CLUE #39 - FOUND!

Congratulations to Eric Forsberg for finding Dinosaur #39!

Here's a synopsis of the dinohunt from Eric:

I couldn't help myself... I went and found Dino painting #39. 

The night before I started the hunt, my fellow hunter, Phuong, and I were discussing the different clues that had been posted and he mentioned this one was a couple blocks from where I work.  So the next day after work I decided to mosey on over to the now abandoned Chamber of Commerce building on Bush st.  

On one of the boards covering the window I spotted a poster with creepy shadow behind a series of dots and a picture of something with the word "Polybius" on it.  Turned out the dots were in braille and after a quick translation it said, "play polybius at bonkers".  

After a little google searching I found out Bonkers was an arcade a block over, and Polybius is some urban legend arcade game... something about people who play it end up dying.  Despite the dire warnings I received from the internet, I proceeded to Bonkers to look for more clues and play some evil game.  

Once at Bonkers, I noticed there was no way I was getting in since there were about 3 padlocks and a gate covering the rather small entrance.  Luckily just under the mailbox on the gate, I found my next clue.  What I found was a long string of numbers and after some more research I eventually discovered Polybius is also a cipher that converts numbers to letters on a grid.  After a quick translation on my smartphone, I got the message, "the dragon was slain by saint george but he could not slay the dinosaurs".  

This one had me stumped for a while.  I was half hoping it would lead to the Saint George distillery in Alameda, but I knew it couldn't be that far away.  After many variations in the google search bar I finally discovered an alley a couple blocks away called "St George"

This had to have been one of the dirtiest alleys I've seen, and to be honest I wasn't looking forward to 'searching' amongst the piles of trash and piles of something worse than trash, but after spotting a dinosaur sticker I knew I was close.  After a couple strolls back and forth I finally spotted the prize on a ledge (thankfully away from the filth) and claimed a frightening dinosaur painting as my own.

(I was really surprised this painting stayed put so long. It was hidden right out in the open! -AdamD)

I'll try and slow down a bit to give others a chance, but these are just too tempting.  Thanks again for doing this!

CLUE #38 - FOUND!

Congratulations to Elizabeth, Brandy and Alyssa for finding Dinosaur #38!

This clue was meant to lead to the Slave Labor Graphics warehouse, the publishers of Milk & Cheese (one of my favorite comic books from my teen years) located in Downtown San Jose:

See the clue? 

Its stuck to the drain pipe, but it was removed by the city, who are making a huge push to cut down on graffiti apparently. The clues were later replaced, attached to nearby yarn bombs.

original clue

replacement clue!

This clue led to where I saw a lot of shows in my late teens / early twenties: The Cactus Club! It was a total dive (the bathrooms were absolutely disgusting) but it was somewhere to see bands play! While the venue no longer exists, there is still a building there, and a place to put a clue:

original clue

replacement clue!

This image was originally from my Sweet Revenge art show in February, and was meant to lead hunters to a nearby food establishment: PSYCHO DONUTS! The nice folks at Psycho Donuts were super helpful, and even lent their tape to help hide the painting!

Where is it!?

Under the condiments!!

A huge thank you to Dani from the Pillowfights for helping me hide these clues (and for helping me replace the clues when they were removed. She also had the brilliant idea of attaching them to yarn bombs to make them look more like art rather than vandalism. Go Dani!).

CLUE #37 - FOUND!

Congratulations to Jennica for finding Dinosaur #37!

 

The black and white picture is of Philo Farnsworth, who is credited with the invention of the television. His lab was located at 202 Green St, and today there is a plaque there:

Behind the plaque, hanging on a knot in a tree, was this tag:

 

On the back of this tag is a QR code. Scanning it brings up this video:

 

 

CLUE #36 - FOUND!

CLUE #35 - FOUND!

Congratulations to Phuong Mai for finding the painting, hidden behind the painting, at El Farolito!

CLUE #34 - FOUND!

Congratulations to Eric Forsberg! He not only was the person who found this painting, but he was also the person who let me know the clue I placed had been removed.

 Here's a write up from Eric about the hunt:

So after a month of checking the dinoblog every day I had almost given up hope on a new post, but apparently my persistence paid off as I jumped on that clue as soon as it popped up this morning.  Of course I was also at work when it happened so I had to find a discreet way of solving the clue.  I opened up excel as soon as I saw the clue, because as an accountant that's what I use to solve most problems.  After playing around with a few combinations of alphabet rearranging I got the "Find the fake flower at empire park" and excused myself for an early lunch.  Since I work downtown it wasn't much of a trek so I headed to Empire Park in China Town and snooped around for some sort of fake flower.  

As soon as I got there I noticed there were a couple gardeners cleaning up, but otherwise empty.  I spent about 15 minutes fondling bushes and looking under benches, but the only "fake flower" I was able to find was the fountain in the back with no sign of any clues nearby.  I gave up and headed back to the office.  Once there I sent an email to Adam asking if perhaps the clue was removed.  He got back to me right away and said he'd check it out.  Some time went by and I was informed that yes, it was gone, but it would be replaced and since I spent so much time there I'd get the clue via email.  "PLAQUE runs in "The Family" "keep young".  

(let me interject here that the clue was a fake daisy with a tag attached to the stem with this typed onto it. When Eric mentioned the gardeners, I knew it had been removed, since I had planted it in one of the planter boxes to look like an actual flower. I replaced it with some labels with the same phrase printed on them, along with a picture of a flower and the dino-symbol)

After looking busy at work for another hour or two I spent a little time googling the clue words and finally came up with a wikipedia article on "The Family" club in SF.  Turns out they have a location downtown on Powell St so I ducked out of the office a few minutes early and hiked over to this club.  I think I spent about 30 mins combing the street looking for either a clue or the 'plaque' that was referred to before finally giving up, a second time, and barting home.

Once home, I began chatting with my fellow scavenger hunter and girlfriend Mary who sent me a link to a site showing a picture of a plaque about "The Family" I had not spotted.  Apparently this plaque was on the same street as the first clue and marked where "The Family" had begun it's fancy schmancy mens-only club.  With this new found knowledge I quickly boarded the bart again and headed to the spot.  I sighed once I got there because, like the gardeners for the first clue, there were men with power washers cleaning the sidewalk in front of the plaque. 

Luckily though they weren't working on the street around the corner, because tucked in to a tight little crevice was a small package wrapped in black plastic.  

Success!  Dinopainting acquired!

Eric actually missed two clues in that area that led to the gap, but still found the painting! Pretty cool! If anyone wants to find those clues, I will send the first person who uncovers them (by sending photo evidence) an illustration of a dinosaur!

New Clue(s) Soon!

Without making a ton of excuses, it's now time to get back to hiding these dinosaur paintings. I hope to have half of them hidden by summer's end. We will see how possible that is as time keeps marching forward. Now would be a good time to get yourself ready:

• re-read the rules
• review the past hunts
• tell a friend about the hunt!

A few weeks back I had dinner with the fine folks from the Awesome Foundation. While the restaurant was loud enough to cause me to partially lose my voice, I enjoyed talking about this project with them, and hearing about some of the projects that didn't happen (Some of them were definitely awesome, just way more of a liability than this project!)

I'm hoping to have the next clue posted sometime tomorrow, I'll keep you updated via twitter.