The Taking Tree by Jellybean of Thark, Heatherlynn, Waffle, Lincøln, Waldo Cheerio, Pamda Bhaer, Dr. Subtle, Dopey, The Found Walrus, lefthandedsnail, Shak, Beta Orionis
March 14th, 2009 1:00 AM / Location: 34.082237,-118.2952LAØ's 10 Things, in 10 Trees:
1. Lincoln's Memories
2. C.M.'s Childhood
3. Waldo's Sense of Humour
4. Pamda & Shak's Art
5. The Walrus's Passions
6. Lefthandedsnail's Desire to Please
7. Dopey & Waffle's Literalism
8. Heatherlynn's Intrigue
9 & 10. Dr. Subtle's and Beta Orionis' "Ten" Projects
Lincøln
I decided that the ten things I would put into trees should be personal to me and should be a little tough to give away. And that theme stuck for most of my items, but not for all. Some are just fun. I also wanted people to want the items, and have to climb a tree to get them, so most of my ten items were very high at the tops of trees not even really visible from the ground.
So this is what I put in the trees:
1) A metal Fleur. I have had this fleur over my bed for a year and it reminds me to task. I think I'm now in a proper state of mind and no longer need the reminder. So somebody else gets it.
2) Chinese sex figures. I have had these hand carved Chinese figures for a long time. I got them when I was a child and the mysteries of sex were fascinating and these figures made my imagination go wild.
3) Ex-girlfriend cut out.
This is a cut out of my first girlfriend, I laid her down on an old screen door, traced her on it, and then cut it out. I have been carrying it around everywhere I go since the early nineties. She usually hangs on a wall in my house, but when I moved in to where I am now, I didn't put her up. Perhaps that means I am done with her.
4) Tape sculpture. This one speaks for itself. A new piece of art. Based on an old piece of art.
5) CDs. I have made 5 cool mix CDs. They are slightly personal, but mostly really good jams or mellow or whatever.
6) Stuffed koala. I have had this koala since birth. I have lost all other stuffed animals that I used to have, and because Teucer put his stuffed animals up in trees, I do this one as an homage.
7) $10. Because everybody likes free money.
8) Revenge of The Lawn. One of my all time favorite books by Richard Brautigan.
9) My television. Just because. I never used it anyway.
10) A couch in a tree. Yes, I put a couch in a tree. For the absurdity of it.
C.M.
1). Actors: A superstitious cowardly lot, I suppose. Well, superstitious anyway. Catholicism has a lot of pretty fun ways to feed that sort of thing in the form of patron saints of this or that. In the the parking lot of the Sacred Fools Theater, I've left a saints card for St. Genesius of Rome. The patron saint of actors died on stage.
I made him using one of the blank Saints Cards I picked up during the Autry Museum's Saints of Los Angeles Exhibit.2). I'm not sure how long I've had this little bracelet. Pumpkin and bats.
I'm kinda glad to be rid of it to be honest. I feel better sending it out into the world.3). The goddamn Batman. That was a fun day, accompanying Heatherlynn while she worked on a good task. While we were setting up for another task, I found Batman face down near the bean bag toss. I stuck him in a tree near a haunted house, where he could keep an eye on things for me.
4). This Superman badge, I've had since I can remember. I hid him where I was sure some kid might find him.
5). This is the master CD I used to dub the tapes for my Tapes and Tapes task. 'Nuff said.
6). The Skeletron Brothers!
I've found papercraft to be a lot of fun, and have developed a fondness for the various sites that offer projects for download. The Skeletron brothers I put in a thorn covered tree. From the third level of the parking structure at work, I leaned out as far as I was comfortable doing and laid them in their own branches.7). Paper boats are fun.
I created three and carried them for awhile looking for a good place to set them. The idea of a small fleet stuck in a tree cracked me up, so that's where they got stuck.
8). An American Muscle Car! Yeah!
I recently came into a pack of Hot Wheels Mustangs, and decided to slide one into an abandoned Christmas tree.
9). When our neighbor moved out, she left this book behind. I returned it to it's natural habitat: A tree outside the Glendale Public Library. Once it's calmed down a little, it might feel comfortable heading inside and joining the other books.
10).
More paper fun! On the way to work, I regularly see a dog head topiary that I've been wanting to do something with. So naturally, I stuck a little paper pirate in it.
Waldo Cheerio
I looked around my apartment when this task began, and realized I did not have a single tangible treasure on hand. None of the collected prizes of a lifetime had moved with me. I was in a quandry. I decided I had to put something intangible that I treasure in trees, and humor was a much easier prospect for tree-troving than, for example, love.
So I hied on down to the hardware store, and bought day-to-day signs (most for under a dollar each). My plan was to drive Lincoln around to eminently climbable trees in populous, high-traffic areas, where his treasures might be found, and then wander off on my own to look for a humorous context for one of my signs. In the end, here were my results:
Note - Go through the submission pictures first for my section, I tried to preserve the experience of finding the trees, and the accompanying humor, which does not bear explanation well.
1. "Caution", on a palm tree that had been broken or cut in half, with several other trees on that hill also mysteriously torn asunder. Whatever did it happened a while ago, but now picnic-ers may fear it is coming back.
2. "Exit" on a tree overlooking downtown from the top of a mountain-cliff, at a prominent bend in the road.
3. "Phone", 10 feet up on a huge tree in Echo Park by the main walkway. My favorite part is the braille.
4. "Don't Even Think About Parking Here", with a caricature of a london-bobby enforcing the rule, hung over a complex set of parking instructions and prohibitions at a park parking-lot.
5. "This Door to Remain Unlocked During Business Hours", wrapped around a tree outside a theater where people stand and smoke during intermission.
6. "Warning: this location protected by an Electronic Alarm System", on a tree overlooking a small public playground.
7. "Beware of Dog" on a palm, facing traffic merging onto the Colorado Street Bridge.
8. "Gentlemen"
9. "Ladies" - These signs show the bathroom-gender symbols with a label-swap. One sign is visible to one half of a tennis-court near Caltech, the other sign visible to the other half.
10. Handicap Accessability - Originally I put this sign in the middle of an empty field. "If you are in a wheelchair, that is as good a tree as you get," I thought. But mean-spirited humor only works when it is not an inside joke, so I put this one in a grove of trees up a steep hill with no path instead.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
(Pamda's story)
I was wandering along Hollywood Blvd. wearing a top hat and a moustache, best friend who now lives on the East Coast in tow, when we were accosted by a stranger lounging on the corner of Hollywood and Highland (trolling for interesting people, I was later told). He informed us that we were the coolest people he'd ever seen and we proceeded to strike up a strong friendship based on 30 seconds of talking about how cool moustaches were. A dubious facebook relationship ensued, and many promises of hangouts were broken-until 3 months later, when I invited Shak himself to join me on my quest to hide things in trees.
We emailed back and forth trying to decide where to meet, until I looked at both of our locations on Google Maps and picked a spot that looked vaguely near halfway between us. I had never been to this park before and had met this guy once for a very short amount of time. It was an exciting day.
I made 5 kites to hide in trees (Kites stuck in trees, classic right?), while Shak brought along 5 paintings.
We decided that mine would be well hidden while his would make a sort of tree art gallery. My kites were named Andrew, Dave, Emma, Estella, and Rob, for various reasons.
We wandered around the park and hid things in trees. At one point I was about to climb a tree, when a group of people suddenly informed me that they were homeless and I was intruding upon their tree (they put blankets in it). They were pretty nice.
The Walrus
When trying to decide on a tree strategy, I decided on two criteria: first, the object had to be placed in a way that actually required the finder to climb. Secondly, it had to be something which, were the situation reversed, I would eagerly climb to retrieve. Each Tree Thing also got (as well as the SF0 URL), a quote which I thought was interesting, or enlightening, or funny, usually taped to the object with masking tape. I also wrote a brief note explaining the presence of treasure and taped a copy to each of my trees so that my treasures would be less likely to go unnoticed.
1. In a tree overlooking a duck pond, I deposited a large egret statue. To my disappointment the ducks ignored it.
2. A large fossil sharks' tooth and a Richard Feynman quote.
3. My favorite treasure.
For reasons I wish I could explain or remember, I seem to have acquired a rather beautiful and completely useless object. You twist various brass knobs so that the face is showing the correct year and month, and it tells you which dates are which days of the week.
4. The most climbable tree on campus of Beverly Hills high school got: a copy of the British political satire magazine Private Eye, a copy of the liberal magazine The Nation, The Basics of American Politics, by Gary Wasserman, 11th edition, and a quote from Gandhi.
5. A Beverly Hills park tree got Birds, Beasts, and Relatives by Gerald Durrell, a joke pack of cards, and a quote from Douglas Adams.
6. A sea urchin, and a few shells, and a few souvenirs, plus a funny quote.
7. A dear friend of mine has recently been going through a rather
dark time, and I hoped I might be able to cheer her up a bit with some opportune humor. I snuck into her backyard, climbed her tree, and deposited a small vase with a tiny bouquet of flowers and a quote from Woody Allen: "Hope is not the thing with feathers. The thing with feathers has turned out to be my nephew. I must take him to a specialist in Zurich." I don't know if she's yet discovered it. 
8. On my way to work in Malibu the next morning, I realized that Malibu is another area with a dearth of tasking, and promptly hid a fossil ammonite and a quote.
9. At a turnoff in the road in Malibu I decided to puzzle the next person who parked there by hiding a Barnes and Noble gift card in a tree along with a quote from Lincoln (Abraham) on literature.
10. My final tree got another souvenir: a wonderfully tasteless pencil case.
Lefthandedsnail
I set out to complete this task while meeting Lincoln's self-prescribed criteria (putting objects of personal value high atop massive trees that those who go after them may earn their treasure).
That lasted a hot second.
Having grown up with a personal living space of 3 or 4 cubic metres, I don't tend to get attached to stuff. Those few things that I do get attached to I get VERY attached to and I'm not gonna put em up a tree for anyone. My objects are a combination of objects I don't particularly care about (Dogma, Elmopalooza and South Park: Bigger, Longer, Uncut, all on VHS), cheap objects with mass appeal which I bought specifically for the task (plastic paratroopers like you get in the vending machines at the supermarket), and one object that means very much to me but is rather replaceable (my favourite book, Vikram Seth's The Golden Gate).
I thought that at least the tree climbing part would be an easy one for me as I was a great tree climber when I was little. Then I figured out that that had to do with banyan trees being particularly easy to climb instead of any particular skill on my part. There aren't a lot of banyan trees around here. That's why I went out and bought the paratroopers; I could just throw them up on top of the tree.
Then I started thinking about my feelings about non-biodegradable stuff being left out to fend for itself. I got sad. I decided that it was more important to me that someone took my objects than that someone earned them. I decided that I wanted to put objects into low trees with lots of pedestrian traffic near by. I also wrapped the objects that needed protection from the elements in waxed paper rather than putting them into zippybags so that the taker isn't left with an environmental responsability they didn't ask for. Working out how to attach notes to the trees without tape or staples was actually pretty quick and easy; I used a technique I've seen used on...trees.
I thought about using the subway as a through line and choose trees near my favourite stops, because, yes, I love the subway that much. Then I thought of my other favourite way to get around: my bike. I took everything with me on my commute to work and then dropped them all off in the trees along the bike path on my way back home.
What went where didn't have any special significance with the exception of The Golden Gate. It's the only one that has importance to me, so I put it in a tree across the street from The Iliad, a particularly good used book store just off the bike path.
Dopey & Waffle
We decided to work together on this one, and to literally put
"10 things" into 10 different trees. We inscribed them all so they were IN the tree, not written ON it. (pen was used for carving not writing) I took a picture of a tree twice to prove that without Camera-flash-super-powers you cannot see our inscriptions, thus making them hidden. We used a pocket knife/bottle opener/corkscrew thing, and a pen. The pen worked much better. Heatherlynn
So I've gone through a lot of decisions about what to put in the trees. First off, I'm not a good tree climber. Since it seemed like a cheat to have someone else place the gifts, I couldn't go for high up. And I wanted something that people would be intrigued by, more than just a "thing" in a tree.
So I decided to write some notes along with the gifts, and put them in envelopes. I also decided that I needed to add something from SF0 on it.
There are a lot of trees in L.A., and I didn't know how I was going to decide each tree. Then it hit me, while I was using my Garmin to find a grocery store to buy some envelopes, I thought of using it to find trees.
So I chose my first one, which was in the Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Park.
My only two parameters for the parks were that they had to be either south or east of where I currently was, and that they couldn't be a place I had been before. I then broke the second of those two rules with my first park. But I held fast after that.
Once at the park, I pulled out the trusty pile of crap in my glove box and found stuff that I was willing to part with. Most of this stuff, I had had in there for years.
In the first park, Van Nuys Sherman Oaks Park, I left a no-slip grip and the letter:
Dear Sir or Madam,
Since you are reading this, I commend you. You have been willing to notice the world around you, and you have chosen to interact rather than be passive.
I hope you have a joyous day.
If you would like to know why this is here, please go to sf0.org. The gift is yours to do with as you will.
I placed it in the best tree I could find.
Then on to park number two. Studio City Recreation Center.
Where I left a small, stuffed, happy frog.
Then on to 3, the Moorpark Playground.
Next was Woodbridge Park. in Studio City, where I left a very old Happy Meal Toy.
From there I went to South Weddington Park. also in Studio City, where I left a still packaged Jack head collectible.
Then Runyon Canyon Park, in Los Angeles, where I also left a Jack's Head.
From there I went to Wattles Garden Park in Los Angeles, , where I left a stuffed green heart.
Then on to Bellevue Park in Los Angeles, which was amazingly close to where I used to live, and I had never once been in it. Made me a little ashamed.
There I left a headband that was one of my mom's favorites.
From there I went to Lafayette Park, near MacArthur Park in Los Angeles, where I left a pony-tail band.
This one was odd because there were no trees that I could reach. Mostly palm trees and this one glorious tree that I couldn't get up. So I found a knot in the tree and wedged the envelope in there.
Finally, I went to Toberman Recreation Center. near the 10/110 Intersection. There I left a spoon. I had run out of collectibles and such.
All in all, it was a great experience. I know one of them got picked up, as I saw a couple carrying number 5 away from the tree.
More than anything, I met some great trees, that I will definitely go back to get to know better.
Dr. Subtle and Beta Orionis
You're almost there! We'll keep this short and sweet.
As we are all cute and enfianced, Beta and I approached the task as a
team. Although we operated as one unit, we still had 20 trees to fill.
I, Beta, came up with the theme of "ten" objects in trees, and together brainstormed what we could distribute that related "Ten."
I, Dr. Subtle, then came up with the idea to make our ten objects actually ten groups of
objects, all with the theme of "ten" running through each group. The
task itself asks for "ten objects", so we took it to a new crazy
level, as follows.
Fahrenheit 451. 4+5+1=10!
10 Necklaces!
A pair of things we that we valued when we were each TEN years old!
Unfortunately, there's no picture for this one as Dr. Subtle and Beta forgot to take a photo whilst in Avalon. Here's a picture of the Pelican Dr. Subtle touched instead.
A TENtative city spirit- a sculpture of the Metallic Fox Spirit of Long Beach!
TEN Real SATS! and their Solutions!
TEN Pictures in the form of Five Diptychs!
(See the pictures for the digitally uploaded diptychs)
Two flyers for 5 Guys Burgers and Fries, totaling TEN Guys!
A warning sign proclaiming "TEN CUIDADO!"
One of the TEN plagues- Frogs!
Many different tickets and cards and such, all of which feature TEN prominently
(Each element in a different tree)
One might think that this is only ten trees worth of stuff, however,
the Diptychs each had their own tree (four more) and the tickets and
cards went in to a total of seven trees (six more) to round out to
twenty trees total.
Initially, before ever having seen my fellow taskers' ideas, I considered things such as signs and tree art galleries, but as we came last, it was interesting to unintentionally incorporate a little piece of all the former completions. We think it feels like a nice little summation of LA0's task. As the sun sets on our image set, so it does in the task time line.
And now that you've read all of that, and before you dive into the crazy amount of pictures below, have a look at this map, this map has all of the trees we hit in all of Los Angeles.
Lincoln
Planting my Chinese sex figures.
Lincoln
Chinese sex figures in their little hollow.
Lincoln
Chinese sex figure from above.
Lincoln
Chinese sex figures up close
Lincoln
This is the sign that went into all of the trees. "There is treasure hidden away at the top of this tree. Don't you want to know what it could be? If you are adventurous enough to climb the reward will be sublime."
Lincoln
This particular note went on the tree with the Chinese sex figures on top.
Lincoln
Long view on the oak tree the Chinese sex figures went into.
Lincoln
Giant tree in Echo Park.
Lincoln
The note goes on.
Lincoln
See what's up there? Who is that? What is that?
Lincoln
Why it's a hero of some kind. A miniature hero.
Lincoln
Look he's flying.
Lincoln
I made a special mini version of my full sized Future Hero Senator Lincoln just for this to put in a tree.
Lincoln
Cool looking tree.
Lincoln
Even though
Lincoln
Look what's up there at the very top. Holy crapballs that's high up there.
Lincoln
I have owned that koala bear since I was born. And now whoever can climb to the top of that tree can have it now.
Lincoln
This is a beautiful knotty tree in Griffith Park.
Lincoln
Can you see that up at the top?
Lincoln
Looks like a book.
Lincoln
Revenge of the Lawn. One of my all time favorite books. This is my well worn copy.
Lincoln
A very big ficus tree.
Lincoln
Yes, my television is in a tree.
Lincoln
Artistic angle of my TV in a tree. The note on the screen says "Free working television courtesy of SFØ.
Lincoln
Another great twisty oak in a park in West Hollywood.
Lincoln
Can you make out the item up there at the top?
Lincoln
Why, it's a brass fleur-de-lis.
Lincoln
I've had this fleur-de-lis in my room for about a year, I got it early in my SFØ to remind myself to shoot for the shplank.
Lincoln
My screen door ex-girlfriend. I made this one day when I was young. My screen door had a hole in it, so I took it down to replace the screen. I had my first girlfriend lie down on it, I drew an outline of her and then cut it out. I have had it hanging on a wall in every place I have lived except where I live now. Perhaps it's time to part with her.
Lincoln
Here she is holding the note.
Lincoln
Here she is over my shoulders as I carry her to the park.
Lincoln
Here she is at the top of the tree.
Lincoln
She looks a little like the Predator up there.
Lincoln
The note and my Predator-like ex-girlfriend up in the background.
Lincoln
Predator or ex-girlfriend?
Lincoln
it was so hard to get a good photo of a girl made of screen. But this one worked out pretty well.
Lincoln
Long view.
Lincoln
A note on a low hanging branch.
Lincoln
See those things up there in the tree? Reflecting the flash of the camera?
Lincoln
Why they look like CDs.
Lincoln
They are! They are CDs.
Lincoln
Can you make out that object at the top of the picture there?
Lincoln
They're tough to see but there're two more in this shot.
Lincoln
And two more here. Can you make them out in the flash light?
Lincoln
They're dollar bills. I put ten one dollar bills throughout the tree.
Lincoln
Can you see Lincoln up at the top of this tree sprinkling dollars into the tree?
Lincoln
How about now?
Lincoln
Note on a low branch.
Lincoln
Couch in a tree. It may be very difficult for you to understand how difficult it was to get that thing up there by myself, but I'm gonna try to explain...
Lincoln
Almost up to the first branch. This was far more difficult than I thought it would be. That branch I'm standing on is typical for the branches on this tree. Notice how smooth it is? No crusty or flaky bark? That made it very slippery and hazardous. And every branch was as wide as this, making it very difficult to grab onto.
Lincoln
Up on the first branch. After about twenty minutes of hard work. I think that's an expression of "was this worth it?"
Lincoln
Moving up to the second branch. Balance was a tricky issue up there. Keeping the couch and myself in the tree at the same time was no small feat.
Lincoln
Out on a limb. I finally managed to get it out onto a branch that supported it without my constant assistance. But it was upside down.
Lincoln
Final resting place. I couldn't get it to stay right side up like it would be in a house, but that was just because of the way the branches angled. But this is a tree, not a house, so I didn't care. I liked it this way.
Lincoln
This was so much more difficult than I had thought it would be. And there's a little bit of scale to show you just how high it was up there.
Lincoln
I had this toy duck I was going to give to my nephew and I left it in his back yard. I put it in a lemon tree in his back yard. I even told him I hid a gift for him in the back yard. I wasn't happy about this item in this tree, but I included it because I failed to get the couch in the tree the first time I went out and put items in trees. I wanted the couch from the beginning, but I never found one lying in the street like I thought I would when Waldo and I went out for two days littering the city with tree gifts and signs. So I did this simple easy thing to make my completion have ten, but now that I got the couch, it is no longer needed, but I kept it here because it's funny to see a bright yellow duck in a lemon tree.
Lincoln
The duck toy.
Lincoln
Four of the tree-bound items waiting for the day they'll go into the trees. 
C.M.
St. Genesius of Rome (Patron Saint of Actors)
"St. Genesius who died on stage. Depicted here
entering the gates of judgement."
The card I drew this on came from the Autry Museum's All the Saints of the City of Angels exhibit.
On the way to the theater, I realized I had forgotten to draw his halo, so I drew it on with a yellow highlighter after I got there. I didn't get a chance to snap a photo of that though.
C.M.
Nailing a saint to a tree
Photo by Lefthanded Snail.
C.M.
Hallowe'en Jewelry. Thought it best to get rid of this old thing.
C.M.
Bracelet in a tree.
C.M.
See, there it is tucked in a nice big knot hole.
C.M.
Bat-Man
C.M.
He's only just Batman is all, of course he's gonna be hard to spot.
C.M.
See, there he is, dangling on that branch.
"I'm the god-damned Batman!"
Sure you are, Bruce.
C.M.
Super-man badge - Not sure how long I've had this, but I thought some kid might enjoy it.
C.M.
See, up there.
C.M.
In the crotch of that tree.
C.M.
Mix CD made from my Tapes and Tapes playlist.
C.M.
Tapes and tapes cd in a tree.
C.M.
C.M.
The Skeletron Brothers
Papercraft Robo-skeletons
C.M.
The Skeletron Brothers are good boys, stuck in a tree now.
C.M.
Two stories up.
C.M.
Paper fleet launching
C.M.
Paper fleet ashore
C.M.
Paper fleet run aground
C.M.
American Muscle Car - One replica '68 Ford Mustang. This is what all cars looked like on the streets of Southern California in the late 1960's.
C.M.
Tipsy Christmas tree.
C.M.
What better place to secret a Hot Wheels.
C.M.
"277 Secrets Your Cat Wants You to Know - A Cat-alog of Unusual and Useful Information" by Paulette Cooper and Paul Noble.
C.M.
The natural habitat of the book is the library.
Papery pirate
I'm a sucker for these little papercraft guys. If you want one you can find them here: http://readymech.com/
Doggy
Doggy head with pirate inserted.
------ Waldo's Story -----
Having hied to a hardware store, a few minutes of searching revealed precisely 12 signs worth of potential humor. Unfortunately, not all of these signs made the final cut. "FURNISHED" for instance was destined for Lincoln's Couch-Tree, but in the interim it was lost.
Humble beginnings. ~Waldo
Lincoln and I drove around LA with the plan that he would find trees likely to be climbed, and I'd soak up the humorous opportunities while he did the footwork. I passed up the first location, but the grandeur of a Eucalyptus near Lincoln's Tape-Sculpture tree caught my eye.
One small step for humor... ~Waldo
My hope was that other people walking down this path would find their eyes similarly drawn to this great tree. Some of them would be at first hopeful they had come across one among those most elusive breed of commodity; a public telephone...
... One Giant Leap for Confusion Everywhere ~Waldo
... when, upon approaching the tree, their growing confusion about the lack of phone might be replaced by the troubling scale. On a normal tree, that would be about chest height. This tree was easily 5 feet thick, and that sign as high as I could reach standing on Lincoln.
Park Dadaism ~Waldo
With a little luck, the amount of ludicrous would release through peals of laughter as the passer-by walked back to the lake-side path and away from the impossible tree-phone. My what good fun.
Bonus Tree
Lincoln meanwhile stuck the price-tag from that sign on a nearby tree. Apparently the humor of misleading people with tree-signage was catching. Although with such a small sign only the most curious tree-connoisseurs would discern this fine birch would run them a mere 14.95 American, I felt these were precisely those most likely to appreciate his jest.
What here lies in ruins?
Having found another popular park (by searching for big patches of green on Lincoln's iPhone GPS), I decided to investigate a peculiar danger that had become apparent.
Palm Trees Indeed!
Something unspeakable had happened here.
Healthy young trees, cut down in their prime.
How did this happen?
A field of death and horror.
Something had shorn the top clean off of many of the trees on this hill.
Staning in Mute Testimony to the Carnage ~Waldo
Judging by the regrowth of some trees, and how much smaller the secondary trunks were that grew out of the old stumps for those lucky few to survive, whatever crashed through the treetops here did so within only a few years. It may be back.
A Handy Direction ~Waldo
As night fell on our first day exploring the parks of Los Angeles, Lincoln and I found ourselves looking for a way out of our current predicament (having just put his favorite book in a tree). I pulled over suddenly to make a suggestion.
Wait, what is this? ~Waldo
I see the sign, but where....
The skyline... ~Waldo
This tree of course, is overlooking a steep cliff from near the top of Griffith Park, looking down on the Los Angeles Skyline. (View the file, you can make out the sign top-center in the low light).
A ridiculous amalgam of signs ~Waldo
Here also we have a rather ridiculous set of signs, in increasing urgency, warning you of the many and varied conditions under which you should not park in this... park.
What's this on top? ~Waldo
Here a British bobby at the top warns you "Don't Even Think About Parking Here."
But wait, what's gone missing? ~Waldo
With a little flash photography, one clearly is not so reflective as the others. What is going on here?
What a lark! ~Waldo
Lincoln cunningly strung my sign between two branches of a tree behind this sign, making it appear as you enter the parking lot, that they are all grouped together! Take THAT establishment. Here's what we think of your *rules*, Man!
The first night comes to a close. ~Waldo
On a much smaller eucalyptus, by Lincoln's theater (where I dropped him off with Lank as it happens), I placed this last sign for the day.
Smokers gather here. ~Waldo
Outside a theater, where signs often rather specifically connote the rules of locating and using things, I hung the sign "This Door to Remain Unlocked During Business Hours."
It's a wraparound... door? ~Waldo
Having to walk around the tree a full 180 degrees to read the entire thing was a cheap physical gag, but if anyone asks I'll say it was an existential commentary on the transience of portals between the cages of private seclusion and our attempts to enslave the public world to our rules. That and messing with smokers, a group particularly disdainful of signs telling them what not to do where.
Day 2: Today's Terror Alert is RED! ~Waldo
Starting our second day fresh, I decided to lend a little safety to the outdoors. Let private citizens feel safe.
People feel too unsafe. ~Waldo
Deodorant always confused me. Our streets are unsafe, our schools are unsafe, our airports are unsafe. But your armpits? Total Protection.
Punchline Already ~Waldo
As it turns out, the electronic security system is on a jungle-gym structure in a playground. Huzzah, WACKYNESS ENSUES! I think you understand the juxtapositional humor I'm going for here. It's really funny when you see one of these trees out among a lot of normal trees though. I promise, people loved it. You've just seen a whole lot in a row though. Don't judge me, I hear what you are thinking!
This one though... ~Waldo
This one I am proud of. Here's a sign, telling you to beware of a dog. Seems simple enough.
Oh, I get it, no dog here! ~Waldo
You would only see this one if you were stuck in traffic, merging onto the Colorado Street Bridge (longest curved support bridge in the world).
Pretty Though ~Waldo
As the one tree between oncoming traffic and the beautiful view over the Arroyo Canyon, this sign definitely would have been seen by the most people. How many of them went by slowly enough to discern the oddity of being warned of a dog while in freeway traffic going over a bridge... that is another question. As a final caveat, this is the only sign that is no longer still up as of the Rose Parade. Only about 100 yards from the end of the parade route, I imagine someone authoritative took it down.
Oh My! Caltech tennis courts! ~Waldo
What devilish plan have we concocted here! These trees are visible adjacent to the tennis courts of the oh-so-prestigious California Institute of Technology! What have we done to them you ask?
Plainly Visible ~Waldo
Here you can see the signs themselves, notable as you take to the court. But what are they?
From one half of the court ~Waldo
From the starting position on one side of the net, you can clearly see a men's bathroom sign. How odd.
And over here... ~Waldo
From the other side of the court you can only make out a symbol for a women's restroom sign. Hmm...
Blends in Nicely ~Waldo
Here you get a better view of these beautiful birches.
Wait, what's this? ~Waldo
Not that you need to come into this unusual walkway between the edge of Caltech's property and the retaining wall of the tennis courts, but I liked this shot better anyway. Moving on...
On one tree... ~Waldo
Facing one direction, you have the "gentlemen" sign...
... On the other. ~Waldo
... on the opposite tree, you have the "Ladies". The married couple playing in the court while we did this were delighted by both the mix-up, and the old-fashioned lingo. The husband apparently had been so transfixed by a sign saying "Ladies" once that he had stolen it for his car (your guess is as good as ours). Delightful people; I never would have pegged them as partners in crime.
And now for some Genderplex ~Waldo ~Waldo
Genderplex (jĕn'dər-plĕks') 1. (n.) The predicament of a person in a restaurant who is unable to determine his or her designated restroom. Example: I'm a bit genderplexed with these turtles and tortoises.
This tree is handicapped-accessible. ~Waldo
For the sake of being non-exclusionary, part of my task was dedicated to those differently abled, and unable to climb trees for Lincoln's treasures.
I mean, that's what the sign says... ~Waldo
Apparently this tree is handicapped-accessible. With a little effort. I guess. I mean, equal-opportunity forests are just one generation away, right?
And the sign is even easy to see at night! ~Waldo
Reflective materials even guide your way at night... that's helpful, right?
As night deepened for the second time on our task... ~Waldo
From a path through my childhood park you can just make out a sign up this long hill (see my introductory task during Insatiability for context on the park). So I guess this is accessible only to the differently-abled with a lot of determination and curiosity. Probably not the wheel-chair-bound though, that hill was slippery.
Besides... ~Waldo
Originally I put this sign in the middle of an empty field. "If you are in a wheelchair, that is as good a tree as you get," I thought. But mean-spirited humor only works when it is not an inside joke, so I put this one in a grove of trees up a steep hill with no path instead. I'm a real people-person like that. People always want to find me; to shake my hand, I am sure of it. That concludes Waldo's completion. Prepare yourself for a world of Pamda Bhaer you wouldn't believe. She did kites and stuff. Skip over it if you want, it's just some stuff she did with a person she just barely met. Boring, right?
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
I began my kite making by asserting dominance over my supplies. This dowel soon acknowledged me as the alpha male.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Kite 1, soon to be named Andrew
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Finished kite. I think this was Rob.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Rob, Emma, Estella, Dave, and Andrew. Estella is the small one because that is my favorite fake name. The other names all have stories too.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
What I wrote on every kite
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
My first viewing of Shak since July. He did not disappoint (Pamda approves of panda shirts). I however, did apparently disappoint-he had a hard time recognizing me sans facial hair.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Scouting out a tree
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
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I am some sort of awkward tree-dwelling gnome.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Text: HEY. YOU. Look at me. No, really look at me. You looking? Good. There is a kite stuck in this tree. More precisely, I am a kite and I am stuck in this tree. Yeah, a kite stuck in a tree, just like all those hil-ar-ious Peanuts comics. Except instead of being flown in here by accident, I was placed here. Someone made me, packaged me, wrote this stupid note about me, and stuck me up in a tree. And now I'm trapped. Although if you think about it, I'm still better off than you because I have the ability to be flown up here-I have the ability to fly. Do you? I didn't think so. But that's not the point. The point is, get me down, Charlie Brown. And maybe, just maybe, I'll show you something about flying.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Estella was hidden inside a tree I dubbed "Tiny Tree". In order to see how truly tiny Tiny tree was, I posed next to it.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Shak after being unable to climb a tree. I asked him if this was the face of defeat. He confirmed that it was.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
The face of un-defeat: Shak successfully places a painting.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
It looks like it grew there.
IMG_0608.jpg
He was so pleased with the way the last photo looked (hanging off a small branch) that he insisted upon returning to this tree and changing its position.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Shak celebrates by placing some Polite Tape.
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Pamda Bhaer & Shak
Snail.
The glorious return of the tasking bag.
Snail.
Booty!
Snail.
Couldn't resist building one.
Snail.
All wrapped up and ready to go!
Snail.
My very first tree.
Snail.
Tree tag one. You can barely see Dogma behind it.
Snail.
Tree two with paratroopers and tree tag.
Snail.
Tree three.
Snail.
Elmopalooza and a tag on tree three.
Snail.
Tree four.
Snail.
The tag is very visable, the paratroopers less so.
Snail.
Starting to get darker.
Snail.
Hello, little plastic men. I see you are wrapped in a masking tape embrace. Your affection for one another can teach us all about looking beyond red and green to what's on the inside. Oh, you hollow men. You haven't even a headpiece filled with straw. Who could injection mould a soul?
Snail.
Paler.
Snail.
South Park is in the upper right corner.
Snail.
Ever a little paler.
Snail.
Yellow and Blue men with green foliage. Part seven in a ten part series.
Snail.
A little paler until...
Snail.
How young this tree is! I wonder if it will surround the little plastic men and their little plastic parachutes as it grows.
Snail.
Pppffft! That's The Iliad in the background.
Snail.
(almost) Finished!
Snail.
It comes to rest.
Snail.
I finally tried out my original plan of tossing them up into the tree. It doesn't actually work.
Beginning.
The begining. Hmm this is going a bit slow.
#1 done
#1
From a distance.
Lets try a Root.
That's still part of the tree.
#2 done
yup roots work. a bit more difficult though
#3
Done.
#3 again.
As you can see, it IS hidden in the trees.
Let's try some of these trees.
I think I can....I think I can...
IMMUNE!!
Fail. :(
Using the knife.
I was slow at it :(
Uber pen-tree skills.
At work. *cam battery started going low at this point.
Another tree.
Another one of mine.
I liked being more adventurous and going into people's front yards. However...
OH NO!!
THEY GOT PROTECTION!! RUNN!!
Rushing
Camera...please dont die..
Speeding through.
We can do this!
almost....
DONE!
I dont know why...but we ran back to the house.
Walrus 1
An egret statue, overlooking ducks, with a Woody Allen quote. "Why does man kill? He kills for food. And not only food, frequently there must be a beverage."
Shark tooth
Fossilized, from a great height. This tree is like a ladder. Wonderful. Feynman: "Science is the belief in the ignorance of the experts."
Strange stone/brass object
It tells you the days of the week. Endearingly outdated. Also, I gave up trying to climb the tree with the camera tied to me, so I apologize for the poor quality when photographing from beneath. “‘Why’ is the only question in the English language we are worried enough about to have devoted a letter to it. It isn’t W X Why? Where? But perhaps it should be W X Why? Not?”
Propaganda!
I can resist anything except temptation. In this case the temptation to hide two liberal magazines and a book on basic politics with a Gandhi quote up the best tree on Beverly Hills High campus.
Park Tree
Gets a funny British wildlife author, a lot of funny British phrases, and a quote from Douglas Adams.
Underwater0 gets a nod
A sea urchin. In a shell. With carved shells in the sea urchin. And a quote: "A musical is like a burlap sack. I would not want to be in either."
Humor
A very, very small vase of flower and a Woody Allen quote on hope, for a friend of mine.
Malibu Ammonite
THIS one was hard to part with. I have a fossil collection with a few ammonites, so I figured I could give up one, but... abandoning it to the parking lot of the Malibu mart took effort.
Borders gift certificate
Everyone likes free books! Also a quote by Lincoln (Abraham) on literature.
Tasteless Pencil Case
This object probably has more meaning to me than to anyone else. I bought it for a supremely incomprehensible bout of haggling in a Beijing market where almost everything was counterfeit. But it's the sort of thing which I would be delighted to find in a tree - useable, plastic-wrapped for sterility, and unexpected.
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Fahrenheit 451
Placed in front of the Katella Deli in Aneheim
Fahrenheit 451
4+5+1 =10!
Necklaces
and some bracelets. Ten of them collected over the last decade.
Dr Subtle Hangs the Jewelry
In a tree on Cherry and Wardlow
Necklaces
Placed!
Location
A choice location for the fox spirit idol
Fox Spirit
... another angle...
Fox Placed
Nestled against the telephone pole
10 Real SATs...
And the 10 Real SAT Solution booklet
10 Real...
explanations and hand gestures on the part of the good Doctor
At rest
in a tree on the edge of a CSUDH parking lot adjacent to the Home Depot Center.
Diptych 1: AKBAR STOP
Diptych 2: DOG LIFE
Diptych 3: DIFFERENCE ENGINE
Diptych 4: KITTEN TRUNK
Diptych 5: SPECIAL DELIVERY
Framed!
Dr. Subtle places the first frame in a tree near Beta's High School [The California Academy of Mathematics and Science(CAMS)]
Akbar-Stop
Very Stable!
A lolpanda in the Machine
Hope a CAMS kid appeciates this one
Dog-Life
So creepy AND political
Kitten-Tree
My favorite image pairing. It's in a tiny wooden frame embellished with a little metal heart too!
Obama By Snail Mail
I guess it wasn't _that_ slow going.
A View from the End
Victory!
Dr. Subtle after having successfully planted the diptychs. 10 images in trees.
Across the street
A view of a few of the trees for an idea of spacing and location.
5 GUYS!?
West of Pittsburgh!?! Who knew!
10 Guys
We Spread the word....
to the damned. (directly across from the flyers)
In-n-out fans must be converted. LA0 For 5 Guys!
Hill Street
Beta waits near the hill's (Hill's) crest as a plane descends into the Long Beach Airport in the background.
Clear Coast
Into the planter!
Stretch!
She is without Dr. Subtle's height advantage
Successo!
No need to watch her trek back across the street and up the hill. The important bit is now people are forewarned to "TEN CUIDADO" as they aproach the descent.
TEN CUIDADO
well, actually, it was far more dangerous before they leveled it out. When it was a straight drop, before the awful residential construction, Beta's dad would coast down sans breaking (until the end, of course) with her little brother and her. So I guess it is a warning for change and sadness.
Frogs in Bags!
Thank you Filipino 98 Cent store.
A PLAGUE UPON WALMARTHEE
So Tall!
And another frog, and another...
So Cute
cute and evil?
Lone Tree
Beta wasn't even sure Walmart's parking lot even _had_ trees, but Dr. Subtle was correct in that assertion.
Tenish Mementos
In preparation for a different task, Beta selected all the memory scraps from my bulletin board that displayed a 10 obviously or subtlety. The Buttons have a total of 10 holes.
It's a BUG TRAP!
Where's Akbar when you need him? One of our tree destinations already had things in its branches. One more addition didn't hurt.
It's high for beta
Squirtle!
His main attack deals 10 points of damage! He'll help catch those bugs.
Cactus
I consider it a tree. And it offered some lovely net-shelving!
Caught in the Act
Dr. Subtle Indulges
Stretch
into the sunset
In a Park Tree
Beta maintains that as the pin pierced the ticket, some ticketous fibers must now be embedded in the tree bark and thus qualify it as "in" the tree. Also, one time when the park flooded, there was a lake in the lowest level for a few days, so it's secretly better.
Under and into
Placing a ticket on the Corner Cat-House (named for the unfaltering presence of felines) premises. As usual, at least one cat is in attendance and keeps an eye on our activities.
Most Hidden
You have to duck under the edge and peer into just the right spot to see this one.
Cat House,
enjoy these buttons
Buttons
The tree is also vaguely reminiscent of a different task.
Trees abut the Cat House
Pointy!
The tree name eludes me at the moment
Up, Up!
And away! Last tree!
A view
From below, at sidewalk level.
The Doctor
he writes a prescription for reference
The End!
One last row of memories, also home to invisible memories of an epic tree task.
OMG HE TOUCHED IT!
Apparently, they have a huge blind spot and super soft tail feathers.
23 vote(s)
Poisøn Lake
4
Loki
5
Goddess of Doom and Thievery
5
Philippe
5
teucer
5
Rin Brooker
5
Sombrero Guy
5
Spidere
5
GYØ Ben
4
susy derkins
5
lara black
5
Myrna Minx
5
Bjørn Teuleuse
5
rongo rongo
5
Scott Nelson
5
Ben Yamiin
5
artmouse
5
Darkaardvark
5
Charlie Fish
5
Entropic Electricity
5
Placid Dingo
5
Kattapa
5
Bex.
Favorite of:
Terms
shplank, multicompletion, collaborationbased9 comment(s)
The level of collaboration makes it more than worth max points! Love it, love it, love it. Now I've just gotta recruit more P0rtland players.
holy.
crapballs.
terms updated, it's been a while since i've used that one.
I think I loved The Walrus' the most.
Although (Pamda+Shak)'s kites and pictures, and well, godhavemercyofus, the COUCH and also the screen ex- , and "ladies" and the skeleton brothers, not happy about the literal one though.
Heh, Squirtle's up a tree again.
I was a little sad that my brain still has dedicated so many resources to the flash-recognition of that brand. Tac and I used to feel remorse for the wasted brain cells of our youth, forever dedicated to associating the medical condition of "water on the knee" with the board-game "Operation!" Our lament was of course that our brain could be remembering some more useful memory. You know, like internet boobs maybe. This is why of course we refer to the single quantum of memory as a "nipple".
I really like the way this all turned out, and I realized I wanted to say why. We started this the second day of Everyday Life (no idea it would take this long), in response to the realization that collaborations solved both the limited vote-points problem, encouraged more tasking, and caused some player discussion of how to do a task where there was none before.
I know having all of these completions together made me think a lot more about the different ways to do a task, much like Unusual Edition has shown us all meanwhile. I can never be sure whether more would be contributed to the community if there were ten submissions of this task than if there were one, but as far as I am aware there is no multi-completion this size elsewhere on SF0. I look forward to pointing a new player towards this page as a lesson that you can always find another way, a better way to interpret a task. I bet even Give a Pig a Pancake has some outside-the-box opportunities people could be engaging still.
I too like this task for that very reason as well. But I, unlike you had been involved in a few of these in the past. These big collaborations done differently from different places all working towards a common goal. The first one I did I was swept into, and thought I was just having fun, but it turned into a task, while I was doing it, it felt like I was standing on a busy street when everybody else started to move and found myself moving with the crowd, and then they started to run, and there I was running right along with them. That task was I Am Sparticus, and then the one that really got my juices flowing for big collab tasking was started by Senator Spidere, and quickly swept up a lot of SFØ, and that was Lounge Against The Machine. And that felt so right. I remember going back every day (or every hour) and seeing who'd uploaded more pictures, it was such a giddy feeling of not knowing what little piece of genius another player was going to come up with that I'd be getting credit for. That collaboration really set in my heart what a great collaboration could really do. And then Burn Unit and I came up with a big collab of What Do Cell Phones Mean when he realized that the only way that the task would be worth the ridiculous 400 base points was if a whole lot of us all shared our varied insights to really dig into the question. And that turned into a great example of one of those tasks where if just one of us had submitted, it wouldn't have been nearly as good. We did High Fived in a similar way, but that was supposed to be a competition, but nobody won, or rather we all won. And then a bunch of us all got behind A Little Less Light and the completion was far greater than if one of us had done it alone. And then Collaborative Audio Collage was set up to be a big collaboration so no surprise that it was. And then in a very similar manner, we did Reality Tribute Band, but it was supposed to be a competition like High Fived, but again, we all won. And then again, just by the instruction in the task itself, our Dance Patch day was a nice big far reaching collaboration that makes my heart all warm. I can still just watch those videos and laugh (Secret Agent and Myrna especially, but also SFØ). There have been many more collaborations, but these big, the-whole-is-greater-than-the-sum-of-it's-parts-type completions are what really stoke my collab fires.
I guess I'm trying to say that big collaborations aren't new and I didn't come up with the idea, so number one credit where credit is due (and I've only listed collaborations that I was a part of, the greater SFØ community has a whole lot more if you go look for them), and number two let's do more. And when I say "let's" I mean all of SFØ. So when you see events like this or this, sign up. Sign up and be a part of something that just might turn out great. Odds are good you'll be glad you did.
Seeing this, and all the other tree tasks, makes me think of trees differently. Now, they are not just things, they are places.
Ahah, you wanted to kill people? What if climbing trees would end up tragically for someone who could fall down and break a leg? But I like the idea with finding things in general, but I would make it less dangerous. Sounds cool!But I just write my thesis, my point of view.
Dang you guys, we made us a giant praxis here, hey what. Didn't realize it was this big.