The Boy Who Remained Lost - May 12th
13 May 2007The day had finally come. It was an extremely pleasant day in the Twin Cities, with temperatures hovering at about 70 degrees. Sitting in the shade would bring a smattering of goosebumps to your exposed skin. On this lovely day, no one in the Minnesota metro area found where I was hiding.
More probably, no one was properly looking. The clues weren’t terribly hard, and a quick search of Google would have revealed much. But the difficulty isn’t properly observed from my own eyes. Let’s see how the events unfolded.
Taking off from my home at 11am, I down 394 East. 94 would have been my rode of choice, but it is summer and that means road construction blankets the city like the first heavy snow of the season. Reaching downtown Minneapolis, I crossed the mighty Mississippi by way of Hennepin Avenue. My target for the day was in the Minneapolis Riverfront District. Before I settled down for four hours, there was a prize to be purchased.
Punch Neapolitan Pizza is where I picked up the $15 gift certificate that nobody claimed. It’s a shame, as Punch makes pizza so good you’ll cry until your abdomen cramps up.
With gift certificate in bag, it was time to walk to my hiding location. This week’s hiding spot was the Soap Factory on 5th Avenue and 2nd Street SE.
While the Soap Factory was once an actual soap factory, it is now a gallery for artists. Here, this blurb says it better than I will:
The Soap Factory supports artists and their work not only by providing exhibition and studio space on an unprecedented scale, but also by providing a skilled staff to aid artists in realizing new work, by paid stipends to both artists and curators, and by securing press articles and critical reviews of shows in a unique gallery space with a national profile.
There you are. An art gallery that I had never heard of before. The perfect setting for the week’s Least Dangerous Game. Let’s get into the clues. The first one was set out at noon, as expect.
Very near the river.
A simple and vague clue started the day. “East of the river” or “West of the river” didn’t seem appropriate for the day. I was two or three city block from the Mississippi. Very near indeed.
I sat in a small park for the next 15 minutes. There was no possible way I would be found in this short amount of time, so I enjoyed the chirping of birds and the walking of dogs.
After 15 minutes had passed, it was time to head back to the Soap Factory. The next clue was sent.
The insect knew its trivia. It was a sure fact ant.
What could that possibly mean? Check out “surfactant” in Wikipedia. It’s soap. The game could be over in minutes, if people were looking.
I entered the gallery and awkwardly chatted up the volunteers for a few minutes. I was the first visitor of the day. What use is pretending to understand art if there is no one else to see that you pretend to understand it? Oh well. I would have to be satisfied with my own appreciation. I started my walk through the gallery and sent out my next clue.
I can hear screaming.
I could! There was constant screaming in the gallery. How could that possibly be, you ask? Zombie Lands was the video installation of the show, which was pretty cool. One room showed two videos on opposing walls. One with the artist eternally running away from a zombie, and one with the artist as a zombie eternally chasing the screen on the opposite wall. It was a smart idea, and it tickled my fancy.
“Clint Eastwood” Exhibitions, in a way.
The next clue felt very crosswordy to me. Clint Eastwood was known as the man with no name in his spaghetti western trilogy. No Name Exhibitions put on the shows at the Soap Factory.
Far and away, my favorite art in the show as Nick Cornbere. His intricate etchings and drawings with many simply levels overlaid upon each other had me staring for minutes upon minutes. They were a delight to the eyes. It’s worth a trip just to see them. Do it! Do it!
This is not a factory for Snakes on a Plane.
Simple enough, Snakes on a Plane was also known as SoaP. Let’s continue.
Former occupants assisted in US patent 4190550.
The National-Purity Soap Company originally inhabited the location of the Soap Factory, and they contributed the coconut oil paste soap to the patent. If folks hadn’t gotten the hint at this point, “soap” would have been very obvious at this point.
At the end of a flight, the Zombie pilot Lands.
I already explained the Zombie Lands part. There was nothing left to do but spell it out.
Soap
And half an hour later.
Factory
And there you have it. 4pm came with no winners. A few folks guessed correctly over Twitter, but guessing over Twitter doesn’t get you delicious pizza to go into your mouth.
So next week, the prize is a $15 gift certificate to Punch Pizza. Maybe I’ll see you. That’d be nice. Bring a few friends to. Or tell a few friends. Or do something! And, if you’ve never been, take a trip to the Soap Factory. It’s worth the trip.
One Response to “The Boy Who Remained Lost - May 12th”
May 14th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Aric, you might get a kick out of this…
I got my buddy Chris to hang out and play the LDG. At around 12:45, we mistakenly figured that you were somewhere around the Science Museum in St. Paul. From there we pretty much just didn’t put 2 and 2 together and drove up and down different parts of the river.
A little after 3:00 we said “oh well” and headed to Tuggs for a beer and appetizer… 2 blocks from where you were hiding. We had no idea.
I actually have not heard of the Soap Factory until then. I’ll be sure to check it out though!