Archive for December, 2008
In which Dante takes over The Gay Recluse. 1 Cat + 1 Sunset = The Catset! Friends! Not every cat is a lolcat.
Filed under: Animals, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, Photography, Stereotypes, The Russian Blue | 3 Comments
Tags: Cats, Catsets, Dante, Editorial Assistant, Lolcats, Sunsets
In which The Gay Recluse fails to deliver the sun. Yesterday it rained so hard that we felt sure today would arrive bright and sunny, as so often happens in New York City, where weather really doesn’t tend to linger the way it does in say, Pittsburgh or Ithaca. We had visitors in from out […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Conspiracy, Longing, Memory, New York City, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cold, Fog, Ithaca, Pittsburgh, Promises, Rain, Sun
In which Dante and Zephyr take over The Gay Recluse. Friends! The government may be embroiled in scandal, and the legislation you seek may be decades away from the governor’s desk! Obviously these are not good economic times, unless you’re a professional athlete or a high-powered financial executive or really pretty much anything not related […]
Filed under: Animals, Government, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, Politicians, The Russian Blue | 1 Comment
Tags: Dining Room Tables, Lolcats, Paper Boxes, Pleasing Things To Sit On
In which The Gay Recluse remembers old plants. Growing up in the 1970s, there were a lot of plants in our house. Having plants was a sign of liberal thinking: our mother, of course, was involved in the women’s movement, so she had a mix of spider plants, cactus and marginata; our dazed-and-confused sister did […]
Filed under: Animals, Dissonance, Gay, GWB Project, Memory, Nostalgia | 4 Comments
Tags: Cactus, Cigarettes, Dazed and Confused, Houseplants, Joints, Love, Marginata, Philodendron, Ponytail Palm, Terra Cotta, Women's Movement
On Senso
In which The Gay Recluse loves Luchino Visconti. After scouring the globe, we were finally able to obtain — from South Korea! — a copy of Senso, Luchino Visconti’s 1954 film about the Austrian occupation of Venice during the war for Italian independence. In what is arguably the most operatic of Visconti’s films, we follow a […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Film, Gay, Longing, Obsession, Pessimism, Resignation, Ruins, Writers-German | Leave a Comment
Tags: Communism, Gay Film Directors, Luchino Visconti, Senso, Walter Benjamin
In which The Gay Recluse remembers art class. Yesterday we read about Alton Dulaney, who won the gift-wrapping championship of the world in a wrap-off at Rockefeller Center. Watching Alton’s performance, we couldn’t help but regret all the hours we spent growing up watching football and hockey and baseball on teevee, when we could have […]
Filed under: Athletes, Benefits of Being Gay, Competitions, Dissonance, Gay, GWB Project, Memory, Photography, Resignation | 3 Comments
Tags: Art Class, Bows, Cocksucking, Daddies, Football, Gift Wrapping, Hockey, Steroids, Teevee, The George Washington Bridge, Tom of Finland
In which The Gay Recluse holds a competition. Sort of. Remember how we said that one good reason to move to Washington Heights is that it’s home to the hottest gay statues? While this remains undoubtedly true, we have some groundbreaking news for our gay lady friends! This just in from Reader Roberta: Hi TGR, […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, New York City, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Hot Lesbian Statues, Lady Couples, Lesbians, Tight Jeans
On Seduced and Abandoned
In which The Gay Recluse watches movies. Tonight we watched Seduced and Abandoned, the 1964 film by Italian director Pietro Germi. Set in a small town in Sicily, it follows a family with a 15-year-old girl who in a moment of passion sort of consents (but sort of not) to have sex with her older […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Film, Obsession, Ruins, Search, Sickness | 2 Comments
Tags: Italian Directors, Marriage, Pietro Germi, Seduced and Abandoned, Sicily, Stefania Sandrelli
In which The Gay Recluse reads dead flowers. When we first read about The Northern Clemency by Philip Hensher, we were excited! Not only was it short-listed for the Booker Prize, but it was rated the #1 Editors’ Pick for Best Book of 2008 by Amazon.com.* And oh yeah, Hensher is “openly gay” — kinda […]
Filed under: Dissonance, GWB Project, Language, Literature, Photography, Stereotypes, Writers-British | 4 Comments
Tags: Book Reviews, Dead Flowers, Gay Writers, Philip Hensher, Roses, The Northern Clemency
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. Today we left work and had to walk crosstown in the drizzle. It was completely dark and we didn’t have an umbrella. Plus we were running late, and had overdressed; we regretted that it wasn’t snowing, as it would have been before global warming. But […]
Filed under: Animals, GWB Project, Longing, New York City, Pessimism, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cities, Gotham, Rain, Rush Hour, Sand, Time, Walks
In which Dante and Zephyr take over The Gay Recluse. Friends! Aren’t you tired of getting on the subway and listening to two teenage assholes engage in a loud debate about whether it’s “gay” or not to touch shoulders in the kind of “bro-hug” you see on the teevee when a team scores a goal/point/tee-dee? […]
Filed under: Animals, Gay, New York City, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, Pessimism, Resignation, Stereotypes, Subway, The Russian Blue | 3 Comments
Tags: Daily Grind, Dark Ages, Ghetto Life, Homophobia, Teenagers
In which The Gay Recluse remembers Sergio Leone. Recently we watched the director’s cut of Once Upon a Time in America, Sergio Lione’s epic Jewish/New York City gangster movie from 1984. When originally released in the United States, the producers imposed a chronological sequence onto the movie to shorten it, whereas Lione intended it to […]
Filed under: Dream, Film, Gay, History, Memory, Writers-French | 1 Comment
Tags: Bad Film Scores, Death in Venice, James Woods, Jewish Stereotypes, Luchino Visconti, Once Upon a Time in America, Robert De Niro, Sergio Leone
In which The Gay Recluse files a special investigative report. Recently Reader Lloyd put us on notice about the existence of an entire army of hot gay statues gracing the colonnade at Union Station in Washington, DC. Which ok is awesome, but his note also contained a scandalous rumor, which we reproduce in full: I […]
Filed under: Architecture, Conspiracy, Government, Hot Gay Statues, Memory | 6 Comments
Tags: Augustus Saint Gaudens, Censorship, Centurions, Investigative Reports, Scandals, Shields, Union Station, Washington DC
The Gay Recluse 
On Some Thoughts on Milk (Reader Comments)
In which The Gay Recluse turns to the mail bag. Chances are if you’re geigh, you’ve heard about this movie called MILK! You might even feel guilty if, like us, you haven’t gone to see it yet because you’re gay and it’s about someone who’s gay and you should be eternally grateful that Hollywood would deign […]
Filed under: Film, Gay, Letters, Politicians, Washington Heights | 3 Comments
Tags: Comments, Dark Ages, David Letterman, Ghettos, Homophobia, Milk, Polvo, Rage