Erotica LA Insider Secrets

By: BlackandBlueMedia Mood: Don't Know Date: 06/19/2007 21:01:33 Music: East Bound and Down

If you haven't been to Erotica LA before, there are a few ways to
make your trip a lot more fun and avoid a lot of the hassles that any
convention of this size naturally generates.

First is the parking
- don't bother trying to find street parking. Suck it up and pay the
$12 to park in the facility. There are a lot of lots that charge less,
but you may end up locked out after dusk and it's a long ass walk from
most of them to the Staples Center. Belive me, Jay thought he'd need to
jump into the first lot he saw on Figueroa, and other than giving a
friend from the East Coast a look at the biggest damn cockroaches
outside of Texas, it just wasn't a great thrill to walk a mile back to
the car after having walked that show floor all day.

Speaking
of  Figueroa... don't go that way to find parking! From either the
10 West or the 110 South, exit on Cherry or Pico instead. Work your way
to 12th Street North of Pico. There's a smaller parking lot away from
the main drag and the parking lots from hell that fill up fast.

Don't
think you have to be there at the crack o' ass. If you go later in the
day, you'll miss the stampede for the gate and won't have to wait as
long for the stars to get to the booths to start signing. Porn Stars
are notorious for being late, and most of the companies don't book them
to be there at show opening anyway. Especially not on the first day of
the show.

Take an extra wad of cash for food, or plan on eating
somewhere outside of the venue. Only at Staples (or Disneyland), could
one hotdog, a small bag of chips and a soda run you about $15. I did
find a bargain in a stall selling rice bowls, but after the dental bill
from breaking my tooth on a piece of chicken bone, it wasn't worth the
$7 I paid for it. The Original Pantry cafe is about three long blocks
North of Staples, at the corner of Figueroa and James M. Wood/9th
Street. Good food at great prices and if you don't mind the walk, you
only have to pay to park at Staples once.

If you can handle
Yuccatanian Mexican, head South on Figueroa to Pico and make a left,
then a right on South Hope Street to Kiko's. continually voted one of
the best Mexican Restaurants in Los Angeles with great margaritas, and
with a reasonably priced menu. They only take cash - so don't rely on
your credit card.

Of course, you can always subsist on free Liquid Ice and samples of chili chocolate.... 

Another
thing to watch... Don't bother with the "recommended" restaurants on
the official Erotica LA site. They will run you hell of a lot more than
$15 a person and most of them are hell and gone away from Staples as
well.

Erotica LA is a lot of fun, if you don't get stuck with
the hassles. Hopefully I clued you into three of the most common ones.
Have a great weekend at the show!