Archive for the ‘Infrastructure’ Category
In which The Chaos Detective concludes his European assignment in Paris. Watch on Facebook. THE CHAOS DETECTIVE is a teevee series for the internet. “City of Dreams” is a five-part episode set in Europe. Future episodes will be located in New York City. City of Dreams (Part 1) City of Dreams (Part 2) City of […]
Filed under: Architecture, Conspiracy, Decay, History, Infrastructure, Landscape, Subway, Technology, The Chaos Detective, Video, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: City of Dreams, Fog, Paris, Teevee
In which The Gay Recluse helps the United States in a time of crisis. Today was a tough day on Capitol Hill, where the topic of hot gay statues was taken up and — as usual — soundly defeated. Fortunately, the issue is not entirely moot, and reader Tyler Green was kind enough to point […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Competitions, Gay, Government, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Politicians | Leave a Comment
Tags: Capitol Hill, D.C., Depressions, Federal Trade Commission, Man Controlling Trade, Michael Lantz, Stimulus Plans, Washington
In which The Gay Recluse wonders why David Brooks is still in office. Ohai! We thought we’d play a lil game in which we pull quotes from three pieces about the exurbs, two written in 2k4 by David Brooks in The Times — “Take a Ride to Exurbia” on the opinion page and “Our Sprawling, […]
Filed under: Addiction, Capitalism, Drivel, History, Infrastructure, Knockbusters, Landscape, Quotes, Stereotypes, The Times | 3 Comments
Tags: Cities, David Brooks, Exurbs, Shallow Optimism
On the Search for Relevance
In which The Gay Recluse questions his brand. When we started blogging, we didn’t really know anything about the internet, much less “bloggable memes.” Until then, like most people in our demographic, we had spent our time on nytimes.com and our “Yahoo home page.” But we quickly discovered internet traffic, and modified the blog to […]
Filed under: Addiction, Dissonance, Gay, Gentrification, Infrastructure, Longing, Search, Traffic | 4 Comments
Tags: Bloggable Memes, David Beckham, Google Ads, Identity Crisis, The Guy Recluse
On The Part About Fate (2666)
In which The Gay Recluse reads Roberto Bolaño in stages. In the third book of Roberto Bolaño’s epic 2666, we leave behind the maybe-psychotic descent into madness of Professor Amalfitano for a broader type of madness known as the fringes of modern/capitalistic civilization. Bolaño does this by way of a Harlem-based reporter who goes by […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Conspiracy, Infrastructure, Literature, Search, Sickness, Writers-Chilean | Leave a Comment
Tags: 2666, Boxing, Fate, Mexico, Murder, Noir, Roberto Bolaño
On the Wahi Knockbusters Report: Why Did the City Tear Down Our Only Luxury Condominium Development?
In which The Gay Recluse remembers 2k6. In this weekend’s City Section of The Times, we learned that the city recently tore down the only luxury condominium development in Washington Heights, located on an undeveloped patch of land under the George Washington Bridge overpass. Nestled in the trees and rock formations, the site had promised […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Conspiracy, Gentrification, Infrastructure, Knockbusters, Landscape, The Times, Washington Heights | 4 Comments
Tags: City Section, Columbia Medical, Hooverville, Luxury Condominiums, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse orders Sachertorte. In the United States — except for the rare exception — there is a well-documented dearth of hot gay statues. Occasionally you’ll see a statue and think, “hmm, he’s a lil gay.” (Or she, obv.) Or: “Why is that guy’s head between that other guy’s legs? It’s not […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Competitions, Conspiracy, History, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Landscape, Search, Sickness, Stereotypes, Travel | 5 Comments
Tags: Audubon Terrace, Bravo, David Beckham, Franz Liszt, Gonzagagasse, Johann Strauss, Models, NSFW, Pablo Picasso, Parliament, The L-Word, Vienna
In which The Gay Recluse goes to Paris. One thing that never seems to change in Paris: the booksellers — les bouquinistes — that line the banks of the Seine. These are the ones who operate out of those green metal boxes that sit atop the balustrade. Obviously this could never exist in the United States; […]
Filed under: Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Communism, Decay, Dream, Flatware, Infrastructure, Landscape, Search, Travel | 5 Comments
Tags: Booksellers, Bouquinistes, Comics, Paris, Seine
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 produces a teevee series on the internets. The Chaos Detective: City of Dreams (Part 2) In this episode, Chaos Detective Lasalle arrives in Vienna and embarks on his first assignment. [Note: if you click thru to YouTube, be sure to watch in “high-quality”: otherwise it’s kinda blurry/fuzzy!] THE CHAOS DETECTIVE […]
Filed under: Conspiracy, Dissonance, Dream, Infrastructure, Landscape, Longing, Ruins, Search, The Chaos Detective, Travel | 2 Comments
Tags: Cafe Central, Sachertorte, St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna
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 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
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 holds a contest. Sort of. We are quite pleased to tell you that our favorite art blogger C-Monster has recently been documenting the hot-gay-statue scene in Los Angeles, where in addition to the University of Southern California, some of the hottest gay statues in history have been cropping up at […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Travel | 4 Comments
Tags: Bronze, Getty Villa, Greek Statuary, Los Angeles, Victorious Youth
In which The Gay Recluse clarifies his thoughts on gay marriage after years of skirting the issue. Since we are gay and in a long-term relationship — almost ten years! — we are constantly besieged by frenz and relatives with questions that more or less could be summed up as this: “Oh it’s so sweet that you’re […]
Filed under: Disease, Dissonance, Drag Queens, Drivel, Gay, Government, Infrastructure, Landscape, Language, Law, Pessimism, Politicians | 5 Comments
Tags: Civil Unions, Gay Marriage, Marriage, Semantics
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Sometimes we think about what Manhattan looked like 500 years ago. When it was covered with trees and rivers and lakes. In some ways it was probably a lot more beautiful, or at least unspoiled. It was hard to get a taxi […]
Filed under: Architecture, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Landscape, Memory, New York City | Leave a Comment
Tags: Boats, Manhattan, Shorelines, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with manhole covers. Sometimes when you brush away the leaves and organic debris, you find a manhole cover from 10,000 years ago, when New York City was first being constructed. Whenever anyone asks me for something to put into a time capsule, I tell them not to […]
Filed under: Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Infrastructure | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andy Warhol, Leaves, Manhole Covers, Patterns
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
The Gay Recluse 