Archive for the ‘New York City’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse watches the sunset, craves a gin-and-tonic and converses with a higher power. Time and Date of Photographs: 7:15ish, March 20, 2008 Notes: All sunset photos are inherently cheesy — obviously — but sometimes we have to get in touch with our inner tourist. God: Don’t let your youth go to […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Conspiracy, Gentrification, New York City, Photography, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Birthdays, Gin and Tonic, God, Jonathan Richman, Middle Age, Netflix, New Jersey, Sunsets, Youth
In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly gets lung cancer. Time and Date of morning photograph: March 20, 2008, 6:54am. Notes: One benefit of living in Washington Heights is that it’s truly like the 19th century, not only in the architectural grandeur that splays across the rooftops, but the daily emissions of 100-year-old boilers in […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Conspiracy, Decay, Government, GWB Project, New York City, Resignation, Sickness, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: 2007, Asthma, Boilers, George Washington Bridge, Gray, March, Morning Light, Pneumonia, Slumlords, The Gay Recluse, Tuberulosis, Twilight
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. Today we received this submission from Ed, a reader in Murray Hill who writes: Dear Gay Recluse: Since you launched your competition I have kept my eye open for hot gay statues in Murray Hill, which is my neighborhood (32nd and Lexington, to be exact). […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Letters, New York City, The Gay Recluse | 4 Comments
Tags: Eagle, Gay, Gay Statues, Hot Gay Statues, Irving Marantz, Murray Hill, New York City, Park Avenue, Peace Obelisk
In which The Gay Recluse applauds the news of uptown development. Curbed has reported that the city’s plan to rezone 125th Street — a plan we fully endorse — has passed the important hurdle of the Planning Commission, and will now move to City Council for final approval. Curbed also links to local coverage of […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gentrification, Knockbusters, New York City, Photography, The Gay Recluse | 3 Comments
Tags: 125th Street, City Council, City Planning, Harlem, Record Shack, Settepani, The Daily News, The New York Times, The Post
In which The Gay Recluse shares a letter. Robert from Ohio writes: “I saw the article you wrote on the Corsican Mint. I live in North East Ohio, which is just as harsh a climate as NYC. I have planted the mint at several folks’ homes and it does come back every year. Sometimes the […]
Filed under: Letters, New York City, The Spring Garden, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Corsican Mint, gardening, New York City, Northeast Ohio, Winter, Zone 7
In which The Gay Recluse ponders New York Magazine’s “Best of New York” Special Double Ish. Recently, through a series of startling but ultimately mundane machinations we’d rather not get into because it involves that most hideous of modern chimeras (i.e., frequent flier miles), we happened to receive in the mail (we know, gross) a […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Gay, New York City, Retail, Stereotypes, Television, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Best of New York, Bravo, Frequent Flier Miles, New York Magazine, The Daily Intel, The Real Housewives of New York City
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
On the Harlem Watch: Why Doesn’t the Kalahari Mention Its Awesome Next Door Neighbor, The Head Shop?
In which The Gay Recluse poses a question to a condominium development in Harlem. Yesterday Curbed posted an update (via Joe Schumacher) on the Kalahari, a controversial — aesthetically speaking — condominium development on 116th Street in Central Harlem that appears to be nearing completion. We recently observed the Kalahari on a field trip to […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Gentrification, Knockbusters, New York City, Photography, Retail, The Gay Recluse | 6 Comments
Tags: Condominiums, Curbed, Harlem, Head Shop, Joe Schumacher, Kalahari, Tribal Motif
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 takes a field trip to Harlem and makes the case that the city should rezone the shit out of 125th Street. Lately there has been a lot of press — from Curbed, The Times and others — about the city’s proposal to rezone 125th Street in Harlem. Much of this […]
Filed under: Architecture, Brooklyn, Decay, Disaster Footage, Drivel, Gentrification, Government, Knockbusters, New York City, Photography, Politicians, Retail, Ruins, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: 125th Street, City Plan, City Planning, Class, Gentrification, Harlem, Race, Stereotypes, The Times, Theresa
On Roses and Ruins
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station.
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, Dissonance, Longing, New York City, Photography, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, Masterpieces, Roses, Ruins, Subway, Washington Heights
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station.
Filed under: Conspiracy, Gay, Graffiti, Infrastructure, New York City, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Advertising, Graffiti, MTA, Subway Art, Transit Check
In which The Gay Recluse would like to think “outside the box.” Heating bills keep getting higher and higher, and despite global warming, there are days when it’s still very, very cold. Freezing air rushes through open windows, and we wonder: what can we possibly do about it? Any complex problem would seem to require […]
Filed under: Architecture, Infrastructure, New York City, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Efficiency, February, Heating Bills, Idiocy, Iraq, Oil, Problem Solving, Washington Heights, Wind, Windows
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
In which The Gay Recluse reads the usually dependable City Room and says wtf. Yesterday City Room crapped out an astoundingly bad (and factually inaccurate) propaganda piece called “Should All of 125th Street Be Declared Historic?” in which they discuss a “proposal” — until now, completely unheard of (and for good reason) — being put […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Drivel, Gentrification, Knockbusters, New York City, Retail, The Gay Recluse, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adam Leitman Bailey, Audubon Ballroom, City Room, Crap, Harlem, Knockbusters, Lawyers, Malcolm X
In which The Gay Recluse appears on the back of a tattered subway poster in the post-apocalyptic dungeon that is the 163rd Street subway station.
Filed under: Capitalism, Graffiti, Infrastructure, New York City, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, C-train, Dungeons, Graffiti, MTA, Neglect, Post-Apocalypse, Ruins, Shitholes, Washington Heights
In which The Gay Recluse looks at the suffocation of the gay voice at The New York Times and other hallmarks of the new dark ages. For those who missed it, we would like to point you in the direction of a recent post by Jeff Weinstein, in which he compares a truth about Jasper […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Literature, New York City, Nostalgia, Pessimism, The Times, Writers-American | Leave a Comment
Tags: Food, Jasper Johns, Jeff Weinstein, Robert Rauschenberg, Roberta Smith, The Gay Voice, The New York Times
In which The Gay Recluse responds (in italics) to reader comments. Dear The Gay Recluse: I also live in Washington Heights, and was led to your blog through curbed.com. I read your parody post On Our Eulogy for Tuck-It-Away Self-Storage with giddiness and glee! We like you already; this has been a banner day at […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Decay, Gentrification, Government, Infrastructure, Knockbusters, Letters, New York City, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Amsterdam Avenue, Boston Market, Columbia University, Curbed, Development, Rent-Stabilization, Rite-Aid, Saint Nicholas, Uptown, Useless Shit, Washington Heights
The Gay Recluse 