#mark seal

[craigfernandez]

[justincaseitmatters]

After 50 years, ‘The Godfather’ still resonates - Dan Lybarger

Family portrait: The Corleone men — Sonny (James Caan), Don Vito (Marlon Brando), Michael (Al Pacino) and the hapless Fredo (John Cazale) —

[sibylls]

Parked outside the reception, their Land Rover and trailer were packed with everything they owned—cameras, tent, clothing, supplies, food—enough to last them for months. Instead of throwing rice, several of Alan’s drunken buddies had put fresh elephant dung under the Land Rover’s wheels and poured boiling water on it, so when the newlyweds drove away to the cheers of their friends and family, elephant shit sprayed in all directions. It was, everyone agreed, a real Kenya wedding.

On Alan and Joan Root’s wedding; Mark Seal, Wildflower

[universalmovies]

Benedict Cumberbatch firma per il ruolo da protagonista in The Man In The Rockefeller Suit

#BenedictCumberbatch firma per il ruolo da protagonista in The Man In The Rockefeller Suit

Il futuro lavorativo di Benedict Cumberbatch sembra non avere fine, l’attore che ha prestato di recente il volto al magico Doctor Strange della Marvel ha difatti firmato con Fox Searchlight per il ruolo da protagonista nel biopic The Man in the Rockfeller Suit.

Empire Online ha rivelato che Cumberbatchè oramai ad un passo da mettere nero su bianco per dare vita ad una delle storie vere più…

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[divinemissem2015]

The Man in the Rockefeller Suit

I remember hearing about Clark Rockefeller a few years ago but had forgotten about him. This weekend I was looking thru an old Elle magazine (its Elle Lettres column is a surprisingly rich source of great books to read) (yes, Elle, I see what you did there), and came across its non-fiction book of the year! I went right to Overdrive and rented the audiobook from the greatest library ever and finished it in two days! Usually I use audiobooks to lull me to sleep (my parents either read to me too much or too little when I was a tot) BUT this book was SO ENGROSSING that it kept me awake (insomnia says: thank you for doing my job Mark Seal and to Erik Singer for the terrific narration!)! 

So, long and twisted story short- this young fellow from Germany lied his way into the homes of lovely and nice people in Wisconsin (where he marries to get his green card), CT and Calif who provided him w room and board (SPOILER: he ended up killing at least one of his hosts in California and is now serving a life sentence for that). He realizes he's pretty good at it and decides to come east where he manages to get hired by 3 different hedge funds in Greenwich and ends up adopting the moniker Clark Rockefeller and marrying a super successful VP at McKinsey. After a few detours, the family ends up on Beacon Hill (where Clark is welcomed with open arms thanks to his last name and his fake prep school accent). Interestingly his wife doesn’t get rid of him because she found about his life of deceit, but because he was doing things like withholding heat and food from her. He finally gets caught when he tries to kidnap his daughter after the divorce.

I find it interesting that his crazy behavior, including always having his guests pay restaurant bills for him, was explained away by his friends as “oh, he’s a Rockefeller. He’s just eccentric and thrifty.” Also super interesting was how long he strung an apparently smart woman along for so long and how she had no idea he was draining millions of dollars of her salary.

I wonder if he could have gotten away with this in the Internet and google age. Then again, people believe whatever they want to believe about people. See, Catfish.

[kristymilliken]

Reading List, May 2014

I've been meaning to do this for a while, regularly post a list of articles I've read that I thought have been particularly interesting in some way. Past efforts have shown however, that I'm terrible at keeping this blog up to date so I'll see how I go. 

Josh Bornstein, The Politics of Class Warfare, from Sydney to Washington the Gulf is Deepening, The Guardian. When Bornstein was made a partner at his law firm, he began to notice some changes. Some where simply conveniently warm and fuzzy, such as a personalised relationship with his bank account manager, others didn't sit quite so well, such as his accountants suggestion that paying tax for a person in his position was a "life choice". 

Ed Butler, Manly men VS wimps, whats with the macho language in Australian politics? The Guardian. So the adults are back in charge in federal politics. We have a man of steel as our prime minister. This article really gets into the paternalistic, macho language of so much commentary on politics right now, it's almost as if someone has decided we need brohab or something. 

Naomi Klein, How Science is telling us all to Revolt, The New Statesman. Scientists are generally observers and not the instigators of political uprisings, but as the modelling becomes more dire and warnings go ignored, the scientists are conflicted. Efforts to have their work taken seriously by framing their findings within a neoliberal system have not conveyed the urgency of the situation. Many scientists are losing faith in the political system's ability to act on climate change, and they are now looking at ways of disrupting their own models. Revolution! or as they call it, "friction". 

Mark Seal, Seduced and Abandoned - Wendy Deng and Rupert Murdoch, Vanity Fair. Since I was a kid I've always thought I was a driven person, but holy shit. Wendy Deng. This article is amazing, it will make your lunch break, Deng is fascinating. The article details her drive, her pivotal role in expanding Murdoch's reach into China, but also has excerpts of her writing where she diarises her crushes like a teenager - The Prime Minister of Great Britain, the head of Google! Hilarious! 

[millionsmillions]

Filed in New York District Court, the suit ... claims that Pinkus 'engaged in a scheme to dupe Harper Lee, then 80-years-old with declining hearing and eye sight, into assigning her valuable TKAM [To Kill a Mockingbird] copyright to [Pinkus’s company] for no consideration,' and then created shell companies and bank accounts to which the book’s royalties were funneled.

On the ongoing legal battle over the rights to To Kill a Mockingbird

[longformdk]

The Shooting Star and The Model

En ny anbefaling er blevet skrevet på longform.dk http://longform.dk/2013/06/shooting-star-model/

The Shooting Star and The Model

Er du fan af den benamputerede atlet Oscar Pistorius, så er dette portræt næppe god læsning. Oscar Pistorius. Foto: wikipedia.org Vanity Fairs Mark Seal tager turen til Sydafrika for at finde ud af, hvorfor Oscar Pistorius skød sin kæreste Reeva Steenkamp. Han kommer naturligvis ikke frem...