Chapter
12
Capitalist
Propaganda
Sept. 1987
On a rare day away from
the Servercomp offices, I was relaxing on the balcony at home that
early-autumn afternoon, enjoying what was probably the last warm
weather we would get for the next eight months. While I reclined in
a deck chair and read the novel Atlas Shrugged for the third
time, Tina and Angie conversed loudly over the dreadful pop music
blaring from the living room TV. Just as I began reading the part
where John Galt goes-off on a 63-page didactic diatribe against
collectivism, Tina's voice screeched from inside the apartment,
through the open sliding glass door, "Hercules, git yer funky
ass in here!”
“WHAT!”
Marta is on fuckin' TV!
HURRY!"
“BULLSHIT!”
Then I stuck my head inside the apartment and took a gander at the
screen. On a music video on MTV, Marta's ass gyrated wildly as she
sang her brand-new release, something called Love Me Up and Down. Gobsmacked, I rushed back into the apartment.
While
lip-synching to the awful disco-flavored tune, Marta tossed her
ice-blonde mane and flashed a perfectly white, Look-Ma-No-Cavities,
open-mouthed smile. As my eyes were riveted to the TV, Tina glanced
up at me and said, “Look, Angie - Hercules is gittin' a hard-on.”
That
wasn't exactly true. “Yeah, right,” I grumbled distractedly,
while cold sweat beaded on my forehead.
After
the video mercifully ended, Marta was sitting in the company of a
fatuously hip MTV host, who started babbling: "Marta is in
the studio with us tonight to discuss her new recording career. But
let's start with a little of your background, Marta.”
“Vell,
I grew-up in Frankfurt, Germany...”
“...Now,
your father is an airline pilot and you recently lived in the United
States?”
“Yes,
in 1985 I lived in the marvelous
city of Seattle, Vashington. Of course, having a 747 captain as a
father, I have had many opportunities to travel all over the verld.”
“And
until this summer, you were attending university in Leipzig, Germany,
studying aeronautics. Excellent!”
“Yes.
I had
originally intended to pursue a career as a commercial pilot, but
somehow I have become a pop star instead,” she concluded,
tongue-in-cheek.
“Incidentally, your debut album - Seething Lust -
is currently in the Top 100 throughout Europe, so congratulations!”
The young male host with spiky
bleach-blonde hair abruptly changed the subject, clapping his hands
once and addressing the camera: “All right! As our
viewers in Europe may be aware of, Marta began her showbiz career in
adult films...”
Angie,
discombobulated, asked rhetorically: "What the fuck!?"
Tina
looked narrowly at Angie. "Surprised? Ya know damned well she
made dirty movies while she lived
here."
I
jumped in and sarcastically offered to Tina, “I suppose this is
all my fault too.”
Her
sharp knuckles lashed out in rebuttal, jamming painfully into my
ribcage as she scolded,
"Quiet, you - I wanna hear what this slut
has to say for herself.”
Marta
continued, “...I also have a new adult video release on the
market.” With a titter, she
added, “It's called Orgasmic Fury
tee-hee!” Then she gushed in
earnest, “I am extremely pleased vith the response of all
my new American fans. My videos have been doing quite vell in North
America since I made the covers of all the popular adult magazines."
"That's
really awesome - so Marta, how long have you been involved in adult
cinema?"
"For
about two years now. I began performing in adult films ven I vas
18..."
Indignant Tina erupted.
"Eight-fuckin'-teen! That lyin' little cocksucka!"
The MTV host looked at
the camera and announced, “Now here's another new music video
from Marta that I know you'll enjoy - it's called You Hit
My G-Spot, Baby...”
* * *
Early-Oct. 1987
Never in my life had I
possessed so much money at one time. For the past two weeks, ever
since Servercomp's now-diluted shares began trading on NASDAQ's
Over-the-Counter exchange, there had been a huge run-up in the value
of those shares (I then owned 250,000 watered-down shares worth, at
the time, well over one million dollars). The true monetary value of
the company did not appear to justify its current market valuation.
However, investors were in the midst of a torrid love affair with
under-capitalized high-tech start-ups like ours. Even a frugal
financial conservative such as myself was caught up in the irrational
fantasy of unending profits in the stock market. As a consequence,
when the latest quarterly dividend check from Servercomp arrived in
the mail, I blew it all on a large down payment on a turbocharged
1987 Chevy Corvette convertible. That was uncharacteristically
impulsive and extravagant of me, but I convinced myself that the
'Vette was a well deserved reward for all the long hours I had worked
all year. When I brought that flaming orange road racer home for the
first time, Tina, suitably impressed, whistled low and said, “That's
a hot ride, Herc - let's go for a spin! You rent that for the
weekend?”
With a carefree grin I
replied, “Hell no, I bought it.”
Her response to that
left me crestfallen: “Do what! Ha,” she laughed without humor.
“Yer gonna have lotsa fun drivin' yer kids to daycare in that
thing.”
The blood drained from
my cheeks in alarm, as I feared that this was her clever way of
informing me that she or Angie was pregnant. “Er - I thought we
all agreed that we don't want kids right now.”
“Yeah – er,
“she mocked. “Don'tcha know by now that shit don't always
workout the way you want it when you want it, Hercules? Anyway, ya told me you were sick of this apartment and thinkin'
about buyin' a house. So how much was that muthafuckin' car?
30-grand?”
“Forty-two grand,
actually, “I replied, clearing my throat. “But I'm still buying
a house - and even that car phone you've been hinting-at for your
birthday.” With a shrug, I added, “If I ever need money, I'll
just unload a few thousand shares - a drop in the bucket, babe.”
“You been scarin' the
hell outta me lately, Herc. I think I liked ya better when you were
a cheap-ass skinflint. You must have millions stashed in the
bank, the way ya been tossin' Benjamins around like a dope dealer.”
“Don't be ridiculous.
Any extra money we do have is tied-up in stock.”
One of the more rational
reasons why the price of Servercomp stock was skyrocketing was that
the nation's number-one internet provider, Compuserve, was trying to
buy a controlling interest in the company. Its takeover attempt was
in angry response to our recent foray into the business computer
services and support market, a market in which Compuserve earned the
bulk of its profits. But Compuserve's hostile move was stymied at
the moment as the only Servercomp stock available on the open market
was of the Preferred type, which conveyed no voting rights. Nearly
all of the voting stock was closely held by corporate officers Joey
Blowers, Herb Toker and Rob Oldham. In addition, a small block of
voting stock was held by the founders of Microno Software, the
Seattle-area billionaires Milt Gaines and Allen Paulsen.
Friday, Oct. 16 - two
weeks later:
It was almost
embarrassing to dwell on how high the value of my shares had risen
this month. All the stock markets had been trending slightly
downward all week, but that had not lessened Compuserve's
determination to swallow our company. Compuserve had recently
tendered a stunning bid of $15 per share for a majority stake, and
the Wall Street Journal fueled
the rumor that Servercomp's board was very close to accepting
the bid, which drove the share-price ever upward. That rumor
happened to be absolutely false, according to what Joey, our CEO, had
told investors during a stockholders meeting the previous day. Then
he had gone on to declare, “It's obvious that they want to buy us
out merely to shut us down permanently, but in order to do so they're
gonna have to pay out the ass. Now, if they make us an offer
we can't refuse, like 25 dollars or more per share - and I doubt they
ever will - the board may well consider it. In the event that we do
accept such an offer at some future date, I would advise everyone to
hang onto your shares.”
As planned, Angie and I
flew to Las Vegas on that Friday morning and spent the weekend there.
To Tina's misfortune, she couldn't come along since it was
impossible for her to get time off from work right then.
While staying at The
Mirage, which at the time was the most luxurious, expensive hotel in
Vegas, we burned through many thousands of dollars gambling at
casinos up and down The Strip. Thousands more were spent on gold
jewelry and fancy clothes for Angie and Tina. I was just relieved
that I hadn't succumbed to the temptation to unload a bunch of stock
earlier that week.
On Saturday, Angie and I
stood on our balcony at The Mirage and watched the sunset saturating
the entire sky with deep shades of orange and red. She hugged my
side and said in happiness, “Oh Denny I think this has been the
best weekend ever - I love you!”
“I love you too,
sweetie. Life is damned good right now and it's gonna get even
better. Come on, let's go back inside and get naked.”
“Hell yeah!”
* * *
“Black Monday”: Oct.
19, 1987
When the alarm clock
went off at 7am, I awoke with a loud groan, still feeling the
aftereffects of our fun weekend. Having drunk much more alcohol than
usual, I suffered from a pulsating headache. After leaving the
bathroom, I noticed the red light flashing on the phone answering
machine, so I played-back the single message which had been recorded
at 5:30 that morning: “Hi Mister Smith, this is Doug Feld at Barnum
& Barnum.” It was my stockbroker. “Hey call me back as soon
as you can - the exchanges in New York are in free fall, and Servercomp
is down two points already, so you might want to buy a put option...”
I called him back immediately but all there was on the line was
elevator music, and every so often a soothing female voice assured me
that a representative would assist me shortly. While waiting
impatiently on the phone, I watched the Today show on TV.
Stock tickers were
crawling along the bottom of the screen as a financial reporter
gloomily informed viewers: “...This is shaping-up to be the
worst day on Wall Street since the infamous stock market crash of
October, 1929. With six hours still remaining until the closing
bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average is down a whopping 380 points
from Friday, and NASDAQ is down 72 points...One of the few winners
today is Compuserve, trading 50 cents a share higher after
withdrawing their $15-dollar a share bid for smaller rival
Servercomp, whose over-the-counter shares today fell from Friday's
close of 11.25 down to 98 cents before trading was halted - a drop of
over 90%...”
Copyright 2015 by K.D. Bishop
