In which The Gay Recluse provides an update on a beehive of activity at 573-579 West 161st Street.
So it’s official, if “official” means by way of an unnamed receptionist at the architects’s office: 573-575 West 161st Street is going to be a 6-story condominium. We’re trying to scrounge up a rendering, but in the meantime, [...]

In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Today we received an interesting submission from Reader Troy, who writes to us from Pittsburgh:
I have an important question for The Gay Recluse. In the Pittsburgh airport there is a statue of Franco Harris, who I have no reason to believe is gay. Yet the statue [...]

In which The Gay Recluse suggests a link.
The most beautiful ads are always for dead companies.

Like this one we recently took on 35th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue.

Does this company still exist? We hope not, because we don’t want to have to think about buying anything.

New York City is filled with ads for dead [...]

In which The Gay Recluse takes a trip to the suburbs.
Last weekend we went flower shopping and on the way back stopped into a brand new Home Depot that was recently built somewhere in Westchester, which is this large land mass north of New York City; sometimes desolate and sometimes beautiful, it is criss-crossed with [...]

In which The Gay Recluse thinks about taking a seat.
Time/Location: Recently, around 34th Street.

We walk by these benches all the time, but have never had the time or inclination to sit.

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge.
Time/Date: May 4, around 8pm-ish.

I, too, have an obsession with the George Washington Bridge. However, mine involves a nagging compulsion to complete a football pass from the deck of the bridge to a buddy on the ground below.
–Ryan Pissed and Petty (March [...]

In which The Gay Recluse is small.
Time/Location of Pictures: 35th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenue, some night last week.

It’s not exactly a revelation to say that the city is filled with infinite borders, many of which are strictly maintained.

But there’s something comforting in the utility of a nicely designed fence.

As we walk past we [...]

In which The Gay Recluse updates his informal but rather telling quantitative analysis of Modern Love, the weekly Style Section (of The Times) column in which openly gay writers almost never appear, and even less frequently describe a romantic relationship.
This week’s piece: Want To Be My Boyfriend? Please Define
by Marguerite Fields
Subject: In the first [...]

In which The Gay Recluse says goodbye to the cruelest month.

Our hands were shaking a little bit, here. (It’s been a tough few weeks, hasn’t it?)

In which The Gay Recluse reports on monthly traffic whoring metrix to the Board of Directors.
I. Summary
After a record month of whoring in March, we experienced a slight dip in April. But! It was still our second best month on record.
II. Traffic Whoring Metrix
WordPress
Total Views March: 13,957
Grand Total Number of Views: 48,973
Monthly Breakdown

[...]

In which The Gay Recluse lives in an alternate reality.
For a long time we’ve kept an eye on the triple vacant lot at 573-577 West 161st Street, which we walk by  every day on our way to the 163rd Street subway station. In January, we were pleasantly surprised to see two of the three lots [...]

In which The Gay Recluse leaves New York.

Last month we went to Pittsburgh for a few days.

Even though we “grew up” there, it was almost like visiting a new (as in unfamiliar) city.

We always lived in the suburbs, and almost never went into the city except to see the Penguins!

This time though, we stayed downtown [...]

In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Today we received two unofficial entries for the contest, “unofficial” because 1) the first statue is in Europe and we are primarily interested in locating the hottest gay statues in the U.S., and 2) the second statue doesn’t exist except in someone’s photoshopallucination! Yet we still [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes a flaneur.
Date of pictures: April 23, 2008
Location: 35th Street between 5th Avenue and Madison.

We often think about the city streets as we would the surface of a lake.

We imagine worlds beneath us we cannot ever see.

The windows down are beautiful, however.

Looking through them, we forget how much we long [...]

In which The Gay Recluse watches plants.
With a nasty apartment building looming over our garden, we felt we had no choice but to plant bamboo, and not the clumping variety either, but the running kind you read about taking over the earth. We rented a truck last summer and drove to a small town [...]

In which The Gay Recluse works in the garden.
Time of Photographs: April 20, 2008, afternoon (ish)

Today, a first in the garden! We heard an opera singer.

She was doing scales in a nearby apartment. Her window was definitely open.

She was loud! And she was struggling to hit her high notes. (She was a mezzo.)

There were [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge.
Date of photographs: April 18, 2008, 8:00pm-ish

I, too, have an obsession with the George Washington Bridge. However, mine involves a nagging compulsion to complete a football pass from the deck of the bridge to a buddy on the ground below.
–Ryan Pissed and Petty [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and date of photographs: April 17, 2008, 7:00 - 8:00 pm (ish).
Originally the George Washington Bridge was meant to be clad in stone but fortunately they ran out of money.

This is not a pattern we ever get tired of looking at.

Even when [...]

In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Today reader Jason sent in the following note along with some pictures:
I don’t know why I never really noticed this before, but the statuary at Columbus Circle and Central Park West is really gay. There’s two seriously built guys who seem to be having a spat, [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge.
Date of Photographs: April 13, 2008

The clouds over the bridge were riveting today.

It made us remember: once we were in Vermont, on tour with the band.

We were eating dinner at a restaurant overlooking Lake Champlain.

(The sixth great lake.)

There was a beautiful sunset.

Some of [...]