Yesterday, I arrived back in LA from New York and saw that there was a meeting for LA bloggers in downtown LA. With Michele & the kids still out of town, seemed like a good thing to do.

Before the meetup, I went to have a drink with Len, Monique, and Darby before heading to the train station to take me downtown. They were having dinner in Pasadena and wanted to give back some stuff from the Crawfish party I had loaned them.

The Gold Line to Union Station, switch to the Red Line and pop up at Pershing Square. I was one block away from the meeting at the Biltmore. For $3 I had an all day pass and avoided traffic and parking costs. Taking the train > driving.

The group was gathered at couches near the bar and an impressive tab was building. I pulled a chair and started chatting. IIRC, I chatted with Jeff Koga, Will Campell, Kathy, Kathy's friend from St. Louis (who's name I forget, but remember is a Lotus notes guru), Ponzi (Chris's girlfriend), Sean, and briefly with Wil (trying to convince him to try Neverwinter Nights). There were a dozen more people I didn't get a chance to meet with. They passed around a paper for people write their names & URLs onto, but I don't know what happened to it.

Here's a photo of the group taken with my digital happy snap with it's weak flash. I Photoshopped in a fill flash, so pardon the quality. We didn't seem to have any of the serious photographer bloggers in the hizzou.

I think this gathering could get converted into a regular event. The downtown Biltmore seems like neutral ground for the Westside & Valley bloggers. The drink prices were high, but other than that the spot was good, with supposed wifi lurking. Next time, I'm bringing my sporadically blogging wife. She never turns down a chance to go out for a drink.

Update: Looks like I go things confused. I was actually talking with Jay Bushman, not Will Campell at the meetup. My apologies. All the more reason we need nametags at these things. Jay is a good guy and we agreed about most things, except that Nightmare Before Christmas was a great movie. He says it was terrible. It must have been the gin talking.