Your life: brighter in Technicolor

By Maggie Beidelman

Every time I ask someone for article ideas for our section, I hear, "Write something about what to do in the area. There's nothing going on in Santa Clara."

Yes, outside of our unusually beautiful tuition-fed campus grounds, Santa Clara embodies the mediocrity that is industrial suburban America, with gray cement and black asphalt being the structural materials of choice.

But, Santa Clara is merely a black and white classic just beyond the hub of the Technicolor excitement of the Bay Area.

There is plenty to see and do besides overdressing for a Wednesday night session of flip cup on your neighbor's trash-laden garage floor. One just has to look further than across Market Street.

Last weekend, I went go-kart racing at LeMans Karting of Fremont. The experience was thrilling and I highly recommend forking over the $30 for 10 minutes of the best driving experience you'll ever have. Just make sure you have the hangover under control before strapping in.

Two weekends ago, I went to a comedy show in San Francisco. Granted, getting lost in the Presidio, the nicest area in the coolest city in the world, is better than perfecting the dent in your garage sale couch in front of your flea market TV -- or so one would think after visiting our humdrum campus on an early Saturday evening.

This weekend, I'm going to some Sonoma County vineyards, The Roots and Gym Class Heroes concert and then to the Arab Film Festival in downtown San Jose.

Great wine, music and a few new indie films about one of the most misunderstood and most influential and talked about cultures of the world? It doesn't get much more Technicolor than this, folks.

But don't take my word for it. Check out some other new and exciting show-and-tells in the Bay Area.

Downtown San Jose's Tech Museum of Innovation just opened the world's largest exhibit of Leonardo da Vinci's works: paintings, reconstructed flying machines, original and weird backwards left-handed manuscripts -- the works.

San Francisco's Golden Gate Park is now the home of one of the coolest all-in-one entertainment centers around: the California Academy of Sciences.

The center is home to no less than a four-story rainforest, an aquarium, a planetarium and a natural history museum.

With the ease of Internet access, it's a darn shame if you can't find something different to do every weekend, if not every day.

Ticketmaster, page 12 of this issue, SFGate.com, any local newspaper -- these are all part of my inspiration posse of weekly action.

Santa Clara may be black and white, but transportation to the world of color does exist.

We're not in Kansas anymore, people. Look around.