Archive for the ‘Capitalism’ Category

In which Dante and Zephyr take over The Gay Recluse. Empty shell + stray kitten = daily heartache. Friends, not every cat is a lolcat…


In which The Gay Recluse reports on monthly traffic whoring metrix to the Board of Directors. I. Summary The month of July was our third best on record, and despite some anemic posting marked our entrance into the Technorati Top 100,000! OMG, when you find out why, you’ll understand why we were such total traffic […]


In which The Gay Recluse visits a friend’s garden. Sometimes we long for more gardening space, so that we could enjoy exploding swaths of bee balm every July. But then we would have to drive everywhere. And our head would be filled with dangerous little songs. Don’t get me wrong, i think it’s terrible to […]


In which The Gay Recluse mercilessly slays giants. Hey, remember that stupid Nike ad we complained about last week? Guess what? According to a Reuters report, Nike is taking it down. From Reuters: The Oregonian’s report published on Saturday quoted a Nike spokesman, Bob Applegate, saying three separate poster and billboard ads would be taken […]


In which The Gay Recluse throws out his running shoes and says wtf. According to our Harlem correspondent Neskers, the below ad is plastered all over phone booths in his neighborhood: We’d like to say fuck you, Nike, and all the advertising geniuses who created this piece of shit. Srsly, unbelievable. Nike should be forced […]


In which The Jane Austen Watch checks in with The Gay Recluse. So we’re always hassling our correspondents to submit more material and believe it or not, sometimes it works! Today, for example, The Jane Austen Watch filed this report from her beat in Queens: I took some pictures of the tiles at this diner […]


In which The Gay Recluse reports to the Board of Directors on monthly traffic-whoring metrix. I. Summary June marked our third best month on record, and — in light of limited time investment into the site — represents a promising long-term trend. If we’re ever in a position to start posting with renewed frequency, we […]


In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with manhole covers. Location: Edgecomb Avenue and 159th Street Is this the best manhole cover ever? Perhaps it is. We could stare at this for a thousand years, on or off drugs. Whenever anyone asks me for something to put into a time capsule, I tell them […]


In which The Gay Recluse is rendered delirious by delays. As we were waiting at the Pittsburgh airport, we were struck by the unexpected beauty of this stone riverbed. And this one, too. It wasn’t too hard to imagine that we were out west somewhere. But only if we didn’t let the scope of our […]


In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly dies of lung cancer. Chronic pollution is a lot like chronic pain. You know it’s there but it’s hard to get rid of. Particularly when everyone’s doing it! Sometimes it blows right in the window. And makes us wish we lived in Vermont. The oily black smoke of […]


In which The Gay Recluse sees remnants of craft in the morning commute. This is where we stand every morning to wait for the train. And dream of stenciling this pattern onto the walls of our office.


In which The Gay Recluse asks The Central Park Conservancy to rethink its mailing-list purchases. So a few days ago we received a personal note from Douglas Blonsky, President, Central Park Conservancy and Central Park Administrator. Here it is, with our favorite excerpts! Dear Matthew: I imagine you treasure Central Park for the oasis that […]


On Orchids

13Jun08

In which The Gay Recluse admires orchids. Orchids have a reputation for being “difficult” plants, which is one reason we love them. We always feel a little sad to see them on display in office buildings, knowing that as soon as the blooms begin to show a little fatigue, the entire plant will almost certainly […]


In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with MHCs (“manhole covers”). Location: Broadway and 161st, Washington Heights This pattern would look great anywhere, but mostly in the hospitals and office buildings. Whenever anyone asks me for something to put into a time capsule, I tell them not to bother. The manhole covers will last […]


In which The Gay Recluse hears a song from another life. Yesterday we turned on the stereo in our basement. We hadn’t played it in years. Miraculously, it worked! The receiver and speakers are from ninth grade. Hey computers! Sometimes bigger analog speakers still sound better! More miraculous was that a CD was already in […]


In which The Gay Recluse finds a silver lining. We’ve already written about our bad karma at the 34th Street Station, which is filled with ungainly chrome columns and awkward ramps. But just the other day, we noticed an infinite wall of gold tile. We’re not sure why it took us two years to find. […]


In which The Vermonter, a former New Yorker who has retired to the rural life, checks in with The Gay Recluse. Recently we heard from our friend The Vermonter, who had this to say: I love manhole covers! I have been photographing them for years! Here are some favorites from a few years back… Whoas! […]


In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. Today we heard from reader Torrey, who wanted us to know that Columbus Circle offers more than just a high-end shopping experience: it has some hot gay statuary! Let’s check it out, shall we? Hey, this guy proves you don’t have to be hung like […]


In which The Gay Recluse rejoices over the end of gentrification in Washington Heights. Rejoice, kind and courageous foes of gentrification! For those many of you who have added your voice to the cause — i.e., our allies in lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and other gentrified neighborhoods around the city who have never ceased to warn us […]


In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with manhole covers. Here’s something you won’t typically read about in guidebooks to Berlin: the capital of Germany has some freakin’ kickass manhole covers! This is pretty much our favorite manhole cover these days. At 4′ by 4′, it’s not small, either.