>Talk about notey….

Posted on 8 August, 2009 by jb

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Baden-Baden is about as flash as a rat with a gold tooth.


Huge villas, a casino, spas here there and everywhere.

And loads of rich buggers.


Which explains the bill at the Rive Gauche.

A bottle of mineral water and 2 iced coffees for a mere €17.80/£15/NZ$40/US$25.


Bloody hell…….

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>Don’t ask me…. (about "The Joker")

Posted on 7 August, 2009 by jb

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Alexei von Jawlensky’s “Portrait of the Dancer Alexander Sacharoff” at the stunning “Die Blaue Reiter” (Kandinsky, Klee et al) exhibition at the ever excellent Frieder Burda Museum in Baden-Baden.
The late and sorely-missed Keith Ledger as the Joker in “Batman: The Dark Knight”

Frighteningly similar, separated by a mere century….


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>Choice stuff

Posted on 3 August, 2009 by jb

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Posted in Too good to miss | 1 Comment

>That’s the problem….

Posted on 31 July, 2009 by jb

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…with living almost next door to the studios of one of the big TV channels – you just can’t avoid bumping into  media stars.

Mrs jb stands next to Gundula Gouda Gause at the cheese counter of the local supermarket, I bump into her TWICE at a Mainz 05 game and Marcel Reif, the sports commentator (who’s thankfully moved to one of the commercial channels – bit of a twerp, if you ask me) used to live in the village.
Oh, and Werner Eckert, an environmental reporter for one of the regional TV channels too. (Although his sister, Reinhilde, who runs the local greengrocer is marginally more famous.)

But who did we bump into today at the excellent Schloss Sörgenloch at lunchtime but Claus Kleber, the news anchor at ZDF and probably the best TV journalist around.

Up he zips in his Series 2 Alfa Spider (between the bobtail that Dustin Hofmann drove in “The Graduate” and the one with the ugly black rubber spoiler that we had) in a fairly celebratory mood on account of the popularity of a 3-part documentary on nuclear proliferation that’s airing this week.

Which doesn’t surprise me one bit, but I had to smile at his answer when asked the other day whether folk will watch the program (with its late-ish time slot) because of him or because of the topic:

“Well”, he said, “I’ve had to accept the painful fact that the name Claus Kleber isn’t that big a draw card”.  

Sad, but true and while millions will sit glued to the screen while some airhead on a commercial channel spouts on self-importantly about nothing, Claus Kleber and his ilk will be analysing and reporting serious news with accuracy and eloquence.
A bit like the 1990s ad – “The Economist – not read by millions of people.”

So I asked him if they’d hit the 10,000 viewer mark last night.


Puzzled look.


Well” I said “you with your false modesty and “no one’s going to stay up late just watch Claus Kleber..”


“Oh” he says ” we actually got 2 million viewers last night. Because of the film. Not because of me”


Yeah right

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>Quit painting!

Posted on 30 July, 2009 by jb

>

True story.

Jörg Immendorf was one of Germany’s most influential post-war modern artists.

He studied under Josef Beuys, arguably THE most influential post-war modern artist.

Beuys would come into the classroom and go from painting to painting: “Crap-Good-Crap-Crap-Crap-Good-Crap-Crap-Crap-Good”

Young Jorg’s painting was among the many “crap” examples and he was SOOOO pissed off that he slashed a cross over the finished work with his paintbrush and scrawled

“Hört auf zu malen” (“Quit painting”)

over the top.

Beuys turns up later, sees the picture and says “Classy stuff”….

Start of a career.
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>Alessandra Stanley at the New York Times gets it horribly wrong

Posted on 29 July, 2009 by jb

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“An appraisal on Saturday about Walter Cronkite’s career included a number of errors.

In some copies, it misstated the date that the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was killed and referred incorrectly to Mr. Cronkite’s coverage of D-Day.
Dr. King was killed on April 4, 1968, not April 30. Mr. Cronkite covered the D-Day landing from a warplane; he did not storm the beaches.
In addition, Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969, not July 26. “The CBS Evening News” overtook “The Huntley-Brinkley Report” on NBC in the ratings during the 1967-68 television season, not after Chet Huntley retired in 1970.
A communications satellite used to relay correspondents’ reports from around the world was Telstar, not Telestar.
Howard K. Smith was not one of the CBS correspondents Mr. Cronkite would turn to for reports from the field after he became anchor of “The CBS Evening News” in 1962; he left CBS before Mr. Cronkite was the anchor.
Because of an editing error, the appraisal also misstated the name of the news agency for which Mr. Cronkite was Moscow bureau chief after World War II. At that time it was United Press, not United Press International.”

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>If all else fails…..

Posted on 29 July, 2009 by jb

>

….change your logo.

Over.

And over.

And over.

Again
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>This I need…maybe/definitely

Posted on 28 July, 2009 by jb

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Maybe for tempura. Maybe
Yes, please.
But – then again -40 bucks….?

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>Please bear with me

Posted on 27 July, 2009 by jb

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Whenever I steal harvest mirabelles from abandoned trees out in the fields, I always think of Gunter O. Eser.

Aka Gunter Zero by his staff when he was IATA Director General.
And Gunter Null by the rest of us when he was on the Executive Board at Lufthansa.

Mirabel used to be the international airport in Montreal. MILES out in the woops, took ages and a day to get there and not exactly the buzzingest – people used to call it Tinkerbelle” – place.

I was doing some hazardous cargo stuff with IATA at the time and – given that Lufthansa didn’t fly there daily – the only option was to get on the flight that came in from Frankfurt and flew on to Toronto and fly back on the same flight. (You can do that if you’re a) IATA Director General or b) on business travel for the airline.

So we both front up at the Lufthansa Station Manager’s office at Tinkerbelle, he checks us in, gives us our boarding cards (Gunter Null – obviously – First Class, me Business) and off we toddle through an absolutely deserted airport (it supposedly wakes up in the early evening for the transatlantic departures) to passport control.

No-one there.

Obviously. No flights.

Station Manager gets on the blower to Immigration who are JUST NOT INTERESTED until he says “Listen, we’ve got the TOP GUY of all the airlines in the world here and (promoting me 18 years before I actually did reach that exalted level) a Lufthansa Director. They’re entitled to fly on this flight and if you refuse to process them, I’ll have REAL difficulty keeping this out of the papers…”

In the distance, we see an Immigration officer scurrying over towards us at great speed, waving his stamp.

Zip out to the aircraft in a ramp van, scuttle up the stairs to a moderately gob-smacked crew (this doesn’t happen every day, believe me), Gunter Null turns left towards the sharp end, I turn right towards the blunt end and away we go.

Fill out the immigration documentation for Toronto which pretty much says that I haven’t really come from anywhere and I’m leaving in about an hour.

Much confusion at Immigration (this doesn’t happen every day, believe me), finally get allowed in (although I haven’t actually LEFT Canada) and who do I meet at check-in, but my mate Gunter Null.

He’s (obviously) checking in at he First Class desk and I’m (obviously) slumming it at the Business Class desk but he says to the Station Manager (who’s hovering around close to him) “Oh, I’d like you to meet Mr jb, one of your senior managers from Frankfurt”

Station Manager takes a look at my boarding pass, tears it up (I think he might be related to MMTP…) and gives one of those flash red ones.

I nod my appreciation to Gunter Null, who’s spirited away to the lounge or wherever and then it’s onto the flight, have some champagne, Mr jb, some more caviar, Mr jb? and Gunter Null strolls past and says “A bit more pleasant at the sharp end, don’t you think?”

Too right, mate.

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>Bloody hell….

Posted on 27 July, 2009 by jb

>

Whew.

That was a close call.

Star journalist Birgit S (having turned mumble mumble the other day) invited a bunch of girl (I use the term loosely. Very loosely….) friends around for afternoon tea.

Someone (I have NO idea who, but I’m thinking Lena from the Bosporus….) stuck a BIG sign on the door, announcing a Casting Show for the German version of Desperate Housewives.

They were quite flattered, it appears.

I got roped into being the photog.

Afternoon tea.

Yeah, right.

As newts, all of them, and I only barely escaped their libidinous clutches.

Talk about desperate and a bloody good thing I thought to slip on my chastity belt….

Posted in Bloody hell | 1 Comment