DAY 1 of Erotica L.A.
We all headed out for breakfast at a diner that is known for having lots of porn stars going to it, as we were meeting Lucky’s old buddy, Harry, for breakfast. Gibby was getting the VIP treatment! [Although a fine chap in his own right, Harry does not fall into that “porn star” category, just so you know. If you’ve perused the risqué site (or the Message Board) to any degree, you will know him as “publicityguy” in that context. … We still weren’t entirely forgiving Mav for his lack of “Heinz-Sight” but at least we had teased him sufficiently about the length of time it takes him to prepare a “proper” cup of tea to consume with his breakfast. (Most of us are done eating before he finishes up that little task.) … Mav stuck with orange juice on this trip.]
As the convention didn’t start until 4 p.m., we had enough time to pick up Lon from Bob Hope airport and still make it to the convention just after 3:00. [And this pleased Lon a lot. In case you were curious, Lon did not ensconce any potentially lethal objects in his luggage, so our wait ended up being somewhere in the vicinity of 60 seconds for him. See, Mav? … Old age and experience will always overcome youth and horniness.] While waiting to discover that we had to go up to the press box to get our wrist bands, we saw Julia Ann arriving and she gave D.Minion a big hug. It seems that they hadn’t seen each other in a long while. As directed, we headed up to the press box where found out that none of our details were logged there either, so Lucky made a call, and we waited while things were sorted out. We did get to look out onto the show and take some pictures from a vantage point we’d not normally have. [Some things never change: If you don’t know people yourself, it’s almost as good to know people that know people.]
 |
 |
 |
| View from the press box overlooking the convention | ||
With the VIP Access sorted out, we headed into the convention. As the previous year, the convention floor wasn’t as full as it could be, with several different vehicles filling up floor space. [Now think about this, Mav. It would be darned impractical to try and fill up the floor space using the same vehicle everywhere, wouldn’t it?] Per norm, we split up with D.Minion and Lon heading off in one direction and myself and Uncle Gibby heading over to the Wicked booth. We wanted to see who was there, and then we decided to take a walk around and see who was already signing. [Apparently “no one” was at the Wicked booth. That’s what we presume, right? … Well, we were pretty early, having left time for the occasional hiccup with the whole “VIP Badge” thing. You’ll be ahead of the game if you always try to take yourself less seriously than you’d like others to do, I’ve found.] We found the LA Direct models booth and saw that several stars were already signing including Tori Black and Phoenix Marie.
 |
 |
 |
| Phoenix Marie and the LA Direct Models booth | ||
Then we noticed the signs saying that you had to pay for signed stuff! Now, in the several years I been coming to conventions in the USA, this was the first time that almost all the companies there were charging just for signed pictures etc., with Wicked being one of the few that didn’t. At the Wicked both, though, you could buy their DVD’s and then get the Wicked stars to sign them for you. [You could also get the stars to sign copies of DVDs you brought with you, as we finally remembered to bring Lon’s copy of jessica drake’s Fallen back to him. Lon was thrilled; jessica was thrilled, and then we promptly forgot about the fact that we were basically six months behind in said promised return. … Oops.]
Uncle Gibby approached Tori Black and asked to get a signed picture. Tori did point out the pricing, but she also said that it wasn’t her idea. [Also, had it been her idea, Tori would have got to keep the $5.] I think Gibby was struck with her beauty as he paid for the signed picture and got his picture taken with her.[Clearly Gibby has excellent taste in women. Also, he didn’t even have to bring her beans, which was a bonus.] It was going to be an expensive day for Gibby, but Lucky did point out that if you worked out how much the tickets would normally cost, spending between $5 -$20 wasn’t that expensive. [True, so next year we’re charging them $5/day … but we’ll throw in an autographed picture of D.Minion.]