Archive for June, 2008
In which The Gay Recluse reports to the Board of Directors on monthly traffic-whoring metrix. I. Summary June marked our third best month on record, and — in light of limited time investment into the site — represents a promising long-term trend. If we’re ever in a position to start posting with renewed frequency, we […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Decay, Health, History, Science, The Gay Recluse, The Times, Traffic | Leave a Comment
Tags: Board Reports, City Room, Curbed, Forecasts, Gothamist, Metrix, Site Meter, The New York Times, Traffic Whoring, WordPress
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Time/Date: Today, after the rain. The bridge is named in honor of George Washington, the first President of the United States. —Wikipedia
Filed under: Architecture, Government, GWB Project, Politicians, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: George Washington, George Washington Bridge, Presidents, Wikipedia
In which The Gay Recluse is once again perturbed. Have you heard about Measuring The World, the international bestseller by German/Viennese author Daniel Kehlmann? It sold more copies than any other German-language book since Patrick Suskind’s Perfume, and was highly acclaimed by critics everywhere for its playful use of language and magic realism: according to […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Literature, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, Writers-German | 4 Comments
Tags: Alligators, Daniel Kehlmann, Dogs, Measuring the World, Naturalists
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. It was raining pretty hard, but we still had places to go. Even if we knew that somewhere, someone was sleeping. I hope you love birds, too. –Emily Dickinson
Filed under: Animals, GWB Project, The Gay Recluse, Writers-American | Leave a Comment
Tags: Birds, Emily Dickinson, Rain, Sleep
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Time/Date: June 28th, around 7:00pm. Before the storm. During the storm. After the storm. Othmar H. Ammann designed the bridge with a new theory at the time called deflection theory. This allowed him to increase the span length due to less weight […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, GWB Project, The Gay Recluse, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Othmar H. Ammann, Storms, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse resigns himself to the inevitable. When Modern Love first launched in The Times however many years ago, we were initially intrigued by the premise of the column, which like some of the best reality television seemed to offer the potential to break down the stereotypes that are the currency of […]
Filed under: Animals, Disease, Dissonance, Gay, Good Rock, Ruins, Sickness, Stereotypes, Technology, Television, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Gawker, Gay Modern Love, Modern Love, Morrissey, Retirement, The New York Times, The Smiths
In which The Gay Recluse remembers sitting at the airport. Just last week we were sitting at the airport. At the time it seemed painfully boring, but now we kind of miss it. Even though we know that if we went back we’d be painfully bored again. This is also why George Bush was elected […]
Filed under: History, Memory, Nostalgia, Pessimism, Philosophers, Politicians, The Gay Recluse, Writers-German | Leave a Comment
Tags: Airports, George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Walter Benjamin
In which The Gay Recluse is Manhattan Born. Location: Edgecomb Avenue and we forget exactly. When we first looked at this, we thought it said “Manhattan Born,” which we kind of prefer, even though we’re not exactly from here. Or are we, now that we’ve lived here almost ten years? Whenever anyone asks me for […]
Filed under: Architecture, City Pattern Project, Communism, Decay, Gay, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Manhattan, Manhole Covers, Sugar Hill
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with manhole covers. Location: Edgecomb Avenue and 159th Street Is this the best manhole cover ever? Perhaps it is. We could stare at this for a thousand years, on or off drugs. Whenever anyone asks me for something to put into a time capsule, I tell them […]
Filed under: Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Decay, Infrastructure, Landscape, Photography, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 4 Comments
Tags: Andy Warhol, Drugs, Manhole Covers, Weiner Werkstatte
In which The Gay Recluse watches birds. Tonight we saw one bird in the fading sun. Which was one more than we usually see. Which begs the question: Are the birds not usually there? Or are we just learning how to see?
Filed under: Animals, GWB Project, Landscape, Obsession, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Birds, Palisades, Sunsets
In which The Gay Recluse is rendered delirious by delays. As we were waiting at the Pittsburgh airport, we were struck by the unexpected beauty of this stone riverbed. And this one, too. It wasn’t too hard to imagine that we were out west somewhere. But only if we didn’t let the scope of our […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Dissonance, Infrastructure, Landscape, Photography, The Gay Recluse, Travel | 2 Comments
Tags: Airports, Cigarettes, Gum, Jails, Pittsburgh, Riverbeds
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 My Husband Won Back My Vote by Andrea Neighbours Subject: A […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Language, Search, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrea Neighbours, Daniel Jones, The New York Times, Workaholics
In which The Gay Recluse presents a gay alternative to this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Please note that The Gay Recluse is an evil traffic whore and the essay on which the below parody is based was “lifted from The Times without permission.” Those looking for our quantitative analysis should click here. […]
Filed under: Drivel, Politicians, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | 2 Comments
Tags: Gay Modern Love, Parodies, Traffic Whores, Zzzzzzzz
On the Imminent Death of Flies
In which The Gay Recluse introduces the pitcher plants. This is the first year for our new pitcher plants (Sarracenia). Flies, we have one message for you: beware! The pitcher plant will eat you for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And dessert, too.
Filed under: Conspiracy, New York City, Pessimism, The Gay Recluse, The Spring Garden, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Flies, Meals, Pitcher plants, Sarracenia
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Today it’s off to Pittsburgh for the weekend. Travel is so much fun these days! But at least the sky is clear. We’ll miss the bridge. And Zephyr. And Dante, who would like to remind everyone: not every cat is a lolcat! […]
Filed under: Animals, Architecture, GWB Project, Landscape, Longing, Nostalgia, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, The Gay Recluse, The Russian Blue, Travel | 1 Comment
Tags: Airports, Clear, Sky, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly dies of lung cancer. Chronic pollution is a lot like chronic pain. You know it’s there but it’s hard to get rid of. Particularly when everyone’s doing it! Sometimes it blows right in the window. And makes us wish we lived in Vermont. The oily black smoke of […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Government, GWB Project, Health, Landscape, Pessimism, Sickness, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Asthma, Dickens, Industrial Revolution, Landlords, Lung Cancer, Polluters, Slumlords, Views
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Today we were reading on Gawker about how to be a successful traffic whore blogger. Number one was “listicles,” which we sometimes do. This is sort of a list, right? Then “creating coherent characters.” We definitely could use some work in that […]
Filed under: Architecture, GWB Project, The Gay Recluse, Traffic, Washington Heights | 6 Comments
Tags: Breakthroughs, Rain, Summer, Sunsets, The George Washington Bridge
The Gay Recluse 
On a Brief Note about “On the Opinion Page”
In which The Gay Recluse responds to a comment. Today reader Wayward Son sent us the following note: I miss your opinion on opinion pieces. Lately I have been forced to read them myself. That means I am apt to accidentally take them seriously as I am without your sometimes satirical, sometimes facetious, always spot-on opinion […]
Filed under: Politicians, The Gay Recluse, The Times | 3 Comments
Tags: Nice Commenters, Opinions, The New York Times