Tuesday, February 6, 2007

Heading into LA for lunch at the LeParc with Barry Podob, I love his hotel. His Tour Link “Top Dog” award is front and center at the front desk….Congratulations! As we head into lunch so does Peter Fonda. He has a new movie coming out called Ghost Rider. We meet with Barry and have a great lunch as usual. Last time I was in LA I was having lunch at the LeParc. I had a Chicken Caesar, Jimmy had a burger and Barry had the Oriental salad. And of course Barry “forced” me to have the Crème Brulee trio. I didn’t share. Pretty rude…not. We talked a little golf, upstate NY and cars, Barry’s 1982 (?) Porsche recently caught fire and died. He is still in mourning. We checked out some of Barry’s current swag and are working on some new items for him. If you have a daughter about the age that would like the American Girl stuff ask Barry about the hotel package. Barry took us on the tour of the hotel. They just finished remodeling the whole thing. I guess it took about 3 years, one year per floor. The rooms were always awesome, now they are fabulous, all new fabrics, counter tops and the best part…flat screens in the bed room. I tried to get left behind but it didn’t work. After lunch we head to the Hyatt to listen to the keynote address. I run into Bob Belber from the Times Union (The Knick Arena) in Albany, NY. Also Jimmy Koplik and Wayne Goldberg from Live Nation and a variety of other folks. Of course our ever faithful sidekick Dave Paiva finds us and sits with us. He has to run out and find some one to translate, he has a call from Mexico. Stephanie from Pollstar grabs the head of catering and saves Dave’s butt. Ticketmaster announced a partnership with iTunes at the opening of the conference and we all get $25 iTunes and $25 to spend with Ticketmaster. My friend Christine just lucked out since Jimmy and I don’t have iPods and we don’t buy concert tickets. After the keynote we head into the opening reception and chow down. We check out some of the trade booths and as I pass by one I here a voice call my name. I turn around and at the Rhino Staging booth is Kendall Carter. Its been a dog’s year since I’ve seen him. He tells me after Katrina his sister Yvonne moved to Pflugerville which was just down the street by 10 minutes when we lived in Texas. I hate being out of touch. It was so good to see Kendall again. He was a great PM when I was out with him. Heading upstairs to the bar, Holy Cow! I don’t think I’ve ever been anywhere so loud, it amazes me how loud money talks. I won’t post my full commentary here but I stayed a very short while and headed back out to West Hills for the night.