Archive for the ‘Landscape’ Category
In which Deirdre’s Terrain checks in with The Gay Recluse. Today we received this startling news report and follow-up analysis from our Manhattan correspondent Deirdre’s Terrain: ieeww I hate people who post picts & videos of their KIDS at the beach taking a bath etc etc… playing with their iPhone.. YUCK! why do parents post […]
Filed under: Animals, Conspiracy, Deirdre's Terrain, Dissonance, Gay, Health, Landscape, Language, Photography, The Gay Recluse | 2 Comments
Tags: Baths, Beach, Children, iPhone, Mundane, Pets, Redactions
In which The Gay Recluse is momentarily disturbed. Of all the natural vistas we have encountered — desert landscapes, arctic tundra, the badlands — the rooftops of Washington Heights remain one of the most tranquil and undisturbed. Originally carved from the bedrock some 10,000 years ago by the retreating glaciers, the surreal beauty of these […]
Filed under: Architecture, Conspiracy, Dissonance, Dream, Landscape, New York City, Resignation, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Artic Tundra, Badlands, Birds, Desert, Glaciers, Ice Age, Palisades, Rooftops
In which The Gay Recluse turns forty. Today we received the following note from Harry, a reader in Washington Heights: Subj: YOU Mess: It is none my business to know, but! My curiosity is tweaked. Who are you? Have you posted something somewhere to give a more detailed bio? or do I have to continue […]
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Dissonance, Gay, Landscape, New York City, Resignation, Ruins, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 1 Comment
Tags: Aries, Autism, Birthdays, Fort Tryon Park, Forty, Galaxie 500, Inwood Hill Park, Lampposts, The Minutemen, Upper Manhattan
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
In which The Gay Recluse updates his informal but rather telling quantitative analysis of Modern Love, the weekly Style Section (of The Times) column in which openly gay writers almost never appear, and even less frequently describe a romantic relationship. This week’s piece: How We Got from Grief to Pancakes Subject: A woman finds a […]
Filed under: Architecture, Drivel, Gay, Infrastructure, Landscape, Language, Pessimism, Sickness, Stereotypes, Technology, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Daniel Jones, Gay Modern Love, Homophobia, Modern Love, Stereotypes, The New York Times
In which The Gay Recluse posts news and analysis from our U.K. correspondent, The London Eye. Today we received this missive from The London Eye: Dear Gay Recluse: Here are a few more London statues… Even though we’re not eligible for awards, we want the United States to know that our statues are HERE, our […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Landscape, The Gay Recluse, The London Eye | 2 Comments
Tags: Anonymous Sex, Anteros, Belgrave Square, Eros, FDR, Gay, Gay Statues, Hot Gay Statues, Leonardo da Vinci, London, Old Bond Street, Picadilly Circus, The London Eye, Winston Churchill
In which The Gay Recluse takes pictures and displays ignorance. First, a note from our new friend and GreenCine film critic James Van Maanen, who writes (with regard to the below shot): Is that first picture of a hawk, maybe? (I ask, because we are getting a number of here out here in Jackson Heights […]
Filed under: Animals, GWB Project, Landscape, New York City, Obsession, Ruins, Science, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: American Kestrel, Birds, Dykeman, George Washington Bridge, Hudson, Manhattan, Seagulls, Sunset, White-Breasted Nuthatch
In which The Gay Recluse celebrates Easter. It was not until eleventh grade — in Mrs. S____’s English class — that we began to appreciate the obsessive and illogical side of literature, which of course is to say we were reading Wuthering Heights. Do you remember Mrs. S____? How thin and small and severe she […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Dream, Landscape, Language, Literature, Memory, Obsession, The Gay Recluse, The Spring Garden, Washington Heights, Weather, Writers-British | 1 Comment
Tags: Catherine, Easter, Emily Bronte, Fort Tryon Park, Heathcliff, Heather, Sylvia Plath, The Moors, Wuthering Heights
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
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Time and Date of morning photograph: March 21, 2008, 5:15pm-ish. Notes: This is the view of the George Washington Bridge from the north, in the remotest and most abandoned part of Manhattan. We see the pilings of an old pier and — […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Decay, GWB Project, History, Infrastructure, Landscape, Photography, Ruins, Technology, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Carcass, Green, Hudson River, Nasty Algae, Pilings, Rust, Sidewalks, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse provides a gay alternative to this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Mom, It’s Me, Your Gay Son, Finally By PETE MacDONALD and THE GAY RECLUSE Published: March 22, 2008 A YEAR after my partner Alan left me, and on the day before my estranged mother would have turned […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Landscape, Language, Longing, Memory, Search, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | 4 Comments
Tags: Anger, Daniel Jones, Drama Queens, Fashion & Style, Forgiveness, Gay Modern Love, Pete MacDonald, Psychology, Redemption, Stereotypes, The New York Times
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Los Angeles is kind of like New York City except it’s in California, and instead of subways you have to drive everywhere! Crazy, right? But that said, like New York City, there are LOTS of gay […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Landscape, Law, Letters, Longing, Obsession, Ruins, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Gay Statues, Hot Gay Statues, Immigration, Los Angeles, The Getty Museum
In which The Gay Recluse retreats to our garden in Washington Heights. As it has done for thousands of years — and not just in our garden — the hellebore has sent forth the most beautiful, delicate blossoms at this improbable juncture, as if to taunt winter into sending one last storm. (Let’s hope nobody […]
Filed under: History, Landscape, Memory, The Spring Garden, The Winter Garden, Washington Heights | 4 Comments
Tags: Alexander the Great, Black Flower, gardening, Hellebore, Hellebores, Mythology, Pink, Spring, White, Winter
In which The Gay Recluse photographs birds. Some days we want to photograph the George Washington Bridge. Today we went for the seagulls.
Filed under: Gay, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Landscape, Photography, Technology, The London Eye, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Birds, George Washington Bridge, Seagulls, Trucks
On One New Alternative for LOL
In which The Gay Recluse shares a fresh expression used by an older relative new to the internet. “I’m dead! That’s funny!”
Filed under: Landscape, Memory, Technology, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Baby Boomers, Generation Gap, Language, Relatives
In which The Gay Recluse thinks about shit on the daily commute. As we walk through midtown each morning and each afternoon, we often pause to observe a fading silhouette on a wall; while somewhat decrepit, it provides comforting evidence — of a sort we are always on the lookout for — that Andy Warhol […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Decay, Dissonance, Drag Queens, Graffiti, Infrastructure, Landscape, Longing, New York City, Nostalgia, Obsession, Pessimism, Resignation, Sickness, The Gay Recluse | 6 Comments
Tags: Andrea Feldman, Andy Warhol, Candy Darling, Commuting, Dishonored, Edie Sedgwick, Flesh, Geri Miller, Greta Garbo, Holly Woodlawn, Jackie Curtis, Joe Dallesandro, Marlene Dietrich, Nico, Outer and Inner Space, Superstars, The Past, The Velvet Underground
In which The Gay Recluse agrees with a reader. As regular readers know, we recently took a field trip to Harlem, which led us to make the case that the city should “aggressively” rezone 125th Street. Of the many responses we received — some of which (as expected) were caustic to the point of incoherence […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Gentrification, Government, Infrastructure, Knockbusters, Landscape, Letters, New York City, Politicians, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: 125th Street, Amanda Burden, City Council, City Planning, Community Board 10, Community Board 11, Community Board 9, Harlem
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Time and Date of photograph: March 1, 2008, 5:58pm. Notes: A panoramic view of the pre-war ruins of Washington Heights and the post-war ruins of New Jersey. “The George Washington Bridge over the Hudson is the most beautiful bridge in the world. […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gay, GWB Project, Landscape, Photography, Ruins, Science, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: George Washington Bridge, New Jersey, Ruins, Washington Heights
In which The Gay Recluse ponders a photograph of the George Washington Bridge and provides an interesting (and possibly depressing) fact. Date of photograph: February 24, 2008 Notes: We were rushing out to buy donuts and didn’t notice the reflection of the window to the right. (Oh well.) Interesting (and Possibly Depressing) Fact: The George […]
Filed under: Government, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Landscape, New York City, Photography, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Arcadia Publishing, Construction Schedules, Depressing Facts, Donuts, Images of America, Interesting Facts, The George Washington Bridge, Washington Heights
The Gay Recluse 