Archive for April, 2008
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?)
Filed under: Architecture, City Pattern Project, Landscape, New York City, Photography | Leave a Comment
Tags: City Patterns, construction, Cranes, T.S. Eliot
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 […]
Filed under: Architecture, Conspiracy, Decay, Gay, History, Infrastructure, Landscape, Search, Technology, Traffic | Leave a Comment
Tags: April, Board Reports, Metrix, SiteMeter, Traffic, Traffic Whoring
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 […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Infrastructure, Sickness, Subway, Washington Heights | 2 Comments
Tags: Celebrities, Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters
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 […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gentrification, Government, Knockbusters, Longing, Monopoly, New York City, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 5 Comments
Tags: Alternate Realities, Apartment Buildings, Bulldozers, Department of Buildings, Development, Monopoly, Recession, Uptown Real Estate
In which The Gay Recluse retires to our garden in Washington Heights. Date of photograph: April 28, 2008, around 6:30pm It’s hardly a secret that sometimes the spring garden looks better in the rain. Today was one of those days… One of our favorite plants is the creeping yellow groundcover, which we bought a few […]
Filed under: GWB Project, Language, Longing, Memory, New York City, Obsession, Pessimism, Photography, Pleasure, Resignation, Ruins, Search, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Spring Garden, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alpines, Chasing Amy, Creeping Jenny, Green Markets, Groundcover, Lesbian Conversions, Lysimachia nummularia, Perennials, Rain, Rocks, Sighs, Union Square, Washington Heights
In which The Gay Recluse invites readers to get drunk enjoy art in person. Reader John Anthony Frederick sent us the following flier today for his photo exhibition in Albany: To all of our readers in Albany: Hey, we think you should go! The tree photos look extremely cool: distant, distorted and contemplative. (Why not […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Letters, Memory, Photography, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Albany, Art Openings, David Paterson, Gay Dates, Hot Singles, John Anthony Frederick, Trees
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 […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Decay, Dissonance, Gay, Gentrification, Infrastructure, Landscape, Language, Memory, Nostalgia, Television, The Gay Recluse, Travel | 7 Comments
Tags: Altar, Bridges, Chuck Noll, City of Champions, Discos, Gay Clubs, Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh, Primanti's, Queer As Folk, The Penguins, The Pennsylvanian, The Steelers, The Strip, Wholey's
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 […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Photography, Stereotypes, Technology, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Bears, Chubby Chasers, Competitions, David, Florence, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Woof
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: Was I on a Date or Baby-Sitting? Subject: For some reason a […]
Filed under: Disease, Language, Pessimism, Search, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bad Prose, Daniel Jones, Gay Modern Love, Homophobia, Modern Love, The New York Times
In which The Gay Recluse makes fun of the sad straights who appear in this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Those looking for our quantitative analysis should click here. Was I on a Date or Baby-Sitting? OMG! What an Asshole! By JULIE KLAUSNER and THE GAY RECLUSE Published: April 27, 2008 So this […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Daniel Jones, Gay Modern Love, Jule Klausner, Modern Love
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, […]
Filed under: Graffiti, Search, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, Abstract Expressionism, Art, C-train, Subway
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an old friend. Date of Picture: April 24, 2008 Location: Our garden in Washington Heights. Even as a child in Pittsburgh, we loved this table. All winter it would sit out on the porch as we stared longingly at it. Every May, when it was finally warm enough (this […]
Filed under: City Pattern Project, Dissonance, Landscape, Longing, Memory, Ruins, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1970s, Chores, Porch Furniture, Porches, Spring Cleaning, Suburbs, Tables, Wrought Iron
In which Dante and Zephyr take over The Gay Recluse. Friends! Laugh all you want, but the truth remains: Not every cat is a lolcat!
Filed under: Animals, Gay, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, Photography, The Gay Recluse, The Russian Blue | Leave a Comment
Tags: Dante, Friends, Lolcats, Slice Chair, Zepher
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 […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Government, Infrastructure, Politicians, The Gay Recluse, The Times | 4 Comments
Tags: Biofuels, Columbia, Congestion Pricing, Flowers, Gail Collins, MPG, Nicholas Kristof, Primaries, Roger Cohen