In which The Gay Recluse documents the ruins of Washington Heights and self-referentially quotes an earlier post.
Date: April 6, 2008
Location: 161st Street between Broadway and Amsterdam

Hello, friendly lion! 100 years ago, you were not such a big deal, but now you would cost $50,000 at Olde Good Things. We’re glad you’re attached to the building; [...]

In which The Gay Recluse admires random acts of beauty garbage.
If you’re like us, you’ve long wondered what would happen if you took the world’s largest (and Con Edison branded!) tote, propped it open with a broken sawhorse and left it for a week on 35th Street and 5th Avenue. Would anyone move it? Or [...]

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: When The Chutney’s Gone
Subject: A very frightening woman describes a soulless marriage [...]

In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Today reader Will wrote with the following update:
I was just in New Orleans and got some more photos for your Hottest
Gay Statues contest. They’re from the Mardi Gras World museum
(http://www.mardigrasworld.com/).

Laissez les bons temps rouler! Let’s see what New Orleans has to offer:

This matador is pretty flamboyant [...]

In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly gets lung cancer.
Time and date of photographs: March 26, 10am (ish). [We would have posted earlier but had a backlog of hot gay statues to attend to. (Plus we had to go to Pittsburgh for the weekend for a celebration.)]
We’ve repeatedly documented the monstrous plumes of black [...]

In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly gets lung cancer.
Time and date of photographs: April 2, 2008, 7pm (ish)

Although the worst offender seems to have abated after we called 311 a few weeks ago, there are regular emissions of nasty-looking black smoke from almost all of the rooftops.

At least when it gets dark it’s [...]

In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station.

Consider the old panels on the subway platform wall, and observe the finely wrought precision with which each strip of peeling paint has by the hands of time been distressed in the subtlest shades of gold and silver, all [...]

In which The Gay Recluse is momentarily disturbed.
Of all the natural vistas we have encountered — desert landscapes, arctic tundra, the badlands — the rooftops of Washington Heights remain one of the most tranquil and undisturbed. Originally carved from the bedrock some 10,000 years ago by the retreating glaciers, the surreal beauty of these structures [...]

In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Today reader Scott LaPierre sends in this from Georgia, as in the former Soviet Socialist Republic. Scott writes:
i don’t know exactly what’s supposed to be going on in this mural/statue, but there seems to be a lot of innuendo here…it’s in Gori, Georgia (the town is [...]

In which The Gay Recluse imagines a life more exciting than his own.
Our newest correspondent — Deirdre’s Terrain — sends in pix of her desk at work, which she labeled only half-ironically as “CUBE Party!” along with the following report:
Look @ my cube

This is the view from where Deirdre sits. (Note the television!)

Here’s the [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and date of photographs: April 1, 2008, 7:00 - 8:00 pm (ish).

The sunset sky — even this tone of blue — is perhaps not as promising as we’d like to believe. (We think of someone we recently overheard describing her life as [...]

In which The Gay Recluse makes a monthly report on traffic whoring to the Board of Directors.
I. Summary
A combination of organic growth, traffic whoring and links from Curbed, Gothamist, Towleroad, Slog and others contributed to record numbers of visitors and page views in March.
II. Traffic Whoring Metrix
WordPress
Total Views March: 15,033
Grand Total Number of Views: [...]

In which The Gay Recluse turns forty.
Today we received the following note from Harry, a reader in Washington Heights:
Subj: YOU
Mess: It is none my business to know, but! My curiosity is tweaked. Who are you? Have you posted something somewhere to give a more detailed bio? or do I have to continue to read between [...]

In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station.

Consider, if you will, one of the old panels on the subway platform wall, and observe the finely wrought precision with which each strip of peeling paint has by the hands of time been distressed in the subtlest shades [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and Date of photograph: March 31, 2008, 9:48am.
Notes: The gray tone of the sky nearly matched that of the bridge.

“The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. Made of cables and steel beams, it gleams [...]

In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Last week our newest correspondent The Blind Architect filed this report:
You may be interested in this statue of George Washington I saw last week in Seattle. No musculature, but he does have a big sword. I have been watching the HBO John Adams series, and George [...]

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: How We Got from Grief to Pancakes
Subject: A woman finds a new [...]

In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station.

Consider, if you will, one of the old panels on the subway platform wall, and observe the finely wrought precision with which each strip of peeling paint has by the hands of time been distressed in the subtlest shades [...]

In which the Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of.
Although this is not an official submission, we felt it was imperative to share a comment from reader GenghisKuhn in response to Seth Tisue’s entry from Philadelphia (shown below).

Genghis writes:
What makes this even funnier is that it looks like the J-Man might be involved, reminiscent of [...]

In which The Gay Recluse posts news and analysis from our U.K. correspondent, The London Eye.
Today we received this missive from The London Eye:
Dear Gay Recluse: Here are a few more London statues… Even though we’re not eligible for awards, we want the United States to know that our statues are HERE, our statues [...]