Thomas Between Two Lines

A Memoir
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-0-9983215-1-6
Verlag: Storm and Flash Day Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 448 Seiten

Gerald Thomas is the perfect mixture of a streetwise kid and a highbrow intellectual, a blend that is bound to create something intense. From the cheerful samba sessions in the slums of Rio de Janeiro, which he attended enthusiastically, to the cerebral opera houses in Germany, which he scandalized with his exceptional performances, everything in the life of this enfant terrible sounds like a human parade you want to join immediately, a Dionysian feast to which even Apollo would plead for admittance. Whether the focus falls on the dark or enlightened aspects, the horrific or pleasurable dimensions, his memoirs-finally out in book form-are an irresistible read, a page-turner in fact. Born into a Holocaust refugee family and an offspring of the counterculture movement, Thomas, writing at 62, claims to be in tatters. But it's precisely his caustic yet hopeful view from which he distills an entire celebration of life, of existence as a constant experiment, of the avant-garde as a viable, redemptive utopia. As he notes, 'I see the world in a comic way. A sardonic comedy, of errors or not, that destroys all that lives and rebuilds its optic from the bottom of the ashes.' For six years, he sat in a Parisian café with Samuel Beckett, dated Hélio Oiticica, washed Jean Genet's feet, collaborated with and became a close friend to Philip Glass as they created operas, illustrated the Op-Ed page of The New York Times, and dedicated 80 percent of his time and soul to the off-off-Broadway theater scene under the wings of La MaMa's Ellen Stewart. Not to mention, of course, the tediousness and excitement of driving ambulances in London and a relentless frisson toward the intriguing women with whom he got involved. Phew! Invariably provocative, restlessly lucid, Gerald manipulates these pages as if they are actors on a stage and so grabs the reader by the throat.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thomas, Gerald

Leseproben

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1        A diary divided up into seven days and seven tableaux – adapted for the stage. Day One (dismembered parts of a human body in a busy street. Head, center stage, speaks), CHAPTER 2        Day Two (Humphrey Bogart-like scene. Film Noir. Rain and wind. Man in trench coat standing on a street corner desperately trying to light a cigarette), CHAPTER 3        Day Three (HEAVY SHIT – person in bed, putting out the alarm clock and reaching for a glass of water), CHAPTER 4        Day Four (Person on a cross. Silhouettes of others, in the back, on the cross as well), CHAPTER 5        Day Five (Person pacing back and forth on a zebra crossing), CHAPTER 6        Day Six (Still. But a Damien Hirst Shark projection appears on the cyclorama), CHAPTER 7        Day Seven (Evening: person is staring at the Moon), CHAPTER 8        Day Seven and a half, CHAPTER 9        A Third World baby is born on Fifth Avenue, CHAPTER 10      How I learned to be an adult and a hustler at the same time. Or: Ellen Stuart, how I miss you!, CHAPTER 11      Hélio Oiticica: “Boneca, como você está pálida!” (“Darling, you’re looking pale!”), CHAPTER 12      Saul Steinberg, CHAPTER 13      Amnesty International, CHAPTER 14      Yes, 1980 was coming to an end. But not quite yet, CHAPTER 15      Victor Garcia and the anonymous death of this genius in the streets of Paris…, CHAPTER 17      Breaking a lot of people’s hearts, CHAPTER 18      Ruth Escobar, my mother and Chico Buarque, CHAPTER 19      Haroldo de Campos, CHAPTER 20      Hélio Oiticica: a concrete poet’s death, CHAPTER 21      Sir Fernanda Montenegro, CHAPTER 22      Cooking the books: Language, CHAPTER 23      aids or… Dengue?, CHAPTER 24      Frozen silence of about three minutes, CHAPTER 25      Philip Glass and our opera Mattogrosso, CHAPTER 26      Mirrors and Gold, CHAPTER 27      Jerusalem, CHAPTER 28      Heiner Müller and Sergio Britto. Or: can I still go on?, CHAPTER 29      Critics, CHAPTER 30      Insomnia, CHAPTER 31      Walls, CHAPTER 32      Always on the run, CHAPTER 33      Faust, Goethe, Graz, CHAPTER 34      World Trade Center: a historic “trashland”, CHAPTER 35      Mr. Berio, Zaide – “Where is Mozart?”, CHAPTER 36      A marriage in Venice, CHAPTER 37      Rembrandt self-portrait, CHAPTER 38      Paul Simon, CHAPTER 39      In Rotterdam, CHAPTER 40      Spolleto and my vest – the house is going to burn down, CHAPTER 41      My biological father and the opening of the letter, CHAPTER 42      John Paul Jones, Rear View Mirror – Today I’m 61!!!, CHAPTER 43      Sputnik inside my lungs, CHAPTER 44      Wagner’s chair, CHAPTER 45      Refinement, CHAPTER 46      140 years old, CHAPTER 47      Obsession with daily planner, CHAPTER 48      Blame it on Kafka, CHAPTER 49      The United States of America – Founding Fathers “moving company”, CHAPTER 50      My years on Madison Avenue spent in Advertising, CHAPTER 51      Déjà vu – Presidents and Secretaries of State, CHAPTER 52      Raul Julia (+ Judith Malina, Addams Family), CHAPTER 53      I don’t know where it started – Burger in the Room service, Tim Leary, etc, CHAPTER 54      Sympathy for theDevil is right inside your heart and brain, CHAPTER 55      Sketch for squatter, CHAPTER 56      Koyaanisqatsi, Margot Fonteyn and Tropicalistas, CHAPTER 57      Big Drama, CHAPTER 58      NOT quite the end yet!, CHAPTER 59      Lou Reed – THE END?, CHAPTER 60      The WAR that fills the HOLE – Warhol, CHAPTER 61      Could I continue to believe in God as such?, CHAPTER 62      Let’s Say it all begins where it ends: Entredentes, or JE-WISH!, CHAPTER 63      The ice age of social media, CHAPTER 64      Roaming with intent: ART IS DEAD – Wall in Holborn, CHAPTER 65      Biographies and the artist as a public persona, CHAPTER 66      Ruy Castro’s book, my grandmother as Hitler’s lover and my mother’s death, CHAPTER 67      Fog and smoke machines, CHAPTER 68      James Joyce broke away and “composed” on the written page, CHAPTER 69      Sorry, G – email from a hacker, CHAPTER 70      God Bless? My commitment with this life, on earth, right now is NOT with any kind of truth. It is with the stage, CHAPTER 71      Alan Riding and It’s Lonely in the avant-garde, CHAPTER 72      Desecrating is a HOLY ACT (of ART): Duchamp,...