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 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 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 admires manholes.
Time/Location: May 2, 2008 on 35th Street between 6th Avenue and Madison.

By our calculations, there are approximately ten zillion manholes in New York City, and each has a cover; this is one of the largest and most striking. The alternating pattern of single and interlocking circles — reminiscent of [...]

In which The Gay Recluse attempts to reconcile his traffic-whoring impulses with a desire to flee the crazies.  
In March, as part of a new traffic-whoring initiative, we opened up The Gay Recluse to commenters. By and large we’ve been very pleased with the results, not only in terms of traffic but in terms of the many new [...]

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 sees you on the dark side of the moon.
We’d like to put forth the case that the most random graffiti can be found uptown.
Exhibit A: Spotted on the southbound platform of the 163rd Street subway station:

The cock is stupid, but we have to admit that the Roger Waters part made [...]

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 scores selected opinion pieces in The Times.
Gail Collins/Hillary’s Smackdown
The Short Version: Don’t panic, it’ll be ok.
In her words: “If you want to worry about something, worry about the way both of them have been pandering themselves over the edge.”
Score: B (Benign)
Although we don’t want to be reading about Obama and [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge.
Time of photographs: April 19th, 7:00-8:00 (ish).

Washington Heights is a place of extremes.

Even the clouds are intense.

Life is nothing but abrasive.

Washington Heights is completely bereft of visionaries.

But resonates with the dead genius of the past.

Here we have been destroyed by music.

As our hearing [...]

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 [...]

In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge.
Time and Date of photographs: April 12, 2008, 8am, 9am and 8pm.

When we woke up, you could barely see the bridge. (But it looked great in the fog!)

The sun finally broke through and everything glistened. It looked surreal.

Tonight it was clear, which may [...]

In which The Gay Recluse again laments the suffocation of the gay voice in American literature.
If you’re like us, when you scanned through the list of books included in New York Magazine’s recent “New York City Canon 1968-2008,” you had one reaction: wtf! where are the gays? In every other format, gays are represented [...]

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 contemplates human conception from a safe distance.
Today we introduce our newest correspondent The Jessica Watch, who has expressed a willingness to satisfy our admittedly perverse voyeuristic impulses and keep us apprised as she moves ever closer to having a kid. TJW reports:
I just had a barrage of tests, all completed [...]

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 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 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 [...]