White Roses

[unixronin]

I refer to the ... hidden, for lack of a better word, final track of the CD Don't Be Afraid by Kurt Harland of Information Society, released under the Information Society name.  As noted in the Wikipedia article, "The 10th track on Don't Be Afraid is titled "White Roses" and sounds as 55 seconds of modem noise.  When decoded, text data is displayed revealing clues for of an internet scavenger hunt of sorts to collect 16 separate .arj-compressed, password-protected files which add up to the completed White Roses song in .wav format.  Most of the pieces are now lost, due to hosting being taken down."  The first sentence of that text, when decoded, reads "For reasons that will become obvious when you hear it, the song "White Roses" is not found on this disc."

Thanks to Spacemutiny, I just got my hands on the compressed 76-megabyte CD-quality .wav file of White Roses, from Kurt Harland's archives, and listened to it for the first time, after owning the CD for 12 years.  I never found enough pieces to assemble the full track.  (There's a high-quality MP3 available on that same page.)

After hearing it, I cannot agree with the above-quoted text.  The reason is not obvious.  In fact, after listening to White Roses, you realize that Don't Be Afraid isn't complete without it.  White Roses is the correct place for Don't Be Afraid to end.

Join the InSoc Liberation Force.  Spread White Roses around.

Comments

[cipherpunk.livejournal.com]

What do you believe is the allegedly–obvious reason for it to not appear?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Damned if I can figure one out.

[ithildae.livejournal.com]

Is it related to something that was going on when the CD was released?

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

If so, it's obscure enough that I'm not making the connection.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

I could text Kurt and ask if you like.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Sure. I don't have any way to ask directly... and I am curious now.

[kizayaen.livejournal.com]

I'd also be greatly interested to know.