Last week a tweet from ThisOneIsOnUs alerted me to the North American Treasure Hunt. At the close of NIN’s final shows, fans around the globe worked together to release a fully fan-produced NIN 3-disc DVD/BD called “Another Version of the Truth” (AVOTT). I think it may have been the first project of its kind (at least on this scale) which yielded thousands of professionally designed/printed final products. Pretty incredible accomplishment. For whatever reasons, I never got around to ordering one and the local screening was setup for an hour away from SF at midnight, which really didn’t work for me. So, when I read that one of the leaders of the project would be traveling by Greyhound bus from Montreal across North America, leaving a free copy (well, one disc + artwork) in the large cities along the way, I committed myself to getting the SF copy.
Phase 1: The Quest
Knowing his bus left SF around 10PM Thursday night, I lingered at the office for 3 hours after finishing my work, since the station was nearby. At 9:30 I rode over and scouted the premises. I spotted a guy in a NIN shirt standing in line with luggage. It had to be him. I stood outside the window trying to figure out my approach, when Tim dropped by on his way home. He encouraged me to go in and talk to the guy, thinking he matched the Twitter user photo pretty well. As we stood there, I saw 2 girls walk up without luggage. One took a photo of the other in front of the Greyhound sign. “Competition! Why else would they take a photo unless they were documenting their nearing acquisition of the NIN bounty?!?” My sense of urgency heightened. Tim tried to convince me they didn’t look like NIN fans, but I debated that we had picked up a lot of preppies. I looked back & forth from them to the guy in the NIN shirt. “What to do? What to do?” I decided to lock up my bike and go in but not before explaining to Tim that I had done a lot of things that could be ruled creepy in my time but staring at a stranger in a Greyhound station was topping that list.
I walked inside but I couldn’t go over to the guy without a bus ticket. He was about 20-feet away which was too far for me to comfortably yell a person’s name with the hope it’s actually them. Meanwhile, I kept my eye on the girls who now stood along the half-wall with me, just looking out at the ticketed passengers. Soon, another guy joined our entourage. This one looked the part of a fan. I was getting restless. I shot them all looks that implied, “I was here first.” I wondered if we would all get the tweet announcing where the DVD was hidden at the same time and create one of those holiday time trample scenes. I started rehearsing my guilt story on why I most deserved it. I was fully prepared for the impending attack. I posted a Twitter reply to the NIN guy asking if he were the one in the NIN shirt (seemed too much of a coincidence for it not to be). Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. Nothing. I saw him check his phone a few times, but it wasn’t safe to assume it was him, so my Twitter feed refreshing was constant. The other boy I sensed as a fellow fan, lied his way into the ticketed area. If he hadn’t been so cute, I would have given him more intense death looks. He sat between myself & the alleged NIN guy and was also checking his phone. The sleepiness-inspired paranoia was about to get the best of me.
At 10:20, I saw the guy in the NIN shirt leave the station and board the bus. Refresh. Refresh. Maybe he was waiting until the bus pulled away to post the whereabouts. I was getting tired & restless. I waited until 10:30, which is when I hit the Twitter API call limit: 105 server pings/hr. It wouldn’t let me refresh. “NOOOO!!” I surveyed the vending machines and scanned the room for an envelope. Nothing. Damn. I finally got in line and asked the ticket lady to check lost & found. She was sooo nice, giving me a number I could call tomorrow, since she didn’t find anything. The large black man in line behind me was skeptical about the whole thing. “So what exactly do you get if you find this?”, he asked. “A DVD,” I said with a timid don’t-judge-me expression. He pressed on. “Wait, you’re doing this for a plain DVD you could get for $14-15…not even a blu-ray???” He had me second-guessing the point of all this trouble, too, but I explained, “Yes…but I will get the *only* one hidden in the Bay area.” I convinced him it was a worthy cause & he wished me luck. It was 10:40 PM at this point and I still had a long, chilly bike ride home, so I left, defeated. I saw the girls board a bus, so they were crossed off the list of nemesis’s. I resigned myself to the fact that the cute (albeit definitely underage) boy would find the DVD. Oh well. I had to sleep. There was nothing more to be done. One last scan of the station grounds before peddling away.
Phase 2: The Discovery
I awoke the next morning, exhausted and angry about the lack of updates from the NIN dude. With my last ounce of hope, I refreshed Twitter to find he had replied to me at 6 AM and also posted details on where he left the envelope, apologizing & explaining he didn’t have wifi in the station. Instantly, I was wide awake and I thought through how to cut down my morning routine to the bare minimum to get to the station as early as possible! I managed to leave my place at 7:40 AM, so I was to the station by 8 AM. When I walked in, the same security guy was guarding the ticketed area, but he didn’t seem to remember me loitering for an hour last night. I tried explaining the situation and asked if I could go check under the Gatorade machine for the envelope. He sent me to the ticket counter, where a much un-kinder woman than last night was working.
In these days of terrorism, it’s really hard to find a way to say, “a complete stranger should have left an envelope hidden in your bus station” without sounding suspect, so I prefaced my story with “this is going to sound a little strange”. Nevertheless, she reluctantly walked across the room to the Gatorade machine…possibly the slowest a human has ever walked…while I bit my lip in suspense. She was a slightly robust woman who had to steady herself to slowly lower down on one knee to check under the machine. Now, I just felt guilty. She stood back up, apparently not finding anything, and my heart sank. “I’m too late…but maybe she’s not looking hard enough!!” Now I was going to feel like even more of a jerk when she walked back empty-handed. But then, a miracle happened…she went beyond the call of duty and moved the trashcan a little to check behind the machine. I saw her lean forward and pull back with a large envelope in her hand. Her slow return march only hastened my anticipation. She was flipping the envelope all around, checking it out, and I said, “Does it say ‘#1 Nine Inch Nails fan…or N-I-N???’” “Umm, I don’t know…” and with a shrug, she handed it over to me. I might have hugged her, had I not thought it would make her hate me more than she already clearly did.
Phase 3: The Victory
I left the station feeling so accomplished. I documented my find before even leaving the station. It was as if I were afraid it might disappear or I might die before reaching the office. The world must know I am the #1 NIN Fan in San Francisco.
I’ve rarely felt so validated. Here’s my full bounty: DVD case artwork, postcard, sticker, & “The Gift” DVD.
I was high as a kite when I arrived to work…over an hour & a half early from our scheduled company picnic departure time of 9:30 AM. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite enough pep to overcome my exhaustion, but I still enjoyed some good laughs under the sun with Ryan & Kali.
Phase 4: The Lesson
However, I did confirm that the only thing better than getting something for free is knowing you beat everyone else to that something.