Live Blogging: It's Our Birthday!

I'm Love Live Blogging today from Pasadena's 127th birthday party at the Pasadena Museum of History. Come by! Cake at 3:00.

I'm not the only blogger:

Patrizzi Intergarlactica and I are focused.

Roberta Martinez of Pasadena Latina, and Rachael Faught of GlassofWin.com.

Primavera is Coming!

I'm letting you know early so you won't plan anything else for March 30th.

I promise, this time I will not bring a dried-up, store-bought pie. I might bring a store-bought pie, but if I do it will be a nice one.

All the cool people will be there. You'll fit right in.

Information

Union Station, Los Angeles

Every once in a while we have business to catch up on. On which to catch up. Straggling details. Fragments.

The annual lighting ceremony on Christmas Tree Lane will be this Saturday at 6pm, preceded by a vendor fair in the Altadena Library parking lot at 2. Altadena craftspeople don't generally try to sell you potholders their kids made at school. We're talking fine stuff. I'm going.

I enjoy the Arroyo Verde Awards, presented each year by the Council of Arroyo Seco Organizations. The Council recognizes the year's heroes in the preservation of the Arroyo. This year the ceremony will be held on December 12th at 7pm, at La Casita del Arroyo. I don't know yet who all the awardees are, but I know that Dianne Patrizzi, Patrizzi Intergarlactica, Mademoiselle Gramophone, our Doo Dah Queen, who marched in the Doo Dah parade as Princess Haha (and I don't know how many other personalities she has but these are all good ones), will receive the award for Best Activist. You can come to the awards! It's low-key fun and I love seeing people recognized for their important work.

Friend and photographer Kevin McCollister has a post up at 591PhotographyBlog. If Kevin isn't the finest photographer working in LA today, it's because Ansel Adams came back to life and moved to a downtown loft.

Did I mention this? I have a new book review up at Hometown Pasadena, of Kim Fay's The Map of Lost Memories. I might have mentioned it. I'm on new migraine pills. They are my current excuse for everything.

Some Camelot & Vine news:

One:
I said I'd keep the Camelot Where You Are photo contest going until Camelot & Vine is published. As you may know, it's not published yet. Two contest entries wait in my inbox for a third and hopefully a fourth to join them in deadly friendly competition. Take a picture of Camelot Where You Are and send it in (details here). I post it on the blog, everybody votes, and if you win I'll send you a free copy of Camelot & Vine (when it's published, which it will be. See Two).

Two:
Camelot & Vine will be published dammit! (in case you were wondering). I had hoped to have it out in time for Christmas--hell, I had hoped to have it out in October--but obviously, I had no idea how long it would take. January? This is now the plan, and it seems doable (as did October and December, once upon a time). The book has been edited and typeset, the cover's almost ready, and I can't imagine what else will hold it back.

But what the hell, let's come up with some scenarios!

Poo Dah

Due to unforeseen circumstances I wasn't able to make it to yesterday's Doo Dah Parade. That's lousy because yesterday's parade was, to me, the most important one ever. The Grand Marshall was Pasadena's outgoing public information officer and my friend, Ann Erdman. This year's Doo Dah Queen is also a friend. She's Dianne Patrizzi, the high priestess of flumwhatery, Princess Haha, Queen Patrizzi Intergarlactica.

So I don't have a photo of this year's parade. I took the above photo at the 2008 event. It gives you an idea of the parade's exuberance if not the parade itself, which is a massive crowd of insanity, music, tortillas and non sequitur. If the Tournament of Roses Parade poses the question, "Are all Pasadenans well-organized, pretty and wholesome?" the Doo Dah Parade answers, "Well no. No, we are not."

So, poo. I didn't make the parade. But there's video! Patrizzi had her well-deserved moment in the sun on a glorious day. And Ann, I hope, will always be involved with Doo Dah, which is brought to us by the Light Bringer Project, thank goodness. Because every town must have its flumwhatery.

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