Archive for the ‘Architecture’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with orchids. It is in the nature of certain people (ahem) never to be satisfied, which — depending on the context — can be a curse or a blessing. For example, I just finished a very delicious chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting (but not too sweet!) and […]
Filed under: Architecture, GWB Project, Memory, Orchids | 2 Comments
Tags: Focus, Glasses, Happiness, Lenses, Sand, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Today I finally read the New Yorker article about David Foster Wallace, which was by turns inspiring and depressing; inspiring because (and this is hardly a surprise) he seemed to genuinely believe in fiction as a means to reflect/analyze/transform currents of our […]
Filed under: Architecture, Disease, Landscape, Literature, Quotes, Resignation, Travel, Writers-American | Leave a Comment
Tags: Airplanes, David Foster Wallace, Ennui, Huysmans, Pascal, The George Washington Bridge, Waves, Work
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Today the sky was windswept, which reminds of when I first moved to New York City and me and my friend Mike were walking around the Lower East Side one night — it was definitely winter — and we saw what could […]
Filed under: Architecture, Good Rock, Landscape, Memory, Weather | 2 Comments
Tags: Facebook, Meat Puppets, The George Washington Bridge, Tumbleweeds, Windswept
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. There is a pastel hue to the sky today that I haven’t seen since ____, which makes me think that summer is approaching. It reminds me of the sky I saw not too long ago in Vienna, although there the tones were […]
Filed under: Architecture, GWB Project, Washington Heights, Weather | 3 Comments
Tags: Foreshadowing, Pastels, Summer, The George Washington Bridge, Vienna
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. It’s often said that as you get older, time moves faster. This is undoubtedly true, except for when it moves more slowly than it once did. I’m reading a book by Richard Rorty,* who — unlike Plato/Kant/Schopenhauer/Freud/Jung — argues that there is […]
Filed under: Architecture, GWB Project, Health, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Dark, Light, Literary Criticism, Richard Rorty, Truth
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 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 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 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 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 helps the United States in a time of crisis. Today was a tough day on Capitol Hill, where the topic of hot gay statues was taken up and — as usual — soundly defeated. Fortunately, the issue is not entirely moot, and reader Tyler Green was kind enough to point […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Competitions, Gay, Government, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Politicians | Leave a Comment
Tags: Capitol Hill, D.C., Depressions, Federal Trade Commission, Man Controlling Trade, Michael Lantz, Stimulus Plans, Washington
In which The Chaos Detective goes to Munich. Click through for “hi-quality” on YouTube or watch on Facebook. Stay tuned for the fifth and final installment of “City of Dreams.” THE CHAOS DETECTIVE City of Dreams (Part 1) City of Dreams (Part 2) City of Dreams (Part 3)
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Conspiracy, Film, Government, History, Landscape, Search, Sickness, Technology, The Chaos Detective, Travel | 1 Comment
Tags: City of Dreams, Hofgarten, Kempinski Hotel, Ludwig II, Munich
On the Wahi Knockbusters Report: Why Did the City Tear Down Our Only Luxury Condominium Development?
In which The Gay Recluse remembers 2k6. In this weekend’s City Section of The Times, we learned that the city recently tore down the only luxury condominium development in Washington Heights, located on an undeveloped patch of land under the George Washington Bridge overpass. Nestled in the trees and rock formations, the site had promised […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Conspiracy, Gentrification, Infrastructure, Knockbusters, Landscape, The Times, Washington Heights | 4 Comments
Tags: City Section, Columbia Medical, Hooverville, Luxury Condominiums, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. Today we heard from Mike, who’s taking a break from Rottin’ in Denmark to travel our great country in search of hot gay statues (among other things). He writes: I was shocked when I found this in SF this week. Does it count? It’s about […]
Filed under: Architecture, Athletes, Competitions, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Search, Traffic, Travel | 1 Comment
Tags: Brosephine, NSFW, San Francisco
On Sunday Afternoon
In which The Gay Recluse dreams of spring. With the afternoon light streaming through the windows, it was easy to believe.
Filed under: Architecture, Dream, Faith, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Shoes, Spring, Sunlight, Winter
In which The Gay Recluse makes a teevee show for the internets.* In Part 3, Chaos Detective Lasalle follows “the Russian” onto a train headed for Munich. YouTube Clip below (click through to watch in high-res, or go to our FaceBook page!) THE CHAOS DETECTIVE Episode 1: City of Dreams (Part 1) Episode 1: City of Dreams (Part 2) *Sigh…if […]
Filed under: Architecture, Conspiracy, Dream, Gay, Longing, Memory, Search, Technology, The Chaos Detective, Travel | 1 Comment
Tags: Detective, Munich, Mysteries, Noir, Trains, Travelogs, Vienna
On the George Washington Breathing Project: Good Steam Versus Bad Steam Edition (Includes Roundup!)
In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly dies of lung cancer. Some winter mornings, we wake up and consider the rooftops of Washington Heights, where — thanks to the sumptuous pre-war architecture, the expansive breadth of the Hudson and the gentle rise of the Palisades — we are charmed by the wisps of steam that […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, GWB Project, Health, Pessimism, Politicians, Science, Technology, Washington Heights | 1 Comment
Tags: Asthma, Boilers, Ghettos, Lung Cancer, Slumlords, Smoke
The Gay Recluse 