Archive for the ‘Infrastructure’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly dies of lung cancer as he becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. The oily black smoke of 100-year-old boilers disperses daily across the rooftops in Washington Heights, heedless of those (including birds) who suffer from pneumonia, asthma and tuberculosis. Officials and politicians? Not even footnotes in this story, which […]
Filed under: Animals, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Photography, Politicians, Sickness, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Asthma, Birds, Bridges, Cancer, George Washington Bridge, Rooftops
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. Today we received an interesting submission from Reader Troy, who writes to us from Pittsburgh: I have an important question for The Gay Recluse. In the Pittsburgh airport there is a statue of Franco Harris, who I have no reason to believe is gay. Yet […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Letters, Search | 4 Comments
Tags: Airports, Franco Harris, Hot Gay Statues, Pittsburgh, Steelers
In which The Gay Recluse suggests a link. The most beautiful ads are always for dead companies. Like this one we recently took on 35th Street between 5th and 6th Avenue. Does this company still exist? We hope not, because we don’t want to have to think about buying anything. New York City is filled […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Conspiracy, Decay, Disease, Dissonance, Dream, Gay, Graffiti, Health, History, Infrastructure, Landscape, Longing, Memory, New York City, Obsession, Pessimism, Photography, Quotes, Ruins, Search, Sickness, The Gay Recluse | 2 Comments
Tags: AIDS, Apple, Dead Companies, Gay Blogs, General Electric, Google, HIV, Microsoft
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station. Consider the old panels on the subway platform wall, and observe the finely wrought precision with which each strip of peeling paint has by the hands of time been distressed in the subtlest shades of gold and silver, […]
Filed under: Infrastructure, Obsession, Photography, Ruins, Subway, Technology, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, Abstract Expressionism, MTA
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Time/Date: May 4, around 8pm-ish. I, too, have an obsession with the George Washington Bridge. However, mine involves a nagging compulsion to complete a football pass from the deck of the bridge to a buddy on the ground below. –Ryan Pissed and […]
Filed under: Architecture, GWB Project, Infrastructure, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Football, May, Sunset, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse admires manholes. Time/Location: May 2, 2008 on 35th Street between 6th Avenue and Madison. By our calculations, there are approximately ten zillion manholes in New York City, and each has a cover; this is one of the largest and most striking. The alternating pattern of single and interlocking circles — […]
Filed under: City Pattern Project, Communism, Conspiracy, History, Infrastructure, Landscape, New York City, Obsession, Ruins, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Circles, Con Ed, Covers, Electricity, Manholes, Sewer, Squares
In which The Gay Recluse reports on monthly traffic whoring metrix to the Board of Directors. I. Summary After a record month of whoring in March, we experienced a slight dip in April. But! It was still our second best month on record. II. Traffic Whoring Metrix WordPress Total Views March: 13,957 Grand Total Number […]
Filed under: Architecture, Conspiracy, Decay, Gay, History, Infrastructure, Landscape, Search, Technology, Traffic | Leave a Comment
Tags: April, Board Reports, Metrix, SiteMeter, Traffic, Traffic Whoring
In which The Gay Recluse sees you on the dark side of the moon. We’d like to put forth the case that the most random graffiti can be found uptown. Exhibit A: Spotted on the southbound platform of the 163rd Street subway station: The cock is stupid, but we have to admit that the Roger […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Infrastructure, Sickness, Subway, Washington Heights | 2 Comments
Tags: Celebrities, Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd, Roger Waters
In which The Gay Recluse leaves New York. Last month we went to Pittsburgh for a few days. Even though we “grew up” there, it was almost like visiting a new (as in unfamiliar) city. We always lived in the suburbs, and almost never went into the city except to see the Penguins! This time […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Decay, Dissonance, Gay, Gentrification, Infrastructure, Landscape, Language, Memory, Nostalgia, Television, The Gay Recluse, Travel | 7 Comments
Tags: Altar, Bridges, Chuck Noll, City of Champions, Discos, Gay Clubs, Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh, Primanti's, Queer As Folk, The Penguins, The Pennsylvanian, The Steelers, The Strip, Wholey's
In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinion pieces in The Times. Gail Collins/Hillary’s Smackdown The Short Version: Don’t panic, it’ll be ok. In her words: “If you want to worry about something, worry about the way both of them have been pandering themselves over the edge.” Score: B (Benign) Although we don’t want to […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Government, Infrastructure, Politicians, The Gay Recluse, The Times | 4 Comments
Tags: Biofuels, Columbia, Congestion Pricing, Flowers, Gail Collins, MPG, Nicholas Kristof, Primaries, Roger Cohen
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Time of photographs: April 19th, 7:00-8:00 (ish). Washington Heights is a place of extremes. Even the clouds are intense. Life is nothing but abrasive. Washington Heights is completely bereft of visionaries. But resonates with the dead genius of the past. Here we […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Landscape, Photography, Politicians, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Beauty, Merengue, Music, The George Washington Bridge, Torture
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Time and Date of photographs: April 12, 2008, 8am, 9am and 8pm. When we woke up, you could barely see the bridge. (But it looked great in the fog!) The sun finally broke through and everything glistened. It looked surreal. Tonight it […]
Filed under: Infrastructure, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Fog, George Washington Bridge, Le Corbusier, Sun, Sunsets
In which The Gay Recluse again laments the suffocation of the gay voice in American literature. If you’re like us, when you scanned through the list of books included in New York Magazine‘s recent “New York City Canon 1968-2008,” you had one reaction: wtf! where are the gays? In every other format, gays are represented […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Conspiracy, History, Infrastructure, Literature, Memory, New York City, Ruins, Search, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, Writers-American | 4 Comments
Tags: 9/11, AIDS, Andrew Hollaran, Closet Cases, Dancer from the Dance, Edmund White, Gay Books, Gay Literature, Gay Voice, HIV, New York Magazine, Rick Whitaker, Sam Anderson, Susan Sontag
In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly gets lung cancer. Time and date of photographs: March 26, 10am (ish). [We would have posted earlier but had a backlog of hot gay statues to attend to. (Plus we had to go to Pittsburgh for the weekend for a celebration.)] We’ve repeatedly documented the monstrous plumes of […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, GWB Project, Health, Infrastructure, Landscape, Sickness, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: 311, Asthma, Boilers, Exhaust, Lung Cancer, Macys, Midtown, Rooftops
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates human conception from a safe distance. Today we introduce our newest correspondent The Jessica Watch, who has expressed a willingness to satisfy our admittedly perverse voyeuristic impulses and keep us apprised as she moves ever closer to having a kid. TJW reports: I just had a barrage of tests, […]
Filed under: Government, History, Infrastructure, New York City, Photography, Search, The Gay Recluse, The Jessica Watch, The Spring Garden | 2 Comments
Tags: 59th Street Bridge, Asshole Doctors, Babies, Conception, Kids, Obstetrician, Parks Department, Penthouse, Single Moms, The Jessica Watch, Trees, Upper East Side
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. Today reader Scott LaPierre sends in this from Georgia, as in the former Soviet Socialist Republic. Scott writes: i don’t know exactly what’s supposed to be going on in this mural/statue, but there seems to be a lot of innuendo here…it’s in Gori, Georgia (the […]
Filed under: Architecture, Athletes, Communism, Competitions, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Travel | 4 Comments
Tags: Gay Statues, Georgia, Gori, Hot Gay Statues, Proletariat, Stalin, Tom of Finland, USSR
In which The Gay Recluse makes a monthly report on traffic whoring to the Board of Directors. I. Summary A combination of organic growth, traffic whoring and links from Curbed, Gothamist, Towleroad, Slog and others contributed to record numbers of visitors and page views in March. II. Traffic Whoring Metrix WordPress Total Views March: 15,033 […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Gay, Health, Infrastructure, Search, Technology, The Gay Recluse, Traffic | Leave a Comment
Tags: Business Revenue, Feedburner, Feeds, Internet Traffic, Linkage, Metrix, Monthly Report, RSS, SiteMeter, Technorati, Traffic Whoring, WordPress
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station. Consider, if you will, one of the old panels on the subway platform wall, and observe the finely wrought precision with which each strip of peeling paint has by the hands of time been distressed in the subtlest […]
Filed under: Architecture, Infrastructure, Landscape, Ruins, Search, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 3 Comments
Tags: 163rd Street, Abstract Expressionism, C-train, Graffiti, MTA
The Gay Recluse 
On Our Own Method of Diluting the Homophobosphere
In which The Gay Recluse attempts to reconcile his traffic-whoring impulses with a desire to flee the crazies. In March, as part of a new traffic-whoring initiative, we opened up The Gay Recluse to commenters. By and large we’ve been very pleased with the results, not only in terms of traffic but in terms of the many […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Knockbusters, Language, Letters, The Gay Recluse | 4 Comments
Tags: Commenters, Dilution, Homophobosphere, Traffic Whoring