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    Boche Broadcasting Corporation

    Anyone else enjoying the Germany season on the BBC? It's quite uneven, obviously; I could probably have done, for example, without Al Murray's sensational discovery that a lot of Germans are actually quite nice. Yes, Al. And where do you, of all people, get off, criticising "narrow-minded" attitudes at home?

    But even his show had some interest to it, and I'm loving the BBC4 series on German art. The same guy did one on the art of Spain a couple of years ago, which I didn't think was all that, but perhaps because I know so little about the visual arts in Germany (Dürer to Friedrich to Dix and I'm about done), I've found this one really fascinating. I've never really thought of, say, painting as one of Germany's great cultural strengths--I think music, poetry, literature, philosophy, architecture--but I'm beginning to think the fault has lain with me.

    The Krautrock docco was a repeat, I think? Good though.

    Nothing yet on the beer. Sort it out, Beeb.

    #2
    Boche Broadcasting Corporation

    Not sure how I managed to leave mathematics off the list of German cultural strengths.

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      #3
      Boche Broadcasting Corporation

      And where do you, of all people, get off, criticising "narrow-minded" attitudes at home?
      Well, to be fair, that's exactly what his schtick is. Though, as Stewart Lee points out, his audience doesn't seem to realise.

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        #4
        Boche Broadcasting Corporation

        Some of us do.

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          #5
          Boche Broadcasting Corporation

          Yeah, but I think he's been kind of having his cake and eating it.

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            #6
            Boche Broadcasting Corporation

            You want him to give back the money he gets off people who don't get it?

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              #7
              Boche Broadcasting Corporation

              I would have thought that, if you were to have an act that parodied English attitudes to Germans that had been taken seriously by some people, a way of redressing this would be to do a positive programme about the Germans.

              I did see him do another piece on TV once about WWI that was sympathetic to the Germans as well

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                #8
                Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                Bored of Education wrote:
                I would have thought that, if you were to have an act that parodied English attitudes to Germans that had been taken seriously by some people, a way of redressing this would be to do a positive programme about the Germans.
                That's a fair point. I'll let you off, Al.

                Anyway. Germany season. On BBC television.

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                  #9
                  Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                  Vielen dank Herr W. How are the lessons going, you seem to be making excellent progress?

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                    #10
                    Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                    Yeah, I'm an "Independent Speaker" now. Though not a very good one.

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                      #11
                      Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                      Is The Art of Germany any good? Andrew Graham Dickson is good.

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                        #12
                        Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                        Tubby Isaacs wrote:
                        Is The Art of Germany any good? Andrew Graham Dickson is good.
                        I think it's excellent, yeah.

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                          #13
                          Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                          You ever seen this from Civilisation?



                          I'm not sure how many academics agreed with Clark's "Germans are dangerous and hysterical" line.

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                            #14
                            Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                            Dickson was on about Riemenschneider, this last programme.

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                              #15
                              Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                              I quite enjoyed the Andrew Graham-Dixon art progamme, but the real highlight of the "Germany" series for me has been Matt Frei's mini-series on Berlin.

                              I was fascinated and appalled at the same time over the history of the Stadtschloss / Palast der Republik site - it was clearly the worst kind of ideology-and-insecurity-driven vandalism for the GDR to have knocked down the old castle, but since the PdR subsequently became such a significant part of so many Berliners' lives, was it any better to flatten that and replace it with a Stadtschloss replica?

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                                #16
                                Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                Why on Earth... wrote:
                                Dickson was on about Riemenschneider, this last programme.
                                Caught a bit of that. Riemenschneider's not well enough known by the general public.

                                I really like those "uneasy" portraits and busts that Clark highlights. It's just the implication that this is part of why they went Nazi that's dubious.

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                                  #17
                                  Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                  Yes, there was that clear dog-whistle implication, wasn't there, with all the rather airy talk of "neshonal cherecter". Graham-Dixon (I'll get it right eventually) touched on some similar themes of darkness and distress, mostly with Franz Xaver Messerschmidt's character heads, but without, I think, those broad hints in that direction.

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                                    #18
                                    Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                    Yeah, that would seem to be a better association to make. Loads of 20th century art you could link it with too.

                                    Clark, 66 when this show was made, might not have been that different to a lot of his generation re the Germans. I'm a Clark fanboy though and find the flaws interesting rather than annoying.

                                    I still laugh out loud at the bit where he says "What a nuisance to the rest of the world!"

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                                      #19
                                      Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                      Thing is, Messerschmidt seems to have had Crohn's disease; the source of his Schmerz may have been as simple as that.

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                                        #20
                                        Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                        I heard that. It's one of those things I don't want to be true. It reminds me of "El Greco had bad eyes", which I was hit with in my Oxford interview, funnily enough. Except more plausible.

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                                          #21
                                          Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                          Why on Earth... wrote:
                                          Thing is, Messerschmidt seems to have had Crohn's disease; the source of his Schmerz may have been as simple as that
                                          Or maybe he was just Stuka-up, the nasty Fokker?

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                                            #22
                                            Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                            Fucking board eating my post.

                                            So, I want to see more of Menzel. I don't get Friedrich but that may be my bias against pre-modern landscapes.

                                            I can't remember the name of the two WW1 artists but they were both stunning. The etchings in particular. Graham-Dixon didn't seem to have a very up to date view of the Great War though, Germans as out and out agressors and seemed to imply that chemical warfare etc was rather one sided.

                                            The Berlin thing seemed a little unstructured and had more on 1932-45 than I cared for. I'd love to read a book about the communist states of 1918 though (bonus points if it covered the Rebublic of Alsace-Lorraine).

                                            Al Murray wasn't a very engaging presenter, it may have just been an issue with the script but the things featured were good.

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                                              #23
                                              Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                              Graham-Dixon didn't seem to have a very up to date view of the Great War though, Germans as out and out agressors
                                              They were pretty aggressive in the build up to be fair, actually egging on the Austrians rather than discouraging them.

                                              My summer of 1914 league table of shame would be:

                                              1 Germany
                                              2 Russia
                                              3 Austria-Hungary
                                              4 France
                                              5 Britain

                                              But I should add only a few points seperated that top 5

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                                                #24
                                                Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                                Wyatt, watching the first Graham-Dixon show properly now. It's very good indeed.

                                                Btw, I think you'd enjoy this book

                                                http://www.amazon.co.uk/Landscape-Memory-Simon-Schama/dp/0006863485

                                                Some fascinating Germania stuff in there.

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                                                  #25
                                                  Boche Broadcasting Corporation

                                                  Thanks!

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