Archive for the ‘New York City’ Category
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 thinks about taking a seat. Time/Location: Recently, around 34th Street. We walk by these benches all the time, but have never had the time or inclination to sit.
Filed under: Architecture, City Pattern Project, New York City, Photography, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: 34th Street, Manhattan, Park Bench, Sitting Still
In which The Gay Recluse is small. Time/Location of Pictures: 35th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenue, some night last week. It’s not exactly a revelation to say that the city is filled with infinite borders, many of which are strictly maintained. But there’s something comforting in the utility of a nicely designed fence. As […]
Filed under: Architecture, City Pattern Project, Gentrification, Memory, New York City, Obsession, Photography, Search, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Borders, Fences, Madison Avenue, Midtown, Wrought Iron
In which The Gay Recluse hopes that a young woman will not succumb to the more conventional pressures that sadly ooze from this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Those looking for our quantitative analysis should click here. Want To Be My Girlfriend? Please Don’t Define By MARGUERITE FIELDS and THE GAY RECLUSE RECENTLY […]
Filed under: Gay, Landscape, Language, Longing, New York City, Search, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Conventions, Gay Modern Love, Marguerite Fields, Modern Love, The New York Times
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 says goodbye to the cruelest month. Our hands were shaking a little bit, here. (It’s been a tough few weeks, hasn’t it?)
Filed under: Architecture, City Pattern Project, Landscape, New York City, Photography | Leave a Comment
Tags: City Patterns, construction, Cranes, T.S. Eliot
In which The Gay Recluse lives in an alternate reality. For a long time we’ve kept an eye on the triple vacant lot at 573-577 West 161st Street, which we walk by every day on our way to the 163rd Street subway station. In January, we were pleasantly surprised to see two of the three […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gentrification, Government, Knockbusters, Longing, Monopoly, New York City, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 5 Comments
Tags: Alternate Realities, Apartment Buildings, Bulldozers, Department of Buildings, Development, Monopoly, Recession, Uptown Real Estate
In which The Gay Recluse retires to our garden in Washington Heights. Date of photograph: April 28, 2008, around 6:30pm It’s hardly a secret that sometimes the spring garden looks better in the rain. Today was one of those days… One of our favorite plants is the creeping yellow groundcover, which we bought a few […]
Filed under: GWB Project, Language, Longing, Memory, New York City, Obsession, Pessimism, Photography, Pleasure, Resignation, Ruins, Search, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Spring Garden, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alpines, Chasing Amy, Creeping Jenny, Green Markets, Groundcover, Lesbian Conversions, Lysimachia nummularia, Perennials, Rain, Rocks, Sighs, Union Square, Washington Heights
In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly gets lung cancer. Date of Photographs: April 18, 2008 We’ve noticed that almost every chimney in Washington Heights is spewing thick, black smoke these days. It’s definitely a lot worse than it’s ever been, which leads us to ask: Does it have anything to do with the rising […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Disease, Government, GWB Project, Health, New York City, Politicians, Sickness, Technology, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights, Weather | 2 Comments
Tags: Boilers, Community Board 12, Dirty Oil, Lung Cancer, New York City DEP
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
On a Miracle on 35th Street
In which The Gay Recluse ponders random acts of beauty garbage. So yesterday we wrote about a giant-tote-bag-and-broken-sawhorse installation on 35th Street between 5th and 6th Avenues. Today we are happy to report that not only has the installation survived, but that it has grown! This is facing west. We like the way the new […]
Filed under: Disease, Dissonance, Landscape, New York City, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: 35th Street, Con Edison, Holy Art, Installation, Jesus, Landfills, Sculpture, Totes
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 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
On Deirdre’s Terrain: Cube Party
In which The Gay Recluse imagines a life more exciting than his own. Our newest correspondent — Deirdre’s Terrain — sends in pix of her desk at work, which she labeled only half-ironically as “CUBE Party!” along with the following report: Look @ my cube This is the view from where Deirdre sits. (Note the […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Conspiracy, Deirdre's Terrain, Dream, Memory, New York City, Technology, Television | Leave a Comment
Tags: Deirdre's Terrain, Manhattan, Office Cube, Office Design, Permalance, Television
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 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 does some investigative reporting and follows up with a complaint. As we’ve documented many times, thick black smoke — a function of improperly maintained or outdated boiler systems — is pretty much a constant of life in Washington Heights. (No coincidence, asthma rates are pretty much through the roof.) Although […]
Filed under: Animals, Architecture, Conspiracy, Disease, Government, GWB Project, Health, New York City, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 10 Comments
Tags: 311, 671 West 162nd Street, Asthma, Boilers, Exhaust, Fire Department, Investigative Journalism, Lung Cancer, Rooftops, The Smiths, Tuberculosis
The Gay Recluse 