Archive for the ‘Memory’ Category
On Beatrice
When the russet hues of the setting sun stream through our western window, as happened today, it is quite possible to imagine Beatrice in the distorted, filtered light, contemplative and hovering as if she were still there, peering into the distance, longing for something to take her away. The first time we saw her, however, […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Dream, Drivel, Good Rock, Memory, Orchids, Resignation, Sickness, The Russian Blue, The Times, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: 9/11, Animal Medical Center, Baudelaire, Beatrice, Candy Darling, Cannanes, Cats, Dante, Daphne Merkin, Death, Lipidosis, Love, Robert Moses, Russian Blue
On Cardinal
Each day at our midtown gym we brave the sonic assault of soulless dance music and sadly dated AOR rock that reminds us of the FM radio we grew up listening to in Pittsburgh. But as soon as we get changed and put on our headphones, we turn our attention to Cardinal, the eponymous 1994 […]
Filed under: Good Rock, Memory, Obsession | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bee Gees, Cardinal, Donovan, Eric Matthews, Flydaddy, Independent Rock, Love, Richard Davies, The Moles
It already seems years away, those hours spent sweeping up the golden leaves of the European white birch, which has always been the focal point of our garden in Washington Heights. Each leaf, of course, represents a day in our past, and for this reason might seem more valuable if there weren’t so many. And […]
Filed under: Decay, Memory, Politicians, The Autumn Garden, The Gay Recluse, Travel, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Betula Pendula, European White Birch, Gardens, Italy, Travel, Venice, Wisteria
As we turn the corner from the Upper Riverside Drive onto 160th Street in Washington Heights, the intricate but repetitive brickwork of the apartment palace lulls us into a dream in which we hear the droning, distorted guitars of Spacemen 3. This was the “Heroin” of our youth, the soundtrack of delirious, pretentious ambivalence for […]
Filed under: Addiction, Architecture, Capitalism, Good Rock, Memory, Obsession, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1960s, Baby Boomers, J. Spaceman, Riverside Drive, Sonic Boom, Spacemen 3, The Beatles, Velvet Underground
Stark and imperial, during the day the white travertine facade of the Metropolitan Opera seems as inviting as a walk across a desert, but at night glows like a beacon to the modern, urban spirit in which it was conceived. The cloud-like apparitions of Chagall’s paintings hypnotize us and soften the disdain of the high roman arches through which we pass […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Good Rock, Memory, Opera, Resignation, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Aida, Amneris, Chagall, Giuseppe Verdi, Lincoln Center, Luciana D'Intino, New York City, Opera, Rademes, The Metropolitan Opera
Ferocious and (like all plants) unapologetic, the wisteria growing in the vacant lot next door is poised to take over the entire crumbling shell of the adjacent building (and possibly our life along with it!). Nor — like some — are we deceived by the delicate and emphemeral blooms of the morning glory, which (equally […]
Filed under: Decay, History, Landscape, Memory, The Autumn Garden, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Coba, Maya, Mexico, Morning Glory, Vines, Wisteria, Yucatan
On Marathons
Good luck, runners! On this day of the New York City Marathon, we remember years ago, when we too joined the tens of thousands who sprinted across the Verrazano Narrows before stretching out into a line of hope and desperation that snaked through the five boroughs. Then of course we were strong and idealistic enough […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Dream, Gay, Memory, Pessimism | Leave a Comment
Tags: Death, Life, NYC Marathon, Past, Running
On Candy Apple Grey
Today we accepted a Halloween gift of a candy apple, which we considered for a moment before we were transported to the last time we encountered one, this just a few days after 9/11 (which is not to say this is a story about 9/11). Like so many others, we had gone down to walk […]
Filed under: Gay, Good Rock, Memory, Obsession, Pessimism, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: 9/11, Bob Mould, Candy Apple Grey, Gay, Grant Hart, Greg Norton, Hüsker Dü, Music, Post-hardcore, Ruins
Here we take offense with Andrew Sullivan‘s unthinking assertion that “[f]or all his many faults, [Rudy Giuliani] turned a city around.” Rather than rebut this ourselves, however, we turn to the infinitely more eloquent and compelling words of Herbert Muschamp, who sadly is no longer with us to tell the truth, which resonates in ways […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Infrastructure, Memory, Sickness | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Giuliani, Herbert Muschamp, New York City
A young runner — perhaps twenty years old — had stopped to stretch at one of the Parcourse installations in Rock Creek Park; it did not take more than a single glance to realize why he looked so familiar. In a short conversation, he confirmed that he had in fact just this year graduated from […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, Good Rock, Infrastructure, Landscape, Memory, Nostalgia, Opera, Pleasure, The Gay Recluse, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Center for Marine Conservation, Cornell University, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Parks, Rock Creek Park, Running, Stretching, The Meat Puppets, The Smiths, Washington DC
On the Rock Creek Park Parcourse
AMERICA’S NEW OUTDOOR FITNESS SPORT IS FOR EVERYONE. Join the millions of participants who enjoy Parcourse regularly to maintain overall physical fitness and good health. Parcourse consists of a series of fitness stations (where you perform specific exercises) which are spaced along a jogging and walking path in this area, as you can see from […]
Filed under: Decay, Infrastructure, Landscape, Memory, Nostalgia, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1970s, Democracy, Exercise, Parcourse, Populism, Rock Creek Park, Washington DC
I sat down in Terminal C next to an older woman, who in a long black dress and ostrich-feather hat appeared oddly elegant among all the business suits. “I hope it’s not too crowded,” I remarked in a somewhat stilted attempt to engage this mysterious woman in conversation, as if we were both waiting to […]
Filed under: Dream, Gay, Memory, Opera, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: LGA, Liebestod, Opera, Spleen, Tristan and Isolde, Wagner
It was the sight of a civil war hat — blue wool, with the truncated black rim and a small leather band across the front — on a fellow C-train passenger that made us think of the time, almost twenty years earlier, when we had last worn such a hat (yes, it is called a […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Dream, Good Rock, Memory, Subway | Leave a Comment
Tags: Birthdays, C-train, Dreams, Memory, The Queen Is Dead, The Smiths
On Burma
Our heart goes out to the Burmese monks of Myanmar but our mind drifts back to the post-hardcore band from Boston. As much as any other band in our collection, Mission of Burma was one whose impenetrable mystique electrified us at an age when we were still anxious to be electrified. The songs were angular and dissonant, […]
Filed under: Good Rock, Memory, Opera, Politicians | Leave a Comment
Tags: Boston, Democracy, Mission of Burma, Myanmar, Post-hardcore
Since we last saw the hills around Saratoga a few days ago, they have become drab and mundane, the color of an unwatered suburban lawn, while further south the Catskills have grown equally tired and pedestrian. Did we really talk with any enthusiasm about wanting to visit either of these spots? Even the Hudson River […]
Filed under: Good Rock, Memory, Obsession, Opera, The Autumn Garden, Travel, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adirondacks, Catskills, George Washington Bridge, Hudson River Valley, Palisades Parkway, Saratoga Springs, Washington Heights
Our first impressions of Lake Placid are oddly and unexpectedly reaffirmed by our continuing explorations, which reveal the existence of a completely inaccessible series of estates — here they are called “camps” — that ring the shoreline of the lake. Still filled with a naive optimism after descending from the nearby mountain, we had succumbed […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, Dream, Memory, Pleasure, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adirondacks, Aristocracy, Class, Helicopters, Lake Placid, Lakes, Segregation, The Pleasure of Ruins
Today on the way up Whiteface Mountain, we stopped to take in the view and were surprised when a hawk suddenly appeared above the treeline. It flew toward us and landed on a nearby boulder; in its beak it carried a single sheet of paper, which we were equally surprised to learn — after the […]
Filed under: Drivel, Memory, Travel, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adirondacks, Albertine, Marcel Proust, Milan Kundera, Whiteface Mountain
On Franklin’s Tower
Today in the locker room we heard the distant strains of “Franklin’s Tower” coming through the walls. While undressing, we listened to Jerry’s high, reedy voice and the watery textures of his guitar, and considered with some disdain the detached and meandering quality of the music — like so much of The Grateful Dead, vaguely […]
Filed under: Addiction, Bad Rock, Good Rock, Longing, Memory | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cornell, Grateful Dead, Ithaca, Jerry Garcia, la memoire involuntaire, Velvet Underground
The Gay Recluse 