Atticus~ a little dog prepares for a big adventure

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Dear Readers,

 

My mommy, who you know better at Queen Naughty Mickie, left her computer on, so I’m sneaking the opportunity to write on her blog! Shhh… don’t tell!!  She told me that I’m going to have a very exciting day on Sunday, but I’ll have to wake up very early. This isn’t a problem because I like to watch the sunrise and listening to the birds chirping as they stretch their wings. Then, if my mommy is sleeping on her back, I crawl on to her chest and stare into her face until she wakes up so I give her a big “happy morning” kiss! Oh, but I’m rambling…

 

Sunday I get to wear a cape that matches my mommy’s dress. It has jewels and glitter and tiger fur on it. I will meet all the people at the Pasadena Senior Center and in Memorial Park having fun before the parade. Do you think they will let me eat pancakes at the senior center’s breakfast?  How many pancakes do you think I can eat?? The correct answer is– all of them!

 

I understand that I will also have to behave because the people from television and newspapers will be there to talk to me. I hope the Food Channel people come and bring me some samples from their barbecue show. Oooo and the Animal Planet people and the friendly folks from the “Dog Tales” show- they feature lots of heroic and smart dogs on their shows and I’m smart and heroic, plus I’m very cute! Mommy said that KTLA is going to interview us between 7 and 8 a.m. on Sunday and there will be some of her reporter friends there too.

 

Later I will get to ride in a convertible (I love the wind in my face!) and smile at all the people on the sidewalks. I would wave, but I need to keep my balance while the car is moving, I hope the people will understand that tail wags are twice as good as paw waves!! But you can wave back with your paws- OK?!

 

I think mommy’s remembered about the computer so I have to go. See you Sunday!!

 

Paws up,

Atticus 

Countdown to Doo Dah Day

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I think my gown is done. What I mean is that you can never be too sure~ it might need more glitter (you can never have too much glitter!) or a tad more fitting…  but I could wear it today if I wished. I did, however, select to don more business-like attire so as to not appear too comeuppety to my co-workers.

 

I want to encourage all of you to join me Sunday for my big day. To show you how much fun it will be, look at this photo of me and Sierra Madre Sue at Gem City Grill in Monrovia during the Pre-Doo Dah Party. See? That’s just the start of fun, so you know that there’s even more to follow! Here’s the day’s itinerary:

 

8-11:30 a.m. All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Breakfast

Pasadena Senior Center, 85 E. Holly St.

$6, includes pancakes, eggs, sausage, bacon, juice and coffee

www.pasadenaseniorcenter.org

 

11:30 a.m. 31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade

Steps off from the corner of Raymond Avenue and Holly Street, proceeds south on Raymond, then west on Colorado Boulevard to Pasadena Avenue.

 

 OFFICIAL DOO DAH PARADE AFTER-PARTY

 hosted by the Light Bringer Foundation, featuring live music from SNOTTY SCOTTY & THE HANKIES and HORSES ON ASTROTURF, immediately following parade.

AMERICAN LEGION HALL, 179 N. Vinedo Ave., East Pasadena

 $5 admission, 21 & over. CHEAP food & drinks, raffles, more Doo Dah fun!

 

The Queen will be in attendance at all these events, as well as other places throughout Pasadena during the day.

 

Black Dahlia memories & dress making dreams

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As I had mentioned yesterday, I had a wonderful time seeing off Esotouric’s Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour from Vroman’s in Pasadena. Esotouric owners and extraordinary tour hosts, Richard and Kim, have now made a series of photos from the tour available for all to see, visit

http://blackdahliavromans1-13-08.notlong.com/

 

For more info on Esotouric and its upcoming adventures, visit www.esotouric.com

 

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I also recently told you that I had given up searching for the “perfect gown” and have decided to make one myself. Here’s some photos of a few of the many steps I am going through. I selected lush fabrics, lots of ribbons, some hefty handfuls of jewels, a swish of sequins and other embellishments. I used my serger (overlock sewing machine) to put the dress together and am doing the rest by hand. I made Atticus’ matching cape over the weekend. Now you know to look for a smiling woman in a coppery skirt with a cute dog… but the final style is still secret!

 

Enjoy!!

 

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Doo Dah is much more than just a wacky parade

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Before I launch into my lesson-for-the-day, I would like to thank everyone who came out for the Pre-Doo Dah Party Saturday night. It was a lot of fun and I enjoyed dancing during my set, on stage with Aluminum Marshmallow and throughout the night. Seeing off Esotouric’s Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour from Vroman’s Sunday was also a blast. The riders got my jokes and seemed genuinely interested in the facts I dug up about 1947.

 

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 My last thank you goes to Bill Cagle and his friends who sent me some photos from the Open Mic Night at the Fret House in Covina. Bill’s the cutie with the guitar who I’m cuddling (I hope his wife doesn’t mind!). The other gentleman offered up some nice solo guitar stylings and then had his banjo/harmonica playing friend join him on stage for an upbeat tune that got the crowd going.

 

Now for the lesson… Many people have asked me why I kept returning to audition for queen and participate in the Doo Dah Parade. Once I learned what the Light Bringer Project does with the money it earns from the event, I was hooked. Here’s a little write-up on how the parade helps the community that may have you looking at the parade in a whole new way:

 

DOO DAH FOREVER

Light Bringer Project is a Pasadena-based nonprofit arts organization that has produced the Doo Dah Parade since 1995. The organization is also producer of the Pasadena Chalk Festival, the world’s largest street painting event featuring over 600 visual artists from all over Los Angeles, Southern California and beyond.

 

In keeping with its mission “to build community through the power of the arts,” Light Bringer Project has delivered a range of unique cultural arts programs and special events that utilize high-degrees of collaboration, volunteerism and community-wide support. For its arts and learning efforts, the organization has received the California League of Cities’ Helen Putnam Award of Excellence in Public-Private Partnership.

 

Since 1997, the organization has dedicated energies to serving youth, each of which involves partners from the for profit and nonprofit sectors. In its 6th year, the Advertising & Design Academy provides learning opportunities and opens career pathways for underserved public high school students. Global agencies such as TBWA\Chiat\Day serve as active program partners and students are engaged in community-based projects of their own choosing.

 

Founded by the Department of Mental Health over 25 years ago, Expressing Feelings through Art is a prevention program delivered by Light Bringer Project in partnership with the Mental Health Association of Los Angeles County. It serves senior high school students across LA County who are challenged to develop visual and written forms of personal expression that address their key concerns and life ambitions.

 

Light Bringer Project is be establishing Room 13 at a South Central Los Angeles school site beginning this spring. The Program is an international collaboration that originated in Scotland in 1994. It has evolved into network of student-designed and operated creative studios that provide working skills and learning opportunities to students in Scotland, Britain, Nepal, India and South Africa. This will be the first Room 13 project in North America.

 

For more information on how you can become involved call us at (626) 205-4029 or write lbp@earthlink.net  Our website is www.lightbringerproject.com

 

We’d like to extend our appreciation to THE GAS COMPANY for their continuing support of our Parade’s VIP Reception.

THANK YOU FOR COMING AND HAVE A GREAT DOO DAH DAY!!

 

 

Catch Royalty this weekend at Gem CIty Grill & with Esotouric

I have a nice full weekend and I’d love to share it with you. Well, not tonight because I’m meeting with Miss Louise of my Official Entourage to work on decorations for the parade… but you can see me Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be happy to chat with you and even give you my autograph and some advise if you wish at either of these two must-do events:

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Prince Andrew’s Birthstravaganza & Pre-Doo Dah Party

8:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12
Gem City Grill
115 E. Olive Ave., Monrovia
$1 cover, which will be donated to Tree People U.S.A.
(626) 358-0346
 
 
Get ready for the upcoming 31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade and celebrate the birthday of one of its own, Prince Andrew. The night will include performances by Andrew’s Bad Stuff, Aluminum Marshmallow and the Age of Aquarius Horns, Surrender the Pink, Mornin’ Wuud and Count Smokula and his rock n’ roll accordion, plus belly dancing by Almase Arabesque. There will be appearances by reigning Doo Dah Queen Naughty Mickie and other Doo Dah denizens.
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Esotouric’s Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour –
 featuring an introduction and royal launch by Queen Naughty Mickie
 
 
Jan 13 2008 – 12:00pm
Jan 13 2008 – 4:00pm

A special edition of our most popular Crime Bus tour exclusively for friends of Pasadena’s venerable Vroman’s Bookstore (with reservations available directly from the store), The Real Black Dahlia spans the city from downtown to South Central, visiting the actual scenes of Elizabeth Short’s final day in LA, and those places that have become attached to her in the ever growing mythology of the Black Dahlia murder. The real woman behind the murder mystery is revealed, along with suspects, reporters and investigators who were drawn into her orbit. Passengers will also be introduced to a little known and quite convincing suspect with ties to the body dump scene near 39th and Norton.

 

Since January 1947, this iconic mutilation murder has lingered unsolved at the forefront of the American imagination, with dozens of books, films, TV shows and websites dedicated to solving the slaying of the ambitious young woman from Medford, Mass. who came to Hollywood hoping to make it, and ended up cut in two in a vacant lot. Suspects have included famous men like Norman Chandler and Orson Welles, crazed lesbians, twisted drifters and more than one writer’s father, but still the mystery abides.

 

On the Real Black Dahlia Crime Bus, Kim Cooper and Richard Schave give a guided tour to scenes from the real and imaginary history of the Black Dahlia case. Along the way, passengers will explore the social history of postwar Los Angeles, several popular Dahlia theories will be debunked and a little known but likely suspect will be introduced. The tour will introduce passengers to the real Elizabeth Short and some of the peculiar characters who knew her in life or become obsessed with her in death.

 

There will be a snack stop at Krispy Kreme Donuts. To make your reservations contact Vromans Bookstore directly: 626-449-5320. Also visit www.esotouric.com

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Also, be sure to mark your calendars to share my big day:

 

31st Occasional Pasadena Doo Dah Parade

11:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 20

Steps off from Memorial Park, Holly Street and Raymond Avenue, Old Pasadena

Enjoy the All-You-Can-Eat Pancake Breakfast ($5) and meet Queen Naughty Mickie at the Pasadena Senior Center, 85 E. Holly Street, Pasadena, before the parade.

www.pasadenadoodahparade.info  and www.pasadenaseniorcenter.org

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As we part for the weekend, I will leave you with these thoughts:

 

Will Queen Mickie design the perfect gown?

 

Will Queen Mickie sew herself to her dress?

 

Will her creation meet the approval of her Cuddly Courtiers Zedd and Kujo?

 

Will the Seamstress Gnomes steal her outfit during the night only to replace it with another tasteless and tacky fashion disaster?

 

Tune in next week to find out- same Doo Dah channel, same Doo Dah time, same Doo Dah fun!!

 

 

 

 

 

Fashion fit for a Queen

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As the big Doo Dah day draws near, I need select the perfect gown. I have consulted with vendors, designers, my friends and my mother. Many have great ideas, some have outrageous ideas and some have blah ideas, but in all cases the ideas are expensive- still, spare no expense for my day in the royal sun, I say.

 

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Miss Cindy of my Offiicial Entourage graciously invited me to her home last night to look over and try on some of the outfits submitted by the Official Court Seamstresses (I think they’re actually little gnomes. Like garden gnomes, but with needles and thread, tiny sewing machines and enormous bad taste). Unbeknownist to me, Cindy has two fashion experts in residence- her dogs, Zeke and Kujo. These pups have their paws on the pulse of style!… And they aren’t shy about letting you know that a dress simply is not for you.

 

 
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As I played dress-up, Cindy kept her camera clicking so we could share the moment with you. Please note my Cuddly Courtiers in two of the shots. Kujo, the setter/Dalmation/pointer wonder dog, admits that he has an affinity for spots, particularly animal print spots, but thought this litt2250-zdress6-thumb-300x435.jpgle leopard number was dated. Zedd, the Labrador/mystery mix, convinced me that style searching can be taxing, so it’s always good to take a little break for play– it keeps the mind fresh.

 

 

Unfortunately this little fashion foray proved fruitless, so I now have plans to take the matter into my own hands and make my dress. Let’s see what Kujo and Zedd have to say about that! 

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Wayne Lusvardi named Doo Dah’s “Thorny Rose”

The Doo Dah Parade’s select and savvy committee chooses a “Thorny Rose” for every run down the route. This year, they have decided that Wayne Lusvardi (scourge of Measure D and chairman of Citizens for Responsible Government) makes the grade and, perhaps not so surprisingly, is a bit disgruntled about receiving the honor.

 

Read more about Lusvardi and the “Thorny Rose” in a story by my fellow staff writer, Janette Williams:

http://www.pasadenastarnews.com/news/ci_7923062

 

Personally, I think Lusvardi is in dire need of a sense of humor. Too bad he will miss all my good jokes on Doo Dah day!!

Doo Dah steams up with Wedding Shower entry

Local author, newspaper columnist and women’s rights activist Ellen Snortland and her fiance, Ken Grumberman, will celebrate their upcoming nuptials at the Doo Dah Parade with the GruberSnort Wedding Shower. I called Ellen and spoke with her about the engaging entry- she was delightful!

 

Ellen said that their parade entry will feature her and her beloved in a shower set up on a flatbed truck followed by more than 30 guests in bathrobes and towels. Sounds like fun to me! I was doubly charmed when Ellen asked for my advice as to what she and Ken should wear behind their shower curtain~ it may be a little too chilly to go au natural. I offered a few suggestions and told her that I would be happy to drop by and bless their union, as only the Doo Dah Queen can. Please cheer loudly for the Gruber Snorts as they pass you on the route. Hip, hip, huzaa!

 

To learn more about the intriguing Ellen, visit www.beautybitesbeast.org, a site for her documentary film in progress. From here, you can visit her links and discover all her secrets!

Country Gentlemen sought for Doo Dah Parade

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The man in black keeps showing up at many of the same places around town that I do. No, he’s not Johnny Cash. No, no, he’s not the Grim Reaper. No and no again, he’s not some goth dude! He’s none other than Eagle, a true gentleman down to the boots and the hat. Eagle sent me an e-mail today, asking me if I would help spread the word for his group. After looking at the photo of me and Valerie at McGinty’s Gallery at the End of the World in Altadena that he sent, how can I resist?

 

Here’s the plea from Eagle:

 

We need more men volunteers who what to be in The Country Gentlemen group for the DooDah parade.  The group is 12 Country Gentlemen, we have 4 at this point, that would make a need for 8 more, but we would like to have a back up of 2.  So, that makes 10 needed.

Here are the qualifications.

1.  Must look in reasonably good shape and have a little rhythm.  Race and age is not a big factor, however we would prefer 30+
2.  Must have black regular cowboy boots and black slacks, not jeans.
3.  Must we willing to rehearse some evenings and sunday afternoon and every evening the Monday before the parade.
4.  Must be willing to help with the parade staging and arrive at 8:00 AM parade day.
5.  Pay $30 for the custom embroidered CG shirt.  The fifty ($50) dollar CG Wilton hat will be theirs to keep, if they show up parade day.
6.  Most important… must be a “gentleman.”

I realize that we are coming down to the wire, but I have a choreographer who is working on the routine that will not be too difficult.  The banner for the group arrived today and it looks great!  I have a preliminary website set up at:  TheCountryGentlemen.org  

Wishing you all the best and a GREAT DooDah day.

Robert “Eagle” Linker

 

For more questions or to sign up, you may e-mail Eagle at Eagle@EagleUniversal.com

 

Royalty reigns at Body Art Expo & the Fret House

*** NEWS FLASH ****

 

Queen sightings expected throughout Saturday

with intermittent showers of smiles, flashes of photos and an outpouring of happiness.

 

Yes, it’s really true! You have two opportunities to meet me tomorrow. I will be armed with 5″x7″s to autograph for you and flyers with Doo Dah Parade info. I’ll also be happy to pose with you for your own photos and chat with you on almost any topic. Here’s where you can meet me:

 

 APPEARANCE 1:

Body Art Expo at Fairplex, Pomona.

11 a.m.- around 6 p.m., Saturday, Jan. 5

See and meet tatto

 

o and body modification artists, shop for clothes and gifts and more. You can meet my Official Entourage Valerie here too!

www.bodyart.expo.com

 

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APPEARANCE 2:

Open Mic Night at the Fret House, 309 N. Citrus Ave., Covina

7:30 p.m.- end of show, Saturday, Jan. 5

Performers: sign-ups are at 7:30 and the show begins at 8. You have two songs or 10 minutes.

This is a very family-friendly, performer-supportive venue that offers a unique opportunity to enjoy emerging and established talent.

(626) 339-7020 or www.covina.com/frethouse

 

Upcoming appearances:

8:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 12 Prince Andrew’s Pre-Doo Dah Party & Birthstravaganza at Gem City in Monrovia. $1 cover, which will be donated to Tree People USA. I will not only appear, but I will dance with my swords! Watch here for additional details.

11:30 a.m. Sunday, Jan. 13 Esotouric’s Black Dahlia Crime Bus Tour leaving from Vroman’s Book Store in Pasadena. I will be assisting with tourist check-in, giving a short historical talk and officially launching the bus for a safe trip. This is a great tour for crime and history buffs alike. Visit www.esotouric.com to join the fun.

 

I hope to see you at one or all of these events!!