Fugue / (fyoog):
- (music) A polyphonic composition in which a central melodic theme
is stated successively in each of multiple voices, and in which the
contrapuntal structure is established by the interweaving of the voices.
- (psychiatry) An amnesiac condition in which an individual
experiences a loss of identity or an inability to recall his/her own
actions. This condition usually results from severe mental stress or
frustration, and may persist for several months.
A musical fugue begins with a single voice (instrument, or stop on an organ,
etc.) which introduces the theme. As the first voice reaches the end of
the theme, another voice is introduced, which takes up the same theme.
This is not a simple round (like Row, Row, Row your boat) because as each voice
takes up the theme, the other voices continue, interlacing the different
statements of the theme and producing an amazing, beautiful interweaving.
From the High Renaissance to the Late Baroque period, the fugue form grew. It
arguably reached its apogee when Bach wrote his (sadly unfinished) masterwork Die Kunst der Fuge
(The Art of the Fugue). My favorite fugue is probably Bach's 'Little
Fugue in G Minor', although he wrote so many delightful ones it is truly difficult to choose a single favorite.
But, as any evil super genius would point out, there is another, more
sinister meaning of the word 'fugue'. It can also mean a state in which,
because of some severe mental stress or frustration, someone is driven to escape
their own identity and flee from reality. What sort of mental trauma might
provoke a person so? An evil super-genius can but smile an evil smile, and
point out that hunting for geocaches can be a frustrating proposition indeed.
How better to celebrate the art of the fugue than by creating a geocaching
analogy to the fugue? If a musical fugue consists of multiple voices
organized around a single theme, a geocache fugue might be a multi-cache.
So, to help you all become more familiar with both definitions of the word
'fugue', I've created a multi-cache. Naturally, because I am an evil
super-genius, it is an evil super-genius multicache! And the theme is
"Frustrating Geocachers with devious hides!"
Now, I believe that a multi-cache can be hard without having a lot of
stages. It can even be hard without using a great deal of tricky
mathematics to get from stage to stage (although there is a lot to be
said for mathematics as a tool to increase frustration!) So, what I have
created to torment you is a three stage multi-cache. No mathematics,
tricky or otherwise - you just need to find each stage.
The first stage can be found at the posted coordinates. Because the theme of
this cache is 'fugue' and not 'physical exhaustion' this stage of the cache is
an easy one star terrain rating. It is completely wheelchair accessible;
you can (assuming the parking is available) park your delightful, polluting, gas
guzzling monstrosity within a mere 15 feet of the location you seek.
As you have no
doubt come to expect, the first stage is cunningly hidden in a public
place. Worse, it is a public place that is rife with hiding places.
Why, on its own, this single stage probably rates four difficulty stars.
My heart soars with evil glee as I contemplate how your blood will boil and your
mind will seize up as you attempt to find the first stage. Naturally, once
you have found the first stage, your frustrations are just beginning, because
when you find the first stage, all you will have to show for your Herculean
effort will be the coordinates of the second stage.
The second stage is also cleverly, fiendishly hidden in a public place. Like
the first stage, you can park within a few yards of the second stage. This
one might be a bit of a challenge for someone who is wheelchair bound, but it is
doable. I have specifically constructed the challenge here to once again
be mental. If you are contorting your body in various unpleasant ways in
an attempt to find the second stage, you can rest assured that I will view your
antics with great amusement but that they will not help you find the second
stage at all.
Once you have found the first and second stages, though, your troubles are
nearly over. Because the final cache is a normal size, it should not be
too hard to find. Again, the challenge is mental, not physical.
Although it is a dirt trail to the cache, you can (if you are sufficiently
clever) park your car within 150 feet of the cache. The terrain is flat
and level, and the path is wide and barked. You could probably get a wheelchair to the final cache location,
although it will be more of a challenge than the first two stages. There
is absolutely no bushwhacking needed, and the cache is just a few feet from the
trail; however, finding and retrieving the cache from a wheelchair might be
difficult. If someone who is mobility impaired wishes to search for the
final cache, they should feel free to contact Dr. Koska, who will dispatch one
of his delightfully sycophantic and eager to please evil minions to assist with the physically difficult
portion of the search. Be forewarned - the evil minions will have specific
instructions to give no hints, and might, in fact, be unaware of the actual
location of the cache. Getting help from the evil minions does not
guarantee success! I desire to eliminate mobility impairment as a
barrier to geocaching, but that does not mean that I intend to make things
easy!
Some sort of unusual mental fit must have possessed me as I hid the final
cache, because it contains both a normal sized logbook, and an assortment of
trinkets for trading purposes. There is room, if you choose, for you to
record your tale of woe and your lamentations for posterity. Naturally, as
an evil super genius, I would prefer that you forgo the use of the pen and
instead sign the logbook in blood, or even better, in a mixture of
blood and tears of frustration. However, I expect that few of you will
have to fortitude to do so, so a pen is provided. It probably even works.
There is also a camera in the cache. Feel free to take a picture of
yourself; when all the film is exposed, one of my evil henchmen will have the
film developed and scanned, so that you can all have your smiling visage entered
into my top secret database of arch-enemies (and posted on the WWW!)
P.S. - I suppose you're wondering why an evil super genius would know about
(much less like) Baroque music. The best explanation is this little tidbit
of lyric:
"When a felon's not engaged in
his employment
or maturing his felonious little
plans
his capacity for innocent enjoyment
is just as great as any honest
man's!"
- William S. Gilbert, "The
Pirates of Penzance -or- The Slave of Duty"
10/22/02 - changed the difficulty to five stars from four. Anything that has taken so much searching for the first stage alone is clearly 5 stars!
10/25/02 - After several more days of repeated measurement, I've updated the coordinates for the first waypoint, moving them about 7.6 feet south. I know that people have been having the coordinates land them quite a bit further north than this, but these coordinates represent the averaged result of more than a dozen WAAS enabled fixes across on different days at different times. Based on those data, I believe that 90% of the time a WAAS-enabled fix will put you within 14 feet of the cache.