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Spring Forward and Fall Back

Follow our cyber fast track to fun, satire and the stars By Mimi Hill HAPPY SPRING, happy Solstice, happy Purim and happy Easter. This week Virtual Paradise picks you up and takes you on the fastest ride ever to get to the Boardwalk. Then watch out while Jim Jones puts you down soundly with his Satirical Web Tabloid of Santa Cruz. And, finally, take off to the stars with the Santa Cruz Astronomy Club. CHAOS Rules What better way to celebrate warm weather than to visit the Boardwalk? In 1997, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk turns 90 years old and happens to be the only major seaside amusement park on the West Coast. How did it all get here? It was June 22, 1907, when local entrepreneur Fred. W. Swanton fulfilled his dream of creating a "West Coast Coney Island." Today, the Boardwalk features 28 rides, arcades, restaurants, shops, the Casino Fun Center Supercade and Neptune's Kingdom Adventure Center. There is a new attraction this year called CHAOS--a spinning, tilting, upside down adventure. During the Boardwalk's 90th summer season, look for a special party on May 23, the popular 1907 Nights June 23­Aug. 26 (rides cost just 50 cents after 5pm Mon.­Tue.) and those great Summertime, Summer Nights free Friday night concerts from June 27 to Aug. 29. The Boardwalk's Web site includes real-time movies of some of the attraction's rides, discount coupons and the latest events and schedule information. News of Your Dismissal Weekly World Cruz Online allows locals and outsiders to visit Santa Cruz with National Enquirer lenses on our eyeballs. This site is a tabloid-style magazine of humor and satire. It's aimed at (and for) the denizens of Santa Cruz and people like them. You all know who you are. There is even a hard-copy version distributed free at irregular intervals on the streets of Santa Cruz. Jim Jones writes it, lays it out and prints it. He figures that there is as much self-interested and rascally behavior in Santa Cruz as anywhere on the planet, plus a whole lot of ego-preening and self-adulation to go around. Jones says he mails copies of Weekly World Cruz to most of our elected officials as a way of keeping SC's Saviors of Civilization a little more honest. Powered by the Stars There is a huge amount of information about astronomy on the World Wide Web. Remember that Alan Hale and Thomas Bopp's comet--which is quite visible these evenings--is the farthest out comet ever discovered by amateurs. The Santa Cruz Astronomy Club has a great Web page with all kinds of astronomy news, public viewing parties and comet-watching tips by Chris Angelos. Mimi Hill is the UCSC Systems and Resource Analyst for the Arts and a computer consultant. For her rates or further information, she can be reached via email or letter at: 111 Union St., SC 95060. Check out the Web page for her upcoming book with Robert Anton Wilson. [ Metro Santa Cruz | MetroActive Central | Archives ]