Archive for the ‘Architecture’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse makes a monthly report to the Board of Directors. I. Summary February was an outstanding month for The Gay Recluse. A combination of organic growth, continued linkage from Curbed and Queerty and several new links from Gawker all contributed to record numbers of visitors and page views. II. Traffic Metrix […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Infrastructure, Technology, The Gay Recluse, Traffic | Leave a Comment
Tags: Business Revenue, Curbed, Feedburner, Feeds, Gawker, Internet Traffic, Linkage, Metrix, Monthly Report, Queerty, RSS, SiteMeter, Technorati, Traffic Whoring, WordPress
In which The Gay Recluse ponders a sampling of recent search terms used to find the very pages you are now reading. Note: All search terms listed are in the exact form provided by WordPress.com, which is the host (at least for a while) of this blog. Hyperlinks to relevant posts included. Search: students ‘shallow […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gay, Infrastructure, Language, Search, The Gay Recluse, The Russian Blue, The Times, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Big Boobs, Bob Mould, Burt Lancaster, Daddy Bears, Daniel Jones, Gay Sex in the Seventies, Geraldine Ferraro, Grant Hart, Hüsker Dü, Henry James, Hot Bears, In the Mood for Love, Janice Dickinson, Outcast, Povery, Shit Sandwich, Super Bowl, The Rainmaker, West Side Piers
In which The Gay Recluse takes a field trip to Harlem and makes the case that the city should rezone the shit out of 125th Street. Lately there has been a lot of press — from Curbed, The Times and others — about the city’s proposal to rezone 125th Street in Harlem. Much of this […]
Filed under: Architecture, Brooklyn, Decay, Disaster Footage, Drivel, Gentrification, Government, Knockbusters, New York City, Photography, Politicians, Retail, Ruins, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: 125th Street, City Plan, City Planning, Class, Gentrification, Harlem, Race, Stereotypes, The Times, Theresa
On Washington Heights Monopoly: 577 West 161st Street (or How To Run an Illegal Parking Lot)
In which The Gay Recluse reports on real estate in Washington Heights. A few weeks ago we reported on three vacant lots, two of which seem to be owned by a church and a third by a doctor’s office. Today, in response to reader e-mails, we thought we’d update you on the latest, which is […]
Filed under: Architecture, Bad Rock, Gentrification, Government, Monopoly, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 577 West 161st Street, Curb Cut Denial, Development, Doctors, Fences, Illegal Parking, Monopoly, Parking Lots, Pylons, Vacant Lots
In which The Gay Recluse wonders if Deborah Solomon thinks we’re impressed. (Because we’re not.) Usually we skip Deborah Solomon’s weekly interview in the Sunday Magazine, in which the notoriously harsh and arrogant New York Times critic tersely interrogates a publicity hound hawking a useless book about the latest nonsense du jour. But this week […]
Filed under: Architecture, Conspiracy, Drivel, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Asshole Republicans, Deborah Solomon, Gawker, Homophobia, New Media, Old Media, Rick Perry, Stereotypes, Texas, The Gays, The New York Times, The Straights
In which The Gay Recluse would like to think “outside the box.” Heating bills keep getting higher and higher, and despite global warming, there are days when it’s still very, very cold. Freezing air rushes through open windows, and we wonder: what can we possibly do about it? Any complex problem would seem to require […]
Filed under: Architecture, Infrastructure, New York City, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Efficiency, February, Heating Bills, Idiocy, Iraq, Oil, Problem Solving, Washington Heights, Wind, Windows
In which The Gay Recluse ponders two photographs of an immense white brick wall and doesn’t regret taking drugs. Photograph 1: Here we see one photograph of an immense white brick wall. Like 90 percent of the architecture in Washington Heights, it is thousands of years old and on the verge of collapse. Note how […]
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Obsession, Photography, Ruins, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bricks, Drugs, Hallucinogens, LSD, Magic Mushrooms, Patterns, Ruins, Tripping, Washington Heights, White Walls
In which The Gay Recluse reads the usually dependable City Room and says wtf. Yesterday City Room crapped out an astoundingly bad (and factually inaccurate) propaganda piece called “Should All of 125th Street Be Declared Historic?” in which they discuss a “proposal” — until now, completely unheard of (and for good reason) — being put […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Drivel, Gentrification, Knockbusters, New York City, Retail, The Gay Recluse, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adam Leitman Bailey, Audubon Ballroom, City Room, Crap, Harlem, Knockbusters, Lawyers, Malcolm X
In which The Gay Recluse responds (in italics) to reader comments. Dear The Gay Recluse: I also live in Washington Heights, and was led to your blog through curbed.com. I read your parody post On Our Eulogy for Tuck-It-Away Self-Storage with giddiness and glee! We like you already; this has been a banner day at […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Decay, Gentrification, Government, Infrastructure, Knockbusters, Letters, New York City, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Amsterdam Avenue, Boston Market, Columbia University, Curbed, Development, Rent-Stabilization, Rite-Aid, Saint Nicholas, Uptown, Useless Shit, Washington Heights
In which The Gay Recluse celebrates the demolition of an eyesore. Location: The intersection of Amsterdam and Saint Nicholas, between 162nd and 163rd Streets, in Washington Heights. Previously: We wish we had a photograph, but — alas! — a search through The Gay Recluse archives came up empty. Thus you will have to imagine a […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Knockbusters, Landscape, Photography, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Amsterdam Avenue, Camper Van Beethoven, Columbia University, English Elm, Knockbusters, Rite-Aid, Saint Nicholas, Useless Shit, Washington Heights
In which The Gay Recluse — with help from our United Kingdom correspondent, The London Eye — examines life abroad (instead of just dreaming about it all the time). Today, we contemplate the wall of a London Underground station and note striking similarities to some of the greatest uncommissioned masterpieces of New York City.
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Infrastructure, Subway, The London Eye | Leave a Comment
Tags: London Underground, New York City MTA, Ruins, Subway Walls, The London Eye
In which The Gay Recluse reports to the Board of Directors. Summary Results for January 2008 surpassed budgeted forecasts and represented significant growth for The Gay Recluse. It is expected that as editorial and production capacity of the site continues to expand, traffic will continue to trend upward, justifying additional capital investment into the operation. […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Gay, Infrastructure, Technology, The Gay Recluse, Traffic | Leave a Comment
Tags: Business Revenue, Feedburner, Feeds, Internet Traffic, Linkage, Metrix, Monthly Report, RSS, SiteMeter, Technorati, WordPress
In which The Gay Recluse ponders a sampling of recent search terms used to find the very pages you are now reading. Note: All search terms listed are in the exact form provided by WordPress.com, which is the host (at least for a while) of this blog. Hyperlinks to relevant posts included. Search: gay aristocracy […]
Filed under: Architecture, Athletes, Gay, Infrastructure, Language, Search, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times, Traffic, Writers-British | Leave a Comment
Tags: A Love Affaire with Nature, Architecture, Aristocracy, Beatrice, Cuties, Daniel Jones, ESPN, Frisbee, Gay Athletes, Gay Politicians, Gay Sex, Gay Stereotypes, Henry James, Hot Bears, Modern Lover, MTA, Pottery, Stereotypes, sweeties, The Cannanes, Tufts University, Vivienne
In which The Gay Recluse documents the exceedingly beautiful ruins of Washington Heights. Location: Audubon Terrace Address: Broadway between 155th and 156th Streets Remarks: Of all the exceedingly beautiful ruins in Washington Heights, perhaps none is more heartbreaking than Audubon Terrace. Not quite dead, it is like a great whale stranded on a beach; as […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Decay, Government, New York City, Politicians, Resignation, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: American Geographical Society, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Archer Milton Huntington, Audubon Terrace, Beaux Arts, Dominican Neighborhoods, The American Academy of Arts and Letters, The American Numismatic Society, The Hispanic Society, The Museum of the American Indian, The Smiths, Washington Heights
In which The Gay Recluse ponders a sampling of recent search terms used to find the very pages you are now reading. Note: All search terms listed are in the exact form provided by WordPress.com, which is the host (at least for a while) of this blog. Hyperlinks to relevant posts included. Search: disaster + […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gay, Politicians, Search, Stereotypes, Technology, The Gay Recluse, The Times, Writers-American, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Baudelaire, Bully, Cascadilla, Cornell, Cuties, Daniel Jones, Dead City, Disaster Footage, Don McLean, ESPN, Fiction, Gay Bears, Gaydar, Herbert Muschamp, Huckabee, Modern Love, Pottery, Spacemen 3, Spleen, Suicide, sweeties, Terry Bradshaw, Toothpaste
In which The Gay Recluse, with very little sarcasm or irony, reports on real estate in Washington Heights. Description: Triple-lot vacant land, long used as an illegal outdoor parking lot. Address: 573, 575 and 577 West 161st Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam. Total lot size = 60′ by 100′. Remarks: This site first sparked our […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Decay, Gentrification, Landscape, Monopoly, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 10032, Christian Orthodox, Columbia University, Department of Buildings, DOB, Monopoly, Real Estate, St. Mary Magdalen, Uptown
In which The Gay Recluse, with very little sarcasm or irony, reports on retail in Washington Heights. Development: Cigar Shop Address: 609 West 161st Street between Broadway and Fort Washington Remarks: Except for the famous quote — likely apocryphal — attributed to Sigmund Freud, we don’t know shit much about cigars except that they are […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Gentrification, Retail, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 10032, Cigars, Dominican Republic, Eileen Alexander, Sigmund Freud, Soberano Cigars, Uptown Gentrification, Washington Heights
Let’s imagine that your name is Rex Cole. You were born in 1887 in Port Huron, Michigan. You drop out of school at the age of 16 to become an electrician. Dissatisfied with the provincial life, you fight the tide of many millions and head east to New York City, where you save enough money […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Decay, History, New York City, Resignation, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Art Deco, Billboards, Biography, Economic Depression, General Electric, Refrigerators, Rex Cole, Showrooms
In which The Gay Recluse ponders a sampling of recent search terms used to find the very pages you are now reading. Note: All search terms listed are in the exact form provided by WordPress.com, which is the host (at least for a while) of this blog. Hyperlinks to relevant posts included. Search: gay stereotypes […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gay, Infrastructure, Language, Memory, Opera, Search, The Times, Traffic, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Beatrice, Clementines, Cornell, Crack House, Drug Lords, Edmund White, English Elm, Frank Rich, Gay Stereotypes, Geraldine Ferraro, Opera, SUV, Theta Drug
The Gay Recluse 