**TRY YOUR HAND/New Evidence in Need of Analysis**

[virginia]

Hi everyone--

So I keep getting all kinds of stuff that needs a hard look.

First, there's everything on the Screens blog: screens.blogs.nytimes.com -- the recent emails from Bree and Cassie, and the "confession" by the videogamemaker.

And then there is THIS, which is not on the blog. It's the link to the hushmail that Cassie sent. If you go to this link, you'll get to the message. I've already given the text, but I've waited until now--because I just figure out how!--to get you all to weigh in on Cassie's audio file. It's only available once you answer the secret question, which all of you will get easily.

www.hushmail.com/express/RBZ2F298

What does that whispering audio file say? What do you make of the videogame guy's confession? What about Cassie's reference to "unconscious knowledge," which appears to be a phrase used by practitioners of backmasking? (As Google taught me.) And Bree's email: what's she up to? Not wanting to rule out getting an agent, since she's an actress? But not giving anything away, obvs.

Virginia

[crackityjonesjr]

Wow, "Cassie's" email address is almost exactly the same as [e-mail]. This has to be a game of some sort. Hopefully someone with audio expertise can figure out what the whispering girl says; I certainly couldn't, but then again I have the dishwasher and television on!

[morninglory]

Can I just say that the whispering is the creepiest thing I've ever heard in my entire life? but anyway, I couldn't find a direct link anywhere to the actual email from the videogamemaker, so I can't give my two cents about that. I can say that the cassie email contains a line from a song by Jane's Addiction called pig's of zen, or something along those lines. I know i've mentioned it before, so sorry for reposting =]

[johngreen]

Virginia, thanks for posting this. We appreciate it.

The email from Bree: To me, this lends credence to the notion that it is not a huge corporate conglomerate, because why else would she send out feelers for an agent? If she's working for Pepsi, she presumably already has an agent. (By the way, Virginia, did you send her any names, if you don't mind us asking?) Or maybe they're just familiar with the forum threads where we question why she _hasn't_ sought an agent. (They previously seem to have shown familiarity with the questions in the forum, as opposed to just youtube comments.) Regardless, she doesn't seem terribly agent-hungry. I'll be interested if she replies to the agent(s) you give her email to. I'm sure you have no shortage of agents to suggest, but let me know if you want me to pass along the email address to my agent, whom I'm sure would be happy to write (and represent!) lg15.

2. I haven't read the confession and can't find a link to it on your blog. Where is it?

3. The extremely creepy audio from Cassie. (Btw, how do we know this is from someone associated with lg15? I know 'cassie's' email is similar to lg15's, but has the email address lg15 is using with you been published anywhere?)

Obviously, the audio is profoundly creepy. I don't know what the clicking is that goes throughout the audio (morse code, maybe?), but it seems to me that she whispers a couple syllables at the six second mark. I think she is saying, "I'm scared." I have good headphones, but not amazing ones--Terryfic can probably get a better quality. I have no idea what she says at 11 seconds. At seventeen seconds, she says something like, "I can see?" And then in the last quarter-second or so of the audio, it sounds to me like there's a human voice getting cut off.

4. Unconscious knowledge: Backmasking, or "reverse speech" (that is, playing your Beatles' albums backwards) tells our inner-most secrets. Here's the problem with it: Unless I'm wrong, we can play the lg15 movies backwards and hear pretty much whatever we'd like to hear. However, it's possible that this is a hint, and that we'll hear something very clear by playing the movies backwards. If we want to do this, it seems like the place to start is conversations that seem random or where word choice is very unusual.

That's all I've got for now. Virginia, you'd make a heck of a Game Master. I mean, assuming you're not.


-John
www.sparksflyup.com

[Terryfic]

I am in the process of trying to remove the background noise while not destroying the vocals. The first thing said is for sure "I'm scared" the middle bit is still hard to make out and I think the last bit is "cassie"

[pharaohweb]

Here's a quick attempt at isolating the whispers. I think I hear "college kid" in there. The loud noise at the end almost seems to be music buried under the machinery (or whatever the background hum is). Also semi-audible are some "clicks" near the beginning... strange indeed.

www.pharaohweb.com/temp/cassie_filtered.mp3

Oh, and, 1st-time poster here... be kind.

Update: Here's a somewhat less heavy-handed approach to filtering the noise:

www.pharaohweb.com/temp/cassie_filtered_2.mp3

[johngreen]

I just listened to the reversed file, and to me at least it really does not sound like words, at least not Cassie's whispering.

However, there's a chance that the background noise itself, when reversed, becomes words (I guess, although this seems unlikely), and my headphones aren't highpowered enough to pick it up. I will forward the attachment to anyone interested in hearing it backwards, but it really is much, much creepier when played forwards.

-John
www.sparksflyup.com

p.s. I have emails in to friends at public radio, hoping they can use, you know, work equipment to get a high quality distillation of the whispers.

[Terryfic]

I am using Adobe Audition to do my work.

[Alissa Brooke]

I went into Goldwave with the clip and used the "Remove Inital Noise" Preset and this is what I came up with:

"I'm scared-- lie perfectly still-- can't see..." and then a louder noice at the end, with the hums from the background getting louder, almost like a panic before it cuts off.

I am sufficiently creeped out.

[hookedonmonics]

Eek. all this makes me want to turn tail and run from the saga before it really kicks in and I start having nightmares. I know it's not real (correction: I believe it's not real), but I'm not a big fan of horror movies/ willingly getting creeped out. But, alas, I'm glued to the screen.

[Alissa Brooke]

hooke: Me too-- my nightmares have already started back up again starting a few days ago...

EDIT:

This is the version of the file I used to hear what I did.

media.putfile.com/Cassie-10

[Terryfic]

I will go with Alissa's - "I'm scared-- lie perfectly still-- can't see..." as the closest thing I can make out.


This is the best I could do: media.putfile.com/cassieavi

[pharaohweb]

Listening more... I still think I hear "college kid." Also, I think the part Alissa translated as "lie perfectly still" might actually be something containing the obvious phrase "purple monkey." Or, something like "it's going perfectly still." And, the end sounds less like "can't see" to me and more like "it can change," although the G sound in "change" isn't really there (like "it can chain").

Then again, it'll probably sound different next time...

[west]

I'm thinking/hearing:

"I'm scared-- stay perfectly still-- can't see/caycie..."

[Terryfic]

"lie perfectly still" is starting to sound more like "I'm perfectly still"