Archive for the ‘Architecture’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. Recently we heard from Mike, an American expat (and blogger!) living in Denmark who writes: I didn’t know about your blog this summer when I went to Florence, but now that blog-whoring’s brought us together, here’s a humble contribution: Though we’ve already covered Florence — […]
Filed under: Architecture, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Landscape, Photography, Pleasure | 4 Comments
Tags: Denmark, Expats, Florence, Hercules and Caucus, Photographic Eye
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 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 holds a contest. Sort of. Today reader (and blogger and Twitterer par excellence) Atherton Bartelby kindly sent in the following note, just days before leaving Hawaii for the mainland (or whatever we’re called over here). Atherton writes: I finally snapped a photograph of one of the Hot Gay Statues on […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Landscape, Search | 3 Comments
On the City Pattern Project: On the Internet, the Lost Dreams of Youth Are Just One Click Away
In which The Gay Recluse remembers life as an indie rocker. After obsessing about the Hipster Runoff review of TV on the Radio for the past two days, we realized that it had sent us into a retroactive identity crisis. It was as if it were fifteen years ago, and we were just starting a […]
Filed under: Architecture, Bad Rock, City Pattern Project, Conspiracy, Decay, Memory, Nostalgia, Obsession | 3 Comments
Tags: Hipster Runoff, Music Reviews, Teevee on the Radio, The Olds, The Youngs
In which The Gay Recluse maybe becomes slightly more technically adept. Yesterday we took some footage of the snowstorm — or actually the aftermath — and made two vidoes with commentary. We had some technical diffs, though, so wanted to post them again in case anyway tried to click through and was harshly rebuffed! 1) […]
Filed under: Architecture, Subway, Technology, The Winter Garden, Video, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Housekeeping, Snowstorms, Technical Diffs, Vlogging
On Ludwig
In which The Gay Recluse loves Luchino Visconti best. In Ludwig, Luchino Visconti’s four-hour treatment of the 19th-century King of Bavaria, we are introduced to the king as a young man, but learn almost immediately — in what feels like a flash-forward — that he will eventually be dethroned by the state legislature for maybe being insane. […]
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Dissonance, Film, Gay, Obsession, Opera, Resignation, Ruins | 3 Comments
Tags: Bavaria, Kings, Luchino Visconti, Ludwig, Richard Wagner
In which The Gay Recluse reads a book of signs. One strange thing about growing up in Pittsburgh was that even before we lived anywhere else, we used to say that it — i.e., Pittsburgh — was haunted. But when people would ask us why, we were at a loss to explain: either you got […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Disease, Dissonance, Dream, Faith, Knockbusters, Landscape, Obsession, The Times, Washington Heights | 4 Comments
Tags: Books, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh Signs Project, Pop Culture, Signs, Walter Benjamin
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. For most of us, repetition is an unavoidable facet of modern life; we might even go as far as to say that it’s been like this as long as we have lived in one village or town or city. When we were […]
Filed under: Addiction, Architecture, Benefits of Being Gay, Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Communism, Conspiracy, Dissonance, Faith, Gay, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Obsession, Pessimism, Resignation, Travel | 1 Comment
Tags: Cities, iPods, Laptops, Powerbooks, Repetition, The George Washington Bridge, The Will, Villages
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 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
In which The Gay Recluse lives in the past. Our favorite part of Thanksgiving this year was not the food, but the table,* particularly after it was set and waited patiently in the late afternoon sun. Accompanied by the cats, we spent quite a few minutes quietly circling the table, observing the way the light […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Food, GWB Project, History, Memory, New York City, Nostalgia, Washington Heights, Weather | 1 Comment
Tags: Bygones, Community Plate, Grosvenor, Table Service, Thanksgiving
In which The Gay Recluse remembers an old obsession with the color red. Years ago, we went through a phase when we wore only red shirts. But here’s the thing: you couldn’t find any good ones that were new, so we were required to scour used-clothing shops all over the country in a mostly vain […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gay, Health, Longing, Memory, New York City, Obsession, Ruins, Washington Heights | 1 Comment
Tags: Art Nouveau, Doorways, Flannel, Red, Seattle, Shirts, Tours, Vintage Clothing Shoes, Wrought Iron
In which The Gay Recluse covers the teen beat. We first noticed this trend at the beginning of the summer, when we were walking past a group of kids — including some girls, which was extra cool! — on Fort Washington Avenue, all of whom were messing around with skateboards. Then we noticed a regular […]
Filed under: Architecture, Athletes, Memory, New York City, Photography, Stereotypes, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Baseball, Ghettos, Skateboard, Surfing, Teen Beat, Teenagers, The George Washington Bridge, Trends
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. Some mornings the pigeons arrive en masse and circle the rooftops over Washington Heights. One minute the sky will be blank, and the next it will be filled with birds — somehow they move as a single entity — careening like a speed boat on […]
Filed under: Animals, Architecture, GWB Project, Landscape, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Flocks, November, Pigeons, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse wonders who made this stuff up, and not without appreciation. “I like your style” is kinda funny, but the back of the bottle is where things get good. “Wow. That’s some great looking hair you have.” Did you lol? We did. For some reason it never ceases to amuse us. […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Dissonance, Language | 2 Comments
Tags: Copywriters, Great Looking Hair, Pert Plus
In which The Gay Recluse gets an answer. Hey, remember those awesome art-installation storefronts in Washington Heights? Our friends at Uptown Flavor just wrote to tell us that they’re part of an initiative sponsored by the West Harlem Art Fund.
Filed under: Architecture, Landscape, Retail, Washington Heights | 1 Comment
Tags: Storefronts, Uptown Flavor, WaHi, West Harlem Art Fund
The Gay Recluse 