Archive for the ‘Faith’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with tiled rooftops.* According to Wikipedia, the rooftop of the Stephansdom in Vienna contains over 230,000 tiles. It was originally built in the Middle Ages and then — after it was destroyed by fire at the end of WWII — rebuilt in 1952 with the help of […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Dissonance, Dream, Faith, History, Knockbusters, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Austria, Google Images, Life, Profits, Robots, Sadness, Spreadsheets, St. Stephen's Cathedral, Stephansdom, Vienna, Work
On a Valentine’s Day Tower
In which The Gay Recluse remembers subtle forms of fourth-grade terror. It’s not hard to remember a phase we went through in elementary school, specifically fourth and fifth grade (and possibly sixth, although even now it pains us to think about this) when each Valentine’s Day, we took it upon ourselves to make increasingly elaborate […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, Drag Queens, Dream, Faith, Gay, Health, Longing, Memory, Pessimism, Ruins | 1 Comment
Tags: Elementary School, Ghey, Terror, Towers, Valentine's Day
On the Search for Spring
In which The Gay Recluse dreams about the garden. When the February blues hit — and considering this winter, how could they not? — we like to immerse ourselves into dreams of spring, which entails many hours in the seed and plant catalogs. Though our garden is dominated by perennials, bushes and trees designed to […]
Filed under: Dream, Faith, Longing, New York City, The Spring Garden, The Summer Garden, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Annuals, Flowering Tobacco, Perennials, Salvia, Sunfower, Zinnia
In which The Gay Recluse reads Roberto Bolaño in stages. In our experience, one test of a great novel is whether you find yourself altered as you ingest the text, so that your mental dialog seems to be narrated by the writer in question. This is one of the strengths of the form, to the […]
Filed under: Dream, Faith, Literature, Search | 1 Comment
Tags: 2666, Novels, Roberto Bolaño, The Part About the Critics, Windbags
On Sunday Afternoon
In which The Gay Recluse dreams of spring. With the afternoon light streaming through the windows, it was easy to believe.
Filed under: Architecture, Dream, Faith, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Shoes, Spring, Sunlight, Winter
In which The Gay Recluse looks out windows. Eventually we reached an age when we could no longer think about the larger world except with terror; it was too complicated and cruel, and every time we tried to engage it we returned defeated and misunderstood. Our own trajectory, combined with an examination of world history […]
Filed under: Faith, History, Literature, Longing, Memory, Philosophers | Leave a Comment
Tags: Candle Holders, Schopenhauer, Sky
In which The Tsarina takes over The Gay Recluse on Christmas Eve. The Tsarina would like to extend her holiday greetings to her fellow Russian Blues, Dante and Zephyr. (As for human beings, she remains extremely ambivalent.) She notes that she prefers the full sofa to the smaller love seat.
Filed under: Animals, Conspiracy, Faith, The Russian Blue | Leave a Comment
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 becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. So today we read a most excellent post on marriage at Emily Magazine, which we strongly recommend (and not just because we’re quoted at some length in it, lol!) We have to wonder, is it a coincidence that the only two bloggers to link into […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Dissonance, Faith, Gay, Government, Language, Pessimism, Philosophers | Leave a Comment
Tags: Civil Union for All, Ellie Smeal, Femiladyism, Gay Bffs, Gay Marriage, Marriage, N.O.W., Seagulls, The Hudson River
In which The Gay Recluse is appeased. So remember how the BBC invited us on their radio show and made it seem like we were some random caller and not The Gay Recluse? Well, they responded to our complaint with the following message: I’m sorry your blog wasn’t mentioned. I’ve added a link to your […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Faith, Language, Law, Letters, Longing, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Apologies, BBC, Blog Wars, Sweet Linkage, Traffic Whoring
On The Metropolis Case
In which Matthew Gallaway aka your local gay recluse gets a book deal. Eight or nine years ago, we decided to write a novel. It was actually our second attempt; the first one — a satirical look at internet start-up culture in the late 90s — we had retired to the desk drawer after sending […]
Filed under: Animals, Capitalism, Dissonance, Dream, Faith, Infrastructure, Landscape, Language, Literature, Weather, Writers-American | 15 Comments
Tags: Agents, Book Deals, Editors, Matt Gallaway, Matthew Gallaway, The Metropolis Case
On My Bloody Valentine
In which The Gay Recluse passes up the chance of a lifetime. Did you hear? Tonight My Bloody Valentine is playing at Roseland. They’ve always been one of our favorite bands. Loveless is a masterpiece; dissonant, propulsive and melodic, it changed rock, or least provided an important delineation. The way great pieces of art will […]
Filed under: Decay, Dissonance, Dream, Faith, Good Rock, Longing, Memory, Nostalgia | 1 Comment
Tags: Irving Plaza, Loveless, Mission of Burma, My Bloody Valentine, Reunions, Roseland
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 The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times. Paul Krugman/Taming the Beast The Short Version: We need financial reform. So far none of the candidates seem to have noticed. In his words: “But you don’t have to be an economic radical, or even a vocal reformer like Representative Barney Frank… to […]
Filed under: Drivel, Faith, Gentrification, Government, History, Language, Politicians, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cohen, Death, Financial Markets, Kristol, Krugman, Obama, Race, Reform, The New York Times
In which The Gay Recluse makes a clarification. Reader Gary Budlong (apparently new to The Gay Recluse) wrote the following comment in response to our most recent “mash-up” of the Modern Love column in The Times. dear pete, thank you. i’m 61, disabled, retired and gay. my partner has died 5 years ago. knew i […]
Filed under: Disaster Footage, Faith, Gay, Landscape, Language, Letters, Resignation, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Fashion & Style, Gay, Gay Modern Love, Gay Stereotypes, Gay Voice, Gay Writers, Homophobia, Lesbian, Modern Love, The New York Times
On the Gawker Executions
In which The Gay Recluse — in case you missed it — reports on today’s media frenzy. So get this: today Gawker “executed” four of its “more-stupid-than-funny” commenters, three of whom we specifically targeted in the post we wrote yesterday about (get out your pencils and paper) Gawker’s original post about Chris Crocker. Say what […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Drag Queens, Faith, Gay, Law, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Chris Crocker, Conformity, Executions, Free Speech, Gawker, Homophobosphere, Velvet Rope
The Gay Recluse 