I hosted Mark again, alternating back to the West Coast.
First we met in Los Angeles.
As part of my host duties I arranged some entertainment for him. As you may recall from a previous post, Mark had been appreciative of the eye candy but disappointed in the skills level of the previous American arrangements when compared to the skills available in Asia.
My difficulty in arrangements was compounded by the fact that these days many of the top Internet-accessible providers have become more security conscious. This is entirely defensible — it's a harsh world out there, and certain activities even among consenting adults could be considered illegal in the United States due to confusions over orthogonal monetary transactions. So it is important to be conservative. But it does mean that arranging company for an unreferencable foreigner such as Mark can become quite challenging.
But with persistence, doable.
I arranged a woman who had adult entertainment credentials and the benefit of excellent on-line reviews. (I have written previously on the oddity of provider reviews.) More importantly, she had some, um, previous background in Asia. The adult media entertainer isn't my kind of thing, per se, but I figured if 1:1 skills were not going to be the main selling point I might has well go with looks and experience with male sex fantasies. She was a knockout blonde and had three hours to make Mark happy. Apparently Mark was pleased; any deficit in skills was more than made up by enthusiasm, a clever mind and, just maybe, the notion he was with an adult starlet. And she was quite gorgeous.
We then headed up to the Bay Area for an overnight. We had some business and he had a meeting with a friend, Tom, and a golf game.
For a change in experience I arranged a lovely coed, Sally, who was an economics major in one of the better University of California schools not in the Bay Area. She met us in San Jose and supplied Mark quality company and a golf partner. Tom had brought his own companion from Asia, Mia. That is fairly common; in fact we did something that for our Whistler party.
Oops, timeout. I just checked and noticed that I did not post about the Whistler experience in the old blog, probably because the writing time overlapped with the time I was getting heavily involved with Jenny. Short version:
The trip was a four-person six-day ski trip to Whistler: Lau, Mark, Park and myself. We rented a very large five bedroom ski-in/ski-out home sitting off of Blackcomb (my preferred mountain,) but I was completely unable to arrange female company of adequate quality. So after two days of poor company Park made a few phone calls and flew in six women from overseas.
As I said, apparently this is not uncommon. These days I often am propositioned with this in Asia -- women who, knowing I am “attached,” will remind me that they have an up to date passport with the appropriate visas. It seems strange to treat female companionship like takeout pizza, but I suppose since it is voluntary and enjoyed on all sides, why not?
Some day I should blog that story. It is far more complicated than I can give justice here, since Park tried to convince me to bring Jenny...
Ok, back to the story in California: I do not play golf, so Mark, Sally, Tom and Mia made a handsome golf foursome. I went to other meetings.
Tom was the CEO of a successful Asian business that had just cut a major contract with an international sports figure the previous day. He was riding high on this success. He was a long-time friend of Michael and Mark, and this was to be my formal introduction to him.
All six of us took the short jet hop back to Santa Monica airport, checked into what Mark called “The Pretty Woman hotel” for the benefit of Mia. She was not impressed when (The Artist previously formerly known as Prince and now again known as) Prince walked by with his entourage, but was absolutely ga-ga when she spied some strapping young male actor who I did not recognize. Generational difficulties, you know.
Then it was dinner at Cut.
A few words about Cut: I am not ordinarily a fan of Wolfgang Puck restaurants. But I am a fan of Wagyu Kobe beef. The real stuff, not the largely inferior cross-bred American Style Kobe beef product.
Wagyu Kobe is a particular breed of Wagyu beef (Tajima-ushi) given regular massages and a diet of select grains which leads to intense marbling and a great flavor. It has a higher amount of monounsaturated fats and is therefore likely to be healthier for you than beef that appears to have less fat content but has more bad fat. Wagyu Kobe beef is only surpassed by Matsusaka beef, which is cut only from female cows kept on an exercise regimen, fed tofu, wheat and beer, and massaged with a strong liquor rubbed into their hide.
The fetishistic breeding and care of these cattle is in part due to Japanese culture and in part due to their mountainous geography which encouraged small populations of cattle and experimentation with breeding and feed. A feudal fad for beef around 1900 created a bubble economy in Japan for exotic breeds of imported animals for breeding purposes which burst in 1910, but left behind knowledge, training, and a population of animals genetically bred to produce the tastiest, healthiest beef in the world.
Well, outside of Japan there aren't many great places to get great Wagyu, but Cut does a competent job. Some Asians prefer the less fatty hybrid Wagyu when they come to America; since they are so used to the amazing beef available in Asia they want a change. But I recommend Cut as a place you can try the outrageously expensive Wagyu beef in the US. They don't have a huge selection of Kobe beef, and in particular I have never seen the Matsusaka beef, but it's worth a try. Especially if somebody else is paying.
Cut also has a reasonably good wine list.
Sally loved it.
Worth mentioning: there was an interesting thing I arranged at Cut. In order to provide a conversation starter, I had asked a recognizable actress (a friend of a friend) to show up at Cut, greet my table, give me a kiss, accept a business package “for Skippy, who is really looking forward to this deal,” and then leave.
It did start some conversation.
Sally loved that, too.
After Cut it was off to a room salon. We revisited Garam, a good salon in Los Angeles. It is a relatively fancy place and looks more like a mansion than a typical room salon (unfortunately it changed ownership and is scheduled to close within the next few weeks). We had reserved their large room which had a fancy chandelier and fireplace, invited three hostesses mostly to keep Sally and Mia company and talked business and other stuff. Of course from time to time one or more guys or gals would sing, and in the course of the evening we put away several bottles of Johnny Walker Blue.
Per tradition Mark was hosting the room salon, as he was the senior person introducing us. And this was the customary social way for me to get acquainted with Tom. I'm glad I don't have too many friends who subscribe to this custom.
Eventually Tom and Mark invited all the other available hostesses in, after other customers had left, and at some point there were over a dozen gals in the room. I suppose Mark had to tip them all.
Since the clubs close at 2 AM in Los Angeles, about a dozen of us moved over to a host bar, which is a place where the staff are all good looking Asian men instead of women. These places usually open around 2 AM since their main clientele are the hostesses coming off work at 2 AM. (It's an interesting flow of cash from businessmen that are older men, to hostesses who are young women, to hosts who are young men.) Presumably they are all unlicensed and illegal since the city mandates a last call for alcohol before 2 AM. But we had fun there until past 5 AM.
The next day we went to Aroma Resort for a sauna, hot and cold plunge pools, and very competent massages. Mine was from an older lady who was a China-born Korean. A lot of the conversation revolved around the Virginia Tech massacre.
And after that we repaired to the hotel for a farewell round. And the hosting was over.
Summary of the night?
- Companionship: $7000
- Transportation: $6000
- Dinner: $2000
- Host bar: $3000
- Business contact: Priceless.
(Hey, at least I can collect American Express points for these jaunts. I think I have six million of them. Too bad there is rarely anything worthwhile to spend them on.)
What about Jenny? I call or message to her regularly throughout the evening. While there are other women, I talk to her or leave a voicemail usually hourly, and at least every two hours. That is our protocol. More about this protocol and its history will become clear as I blog more about my temptations. So while at the room salon I called her hourly, which led to no small amount of ribbing from Mark and Tom about my tight leash. But I could tell they were jealous!
Mark is planning on buying a home in California, after which I will no longer be responsible for hosting him. He was very grateful for the gesture, as he always is, and his ability to influence deals for me continues to be important. It is possible I spend $100k of expenses on Mark per year (although it may be only half that much), but that is still less than 0.1% of the deal value he brings.
Sometimes I reflect on how oddly and irrationally parts of the business world work — we are embedded in a large economic machine of rules and capitalist rationales, and yet human behavior remains the fulcrum of so much leverage. Any investment analysis that discounts the individuals' returns from their human needs, wants, and desires seems intrinsically bankrupt. Rational actors and economic returns are, to a degree, a convenient fiction. It makes me wonder: over time, will the relentless progress of the economic machinery win, and will it thereby force rationality and metric-driven economics? Or will the human factor eternally perpetuate inefficiencies, corruption — remaining the business world's inconvenient truth — but also leading to individual rewards and joy?
Who knows. I was just the West Coast Host.
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