Daily Update 4/8/10: Weird Hobbies! And Weekend Update
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This just in on the weekend! The Coolidge Corner theatre in Brookline is doing a Quote-Along to Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, encouraging audience members to recite along with the movie, on Friday. Also Friday, Oberon in Harvard Square is doing another theatre / dance-party performance / celebration, in the style of The Donkey Show. But this is a new concept called Animals that is more thriller and less Shakespeare. I loved The Donkey Show, so this is bound to be good also.
Taking a cue from yesterday’s mention of skydiving, todays theme is Weird Hobbies. So here are a lot regular, open-daily attractions and hobby clubs that I don’t get much chance to talk about, unless they have an annual celebration. Here are a few. By the way, when I write this stuff, it is actually me choosing the items. I don’t do what the major magazines do and bundle a bunch of advertisers under some lame theme like “The Man Issue”. I’m avoiding putting in a lot of links so this email doesn’t seem bogus to email systems. Google it.
Speaking of skydiving, there aren’t any places super-close to Boston to do it, perhaps because you need a small airport to access the sky part of skydiving. I went out to a place in Pepperell, MA that was fantastic. It’s only scary if you have to wait for the rain to stop, and spend 4 hours sitting around chatting with stunt divers about all their friends who have died, which is exactly what happened to us when we went. Of course, all those friends were doing dangerous edgy tricks. The guy I jumped tandem with (you can’t jump solo) had done it 1,000 times. In my opinion, it was almost but not quite worth the $250.
There’s also a place in Jumptown in Orange, MA that I’ve heard of. Perhaps weirdest of all (certainly less scary!) is the Skyventure Vertical Wind Tunnel in Nashua, NH, which is an indoors wind tunnel pointed straight up. So you can “skydive” from about 10 feet off the ground. Unfortunately, skydiving is expensive, and so is the wind tunnel. You can spend $48 for just a 2 minutes at the Wind Tunnel. Also, you are likely to need to reserve in advance, and of course it may be cancelled due to rain.
Another place I adore is F1 Boston, in Braintree, MA, where you get to drive go-carts. But these aren’t amusement park go carts. They’re gasoline powered, and the track is run like a sporting event. Unfortunately, you need a driver’s license to go, and it costs $50 or so, but it’s definitely worth it! Buy at least two races when you go, one after the other. There’s also Maine Indoor Karting, in Scarborough, ME. Perhaps you’d prefer to go down-market and race remote-controlled cars at RC Excitement Remote Controlled Car Racing in Fitchburg, or go up-market and join a club of actual auto racers at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which has courses on its courses. Get it? Courses? On its Courses? Ahem. Never mind.
I’m doing my best here to bring you good content. Please take 30 seconds and vote again. As always, the full Johnny’s List of Weird Boston Events is at www.WeirdBostonEvents.org. I’ll give up blogging daily and go back to weekly around May 1st. Thanks!