We were all just too stupid and unsophisticated to appreciate him: " BMW design boss Bangle quits auto industry ."   You can come out now. The long planetary aesthetic nightmare is over. He wants to make wine in Tuscany. Endlich zum Teufel!  .  ... Note to career obit writers:   That other carmakers imitated Bangle's pretentious, overthought design "cues" did not vindicate him. It only magnified the swath of destruction to the visual landscape! ... Also: BMW sold lots of Bangle cars (though the Gehry-imitating Z4 ,** flopped). BMW builds the best cars in the world. Imagine how well they would have sold if they hadn't been, you know, ugly. ... Backfill: " I can't help hating Chris Bangle."   He demanded that his designs be seen in their grand intellectual context. There was a reason for that! ...

**--With characteristic unpretentiousness, Bangle called the Bilbaoesque Z4 "as big a jump in terms of aesthetic value systems as there was between an Eve before the fall, where she was innocent and pure, and the sexiness that she had was an animalistic pureness that radiated out of her, and an Eve after the fall." Well, all right! Still ugly! ...   

***-- Raines : gone! Edwards : disgraced! Jim Johnson: radioactive!  Richardson ; in deep trouble! Reich: outside looking in! Burkle: National figure of fun! ... Only Toobin is left. ... [ And Pinch-ed The night is young.] ... 11:50 A.M.

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