Since the old thread had hit six pages, here’s a new one for ya.
For clarity’s sake, I’ll repeat the words of my esteemed colleague UncleBeer, in response to the, uh, strange turn of events on the penultimate page:
Gracias compadre, and I promise you Toledo is on my shortlist of “Next US cities to visit”. 
Now discuss, dammit. I ain’t got all day.
I officially register my disapproval that I won’t be in LA this weekend to meet a mod, and that I also won’t be in St Cloud next weekend to meet another mod.
Even though you guys make me feel oogy, I’m going to wish you a great dopefest and I demand pictures, quotes, and transcripts.
Okay, but don’t expect anything X-rated (even if anything X-rated happens).
Shayna
I don’t think I will be able to come to the dopefest on Saturday. If I am able to I will come after din-din and show up about 8pm. Friday nite and Saturday daytime is out. Sunday my choir is singing for Unity Day in Huntington Beach (I think that is the city) so that makes for a fairly busy day.
We talked earlier in one of these threads about possible doing lunch. If we did that spooje might be talked into joining us. E-mail me at deb2world@yahoo.com and we can discuss if this is possible or not.
deb
You kiddin’? With me around?!?
Thank you, TubaDiva for briefly unlocking the old thread so I could copy this here.
For anyone who may have missed my posts from the previous thread, which are burried somewhere in the middle of it, I’m reposting all the details here as one combined reply.
Starting from the top…
Dopetoberfest is this weekend, October 19-21, Woo Hoo!
**What to pack? **
Beach Cities Weather Forecast: Sunny and 80-86 degrees daytime, 54-58 at night.
Where can you meet up with fellow dopers at the airport?
Here’s a terminal map. You’ll only be allowed to meet each other at baggage claim areas. Rental car places are offsite and will require using a shuttle bus to get to them.
Where are you staying?
Ramada Limited
435 South Pacific Coast Highway
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
Phone: 310-540-5998
How do you get there from the airport?
Taxi drivers will not necessarily know exactly where to take you just by giving them the address, so you’ll need to be specific. Tell them (or if you’re driving yourself) to take CA-1 (which is Sepulveda Blvd. [pronounced seh-PUHL-vuh-duh] at the airport and later changes names to Pacific Coast Highway) South towards Redondo Beach. Watch for Torrance Blvd., which will be approximately 7 miles from the airport. The Ramada is only a couple tenths of a mile past Torrance Blvd. on the right side of the street.
Kindly posted previously by jab1: Taxis can be expensive. The MTA #232* goes south from LAX to Long Beach and, as luck will have it, goes right down PCH. In fact, there should be a stop within a block of the Ramada. Fare is only $1.35.
*The #232 timetable is in Adobe Acrobat.
Proximity from the motel to me/dinner/beach: http://www.geocities.com/shayna61/RedondoView.html
FRIDAY EVENING
The General Manager for The Ramada & Days Inn hotels has kindly agreed to allow us the use of one of their meeting rooms at The Days Inn in Torrance to gather and hang out for the evening/night.
She’ll have the room open and available for us as early as 5:00PM and we can stay as late as 12:00 - 1:00AM so long as we aren’t blasting loud music. I’ll bring my portable CD player (though it’s really a piece of crap - sorry), but you guys will have to provide the music, as I don’t really have a collection worth listening to.
She is not charging us for the use of the room! We need to send her flowers or something
There is a liquor store immediately next door to The Ramada and also one across the street. I figured people could pick up the drink/s of their choice and head over to the Days Inn any time after 5:00.
I’ll order a bunch of pizzas and salad from a little neighborhood pizza place that makes GREAT pizza (WAY better than Pizza Hut, et al) and have it delivered at, say, 7:00PM (?? or should I make it 8:00?).
They tell me that for ~40-50 people, we should need 10 - 12 large pizzas (12 slices each) & what they call a “tray salad” and it’ll cost us approximately $175.00 - $200.00 (though the guy I talked to said if I call back on Thursday AM, he’ll be there with the store owner and the owner will likely be willing to give us a discount for such a large order). This is actually quite cheap, even without a discount, as it works out to under $5.00/person if we have 40 or more people! I’ll want to collect money from everyone as they arrive at the Days Inn, so please have cash ready for me (thank you).
The Days Inn is located at
4111 Pacific Coast Hwy.
Torrance, CA 90505 US
Phone: 310-378-8511
The estimated travel time from the Ramada is 6 minutes. Just turn right onto PCH from the motel and go approximately 3.3 miles.
For those who don’t want to hang out at a hotel all night, we won’t be far from an area of town called The Riviera Village where there are a few bars/taverns you can go to. However, this is not a “late-night-after-the-hotel” kind of thing, because last call around these parts is 1:00AM anyway.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON
Obviously, we’ll have people splitting up to do different things, as not everyone will be interested in the same “sightseeing” type stuff. Here’s a list of a few options/recommendations of things to do in and around L.A.
The Getty There is no admission fee for the museum, but there is a $5.00/car charge to park. No parking reservations are needed (they used to be). They have a central courtyard area where there’s often live music or entertainment of some sort and several places to get refreshements. There are also 2 restaurants for lunch and a beautiful garden with a large lawn area where you can picnic. Hopefully the sky will be clear because the views are spectacular.
Then, there’s also:
The Aquarium of the Pacific
The Queen Mary
The LaBrea Tar Pits (very cool if you like seeing pre-historic dinosaur bones and such.)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (which is actually right next to the Tar Pits, so you could conceivably do both.)
Mann’s Chinese Theater (where you can see all the hand and foot prints of the stars. There’s also the Hollywood Wax Museum [cheesy] and the Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum within 2 blocks. If you decide to do this, I recommend a visit across the street to The Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel. Go up to the 2nd floor and see the pictorial history of how the city of Hollywood was developed from a vast wasteland to what you see today. Correction from previous post: The Hollywood Roosevelt is where Marilyn Monroe posed for her first ad - on the diving board of the pool.)
If you’re into nature and hiking, we have some beautiful mountain trails you can hike. Thomas and I did the one at Switzer Falls last time he was here and it was a really beautiful hike.
Another option, for those interested in the shopping thing, is to visit the 3rd Street Promenade in Santa Monica. It’s several blocks long, where cars ar not allowed to drive, so the streets are swarming with people and there are often street performers. There’s also the Santa Monica Pier, which has a permanent fair/carnival with rides and games and such.
Or, if you want to see the wild and wacky, visit Venice Beach. It’s a promenade with the beach on one side and cheap touristy stores on the other. Lining the beach side are all kinds of funky artists showing/selling their wares, tarot card readers, street musicians and entertainers, etc. It’s very funky - and very crowded on the weekends. Parking will cost you as much as $12.00!
Yet another option is to just stay in the South Bay and do the local beach thing. Hermosa and Manhattan beach rock (though less so in the Fall since School’s back in session so there aren’t as many college students around).
You can just lay in the sun or walk along the strand (on the corner where Hermosa and Manhattan Beach meet, is the house that was used for the exterior shots of the beach house in Beverly Hills, 90210), join a beach volleyball game or even rent bikes or rollerblades (call Marina Bike Rentals: 310-318-2453). If you’re a serious bike rider or blader, you can actually take The Strand all the way up to Venice Beach! :eek: And if you’re really adventurous, you can rent jet skis, kayaks, paddle boats or go parasailing (call Beach Cities Watercraft Rental: 310-372-7477).
So if you don’t have a car and/or aren’t into the museum/shopping/sightseeing thing, just stay in the area - there’s plenty to do!
Here’s a whole list of “things to do in L.A.” where you might find something of interest that I haven’t mentioned here.
SATURDAY NIGHT
We have a reservation for 60 people at 6:00PM under the name Cecil Adams at:
El Torito Restaurant
100 Fishermans Wharf
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 376-0547
It is walking distance from the motel, but there is plenty of parking in the garage at the pier if you want to have your car there for activities after dinner.
Additonal Notes:
While I understand that there may be some people who would like to join us for dinner who haven’t already committed, we were asked to keep the party at 60 people, which we’ve already reached. HOWEVER, as Jodi so wisely mentioned in the previous thread, there is no reason you can’t come to the restaurant just like any other patron and ask to be seated near our group. And if there are only 1 or 2 extra people, I doubt they’d even notice if we snuck a couple of additional chairs around our table - I’m sure they won’t be doing a head count at the door.
I’d just like everyone to be mindful of the fact that it was very difficult for me to even get this reservation in the first place. I called a LOT of places and no one would even budge when I begged and pleaded to make a reservation since it’s not their practice to do so. It’s not that restaurants don’t want our business - it’s that they simply don’t take reservations on the weekends because they’re very, very busy and turnover is fast - except for large groups, which tend to hang around a lot longer than the average 4-top. El Torito made an exception in our case because I schmoozed the guy about how great our experience was at the last dopefest we had there. I just don’t want to take advantage of their kindness in doing something for us that they don’t ordinarly do.
So Stoid, come to dinner if you’d like. No one’s going to kick you out if we have 61 people, ok?
Now, onto the rest of the evening…
After dinner there are, of course, several options. There is an arcade on the pier if you’re into goofy games and such. We’ll be walking distance from the Hermosa Beach Pier Avenue walk street, where there are a number of bars/taverns, etc., many of which have live bands and dancing.
Hermosa beach is also home to The Comedy & Magic Club. There is a late show starting at 10:00PM on Saturday night, but their website is down so I can’t tell you who’s performing. I can tell you that I’ve always had a blast anytime I’ve gone there. Reservations are required, so if this is something you want to do, now would be the time to decide, because weekend shows tend to get sold out.
If you don’t mind travelling a bit further, I recommend Hollywood (as a couple of other people have also suggested in the previous thread).
The House of Blues is about 23 miles away and a 45 minute drive (don’t believe what the map sites tell you - this is L.A., land of the traffic jam). I’d post a link to the directions from mapblast, but you have to be registered there now, so links don’t work anymore. However, I would recommend using them over mapquest because the way they suggest getting there is much simpler than mapquest’s were (IMHO).
Location:
8430 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood, CA 90069
323.848.5100
Saturday night they’re featuring “Jazz Mandolin Project”
price : $15.00
show : 7:30 pm
genre : Jazz/Jam Rock
age : all
Then there’s also The Viper Room at:
8852 Sunset Blvd.
West Hollywood CA
310-358-1880
Corner of Larrabee St. and Sunset Blvd.
21 and over.
Doors open at 9:00pm
Or there’s the famous Comedy Store. And their website hasn’t updated the calendar since August, so I can’t tell you who’s performing there, either.
SUNDAY
There are no plans for Sunday. I’m sure we’ll all just stumble out of bed and head up to the local Pancake House (or the Rocky Cola Cafe is also a good choice) for a hangover brunch.
Attendees for Saturday night’s dinner are:
[list=1]
[li]Anamorphic[/li][li]beatle[/li][li]boli[/li][li]Caldazar[/li][li]Coldfire[/li][li]Cowboy Greg[/li][li]& Hubby[/li][li]Dave Swaney[/li][li]Demo[/li][li]Diane[/li][li]domina[/li][li]Doobieous[/li][li]Esprix[/li][li]& guest[/li][li]Francesca[/li][li]& Mr. Fran[/li][li]Heloise[/li][li]Icarus[/li][li]jab1[/li][li]JavaMaven1[/li][li]JimB[/li][li]Joey Hemlock[/li][li]Johnny L.A.[/li][li]JustPlainBryan[/li][li]katiekilldare[/li][li]Kyla[/li][li]malkavia[/li][li]& guest[/li][li]& guest[/li][li]Manservant Hecubus[/li][li]Mauvaise[/li][li]Mercutio[/li][li]Monster104[/li][li]Nen[/li][li]Nymysys[/li][li]Padeye[/li][li]Phouka[/li][li]porcupine[/li][li]pricciar[/li][li]psycat[/li][li]quixotic78[/li][li]Sapphire Bullet[/li][li]Sassy[/li][li]Scotticher[/li][li]SeaDiver[/li][li]Shayna[/li][li]Silo - banned[/li][li]Silver Fire[/li][li]slackergirl[/li][li]Spiny Norman[/li][li]SPOOFE[/li][li]Strainger[/li][li]Sue Duhnym[/li][li]thinksnow[/li][li]Tretiak[/li][li]UncleBill[/li][li]warmgum[/li][li]weirddave[/li][li]Wicked Blue[/li][li]woodstockbirdybird [/list=1][/li]Ruffian & DeathLlama will be joining us on Friday night.
Whew!
Ok, any questions? 
P.S. Deb, lunch sounds great. I’ll email you tomorrow, as I still have a ton of cleaning to do tonight - yikes!
I really appreciate your consideration in avoiding stepping on my penis - Spiny Norman
[sym][sub][sup]©[/sup][/sub][/sym] Jeg elsker dig, Thomas [sym][sub][sup]©[/sup][/sub][/sym]
Love you, Jill!
Yeah, Merc, I agree.
Love you, Jill!!
Shayna, you are the Queen! You are my role-model for how to host/plan a DopeFest.
Thank you, Shayna. I didn’t mean to make you mad, I just wanted to know I could come say hi if I managed to rouse myself to make the drive. Now I think it probably behooves me to do so!
stoid
Yeah, bitch - you forgot to mention I’m making the fucking nametags!!!
[sub]Kidding! Kidding! Hoo, boy, I’m such a kidder! [/sub]
You rock, babe. I am so looking forward to seeing you again (and everyone, for that matter).
So, speaking of nametags, anyone have any witty suggestions in place of the “Hi! My Name Is…” part? I have some ideas, but I’m open to new ones…
Esprix
How about the obvious “I’m the Dope you know as…” the non-dopers will be thoroughly stumped, wondering if they’ve stumbled upon a convention of village idiots.
stoid
-Call Me ______ Or Die
-I’m ______ And I’m An Alcoholic
-Kiss Me! I’m _______!
-There Are Those Who Call Me… ________
-Greetings. I am the Grand Cryshtogriff of Space, ______. Kneel Before Me, Worm.
-__________, Over 6 Billion Served
Just passing by to wish the Trash (Coldie and Spiny) and everyone else a wonderful weekend. I’m disappointed because l almost made it myself but It’ll be another month or so before I head across the pond.
Big hugs also to Diane, Jill and Eileen - have a hugely debauched time, ya’ll !
I didn’t read the other thread much because I was sulking rather violently at the fact that cursed fate has me living on the wrong continent (yup! again).
Nothing to contribute here but a hearty
[sub]lucky bastids!!![/sub]
and a :
"Damn Girl !!! "
for Shayna
Im sure everyone realises that she’s worked incredibly hard at this and just reading that post above you realise that this must have taken a superhuman effort to pull all this stuff off.
You all know you are lucky to be getting to be at what is shaping up to be the definitive dopefest but you are all incredibly lucky that Shayna has taken this monumental task on board and pulled it all together so well
and hey! she’s even managed to maintain some semblance of sanity.Hope it holds till Monday.
With the variety of personality types and the eccentricities requisite to even be a doper combined with the foolhardy deathwish required to actually want to meet the likes of Coldfire and
Spiny Norman you gotta figure that organising a dopefest for you guys is really a full time job for a team of people with no other life to interfere with the work.
I hope this all goes well and everything works out and that this turns out to be the Millenidope …but just 'cos Shayna deserves it for all her work…the rest of you can go jump…[sub]…lucky bastids!!!..[/sub]
I can see it now:
“Really Damhna ? The 2002 Eurodope resulted in 15 pregnancies, 12 incarcerations, 2 weddings,
86 tatoos (on each doper in attendance) , the creation of a new quantum theory , the discovery of vast oil
reserves in the Catacombs of Paris , someone falling off a pavement , a new cult and a
written request from the Hell’s Angel’s to please bring back the hogs ?
Hmmm…
lemme see…
I’d rate that about a .02 on the Spiny/Coldy LA Dope scale”
Oh ! and at the risk of repeating myself …[sub]…lucky bastids!!!..[/sub]
I just wanted to say, I am so friggin’ stoked right now!!!
Let alone date one of them… 
Esprix
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Esprix *
**
{Shudddder}
Yeah what kinda wierdo would you need to be for that?
Since I’m not really doing anything on Saturday, I’d like to volunteer my services as unoffical tour guide for those who are interested. There’s alot to see, so I recommend we start as early as we can (no, not 3 in the morning!). Email me any responses.
Both of the ones I was on were cancelled and they rescheduled me onto later flights. I would have never known had Orbitz not just emailed me.
