I painted this one from the pier, while huge gulls with enormous long golden beaks hovered above me. I'd have been so pissed if one of them had pooed on my sketchbook. I would have been Anakin with the Sandpeople. I remember the adverts last year for the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk - you can't see it in this picture, but it normally sits to the right there. People have been coming down here for years, it's especially popular with high school kids looking to hang out and show off; in fact the music playing constantly over the PA was stuck somewhere between 1984 and 1987. I thought I'd gone back in time! Do you remember that funfair from the cartoon Dungeon's and Dragons, didn't that send them through time, or to another world or something. Maybe I'm thinking Scooby Doo. Whatever, amusement parks like this, with cotton candy and garlic fries and huge old rattling wooden rollercoasters are definitely a part of the American youth consciousness. Me, I've always been a bit scared of Rollercoasters, and the Santa Cruz Giant Dipper is no different, especially as it was the one seen in The Lost Boys, believe you me. But my wife convinced me to go on it, and so I did, hanging on for dear life as the world rattled and shook to the music of screams and clunking wooden slats. What an experience! I don't think I'd actually ever been on one of those old rollercoasters before. We got off the ride laughing our heads off. It's Santa Cruz, dude, you gotta do the Giant Dipper! We stayed at a Super 8 Motel with walls presumably made of rice paper. We dined at a no-frills (and not many thrills) Mexican place downtown before wandering the very poorly-lit but quite crowded main street, looking in interesting bookstores and record shops.
santa cruz (part 2)
2.4.07 00:27
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