Archive for the ‘Drivel’ Category
Unlike The Times, which in honor of today’s Halloween festivities speculated about paranormal activity in different luxury apartment buildings around the city — e.g., The Ansonia, The Dakota — we are more inclined to look at the question from a slightly different angle; to wit: is there anyone who walks down Broadway between 96th and […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Gentrification, Landscape, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bank of America, Chase Manhattan, CVS, Duane Reade, Halloween, New York Times, Upper West Side, Washington Mutual
Is there any doubt that one did not lead directly to the other, that our collective misery in Bush’s incapable but malevolent hands is only slightly more extreme than it was twenty years ago when we were in the same situation with Reagan? Those who defend Reagan but criticize Bush display a disregard of history […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, History, Philosophers, Politicians, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Arthur Schopenhauer, George W. Bush, Jean-Jaques Rousseau, Ronald Reagan
We turn again to New York Times critic Edward Rothstein — who today wrote about the “irrelevance of gayness” with regard to the fictional wizard Albus Dumbledore –and shake our heads in wonder and dismay: how did such an arrogant, presumptuous blockhead get a PhD? a job with the Times? We must conclude that it […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Obsession, Philosophers, The Times, Writers-German | Leave a Comment
Tags: Albus Dumbledore, Edward Rothstein, Gay, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer
In today’s Times, we are told by critic Edward Rothstein with regard to Albus Dumbledore that the question of the wizard’s “gayness” is “irrelevant” and “distracting” given the character’s later vows of celibacy and his more high-minded efforts to save the world. Here we have a perfect example of the sort of tepid, mediocre and […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, History, Obsession, The Gay Recluse, The Times, Writers-American | 1 Comment
Tags: Albus Dumbledore, Criticism, Edward Rothstein, Fiction, Gay, History, The Times, Writing
In a profile included in this month’s Poets & Writers Magazine, Benjamin Percy — a young American genius said to have written the “story of the year” in 2006 — tells us: “I am interested in this new masculinity in today’s society, what distinguishes us as men and as women besides our biology. No longer […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Literature, Sickness, Writers-American, Writers-British | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alan Hollinghurst, Benjamin Percy, Masculinity, Refresh Refresh, Swimming Pool Library
Here we take offense with Andrew Sullivan‘s unthinking assertion that “[f]or all his many faults, [Rudy Giuliani] turned a city around.” Rather than rebut this ourselves, however, we turn to the infinitely more eloquent and compelling words of Herbert Muschamp, who sadly is no longer with us to tell the truth, which resonates in ways […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Infrastructure, Memory, Sickness | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Giuliani, Herbert Muschamp, New York City
On The OC Bakery and Cafe
Have you not seen the latest symptom of this noxious scourge of gentrification, this affront to our community? Have you not been outraged as you approach the corner of Edgecombe Avenue and 159th Street by the sight of a rainbow-colored umbrella and outdoor tables, where you can drink a cup of coffee and enjoy a […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Gay, Gentrification, Pleasure, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Community, Croissants, Gay, Gentrification, Patisserie, Sugar Hill, The OC Bakery and Cafe, Washington Heights
Thank you, Human Rights Campaign, not only for sending us such a meaningful letter this week encouraging us to come out, but for being so discreet about it! There was not a single thing on the plain-white envelope — not even your name! — that could have identified either of us as “gay”! (But thank […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Pessimism, Politicians | Leave a Comment
Tags: Gay, Human Rights Campaign, Junk Mail, National Coming Out Day
Today on the way up Whiteface Mountain, we stopped to take in the view and were surprised when a hawk suddenly appeared above the treeline. It flew toward us and landed on a nearby boulder; in its beak it carried a single sheet of paper, which we were equally surprised to learn — after the […]
Filed under: Drivel, Memory, Travel, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adirondacks, Albertine, Marcel Proust, Milan Kundera, Whiteface Mountain
Thank you so very much for your keen insight and generosity, your willingness to come all the way up here to protect us! Your words have been so reassuring; we feel so much better knowing that you will do everything in your power — including next week’s important meeting with the mayor — to prevent […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, Drivel, Gentrification, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Gentrification, New York City, Washington Heights
Today we read about Exit Ghost (Houghton Mifflin, 2007), Philip Roth’s new book in which his alter ego Zuckerman is said to be (ahem) a recluse, which led us to think he might at least be on familiar terms with the sublime metaphorical/metaphysical qualities so critical to the reclusive state. We wondered if it were […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Pessimism, Resignation, Writers-American, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: 9/11, Fiction, Joris-Karl Huysmans, Philip Roth, Technology
Thank you, New York Times, thank you! In your recently published article, “Despite Denials, Gays Insist They Exist, if Quietly, in Iran,” you have finally proved just how wrong President Ahmadinejad was when he claimed that his country contained not even a single gay recluse! Before we read this brilliant piece of investigative journalism, we […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Pleasure, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Iran, Larry Craig, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, The New York Times
In response to the criticism by us and many others of her article on Thelma and Louise, Judith Warner in her latest column in The Times has come back to the table, prepared to admit how “shocked” she was by the reaction, but nevertheless maintaining that “[since] the 1970s and 1980s… I [can] attest to […]
Filed under: Drivel, Pessimism, The Times, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Judith Warner, New York Times, Schopenhauer, Thelma and Louise, Washington Heights
On the Rape of Pittsburgh
In today’s Times, we read an opinion piece — “Where Everybody Knows Your Team” — by an author who grew up in Pittsburgh and — having now returned — wants us to know how watching the Steelers has long been an important thread of her life. “As any native can tell you,” she declares, “we […]
Filed under: Addiction, Capitalism, Drivel, Infrastructure, Sickness, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Chuck Noll, Dwight White, Franco Harris, Lynn Swann, NFL, Pittsburgh, Terry Bradshaw, The New York Times, The Steelers
Nor, with regard to the Times’ coverage of the murder trial in Brooklyn, can we resist commenting on the following description of the courtroom: “All of them [i.e., the defendants] were watched by a vibrant cultural divide of a spectators’ gallery. To one side, dressed in conservative attire, sat supporters of the defendants, arriving from […]
Filed under: Drivel, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Freedom, Picea Omorika Pendula, Senator Larry Craig, Sheepshead Bay, Trademark Infringment
The Gay Recluse 