Archive for the ‘Longing’ Category
On Beatrice, 2008
In which The Gay Recluse remembers Beatrice, two years later. We don’t have too many photographs of Beatrice; although we owned a camera, it was a particularly trying period of our life, so that we were almost never inspired to memorialize it. (All of these pictures were taken by Stephen.) You can tell that this […]
Filed under: Animals, Disease, Dissonance, Longing, Memory, The Russian Blue | Leave a Comment
Tags: Beatrice, Dante, Grooming, Requiescat in Pace, Windows
In which The Gay Recluse cooks. Yesterday we went for a walk in the rain, in part because we wanted to check out what was happening uptown, and in part because none of the grocery stores around us carry the curly parsley that we needed for the lentil soup we planned to make. We’ve been […]
Filed under: City Pattern Project, Dissonance, Food, Gay, Health, Landscape, Longing, Memory, Nostalgia, Photography, Pleasure, Science, Search, The Autumn Garden, Washington Heights, Weather | 4 Comments
Tags: Cultural Revolution, Enbalmed Bread, Health Food, Lentil Soup, Recipes, Sugar Cereals, Uncle Jimmy
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
In which The Gay Recluse takes a drive. Yesterday we were in Dupont Circle, and today we were in Northern Westchester, where we like to go each year to 1) pick up mulch for the garden, 2) pig out on fresh donuts and hot cider, and 3) buy apples. There have been times in the […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Longing, Search, The Autumn Garden, Washington Heights, Weather | 2 Comments
Tags: Cheesecake Factory, Cider, Donuts, Drives, Leaves, Moving, Mulch, Westchester
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. It’s been a while since we’ve posted a hot gay statue, but how about we all take a break from all this election bullshit and admire something truly timeless? This just in from devoted hot-gay-statue submitter CBNY who explains: Pièce de la Résistance: the 2000-year-old […]
Filed under: Competitions, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Longing, Obsession | 6 Comments
Tags: Gay, Hercules, Hot Gay Statues, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. Recently one of our oldest friends from high school got in touch. He moved to the city and found our address in the alumni directory. We haven’t seen him since our ten-year reunion, which was — ouch — twelve years ago. It’s strange how someone […]
Filed under: Animals, Architecture, Athletes, Competitions, Disease, Dissonance, GWB Project, Health, Longing, Memory, Resignation, Ruins | 2 Comments
Tags: Bastages, Birds, Demons, Friends, High school, Hockey, Junior Varsity, Varsity
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. Lately we’ve finally gotten around to uploading all of our old compact disks onto iTunes. It’s kind of torturous, trying to remember whatever possessed us to like bands such as _____ or _____ or even _______. We ended up throwing a bunch into the garbage […]
Filed under: Animals, Capitalism, Good Rock, Health, Longing, Memory, Obsession | 1 Comment
Tags: Birds, Cornell, Hüsker Dü, Warehouse
On Shade Flowers
In which The Gay Recluse enjoys shade plants. Recently we were reminded of a past obsession. There was a part of us that missed being young, filled with longing, even if — as we knew at the time — what we wanted was unattainable. But the greater part of us was relieved not to be […]
Filed under: Brooklyn, Capitalism, Dissonance, Health, Longing, Memory, Obsession, The Autumn Garden | Leave a Comment
Tags: Gardens, Japanese Anemones, Music, Past, Shade
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with naps. Lately we’ve had trouble sleeping, so have begun to rely on naps. Sometimes the best place to sleep is on a crowded subway train. (If you can get a seat!) Especially on the A or D between 59th and 125th Streets, a trip that during […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Conspiracy, GWB Project, Health, Longing, Subway | Leave a Comment
Tags: Naps, Teenagers, The D-Train, The George Washington Bridge, The MTA
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. One thing about birds. No matter how disgusting and dirty they look walking around on the ground — especially pigeons — they are always beautiful in the air. Sometimes at the gym — which is on the third floor — we blow off our workout […]
Filed under: Animals, Architecture, GWB Project, Health, Longing, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Birds, Fish, Pigeons, Seagulls, Workouts, Zoning Out
In which The Gay Recluse remembers his grandparents. Of our four grandparents, the only one we knew at all was our grandmother. And even she died when we were very young. Our evil uncle stole almost everything she owned, but our father managed to keep a few things, including this blue vase, which he in […]
Filed under: Addiction, Animals, History, Longing, Memory, Small Pleasure Project, Stereotypes | 2 Comments
Tags: Blue Vase, Chameleons, Drunks, Ft. Lauderdale, Grandfathers, Grandmothers, McCain, Nixon, Republican Assholes
On Dreams of Flowers
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with dreams. The years passed, and not always quickly. Many nights we dreamed of roses. When they finally arrived, we could not believe our luck! Then a question: what will we dream of now?
Filed under: Dissonance, Dream, Longing, Memory, The Autumn Garden | Leave a Comment
Tags: Dreams, Flowers, Rosed
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. An amber light descended on the rooftops of Washington Heights. Dark clouds loomed ominously overhead. Inside we read the news reports and — like everyone else we know — wondered what it means. Are we fucked? Or are we not fucked? Odd […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, Government, GWB Project, Longing, Obsession, Politicians | Leave a Comment
Tags: Financial Disasters, The Bailout, The George Washington Bridge, Wall Street
On a Story of Floating Weeds
In which The Gay Recluse is entranced. Tonight we watched A Story of Floating Weeds, the 1934 film by Yasujiro Ozu. It’s a silent movie, which takes some getting used to (and we say this with regret, not about the movie, but the state of our frenzied existence). Like the other Ozu films we’ve seen […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Dream, Film, Gay, Language, Longing, Pleasure | 2 Comments
Tags: A Story of Floating Weeds, Gay Directors, Japan, Silent Movies, Yasujiro Ozu
In which The Gay Recluse remembers tenth grade. Like a million other kids in 1984 we were obsessed with Murmur, by R.E.M. Our friend Tom owned the LP and we used to go down to his room to listen to it — this was at boarding school — and then we made a tape. (That […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Death Culture at Sea, Good Rock, Language, Longing, Memory, Nostalgia, Obsession, The Gay Recluse | 2 Comments
Tags: Boarding School, Michael Stipe, Murmur, Perfect Circle, R.E.M., Tenth Grade
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
On Death Culture at Sea
In which The Gay Recluse starts a new band. So we decided to start a new band: Death Culture at Sea. We googled it and nothing came up, so we’re assuming it’s fair game. We’ve always loved Echo and the Bunnymen, so we decided to start things off by covering one of their best songs. […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Death Culture at Sea, Good Rock, Longing, Memory, Nostalgia | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1980s, Bands, Death Culture at Sea, Echo & the Bunnymen, The Killing Moon
In which The Gay Recluse is officially one year old. So guess what! We made it through an entire year. For us, that meant 696 posts, 549 comments, 95 categories, 2,617 tags and 96,339 total views. It’s true that we were a traffic whore at times. Which we don’t regret, but lately we haven’t had […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, Health, History, Longing, Memory, Ruins, Search, The Gay Recluse | 6 Comments
Tags: Birthdays, Cities, Orchids, Solitude
The Gay Recluse 