London in New York

TRANSACTIONAL ROMANCE IN ERA OF CRONY CAPITALISM

Upper East Side Madam Anna Gristina is no longer at large. Aren’t you relieved? Oh wait, you did not know who she was? No the ‘Millionaire Madam’ is not Patti Stanger, the ‘Millionaire Matchmaker’. If you want to know the difference, I am not sure I can tell you. Well Patti Stanger does not run a brothel, allegedly. She really had no impact on your life, safety or security you say.?  But if you see the headlines in the papers this week you will be lead to believe that we are somehow all  so much safer now that a 44 year old woman and mother of four that was running a high end escort service  catering to the urban affluent on Manhattan’s Upper East Side is now in custody. There are frankly plenty of men on Park Avenue and Fifth Avenue who married for sex who are no longer having sex. Consider then Anna Gristina a form of marital outsourcing if you will, relieving many women of what might otherwise be a rather unpleasant marital obligation. Is it not a win win for everybody?

Manhattan law enforcement authorities see things a tad differently.   Regardless, WTF is the point of these STUPID prosecutions? Are we PURITANS? And what about the cost to taxpayers of a five year investigation surrounding this woman’s alleged enabling of powerful men to pay for a service that they sought out?  It’s not as if Gristina was showing up at the offices and homes of these men forcing them to patronize her female friends and models.  Does law enforcement really believe that they will make society more safe and secure from affluent men paying for consensual transacational romance or sex with models?  Of course not. There is something far deeper at work here. Prosecutors have a hard time cracking down on human trafficking rings so they go after high end Madams and call girls who would not exist but for the pre-existing demand for ‘transactional romance’, in an otherwise cold and lonely world.  If you are paying attention, every few years they bring someone  else down.  Rest assured,  another woman will rise up in the vaccum to serve pre-existing demand for transactional romance. Think I am wrong? Take a walk into Lavo Restaurant Lounge or the Nightclub on Manhattan’s Upper East Side on  Wednesday or Thursday night and the place is crawling with girls next door who are independent free agents, working girls without a broker,  a matchmaker of the VIP Life. Men of means pay for the convenience. While women pushed to the brink are sometimes found hanging inconveniently and rather suspiciously.

WARNING: SERVICING URBAN ELITE PRESENTS RISKS WHEN CRONY CAPITALISTS ARE IN CHARGE OF SOCIETY

Upper East Side Madam Anna Gristina was at large for all these years and nobody who did not have the coin to pay upwards of $1,000 per hour for companionship had any idea who she was, including me. And I like to think that I know about all these things. Well maybe except perhaps those who targeted for arrest probably because they could not afford her rates.  Or maybe what truly happens, is that somebody far more powerful who has a great deal to lose from his indiscretion, does not like that he is in her little black book.  So, he makes a call or has lunch with a powerful friend, makes a donation to law enforcement or someone’s campaign and voila it becomes time to put the squeeze on some woman who is basically unknown to the wider world at large. Think I am wrong? According to the New York Post:

Gristina’s “black book” included powerful politicians, top-law enforcement, influential lawyers, bankers, entertainment execs and Fortune 500 businessmen, as well as several ultra-wealthy European clients, sources said.

The Madoff Economy which came about as a result of  the sub-prime mortage crisis and Wall Street’s arrogance about being Too Big to Fail created a perception of our country as the United States of Ponzi; hence it was truly when ‘Crony Capitalism [Came] Home’.   It was a ‘Confidence Game’ that led to almost a complete meltdown during the financial crisis of 2008, otherwise known as the Great Recession or Global Financial Crisis. The Inside Job had  its own cast of curious and dubious characters who all deserve credit. Even Client 9 could not get these guys to right the ship before the collapse.  In the midst of this mess a King of Bain with a curious background entered into a Bad Romance with Wall Street to become the next U.S. President. You know there are so many scoundrels mostly male frankly who helped bring about the financial collapse with their rigged games and ponzi schemes and many are still at large, but we are arresting the woman who was probably serving all those ass clowns. How ironic is that? No, seriously think about that.  In ‘the half hooker economy’, with high unemployment  even among the educated and professional classes, fewer men buying ladies drinks but at least some willing to pay for their companionship, law  enforcement is putting yet “another mom & pop shop” out of business; one run by an animal loving entrepreneur no less? People have to eat no?  Who is going to feed the pigs? Maybe that  is why the old boys network imported Cy Vance, Jr. from outside NYC to be New York’s District Attorney so that the unrighteous remain secure.

As citizens, let us not be fooled by the import of these police crackdowns on victimless crimes. They truly serve no particular purpose. You want to audit them for tax evasion, go ahead. But let us move forward as a society, as a people and stop these witch hunts that focus on women only. Frankly, its bullshit. The time has come and gone to decriminalize prostitution. Hell, lets accept the reality that in a capitalist system we are alll pimping and ho’ing to one degree or another. Don’t hate the player when the game is the oldest one in existence and will continue to go on under yet a different umbrella after prosecutors are done with Ms. Gristina.

In my continuing evolution of the masculine, embracing aspects of the enlightened feminine I have come to recognize the mutual dilemma’s faced by men and women in the proverbial mating game.  I am also now aware that 1 in 5 relationships begin online on dating sites like Match.com, JDate and PlentyOfFish.  As a result, when the Consigliere is engaged, pearls of wisdom will flow like shots being poured from a bottomless whiskey bottle in a New York Saloon. This is  to be distinguished from merely staring down at the bottom of a whiskey bottle looking for all or some of life’s answers; although in terms of full disclosure during my journey of the dark night of the soul on occasion I found myself doing that as well.

On Valentine’s Day, in a wide ranging philosophical discussion on what men and women want,  a potential romantic prospect with a fetish for Christian Louboutin (we’ll get to that later) stated “I run from men [even those who might cater to my special needs]  who are obviously in the end only after me for a piece of my three star ass, much in the same way that you might run from the soul less bitches who desire you solely to provide a means of financial support [as a Sugar Daddy].” The following was my response:

“You can always buy a three star ass but you cannot buy a four star soul.”

Important for owner-operators of ass awesomeness to know because as I have openly acknowledged in a prior blog, despite the lust in my heart and my profound appreciation for the lower half of a woman’s well toned and curved body from the contour of her lower back, her sticky buns and down to her calves and finely painted toes, all of that without intellect, charm or manners is truly a waste even if they are packing Jessica Biel, Ocean Bloom, Esther Baxter, Buffie the Body, Vida Guerra, Milani Rose or Kim Kardashian type booty; or onions that can literally bring a tear to your eye.  Likewise for my male readers, before you pay a bounty for the booty in your quest for an ass befitting a KING and your watering mouth writes a check that your own ass can’t cash, consider this when you contemplate ‘trading up or grow to have less of an appreciation for an otherwise special lady in your life.  In the world of romance, it is not always the road less traveled or the fresher trail or tail that leads to greater rewards. As a creature of habit, I have often had the experience that the road more frequently traveled still provides opportunity for charting new terrain; a  romance reinvigorated by a commitment to putting forth a greater degree of  ingenuity and creativity is one which may ultimately bring greater fulfillment and lasting reward.

Nevertheless, every romantic gambler knows that in the words of Kenny Rogers: “You got to know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em. Know when to walk away, know when to run.”