If you're among the many Angelenos who mourned the loss of yet another L.A. cultural landmark with the destruction of the Ambassador Hotel by the "build schools and damn the collateral damage" gang at the LAUSD (who also took the Hollywood Star Lanes away from us), take some comfort: you'll soon have a chance to gather with other preservation geeks to drown your sorrows, curse Roy Romer's name, and perhaps help plot the future of L.A.'s increasingly energized preservation community.

Seems the L.A. Conservancy and Mike of Franklin Avenue have merged their respective planned wakes for the Ambassador into one giant, booze-soaked hoo-haw at the HMS Bounty (on Wilshire, across from the remains of the once-grand hotel, and just down the boulevard from the travesty that is the Brown Derby strip mall), and they're inviting pretty much anybody who wants to come out and hoist a gin and tonic in memory of the historic site to join them.

Details are sketchy at present, as the two camps hammer out the merger terms, but expect an announcement as to time and date soon.

My humble request?

Wait until after Sundance!  ¶ 8:00 PM