‘Cherry Bombed’ indeed. An inside look at the new film ‘The Runaways’ and why Fanning considers morphing into ’70s rocker Cherie Currie the role of a lifetime.

French kissing a girl? Prancing around scantily clad on stage crooning savage rock songs? Morphing into a sex kitten?

Hello — is this the Dakota Fanning we have all come to know and love?

Yes… and no.

Fanning, who warmed hearts in films like I Am Sam and The Secret Lives of Bees, morphs into uber rock chick Cherie Currie in the new film The Runaways. The ambitious saga chronicles the rise of the famed girl band of the same name and, eventually, the fall of Currie, the band’s lead crooner who was caught in an avalanche of fame alongside Joan Jett, Lita Ford, Sandy West and Jackie Fox in the mid-’70s.

Brutal: Prison breeds a master criminal in ‘A Prophet’

A French-Arabian youth with little education and no particular religion falls in with a bad crowd. Although he tries to work hard and stay out of trouble, he is literally forced into criminal activities in which the risks and the consequences are dire in the extreme. Lives (his own and others) are at stake every time he’s faced with a new decision. How he learns to navigate this volatile minefield of crime and punishment is at the harrowing heart of Jacques Audiard’s violent suspense thriller A Prophet (Un Prophéte). The twist is, the young protagonist’s entire extensive education in the criminal underworld occurs within a French prison, after he’s jailed on a charge so petty, it’s never even mentioned.

A cantankerous old widower defies the authorities and makes one last, spectacular play to keep the old homestead he’s in danger of losing. It may sound a lot like Pixar’s Oscar-winning cartoon feature Up, but rookie filmmaker Scott Teems’ That Evening Sun, a live-action meditation on loneliness and redemption, establishes a compelling, somewhat astringent personality all its own. Adapted from a short story by William Gay, the film is blessed with a superb performance by Hal Holbrook.

Imagine this: an asteroid is on a collision course with Earth. Not good. Now imagine that we’re able to blow it up, but it re-forms in, say, a few hours. Not good at all.

The latter is what Don Korycansky of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and Catherine Plesko of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico discuss in their paper, “Re-aggregation times of potentially hazardous object fragments after a hazard mitigation impulse.”

Government officials are still working hard to cut community violence in the City of Watsonville, but they have recently been given a helping hand. The governor’s office is providing the city with $382,639 over two years to help them tackle the problem of gang violence head on. The city has partnered with the Pajaro Valley Unified School District, Pajaro Valley Prevention and Student Assistance, and Santa Cruz County Office of Education. Together, they hope to increase prevention among youths, as well as felony and weapon related arrests. They also aim reduce gang motivated arrests by 15 percent and middle school alcohol consumption by 35 percent.

Films This Week
Check out the movies playing around town.
With reviews and trailers.

Santa Cruz thrill seekers have something to look forward to this summer: the opening of the Boardwalk’s “Haunted Castle” ride, which, judging by this sneak peek released by the company responsible for producing the animatronic characters, is full of monsters and ghouls to keep you jumping in fright. Check it out.

One thing is clear: pirate radio is illegal.  We take a look back at 15 years of  nonviolent civil disobedience.
My first encounter with pirate radio was when I was 16.  I was visiting a kibbutz in Israel, and while we picked potatoes or assembled irrigation piping, we’d listen to rock ’n’ roll coming from what turned out to be a pirate radio station.  Between songs a deep voice would announce: “From somewhere in the Mediterranean this is The Voice of Peace.”  Like Radio Caroline off the British coast in the ‘60s and ’70s, these were renegades that broadcast without government approval, outside of capitalist culture.

Pirate radio stations—on land or at sea— have long been a part of social justice movements worldwide by promoting positive change and artistic creativity through an independent media.  In 1995 a group of activists in Santa Cruz continued the legacy by establishing Free Radio Santa Cruz at 89.3 on the FM dial.  Like The Voice of Peace, FRSC also broadcasts from unknown locations, though reporters and government agents have periodically found their way to the DIY station.  (Join FRSC in celebrating 15 years of unlicensed, commercial-free radio at 7 p.m. Saturday March 27 at Kuumbwa Jazz Center. A donation at the door is requested for an evening that will include speakers and live music.)

Plus Letters to Good Times
Passion for the Protest
Ad Raises Issues

When I was 11 or so, I invited a bunch of friends to my house. We gathered in the kitchen, where I set up my little stereo system—some speakers with long, long cords and a turntable. (Am I one of the few who misses those things?) Well, there we all sat to listen to my very first “radio show.” With a portable cassette tape recorder handy—I really am dating myself—I grabbed the microphone and away we went. I took in “caller requests” from the three friends at the table. David Cassidy’s “I Can Feel Your Heartbeat” was requested. No problem. Next up: Dickie Goodman’s “Mr. Jaws” (remember that one?), followed by “Rubberband Man” and a Barry Manilow commercial medley from his double-album extravaganza. In between, I chatted with my guests about things that really mattered—that Ovaltine was better than Tang. Ah … good times.

Special for the Good Times Newsweekly
Forum Thursday to explore the issue.
Live Oak Elementary School, Thursday, March 18 at 6:15

Despite the fact that we’re in a so-called “El Niño” year, drought, population growth and fear of saltwater intrusion continue to impact water supply in Santa Cruz County.

To address supply concerns, the Santa Cruz Water Department and Soquel Creek Water District are seriously considering a plan to build a desalination plant, to serve Santa Cruz and Live Oak residents in dry years, and Soquel District customers in all other years. Soquel District wants to reduce pumping from the aquifer, which they report is in danger of seawater contamination from over-pumping.