DASH is happening, for the fifth year in a row.
DASH (Different Area—Same Hunt) is a puzzle hunt event that happens simultaneously across multiple cities across the United States. The inaugural DASH in September 2009 spanned 8 cities. DASH 5 is currently being planned in 15 participating cities.
Those cities are: Albuquerque; Austin; Boston; Chicago; Davis, CA; Half Moon Bay, CA; London; Los Angeles; Minneapolis; New York; Portland, OR; San Francisco; Seattle; St. Louis; and Washington, DC. If you live in one of those, gather up a few friends and join. I’ve done it for the last two years and had an absolute blast. Damn right I’ll be doing it again this year.
From Waxwing Puzzle Co and Journey to the End of the Night:
Welcome to the Riddle of the Everlasting Man, a web-puzzle & art project ruminating on the question of what it means to be human in preparation for the Journey to the End of the Night, a game of robots vs. humans urban tag.
JtoEofN is “a giant game of tag” on September 15 in Chicago, and according to its Facebook event page, 247 are already committed to playing. Sounds … incredible.
This Bright River and me
Tomorrow is the release date for This Bright River, the new novel by Chicago author Patrick Somerville. It is a ceaselessly engaging book, often brutally so. It wears its Midwestern roots and themes proudly, taking place mostly in rural Wisconsin and featuring characters returning home to understand their own lives and the lives of their family. I’ve read it, and I loved it. And I’m not just saying that because I helped write it.
Well, I wrote one page of it.
Puzzles play a big part in the book and in the life of the protagonist Ben. He used to make them, and during the book he spends much of his time unravelling a real-life one. I worked with Patrick to compose an original puzzle that appears halfway through the book. It’s a good one. And because Patrick is a bastard, he gives no answer, leaving it up to you to solve it. So far, he tells me, no one has come close.
Anyway, don’t take my word for it. Here’s what some really smart critics have to say:
“A remarkable achievement…[This Bright River] is a stellar, bruising book about how place forms character and our capacity to transform ourselves.”
- Chicago Tribune
Part love story, part murder mystery, part mediation on violence, part exploration of what home can and should mean, this novel roams wide and far, in terms of its story and even its geography.
- O Magazine
Somerville has a gift for spurring dialogue, and the meandering narrative tributaries he explores stoke our curiosity and build suspense
- Booklist
Somerville is after something grand here, using nonlinear storytelling and shifting points of view to investigate elusive truths and to explore the nature of both delusion and evil.
- Time Out New York
There’s a release party for This Bright River tomorrow at the Book Cellar in Chicago. I won’t be there, but some of my puzzles will be — Patrick will be using them to give away a few free copies of the book. Stop by, meet the author, solve a puzzle, and win a book.
(Update: The book is now available on Amazon, Powell’s and lots of other places.)
DASH4 is Saturday April 28
On Saturday April 28, DASH returns. DASH is an outdoor, hours-long puzzle hunt. It stands for “Different Area, Same Hunt”, which means participants in 14 different cities are solving the same puzzles at the same time, and competing against each other for first place. From the site:
Creating the hunt is a collaborative effort of puzzle enthusiast volunteers across the country. Some cities contribute a puzzle to the event, and each event uses all the puzzles from the contributing cities.
One year ago, four friends and I participated in DASH3. We had an incredible time, and came in third, so obviously we’re planning on making a return and hoping to do better. Wanna compete against us? Sign up at playdash.org.
Labyrinth: Secrets of the Pedway
Waxwing Puzzle Co. bills itself “Adventure Tourism in Chicago”. Their signature game, Labyrinth, is…
a real-time game played over the course of a few hours in the Chicago Pedway, a system of underground tunnels beneath the heart of downtown. Players will compete against other teams in an open or private event to be the first to track down four “marks,” Waxwing confederates waiting in hidden locations who will give each team a challenge and a piece of the final clue. The first team to find all four “marks” is the winner.
It costs $20 per person. The next one is being held Saturday February 18th. I’m out of town, so someone will have to go and report back on how awesome it is.
Troy at The Art Institute of Chicago blog is inviting us to play a game:
We are pleased to present Escape from Thorne Mansion, an online game that places you in the midst of the beloved Thorne Miniature Rooms (now decorated for the holidays!) and challenges you to, well, escape. To play: point and click your way through the maze of the Thorne Rooms…
Took me about five minutes to find my way out of there. It was a nice five minutes spent reminding me how awesome the Thorne Rooms are. (Never been? You must go.)
Survey: Puzzling in Chicago
There’s a movement brewing in Chicago around puzzle hunts, and one of its chief evangelists, James, has put together a survey to gauge interest. If you live in the Chicago area and have any interest in seeing more of these kinds of events, please take the survey and say so.
Marbles’ 1st Chicago Puzzle Hunt, with puzzles by The Puzzler
I’m proud to announce that I’ve teamed up with Marbles: The Brain Store to design the puzzles for their First Annual Puzzle Hunt. If you live in or near Chicago, and the prospect of running around the city hunting for clues and solving puzzles sounds like your idea of a good time, then I encourage you to follow the link above and sign the hell up. Here are the details:
Date: Saturday, July 23, 2011
Start time: 10 AM
Length: 4-5 hours
Start location: Marbles in Lincoln Square
Teams: Up to 5 people
Cost: $25 per team
That comes to $5 per person, a steal. BUT — you can have this fee completely waived if you download and solve the puzzle on the flyer for the event. The grand prize is a $100 gift certificate for any Marbles store — and they have some wonderful games and books you can spend that money on.
I’ve designed and hosted a bunch of puzzle hunts over the last few years. This is the first one I’ve done in conjunction with another organization, and I’m really excited about its potential. I tried to make the puzzles as fun, accessible, and integrated into the environment as possible. If you at all like the puzzles you see on this blog, you should come play — and tell your friends to do the same.
Yo dawg, I heard you like murals
I’ve lived in the Lincoln Square area of Chicago for over ten years, and in that time I’ve walked by the expansive “Shades of the Black Forest” mural at the corner of Leland and Lincoln probably hundreds of times. Maybe thousands.
It’s a lovely depiction of a small German village, partially based on the design of Lincoln Square itself. Somehow, it was only last week when I noticed that in one small section of the mural are five tiny painters… painting a mural. And this mural they’re painting, judging by rough outline they’ve gotten done so far, is a tiny representation of the larger mural itself.
Murals within murals. There’s probably a German word for this.
Just saw this poster in the window at Hot Doug’s. Don’t know what it’s about, but I’m definitely going.
DASH3: Nationwide puzzle hunt on April 30
The third annual DASH (Different Area — Same Hunt) is taking place the last day of April. It is:
a walking puzzle hunt that takes place in multiple cities across in the US on the same day. Think a more relaxed The Amazing Race, but with a puzzle at every clue stop.
It’s in twelve cities this year, including Austin, Portland, Seattle, Boston, and most importantly, Chicago. It costs money to play, but reserving a spot is free. I’ve already done it, and you should too.
You can read more about it on their site, including a list of puzzles and solutions from last year. If this year’s are anything like those, it should be a great challenge.
The genius behind @MayorEmanuel is Dan Sinker, who has a heart made out of Chicago and balls of punk rock.
