Escape Game Soundtracks: The Coded Music of Tool, Radiohead, and Messiaen

Although musicians are better associated with black leather and bad life choices than with math and cryptography, there’s a long history of musical types playing with coded messages.

Really, it shouldn’t be surprising: What is a musical score but mathematics and symbology?

Below we list three famous instances that show musicians are just as into cryptography as we are here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game.

1. The song “Lateralus” by the band Tool

Although those of us who just jam along to the beat may not realize it, musically impressive metal songs are impressive precisely because they use complicated time signatures, which is basically complicated math. The more intricate the time signature, the more talented the musician.

It’s no surprise then that the highly capable musicians of Tool upped the game by composing the song “Lateralus” using the Fibonacci sequence. Like the Fibonacci sequence, “Lateralus” lyrics “spiral out,” and the song uses the time signatures 9/8, 9/8, and 7/8 to refer to 987, the sixteenth integer of the sequence.

2. Radiohead’s coded messages

The albums and songs of Radiohead—often called a “cerebral” band—are more than what they seem. The band leaves “Easter eggs” in all of their albums, but perhaps most interesting of all is In Rainbows from 2007. It includes multiple references to the numbers 01 and 10, which you may recognize as the digits that make up binary sequencing.

There’s plenty of theories that spin out from these 01/10 references, but perhaps most significant is that In Rainbows came out exactly 10 years after OK Computer. Believe or not, the tracks of In Rainbows and OK Computer combine together create an entirely new mega-album. You can find out more about the mega-tracklist on Diffuser <link: http://diffuser.fm/radiohead-01-and-10/>

3. Olivier Messiaen’s musical cipher

Decades before Tool and Radiohead were building codes into their rock albums, the 20th-century French composer Olivier Messiaen was putting cryptography to classical music in a very real way. Messiaen’s Méditations sur le mystère de la Sainte Trinité, a 1969 composition for organ, is actual a musical cipher, with its pitches and note lengths making up the code.


Jump into the codes and ciphers on offer at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game by booking a round in any of our four themed escape rooms: http://bookeo.com/krakit

The Most Daring Escape of All? The “Faked Deaths” of Celebrities

Philippe de Champaigne, Still Life with a Skull, 1671

Whether it’s to escape the law, rabid fans, or tax problems, faking your own death—or pseudocide—is a sure way to put people off the case.

Or is it?

For the five famous people below, the finality of death hasn’t been quite so final, with people continuing to question whether these people are actually alive or actually dead.

Kenneth Lay

The name “Enron” is now synonymous with corrupt businessmen who get rich by scamming the everyman. Kenneth Lay was a major player in the Enron scandal, which has led people to think that his death just three months before his sentencing hearing was too convenient to be believable.

Because of Lay’s great position of power, conspiracy theorists say he escaped the US with the help of his equally powerful friends and is now living somewhere in Mexico.

Elvis Presley

It’s been 40 years since Elvis died, and yet the sightings of the super famous singer continue to this day. When you’re as famous as Elvis, it can all become too much, so the only way to escape it is to make your fans—and the entire world—think you’re dead. It all adds up, right?

Where does the now-anonymous Elvis live these days? Bermuda, of course.

2Pac

Another incredibly famous musician who is said to have faked his own death to escape his fame is Tupac Shakur. The reason fans are so sure he’s still alive is because of the rapper’s adopted stage name of Makaveli near the end of his career. The philosopher Niccolò Machiavelli, as it turns out, suggested that people should fake their own deaths in order to manipulate their enemies.

Paul McCartney

In the exact opposite scenario of Elvis and 2Pac, there’s a conspiracy theory that Paul McCartney—who we see walking and talking and performing with Kanye at the Grammys—is actually dead. The theory goes that Paul died in 1966 in a car accident and was replaced with a lookalike so as not to upset the wave of Beatlemania that had overtaken the world. As long as the fans are happy, right?

Ken Kesey

Here is one legitimate faked death that can be proven beyond doubt. Why? Because writer and famous psychedelic flower child Ken Kesey was actually put in jail for his shenanigans.

When he was arrested for possession of marijuana, Kesey decided faking a suicide was the best way to deal with the charges. His abandoned car was left on the side of the road along with a suicide note, while Kesey hightailed it to Mexico. When he returned home to the US a few months later, he was sentenced to six months in jail.

While there aren’t any opportunities to fake your own death at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game, you can try more realistic measures of escape in any of our four themed escape rooms. Book here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Mystery, Puzzles, Trivia, Oh My! 4 Podcasts for Escape Game Fans

Photo: Casey Fiesler (CC BY 2.0)

It’s no secret that if you’re a fan of escape games, you have wide and varied tastes. How else are you going to learn all that trivia?!

However, there are a few topics we’re pretty sure every escape game fan is into. Mystery? Check. Puzzles? Check. Creepy going-ons? Check.

In the magical era of the podcast, you can be sure someone out there is making a show about a subject you want to plug into. Here we list four of podcasts that really satisfy our escape room brains.

Serial

OK, so this is one of the biggest podcasts since, well … ever. But if you haven’t listened to NPR’s Serial yet, we’re telling you, now is the time. Each season is one single intriguing story of true crime told masterfully by host Sarah Koening over several episodes. Spine tingling.

Check out Serial here: https://serialpodcast.org/

Pints and Puzzles

You like conspiracy theories? Then this is the podcast for you! TJ Counihan discusses strange unsolved events, from little green men to unexplained explosions, and throws in some tasting notes on various beers for good measure. Both a strange and fun time!

Catch Pints and Puzzles here: http://pintsandpuzzles.libsyn.com/

Good Job, Brain!

If you like to stuff your brain full of random useless facts—and who among us escape room fans doesn't—then do let the four hosts of Good Job, Brain! fill your grey matter up to the brim. As they put it, this podcast is “part quiz show, part offbeat news, and all awesome.”

You can get factual here: http://www.goodjobbrain.com/

Welcome to Night Vale

Something else all escape gamers share is a vivid imagination and a love of immersing themselves in story. Have you ever heard of the town of Night Vale? No? Well, that’s because it doesn’t exist, but in Welcome to the Night Vale it does, and this twice monthly podcast enlightens us about all that happens there. Sure, there are a few weather updates, but Night Vale is “a town in the desert where all conspiracy theories are real,” so you can expect things are going to get strange on a regular basis.

Visit Night Vale here: http://www.welcometonightvale.com/

Immerse yourself in your own trivia, mystery, and puzzle filled fun by booking a go in one of our escape games here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Escape Game History: 3 Ciphers Once Considered “Unbreakable”

The Enigma Machine at the National Museum of Scotland (Photo: Nachosan CC-BY 3.0)

If there’s one thing you’ll find in every escape room you play, it’s some sort of code that you’ll have to break. We’re definitely cryptography nerds here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game, and that’s why we’re so fascinated with the ciphers that no one has been able to solve (see here, here, and here for some of our faves).

However, eventually, every code will get cracked—it may just take several hundred years, that’s all.

Below are three ciphers that were once considered unsolvable, but no more. Cryptanalysis wins!

Enigma, created: 1918

The German electrical engineer Arthur Scherbius patented his Enigma Machine, a mechanical cipher machine, in 1918, and it was soon adopted by German military forces. What made it so famously unbreakable is that the Enigma Machine uses electrical signals to concoct a new code every time a key is pressed, so it never uses the same code twice.

You can see why it was considered uncrackable.

Nevertheless, Enigma was broken by the WWII codebreakers of Bletchley Park, headed up by Alan Turing. Though it certainly it wasn’t an easy task, that’s for sure.

Vigenère Autokey, created: 1586

While the Enigma remained unbreakable for over 30 years, it’s nothing compared to the Vigenère Autokey’s 300 years. It was so safe a code, it was even nicknamed le chiffre indéchiffrable, or “the indecipherable cipher” to us English speakers.

The Vigenère uses polyalphabetic substitution (that means it really mixes the alphabet up), which makes it easy to use but really hard to break. This is in fact the same principle Enigma would use many years later.

However, in 1855, the inventor Charles Babbage came along and solved the Vigenère cipher for the English during the Crimean War. Because Babbage didn’t publish his work, the cipher continued to be used until 1863(!), when Friedrich Kasiski published his attack, rendering the Vigenère useless.

The Alberti Cipher, created: 1467

An even older once “unbreakable” code is the Alberti Cipher. This code was created by Leon Battista Alberti, and is the oldest known polyalphabetic cipher. (Are you seeing a pattern here?) Like the Enigma and the Vigenère, the Alberti Cipher uses metal discs that rotate to create a new code with every spin.

Alberti was dead certain his cipher was unbreakable, and although it took several centuries to prove him wrong, we now know that polyalphabetic ciphers can—and will eventually—be broken.

Try your own hand at codebreaking in one of our four escape games: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

No Escaping These Endings: 5 Worst Twists in Horror History

Joaquin Phoenix, trying to figure out why The Village's twist ending seemed like a good idea

At Krakit Vancouver Escape Game, it’s our job to keep you on your toes. This is a quality we share with our favourite genre of movie: the horror film. There’s really only one way to do this, and that is, of course, through the unexpected.

Because what is a horror movie without a fantastic twist? (Or an escape game without a few wrenches thrown into the mix?)

However, if you don’t do these twists right, it can ruin the entire atmosphere, story, and suspense you’ve been building. We’re really careful to strike the right balance in our escape rooms. We only wish we could say the same for these films’ directors.

Spoilers ahead!

5. I Am Legend (2007)

As horror films grow ever more desperate to surprise viewers, they can become victims of their own desire to think outside the box. The film I Am Legend, based on a highly regarded book, goes ahead and twists the book’s twist ending, ultimately ruining the entire story’s message. Plus, the hero dies. Always a cheap trick.

4. The Mist (2007)

The reason The Mist’s twist ending is so horrible is more due to the pure anger it makes many of its viewers feel. It’s not like you’re expecting a happy ending to this Stephen King story, but having the main character mercy kill his son just before safety arrives is just, well, it’s just not cool.

3. High Tension (2003)

Another cheap trick to end any story is “and it turned out it was all a dream!” The ending “and the person was crazy all along” is a version of this, and that’s what makes the ending of this otherwise excellent French flick a big letdown. Plus, the revelation that Marie is the killer all along raise a lot of questions about events that happen throughout the story.

2. The Village (2004)

Of course this psychological horror film is on the list. The Village is the movie that took M. Night Shyamalan from horror golden child to a bit of a laughing stock. The movie starts out really great, but it’s all undone when we find out the whole escapade has taken place in modern times and the monster is nothing but a trick.

1. Shutter Island (2010)

Like High Tension, this leftfield Martin Scorcese film ruins what otherwise would be a thrilling ride by using the “and the person was crazy all along!” trick to conclude the story. However, it’s one worse than High Tension, since it transpires that basically none of the film’s events really happened, and it’s all just part of Teddy Daniels’s delusion.

Book yourself in for a brilliant twist ending in one of Krakit’s four themed escape games, including our Zombie Apocalypse, Asylum, and Saw games. Choose your slot here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Literature’s Great Escapes: 6 Tales of Escape to Get Lost In

The Man in the Iron Mask print from 1789

We love a good escape film here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game, but if you really want to get invested in whether or not the hero makes it out in one piece, a book is the way to go.

Below, we list six of the most riveting escapes found in literature.

1. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844–45)

The oldest and some would argue the best escape tale on our list. Dumas’s enduring swashbuckling adventure sees Edmond Dantès falsely imprisoned and thrown into jail to rot, only to escape and get the best revenge of all: complete and total success.

2. Papillon by Henri Charrière (1970)

It’s hard to believe Papillon is a non-fiction autobiography, but it is. Henri Charrière, another victim of false conviction, was given a life sentence of hard labour in the Devil’s Island penal colony. As nice as that sounds, Charrière plotted an unbelievable escape instead.

3. The Natural Way of Things by Charlotte Wood (2015)

This dystopic novel centres on a group of ten young women who have been kidnapped and locked up in dismal conditions in the middle of the Australian Outback. As food supplies dwindle and their captors grow ever more unpredictable, the women must find a way to escape not only their imprisonment but the harsh desert environment.

4. The Vicomte of Bragelonne: Ten Years Later by Alexandre Dumas (1847–50)

Better known as the tale of the Man in the Iron Mask, this second entry from Dumas comes from his Three Musketeers series. Though mostly about the Musketeers, the novel revolves around a real, unnamed person who spent his life as a prisoner of Louis XIV—with his face completely covered the entire time. In Dumas’s version, the man escapes (wasn’t so lucky in real life).

5. Room by Emma Donoghue (2010)

Less about the escape and more about what comes after, Donoghue’s book follows the story of a five-year-old boy named Jack, who has been held captive in a small room his entire life, alongside his mother. Until, one day, he learns the there is more to the world than the four walls he lives in.

6. Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King (1982)

Yet another book that’s been made into a film and yet another tale of false imprisonment and, Stephen King’s novella about a postwar banker named Andy Dufresne continues to be one of his most popular stories and film adaptations. Plus, it includes one of the most famous escape scenes of all time.

You can book your own escape adventure for you and up to seven friends in one of Krakit’s four-themed escape games here.

From Crosswords to Escape Games: 5 Fun Ways to Exercise Your Brain

People regularly hit the gym to keep their bodies in the best possible shape, but it’s just as important to put your grey matter through its paces. Without exercising your mind, you’ll start to lose neuroplasticity, your brain cells will stop talking to each other, and your brain function will be diminished.

Basically: use it or lose it.

Luckily, there’s no need to enroll in a calculus class to keep your noggin in tip-top shape. Here’s five fun ways to keep your brain fit, from crosswords to escape games.

1. Crossword Puzzles

Crossword puzzles have long been held up as being great for keeping your brain active. More than testing your knowledge of obscure facts, it’s learning new words, storing them in your memory, and retrieving them for the next crossword that helps build memory muscle.

2. Knitting

Seems like you’re not doing a lot with your brain when you’re knitting, but that’s exactly the point. Knitting functions similarly to meditation, helping to regulate your moods and protect against brain aging.

3. Escape Games

The best way to exercise your brain is to use all your senses at once in unusual ways. And the best way to do this is to play an escape game: a new environment, visual clues, audio cues, mini challenges, teamwork—it’s all there.

4. Geocaching

Believe it or not, an important way to keep your brain sharp is to do physical activity. Another excellent exercise is to break routine and “do things the hard way.” By putting you into a forest, sending you on a treasure hunt, and taking away Google Maps, Geocaching combines all these things.

5. Virtuosity

Challenge yourself to become the absolute best at something creative, whether that’s a musical instrument, short story writing, boat building, or soccer juggling. Virtuosos are more alert, open-minded, and calm and they can put details together coherently better than other people. Even if you don’t become Yo-Yo Ma, your brain will thank you for trying.

Keeping your brain in fighting condition by booking one of Krakit’s four Vancouver Escape Games.

Escape Your Brain: How Optical Illusions Work

We can all agree that the clues and riddles that lead to escape room victory make you do some serious brain gymnastics. Why? Because by twisting your expectations, they force acrobatic thinking.

This is basically the same principle that optical illusions work on—except they are all the more frustrating, because we can never exactly solve them.

When we take in data about the world—through our eyes, for example—we make assumptions about that world. But these assumptions are not always true to reality.

Ponzo illusion

Take the Ponzo illusion: It looks like the horizontal lines are different lengths when, in fact, they are the exact same. The angled lines trick our brains into using our depth perception. And, just like that, four simple lines will outsmart us, every time.

This is why optical illusions can be incredibly frustrating: they’re so simple, and yet they trick our brains so effectively.

 

Grey squares illusion

We all know the illusion above: The squares with the two dots are the exact same shade. But none of us actually sees it that way, do we?

The only way for our minds to process all the information around us is to take shortcuts. These help us to make quick work of what we’re sensing—but it can get us in to trouble. This is the same principle both pickpockets use to distract you while they steal the watch right off your wrist. They misdirect your attention by messing with our sensory shortcuts.

Perceptual shortcuts like the ones that make us susceptible to optical illusions and pickpockets are the same ones that can thwart us when we attempt to solve riddles. That is, we fall into familiar patterns and come to the same old conclusions. Usually this is great—but not when a mystery is afoot!

Slowing down, and seeing what’s really in front of our faces, is the only way we can work against this natural shortcoming.

It’s like Sherlock says: “You do see, you just don’t observe!” The trick is to try and do both at once. 

See how well you can master your perceptual shortcuts in one of Krakit’s four Vancouver escape games. Book here: http://bookeo.com/krakit.

Once Upon an Escape Game: 3 Modern Fairy Tales that Should Definitely Be Escape Rooms

Technically, a fairy tale should come from a folk tale and be so old we’re definitely not sure who the “original author” was. But who needs technicalities!

Here at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game, we think any good story that has a little bit of magic and a whole lot of delight for both kids and adults is worthy of being called a fairy tale. We refuse to discriminate against recently written stories—especially when they’d make top-notch escape games, like our three faves below.

1. Alice in Wonderland

Has there ever been anyone more desperate to escape their situation than poor Alice? Lewis Carroll’s beloved children’s tale sees Alice thrown into all sorts of bizarre situations that take some serious wits to escape, along with a riddle-spewing Cheshire Cat to throw spanners into the works.

Could you get out of Alice’s mind-altering Wonderland in 45 minutes or less? Because we’re not so sure.

2. The Princess Bride

Whether it’s Wesley trying to escape the torture dungeon of his true love’s soon-to-be husband or Princess Buttercup trying to flee from her captors (and the shrieking eels), The Princess Bride is all about daring escapes. Really, you could do an entire escape game themed solely on the Fire Swamp and those dastardly ROUS’s.

3. Spirited Away

The most recently written fairy tale we’d like to see turned into an escape room is Hayao Miyazaki’s modern masterpiece Spirited Away. Like Alice, Chihiro finds herself engulfed in a strange and unusual world full of tasks she must complete to get herself and her parents home to the real world. And a Spirited Away escape game wouldn’t be lacking in great visuals, that’s for definite.

Fall down the rabbit hole of our Vancouver escape game by booking here: http://bookeo.com/krakit. Our Alice in Wonderland escape room opens Wednesday, August 31!

5 Locks You Don’t Want to See in an Escape Room

Escape rooms and padlocks go together like peas and carrots (CC BY 3.0)

One of the major features of an escape room is solving clues that will either lead you to a key or provide the code to open a lock. Solve enough puzzles and open enough locks, and you might just win your freedom.

Being such an essential part of play, you should fear any escape game that uses locks beyond the regular padlock or keypad lock. Keep your eyes peeled for these.

1. The Houdini Dead Lock

You might’ve guessed it from the name, but this lock has a few tricks up its sleeves. The Houdini Dead Lock may look like a simple padlock, but this puzzle lock is anything but. If you come across one of these in an escape room, you’ll probably use up all your time just trying to figure out how to get it to pop.

2. The Android Pattern Lock

Sure, they may look cute on your smartphone, but could you imagine trying to crack one of these while under the pressure of an escape game countdown, with zombies clawing on the other side of the door? Using just nine dots, the Android Pattern Lock has 389,112 possible combinations. Yikes.

3. The Lunatic Lock

Looks like a lock, walks like a lock, doesn’t talk like a lock. The Lunatic Lock is another that on first glance looks like any regular old padlock—but once you look closer, you realize there’s no spot for a key to go. Repeat: NO KEYHOLE! This one would keep your escape room all tied up, for sure.

4. A Musical Lock

While this type of lock—which requires the correct musical tones to open it—might not be uncrackable, it would mean you have to do a little acapella for your escape room team. If we had one of these at Krakit Vancouver Escape Game, it’d probably be set to Meatloaf’s “I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That).” So, watch out.

5. An Iris Scanner

If you encounter any escape room that features an iris scanner—run, don’t walk. You really don’t want to have to deal with any Minority Report-esque enucleation situations on your Friday night out.

See how many locks you can pop at Krakit Vancouver Escape Room by booking a game here: http://bookeo.com/krakit

Experience Immersive Entertainment in Vancouver: Escape Games and More

The trend is being witnessed all over the world: millennials don’t want entertainment that merely entertains or adds to their “pile of stuff”—they want experiences.

From Secret Cinema in London, who turn classic films into catered, costumed extravaganzas, to the rise of escape rooms, beginning with Takao Kato’s Real Escape Game in Japan, entertainment that offers more than a way to “turn off and tune out” is on the rise.

In fact, experiential entertainment is more than just “on the rise.” In 2014, JWT Intelligence—whose business is identifying the “global zeitgeist”—identified immersive experiences as the “leading trend changing the entertainment industry in 2014,” a trend that is continuing to play out as we roll our way through the decade.

Vancouverites craving immersive experiences of their own can find a variety of options right here in the GVRD.

Darkened Theatre (photo: Lloyd Dirks)

Interactive Theatre: Forbidden Vancouver

Not a fan of theatre’s “fourth wall”? Do you love it when actors come into the aisles and maybe even pull you up to dance? Well, then, one of Forbidden Vancouver’s city tours or special events is probably right up your alley.

For their “Lost Souls of Gastown” tour, Forbidden Vancouver combines a walking tour with a theatre piece to bring the history of the downtown neighbourhood alive, while their “War for the Holidays” event combined a holiday party with a WWI-set play.

Find more on Forbidden Vancouver here.

Expanded Cinema: Scent-sory Cinema

Taking a page out of Secret Cinema’s book, the Vancouver-based duo Here There put on experiential cinema as one of the many immersive events they run.

Their Scent-sory Cinema series has featured screenings of Strange Brew, complete with local ales, Montreal smoked meat sandwiches, and Hawkins Cheezies, and a showing of Amelie, paired with a Parisian tasting menu, to name just a few.

You can details on upcoming Scent-sory Cinema screenings here.

Immersive Gaming: Krakit Escape Room

Those looking to take their gaming off the screen and into the real world can immerse themselves in one of four imaginative scenarios at Krakit Escape Room in Burnaby.

Escape games present a way to bring gaming, puzzles, and mysteries into the three-dimensional world, putting you—literally—in the middle of the action. Whether surrounded by zombies or under threat by a mad doctor, you have 40-minutes to solve the mystery in front of you and emerge triumphant.

Investigate Krakit’s escape room themes here, for teams of up to eight.

Zombie Taxonomy: A Guide to the Undead

Madge Bellamy, the first zombie of cinema (United Artists, 1932)

There was a time when there was just one type of zombie: the kind raised from the dead by a voodoo doctor. Though it’s easy to forget these days, witchcraft is indeed the origin of the zombies we know and love today—virus-infected, fast-running things that they are.

Recognizing your zombie can all get a bit confusing, seeing as how the species has really fleshed out in the last few decades. Below is a guide to classifying your zombie—highly important for choosing your weapon and plan of escape.

Origins

Raised from the Dead: Zombies seemed to have to evolved away from this, but they still pop up from time to time. Look for suspicious-looking altars, emptied cemeteries, and religious apocalypses. See: White Zombie (1932), George A. Romero’s Dead series, Weekend at Bernie’s II (1993).

Infection: Whether created in a lab or carried by a monkey, viruses that make people want to eat other people are rampant. Evidence includes strange children randomly appearing in your bedroom and waking in an abandoned hospital. See: 28 Days Later (2002), Dawn of the Dead (2004), The Walking Dead (2010–).

Speed

The speed a zombie has is usually directly related to its origins. Raised from the dead? You’ve likely got a slow one on your hands. See: Night of the Living Dead (1968), Michael Jackson’s Thriller video (1982), Shaun of the Dead (2004). Overtaken by a rage-inducing virus? This zombie is probably super fast. See Resident Evil (2002), [Rec] (2007), World War Z (2013).

Remember, there are exceptions to this rule. See: The Evil Dead (1981), where witchcraft still makes for some pretty agile zombies.

Brains

Semi-aware: This is the most important zombie factor to identify quickly, because if there’s a bit of the person still left in there, you might be able to convince them not to bite you—at least momentarily. See: Day of the Dead (1985), Hocus Pocus (1993), Life After Beth (2014).

Blank slate: Unfortunately, most zombies don’t remember anything of who they were—including the very first voodoo zombies and the more modern virusy ones. Alas, it’d be best to place your bets on this type and just start severing brain stems. See: 98% of zombie films.

What kind of zombies lurk around Krakit’s Vancouverescape room? You’ll have to come and find out for yourself.

Five Things to Do in Vancouver before the Fall Semester Starts

Though summer’s not officially over until September 23, Vancouver’s postsecondary students are saying adieu to the season in just one week’s time.

The best way to make the most of what’s left of summer is to do. Recent science confirms that experience, not material goods, is what makes us happy. So get out there and have experiences that stick in your brain—and that you can pine for once the winter rains hit. 

Whyteliff Park. Photo: Ruth Hartnup CC BY 2.0

1. Go to the drive-in. The chance to attend an outdoor movie is coming to an end. Grab a carload of friends and hit the last River District Drive-In Movie Night. Which just happens to be a massive tribute to summer and friendship and the coming school year: Stand By Me on Sun Sept 6 at 8.30 pm.

2. Get into the great outdoors. Your butt is soon to be glued to a lecture hall seat, and visiting the “great outdoors” will mean the walk between classes. Do yourself a favour and finally conquer the Grouse Grind. Or, if you dislike sweating, jump across the rocks at Whytecliff Park instead.

3. Be a hero for a night. Bind your friendships, or even make some new ones, at one of Krakit’s four Vancouver escape rooms. The problem solving needed to save your pals from a horde of hungry zombies is also the perfect jolt to get your brain back in working order after a summer off.

4. Watch Willy be free. For a web of reasons, the whale pods around Vancouver have been extra active this year—but they won’t be around for much longer. If you’ve got some spare cash, grab a whale watching tour to get up close and personal. If not, the ferry to Vancouver Island has also given people quite a view.

5. Soak up the city. Vancouver really shines in summer, but its music and arts scene hums all year round. Get out to the annual Victory Square Block Party (Sun Sept 6 from 1.30–9.30 pm) to catch a huge line-up of local bands and get into the spirit of community that makes Vancouver more than just some pretty mountains and beaches.

The Sleuthing Spectrum, from Sherlock to Clouseau

There’s more than one way to crack a case, and there’s more than one way to make your exit from Krakit’s four themed escape rooms. Each type of problem solver gets to the solution in their own way—the only important thing is that you get there.

Below we take a look at the different approaches of famous sleuths, to give you a little inspiration before your next game.

The Know-It-All

These types are what might be considered “classic detectives,” often portrayed as private investigators. The biggest one is, of course, Sherlock Holmes, whether it be Conan Doyle’s original smartypants or the antisocial version played Benedict Cumberbatch.

These investigators have a high degree of fluid intelligence, able to piece together a million tiny bits of information to backtrack through mysteries. They also have vast knowledge on seemingly every imaginable topic—just like kid detective Encyclopedia Brown—to help them crack the case.

The Unsuspecting

In this category you have your Veronica Marses, your Jessica Fletchers, your Nancy Drews. Yes, these are all women, and that (unfortunately) does have something to do with it. Especially back in Nancy Drew’s time, people just weren’t ready to believe that ladies could get the crime solving done.

However, sleuths like Veronica Mars are more than willing to play into people’s ignorance, duping them into thinking nothing out of the ordinary is going on—when really they’re stealing all the confidential files they need to get a solve.

The Techie

This type of sleuth is, like all of the above, extremely clever, but they really excel in one particular area. Veronica Mars’s sidekick Mac is a perfect example of this, using her technological prowess to hack the systems of countless evil businessmen.

Other investigators who fall into this category are television’s Dr. Quincy—medical examiner extraordinaire—and the geeky roles on forensics shows like CSI and NCIS. You know the ones: they always have a lab coat on.

Bonus: The Deadweight

Try as they might, these types just can’t cut it. Think of the classic Inspector Clouseau or the character Jonathan Ames in Bored to Death. Bumbling and incompetent, they more often cause crimes than solve them.

Whether you take the approach of a Sherlock or a Veronica at your next outing to Vancouver escape game Krakit, just remember one thing: Don’t be the Clouseau.

4 of 7: Helpful Hints to Prepare for the Apocalypse

This is a seven part series outlining survival techniques based on Maslow's hierarchy (beginning with physiological needs). In the final segments (self-actualization and self-fullfilment) I'll work my way into team building culture, role diversification/intelligent responsibility-delegation, and, above all, leadership techniques.

As time passes, more travellers arrive at, what has now become, your base of operations. You’ve been reading more books everyday from the school’s library and have taken a particular shining to psychology books, supplemented by books about warfare tactics. By positioning yourself as the founder of the resistance camp, a new name has emerged for the survivors: each person allowed to pass through the gym lock-up test has become a full fledged member of “The Righteous.” Endowing each Righteous leader with a title, rank, and position within the camp, a flow of responsibilities has emerged by way of an established, merit-based chain of command. You write a constitution outlining a larger goal for The Righteous allowing for input, change, and assimilation of knowledge.

• ESTEEM: “Everyone within The Righteous, a name chosen to give hope and esteem, has a responsibility to one another,” you tell your colleagues in a group forum led by a round-table panel of contributors representing each part of the camp, witnessed by the ranks of Righteous who now live in the school’s dormitories. “We are part of a world wide network fighting not only for humanity’s survival; together, we are part of a larger cause that unites us under circumstances allowing us to use these challenges to grow, thrive, and, above all, evolve.” The panel listens patiently as you speak aloud this formal, introductory speech to the meeting. Each word you deliver from the speech is deliberate and emphasized accordingly in a rhetoric and cadence which has set precedence for your benevolent leadership a unifiable justification for peace and growth. As you have brought people into your home with hope of vigilant safety, fulfilling their primary needs, and incorporating them into a circle of trust and acceptance, you have become the esteemed leader of leaders within The Righteous’s headquarters.

How do You Solve a Problem Like the Cube?

Created as a piece of art, smuggled out of communist Hungary and sold as a toy for children, the Rubik's cube is one of the most engaging artifacts of contemporary pop culture. 

With a simple, yet complex, six-sided design of fifty-four squared coloured tiles, the cube is anything but a child's toy. It is a portable mystery that can baffle adults and take hours to solve. It is the pop puzzle that continues to delight over 25 years after it was first introduced to the world.

Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian sculptor, created the cube in 1974. Rubik made his first prototype out of wood. The original cube was a much heavier and far less colourful version of the cube we have all grown to love. It was coined the 'magic cube' and patented in 1975.

By 1979 Rubik's puzzle was a hit in Budapest, but the cube was destined for a bigger stage. A friend managed to get one out of the country and brought it to the Nuremberg Toy Fair. Here the cube landed in the hands of Tom Kremer, a toy specialist who immediately saw the toy's potential as a mathematical puzzle for people around the world. After acquiring the rights to distribute it, the cube was renamed the Rubik's Cube, after its original inventor.

In three years, Kremer's toy company sold over 300 cubes, as the world fell in love with the handheld puzzle. It is now the world's best-selling toy. It is also a symbol of the inherent human desire to solve the mysteries that are placed before us.

As makers of puzzles, the Krakit team admires Rubik's pioneering spirit. It takes a special person to create such a tangible riddle, a riddle that has touched the hands of one in every seven people on this planet. Crazy….

Our escape games are slightly less ambitious, but they do offer a similar intellectual challenge. Try your hand at one of our theme rooms this week and relive the delightful innocence of solving a puzzle.