An Evening with Julie Hiatt Steele will be held at The Rio, Las Vegas,
on Saturday, September 28, 2002. The event will run from 7-10pm.
 
 

TO ORDER TICKETS
You can purchase tickets in one of two ways:

Send your money electronically via 
using a credit or debit card to bartcop@bartcop.com

Or

Send a check or money order made out to bartcop.com via regular mail to
bartcop.com,
P.O. Box 54466
Tulsa, OK 74155
Please write JulieFestWest in the memo space provided.

Note: Please DO NOT send your money directly to Julie.
We have no way of recording these payments and will not be able to honor these tickets.

TO RECEIVE YOUR TICKETS

Whichever method you choose, once you have sent your money, please send an e-mail
to Christian at juliefestwest@yahoo.com with your full name and e-mail address,
the full names and e-mail addresses of any people attending with you, the number of tickets
you have paid for, your city, state and phone number.

All your personal information will be kept strictly confidential and is necessary in case
we need to contact you regarding the event, as well as for security purposes.

Once we have received your payment and confirmation e-mail, we will e-mail your ticket(s).
Print out the ticket and present it at the door of The Rio on September 28th.
No one will be admitted to the event without a ticket.
Each person must present a separate ticket to be admitted.

You will be given a blank name tag at the door.
You can write whatever name you wish on it.
If you don’t want your real name known in the room,
just write your screen name or whatever name you’re known by online.
It’s up to you.
 

QUESTIONS

If you have questions about the event, have any great ideas for the event,
or would like to volunteer, e-mail Christian at juliefestwest@yahoo.com.
 

HOTELS

We have obtained a group rate of $169 plus tax per night at The Rio.
Please let us know if you would like a room.

FOOD

We have several options available.

The Rio

Food for the Party of the Year

First, some housekeeping:
I take full responsibility for the DC fiasco.
Why? Because it was my fault.

Ticket prices started at $50,
then they went to $75 if you opted for food,
then we went to food for everybody,
so people sent in an extra $25,
then tickets went to $100 when we landed Carville,
then, as we were rapidly selling out,
tickets went to $200,
then dropped back to $100.
That won't happen this time.

Also, in DC we started out getting a free room if everyone bought enough drinks,
but that was lost in the switch from the Marriott to Carville's.
I failed to correct the mistaken notion that each drink
purchased was money in Julie's pocket.
We hope to avoid that, too.

Las Vegas is like no other place in the world,
We can have anything we want, if we write them a check.

So here's what we have:
Tickets to JulieFestWest are $100
That won't change, I promise.

The other two options are food and hotel rooms.
We can have Friday and Saturday Rio rooms for $169 plus tax.
You can stay one night, or two or three.
From Sunday thru Thursday, the Rio gives rooms away,
sometimes as cheap as $69.

Sidebar:  We paid $229 for a closet-sized dump in New York.
In Vegas, sand is so much cheaper than Manhattan concrete.

If your budget is very limited, you can stay downtown
or at a Motel 6 (right next to the MGM grand) for $65 plus tax.
If your budget is semi-limited, you can stay at the Rio Saturday
night only, and save some bucks on Friday and Sunday.

Example: Lady Luck rooms are $55 Fri & Sat, $29 Sunday

Recommended: Once you've spent the money to go to Vegas,
spend the week if you can. A great room for $69 is hard to beat.
You can't hardly do Vegas in a week, plus there's everything else nearby.

Lake Mead and Valley of Fire State Park are minutes away,
Area 51 is 2.5 hours away,
Death Valley is 2 hours away,
the Grand Canyon, LA and Phoenix are 5 hours away,
so consider this the vacation of the decade even if you're forced
to watch your dollars, this is a week you'll remember all your life.
Besides, that's why Al Gore invented credit cards.

Now, onto the options:

We will rent a (inside? outside?) banquet room and a bartender.
If we spend enough on food, the banquet room is only $750.
If we spend enough on drinks, the bartender is free.

We will clarify this as soon as possible, but the food menu states
that "premium" liquors and cordials can be purchased at the
wholesale rate of  $38 per person for four hours.

I have paid as much as $12 a shot for Chinaco Anejo
so I plan to punish the Rio, severely, on this basis.
Trust me, I can do more than one shot of Chinaco per hour.

This does NOT mean you have to drink heavily, or drink at all.
It just means if you intend to party, Las Vegas knows how.
Of course, individual drinks are available.

Now, the food.

No place on Earth has food options like Las Vegas.
You can eat anything than anyone has ever eaten there.
You might have Wolfgang Puck or Emerill Lagasse as your cook.
I am not kidding - this is Las Vegas.

But for practical purposes, we must stay semi-mainstream.
The Rio e-mailed me their banquet menu.
When I saw it, I almost fainted. It is over 2 MEG in size.
(Thank Koresh Christian is here to help.)

For our cocktail party, we have narrowed the menu down to this:
Note: Expect this food to be great!

FAJITA STATION
(Minimum of 25 People)

Marinated Chicken Breast and Flank Steak
Grilled with Peppers and Onions
Served with Guacamole, Grated Cheese, Salsa
and Sour Cream, Flour Tortillas and Tortilla Chips
Spicy Mexican Rice
Refried Beans
$20 Per Person
 

This seems like a good option.
You can get chicken and steak, and it's just $20.
This will be good munchies for the cocktail party
and every dollar takes away from the price of the room.

But if you want to spend more, there are options.
You've never seen a place with more options than Las Vegas.

Dinner Entrees
All dinner Entrees are served with Chef’s choice of Potato, Rice or Pasta,
Seasonal Fresh Vegetables, Rolls & Butter Freshly Brewed Coffee,
Decaffeinated Coffee, Hot Tea, Iced Tea and Milk
Choice of Starter and Dessert
(Minimum 25 People)
 

GRILLED BREAST OF CHICKEN
Served with Shiitake Mushrooms and
Basil Cream Sauce
$42.00

GREECIAN CHICKEN WRAPPED IN PHYLLO DOUGH
Seared Chicken Breast
with Fresh Spinach and Feta Cheese
Served with Carmelized Shallot Sauce
$42.00

PAN SEARED CHILEAN SEABASS
Fennel Beurre Blanc
$48.00

GRILLED FILET MIGNON
Served with Cabernet Sauvignon Sauce
$55.00

ROAST PRIME RIB OF BEEF, AU JUS
Served with Creamed Horseradish
$50.00
 

BUT, the trick is, these must be ordered 25 at a time.
You can't order like a menu at a restaurant.

So the bottom line comes down to this:

If you'd like to attend the party of the year,
and meet Julie Hiatt Steele, Bart, Christian,
and dozens of your friends from the chat room and the posting boards,
bartcop.com contributing writers and cartoonists,
(Kevin Cunningham of politicalstrikes.com was the first to order tickets)
plus - whatever "special guests" happen to be there,
(more on that later)
then here's what we need from you:

 PayPal or snail mail $100 for each person attending.
You need to say, "I need a room at the Rio for these nights,"
and say, "Count us in for the $20 Fajitas,"
or
count us in for x-many
GRILLED BREAST OF CHICKEN
or
count us in for x-many
GREECIAN CHICKEN WRAPPED IN PHYLLO DOUGH
or
count us in for x-many
PAN SEARED CHILEAN SEABASS
or
count us in for x-many
GRILLED FILET MIGNON
or
count me in for x-many
ROAST PRIME RIB OF BEEF, AU JUS
 

Since there is a minimum of 25 orders each,
we'd like you to send us your choices in order of preference.
As in, "Two for Filet, then Prime Rib, then Sea Bass." <

If we have a hueueueueueuge turnout, this won't be a problem.
We could end up with 53 Chicken, 65 Filet and 51 Prime Rib etc,
but we can't sign the contract until we have a clue.

I think the $20 Fajitas will take care of themselves.
(That's what I'll be having)

And remember, each dollar you spend is money off the price of the room.
For Sure.

Also, very important:
We will streamline the entry process.
I made mistakes at JulieFest2002-DC,
but even a chimp can learn, right?

So - let me hear from you.
Like Hyman Roth said in Godfather Two:
"If the money's on the table, I'll know we have a deal.
If not, I'll know we don't."
 

The crowd chants:   Bring it home, BartCop!

What we need is $100 per ticket and enough money to cover your menu choice.
Pay The Rio direct for your rooms and drinks.

For as little as $120, this can be the Party of the Year.

Alcohol is extra, but $38 for all the Chinaco Anejo
you can drink in 4 hours is winner in my book.

Special: I told our Rio rep that we were a tequila-tastin' crowd,
and she said it would be no problem to have a variety of fine tequilas
available for us to sample.  I think that means they will parade a dozen
or more ultra-fine luxury tequilas before us for a $38 tequila fiesta!

Kids, this is Las Vegas!
When Dorothy said, "There's no place like home," she was lying!
There's no place like Vegas!
 

This is easily the Party of the Year,
and we haven't even told you about the special guests.

Special Guests

Last time, we knew Carville and Conason and Brock would be there,
but there was always a chance for some last minute snafu, y'know?

If James had twisted his ankle, or Joe had a touch of the flu
or Brock was kidnapped by right-wing sociopaths who wanted
to prevent him from speaking at JulieFest2002-DC,
we didn't want them to be known as "quitters," and it saved me
from being "Mr.-Promise-the-World, then not deliver the goods."

We won't sign contracts with our "special guests."
I won't sue my heroes for "breach of contract."
We're just asking them to join us for a great weekend in Las Vegas
with Julie and a room full of energetic Democratic supporters.
We intend to out-do JulieFest2002-DC .

So - talk to us.

Are you in or out?
I need some feedback.

 PayPal or snail mail $100 for each person attending.
You need to say, "I need a room at the Rio for these nights,"
and say, "Count me in for the $20 Fajitas, or the chicken, the steak."
You'll pay The Rio for your room, and pay bartcop.com
for the ticket and your food choice.
 

Order Tickets

Semi-last thing: We got lucky last time that a lot of last-minute people
could be accomodated. This time, we'll have to pay a larger deposit
so we have to know who's in by August 15th.

 Drinks, gambling, Democrats and Julie Hiatt Steele.
 John Ashcroft will have a cow.

...and get ready to party!

Last thing:
The official party is Saturday night.
If you can only make one night, make it Saturday,
but Friday and Sunday will have groups of people doing what-not.

And nobody can do what-not like Las Vegas!!!!

Party of the Year!
 

The pool at the Rio.
Thanks to http://www.markmackay.com/projects.htm

 They said we could have the pool (or part of it) if we wanted.