End o' week musings

I'm glad this week is winding down.... so my next adventures can begin!

Friday night I went to Ann Erdman's retirement party celebrating more than 20 years as the Public Information Officer for Pasadena. I'm sad to see her leave the job, but I know I'll run into her in the Crown City, as she loves to get out and have fun.

It was a nice soiree with Lady of Leisure martinis, an Italian dinner, live jazz music and a lot of nice, short speeches feting Ann. Plus it was held in the ballroom of Castle Green, so the surroundings were beautiful. Love, hugs and all good things to you Ann!

Saturday I was busy with my final workshops at the Renaissance Faire. I returned there Sunday for a little while too before heading home to gussy up for the Pasadena Doo Dah Parade queen tryouts. Not only would I be judging the hopefuls, but I was invited to dance with my swords. The event was also a big April Fool's Day joke on me, which I thoroughly enjoyed-- for that story, please visit my Diary of a Doo Dah Queen at www.insidesocal.com/doodah

I'm very please with the parade's new Queen Patrizzia Intergalactica, as she has auditioned several times and always has had a different, creative act. She is also very active in the community and just a lot of darn good fun!

I did a lot of cool interviews this week. I spoke with Enter Shikari, Tracy G (Dio, Tracy G Group), Chuck Ragan (who's on The Revival Tour) and Dave Meros of Spock's Beard. Watch http://www.sgvn.com/ for my stories.

The blogger and tweeter meetup this morning in Pasadena went swimmingly. There was a good turnout and the group finally has a proper name: Coffee with Mr. Pasadena. We gather to chat about social media and learn how to better make it in the world of web. Our next meeting is 9 a.m. Friday, May 4 at the Pasadena Star-News office. For info, watch here or follow @mickieszoo and @mrpasadena on Twitter.

This weekend the Renaissance Pleasure Faire http://www.renfair.com/ opens and I'll be dancing and playing percussion in shows with Ad Hoc Consort and parading with Danse Macabre.

In rotation this week: Tracy G (thanks for the CDs!), Spock's Beard, Enter Shikari, Chuck Ragan and Lamb of God.

Photos we got 'em: A clutch of former Queens and current hopefuls at the Doo Dah auditions and a pic of the golden, beautiful and vivacious Queen Patrizzia Intergalactica, both by Terry Miller, a shot of the tornado skies in Mequite, Texas by my brother Jason (he and his family are fine) and the geese gathering to sing backup for my band at the Ren Faire at Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale.

Thought o' the week: Why are people so mean? My Twitter account got hacked today. What a pain. I changed the password and then changed my password on all my other web accounts just to be safe. I don't get it-- what do hackers really gain by doing this?

I can understand that there are bad guys out there who want to get into my bank account or something else I might have that could give them financial gain, but Twitter? Really? What the heck could be so vital to tweet under my name?

It just hits home that there are bad people everywhere who just get off being mean. I wish the world wasn't this way and the only thing us "good" people can do is to fight it by being extra good. So, I say fight back today and this weekend and every day by spreading some sweetness and kindness. It can be buying a coffee for the guy behind you in line, giving someone a big smile and wishing them a happy day or whatever you like, just put some goodness out there.

Happy Easter, Happy Passover, Happy Spring!

Keep on rockin'

Mickie