ridiculous. Toscanini, Furtwängler, the one too small and the other too tall, ridiculous and kitschy. And if you go to the theatre the ridiculousness and the embarrassment and the kitsch make you feel positively sick. No matter what or how the people speak, they make you feel sick. If they speak classical parts they make you feel sick, if they speak popular parts they make you feel sick. And what else are all those classical and modern so-called high or popular dramas but theatrical ridiculousness and kitschy embarrassment, he said. The whole world today is ridiculous and at the same time profoundly embarrassing and kitschy, that is the truth. Irrsigler was stepping up to Reger and once more whispering something in his ear. Reger stood up, looked about himself and left the Bordone Room with Irrsigler. I glanced at my watch, there were ten minutes to go to half-past eleven. One reason why I had come to the museum as early as half-past ten was to be absolutely punctual, for Reger demanded nothing more than punctuality, just as I myself always demand punctuality more than anything else, in fact punctuality to me is the most important thing in dealing with people. I can only bear the punctual ones, I cannot bear an unpunctual person. Punctuality is an essential characteristic of Reger just as it is one of my essential characteristics, when I have an appointment I keep it strictly punctually, just as Reger keeps all his appointments punctually, he has given me numerous lectures on punctuality, just as he has on reliability; punctuality and reliability are the most important aspects of a person, Reger has very frequently said to me. I may say that I am a thoroughly punctual person, I have always hated unpunctuality and besides I have never been able to afford it. Reger is the most punctual person I know. He has never in his whole life been late, at least not through his own fault, as he says, just as I have never in my whole life been late, at least not in my adult life, through my own fault, unpunctual people to me are the most hateful people, I have nothing in common with unpunctual people, I do not keep up with unpunctual people, I have nothing to do with unpunctual people and I do not wish to have anything to do with them. Unpunctuality is a characteristic of gross negligence, which I despise and detest, which brings nothing but demoralization and misfortune to people. Unpunctuality is a disease which leads to the death of the unpunctual, Reger once said to me. Reger had got up and left the Bordone Room just as a group of elderly men, Russians as I was immediately able to establish, was entering the Bordone Room, led, as I likewise established just as quickly, by a Ukrainian woman interpreter, and passed me, moreover passed me in such a way that they forced me aside and into the corner. People will crowd into a room, pushing a person aside without even apologizing, I reflected, and already I found myself pushed against the wall. Reger had left the Bordone Room after Irrsigler had whispered something in his ear and at just that moment the Russian group had entered the Bordone Room and taken up position in the Bordone Room, entering the Bordone Room and taking up position in the Bordone Room in such a way that I was no longer able to look into the Bordone Room from the Sebastiano Room; the Russian group had totally blocked my view of the Bordone Room. I only saw the backs of the Russian group and heard what the Ukrainian interpreter had to offer to them, like all other guides in the Kunsthistorisches Museum she was talking nonsense, it was nothing but the usual sickening art twaddle that she stuffed into the heads of her Russian victims. Look at this, she said, look at this mouth, and here, she said, look at these projecting ears, and here, look at this delicate pink on the angel's cheek, and here in the background you can see the horizon, as if everybody could not see all these things in the Tintoretto paintings without those
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