Long Floats

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 de-tuning 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 gleaned 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.

...And The Tailoring Done

Examinations of the dreamworld are always of value, even if not of intended value. Insights 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 1994 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 further conclusions. Of course, as discussed 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.

Urge For Going

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 mixtapes 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.

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...

The Needle...

The Needle and the Tailoring Done

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.

All American Smile

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 people 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-minute megamix 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 Zac Happy made his amorous approach. At this time, I have no further thoughts, but realise I have forgotten to mention one thing of note - 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?