Archive for November, 2007
On the End of November
You will be relieved to learn that the scaffolding we told you about is finally coming down; but to reveal what, exactly? A new apartment palace, a refurbished monument to gilded living? Well, perhaps for some, but as we watch the men arrive in their trucks to disassemble the steel beams and wooden planks, we are not as pleased as you might have expected. We […]
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Memory, New York City, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Aging, construction, hope, remorse, renovation, Weather
Recently we arranged a visit to the doctor, who in frantic tones described the many maladies he had encountered just that morning in his other patients. “One young man just contracted ____, which means he will probably not live more than _____; meanwhile the drugs I prescribed for Ms. _____are not exactly helping with the […]
Filed under: Capitalism, History, Politicians, Sickness, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: Baudelaire, Medicine, Spleen, Symbolism, United States
Music courtesy of Saturnine from the album Remembrance of Things Past (VictoriaLandRecords 2007); released under a Creative Commons license here.
Filed under: Dream, Good Rock, Longing, Memory, The Gay Recluse, The Russian Blue | Leave a Comment
Tags: Indie Rock, Life, Proust, Saturnine, Shadows, Zephyr
On a Piano Behind Closed Doors
Please wait while we stop for a second to listen to this piano and watch the reflection of the city street in the glass. In fact, since you asked, nothing could be more important: it’s more than just memories we hear through this door, but scenes from a past unlike any we have every known.
Filed under: Film, Good Rock, History, Memory, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Door, Mozart, Piano, Street
On Pier Paolo Pasolini
In today’s Times, in a continuing effort to never acknowledge the gay voice as a force in 20th-century art and literature, film critic AO Scott heaps high praise on the Italian film director Pier Paolo Pasolini but never bothers to mention that he was gay: “Poet, playwright, screenwriter, filmmaker, Communist, Christian, moralist, pornographer, populist, artist,” […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Drivel, Film, Gay, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: A.O. Scott, Anna Magnani, Gay Bashing, Momma Roma, Negligence, New York Times, Pasolini, Salò
Do you remember what it was like to be sick as a child, when you would stay home from school and relocate to your parents’ bed to watch television? Some days we were faking and would do anything to avoid the tedium of school (if only that were an option now!) but when we were […]
Filed under: Dream, Gay, Memory, New York City, Sickness | Leave a Comment
Tags: Childhood, Delirium, Fever, Queens, Television, Wallpaper
On Giving Thanks
While this day is not so different than so many others, to the extent we feel like we are under siege — fending off sickness and financial ruin and political censure at every turn — as we survey our past and contemplate what lies ahead, we are grateful for many things. Such as? Well, life […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Dream, Government, History, Memory, Pessimism | Leave a Comment
Tags: Clementine, Conservative, Democrat, Liberal, Libertarian, Religious Right, Republican, Thanksgiving
With our old headphones broken and new ones en route, we were not able as hoped to sequester ourselves in the aural safe harbor that is our “portable media player” but instead had to brave the sound system at the gym. You ask: exactly how barren is this sonic wasteland? We will tell you! Today’s […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Capitalism, Gay, Good Rock, Government, Memory, Nostalgia, Sickness | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alienation, Bob Seger, Conformity, Geddy Lee, George Harrison, Grand Funk Railroad, iPod, Journey, Morrissey, Neil Peart, Pittsburgh, Rush, Suburbs, The Eagles, The Gym, The Smiths, WDVE
On Tears for the Gay Recluse
Recent artwork in the local museum of the ephemeral:
Filed under: Infrastructure, New York City, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, C-train, Chelsea Boys, Gay, MTA, New York City, SubTalk, United States Marines
To our dear friends, the realtors and developers of Washington Heights: thank you so much for inviting us to your delightful open house! As happy as we were to learn that you had bought the vacant “shell” on St. Nicholas and 157th Street for $1 (and don’t worry, we won’t tell anyone about the $500k […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Gentrification, New York City, Politicians, Washington Heights | 1 Comment
Tags: Developers, Flipping Out, Graft, HPD, Jeff Lewis, Price Gauging, Real Estate, Realtors
On the Dead Station
As we ride the uptown 6-train, we peer through the window to catch a glimpse of the dead station at 18th Street. A friend once went by foot through the tunnels to this station and described finding there among the abandoned gates and pillars irrefutable evidence of human habitation: a doll’s shoe, a pornography magazine […]
Filed under: Architecture, Infrastructure, Memory, Subway | Leave a Comment
Tags: , 23rd Street, 6-train, Dead Stations, MTA, New York City, Subway, Union Square
On Birds and Cats
But did you not hear about the trial of the man who killed a cat that was stalking migratory birds in a Texas sanctuary? What a nightmare! On one hand, who can deny the allure of the cat, creature of the night, possessor of dreams? Yet who has not stood in awe of birds flying […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Dream, History, Obsession, Pleasure, The Autumn Garden, The Russian Blue, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Birds, Cats, Conscious, Freud, Jung, The Soviet Union, The United States, Unconscious
On Beatrice
When the russet hues of the setting sun stream through our western window, as happened today, it is quite possible to imagine Beatrice in the distorted, filtered light, contemplative and hovering as if she were still there, peering into the distance, longing for something to take her away. The first time we saw her, however, […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Dream, Drivel, Good Rock, Memory, Orchids, Resignation, Sickness, The Russian Blue, The Times, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: 9/11, Animal Medical Center, Baudelaire, Beatrice, Candy Darling, Cannanes, Cats, Dante, Daphne Merkin, Death, Lipidosis, Love, Robert Moses, Russian Blue
On the Empire State Building
In our dreams, the Empire State Building hovers and glows with a radiance that is seriously awesome to behold; it is a beacon to all who seek refuge in the city, and furthermore is not — as Fay Wray tells us — unstinting or cold in this respect, even if like the rest of us […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dream, Film, Gay, History, New York City, Sickness | Leave a Comment
Tags: Architecture, Empire State Building, Fae Wrae, New York City, Walter Benjamin
Andrew Sullivan expressed the idea (and admittedly, with thoughtfulness) in an essay he wrote a few years ago for the New Republic, while more recently British playwright Mark Ravenhill tackled the same theme (with much less success) for The Guardian. Their collective story goes something like this: in the dark ages of oppression (i.e., approximately […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Gay, Government, History, Literature, Obsession, Pessimism, Writers-British | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Arthur Schopenhauer, Gay Culture, Gay History, Mark Ravenhill, Michel Foucault, Stonewall
On Cardinal
Each day at our midtown gym we brave the sonic assault of soulless dance music and sadly dated AOR rock that reminds us of the FM radio we grew up listening to in Pittsburgh. But as soon as we get changed and put on our headphones, we turn our attention to Cardinal, the eponymous 1994 […]
Filed under: Good Rock, Memory, Obsession | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bee Gees, Cardinal, Donovan, Eric Matthews, Flydaddy, Independent Rock, Love, Richard Davies, The Moles
It already seems years away, those hours spent sweeping up the golden leaves of the European white birch, which has always been the focal point of our garden in Washington Heights. Each leaf, of course, represents a day in our past, and for this reason might seem more valuable if there weren’t so many. And […]
Filed under: Decay, Memory, Politicians, The Autumn Garden, The Gay Recluse, Travel, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Betula Pendula, European White Birch, Gardens, Italy, Travel, Venice, Wisteria
At the opera last week, we ran into a friend who we were surprised to note had gained at least 500 pounds since we had last seen him. “You’ve gained weight,” we said, not wanting to ignore the obvious. “Are you in good health?” “More than good,” he nodded enthusiastically, and then began to explain. […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Gay, History, Opera, Pessimism, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Baudelaire, Cities, Dick Cavett, Modernity, New York Times, Obese, Opera, Spleen
Andrew Sullivan and his conservative ilk should realize that we too — and despite easily falling on the “left-liberal” side of the coin — can never digest more than a word or two of Bob Herbert’s stultifying prose before falling asleep. It’s unfortunate, because we ride the C-train with the same class of forgotten gilded-age […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, History, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Bob Herbert, Brad DeLong, Economics, New York Times, Paul Krugman, Walter Benjamin
As we turn the corner from the Upper Riverside Drive onto 160th Street in Washington Heights, the intricate but repetitive brickwork of the apartment palace lulls us into a dream in which we hear the droning, distorted guitars of Spacemen 3. This was the “Heroin” of our youth, the soundtrack of delirious, pretentious ambivalence for […]
Filed under: Addiction, Architecture, Capitalism, Good Rock, Memory, Obsession, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1960s, Baby Boomers, J. Spaceman, Riverside Drive, Sonic Boom, Spacemen 3, The Beatles, Velvet Underground
The Gay Recluse 