Morning Star

 

아래의 글이 미국서 사는 4살짜리 아들을 20대후반의 여성팬이 쓴거란걸 감안하면
공감이  안 가는 부분도 많지만 팬이라면 고개를 끄떡이게 만드는 부분도 있다.

■  보라색으로 된 글은 나의 경우.

 You know you're obsessed with AFI when:

-You wake up thinking about AFI.
-You go to sleep thinking about AFI.
-You dream about AFI QUITE frequently.
-You talk about AFI more than anything else.
-People who barely know you know that you like AFI.

따로 사용하는 블로그가 있는데 거기다 AFI관련 포스트를 여러개 작성한 덕분에 방문하는 분들은 내가 AFI팬인걸 알고 있다.주변의 가까운 사람들은 내가 뭘 좋아하던 그리 관심이 없다. 내친구는 알고 좋아하는 밴드라는건 아는데, 이름은 가물가물해함.
-You already have or have ordered tickets to FIVE AFI shows all taking place this summer & hope to get tickets to at least two more shows.

미국팬이 아니라 하나도 없다. 눈물남. T.T
-You are driving several hours to JERSEY (even though you can't stand driving there & Jersey generally frightens you & makes you uncomfortable) to see AFI play for about a half hour at a Festival when you hate festivals. And you only like two of the other bands playing.
-You have sold half your cd/dvd collection to buy all of those tickets ^.

시디를 70장정도 판적은 있지만 그땐 AFI를 몰랐으니 그때문은 아니고 돈이 궁해서...
-You've considered the following options to come up with the $ for the two shows in Canada: Becoming a Stripper. Robbing a bank. (You're not completely sure you're kidding about the first one & that worries you).
-You wish you weren't an adult so that you didn't have responsibilities so you could just follow AFI around the world.
-You have more pictures in your room of AFI than you do of all of the pictures of your family combined.

벽에 뭘 붙이면 집에서 혼남.
-You continue to buy AFI posters even though you have no free wall space to put them.

위와 같은 이유로 포스터를 사는 일은 없고, 여긴 미국이 아니라 포스터 구하기 쉽지않다. 소장한 포스터라면 DVD살때 인터펑크에서 준 대형포스터가 있다.그리고 DF회원용 포스터랑.
-All of your AFI posters/photos are framed and none of the ones of your family are.

액자에 넣진 않겠지만 해상도 높은 이미지를 얻었으므로 그걸 인화해볼 계획. 우리집은 가족사진 들어간 액자도 없다. 위에껀 예전 대답이고 지금은 몇장 현상해봤다.AFI보다는 Jared Leto 사진 인화한게 더 많다.
-You spend more time on the AFI message boards than...anywhere.

요즘 많이 간다. 앨범 나올때가 되다보니 새소식이 마구 쏟아져 나와서 그거 볼려고 간다. 2008년 현재 소식이 뜸해서 잘 안간다. EP만 기다리고 있음.

-You post a Myspace bulletin AND a blog evertime you get new information about Decemberunderground.

마이스페이스는 그냥 밴드소식 및 밴드랑 친구맺기위한 용도 이기때문에 따로 글 안온린다.
-There is more stuff in your profile about AFI then there is about yourself.

AFI만 더 할애해서 집어넣은건 없고, 영어가 잘 안되서 사실 쓴게 없다.그래도 최근에 Decemberunderground의 카운트다운 배너를 달았다.새 앨범 나오면 다시 꾸밀생각.
-You have made some good friends that you would have never connected with if it weren't for AFI.

주변에 AFI를 좋아하는 사람이 없다. 팬들끼리 교류를 하자면 외국팬들과 교류해야하는데 결정적으로 영어가 딸린다.
-AFI are ..1 in your top 8.

이건 동감. ^^
-You are a member of the DF.

가입한지 좀 됐다. 회원 카드 볼때마다 뿌듯.
항상 지갑에 넣고 다닌다.
아시아는 너무 극소수의 팬들만 존재해서 아쉽다.

-The DF is ..2 in your top 8.

가입 안했기때문에 ......DF마이스페이스 친구신청했는데 짤린듯. 이유는 모름.
-You know all about Charlotte, Catherine, Georgia, Julian & Hector.

최근에 막연하게나마 알았는데, 자세히는 모르겠다.
얘네는 뭔 미스테리한게 그리 많은지... 골치 아파 포기했다.
-^They are also in your top 8. So is Apple.
몰라서 친구신청도 안 했다.

-You are in the top 8 of Julian & Catherine. Wich you find very flattering. It also amuses you that you are ..7...
-Because you know that the "answer is 7".
-Your mom & sisters are even MORE excited than you are that you're ..7 in their top 8.
-Because they know all about the "mystery" too.
-Your mom has spent HOURS with you learning about the mystery & trying to help you figure it out.
-^She has called you at 12:30 am to discuss the mystery.
-Your roomate who isn't a fan stops in the middle of band practice & helps you record & reverse Charlottes answering machine message so you can try to decipher it.
-You have searched for the Five Flowers.
-Your 15 year old sister is almost as obsessed as you are.
-Your mom has said "You've got me addicted to AFI".
-^She tells you what to say in "ask AFI".

ask AFI란....

공식홈포럼에 가면 Despair Faction멤버들만 들어갈수 있는 게시판이 세개있는데, 그중하나가 ask AFI. 팬들이 뭔가 물어보면 멤버들이 답변을 해준다고 함. 2008년 현재 ASk AFI는 별건 아니고, 가끔 데이비가 짬날때 기분내키는대로 골라서 답변해줌.
답변 엄청 짧다.
-Your 13 year old sister who only likes POP thinks AFI are "ok".

글쓴 사람이 동생을 세뇌시켰나보다. 난 내가 좋아하는걸 남에게 강요하지 않는다.
-Your mom interprets the songs with you.
-Everyone close to you knows the lyrics to most of the songs beacuase you rarely listen to anything else.
-Your 5 year old son does AFI chants completely randomly. Even in the shower.
-^He knows all of the members names & their place in the band.

아니 아들한테까지...-.- 엄마가 얼마나 AFI AFI 했으면 그 어린것이 멤버이름까지 알정도냐. 난 강요를 안하기때문에...결정적으로 아들도 없다.
-He asks you to play Rabbits are Roadkill...repeatedly...because it's his favorite song.
-^He draws you pictures of AFI.
-You have every AFI cd ever released.

지금 현재 가지고 있는 시디는 첫번째 앨범과 A FIRE INSIDE EP빼놓고
정규앨범은 다 가지고 있다.  예전앨범들은 SecondSpin에서 거의 중고로 구입했다.
올드앨범중 Hollows EP만 새걸로 갖고 있음. Decemberunderground앨범은
두장 가지고 있는데, 하나는 USA,다른하나는 일본반.
LP나 싱글은 거의 없다. 다만 PIcture디스크 하나랑 앨범 주문시 타워에서 공짜로 껴준 싱글이 있긴하다.
-Even the singles.

싱글 구할려면 이베이 밖에 방법이 없는데 싱글까지 챙길 여유가 없다.
-You have them all on vinyl.

vinyl 역시 마찬가지.
-You even have the singles on vinyl.
-You have SIX different versions of STS.

나한텐 불가능. 이번 Decemberunderground는 두가지 버젼정도 가지고 있다.
-You have watched Clandestine more times than any other film in existance.
youtube에 있는거 한번 밖에 안 봤다. DVd자체도 안고 있기때문에....
-You've not only seen "Live Freaky! Die Freaky!"... you own a copy.

이 애니메이션 트레일러만 봤는데 잼없게 생겨서 볼 맘도 안생김.
여러 펑크밴드 멤버들이 목소리 참여를 했는데,의문점은 왜 아시아 아르젠토가
어떻게 참여하게 됐는지가 궁금.
-You have so much AFI merch that you couldn't possibly count it.

2008년 현재 티셔츠 한장 있다. 새그려져 있는거. 미국에다 주문한건데,
알아보니 아이웨어뮤직에서도 수입한 티셔츠였다. T.T
그리고 쬐그만 뱃지 2개 있다.

-You wear at least one piece of AFI merch daily.
티셔츠는 거의 안 입고 DF회원용 티셔츠는 여름에 아주 가끔 입었다.

-You have made DIY AFI merch.

감히 생각도 못  해봤음. 손재주가 없어서....
-Complete strangers ask you about AFI or the DF.
-You have made/posted flyers for Decemberundrground. And for STS back when it came out.
-You started calling radio stations a month early requesting Miss Murder.
-You still request it sereral times a day.

Kroq사이트 가서 몇번 리퀘스트 해봤음. 방법이 너무 쉬워서...따로 이멜적고 그런것도 없으니....
-The DJ sent you a personal email to let you know that they were finally adding it to their playlist.
-You care about AFI & their "Family" as if they were your own family.

그렇진 않고....
-You actually like them better/care about them more than some of your real family.
-You were genuinely upset when you heard that Smith was hit by a truck.

그런일 있었는지도 몰랐다. 참고로 스미스는 AFI투어매니저이면서 Jade랑 형제. 동생인지 형인지 모르겠는데, 어디서 보니 동생이라고...보기엔 Jade보다 더 삭아보이던데....
-You were very relieved that he was ok. 다행이지 지금 펄펄 날아다님.
-Theory is your new favorite person.

Theory는 AFI사이트의 새로운 웹마스터.
마이스페이스와 게시판에 새로운 소식들을 올려준다. 그런데 별 관심없다.
-You know more about the band members than you do about most of your friends.

글쎄, 멤버들의 사생활은 잘 모르지만 그래도 팬블로그,팬사이트 여기저기 돌아다녔기때문에 대충 어느정도는 알고 있다. 별 괴상한 루머까지 다 접해 봤다.
루머에 대해선 초월했다.
-You refuse to discuss their personal lives because you completely respect their privacy.

사생활 얘기를 접하면 재밌기도 하고 호기심도 생기고 그러지만 너무 깊이 알아서 뭐하나하는 생각이들어 별 생각이 없다.

본의 아니게 별 희한한 소문은 다 접해봤는데, 진짜 라는 얘기도 있어서...너무너무 황당. 어느정도 19금이라 언급을 안 하겠음.난 뭐 그러려니 한다.

그리고 짚고 넘어갈 꺼. AFI멤버들은 게이설이 끊이질 않는데, 특히 Davey.
본인이 직접 해명한 적이 한 번도 없다. 인터뷰를 접해보면 다만 그것에 대해굉장히 지겨워하고 과히 좋게 생각하진 않음. 인터뷰어나 팬이 물어봐도 왜 그것에 대해 내가 굳이 책임지고 해명해야 하냐는 식. 해명 할 필요성을 못 느낌.

그리고 게이루머에 대한 해명은 Jade가 예전에 구 게시판에다 한적이 있다고 한다.

AFI공식포럼의 FAQ를 보면 알수 있는데, 내용은 멤버중에 게이 혹은 바이는 한명도 없다는 것.  
예전에는 제이드랑 데이비가 사귄다는 소문도 있었나본데, 지금은 거의 쏙 들어간 루머.
제이드는 멜리사라는 약혼녀가 있고, 데이비는 아직도  그 여친 계속 사귀는지는 모르겠지만.... 여친하고 찍은 사진 봤다. 사생활이라 여기다는 안 올리지만,
버즈넷 같은데 뒤지면 나온다.

-You know about Hunter Revenge & that Hunters is and always will be cooler than Prince.

들어봤는데, 좀 놀랬음. 음악이 AFI랑 완전 딴판이다. 프린스 스타일이라.. 음...

어쨌든, 소울, 펑키한 음악이라는 것.


-You know that Adam is a Pirate.
-You know that Jade is a Ninja.
-You know that Davey is God.
-You consider the DF your religion.
-AFI has saved your life in some way.
-You don't care if you're obsessed because AFI make you happy & probably keep you sane.
-Your certain that you couln't exist without AFI.
-You know that there are endless other things to add to this list but that you already look insane...
-You know what "Gliterboy" is. 데이비가 때려 친지 오래.
-You own Glitterboy clothing and accessories.
-You're upset that it ^ got cancelled.
-You're looking forward to Daveys' new clothing line it 2007.
아직 소식 없음 할 예정이란 얘기만 있고....
-You check out bands you haven't heard just because AFI have mentioned liking them & they have turned you on to some really great music.
AFI가 듣는 밴드중에 체크한적은 없고, 나도 아는 밴드가 대부분이라 따로 체크하진 않았음. 그런데, 친분있는 밴드들은 체크했다.
지금은 해체한 Eighteen Visions, Take The Crown, Tiger Army,Bleeding Through,Dear And Departed.
-"Easy Bake Oven" makes you think of AFI & laugh.
-Whever you see a pink flamingo you think of Davey.
-You have all of their videos downloaded & as many interviews as you can find. (Thank you AFI series!).
에이에프아이 시리즈 그 사이트 도움을 받아 엄청 받았는데, 회원또 짤림.
이번에는 좀 까다로와서 자료실쪽 로그인 하기 쉽지 않다.
자료실 이용 할수 있는회원을 잠시 안 받는거 같다.
원래는 웬만하면 다 받아줬는데, 자료유출이 심해서 막은듯.

-You are willing to send AFI merch to friends in other countries without making them pay for any of it...just because you feel bad that they can't get any of it where they live & AFI will probably never play there.
-If you ever meet AFI you will suggest that they play in your friends country even though it probably won't do any good.

337 Mystery
The best way I know how to introduce this is by bringing up the Reiver's Music/Now The World Picture disc that was released in late 2002/early 2003. It was available at Hot Topic, so I managed to get a copy ahead of time. I had been lurking on the AFI board for about 6 months or so (I was too intimidated to post!). I distinctly remember the discussion about this record and something about Gavin (AFI Board Webmaster Extraordinaire) saying it was "336," first introducing us to this weird....number.

This eventually led to either Gavin or a band member saying that the next step was "337" or something like that. (Hey, it's been over 3 years. A lot of shit has happened. Cut me some slack.) This led all of us on the A.F.I. to begin to obsess about this obscure reference. My friend Daniel (astateofaffair1), myself, and a few other kids spent an entire night researching numerology after the board went down and Gavin linked us to a site about numerology. This, in turn, led to about 234,273,123,086 theories about what this all meant, including shit about reincarnation, how Sing The Sorrow was an out-of-order concept album about Davey's death, and other random (and nonsensical) ramblings. A lot of us thought we had it all figured out.

Then AFI releases Clandestine and makes all of us scratch our heads. I'm not gonna link it here; you can find it on YouTube if you so desire. It was a short movie starring the band, Gavin, and a bunch of DF members. It involved a black box with the STS leaf stenciled in red on the lid, a rabbit, an old pocketwatch, the number 3, 37, 333, and 3:36. Yeah. No one ever truly figured out what it meant and the ominous ending on the beach didn't help.

Fast forward to modern times....

Big Day Out
Most of us enjoyed the Clandestine/337 mystery because of it's ambiguity and ability to be interpreted as we desired, much like all of A.F.I.'s songs. In addition, the entire search was so incredibly intellectual, something those who know me know I love. I am a nerd. Reading about esoteric numerology is only a joy I understand. But I know I was incredibly bothered that there was no definitive "answer" to the whole thing.

Then Mikey Rhino (AFI family member and Sound Man Extraordinaire) made a strange entry on his Myspace. It read, "2 4 15"and many people tried to guess what it means. Some people assumed it was keyed to the alphabet through an alphanumeric code: i.e.,  2 = B, 4 = D, 15 = O, BDO. This stood for Big Day Out, which was a major show in Australia AFI was supposed to be at but never made it. This gave hints to AFI touring for their new album. After many people guessed what it meant, Mikey replied by saying, "Only one of you was warm like the winters." Great. Now more cryptic shit.

I'll admit, at the beginning, I was a cynic. Part of me was burnt on being so personally involved with the previous "hunt" and getting nothing tangible out of it. I was a freshman in college at the time, so, believe it or not, I had lots of free time to spend researching what technically amounts to a bunch of crap. (Not meant to be an offensive attack!) But now, I was working 45 hours a week; I had just joined Future Primitive and was working on practicing/playing shows; I had no consistent internet connection at home. Plus, I wasn't as amped on being a part of the AFI community as much as I did when I was 19. (That is a completely different and epic story that will be saved for another day.) I still loved the band as much as I did back then (probably more), but you grow out of those things when you're 22 years old and you possess an inherent hatred of Hot Topic. (Not meant to be an offensive attack either!)

And then the shit hit the fan.

One day on the message boards one random user, who has never posted since, made a thread. It said: "Why is my name on the weight of words website?" And it had a link to the weightofwords.com site,  which is now unaccesable. The poster's screen name was "invierno," which meant "winter" in Spanish. Winter was the word that linked Mikey's response to this strange post made by a guy who never posted in his life other than this one time.

In his board profile we found his name to be "Hector Garcia," but that was all. So we go to the website.

All it was was a menu of a restraunt's orders, which was later found out to be a Vegan restraunt that I've seen AFI at 8 or 9 billion times. (Truly Vegan) It had a list of names and their orders. There are five names on this menu and the each ordered something. Those names are:

Charlotte
Hector
Julian
Catherine
Georgia

On the menu, Hector is the first name on the list along with others. There is also latitude and longitude cordinates leading to the Pheonix Theature which is where AFI has had many shows. (I'm pretty sure it's what "Days of The Phoenix" is about.) Charlotte, being a name on the list, ordered the Breakfast of Champions (which is a mighty fine order from Truly Vegan, if you ask me.) This was also the title of the site. The number 17 (which was next to the order name for Breakfast of Champions) was actually a hyperlink; it led you to the new AFI website, which is how we knew charlotte was involved and that this was legitimate. It also had a phone number on the bottom, that when phoned gave you a message. We knew to call it because the number was: 1-337-935-0150. That damn number again. The message was of many people talking over each other; there were two distinct male voices and three distinct female voices. When some people called this number, they got calls back from this number: (000) 012-3456. It was nothing but a looped music track, a mumbling man, a woman counting, and a girl asking questions. I decided to transcribe what was being said:

Woman One: Ready?
Man One: One.
Man Two: Four.
Man One: One.
Woman One: Ready?
One Man Two: 8
Woman Two: 2...1....2
Man One: 0
Woman One: 9. Ready?
Woman Two: 2
Man One: 0
Woman One: What?...
Man Two: 8
Woman One: 9
Woman Two: 4...5
Man One: 1
Woman One: 9
Woman Two: 2
Man One: 0....1
Woman One: 9
Woman Two: 5...4
Man One: 1
Woman One: What?
Man Two: 3
Woman 3:-Ready?

Yeah. Fucking. Weird.

Now, when this message was looked at closer, we realized it was a message. "14, 1, 18, 21, 20, 9, 20, 18, 9, 4, 5, 19, 20, 19, 5, 4, 1, 13." Now, there were a few theories as to what these numbers meant. The actual file used in the message was taken from the Conet site (link please?), but AFI had taken some liberties in switching the numbers around and stretching them out to fit whatever needs they had.

The numbers awere also formatted in the formula of old radio spy codes, in which a number is first used to identify the addressee (which is probably us), and then to denote how many character groups there are following that. (In this case, 11.) When deciphered by an alphanumeric code, (A=1, B=2, etc.) it gave you the word "Narutitridestsedam," which when put into a web address took you to a new site: www.narutitridestsedam.com

Now the meaning of Narutitridestsedam: "Na Ruti tridest sedam" Means "On route 37" which pertains to the song "Rabbits are roadkill on route 37"

When we went to this site there was only a movie. It was of a person's head wrapped in bandages that are slowly unraveled by a mysterious hand. When it's unwrapped, the face is assumed to be Davey's by the lip ring. We see him mouthing words. What they found out was the words uttered by Davey were "Tell", "Charlotte", and "Nothing" which we found out to be Charlotte's Aim screen name: "Charlottenothing" Also at this time, there is a new message when calling charlotte's number. It said:

"Hi, this is Charlotte. If this is Georgia, I've been trying to reach you on I-M but I can't so leave your number so we can talk."

Listen to it here: http://www.gnbn.net/mats/audio/charlotte_georgia.mp3

The point of the video thus far was to get the AIM screen name charlottenothing (which we found out through what Davey was saying in the video as well as the phone message.)

Well days went by and we were without a clue until we got a message sent to us by Charlotte's screen name and it was the same message from Mikey Rhino's Myspace. DUN. DUN. DUN

This was the message sent to us:

"Prononcé comme une lettre
Mais constitué de trois
Elles ne sont que deux lettres
A faire partie de moi
Je suis unique et double
Je suis bleu, noir et gris,
Lisible dans les deux sens
Et la meme dans les deux directions."

It's French. The English translation:

"Pronounce as a letter
But constitutes of three
They are not but two letters to form part of me
I am single and double
I am blue, black and gray
Readable in the two directions
And the same one in the two directions."


Oh silly AFI! It's a riddle. It didn't take long for us to figure it out:  EYE.  So translate that into french, since that's the original language of the riddle, and you get the word unoeil. Put a www. and a .com on it and there you go, a new website to explore.
 
(At the same time, there was a new message on charlotte's answering machine that is now her current message. It is just noises and beeps.)

When you get to the site you find it's close to the other one; small, one window website with a flash display on it. Except this time instead of a movie you get a paragraph slowly being lit up. This is what the paragraph says:

"If you waste this day this pain will not open my eyes to cracked faces. To this nature I won’t deny. Will you believe in a boy hung in your room, cooling from within? I can’t. I just anticipate what awaits...darkness. Oh my beautiful one. I will hold onto your heart as I submerge. I will die drown. There will be no angels. There are no flowers. I’m on display my beloved. I’m on display."

Now I admit, this sounds like a suicide letter or something, but in reality these are just a bunch of davey's lyrics all mixed into one big story. For example,"There will be no angels. There are no Flowers," is from "This Time Imperfect" from Sing the Sorrow. "I just anticipate what awaits..." is part of an ending verse for "No Poetic Device" on Black Sails in the Sunset. And so on and so forth.

Now if you go back and look at the paragraph you notice that you can click on words, and when you scroll your mouse over them some glow and some don't. Misfits69 (Tom)  figured out that if you click on words in a specific order (DON'T, BELIEVE, PAIN) it led to a NEW website:

www.theprocessofseparation.com

The website was like the rest. It was one flash animation but this time it was a movie. A movie played backwards. The movie showed a message on a notepad scribbled out and played backwards. A hand, which is assumed to be Jade's, slowly unscribbles, and unwrites everything. When you get the whole message it says:

"Toronto Star Classified Antiques and Art. Plain Text Run Schedule 21 days. Five Flowers."

At this point, shit was just getting ridiculous. Website after website, riddle after riddle. Where the fuck was this going? Well 21 days on the spot, an ad was ran by someone named Charlotte and it read as such:

"Axis Comics and Records at ( address removed ). Place your orders with joe at (phone number removed)"

The number and address were removed for concealing purposes. Axis Comics and Records is affilated with AFI and confirmed in Sing the Sorrow's thank you credits. Naturally, we AFI fans are quite insane, so we asked Joe all sorts of vague questions about 5 Flowers. He said if we wanted to see the five flowers we would have to go see him in person at the store. At first account many of us thought this may be date rape, but because AFI fans are terribly devoted  we thought visiting the store was actually a lead in this mystery.  Only on the AFI board. The poster Justknish’s uncle was sent in and Joe hooked up a TV for him.

He was shown a DVD which apparently had Hunter from AFI driving through various streets and gave the directions:

Get In Car, Turn Left, Stop, Turn Right, Keep Strait, Turn Right, Dead End, Get Out Walk North, Trough Glass Door, Elevator Basement, Turn Right, Left Up Stairs, Walk In End Of Hall, Trough Door, Up The Stairs, and then Hunter hands you a red apple.

What the fuck? We spent some time researching through MapQuest and Google maps, seeing if these physical directions led us anywhere, but all to know avail. We felt that we were finally stumped.

About this time, Charlottenothing's Away Message said, "Myspacing," which led us to find her MySpace profile, which proved later to be a clue.

When we went to Charlotte's MySpace we found it to be like an ordinary profile. There are a few important factors to note here however:

-Her main picture was of a snowy, apparently dead tree
-Her caption read, "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."
-The caption of her only picture of the tree read, "Avenues lined with trees, strangled words for the day"
-She had one friend who was known as "Apple."

With that last note, you remember that Hunter was holding an Apple at the end of the Five Flowers DVD, so you go to click on Apple's myspace. ( Apple's Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/apple) You see a myspace at first until it quickly loads to another site.

www.theinterviewwitness.com

This site leads you to a movie like the rest. The movie starts off with someone sitting in a chair with a white bag over his head. There were blood-stained clothes hanging up on clotheslines and what appears to be rabbit skins. The person sitting with a white cloth over his head, who was recognized to be Adam by the tattoos on his arm, also had five flowers in his hand. The movie itself first hinted us to the idea of "The Five Flowers" being an actual clue, not just something Joe from Axis Comics referenced. However, in the background of the video, there are weird noises (something myself and other kids recognized as reversed music/words). When you use the audio ONLY and reverse it, we got this message:

"It was october 1971. Everything was hunkey dorey, and I was listening, when at eight, 2:04 end, I found what I was looking for."

The message was hard to decipher simply for it's outright absurdity. But lo and behold, the amazing AFI board figured it that it wasn't as obscure as we though. This message, like all the others, was to lead us to the next clue.

What we gathered was this: October 1971, David Bowie released an album called Hunkey Dorey. The eighth track was called, "Andy Warhol." So we go to that track, listen to the words said at 2:04 and get a next website. (Really.) The lyrics were, "Tie him up when he's fast asleep." Enter that into a website and you got our next clue. www.tiehimupwhenhesfastasleep.com

*A few notes:
-This meant that all four band members had been in one of the movies, a very significant thing to know.
-The five flowers that Adam put into a vase are said to be a rose, tulip, iris, lily, and a daisy.

The "Tie Me Up" site is flash and words only. The message reads:

"February 15th - February 27th
From South to North, West to East
No Fire Will Burn
But there will be blood."

The word "blood" was a hyperlink and took us to another part of the site. This time the message reads:

"Listen to Brandon but don't ask him
He who knows wears it on his sleeve.
He sells the rest to every guest,
if you propose the answer is free.
Any ring will do..."

Now we've finally concluded the answers to some of the paragraph and they are as follows:

-"No Fire will burn" There will be no AFI where this answers lies.
-"But there will be blood" But Bleeding through will be there
-"He sells the rest to every guest" Referring to the merchant selling AFI and BT merchandise
-"If you propose the answer is free, any ring will do." If you present a ring to the merchant and ask for an answer, you will be given one.

Now this was done by "Sleepingtodream" of the MB and he was given an answer.



















He was given this pin.

Yeah. I don't know.

The answer the message board member was given was a pin that read nothing more than "Where are the five flowers?" Now if you think anything like we have been for the past months, you'll realize that's probably a website. In going to this website we used to get a message saying the website was "staging.",In the meantime Bleeding Through was added to Charlotte's friends list on myspace. After a month or so of waiting, finally there is a change in the site. We get a 404 error as if the site died, but press the back button on the page and a new window pops up. Like all the other sites, this website is also flash, but it is only a picture, a picture of the clandestine box from Sing the Sorrow. This is one of only two times that something from the previous mystery is referenced in this Charlotte business.

 First thing to notice is in the browser, you see the name of the picture file and it has a number in it (4403731238). When you call this number you get a British lady on the answering machine, one that sounds just the same to charlotte's old one. The message says:

"The person you are trying to reach is not available, please leave a message after the beep."

Now looking around the site, you see four squares around the four corners of the box. Click inside those squares and you get another window pop up, this time revealing quicktime media files. Each file is named after 1 of 4 differant characters: Hector, Georgia, Catherine, and Julian. These names can also be found in the Weight of Words menu, and were added to charlotte's myspace not long before "Where are the five flowers" came up. Each media file gave a number and clues. They are as follows:

Catherine: 646 736 1275 (New York)
-The number was found by playing with musical notes and converting them to numbers.
-When calling you hear a message adressed to Hector, speaking spanish, saying, "Leave a message. If this is Hector, I lost my connection, you can find me at Craig's."

Hector: 323 319 6237 (LA)
-Number found by counting beats in the mp3.
-When calling you hear a man saying, "I'm at Craig's. Where are you?"

Georgia: 415 373 6047 (SF)
-Number found by reversing audio, and converting French letters to numbers.
-When calling you hear "Julian, it's Georgia. This is it - it's ending! I'm losing my connection. Look for me at Craig's!"

Julian: 716 514 8870 (NY)
-Found by reversing the mp3 and turning the volume up really high.
-Mp3 almost exactly similar to Charlotte's.
(-A scream is heard in the end, assuming to be Juilian's scream while being killed. (I don't understand this reference.) <-- This is an iffy theory because the loud noise/"screaming" is on both Charlotte and Julian's mp3s.)
-When calling you hear, "This is Julian. We missed each other. I'll be at Craig's."

Charlotte: 805 624-6485 (Central Ca)
-Found kind of late in the game by reversing the mp3 and turning the volume up super high.
-Mp3 almost exactly similar to Julian's.
-You hear, "This is charlotte. Leave a voicemail. If this is Hector, find me at Craig's. And don't be late. There's not much time."


-Charlotte's mp3 wasn't found on the Clandestine box along with the other four (this may be significant later on), but since Charlotte was already a given, someone just added /charlotte.mp3 to the end of the mp3 addresses (wherearethefiveflowers.com/georgia.mp3, for example), and voila. (Thanks Oboeish.)

**Because Julian's phone number is from NY, and not Canada (more than likely for long distance reasons), and Charlotte's number is from Cali, and not Ohio, the phone numbers do not all match their myspace locations. It may be important to note, though, that both the phone number found on the page title of WATFF.com (440 373 1238 - the one with the British woman voice message), and Charlotte's myspace location are from Ohio.
 

And here comes the best part. Five ads were found on the wonderful website, www.craigslist.org. They are:

San Francisco: http://www.craigslist.org/sfc/mis/152101447.html

It's Georgia:

Julian,i hope you see this soon.
Meet me at
Axis Records and Comics
2877 Chapman
Oakland, CA
On Thursday the 20th between 4 and 6pm
bring me any of the five and don't forget your id
There's not much room, so get there before the supply runs out

Los Angeles: http://losangeles.craigslist.org/mis/152102042.html

It's Hector:

Georgia, i hope you see this soon. there is not much time.
Meet me on Thursday, 20th of April
Pan Pacific Park corner of Gardner and Beverly
dont judge a book by its cover.ill be holding flowers waiting for you
I'll only be there between 4pm and 6pm. bring me any of the five and
don't forget your id

There's not much room, so get there before the supply runs out

New York: http://newyork.craigslist.org/mnh/mis/152102652.html

It's Catherine:


Hector, i hope you see this soon
there is not much time

meet me on thursday 20th of April at
110 Greene St. #605
New York, NY 10012
ill only be there from 7-9pm
bring me any of the five and don't forget your ID

There's not much room, so get there before the supply runs out

Toronto: http://toronto.craigslist.org/mis/152103243.html

It's Charlotte:

Hector,
Meet me on Thursday, 20th of April
Ill only be there between 4pm and 6pm
Buffalo Records
2111 E Thompson Blvd
Ventura, CA
bring me any of the five and don't forget your id
There's not much room, so get there before the supply runs out

(I copied the text from all the ads because they'll expire soon.)

We all spent a good three days arguing. I'd say more than half of all the kids following the thread said these were fake, that this was too ridiculous, that this was too "out there." I guess it's understandable, when viewed from afar. Meeting strangers at Record Stores and parks? Give them a flower? Get something in return? Sounds like a perfect opportunity to either:

1) Rape a bunch of people.
2) Film a bunch of gothy hardcore kids and make fun of them on the internet.
3) Other acts of sadistic violence.

But you know what? Someone had to go to a comic book store to get a clue. And we'd been driven all over the internet. And we'd incessantly studied numerology, Buddhism, Time Codes, World War II secret codes, Roman history, and a bunch of other shit to find the next clue. Was this really so far-fetched?

So this is where I come in. Restless, I left work yesterday at a quarter to three and headed off to Pan Pacific Park. (It's actually about 5 minutes from my apartment. I didn't even know it existed! Now I have a new place to run at.) I was carrying a bag full of food/water/shit for the show that my band was playing later that day in Ventura at the Alpine.

(On a sidenote, if you've ever read any of my Metro Bus stories, the first one I ever wrote was about the bizarre mother/daughter combo who asked me to stop drinking blood. In a bizarre bout of coincidence, they were on the exact same bus as me that went down Beverly. They demanded an explanation for my Bad Religion Crossbuster tattoo and told me that while it was good that I don't drink blood, it doesn't matter because I don't believe in Jesus. So I should just start drinking blood.  ............................)

I arrived at the park just around 3:30. I met Major Tom (who had a bitchin' skateboard) and a few other board members. We were all weirded out by this whole concept and, even though we'd shown up, we still didn't know if this was real. I walked around the park and gathered the troops who were spread about the grounds of the park. The general consensus? Someone better fucking show up or we'd all feel like fools.

Stacy (slyabney) and I walked around the park for a bit, trying to see if we could find "Hector," but it was too no avail. And that's when, about 5 minutes later, we see Smith walking down the street. (He is Jade's brother and Roadie Extraordinaire.) He seems to be avoiding us and he keeps walking up and down the street in front of the park that runs perpendicular to it.

He finally comes to the parking lot and we approach him. He tells us he's there to do homework (he had a binder full of papers). When someone asks him if we were supposed to give him flowers, he told us he wasn't the person, BUT the person was in the park and that we were actually very close to them.

Behind us, sitting up against the wall, was a blonde-haired girl reading a book, with a boquet of flowers sitting beside her. "Don't judge a book by its cover...." We should have known!

This is what we received for giving a flower:
April 28th. Henry Fonda Theatre. Guaranteed passes into a show.

What.
The.
Fuck.

It was real. All these fucking clues, all the haters saying we were insane. And the 25 or so of us show up to a park in Hollywood, flowers in hand, and we get free passes to a Private Event with AFI. THAT FUCKING RULES SO MUCH!

UPDATE 4/27 (From ernie1one):

New York passes:

San Francisco Pass:

Links: In Order as they Appear
http://www.myspace.com/mikey_rhinoceros - Mikey Rhino's Myspace
http://board.despairfaction.com/showthread.php?t=49679 - Invierno's thread to Weight of Words
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y15...Random/boc.jpg - Weight of Words Menu
http://afireinside.net - AFI's official Website
http://www.narutitridestsedam.com - Davey's Muttering Words Video
http://www.unoeil.com - Paragraph of Many Lyrics
http://theprocessofseparation.com - Jade's Handwriting Video
http://www.youtube.com/watch.php?v=jFPukyM9g34 - Hunter's Directions Video
http://www.myspace.com/charlottenothing - Charlotte's Myspace
http://www.theinterviewwitness.com - Adam's Flower Video
http://tiehimupwhenhesfastasleep.com - Bowie's Lyrics and the Bleeding through Involvement
http://tiehimupwhenhesfastasleep.com/blood.html - Blood half with Instructions
http://www.wherearethefiveflowers.com - 404 Error Site
http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y15...dom/BUTTON.jpg - Pin given to those who propsed
http://media.putfile.com/hector-323-319-6237 - Hector's Phone Message
http://media.putfile.com/title-440373-1238-57 - 440 Number's Message
http://media.putfile.com/georgia-415-373-6047 - Georgia's Phone Message
http://media.putfile.com/catherine-646-736-1275 - Catherine's Phone Message
http://media.putfile.com/julian-716-514-8870 - Julian's Phone Message
http://h1.ripway.com/Nuviremus/Georgia_Reverse.mp3 - Georgia's Audio Reversed
http://h1.ripway.com/Nuviremus/Hector_Reverse.mp3 - Hector's Audio Reversed
http://media.putfile.com/juliansnumber
http://media.putfile.com/charlottesnumber
Numbers sites:
http://home.freeuk.com/spook007/
#21 is the weird music box that some people got called back with, before the numbers.
http://www.archive.org/details/ird059
This is the one that most of the voices were taken from, I think. (Thanks, Desiree, for these last two links.)



Credits for some info goes to etoile of the Despair Faction
Credits for the Websites and the mystery itself goes to AFI and Interscope Records
Credits for the summary goes to Sephirothox of the Despair Faction.
Credits for the phone message links goes to Alli, Moderator of the AFI MB
Credits for the "Where are the five flowers" Phone descriptions goes to Oboeshi of the Despair Faction
Credits for links go to the members of the Despair Faction and those involved with the mystery on the board.
Credits for Axis Record's DVD goes to SaraPlate
Credits for Georgia's Number goes to Infatuation & MPS of the Despair Faction
Credit goes to Oboeish for the wonderful corrections!!!

Thank you. Thanks for everyone for putting so much intelligent thought and heart into this. I appreciate it.

I will edit this as more information is provided and we learn more about this mystery.

 

---

Charlotte's Mystery
Big Day Out Summary
This all started when Mikey Rhino (AFI family member and tour mate) made a strange entry on his Myspace. It read, "2 4 15"and many people tried to guess what it means. Some people assumed it was keyed to the alphabet, 2 = B, 4 = D, 15 = O, BDO or Big Day Out which was a major show in new zealand afi was supposed to be at but never made it. This gave hints to afi touring for their new album. After many people guessed what it meant, Mikey replied by saying, "Only one of you was warm like the winters"

Weight Of Words Summary
One day on the message boards one random user, who has never posted since, had a message, it read: "Why is my name on the weight of words website?" And had a link to the weightofwords.com which is now unaccesable. The poster's screen name was "invierno" which meant "winter" in spanish. Winter, that is the word that linked Mikey's responce to this strange post made by a guy who never posted in his life other than this one time.
In his profile we found his name to be "Hector Garcia" but that was all. So we go to the website. All it was, was a menu of a restraunt's orders, which was later found out to be a Vegan restraunt afi used to eat at, and it had a list of names and their orders. The picture can be found here.
Well when you look on the menu, Hector is the first name on the list along with others. There is also latitude and longitude cordinates leading to the Pheonix Theature which is where AFI had many shows, and their first show, in California. Charlotte, being a name on the list, ordered the breakfast of champions which was also the title of the site. Those who saw the site found clues relating to afi. Such as the number 17 by the order name that led you to, when clicked on, the new afi website, which is how we knew charlotte was involved. It also had a phone number on the bottom, that when phoned gave you a message. The message was of many people talking. Also when people called this number many people got calls back from a number (000) 012-3456 that was nothing but a looped music track, a mumbling man, woman counting, and a girl asking questions.. This is what the first message said when calling charlottes' number, copied to the internet by etoile of the despair faction:

Woman One: Ready?
Man One: One.
Man Two: Four.
Man One: One.
Woman One: Ready?
One Man Two: 8
Woman Two: 2...1....2
Man One: 0
Woman One: 9. Ready?
Woman Two: 2
Man One: 0
Woman One: What?...
Man Two: 8
Woman One: 9
Woman Two: 4...5
Man One: 1
Woman One: 9
Woman Two: 2
Man One: 0....1
Woman One: 9
Woman Two: 5...4
Man One: 1
Woman One: What?
Man Two: 3
Woman 3:-Ready?

Now when this message was looked at closer they realised it was a message. "14,1,18,21,20,9,20,18,9,4,5,19,20,19,5,4,1,13 " When deciphered by the alphabet code, 1 being A and 2 being B and so on, it gave you the word "Narutitridestsedam" which when put into a web address took you to a site.

Narutitridestsedam Summary
Now the meaning of Narutitridestsedam. "Na Ruti tridest sedam" Means "On route 37" which pertains to the song "Rabbits are roadkill on route 37"
Now when you go to this site there is only a movie. A movie of a person's head wrapped in bandages and is slowly unraveled by a mysterious hand. When it's unwrapped, the face is assumed to be Davey's by the lip ring, we see him mouthing words. What they found out was the words uttered by Davey were "Tell", "Charlotte", and "Nothing" which we found out to be Charlotte's Aim screen name: "Charlottenothing" Also at this time, there is a new message when calling charlotte's number, it says:
"Hi, this is Charlotte. If this is Georgia, I've been trying to reach you on I-M but I can't so leave your number so we can talk."
Well days went by and we were without a clue until we got a message sent to us by Charlotte's screen name and it was the same message from Mikey Rhino's Myspace.

The Riddle
This was the message sent to us:
"Prononcé comme une lettre Mais constitué de trois Elles ne sont que deux lettres A faire partie de moi Je suis unique et double Je suis bleu, noir et gris, Lisible dans les deux sens Et la meme dans les deux directions."
Now for those of you who may or may not know, we realised this to be french and when we deciphered the message it gave us this:
"Pronounce as a letter But constitutes of three They are not but two letters to form part of me I am single and double I am blue, black and gray Readable in the two directions And the same one in the two directions."
If you think about it, its a riddle. The word we're looking for is pronounced as one letter, but it has three letters and two of those three are the same according to the third line. There can be one or two of this word and they are in three differant colors and can also be read in backwards and fowards and be spelled the same. Well if you can't figure out the answer, the word is, "Eye" So translate that into french, since that's the original language of the riddle, and you get the word Unoeil. Put a www. and a .com on it and there you go, a new website to explore.
*Also as a side note there is a new message on charlotte's answering machine that is now her current message. It is just noises and beeps.

The Unoeil Website Summary
When you get to the site you find it's close to the other one; small, one window website with a flash display on it. Except this time instead of a movie you get a paragraph slowly being lit up. This is what the paragraph says:
"If you waste this day this pain will not open my eyes to cracked faces. To this nature I won’t deny. Will you believe in a boy hung in your room, cooling from within? I can’t. I just anticipate what awaits...darkness. Oh my beautiful one. I will hold onto your heart as I submerge. I will die drown. There will be no angels. There are no flowers. I’m on display my beloved. I’m on display."
Now I admit, this sounds like a suicide letter or something, but in reality these are just a bunch of davey's lyrics all mixed into one big story. For example,"There will be no angels. There are no Flowers." Is from a song called :This time imperfect" from Sing the Sorrow. "I just anticipate what awaits..." Is part of an ending verse for "No Poetic Device" on Black Sails in the Sunset. And so on and so forth.
Now if you go back and look at the paragraph you notice that you can click on words, and when you scroll your mouse over them some glow and some don't. Now how they came to this conclusion I'm still not sure, but when you click on the words "Dont", "Believe" and "Pain" in that order, you get opened to a new website.

Process of Separation Summary
The website was like the rest. It was one flash animation but this time it was a movie. A movie played backwards. The movie showed a message on a notepad scribbled out was played backwards as a hand, which is assumed to be Jade's, slowly unscribbles, and unwrites everything. When you get the whole message it says:
"Toronto Star Classified Antiques and Art. Plain Text Run Schedule 21 days. Five Flowers."
Now this may not make much sense, but what it was saying is that an ad would be ran in the toronto star 21 days later. Well 21 days on the spot, an ad was ran by someone named Charlotte and it read as such:
"Axis Comics and Records at ( address removed ). Place your orders with joe at (phone number removed)"
The number and address were removed for concealing purposes. Axis comics and Records is affilated with afi and confirmed so in sing the sorrow's thank you credits. Well now this relies on the ones in California. They called the number and talked to Joe, and found out they needed to come to the shop and watch a dvd themselves. So they did so.

 

AFI의 Davey와 Jade가 스트레이트 엣지 이기 때문에

관심 있어서 알아봄. 일본 사이트에서 가져 온 글을 번역기로 돌림.

 

스트레이트·엣지(straight edge)란,
·캐쥬얼 섹스
·담배(드러그 포함한다)
·알코올
의 세 개를 자주적으로 금하는 사상 일로,
80년대의 중핵 밴드, MINOR THREAT의 가사나 곡명에 유래하고 있습니다.
MINOR THREAT 자신은 그 사상을 제창한 것은 아니었다고 합니다만,
그들의 포로워가 되는 밴드는 그 라이프스타일을 실천해,
가사의 내용에도 현저하게 반영시키고 있습니다.

그렇네요, 종교같은 걸로 있는 금욕 주의같은 것에 잘 비슷하다고 생각합니다.
다만 스트레이트 엣지의 시작은,
술이나 드러그, 섹스(그야말로 당시의 락에 상징된다)에 빠지고 있는 젊은이가 많은 가운데
그리고 반발적으로 발생한 반문화적인 물건이었던 것 같습니다만.

브레이크 엣지(SxE를 그만두는 것)에 대해서도 다양한 견해가 있는 것 같습니다만,
건전한 생활을 영위하려는 자세를 가진 것만으로도 훌륭한 일이라고 개인적으로는 생각합니다.
NO drugs.
NO alcohol.
NO promiscuous sex.
YES we do have fun.

"don't drink/ don't smoke/ don't fuck."