The Commuter Challenge

Revisit any Commuter Challenge of the last ten years.

Do you wish you had spent a little more time on the final mix of that one song? Remix it now. Do you wish you had used proper tools to make that one illustration, instead of a ball point pen? Draw a better one now. Do you wish you had written a poem that one month instead of binge-watching TV? Write it now. Are you currently kicking yourself for never having participated in the Commuter Challenge, ever? Pick a challenge now — any challenge — and do it.

Do more than one. Do as many as you want. Do anything at all.

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Over the years, the Commuter Challenge has docused on three major media: words, images, and music. (And pretty much in that order.) This month, your goal is to bring all of those together in an apotheosis of creative expression. In short, make something that incorporates words, images, and music.

Record a song with vocals and an accompanying illustration. Film a short video with an original soundtrack. Write a poem with an illustration and a musical accompaniment. Or something else entirely.

The words, images, and music should be all your own creation, but as usual you can get help from other people and/or computer programs in order to properly execute your ideas. Using found poetry/sound/images is okay, as long as it remains true to the spirit of the challenge.

Optional additional constraint: Your work should include reference to sunlight in the words or images, or both (And/or the music, if you’re the kind of visionary who can express sunlight in sound.)

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Create a visual artwork in any medium that you’ve never used before.

This constraint does not apply to medium that you may have dabbled with in your childhood; if you made a collage in kindergarten or whittled something in grade school, then that shouldn’t prevent you from submitting a collage or carving to this challenge. You can also be as specific as you like, for example if you have only ever sculpted in polymer clay then it’s fine to submit a ceramic clay sculpture for this challenge.

Optional additional constraint: The artwork must be a depiction of a human or an animal.

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Create one or more “hidden sequence” puzzles. In a hidden sequence puzzle, a set of 4-6 items are arranged in a precise sequence, and the reader is challenged to identify what the sequence is. The sequence can make use of esoteric knowledge, popular culture references, or be based on pure logic — that’s entirely up to you.

Here are some examples, along with their rules:

1. Jimmy
2. Ron
3. George
4. Bill

(rule: first names of successive US presidents)

1. Animalia
2. Plantae
3. Protista
4. Fungi
5. Prokaryota

(rule: the five biological kingdoms, in order of formal recognition)

1. 30
2. 42
3. 56
4. 72
5. 90
6. 110

(rule: 5×6, 6×7, 7×8, etcetera)

Of course, the rules are pretty easy to spot in these examples. A more interesting sequence might be the first names of successive vice presidents. Or, the first names of the presidential candidates that lost successive elections. You are encouraged to create multiple sequences of varying levels of difficulty.

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Compose and submit three original jokes and/or riddles. Each of the three jokes must be in any well-known format, such as:

• How many         does it take to change a light bulb?
• What do you get when you cross a         with a        ?
• Why did the         cross the road?
• A        , a        , and a         walk into a bar …
• Yo momma so         …
• Knock knock. Who’s there?         …
• What’s black and white and red all over?

Et cetera. You may use your own judgement regarding what you understand to be a common type of joke.

All three jokes/riddles must be utterly original inventions by you, and they must each be completely new this month.

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Write a sonnet describing some news event that takes place during the month of February. If nothing noteworthy happens this month that speaks to your muse, then pick an otherwise forgettable and unimportant event and immortalize that instead.

Although you may choose any of the standard subtypes of the sonnet form for your poetry, you are encouraged to give serious consideration to the Pushkin sonnet.

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