I (Lincoln) decided to do this task, and was all set to find ten trees with ten items to put in them, when it occurred to me to try to do this as a collaboration, so I sent a message to nine of my fellow LAØ players and asked if each of them would like to contribute ten items to put in ten trees, and that way make this task disparate and potentially much more awesome. And then after a few people dropped out, and others joined, and finally, some old awesome friends from far away moved to LAØ, prompting me to incorporate them into this task as a welcome-to-LAØ-type gesture, I finally had my ten people putting ten things in ten trees, so we just rocked 100 trees with cool things. And this is the task before you. Ten very different views from ten very different players.


LAØ'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.