Archive for January, 2009
In which The Gay Recluse produces a teevee series on the internets. The Chaos Detective: City of Dreams (Part 2) In this episode, Chaos Detective Lasalle arrives in Vienna and embarks on his first assignment. [Note: if you click thru to YouTube, be sure to watch in “high-quality”: otherwise it’s kinda blurry/fuzzy!] THE CHAOS DETECTIVE […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Dissonance, Dream, Infrastructure, Landscape, Longing, Ruins, Search, The Chaos Detective, Travel | 2 Comments
Tags: Cafe Central, Sachertorte, St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna
In which The Gay Recluse recommends a scholarly work. Recently we heard from Scott Gunther, an old friend of ours from college (we also spent a semester together in Paris) and law school. Scott is now a French professor at Wellesley — i.e., he’s practicing as much law as we are, lol — and it […]
Filed under: Gay, Landscape, Language, Letters, Writers-American, Writers-French | 2 Comments
Tags: Academic Works, France, Homosexuality, Scott Gunther, The Elastic Closet
In which The Gay Recluse launches a new contest. Smokin. Seen anything hotter? Send us your pix.
Filed under: Capitalism, Competitions, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Pleasure, Search, Stereotypes, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Amenities, Do Not Disturb, Hotels, Service, Shhh, Sleep, Vienna
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. In Europe, it often happens that we stand in front of an ornate building and think: “whoas, that would be a lot of work!” but we can still basically imagine how it was done, even if it took centuries. It’s like one […]
Filed under: Architecture, Conspiracy, Dissonance, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Longing, Memory, Technology | 4 Comments
Tags: Full Moon, Night, The George Washington Bridge, Winter
In which The Gay Recluse goes abroad. We’ve always loved stencils (especially of Andy Warhol), so when we were in Vienna, we spent a lot of time checking out the graffiti stencils. Some of it was maybe really cute? Except does anyone know what this means, or why this girl is laughing, or why 2×3=4? […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, Graffiti, Infrastructure, Landscape, Politicians, Stereotypes, Travel, Washington Heights | 1 Comment
Tags: Pippi Longstocking
In which The Gay Recluse dreams of decorating garden walls and office spaces. While in Vienna, we visited the Secession Building. According to Wikipedia: “The Vienna Secession was founded on 3 April 1897 by artists Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, Otto Wagner, and others…In 1898, the group’s exhibition house […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Communism, Conspiracy, Dream, Fashion, Landscape, Pessimism, Ruins, Search, Sickness, Travel | 4 Comments
Tags: Art, Garden Walls, Jugendstil, Offices, Secession Building, Tedium, Vienna
In which The Gay Recluse ponders the fate of empires. Prospective imperialists take note! Today you may rule the world. Tomorrow — just like the rest of us — you will have heartburn.
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Conspiracy, Politicians, Ruins, Travel | 3 Comments
Tags: Heartburn, Indigestion, Napolean, Vienna
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. But not really. Today we received the above (and well, below) photograph from Eric Patton of Sore Afraid. (Which btw we recommend for anyone — like us! — interested in refreshingly unrelenting pessimism, literary angst, truthful travel writing and related rumination.) This statue, obv one of the […]
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Dissonance, Hot Gay Statues, Landscape, Search, Sickness, Traffic, Travel | 3 Comments
In which The Gay Recluse helps to spread the word. This note came in from Savona Bailey-McClain, a Harlem resident/community leader (and TGR reader!) who’s involved in uptown planning. In addition to the West Harlem Art Fund [which btw sponsored these awesome storefront installations — ed.], I also chair Waterfront & Economic Development for Manhattan […]
Filed under: Gay | Leave a Comment
Tags: 135th Street Marine Transfer, Community Board 9, Community Meetings, Green Technology, Harlem
In which The Gay Recluse produces a teevee series on the internets. The Chaos Detective: City of Dreams (Part 1) In this episode, CHAOS — the quasi-governmental entity “Computer Hardware and Operating Systems” (or so he has been told) — has given Detective Lasalle his first assignment, which is to go to Vienna and follow […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Dissonance, The Gay Recluse, Travel | 4 Comments
Tags: City of Dreams, Final Cut Express, Laffs, Teevee, Vienna, Webisodes
In which The Gay Recluse wanders the streets of Munich. To visit Europe in 2K9 is to understand that we have a new lingua franca; to say it’s English, however, would be something of an exaggeration. Whatever. We want new hair, and we want it now.
Filed under: Capitalism, Dissonance, Photography, Travel | 1 Comment
Tags: Fonts, Lingua Franca, Munich, New Hair
In which The Gay Recluse finds remnants of the 1860s 1960s. It’s difficult to write about a city of the past without succumbing to nostalgia, given the grandeur of the dead monuments that have survived and the (philosophical) certainty that no time is worse to be alive than the present. Some friends of ours came […]
Filed under: Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Communism, Gentrification, History, Nostalgia, Travel | 1 Comment
In which The Gay Recluse lands. We finally descended through the clouds, and — while looking out at the approaching city — were confronted by two questions. Is it possible that we actually live here? And could it really be 2009?
Filed under: Conspiracy, Decay, Dissonance, Dream, Landscape, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Air France, Europe, Flights, Middle Age, Modernity, New World, New Year's Day, New York City, Old World
The Gay Recluse 