There are Germans everywhere. You can spot them a mile off. The guys are tall with crap haircuts and the girls are blonde with long necks, and both sexes have finely chiseled features like they've just been cut out of marble. And I suddenly think of Hitler, who for all his love of Aryan perfection was small and ugly, with a dodgy mustache.
Brought up on "The Great Escape" and "Guns of Navarone" and John Cleese as Basil Fawlty entertaining Germans at his hotel ("Don't mention the war! I mentioned it once and I think I got away with it"), I just can't take Germans seriously.
Then there's the Paleolithic sense of humor, unfathomably unsexy language (unless you're into S&M) and the love affair with sausages. And at Shinjuku's Liquid Room Feb. 10, Germany's most infamous band, Rammstein, only reinforced my stereotypical imagery.