We are not charging you with anything yet, detective, but I do suggest that you talk with your captain here about the odds on you losing your pension and your badge and the possibility of a million-dollar lawsuit against you for violating Mr. Magadan’s civil rights.
In the spirit of total transparency, I watched this solely for RDJ. Again, in honesty, I barely remember it. It wasn’t the most interesting storyline, but I did like that it was sort of making fun of soap operas by being one itself. None of the characters was likable, which is good because that was the point. I probably wouldn’t watch this again, but it wasn’t bad the first time.
Sex/nudity: 3/10 (many sexual innuendoes and gestures as well as sexual conversation and implications, some kissing)
Language: 4/10 (two f-bombs and quite a bit of other language)
New Post has been published on http://esonetwork.com/matinee/
Matinee | Episode 400
It is our 400th EPISODE !!! and Jim discusses what he calls “The Perfect Movie For All Monster Kids,” Joe Dante’s 1993 “Matinee,” starring John Goodman, Cathy Moriarty, Simon Fenton, Omri Katz, Kellie Martin, Lisa Jakub, Robert Picardo, Lucinda Jenney, Jesse Lee, Jesse White, James Villemaire, David Clennon, Dick Miller, John Sayles, Lucy Butler, Belinda Balaski, Naomi Watts, and Kevin McCarthy. This loving tribute to old Monster Movies from the 50s and an homage to William Castle has won the hearts of many monster fans during the last three decades. And its all on this special 400th episode of MONSTER ATTACK!, The Podcast Dedicated To Old Monster Movies.
West Coast Pro 02/04/23 Three Cheers For Revenge Results
Photo credit Mikey Nolan Photography
You can find this show at IWTV
Pre-Show Match
Jiah Jewell defeats JT Thorne (6:13)
Alan Angels & Kevin Blackwood defeat Creature Feature (El Chupacabra & Lazarus) (10:11)
Abigail Warren defeats Allie Katch (11:04)
Super Beast defeats Jordan Cruz (7:57)
Bret The Threat & Vinnie Massaro defeat El Cucuy & El Primohenio (14:24)
Masha Slamovich defeats Brooke Havok…
hi sam! do you have any recommendations for good sources of info for someone who'd like to learn more about cons and con artists? Any format is fine, books, podcasts, youtube, whatever, i'm just having a hard time finding a good source that really digs into and examines the actual techniques and 'mechanics' so to speak.
It is a little bit tough because of course most scammers are also self-embroidering liars :D And my education was very patchwork. For specifically cons and con artists (outside of art crime, which generally doesn't touch the con world directly) I'd advise starting with "Titanic Thompson: The Man Who Bet On Everything" by Kevin Cook, which is a biography of one of the early 20th century's most preeminent con men; it's a good tale but it also demonstrates the general life trajectory of con men, which can be pretty grim. Most cons end up in prison, and even those that don't or that get out tend to die poor and alone, because they can't stop scamming.
The Mark Inside by Amy Reading is one that I don't remember vividly but I did write a review of here, and I think it's another good starting place. (All the links following are to reviews I did.) If you've ever watched The Sting, which is a movie about con artists and also kind of a good primer, it's based on The Professional Thief by Edwin Sutherland, which is an anthropology of professional crime in the early 20th century. While technically it was written less by him than by an anonymous contact of his in the criminal underworld, that doesn't mean it's accurate per se; we only have that writer's word that any of it is true, so again, read skeptically.
I'd have to look up which piece it was because there's been a lot about her, but if you give Doris Payne a google she's another great example of a fascinating person who is just a giant liar. She paints a very vivid picture of her own career, but if you read about her later years you do realize that she's still conning everyone (she attempts to swindle at least one journalist working with her) and has nothing to show for her career, which may be a pack of lies to begin with. A lot of her stories have been fact checked and found wanting. I'd read up on the life of Victor Lustig as well; he's most famously known as the man who fraudulently sold the Eiffel Tower (twice) but I don't have a good biography offhand.
In your reading you will probably run across Han Van Meegeren, who forged Vermeers and ripped off the art world with them, then was tried for colluding with Nazis because he sold Nazis many "Vermeers" -- he had to paint a Vermeer while in prison to prove he'd forged the ones he sold the Nazis. This is a charming story but until very recently it was not widely noted that Van Meegeren was ABSOLUTELY A BIG NAZI HIMSELF. I was suckered by the story for years and I know most people were, so if you encounter media about him that does not include this fact, and you're interested in his story, look for newer scholarship.
There's a tangentially related book, "Where The Money Was" by Willie Sutton and Edward Linn, that is the semi-autobiography of a bank robber and it's very fun and funny, so despite not being directly about crime, I'd recommend that one.
The Napoleon Of Crime by Ben MacIntyre is a biography of the man who Moriarty was purportedly based on; it's sort of related rather than direct, but I recall enjoying it and there's a fascinating example of the VERY rare times when art heists are for a specific piece rather than for a specific goal.
There's a podcast called Scam Goddess that I found...enjoyable and informative, but also not very well-researched. In particular some of the earlier episodes are really poorly fact-checked. That said, she reads out letters from people writing in to discuss their scams and she talks about a lot of famous scam stories, so as long as you listen with the knowledge that she's neither a researcher nor an expert you should be okay.
Provenance by Laney Salisbury and Aly Sujo is what I'll close with, because it's about the interplay between art crime and con artistry, but it's also a strong argument for not valorizing cons; it's a documentation of how a couple of criminals out for nothing more than a quick buck really fucked up the entire system by which we authenticate art, and did insane levels of damage to genuine art scholarship. This isn't a little guy punching up against millionaire art collectors or fat cat museums, the way the narrative is often framed; art crime like this, involving forged or altered provenances, really harms art historians and the study of art.
I think the study of confidence crime and art crime is absolutely fascinating. There's a lot to learn about social engineering and society itself. But I think if I can impart to you one piece of wisdom, it's that con men are never, ever out for anyone but themselves and have no qualms or hesitations about hurting you to get what they want. The romance of con artistry often fools journalists and sophisticated researchers as well, so it's very easy to get swept up in it, but you should approach the entire genre with the attitude that everything you read has a 75% chance of being a charming work of total fiction.
On that note -- you may enjoy the short stories of O. Henry, some of which are about confidence men; I can't recommend specific titles but his fiction is very enjoyable generally, at least in my opinion.
The concept here is to send in a question or a letter request, and you’ll get a response from your fictional character of choice, from the list below. Please stick to the list I’ve made, but of course, you can ask if there’s some other characters I write for, I don’t always remember all the shows, movies or books I’ve consumed over the years and I’m sure I’m missing a lot 😅
Status: New Characters added - Thursday March 21st, 2024