Last Friday, Evan sent me what he called his playlist. I put it on the blog, there was some chatter on Twitter, and then we all moved on. (Or at least publicly we did; maybe there was intense discussion on secret IRC channels that I wasn't invited to!)
Well, it turns out that Evan's whole travel plan was embedded in that playlist, based on where the bands come from! It starts with the Grateful Dead (from San Francisco), ends with the National (from Brooklyn), and covers his whole journey. The only exceptions are Donovan, which was code for his trip to Salt Lake City to watch Landon Donovan with the US National soccer team, and the Hermit Thrushes, who have a significance he'll tell us about in the December issue of Wired. Here's the whole list again.
He’s Gone – The Grateful Dead
The Summer Wind – Frank Sinatra
Frank’s Wild Years – Tom Waits
Leaving Trunk – Taj Mahal
Snowflake Heart – Hermit Thrushes
In California – Neko Case
Don’t Make Me a Target – Spoon
Call Me the Breeze – J.J. Cale
Trouble, Heartaches, and Sadness – Ann Peebles
One Big Holiday – My Morning Jacket
Running Fast – The Meters
Orange Blossom Special – Johnny Cash
Hurdy Gurdy Man – Donovan
Hail Hail – Truth and Salvage Co.
Going On – Gnarls Barkley
Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone – Harry Connick Jr.
Mistaken for Strangers – The National
The craziest thing is that Wired's music editor, Nancy Miller, figured this out instantly when she first saw the list yesterday, a few hours before Evan was caught. She had been on vacation last week, but saw the connections to the clues already out there, and was in the process of recording a podcast explaining it, when the news of the nabbing came across the wires.
And again, thank you to all you hunters who made this so much fun! Stay tuned for great details from Evan, and the full story of what he did on the lam, in the December issue.
