Gerald Thomas’s PAINTINGS, DRAWINGS AND SKETCHES FOR SALE !!! (a venda)

This is what Coronavirus might look like!

CORONAVIRUS confirmed

Texto final de “DILUVIO” – @Gerald Thomas 2017

 

WARMONGERS -“ISOLATION”PAINTING MADE WITH COFFEE @Gerald Thomas – London 2003

Reconheço a dúvida de algumas pessoas quanto a isso ser ou não ser algo. Reconheço essa dúvida histórica sem a qual eu jamais poderia ter ultrapassado tantas etapas, a ponto de dizer: sim, isso é uma dúvida, é mais dúvida que qualquer dúvida por ser menos certeza do que, digamos, uma afirmativa ou do que uma mera pausa. Uma pausa sugere uma mentira, uma hesitação, sugere algo fake, entende? Fake. Sim, fake. Uma “situaçãozinha”. Mas reconheço a dúvida dessas pessoas, como reconheço a desaprovação dessas pessoas. Não que eu, como Maria de Lima, enquanto pessoa física e/ou pessoa jurídica e por que não pessoa física quântica jurídica dessa arca, desse aborto, dessa… Não. Não é isso que eu quero dizer.

Eu posso até me convencer e achar tudo isso muito positivo. Isto é, crescer, se instruir e descobrir pequenas coisas no mundo e adaptá-las ao nosso íntimo, tendo a mais absoluta certeza de que somos únicos, de que importamos para o mundo, de que mais ninguém pensou nessa imagem, nessa coisinha, que ninguém mais incorporou isso. Posso até achar tudo isso muito positivo. Posso até tentar esquecer os vários momentos em que dou de cara com os verdadeiros gênios do passado e os de agora, que não só viram isso, como fizeram disso… uma mera fatalidade do meu passado. Tenho uns vinte críticos vivendo aqui dentro, aqui dentro da minha cabeça. E o que eles dizem não é melhor nem pior. Vai continuar havendo vida. Sim! VIDA!

Gerald Thomas 2017

New York

“My own personal testimony to what it is like to witness a PANDEMIC pass through the window”

“ISOLATION”PAINTING MADE WITH COFFEE @Gerald Thomas – London 2003

“My own personal testimony to what it is like to witness a PANDEMIC pass through the window”

By Gerald Thomas @copyright – New York, March 24 2020

We have never seen anything remotely close to this. Nothing like it in times of war or peace.

This is completely unprecedented. I still have to wrap my head around this, take a long breath (lungs allowing) to try focusing on the day to day progression of events, news, reports, images only to finally realize that I have never been or seen anything remotely close to this.

Whenever in this life would I ever had imagined a world accruing the staggering number of nearly 400 thousand cases of Coronavirus, affecting almost every single country ?  Whenever in this life would I ever have imagined the Italy that we all so love, plagued by 6 thousand deaths in one and a half months?

Never.

Other than in a World War where the extreme scenario is death, destruction and devastation, in sixty five years I have not seen an empty (completely empty, quiet, somber and vigilant New York City. Not in the aftermath of 9/11, not in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, I cannot recall a time in recent history when a potential enemy (or a virus, or anything else for that matter) has reshaped our way of lives, kept us indoors and away from a social life, scared of one another and…. Well, realizing that the chain of supply and demand is as feeble as a heartbeat, as feeble as an infant taking a gasp.

There’s nothing in the grocery stores. All restaurants are closed, no cinemas, no theaters; nothing is open which has to do with a public gathering. No church going, no synagogues, no temples. Jobs gone. Disappeared. From the small business owner to the airline, ship and hotel industries all but gone.

No, never like this. I imagine that maybe 102 years ago, during the Spanish Flu.

I have been trying to keep the spirits up, have tried posting exaggerated jokes on social media,

Have tried not confronting these ghostly and  STAGGERING figures of death or infection, whether it is Italy, England, Spain or here, the epicenter of it all (lately), New York.

No SARS, no N1H1, no Ebola has ever reached or spread so quickly around the world – from its inception in China. I have not witnessed a time in History where the news, local, international on any and every sort of media has been devoted SOLELY to one and one concern alone: the Coronavirus pandemic.

Images of patients scattered through a Spanish Hospital corridor, images of countries closing their borders afraid of the “outside scare”, images of masked and enveloped people roaming around the streets of capitals and all around in this world murmuring to themselves: ”Stay Home!” whilst rubbing their hands in soap and sanitizers, accepting curfews and control measures of all kinds, more than ever. More than EVER.

Conspiracy theories slowly fading and – most importantly – a president such as Donald Trump who, firstly, refused to even acknowledged its danger to declaring a national emergency and banning flights from Europe and elsewhere, softening up and accepting the word ‘pandemic’ instead of telling people to relax.

If anybody had told me that I would be witnessing the system grinding to a halt leaving us all stunned, TV anchors reporting from home, online schooling and online everything, whether it’s during our self isolation or quarantine, I would certainly dismissed it as an apocalyptic forecast, as so many since I was born.

I am afraid.

I know this is only the beginning. Ten days ago, life in the USA was normal and I was returning from a trip to Cancun. Yes, this is only the beginning.

“I would have fixed that,” Mr. Trump would jump in his own defense. Well, that was in the past. Now he has experts come to the microphone even if, at the flip of a coin, he changes his mind and teases their field of expertise.

Last week, Trump accepted (or conceded) that we were heading for an economic depression “the likes of which we’ve never seen” (to paraphrase his silly use of language. And for Trump to speak publicly about a depression, is to accept his only potential victory banner for this year’s presidential election.

Yes, a national depression and a world recession. Trump is well used to this and thrives in this atmosphere since economic blackmail is what he’s an expert in, the bully, the crass man who shouts: “you’re FIRED”, this compulsive LIAR who invests in personal tweets in the middle of the night, blasting actors in Hollywood and calling the free press “the enemy of the people”, this ignorant dude who divides the world into “winners and losers”, Donald Trump is the one who seems to only demand loyalty and his profound need for personal praise, the propensity to blame others, the lack of human empathy, the penchant for rewriting history, the disregard for expertise, the distortion of facts, the impatience with scrutiny or criticism. For years, skeptics expressed concern about how he would handle a genuine crisis threatening the nation, and now they know.

If, in the past –  crises of such a dangerous order were created by decree – such as  a WAR – and, thus, a result of human creation involving human adversaries, this time it’s different and baffling.  

Mr. Trump’s performance on the national stage in recent weeks has put on display the traits that Democrats and some Republicans consider so jarring — the profound need for personal praise, the propensity to blame others, the lack of human empathy, the penchant for rewriting history, the disregard for expertise, the distortion of facts, the impatience with scrutiny or criticism. For years, skeptics expressed concern about how he would handle a genuine crisis threatening the nation, and now they know.

We have never seen anything remotely close to this. Nothing like it in times of war or peace, this is completely unprecedented. While I am trying to wrap my head around this, take a long breath (lungs allowing) and try focusing on the day to day progression of events, news, reports, images only to finally realize that – on an hourly basis: I have never been or seen anything remotely close to this.

Yes, it has passed and surpassed the point of humor, satire.

I am totally scared.

Gerald Thomas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brecht and the Coronavirus.

Meus amigos brechtianos devem estar felizes: finalmente chegou a era do “distanciamento” !

My Brechtian friends must be glowing with joy: We have finally entered the era of the ‘distancing effect”…

Gerald

Trump : poor little twit !

Trump’s performance on the national stage in recent weeks has put on display the traits that Democrats and some Republicans consider so jarring — the profound need for personal praise, the propensity to blame others, the lack of human empathy, the penchant for rewriting history, the disregard for expertise, the distortion of facts, the impatience with scrutiny or criticism. For years, skeptics expressed concern about how he would handle a genuine crisis threatening the nation, and now they know.

Excerpt from The New York Times

Fox News – an organization based on lying ! here’s some of their contradictions

“it’s a hoax, a hoax! This is all made up by you, the FAKE NEWS MEDIA and the Democrats” – Donald Trump and his abominable lies.

Musical interlude # 2 – Ney Latorraca and I practicing, rehearsing in NYC in 2013 (Entredentes was our play)

Musical interlude # 1 – Ney Latorraca and I (piano) rehearsing in NYC (2013) for “ENTREDENTES” (our play in 2014)

Reinaldo Azevedo fala (trecho isolado, recortado) sobre a nossa (futura) peça.

Reinaldo Azevedo e Gerald Thomas: um novo espetáculo vem aí: “Está estabelecido o c onflito”

“El Castillo” – Templo de Kukulkán – Chichén Itzá – Yucatan, Mexico! Yes, the Gods were….

Chichén Itza, Yucatan, Mexico: a humbling experience!!!!

Cancún, day 4 !

Cancún, day 2 !

CANCUN BROKEN MIRROR

ASS IN MIRROR CANCUN

CANCUN HOCKNEY

É o FIM ! It’s the END !

Olhamos em volta e simplesmente não acreditamos. Não acreditamos que a mentira possa estar reinando, que o cinismo  e a avacalhação possam estar no poder. Mas, fato é que estão.

Sim, dá uma enorme sensação de exaustão e de “ai meu Deus, que preguiça”! “De novo?”

Em suma: Trump e Bolsonaro realizam a promessa mais importante de todos os populistas, que é a promessa da punição das elites. Cada vez que Trump ou Bolsonaro dizem uma coisa, e que há é a indignação dos intelectuais, dos jornais, da esquerda, os dois. Assim como todos os outros líderes populistas, realizam sua promessa principal, que não é a luta contra a criminalidade nem a arrumação econômica, mas a punição das velhas elites corruptas, que são consideradas responsáveis por uma situação que os apoiadores dele não aguentam mais.

 

Pode parecer um fenômeno um pouco absurdo, mas há forças muito profundas por trás de um movimento como esse. E é muito difícil de combatê-lo porque, além do mais, como Salvini e como Trump, Bolsonaro realizou algo que só [Joseph] Goebbels [ministro da Propaganda Nazista] tinha realizado – e eu não estou dizendo que Bolsonaro é igual aos nazistas: a ideia de que a instituição reforça a propaganda. Então, se você usa a instituição para difundir fake news, publicar imagens violentas e chocantes, você multiplica sua força porque você empresta à propaganda a força da instituição. Isso se transforma numa máquina muito poderosa. Estamos vendo isso nos EUA de Trump e no Brasil de Bolsonaro.

E então?

Gerald, NYC , March 6, 2020