Pasadena Alpha Muse Block Party

I appreciate being near Pasadena, California. It is a large enough community to have an organization like Innovate Pasadena, focused on spreading the word about some pretty interesting things in the area. A recent announcement on the mailing list was for an event titled Pasadena Alpha Muse Block Party. The title didn't mean anything to me, and even after reading the Eventbrite page I only have a vague idea what to expect. But it is at a location I haven't visited, and the event promised local companies, artists, and musicians. That was interesting enough to investigate.

The venue, CTRL Collective, appears to be a co-working facility along similar lines to WeWork or Cross Campus, except it seems to be more focused on creative companies versus technical. I'm sure there are other competitive differences that I failed to pick up, but it is generally along the lines of a facility that hosts multiple small companies who share a common infrastructure. There are offices upstairs, and downstairs is an open area for collaborative work or it can be opened up for events like today.

Trying to learn about the companies represented by each table was difficult, because the musicians were playing at far too loud of a volume for conversation. Nevertheless, some interesting companies stood out. Top of the list is STEM World Pasadena. Their main focus is after-school STEM education for school age children, but they also advertise a maker space with laser cutter and CNC engraver, which is good motivation for me to go check out their facility.

Happily, there were more than enough interesting artists present, offering different styles for the audience to find something that speaks to them. Sometimes the different styles come from a single artist. Alicia Gorecki had many pieces featuring different topics like architecture, people, and a few others. Each of which had a different style. I loved the series with little just-hatched baby birds in black-and-white line art. I didn't quite love them enough to buy an original (one of which Alicia is holding up here) but I did buy a greeting card of that series.

And no, I never did figure out what the event's title "Alpha Muse" meant.