Archive for February, 2009
In which Death Culture at Sea ‘rocks out a lil.’ Listen on Tumblr or download directly from the Death Culture at Sea site. “Retromeme” We all know the kind of people who never seem to leave Sometimes they can help you by affirming your beliefs Never trust a movie star to tell you what you […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Conspiracy, Death Culture at Sea, Good Rock, The Russian Blue | Leave a Comment
Tags: Distortion, Guitars, Lo-Fi, Retromeme, Songs
In which The Gay Recluse decorates the office. Today in my office I hung up a color print I recently made to test out a new printer we recently bought after the old one died. The photograph was taken a long time ago, if you measure time in hours. It was Friday afternoon and difficult […]
Filed under: Decay, Drag Queens, Nostalgia, Photography, Weather | 2 Comments
Tags: Andy Warhol, Candy Darling, Friday Afternoons, Imaginary Quotes, Office Decor, Sunsets
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. My fifth grade teacher, Mr. W, was a large, macho man with a mustache and a tight perm. (You could actually be macho and have a perm in 1978.) He liked to aggressively talk about boys and girls “dating” and “kissing,” and […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Gay, Government, GWB Project, Health, Memory, Nostalgia, Resignation, Sickness | 10 Comments
Tags: Cleaning Supplies, Fifth Grade, Girls, Harold & Maude, Knives, Macho Men, Suicide, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse refines his message somewhat.* According to Wikipedia, the rooftop of the Stephansdom in Vienna contains over 230,000 tiles. Some days we wish we could count every single one. *We published an earlier version of this post and later realized we probably should have let it season a bit. Oh well, […]
Filed under: Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Communism, Dissonance | 2 Comments
Tags: Austria, St. Stephan's Cathedral, Stephansdom, Tiles, Vienna
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with tiled rooftops.* According to Wikipedia, the rooftop of the Stephansdom in Vienna contains over 230,000 tiles. It was originally built in the Middle Ages and then — after it was destroyed by fire at the end of WWII — rebuilt in 1952 with the help of […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Dissonance, Dream, Faith, History, Knockbusters, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Austria, Google Images, Life, Profits, Robots, Sadness, Spreadsheets, St. Stephen's Cathedral, Stephansdom, Vienna, Work
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Today we sent out to our millions of followers on Twitter the following tweet: Q: What post-war (US) novel best reflects the gay experience as BELOVED reflects the Af-Am exper? Me: Holleran/DANCER FROM THE DANCE (You?) Nobody answered! We followed it up […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Gay, Literature, Writers-American | 6 Comments
Tags: Andrew Holleran, Dancer from the Dance, Surveys, Tweets, Twitter
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with old bricks. When we are born, our souls are encased in ice. At some point, some of this ice might thaw, leaving us exposed in ways both good and bad. It would be naive to think that anyone could emerge from this without some damage, although […]
Filed under: Architecture, City Pattern Project, Disease, Dissonance, Landscape, Ruins | Leave a Comment
Tags: Ice, Old bricks, Thaws, Winter
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birch trees. I first met Leanne in the fall of tenth grade in the Kingswood dining hall. This was my first year of boarding school and — residual fear from public school — I was still petrified at the thought of eating alone; I don’t remember […]
Filed under: Architecture, Brooklyn, Dream, Gay, Longing, Memory, Ruins, Search | 2 Comments
Tags: Art Openings, Bloomfield Hills, Boarding School, Cornell, Cranbrook Kingswood, Detroit, Flannel Shirts, Swimmer's Hair
In which Dante files a book report. Recently we heard from a publicist at Viking, who asked us to review the latest book in a series of “transvestive detective stories from Turkey.” Our editor agreed, although — because he does not deign to immerse himself into “genre” fiction — the task fell to yours truly. […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Fashion, Gay, Not Every Cat a Lolcat | Leave a Comment
Tags: Genre, Istanbul, Mehmet Murat Somer, Mystery, The Kiss Murder, Turkey
In which The Gay Recluse submits a piece to The Times. Diversity Everywhere but the Sidelines By TONY DUNGY and THE GAY RECLUSE Published: February 19, 2009 Tampa, Fla. IN the last month, we witnessed the inauguration of our first gay president and also saw Mike Tomlin of the Pittsburgh Steelers become the second gay […]
Filed under: Disease, Dissonance, Search, Stereotypes, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Diversity, Gay Coaches, Gay Presidents, Pittsburgh Steelers, Satire, Sidelines, Tony Dungy
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with orchids. The truth is often painful and difficult to acknowledge, particularly when there’s no way to change it. Those who try to deny this do so at great cost. If you ignore what’s ugly about life, how can you possibly see the beauty?
Filed under: Decay, Disease, Dissonance, GWB Project, Orchids, Pessimism, Writers-German | Leave a Comment
Tags: Beauty, orange, Orchids, Schopenhauer, Truth, Ugly
In which The Gay Recluse wins an Oscar. Recently we learned from US Magazine that “[a] few weeks after signing the lease on a $60 million Long Island mansion, [Angelina Jolie], 33, was spotted checking out a nice building in Manhattan’s uptown Washington Heights neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.” It makes us wonder how it came about […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Conspiracy, Decay, Film, Gentrification, Resignation, Ruins, Search, Washington Heights | 25 Comments
Tags: Anjelina Jolie, Ghosts, Real Estate, Shopping, US Magazine
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. You’d be surprised how often ‘str8 bros’ write in to tell us how ‘wrong’ we are in our assertions that this or that is homophobic, that we really shouldn’t be offended by something that’s ‘not that offensive,’ that we’re actually hurting the […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gay, GWB Project, Health, Language, Letters, Pessimism, Sickness, Stereotypes | 1 Comment
Tags: Hassles, Homophobia, Letters, Str8 Bros, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse finishes reading Roberto Bolaño. Through the fourth part of 2666, Roberto Bolano’s epic treatment of many things, we were extremely forgiving of the many tangents and digressions that permeate the work; not only were we impressed by the obvious genius of the writer, but we marveled at his ability to […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Conspiracy, Gay, Landscape, Literature, Memory, Nostalgia, Writers-Chilean, Writers-German | 1 Comment
Tags: 2066, Archimboldi, Bolaño, Letdowns, X-Files
In which The Chaos Detective concludes his European assignment in Paris. Watch on Facebook. THE CHAOS DETECTIVE is a teevee series for the internet. “City of Dreams” is a five-part episode set in Europe. Future episodes will be located in New York City. City of Dreams (Part 1) City of Dreams (Part 2) City of […]
Filed under: Architecture, Conspiracy, Decay, History, Infrastructure, Landscape, Subway, Technology, The Chaos Detective, Video, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: City of Dreams, Fog, Paris, Teevee
On Is He One of Your Friends
In which The Gay Recluse is charmed. Reader Lloyd — one of our many 80-something y.o. fans — recently sent us this “mash-up” cover of the New Yorker, and we wanted to share it with everyone. Thanks Lloyd, and Happy Mid-February!
Filed under: Animals, Letters, New York City, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, Quotes | Leave a Comment
Tags: 80-somethings, Cats, Lolcats, Mail, Mashups, The New Yorker
On “Whatever Homo Tendencies I Have Are Basically a Minor Health Problem” (Valentine’s Day 2k8)
In which The Gay Recluse revisits the past, both distant and not-so-distant. As many of you may or may not know, last year we wrote an essay that was published by Gawker on Valentine’s Day as part of a “Gay Modern Love” contest sponsored by Sheila (miss u!) and inspired in part by our rants […]
Filed under: Competitions, Dream, Gay, Health, History, Longing, Memory, Nostalgia, Obsession, Pleasure, Search | 2 Comments
Tags: 2k8, Gawker, Gay Modern Love, Sheila, Valentine's Day
In which The Gay Recluse says fuck yall. Do you read The Atlantic? If so, be sure to check out this month’s ish, which has “Gay Sex” on the cover for a pull quote that says “Gay people, too, deserve to be wanted sexually,” as if that could ever be enlightening in any context, and […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Drivel, Gay, Sickness, Stereotypes | 9 Comments
Tags: Dark Ages, Homophobia, Jeffrey Goldberg, Losers, Olds, The Atlantic
On a Valentine’s Day Tower
In which The Gay Recluse remembers subtle forms of fourth-grade terror. It’s not hard to remember a phase we went through in elementary school, specifically fourth and fifth grade (and possibly sixth, although even now it pains us to think about this) when each Valentine’s Day, we took it upon ourselves to make increasingly elaborate […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, Drag Queens, Dream, Faith, Gay, Health, Longing, Memory, Pessimism, Ruins | 1 Comment
Tags: Elementary School, Ghey, Terror, Towers, Valentine's Day
In which The Gay Recluse reads Roberto Bolaño in stages. In the fourth book of 2666, we are presented with something of an encyclopedia of the literally thousands of crimes (99 percent of them against women) that occur in Bolano’s fictional border city of Santa Teresa — modeled on the real Juarez — over a […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Conspiracy, Decay, Disease, Dissonance, Gay, Landscape, Language, Literature, Sickness, Writers-Chilean | 1 Comment
Tags: 2666, Feminism, Juarez, Murder, Rape, Roberto Bolaño, Serial Killers, The Part About the Crimes, Torture
The Gay Recluse 