The "Amazing" Dale

Art forgery is the best crime tbh. It requires absolutely incredible artistic talent, technical skill, and attention to detail to make convincing fakes. Does anyone get hurt from it? No! The only people who suffer for it are the extremely wealthy who want the prestige of having original paintings in their own homes. It’s full of international intrigue and mystery. Perfect.

Also… art forgers like van Meegeren sometimes become a kind of folk hero. A swindler, sure, but a gentleman’s swindler.

I liked this guy’s story, Mark Landis, who conned several dozen museums into displaying his forgeries, but when the FBI came after him they couldn’t do anything because he had always given them away as donations. They said if they could have found that he’d ever taken anything in exchange they would have prosecuted him, but all he wanted was get to out of the house and meet people.

“The first painting Landis “donated” was a copy of a work by Maynard Dixon, an artist well-known for his paintings of cowboys and Indians. It started as impulse, Landis says, but then “everybody was just so nice and treated me with respect and deference and friendship, things I was very unused to — I mean, actually not used to at all. And I got addicted to it.”” And it looks like all his forgeries are done with cheap materials, like markers and Hobby Lobby frames.

Ok, but Wolfgang Beltracchi is probably one of the best Fraud Artists in the world.

His career brought him millions upon millions of dollars and lasted almost 40 years. He finally admitted to painting fraudulent art after the white paint he used came under scrutiny. 

In The interview with Beltracchi, he said that none of his forgeries are copies, they’re all original works that the famous artists could have painted.

His wife was also in on the scam, she would dress up in old clothing and take pictures holding the paintings with old cameras to fake proof of the paintings’ ages.

At the end of the interview with Wolfgang Beltracchi he was asked if he felt he had done anything wrong, his answer was “ Yeah, I used the wrong kind of paint”

Just … the levels of con there, the fake photos and … wow. That’s incredible. 

That’s just rapscallionry.

Why is it?? That I can go through the whole day feeling fine and dandy but the second I lay down for bed impending doom settles on me?

🤔 a compelling model

Feels appropriate

A new illustration I finished up in between other things :)

Otters will forever be the most dramatic creatures on the planet🦦

I don’t really Go Here but u can always rely on this man to read a right wing politician’s outfit for filth

I mean. Just devastating 😭

This man has LETHAL comebacks. Idiots keep trying to get one over on him and he has never missed

Actually no I'm double reblogging this I found the one where he *calls a guy's tailor* to confirm his suit isn't actually bespoke

You cannot win in his arena. This isn't "if you come at the king you better not miss" this is "don't fight a shark in the water"

I gotta add this one

cjthex actually did a video essay on exactly this. goes into more depth on how we understand style and fashion. also some dunking on jp

This is cinema actually

#I love how ali looms as a threatening force the entire video #and she does try to commit murder suicide #absolute cinema (via @dragoonthegreat)

Im sorry that last line just sent me 😂

You guys just have to trust me on this one and click here okay?

OH MY GOD I NEEDED THIS

For the chronically anxious and/or otherwise mentally ill:

This is not a screamer, jumpscare, or any other kind of horror link I don’t know the name of. It will not cause you to question reality and as far as I’m aware, there is no reason it should cause any kind of hallucinations or psychosis. I don’t want to spoil the surprise because it’s DELIGHTFUL but I am happy to tell you it’s very sweet and gentle and also great lowkey stress relief. This is a cinnamon roll link appropriate for all ages (yes, all the way down to babies) and you will enjoy it if you click it. ❤️

This makes me so happy

I can't stress enough how much I miss StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon once sent me to a supercut of Lion King, Lion King 1 1/2, and Lion King II, the main edit being that the scenes of Lion King and Lion King 1 1/2 were interspersed so that they happened in the order they actually happened.

stumbleupon not existing anymore can be directly traced to a dramatic decline in my mental health, I could do a thesis on it.

bestie stumbleupon very much still exists its just called cloudhiker now. i use it all the time.

mini compilation of suggestions from the replies:

The Bored Button - "Press the Bored Button and be bored no more."

The Useless Web

Cloudhiker - "Discover the most interesting, weird and awesome websites of the Internet" (not really a rebrand, it's a different person running it but they have the same intention in mind)

Astronaut.io - "These videos come from YouTube. They were uploaded in the last week and have titles like DSC 1234 and IMG 4321. They have almost zero previous views. They are unnamed, unedited, and unseen (by anyone but you)."

Marginalia - "This is an independent DIY search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and attempts to show you sites you perhaps weren't aware of in favor of the sort of sites you probably already knew existed."

it actually annoys the shit out if me when people act like ww2 isn't something that you need to learn about anymore. like no actually that's all still very important sorry

like yes the guys who just salivate over which weapons killed the most people are fucking weird, no argument there, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't know about the various war crimes committed by literally every country involved. it's all still very much relevant, the 1940s wasn't really that long ago, all things considered.

The thing that I always try to remember is that most people on the allied side of WWII thought war would never happen. And then, once it had broken out, so many feared the war would never end. Both polarities of that mindset led to people to be permissive about terrible suffering and staggering loss of life.

We study history not to deify anyone, but in the hopes that we don't rerun mistakes. There is not greater source of bad decision making to be studied than war.

Beloved ones. You feel this way BECAUSE you don’t do anything all day. Whether mental illness holds you hostage, or an aspect of neurodiversity says, “Hmm not today!” Or if your self-care day turns into weeks of paralysis, or you just take the damn day off…chances are, at the end of the “do nothing” period, you will feel more overwhelmed and exhausted than you feel you have a right to be. You are borne down by in insupportable weight of time passing by, empty of anything meaningful. Panic can set in, or despair, or guilt, or numbness, or mania, or any/all combinations thereof…it hits us all differently.

If this feeling is bothering you, see if you can find the energy/focus/spoons to do ~something with your hands~

It doesn’t have to be quote-PRODUCTIVE-unquote. You can color (a real page with real writing implements, even if it sucks). You can massage your hands and feet with good-smelling lotion. You can go outside and stack little rocks on top of each other until they fall down. Arrange leaves into a heart shape. Count the anthills in the sidewalk near your house. Draw on concrete with chalk. Paint your nails or toes. The more useless and non-taxing for you, the better.

The point is, you ~complete a physical task~

Your animal-brain doesn’t know that this task has no “productive” value! Certain parts of your brain can’t necessarily parse that sort of thing!!! The deep wiring in your noggin senses that you initiated a task, spent time & energy on it, and completed it! Even something as small as the ideas above can start to re-wire your brain back into functionality when you’re overwhelmed and paralyzed. The biggest part is to engage with the PHYSICAL WORLD, because while our phones & computers & tablets can be serotonin-generators, the deep ancient-animal wiring in our brain still doesn’t quite interpret it as REAL. (This is also why practical VFX are always more charming than CGI, but that’s a rant for another time.)

Sincerely,

Someone who has fought this battle many times before (and studied it, and researched it in others, and almost literally has a Masters degree in motivating the unwilling)

A love story for the ages.

Or water fountains, public washrooms, outdoors tables, etc, etc

Notice how removing seating doesnt actually prevent people from sitting it just makes them uncomfortable and makes public spaces more hostile it doesnt actually work at controlling their behavior not till a pig comes along anyways and they'll harass a homeless person/teen whatever they're sitting on.

Worth mentioning: this is a train station in NYC (I’ve been several time) and there is seating… It’s just in a members only area. Just to the right of the frame of this picture.

We are at a point where companies are stripping so much from basic travel fare that the sitting before you board is a privilege. A PAID PRIVILEGE. Rest. A position that any other mammal takes, a need for many travelers, that is a something companies will ask you to pay for.

It’s hostile toward the people police harass. It’s hostile to older and younger folks, and those who travel with them, folks who can’t stand for long, all sorts of disabled folks. It’s hostile toward poor people. It’s just hostile.

If a person asked you to come to their home and forced you to stand or sit on the floor without a cushion, it would be considered rude. We have been conditioned by companies to accept a hostile atmosphere that is devoid of thought for people’s need. To save money and to save the trouble of keeping out folks they don’t want there.

They pass that hostility onto the customer and we pay for it.

fireflies lighting up a rural Pennsylvania field at dusk

As a european i sometimes forget furefkied are actually real and not american folklore/cryptids. Like you've got friendly little bugs that glow in the dark..... b r uh

edit: in the past however many weeks ive had like 150 people tell me there are in fact fireflies in europe, basically everywhere i havent been. not exaggerating. please stop telling me

found the artist's name in the notes and went looking because this slaps (it's called A Place Where I'll Dance) and its not even their best song. check this shit out:

@rederiswrites