian soulmate last night, and the air seems ripe for a thunderstorm of sorts. I hope this will not be my last transmission, although it may be my last from this station. In the wee wee hours my mind gets hazy, radio relay towers lead me to my baby, the radio’s jammed up with talk show stations, it’s just talk talk talk talk till I lose my patience.

No liquid storage in Detroit, no gasoline in Minnesota, no fleece in Duluth. Just a big hole in a ground floor window of a Minneapolis cold water flat, and a three storey sub-ground parking lot empty of cars.

My man in Somerset may have more to report in 10 days time. My insider is doing the falafel scene on the festival circuit. He may recognise other regular faces from show to show – loitering by the jester hat stand; lingering on the edge of the jazz tent; hiding in bushes when famous people walk by…

-\-

turbulence.

your last missive gives me the impression that things are beginning to unravel. Are you working from a new base now? A change in situation often allows things to be seen viewpoints hitherto unviewed. Maybe your move will provide you with a different view of the case.Thunder and lightning is filling the sky as I type. Low pressure. Electricity. Turbulence. eight young tomato plants are currently being rained on.

So, the beards are coming to town. It seems our guitar-slinging cowboys are will be active in the UK at a similar time to Costa's Broken Social Scene hitting the Candian road. Is this coincidence? Not if Bob Palindrome's maxim is anything to go by: 'there's no such thing as coincidences; there's only incidence, and they all go in the casefile'. He also used to say 'a casefile is like a good stew; you chuck everything in there, keep a low heat on it and see what rises to the surface'. I always took this as a good metaphor but once I got to know the man I realised that he also meantit literally.

Once I visted his apartment I soon realised that he would destroy old closed casfiles by boiling them up in a pan of water in his kitchen. This explained the scald marks on his hands I'd previously wondered about. The man, resourceful as ever, used this method of data erasion as it provided him with the raw material for his hobby of making lifesize paper mache sculptures of his favourite birds of prey. The man had these things, hand painted, all over his house. A bald Eagle hung above the main doorway, neck craned down and beak out so as to almost peck your left eye out while you waited for the door to open. A pereguin falcon, wings hunched back in a dive pose sat on his bureau acting as a mail holder, envelope stuffed between the two raised wings. I digress...

although the dates of BSS and the beard troupe's performance are not the same, they are only a couple of weeks apart. There is the possibility of using winds, possibly the trade winds one of our investogators mentioned earlier, to allow the sound to travel over large distances. This obviously takes time. I am consulting Dr Epstein on this and am waiting for confirmation, but rough calculations show that it is fairly likely the soundwaves from both touring circuits will collide and interact at some point around the start of august. Perhaps there is some underlying plan for the two soundwaves to mesh in a certain area, interfering with one another in a way similiar to that you tried to achieve with the dual spin sources.

This could be another Black Cat style experiment, done in reverse fashion to the dual particle example. This time, they are starting with two sources, which are intended to meet up in one location. causing some kind of effect or outcome.Due to the butterfly effect, turbulence, it is hard to predict with certainty the when and where or even if of what may happen, but Epstein did say 'it could be possible'. Of course, I may be looking in the wrong direction and this could just be nothing. If, on the other hand, it is the case, then we are dealing with some advanced Obfuscation techniques.

-\-

obfuscatia

I think perhaps I have been focusing too heavily on the wool related aspects of the case and negelecting to join the dots between other activities related to the case. In effort to redress this imbalance I'd like to outline my knowledge of the movement known as the Obfuscationsts.

It is believed that the group began in the early fifties US of A with links to the military. Post-war analysis showed that deception tactics were vital to the military success and once the troops had come home stories were soon in the air about how some maverick had planned the perfect dupe and gained a critical victory for his batallion. Equally, when a soldier fell, it was always due to the duplicity of the enemy rather than an error on a comrade's part or just sheer bad luck with odds in a war theatre.

Long story short, in the post-war era there were lots of draftees who had learned to cultivate and depend on deception techniques for their survival and were now looking to integrate back into society. This is how many of the ideas at the root of the Obfuscationist movement came into the public domain. Some of these ex-servicemen went to college and others found steady jobs working for the man, many of them ending up in the growing sales and marketing industry in a boom time for mass production. Their learned instinct to capitalise on weakness and expand territory made them particularly suited to mass maketing and tim has shown a great overlap between obfuscationist thinking and advertising techniques.

Some of those who drifted into the college scene at this time are likely to have been involved in the devlopment of the op-art experiments noted earlier. By the time the hippie/'Nam north/south split happened in the sixties, ofuscationist ideology was widely permeated throughout the civilian mindset. The movement or at least its ideology appears to trascend politics. Photos from vitenam show grafittied obfuscationst symbology in the jungles of SE Asia as well as on college campuses and on placards and pin badges at peace festivals and protest in the US.

John Nash's game theory crystallised many fundamentals of the Obfuscationist modud operandi and was soon latched onto by the marketeers to promote the idea of the anti-Droitwich fix. Among other things, such groups are known to hold responsibility for pointlessly overdeveloped items of basic functionality such as the five bladed razor and the electric toothbrush, pitching them to the public under a shroud of faux personality. Current projections estimate that products will be named after people within 5-10 years. In 20-25 years is is expected that people will be named after products.

-\-

I sense the giants of cinema encountering a soundscape problem.
a carrier bag of fresh prawns from my man sustains me for two days.
Returning now to forage more case material.
Recent theories posted were truly noteworthy, unfortunately I can't remember anything about them.
There was something about a simultaneous transmission; a meeting of waves in the mid atlantic.
Yes, that's it. I will get my falafel contact to dig up the gossip behind scenes.
Open university beards on aged hippies, wearing cotton. It is 3 am.
BBC 2 is transmitting early whiteboard flipchart scenes.
Venn Graphs and Vanderrgraffs and vandeloos and vent gaffs.
Gotta do a pratfall when they've vanned all the graffs.
I wonder which continent Ellena Costa is in now.

Perhaps when all this is done we can go travel in a van over the plains, maybe grow some beens.
jump in a pool under a waterfall or something.
I feel that at least one of the michigan cotton pickers may be with us in the U of K.
My eyes are open. There is a girl wwoofing nearby who looks a little like melody nelson but I don't think for a minute it is her.

It's a while since I was last on the protest or festival circuit.
there are channels of communication there - easy to pick up scents.
falafels are on the menu. and veggie-meat burgers.

A consignment of out of date ginger beer, and canada dry, note, has just reached me by car boot.
It kicks like it is fermenting or something.
Sam Ting says that the centre point of a magna-ring is a potential for strangeness.
He points out the example of the inside of a racing track.
How easy it would be, he says, to hide out in there...

-\-

I recently retrieved my main casebook which had been idly left at Kingsbury PI's place a few days earlier. It contains observations and suppositions relevant to the case hitherto untouched on.

note 1: The redhead girl in the CCTV footage identified by one of the Boston tech crew as Melody Nelson could she be one of the duo known as 'Melinda Packett'? I recall receipts for auburn hair colour being found at their bay area residence? Sounds like one of those conincidences I don't believe in.

Assuming this is the case, it would seem that there is frequent movement of personnel connected to this whole saga from north to south and east to west. The group seem to have connection in all corners of the continent and also south of the border. Vandeloo and De Leon seem to have moved around more than most people we are aware of in the case - Florida, Baton Rouge, Mexico, Wisconsin, probably Maine. I definitely think these guys are researchers/couriers with major connections moving across the landscape on a constant basis, probably running along differenty routes to the cargo cult already identified. I'm still not sure if they were truly soft core group or if they were government plants.

This moving around would facilitate posting correspondance from all over the US, allowing the group to never use the same address twice, appearing ubiquitous and without an operational centre. This is an organisation structured according to donut law. perhaps they themselves extend around the circumference of the planet and Searly could be anywhere. This is a classic obfuscationist technique, favoured by RC Christian as we have already seen.

One more thing: Dan Stairs. His name sounds so similar to 'downstairs'; it makes me think of basements. I think he could be a good lead. I shall investigate his presence in the Ohio region; preliminary enquiries show he has been spotted in the East Cleveland area.

-/-

Radio 4 news item morning of I think Friday 26 June: A man call Dan
Kilby(?), working for US federal govt dept on replanning cities due to
INCREASES IN EMPTY HOUSES. He is from Clint, Michigan. Cities being
replanned/worked on included Cleveland Ohio, Baltimore, and Detroit.
Methods included removing empty houses to increase garden space between
houses. This was/is a major project (major enough to warrant item and
interview on UK radio). It began under the bush administration, and now
Obama is also using Dan to continue this work. The question that occurs
to me though, is where have all the people gone?? Or were these houses
built but never occupied? In which case who got the sums wrong on
population numbers etc, in these housing companies? Are there more
people than we might think living in airstreams and teepees on the
borders and the slabs? How many people live in soft michigan? Or in
the waters of lake superior?

I don't know if a connection exists between the two Dans. Probably not,
I feel.

You are right to pick up on the auburn hair dye receipts. Is the
melody/Melissa/Melinda/Belinda puzzle a case of two real people and two
pseudonyms? Or three real people and one psuedonym? Or some other
combination? What's real and what is pretend...?

I am currently researching postings concerning the michelson morley
model.

-/-

the US city replanning programme sounds interesting. Bound to be linked to the case.
The people may have moved underground or perhaps they have all just been arrested and sit in prisons across the usa.

either way, this actually sounds like a cover for the soft michigan operation, now most likely expanded from the 31st state to the ring of activity we identified in the north-eastern donut area. The project would seem to be going live now (interestingly just as the beards touched down on the uk festival circuit and BSS begin their us/canada tour - all beyond coincidence, no doubt). Perhaps the project has reached the stage where it can no longer be kept from public view, so some 'official explanation' of a replanning programme is required to cover up for noticeable activity.

i believe i may have major findings from whitby[boat] in East Cleveland this weekend, including a brazenly open UK operational centre and much photographic evidence. will write up later.

Considering other aspects of the case, I am anticipating lone wolf's imminent contact on 'Regan's dalliance with the Fix'.

-/-

following report is assembled from what is left of notes on Regan interview/journey. Originals have been lost/disappeared, anything not retained on reporters body has been *compromised*. Laptop frozen and pens hard to find. Strange. The reporter when writing this selection is not aware of the ongoing investigations on the part of The Three.

Fear and Boating in the Wolds.

Following the botched attempt to find Regan's abode, I'm stuck in Wolds village Inn trying to plan for the next two days. After soft drink option was followed in trying to fall in to locals favour Hexx was sought from bar...duly rendered much of the afternoon/evening incomprehensible. Did manage to drop into semi-understandable conversation with a man name Nelson Parks. He has was of an inditerminate age, somewhere beyond middle age, but unable to ascertain fully due to the obvious ravages of drink and time. Older than seemed, the eyes and faculties seemed to be pin sharp. Insistent. Conversation rambled, but some nuggets did appear, though veiled by the fog of Hexx and locally micro-brewed ales, things didn't take much shape. [at this stage notes were taken and during one extended toilet break, Mr Parks filled a notebook with complex diagrams and maps with statements, all seemed interlinked, but protracted discussion failed to illuminate further. this notebook is now disappeared/lost presumed destroyed - more info to follow].

Suffice, the journey looked doomed to nothing. However, through Parks there were two strong leads.

1. The second day of the Wolds stay coincided with the Open Gardens of the village. Mainly the opportunity to view a series of disgustingly rich people opulent rear vistas. Koi ponds, faux stone minorets, formal hedge work and electronically rotated summer houses synced to the rotation of the sun. However, after garden 'J', Parks suggested a detour. Across the main street lay a stile and narrow grassed area sandwiched between two high sandstone walls, leading toward seemingly solid hedge and bracken. Once the 50 yards of long grass had been traversed it became clear there was a small route through the overgrowth. Pushing through led to a small gravel path that led a short way toward a clump of trees - mainly Ash and silver Birch - the high stone walls ran along to the trees ahead and overgrown foliage seemed wild and free to block light [almost like the 'wild' climbers ahd been encouraged up the walls] nothing looked to have distrurbed the area in a while, but the path seemed maintained. Once we arrived at the trees the path abrupty ended with no suggested path, but there seemed to be the remains of a series of paths through the knotty grass and weed. With an approximate left or righ choice I looked at Parks and he shrugged, 'You pick' he offered. I went right and headed toward what seemed the most easily reachable route around the trees. 'this is the only thing Regan left...they won't want you to see this...it won't make any sense though.' Parks was being wilfully confusing, but at the same time shed enogh light on where we were. At least there seemed to be a point to it.

Either direction led to freedom from the walls and foliage, but immininent daylight seemed likely on my desired route. Eventually I found myself with Parks some several wheezy steps behind, at the top of a slight incline toward a relatively sized field. The wind blew patterns across the grass and the vague signs of paths through the grass led toward a series of structures. Small and almost lost in the grass, there seemed to be around 8 or 9 of them arranged in what looked like 5 'areas' - delineated by shakily constructed stone boundaries. I could swear it looked familiar...like a scale model of the Great Lakes. I trudged through the grass to each structure and found them to be either old bee hives or what looked like the homes for pigs you see on farms along the roads in this part of yorkshire. all where empty and seemed to have been emptied with the intention of something to be eventually housed in them. One had a rough construction that looked to be intended to use water to power a turntable [this is my assumption]. In the grass it was hard to discern whether the grass had originally been kept short to go with the landscaping. But it does seem that whoever was meant to be here had to choose there own path, their own 'path of desire'. Before wandering back to the path and the village I tried one last hive, it had the phrase 'This is what you look for' scrawled on the side, but inside there was nothing.

2. Nelson Parks had further revelations on the final evening of my stay, as he revealed more on Regan's whereabouts. The village line seems to be that Regan has a residence - alluded to as Wooly Knoll - and is rarely here. Parks has a different take, and though this is his own version, there seems to be a veracity to his information. The sharpness of his prescence and the insistence of his discussion...seems trustworthy. either that, or he's looking for a juicy kickback...not sure how. The tale is that Regan did indeed have a getaway in the village, well, on the outskirts, but was regualrly in residence. Until 5 maybe 6 years ago, when his crashed car was discovered on one of the lanes. Regan was never found. He disappeared...

Additionally Parks seems to spell it Reagon. He never explained why. He also referred to Reagon/Regan as 'Surly Early' due to his demeanour...

Draw your conlusions.

>> Current status of Lone wolf: trying to get re-sketches of remembered visuals of reporters notebook. It seems Hexx has blanked his recollections of the specifics <<

-/-

info on the Droitwitch Fix.

origins of the word Droitwitch...

seems to be an amalgam of Adroit and Witch. Must've distilled from the two seperate words to A droitwitch and then dropped the A, so make Droitwitch on it'd own. We all know what the Witch bit means, but here's some basic info on Adroit 'from fav online wiktionary';

Adroitness

Social Adroitness is a personality trait measured in the Jackson Personality Inventory [1].
It assesses the ability to manipulate your own behavior in order to get what you want from others. It differs from psychopathy in that the adroitness is not intrinsically narcissistic or manipulative, but refers rather to the set of social skills that allow one to work with others prodictively. In that sense it is closeley related to conceptions of emotional intelligence.
Tools of adroit behavior include flattery, indirection, listening, circumspection, reciprocal altruism, politeness and strategic reasoning.
Example behaviors associated with adroitness include:

* The ability to pretend to enjoy things which you dislike when it suits the individual's purpose.
* Changing the way you act to satisfy a person with whom you are dealing.
* Holding feelings in check if they might interfere with getting what you want from someone.
* Trying to appear less informed then you actually are.
* An ability to get the most out of people.
* Enjoying being nice to others.
* Changing others behaviour, without letting them know why or even that you are doing it.
*

My reasoning is that it must have been applied to a female demonstrating one or more of the above traits - most likely derogatorily - and has then somehow become woven into the further investigation highlighted by yr good selves.

as far as i know is no known link to Droitwich the place.

-/-

"Changing others behaviour, without letting them know why or even that
you are doing it." This sounds like a classic obfuscationist and
manipulativist trick straight from the marketing department. Your
supposition that it was a female using this technique suggests
Costa/Cortez to me. The wolf in sheepswool clothing. But then, Parrish
has been demonstrated also to have been involved in marketing with the
military. Whether two people or one, the MO is the same, TBS.

The walk in the woods is fascinating and timeous. The message was what
you found in the beehive; nothing more than the message. the message
was what you sought...
The message is the honey and the bee.

The collection of floral fabrics by cargo cult road trips suggests to me
the collection of nectar (and unintentionally, pollen) by bees, for
transformation into honey back in the michigan hive. To feed new bees.

But who is the Queen bee? Perhaps one of the adroit witches is a second
queen, in which case, where has the swarm accompanied her to, in its
search for a second hive?

-/-

'the medium is the message', as in the phrase coined by Marshall McLuhan meaning that the form of a medium embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived. The phrase was introduced in his most widely known book, Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man, published in 1964.[1] McLuhan proposes that media itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study. He said that a medium affects the society in which it plays a role not only by the content delivered over the medium, but also by the characteristics of the medium itself.

the bee/swarm/hive analogy is fascinating. as is the fact these hives/pig huts were empty in their core. it would seems that whatever it is that lone wolf and nelson came across, donut law would apply. indeed the quality of adroitness would seem to be fairly machiavellian and indeed within the MO of the Obfuscationists.

I am not entirely sure how it all links in, particularly the witches and the wicks, though E H Gombrich once said "Anyone who can handle a needle convincingly can make us see a thread which is not there". However, we would seem to be dealing with something which applies this theory in the opposite manner - something which is there but we can't see it. Perhaps writing up my findings from east cleveland would help to provide another aspect on the case.

-/-

Whitby Discovery

See photos attached for evidence discussed in this message.

Investigations in the Whitby region of East Cleveland UK have yielded vital clues and possible heavyweight evidence relating to the case. A task force was dispatched there by myself on a hunch while looking for Dan Stairs' presence in East Cleveland Ohio, USA. While reserching the US East Cleveland in Ohio, I came across various mentions of Whitby in East Cleveland UK. The town's name rang bells in the investigative chambers of my brain due to its similarity to the name of the WhitbyBoat company first identified in Michigan in the early days of this case. My hunch proved to be correct and the team returned with ample evidence of activity in the town. Here one of the team recount their experience first hand.

A handwritten cardboard sign was found situated on the lower step of a building entrance which opened onto a busy shopping street. The sign read 'part-time sales assistant wanted - must be a knitter - apply within'. This immediately struck me as pertinent to the case. I was tempted to go inside and apply for the job myself, to test the reaction of the staff already present, but my lack of knitting knowledge would have been a dea giveaway, so I settled for the covert approach, secretly photographing evidence whenever I got the chance.

Further up the steps were two permanent signs which read 'wool' and 'crafts'. Alarm bells were ringing in my ears as well as my brain by now. These permanent signs indicated to me that the building is being/has been used for woolcraft purposes for a long period. The handwritten sign is obviously temporary and can put on show or hidden away at a moments notice, allowing the group operating from within stractegic options as to when to advertise for 'help'.

More handwritten signage covered the walls of the corridoor so I walked in to take a look and found another handwritten sign, this time for 'Bobbins Postal Service'. The sign described a 'british wools yorkshire service' which can, and does, 'post wools, kits and exclusive design (in denim) all over the world'. The global aspect of their contact details suggests they are by no means an isolated operation and are in touch with other groups and/or indivuals potentially spanning the entire globe. Another sign, this one painted on a wooden A-board, showed that their output was not limited to deniim, with pure wools, aran and rowan yarn all represented.

A quick flick through a pile of second hand paperback books sat on a bench in the entrance corridoor revealed a book called 'warrimoo' by a Mary Patchett. The author's name struck me in its similarity to Melinda Packett, possibly an early version of the alias, or even inspiration for it, though this could just be coincidence. I cannot recall the subject matter of the book.

Stepping back outside the building in to the street (I noticed I was drawing attention to myself hanging around in the corridoor with camera being swivelled and pointed at every sign in sight and feared my intentions may be about to be discovered) I looked up to see a large model of a ball of wool with a pair of knitting needlers crossed through it, hanging above the doorway like a chandelier. The structure was pretty big and I was surprised not to have spotted it on my way in. My guess is it is the craft circle's emblem used to identify themselves to others. A hand-drawn image of he same structure appeared on a poster in the shop next door to the craft centre circled by the words 'Knit Happens In Whitby', which by now was sounding like an understatement to this investigator. It advertised a meeting for a 'newly established craft circle' to which 'all members were welcome'. Unfortunately, this is not occuring until the end of the month and it is unlikely we will have any agents in the area to attend. I can only surmise that the operation is being expanded in the aera, hence the need for new recruits. I wonder if the timing of the expansion relates to the beards presence on the UK festival circuit in any way. Incidentally, the shop this advert was placed in is called 'The Shepherd's Purse' which brings to my mind Regan's quote about the relative riches of the shepherd and the banker noted earlier in the case.

The other piece of possible evidence discovered was an advert placed in the window of a disused shopspace (opposite the Shepherd's Purse) which mentioned a 'cargo shed relocation presentation' something which sounds vague but ominous. Could be related to shipping cargo out of whitby to elsewhere, or the relocation of sheds (or other buildings) possibly mirroring the Michigan housing re-plan.

I have listed much evidence here but little theory. I shall tackle the evidence in this manner presently.

-/-

Whitby Analysis

The first thing I must focus on is the ball of wool and crossed needle motif the Bobbins group are using. It seems very similar to the marks of crossed needles made on the great lake cave paintings found in Lima by EPPS, as described by Safelight. This cross motif is the opposite of the rings found drawn around the great lakes on the wallmap of the military man who Phipps (the woodland ranger in Maryland) had contact with. This leads me to conclude that there are definitely military and counter-culture operations active in the same field - the military using the circle as their power symbol, and the underground group using the crossed needles as theirs. So, we are dealing with a game of noughts and crosses. As is known by anybody who has played the game, the centrespot is by far the most effective position to hold on the grid; without taking control of this spot, the game is almost lost by default. In our investigation, any form of midpoint seems to be empty. I do not know what this means, so draw your own conclusion. One thought occurs to me - if the military are aligned with the circular sumbol, it seems likely that closed-loop production methods are the realm of the military, not the counter culture. This seems all the more probable due to the amount of resources the military has compared to the likely resources of any kind of underground operation.

The existence of the Whitby group could well explain Regan's presence in the Wolds. My guess is that the Bobbins operation is being bankrolled by Kozyra and Reagan is there to oversee operations. A further guess is that the Whitby location was selected as a UK site due to the similarity of the name to Whitby Boat co. Searly is the most likely candidate to have chosen the spot, I would imagine. Whitby is also a harbour town, and with boats and water having much to do with the case this would seem to be a key feature of most locations. The water/boating savvy group no doubt chose the place as it provided a means to ship goods out to sea privately, avoiding official border crossing points. The synchronicity of the town's name providing confirmation that is was the right choice for the group to run an operation from.

Bobbins co. are no doubt shipping stuff to USA and also recruiting other craft circles in some global craftweb. It is highly possible that new recruits do not know the intended purpose of what they are making, knitting purely for pleasure or for social reasons. My guess is that only a few top brass in the organisation know the true agenda. The most likely suspects for this are Searly, Reagan, Costa, Kozyra, Meldoy Nelson, Melinda Packett, Cate, Grant, De Leon and Vandeloo. Some of these names may be aliases for the same person, but further research is required to confirm this.

-/-

case notes follow from earlier this week to present day.

5.05pm-6pm
Walked past campervan glimpsing pair of people at modern camper van
following mountain walk. the pair I met a while back - barworker singer
songwriter and boyfriend on the run. She was in an orange floral
bandana so I knew it was her. I say hi and walk on. don't think they
recognise me in daylight. few mins down the road they catch me up in
the van and offer me lift. I climb in on passenger side next to her.
he drives. he does more of the talking but both friendly and hip. a
hot day. i'm all sweaty in unbuttoned colourful cotton shirt. They're
camping at site on my route so I skip bus stop and stick with them to
their campsite track end. (they've got one small tent they say,
surrounded in multi-room canvas affairs of others. but they have the
van as well. they were living in countryside near halifax (n.s. or
w.y.) but she has a family static or somesuch permanently located at
whitby n.y. since childhood. she knows whitby well. as we move towards
drop-off, one of this year's lambs lies in road, other sheep near - they
fear it's dead; stop van. I get out to shift it and it hops off from a
lazy doze. we're all glad. they give me a twinkle and nice to see and
I'm away. on foot. past 3 guys i know sheering sdheep in the sunshine.
I hadn't talked boston mass lyrics with her. just soaked up the
vibrations. thoughts following on from wolds incident: bees pass on
pollen without knowing it. just from sitting next to each other.
especially in floral print.

today: 5.10pm-present time
my man(actually a female, but a good supplier of information kicks)
tells me there is a sale on at the record shak. this place is no
picnic. no ordinary second hand joint. if records were alive and this
was a petshop it would have been closed down long ago for mistreatment,
one suspects. boxes and crates of vinyl holding vinyl holding vinyl in
leaning towers. no passing room along the randomly formed aisles and
machete paths in what is only a small room to begin with. god knows
what the BACK ROOM situation is like. but the man he has a system. he
can find stuff in there., he knows which hamster is in which cage and
how to get at it... a one in one out customer system is in voluntary
operation.
so... a sudden sale. half price i now find out. message from my man is
that if i get a list to her partner's account they will collect the
merchandise and deliver saturday. today is thursday.

just off fatpipe. my man she is with chocolate and wine at half ten,
awaiting order. skip straight to her address now for quicker purchase
of goods tomorrow pre 6am cheap ticket north... i now leave notes
quickly to put together a wishlist and mail to gmail.

quick thoughts on latest notes though.

yes. the cross needles are now a world wide phenonemon, it is evident.
i know shepherds purse myself and have contacts near there. i'm sure i
used to hit it for tvp.

more soon.

-/-

on suchnsuchaday, someone said:
As is known by anybody who has played the game, the centrespot is by far
the most effective position to hold on the grid; without taking control
of this spot, the game is almost lost by default. In our investigation,
any form of midpoint seems to be empty. I do not know what this means,
so draw your own conclusion.

I draw your attention to certain remarks made by a mister 'no'min'
mailler, from field studies of jungle warfare and comparison with
revolutionary chess tactics of the 60s/70s. avoid the centre spot. let
the man hit you against the ropes. get yr man to make sure the ropes
are nice n loose. n bounce on them to soak up the blows. that is a way
to win. skirt around the outskirts. keep out of the middle ground.
the empty centre, man, the empty centre...

-/-

the circle is a ring avoiding the middle, the X is a crosshair upon the
middle. but then the X deletes, the ring highlights. could read either
of them either way. the centre could be land - the ring of coastal zone
could be the fringe donut. or the centre could be an ocean and the
donut the ring of land... in the late 80s/early nineties a whitby
schooner illegally travelled to iceland and perhaps beyond, and is now
an object of folklore. i forget it's name. but i bet it was something
woolly...

-/-

this investigator reports: That wickerwork ball of wool is spooking
me. that whole back alley scene in the whitby I know and love is
suddenly giving me shivers like its something from the wickerman. that
quickly-removable knitter wanted advert gives me the jitters more than
anything. Something I can't identify quite... I mean, who are these
people? I am sitting here in my caseroom with a mug of wine pondering
frictions and situations and events in some order... I will tell what I
can:
My comrade identifies a certain episode of a certain nineteen seventies
show entitled 'the ojuka situation' which involves geoffrey palmer as a
bad guy in a grey suit with a grey mood.
The michelson morley thing: in a certain science periodical online
resource, a posting was placed on a registered-users-only section,
entitled 'failings of the michelson-morley model'. It attacked the
michelson morley model (cf. luminiferous aether theory circa 1890-1920?)
on two main fronts - the first being the theory that light slows down
when it is, or its effects are, being observed, such that measuring
speed of light waves at differing angles of movement within the aether
will not necessarily reveal much as the light will behave differently
under observation compared to unobserved. Anyway, the real mystery is
the response to this posting, which was posted a few days later under
the name 'michelson morley'.
I will return to the whitby area, all being well, a week saturday.
My email order to my man in edinburgh did not reach. I had to chase
up the order by phone. If melody reaches me I will let all parties
know, and glean what I can.

transmission ends. Refil mug. restroom, then plunge in nearby loch
circa 17 degrees C at dusky 11pm. Pearl jam just fades out. I am not a
knitter so cannot apply. I may go in as a crocheter. offer them an
alternative take. One hook instead of two sticks. I am sure there is a
fair haired girl in flkoral cottons in a recess of a whitby arcade
called something like ... sympathy, or sky, waiting with a consignment
of silks or angora. I will investigate...

-/-

The following is taken from a 'societies guide' I have just acquired...

Knitting Society

The Knottingham Trent Knit Society is made up of students that have a similar interest in knitting, whether it be traditional or contemporary. Our group meets once a week at a variety of pubs and cafes around Nottingham.

People of all abilities are welcome to come along to hand knit, crochet and chat. Even if you are a beginner and have never picked up a pair of knitting needles before, there are plenty of easy-to-learn skills and techniques we are happy to teach you.

There are lots of events to get involved with in the new term, including workshops with a Knitting Guru in John Lewis and a trip to the Knitting and Stitching show in Dublin. In the second term of last year we went on a trip to Paris to see Sonia Rykiel’s 50th Anniversary exhibition as well as to see the sights and experience the nightlife. We hope to have another trip to Europe this year. We have loads of books, magazines, patterns, wool and needles to get beginners started and old-time knitters inspired.

We have a variety of members from all sorts of courses, not just Art & Design, so don’t feel you have to know a thing about knitting to join. Just come along and have fun

-/-
You know what you must do…

Knitting night life. What a coven of strangeness awaits. Investigate, but keep ready for a hasty getaway. We can’t afford to lose you into soft nottingham.

-/-

yes, unfortunately I fear that the case may well be closed by the time this society regroups for its next meeting [due sometime in october]. However, in the meantime I could go to John Lewis and enquire about the 'knitting guru'. Could be Jason Kendricks, speedknitter, or at least one of his ilk. Or perhaps the man in question is Searly himself, hiding away in the backroom of a soft furnishing department store. I somehow feel that isn't his style though.

-/-

right. back in case room.

I am intrigued by the identity of the knitter Sonia Rykiel, who your
group met in Paris. I wonder if she is an associate of Paul Kosyra from
the Minsk days. Perhaps she was in Paris on geo-beacon work at the
eiffel tower. I recall hitting the left bank crepe scene at 11pm one
week in February 2000, I think it was, and sniffing out the avant garde
borgeouis scene in old churches and alleys. I ordered some suzettes.
Do you know what my main thought of Paris was? Shall I tell you? I
thought: this is like Whitby, only without the chips...

On that basis alone I prefered Whitby. Nothing beats warm greasy chips.
Although the Sacre Coeur had something to it in the evening sun over
the red light district of Montmartres which isn't equalled by the Abbey
or the East Cliff. The East cliff has its own magic though, over at the
funfair above the khyber pass in august... Under the whale's jaw...

I shall research Sonia and see what I can drag up.