Archive for the ‘Dissonance’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse is officially one year old. So guess what! We made it through an entire year. For us, that meant 696 posts, 549 comments, 95 categories, 2,617 tags and 96,339 total views. It’s true that we were a traffic whore at times. Which we don’t regret, but lately we haven’t had […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, Health, History, Longing, Memory, Ruins, Search, The Gay Recluse | 6 Comments
Tags: Birthdays, Cities, Orchids, Solitude
In which The Gay Recluse records and tumbles. Hey fans of the British Invasion (by which we mean the one with Spacemen 3 and My Bloody Valentine)! Why not tumble on over to the latest in Saturnine Death Culture at Sea — recorded by us like five seconds ago on this very laptop — where […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Capitalism, Communism, Death Culture at Sea, Dissonance, Dream, Good Rock, Photography, Pleasure, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Evergreens, New Songs, Saturnine
In which The Gay Recluse ponders the Hills and the empty rooms of his past. So tonight we watched the most recent episode of the Hills. The first part was about Audrina. She had to help promote some horrible band for her job. She invited Lauren, who — now that they are on better terms […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Dream, History, Longing, Memory, Television | 2 Comments
Tags: Audrina, Couches, Empty Rooms, Fans, Heidi, Lauren, Lo, Spencer, The Hills
In which The Gay Recluse reflects on those who died on 9/10 and 9/12. Every year on 9/11, our thoughts inevitably drift to those who died on 9/10 and 9/12. And whether their deaths were any more or less tragic than those so aggressively memorialized. Those who try to elevate themselves on the shoulders of […]
Filed under: Animals, Disease, Dissonance, Government, Longing, Quotes, Resignation | 3 Comments
Tags: 9/11, Death, Mozart
In which The Gay Recluse braces for the inevitable. This past week has been very depressing to us. You just get the feeling that the election is already slipping away. It’s not like we think Obama is going to save us or anything. But when was the last time we had a major candidate who […]
Filed under: Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Communism, Dissonance, Government, Landscape, Longing, Resignation | 2 Comments
Tags: Andy Warhol, God, Manhole Covers
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Time/Date: June 28th, around 7:00pm. Before the storm. During the storm. After the storm. Othmar H. Ammann designed the bridge with a new theory at the time called deflection theory. This allowed him to increase the span length due to less weight […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, GWB Project, The Gay Recluse, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Othmar H. Ammann, Storms, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse resigns himself to the inevitable. When Modern Love first launched in The Times however many years ago, we were initially intrigued by the premise of the column, which like some of the best reality television seemed to offer the potential to break down the stereotypes that are the currency of […]
Filed under: Animals, Disease, Dissonance, Gay, Good Rock, Ruins, Sickness, Stereotypes, Technology, Television, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Gawker, Gay Modern Love, Modern Love, Morrissey, Retirement, The New York Times, The Smiths
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 […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Dissonance, Infrastructure, Landscape, Photography, The Gay Recluse, Travel | 2 Comments
Tags: Airports, Cigarettes, Gum, Jails, Pittsburgh, Riverbeds
In which The Gay Recluse compares and contrasts. Recently we stumbled across a review of The Curtain, Milan Kundera’s 2007 collection of essays about the art of the novel. We found the review notable 1) for its pretentious language and 2) for its failure to acknowledge what is really a rather shockingly homophobic passage in the book. Let’s start with the […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Dissonance, Drivel, Language, Literature, Pessimism, The Gay Recluse, Writers-French | 14 Comments
Tags: Critics, Homophobia, Milan Kundera, The Curtain
On a Sudden Yet Completely Explicable Desire To Tell the Central Park Conservancy To Shut Up
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 […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Conspiracy, Dissonance, Drivel, New York City, Resignation, Ruins, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 4 Comments
Tags: Central Park Conservancy, Douglas Blonsky, Fundraising
On Orchids
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 […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Dissonance, Orchids, Pessimism, The Gay Recluse, Writers-French | 4 Comments
Tags: Huysmans, Office Buildings, Orchids
In which The Gay Recluse describes a trip to hell the gym. And speaking of music, we’ve already described our general aversion to the inexplicably horrendous 1970s AOR rock our gym sometimes plays, but today marked a special occasion: yes! they played “Stairway To Heaven.” Which might not have been so bad under different circumstances; […]
Filed under: Athletes, Bad Rock, Dissonance, Gay, Memory, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Arena Rock, Babes, Gyms, Hell, Led Zeppelin, Stairway To Heaven, Stereo, Zoso
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasing obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Date/Time of Photographs: June 9, 2008/7am-ish. Notes: We’re still getting used to our new computer. Which is why some of these pictures look a little warped. We kind of like them like that, though. They’re more reflective of the real world. I, […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, GWB Project, Health, Photography, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Big Sky, Heat Waves, Morning Light, The George Washington Bridge, Warped
On the Arrival of Summer Torpor
In which The Gay Recluse languishes. Yesterday we went for a run, even though it was 156 degrees out. When we were young, we laughed at the heat. Let’s just say we’re not as young as we used to be! Today we’re not going anywhere. Even though we’re kind of in the mood for a […]
Filed under: Animals, Dissonance, Dream, Photography, The Gay Recluse, The Russian Blue, Weather | 5 Comments
Tags: Coffee, Dante, Donuts, Heat Waves, Jogging, Running, Summer, Torpor, Zephyr
In which The Gay Recluse presents a gay alternative to this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Those looking for our quantitative analysis should click here. Gay Modern Love Let’s Not Get to Know Each Other Better, Let’s Just Fuck By JOEL WALKOWSKI and THE GAY RECLUSE Published: June 7, 2008 A FEW months […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Dissonance, Drivel, Gay, Search, Sickness, Stereotypes, Technology, The Gay Recluse, The Times | 8 Comments
Tags: Assholes, Butt Munches, Feelings, Feminine, Gay Modern Love, Homophobia, Joel Walkowski, Losers, Masculine, Modern Love, Straights
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. […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Communism, Dissonance, Gentrification, New York City, Subway, The Gay Recluse | 2 Comments
Tags: 34th Street, Berlin, Chrome Columns, D-Train, Karma, MTA, Ramps
In which The Gay Recluse looks up and sees maps. Sometimes it’s easy to forget how arbitrary time is. Like yesterday when we were rushing for the subway (and missed it). And then stepped into the elevator at work with five other people and of course everyone pressed the button for a different floor. We […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Dream, Faith, Landscape, Longing, Pessimism, Photography, The Spring Garden | 4 Comments
Tags: Columnar Pin Oaks, Continental Drift, Leaves, Maps, Sky
In which Dante and Zephyr take over The Gay Recluse. Friends! We would like to draw your attention to the following comment and conundrum we received today from Reader GhengisKuhn, who writes: Having tracked “not every cat is a lolcat” back to its root, I (a sporadic reader) would like to present you with a […]
Filed under: Animals, Dissonance, Letters, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, The Gay Recluse | 2 Comments
Tags: Assistants, Dante, Linguistics, Lolcat, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, Racism, Zephyr
The Gay Recluse 
On the George Washington Bridge Project: June 17, 2008 (Special Pansy Edition)
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Time of Photographs: June 17, 2008, sunset. Today some guy called us a “pansy” on Curbed. Our feelings were hurt! Lol. We’re still kind of weak, but living in Washington Heights for ten years has toughened us up. The Gay Recluse is […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Disease, Dissonance, Drivel, Gay, GWB Project, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 3 Comments
Tags: Anonymous Commenters, Coming Out Stories, Pansies, Self-Hatred, Sucking Dick, The George Washington Bridge, Weakness