From: Gary S. Gevisser
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2003 12:15 PM
To: Frostbite
Cc: rest
Subject: Sunset Party

 

Below is the invitation to our Sunset Party this Saturday. I had hoped to get it out following our soccer practice this past Monday but my “risk assessment” business got in the way of things.

 

The nature of my business involves a great deal of “problem solving” rarely if ever, however, do I get involved though in complex mathematical equations since the Digital Age makes such computations essentially effortless, a Texas Instrument [TI] 12C calculator is all that I would need and it has been about 3 years since I touched anything as sophisticated as a 12C that I believe was first produced back in the 1970s, once running into a whiz kid trying to raise money to build a super duper computer screen whose patent I seem to recall is still imprinted on the back.

 

I am “under the gun” to get a number of things “squared away” today in preparation for our party and so I will only be checking what I write only perhaps next week, possibly never, still not yet having gone through what I wrote this past Monday before heading out the door, changing possibly one word, “move” in “move up” replacing it with “get”.

 

A decade or so ago I ran into a former engineer for TI, Newell Starks, who is credited with inventing the notebook computer, while an employee, making his second mistake in not taking up the co-founders of Compaq Computer to become the “third leg in the stool” leaving sum $2 billion odd “on the table”, later though, Newell “got smart” went to business school, became an officer of Citicorp Ventures Group [CVG], made a small fortune, retired before he was 40 years of age, biologically speaking, closer to 3, in terms of his emotional intelligence, in my opinion that is, and now as chairman of one of CVG’s “holding” companies, don’t think I am moving off intu discussing things such as the “parking of stock”, faces the prospects, however, of going “to war” with me which could very possibly result in President George W. Bush being that much more eager tu “pull the trigger” and suspend trading of all public companies, something I have been calling for publicly since July 23rd of last year, the “smart money” having left the stock markets.

 

Without boring you with all the details with the “behind the scene” games that few including the major investment banking houses only on the rare occasion get to participate in, most of even the sophisticated so-called Wall Street crowd don’t have the first clue about what makes CVG, anything but a household name, the most successful leverage buyout firm in the world, again just my opinion.

 

It doesn’t, however, take much imagination to figure out that if you hire the smartest and brightest guys, doubtful that there are any women officers of CVG, at least not testosterone clad, provide them with a home to hang their hat when things at home begin to get tiresome, you know, the dirty diapers, the sweeping, the laundry, taking out the garbage, you have nothing short of a winner on your hands, avoiding though at all cost, “garbage in, garbage out” getting the guys though to wash their hands for 20 seconds with soap and water after going to the bathroom another matter altogether, perhaps Mr. Hitler’s biggest obstacle in co-opting sum 100 million co-conspirators without so much as getting a drop of blood on his hands which is why he possibly came up with his salute much like Napoleon tucking his hand into his vest, such folks though, have this thing about keeping things close to their chest, eventually though they all implode, after a while their true nature eventually revealing itself which is why you put folks like Newell Starks out to pasture before they can wreck havoc with the overall play.

 

Hard work, hard play, balance critical, just like the way things are in the cosmos as well as at the subatomic level, the need more than ever to be wary of tinkerers, the most effective in modern times, without a doubt, at least in my mind, Adolph Hitler, whose command of art, probably recognizing that the first thing in creating a masterpiece even if he couldn’t execute himself, perfectly, was tu get the “values” down, the various shades of grey best achieved in either a moonlit night or by squinting one’s eyes restricting the amount of light entering the cornea, my hope was that once the Frostbite kids had mastered the offside rule, executing it flawlessly each and every time then I would have got into the nuances of corner kicks, so much thou, one can do in one’s first season as assistant coach, irrespective of how well these kids eventually got tu listen.

 

So the real question besides for what does this all have to do with the Frostbite soccer team is why take someone who has been living happily ever after, getting the sweetest looking dames in the world to feed you flowery words, help you along this very tough road, plant a seed, or too, along the side of the road, come back once in a while to c what crops up, take a horse crop if necessary if the kids begin to feel their oats, not that I have any evidence Mr. Starks who is not of Danish ancestry and therefore unlikely to be directly related to Neils Bohr who I believe first worked out the structure of the atom, possibly as smart tho,

 

Nor do I have any evidence Mr. Starks ever once lifted a finger to hurt any of his kids or step-children physically, in fact, I would be outright shocked if he did anything more than wave a finger while like most men capable of raising his voice the instant he sees himself beat, better yet, those with sum education, particularly it seems the engineer type, again this just my opinion, have a more effective way of unleashing havoc within the brain waves of the young, the silent treatment also not much of a secret these days, careful though to generalize, unless one has overwhelming evidence of a pattern of “wrongdoing” nothing like having the President of the United States, the leader of the so-called “Free World” lying under oath, “under penalty of perjury” to have young kids now looking to TV actors and Silver Screen Terminators as their role models, my thinking at this time of the need for Marie to follow up and let the real estate agent managing the beach house know that the termite problem has not gone away but Marie did manage to solve the vibration coming out of the refrigerator freezer, her art paint brushes no doubt interfering with the ice-maker.

 

At the end of Monday’s practice, the kids having played their hearts out, in need of a break, now would be a good time, I provided the kids with a summary of what I had written to you all prior to heading out the door, sorry about the repetition, the ability of us adults especially those of us with a “byte of education” [sic] able to make excuses one after the after covering up our sequencing having got out of whack each and every one of us, pretty much programmed right from the start, probably no more than 12 perhaps 12.5 points of intelligence separating the most intelligent of us from the dumbest, at birth that is, butt from that point forward conditioning has a way of messing a number of things up, which I assume is how someone came up with the expression, “U look like u r having a bad hair day” [sic].

 

Hypocrisy can be quite crippling especially when the kids get to an age where they can think for themselves, as in, “I think therefore I am” questioning most of all the things they once held as being sacrosanct, information, most of all, that has kept the have-nots from getting at the haves, those with deficit needs today in a whole lot worse shape than folks coming say from the 3rd World who have tu rely on their wits and hard work not looking for things like winning the lottery or an insurance windfall tu help them get into the “pound seats” that last hyperlink shows a hodge podge of photos of my wife, Marie, the ones in the pinkish skirt and reddish pink top were taken at the time she and I first visited London together staying just around the corner from the Royal Albert Hall in south Kensington which is where the top right photo was taken, my mom and step-dad owning a flat-condominium where I “briefed” Marie while lazing around this one of kind “bachelor pad” on the athleticism of professional cricketers, another team sport I once played, perhaps even a little better than I was at soccer where although I can kick pretty well with both feet, quite ambidextrous, and I won’t bring up at this time, in much detail my one attorney friend Irwin Strous who go his shoulder ravaged by our Great Dane Brukor back in South Africa sum 30 odd years ago, at times, when playing, I tend tu get confused, tripping over myself, recovering though generally pretty well when allowing my rugby skills to “kick in” this last practice game my feeling the need as the kids’ stamina  improved tu remind them particularly, Christian, that although “slide tackling” may not be allowed at this time at their level of soccer I wasn’t aware of any rule which precluded a player having lost his bearings from giving an opposing player a stiff arm rugby tackle.

 

Just in case you all didn’t know, Christian is our blond haired super-breakaway forward with enough charm that he should, any day now, wear a warning sign protecting women from age 13 until they reach menopause to give serious pause be4 allowing “Homy G”, the nickname he gave himself, within an “arms length” of their private parts without first getting in writing exactly what he intends to do, and when, and how many times, blah blah, at this time trying to figure out how to get Marie’s parents who are in Vancouver over here on a direct flight without Marie having to go ahead and purchase her private jet.

 

By the way, it is my hope tu inherit, one day, this neat little property of my parents and if not me than my heirs, which may seem like it goes against the grain of something I have said before, something most sacrosanct to my parents’ belief system that none of their children would ever inherit a dime.

 

Well time has a way of changing things and besides I believe I mentioned that I am now on a quest to die the richest person in the grave, at least leave my heirs with the tools tu make certain as any one single human being can be certain, that my wishes come true, to give it their best shot, converting my intellectual property into nothing short of a “King’s ransom” tu be put to the “highest and best use” such property I consider the most valuable assets I own today, for the past several years being sumwhat in a “divestiture mode” which brings me back tu why it is that many if not most public corporations enter into mergers-divestitures, 4 the simple reason that such maneuvers essentially camouflage poor management performance allowing both the acquisition candidate as well as selling entity the opportunity tu confuse not only the shareholders, employees, customers but even eventually themselves since after a period or too, remember many if not most of these rascals have the emotional intelligence of a gnat, comparative analysis become “slim and none” and the more synergistic the business units the more amorphous everything is, just like former President “Wallpaper” Clinton’s “is-is” the “sisi” who remains very much in my “cross-hairs” perhaps no one on this planet, however, more opposed to violence and bloodshed more so than me; difficult tho, it becomes for anyone including a “rocket scientist” to get their “arms around” a “warped environment”, comparative financial analysis, all but impossible, eventually leading to what is commonly termed a “restructuring” where the “commoners” get socked one more time, remembering that the top dogs who engineered these schemes in the first place, although now sumwhat brain dead, their denial kicking in “big time” do get to sit in box seats paid for out of the company’s treasury while bonusing themselves ever so handsomely leaving, however, just enough in the “kitty” tu afford paying the insurance premiums on their Directors and Officers [D&O] policies making certain there is enough remaining tu hire one of the best corporate defense law firms in the world such as Bartlit Beck probably another name you folks haven’t heard of but then again it is unlikely you have read my mom and step-dad’s “best seller” The Winking Cat although I don’t recall there being any reference to SCALs as in Shareholder Class Action Lawsuits nor for that matter anything about my first website, www.footsak.com, Footsak being South African slang for giving someone a “kick in the rear”.

 

Perfect Storm II could if you are not already bored to death, prove u with sum insight into some of the things I know a thing or too about which I can assure you is giving a whole number of folks more than a little angina these days, and of course I happen to know of several of the worlds top cardiologists who would be willing to give the likes of Mr. Starks and Mr. McWilliams as well as Mr. Thomas Stephens perhaps the best corporate defense attorney on the planet although what Barlit Beck, blah blah really specialize in is nothing short of “hostile takeovers” their clients such as CVG would, if you were approaching them as a manager hell bent on selling the company in which you have a minute stake or a division you were tasked with running, consider themselves “management friendly” which is to say incredibly, “shareholder hostile.”

 

Remembering now that time can be quite easily converted even without a 12C calculator into meters, one second, in the “space of time” equaling sum 300 million meters give or take no more than say .0001 of a millimeter, in a vacuum, that is, such as in Deep Space.

 

Just yesterday I met with one of my closer attorney-colleagues a gentleman who I have only known less than 5 years which may seem like a lot of time tu many folks in this “quick get rich” region of the world but coming from a dysfunctional environment like Durban, South Africa where you can essentially remain in one spot all your life have friends from cradle until grave, Mr. Krinsk Esq. is nothing short of a “G-D send” certainly he is a breath of fresh air, now bear in mind that I am asking a number of things of Mr. Krinsk these days including him giving up the practice of law that he happens tu love having chosen to be in the front lines of the last line of defense for momworkers, widows, orphans, pensioners and of course never tu forget widowers, having earned “his stripes” as a businessman possibly before I decided to “hang up my gloves” well before I was 30 years of age which may be the “crack” folks like Mr. Starks et al would be looking for in terms of suggesting that I am not “credible.”

 

And of course just because, like Mr. Krinsk, I don’t have to “work for a living” that doesn’t mean to say I would be idiotic enough to have let my skills and knowledge of how things operate at the highest levels of the corporate world simply dissipate into thin air.

 

Naturally there are the morons in addition to economic opportunists out there either shorting stocks and/or sitting on the side lines along with the “smart money” ready, willing and able to weigh in, cutting deals “left and write” [sic] with the management suffering under the weight of the pitiful Bell Shaped Curve, a system poorly designed but all geared toward producing nothing short of a nincompoop society, promoting those thinking it is all about being the center of attraction, moving up the middle, clawing their way tu the top grabbing whatever they can for themselves as their company’s stock price implodes below even their intrinsic value as the panic steps in, a scenario that is in fact well under way, the best example I can see at this time being The Sterling Holding Company smothering Stratos Lightwave Inc. with my former pal Mr. Newell Starks now flexing his muscles, brought out of “retirement” by Mr. Tom McWilliams, the top dog at CVG, again another name you probably haven’t heard of who unlike Mr. Starks very likely didn’t even bother going to business school having worked out a number of things from those that came before nothing quite like an English Literature scholar to be in a “command and control” position and I wouldn’t be surprised if Mr. McWilliams has a number of good pieces of art, perhaps even one or too belonging to Adolph Hitler, bearing in mind that Mr. McWilliams could for all I know be a member of the Anti-Defamation League, as well as a strong supporter of my proposal that in consideration of the plight facing the Saudi Royal family at this time they accept full citizenship in Israel, their readiness to bargain perhaps not as bright as when they emerged out of Bedouin tents, certainly such economic opportunism for the west has not been available for several decades, not that the Saudis don’t feel just as comfortable drinking Turkish coffee within a few feet of a camel breathing over their necks as they are when negotiating a “command and control” position in an organization like Citicorp, but when you combine such insight with someone like Mr. McWilliams who like me knows a thing or too about Trojan Horses, outside of sticking your head in to the mouth of the camel to find out if it really has “camel breath”, again, bearing in mind, that technology can create all sorts of impressions and artificial smells what would you do at this time when faced with the prospects of taking me, The Rattlesnake, on at this time?

 

Mr. Starks no doubt, at this time, wishing he had taken me up on my “double or quits” bet my having lent him “a couple of bucks” tu keep his wife “off his chest”, Marie not purchasing a private jet in the space of 12 months, highly improbable in the first place, Mr. Starks knowing though that she owns, however, 1% of my intellectual property, even though such ownership comes with highly restricted Preferred stock, no voting rights attached, to mention little of such stock yet tu be issued.

 

I ended this “second tutorial” by impressing upon this terrific group of kids the importance of “never letting anyone break your spirit”, having begun by first reminding the 7 players who attended my first tutorial why it was that “G-d, however, one defines Him-Her, gave us two ears and one mouth so that we should listen twice as hard as we speak” the remaining players seemingly getting with the program other than Amir and Curran still kidding around with each despite Curran’s father, Coach Drei, calling them both for a “time out.”

 

Amir didn’t seem tu be aware of how his grandfather had met his maker but the story which his father Shahid had reminded me this past Saturday seemed to grip the kids in to a reality check, and yes I own www.real-tycheck.com, quite different to their disbelief during the last game of the season too days before when they seemed tu fall asleep at the wheel going from being up 2 goals tu nil tu getting nothing short of “creamed”, an English term similar to getting “slaughtered” which may or may not have made its way over to these shores.

 

My mea culpa, taking responsibility for not reading the referee during half time the “riot act” seemed to be a good start, certainly it stopped Curran from continuing on his mantra, “They cheated” although the possibility existed that Coach Drei threatening to take Curran “to the cleaners” may have been the driving force behind Curran beginning to pay better attention.

 

It is difficult to tell with kids coming from such very different backgrounds how best tu get them all tu respond positively without having to apply the “stick” approach but when one recognizes that kids only learn about poor behavior from parents who are boars themselves that all they really want tu do is tu please, much like a puppy then it begins tu make sense that telling them nothing but the truth is the best medicine for not letting them get sick in the first place.

 

My explaining tu them that, although I may have committed a faux paux, the mistake they made was believing that either Coach Drei or me the assistant coach could force the hand of the referee or his linesmen who had little clue about the offside rule that such an expectation was nothing more than a false sense of security that ultimately led to them falling apart, seemed to empower the kids which is really what this incredible game of soccer is all apart.

 

These kids are clearly of an age having heard vulgarity, perhaps even seen pornography, tu know that not everyone plays by the rules, most if not all of them, however, still believing those “in charge” to be as close as it gets tu “Godly” and of course us adults know how folks of every color, creed, and religion have used divine authority tu wreck havoc throughout the history of mankind, man being anything but kind tu his fellow man, incredibly hostile towards G-D-Nature.

 

Rubbing up folks the wrong way, fighting tradition, tackling the status quo is oftentimes second nature to folks from all walks of life, rich, poor and then there is the indifferent, and no where is it more apparent then on the soccer field, most evident, however, in those who clown around and why my “first order” after letting them know that throughout their lives they will encounter people who don’t play by the rules which shouldn’t throw them off their “game plan” that what goes around comes around, never to lose one balance, one’s sensitivities, and most of one’s sense of humor, I insisted that each one of them hold those who choose to “clown around” in nothing short of a “stranglehold” although I probably just used the expression “in check” suggesting that the game of soccer like chess is all about getting your opponent tu play tu your advantage but unlike chess which is more like “jostling” soccer is all about team work helping make certain that each and every player knows exactly what is expected of them in ensuring that “the wave” formation is always maintained, and that the “tighter the wave” the less likely the opponents as well as the officials can interfere with their game plan, for the simple reason that once one has begun to eliminate the amount of negative space in the field one has the other team all but beat, rhythm everything.

 

A few years back I “spearheaded” a group with strong ties to FIFA, the world governing body of soccer, En-Linea, owning the Internet rights of FIFA.com which on the day of the last World Cup finals had sumthing like 77 million hits.

 

The chairman of En-Linea, Che Che Vidal, a Venezuelan now living most of the year in Spain with other members of this rather terrific organization, go omniball.com was a star soccer athlete in his time, probably the best player in his native country, a knee injury, however, actually the negligence of an American physician, curtailing his sports career which ultimately led to me having the opportunity to work with another rather talented group know as SporTVision, the same folks who developed the electronic hockey puck which you can c in the previous hyperlink.

 

The joint venture between En-Linea and SporTVision was geared toward “digitizing” the soccer field keeping track electronically in real time of both the ball and every single player, in many ways resembling what I think would happen if we allowed the dogs tu roam about unleashed placing instead leashes on those who “Lie, steal and cheat” the most, such that at the end of the “game” by looking at the data one is able tu c exactly who was doing things right, who was “clowning about” going around in circles, messing up the rhythm of the beat, failing tu tow the line, not keeping their position, moving “back and forth” out of position only tu help a team mate in distress but never ever crossing over from one side of the field to the other in so doing interrupting the flow of the game, creating confusion within one’s own ranks, nothing like beating oneself, something us humans seemed rather good at, nothing like the fear of succeeding, agree?

 

And of course things like “Chinese walls” which are supposed tu keep the investment side of Wall Street firms on the “straight and narrow” serve as much good as telling an emperor he has no clothes which do well in story books later being leveraged into bloc-buster movies, and yes, I may be repeating myself, my owning also bloc-buster.com ++++, all “part and parcel” of my immediate, not long term plans, tu control, absolutely nothing, and everything, at the same time, time, motion and space all being very much intertwined and very relative, each one of us related to the next person, each one of us having beaten incredible odds of being here in the first place, at least this time around.

 

Just think about the odds of you having beaten out not just sum 300 million odd other sperm tu mention little of why women have relatively much fewer eggs, but why you should be on the receiving end of this “documentary” but of course u have the right at any time tu either “tune out” or simply hit the “delete” button, an option only recently available to the “wondering masses” and being a “wondering Jew” I have thought about a number of things, my having met for example Mr. Krinsk for the first time at the Matre D restaurant in La Jolla where his partner Mr. Howard Finkelstein, a former U.S. Attorney, remains, to the best, of my knowledge, “banned” from this “joker” of an establishment, Marie+I having eaten there only once when Mr. Krinsk just happened tu stop by checking on Dr. Paul Tierstein who I am led tu believe is ranked in the top 3 cardiologists in the world, making the other cardiologist present at the time and someone I have known since a kid, Dr. Kevin Rapaport possibly in that group as well, leaving the door open, however, for my first cousin Dr. Barry Molk who has very likely performed more angioplasty type procedures than Paul and Kevin combined, unlikely though, my terrific cousin who could have ordered the frontal lobotomy tu be performed on my incredible mother in addition tu her heart bypass operation back in Bristol, England a few years back, is as wealthy as Dr. Tierstein who has a knack like another cardiologist I knew rather well up in Los Angeles whose name I cannot currently recall but also hopes I get distracted by the several Perfect Storms I have underway, for making what most would consider a “considerable fortune.”

 

Money is not the root of all evil, in fact I consider it the lifeblood of our society given how it allows anyone from anywhere to think in terms of what it means to be in someone else’s shoes by simply saying to themselves,

 

“If I want tu have one more pair of alligator shoes than Mr. Krinsk’s wife, Campbell Soup, then all I would need to is tu get hold of The Rattlesnake’s Neiman Marcus charge card, wait for 2 pairs of BLAHNIK shoes tu go on sale and for just $1,500 which The Rattlesnake is unlikely to notice, he likely all caught up in his own spider web, I could with one foul swoop go from having 171 pairs of shoes to 173 pairs, one more than what supposedly Mrs. Krinsk, whose code name is ‘Campbell Soup’ has stored in storage lockers throughout the Krinsk estate, blah blah” [sic].

 

It is all about balance, maintaining one’s center of gravity while learning from not only your own mistakes but the mistakes committed by one’s opponent and of course my belief system being such that we not only evolve but keep going around time and again taking on different forms depending upon how well we behave, point being that of course I was a spider at one time and how many spiders do you know that well who get caught up in their own webs?

 

The key tu being a professional, always staying on top of one’s game is tu never lose the “professor” in you, the ability to teach and of course one has to make a living but that doesn’t mean one should become a “pig at the trough” our JoNathan recently informing me that pigs are actually quite picky eaters which still doesn’t wet my appetite 4 bacon.

 

An artist-painter knows that there is in addition to “values” too other key ingredients, shape and chroma, shape being the “object” which is the focus of one’s drawing and chroma which is the “richness of the colors” neither black nor white having any color, and the more one moves away from these “too extremes” one brings out the richness of the “color wheel”, there being no shortcuts, never doing things in “half measures” critically important to have the right values to begin with though, and then never, ever, ever losing the ability to learn, and nothing wrong with being charming.

 

By having consistent “values” never confusing “money” with “talent” one can reach a point of never having tu look back knowing that looking in one’s rear view mirror is no indication of what’s up ahead, mental breakdowns occurring, at least this is my opinion, when folks realize they can no longer learn or incapable of understanding what is taught or being talked about, realizing that they are way over their head and upon reaching this plateau, now in a state of shock, not able to get it, they collapse into a heap of tears, going into denial, just a matter of time before depression sets in, and they have no idea about what they are talking about, agree?

 

And why I consider it so important that kids be taught from the earliest of age tu measure their words very carefully, be restricted in what they have to say and not say whatever comes into their head, developing filters, much like the valves throughout our bodies that turn on and off, thinking about things such as why G-D-Nature doesn’t have us pooping and peeing at the same time, there being a time and place for joking around, never though at someone else’s expense unless one is prepared to pay the piper, agree?

 

It can become second nature tu kids tu never being serious about anything and it is such kids that we have to focus on at least as much as those who are always serious as well as our super performers, the need for everyone to keep track of one another, those out front tu help those who struggle in one area very likely tu have skillsets in other areas that prove invaluable at sum point in this ever changing world, us all hurtling together thorough space at sum 178,000 miles per hour, a number I happened to pick up on which I have yet to confirm, but a number I happen tu like and there is nothing more I have liked in quite a while as being assistant coach to these incredibly gifted group of kids who in my opinion represent the epitome of what a New Tribe should look like.

 

Everyone has their own limits and once we accept the position we are in and don’t try and fool anyone else and make excuses for ourselves, be in the moment, always conscious, still trying, most of all tu get rid of whiners who fool no one but themselves, there being without the slightest doubt in my mind one awesome higher authority up there, watching each and every one of our moves, good, bad, and ugly.

 

Gary

 

Ps – Please bring your wetsuits along so that you can come and join me in the surf with my Footsak waveski.

 

 

 

SunsetParty 

 

 

 

with Gary + Marie

227  27th street, Del Mar.

Off Highway 101, between the Del Mar racetrack and the oshon.

This Saturday, November 22nd from 3:30PM until whenever.

  

Be there or be square.

Bring along a good bottle of wine tu share with the good, the bad and the ugly.

Good food, good blah blah in the setting of great art by Sebastian Capella, Ray Anne Marks etc…

Come casually dressed 4 u may want tu stroll the beach at sunset.

And should u have a solution or too 4 solving the problems of the world let us know.

 

RSVP: Call 1-858-SEL-NEXT 

Or by Email:   Gary at gsg@sellnext.com

Marie at mdg42203@sbcglobal.net