Archive for the ‘Nostalgia’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse remembers sitting at the airport. Just last week we were sitting at the airport. At the time it seemed painfully boring, but now we kind of miss it. Even though we know that if we went back we’d be painfully bored again. This is also why George Bush was elected […]
Filed under: History, Memory, Nostalgia, Pessimism, Philosophers, Politicians, The Gay Recluse, Writers-German | Leave a Comment
Tags: Airports, George Bush, Ronald Reagan, Walter Benjamin
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Today it’s off to Pittsburgh for the weekend. Travel is so much fun these days! But at least the sky is clear. We’ll miss the bridge. And Zephyr. And Dante, who would like to remind everyone: not every cat is a lolcat! […]
Filed under: Animals, Architecture, GWB Project, Landscape, Longing, Nostalgia, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, The Gay Recluse, The Russian Blue, Travel | 1 Comment
Tags: Airports, Clear, Sky, The George Washington Bridge
On Gay Modern Love: My Father’s Nostalgia for the Past Blinds Him to the Reality of the Present
In which The Gay Recluse presents a gay alternative to this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Those looking for our quantitative analysis should click here. I grew up without my “real” — by which I mean biological — father, who lived in New York City. One summer I made the mistake of mentioning […]
Filed under: Gay, Longing, Memory, New York City, Nostalgia, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Gay Modern Love, Gay Sons, Modern Love, Oblivious Fathers, The New York Times, Tim Elhajj
In which The Gay Recluse rejoices over the end of gentrification in Washington Heights. Rejoice, kind and courageous foes of gentrification! For those many of you who have added your voice to the cause — i.e., our allies in lower Manhattan, Brooklyn and other gentrified neighborhoods around the city who have never ceased to warn us […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Drivel, Gentrification, Infrastructure, Longing, Memory, Nostalgia, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 6 Comments
Tags: Coffee, Deaths, Patries, The OC Bakery and Cafe
In which The Gay Recluse says goodbye to Berlin. Before we went to Berlin, we were kind of dreading it. After all, it was a work trip, which means we had to do some work. Plus, German is not our strongest language. And this eagle was not exactly welcoming, either! But then we saw how […]
Filed under: GWB Project, Landscape, Memory, Nostalgia, The Gay Recluse, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Berlin, Birch Trees, Bullet Talons, Eagles, Manhole Covers, Rhododendron, Tiergarten, Work
In which The Gay Recluse remembers life in Washington Heights. We’re in Berlin, which means we’re nostalgic for the George Washington Bridge. Let’s take a walk down memory lane, shall we? This was last Sunday morning, as in May 11. We don’t remember it, either. This was at the end of the day Monday, which […]
Filed under: Architecture, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Landscape, Longing, Nostalgia, Obsession, The Gay Recluse, Travel, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Berlin, Friday, Monday, Sunday, The George Washington Bridge, Tuesday, Wednesday
In which The Gay Recluse documents the sunset of a dream. Today the tide seemed to finally turn against Hillary Clinton. We felt bad about it, but mostly on behalf of our mother. She’s in her seventies now and really wanted Hillary to win. She’s spent the better part of four decades fighting for women’s […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Dream, Gay, Government, GWB Project, Landscape, Language, Memory, Nostalgia, Pessimism, The Gay Recluse | 4 Comments
Tags: Hillary Clinton, Mothers, Orchids, Ronald Reagan, Sunsets
In which The Gay Recluse leaves New York. Last month we went to Pittsburgh for a few days. Even though we “grew up” there, it was almost like visiting a new (as in unfamiliar) city. We always lived in the suburbs, and almost never went into the city except to see the Penguins! This time […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Decay, Dissonance, Gay, Gentrification, Infrastructure, Landscape, Language, Memory, Nostalgia, Television, The Gay Recluse, Travel | 7 Comments
Tags: Altar, Bridges, Chuck Noll, City of Champions, Discos, Gay Clubs, Mario Lemieux, Pittsburgh, Primanti's, Queer As Folk, The Penguins, The Pennsylvanian, The Steelers, The Strip, Wholey's
On Miranda
In which The Gay Recluse appreciates Miranda. Many years ago we had a friend named Miranda. She was the coolest! She wore the smallest backpack ever! It was gold and she used it to carry her cigarettes in it and nothing else, and even that was a tight fit. She was a photographer and a […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Memory, Nostalgia, Photography, Science, Search, The Gay Recluse, The Spring Garden | Leave a Comment
Tags: BackPack, Cigarettes, Climbing Hydrangea 'Miranda', East Village, Enemies, Fame, Friends
In which The Gay Recluse reports on life at home.
Filed under: Dream, Nostalgia, Photography, The Gay Recluse, The Russian Blue | Leave a Comment
Tags: Home Life, Hunger, Russian Blue, Snacks, Treats, Zephyr
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 is inspired by a classic. Of all the French photographers who documented Paris at the turn of the last century (and we don’t mean 8 years ago), we are most obsessed with Eugene Atget. Who can resist his urban streetscapes, his ghostly renderings of the city of light? And his […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Memory, Nostalgia, Pessimism, Photography, Pleasure, The Winter Garden, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Eugene Atget, Litter, Paris, Roots, Trees
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
On Gay Sex in the Seventies
First, it’s a great title for a documentary; just to say Gay Sex in the Seventies makes us a little more forgiving than is perhaps our natural tendency. Plus you get to see some great shots of vintage Big Apple; the west-side piers, the notorious truck bays across the highway, the Upper West Side when […]
Filed under: Film, Gay, Gentrification, Health, History, New York City, Nostalgia, Sickness, Stereotypes | Leave a Comment
Tags: Disco, Gay Sex, Gay Sex in the 70s, Gay Sex in the Seventies, Poppers, St. Mark's Bathhouse, Studio 54, The Saint, Vintage New York, West Side Piers
Today we dreamed of traveling to a small island off the coast of Japan called Gukanjima. Only three-quarters of a mile around, during its heyday it nevertheless was home to over 5000 people, which for decades made it the world’s most densely populated island. Looking at pictures of it now, we imagine a city block […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Decay, Dream, Gentrification, New York City, Nostalgia, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Edwardian Architecture, Gukanjima, Japan, Manhattan, Washington Heights
In yesterday’s Times, we were told that Italy has sunk to new depths of despair on many fronts, “struggling as few other countries do with fractured politics, uneven growth, organized crime and a tenuous sense of nationhood.” There is widespread malaise, or malessere. Quoted is Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome: “It’s a country that […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, History, Nostalgia, Resignation, The Gay Recluse, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Economy, GNP, Italy, Schopenhauer, The New York Times, Turin, Venice
With our old headphones broken and new ones en route, we were not able as hoped to sequester ourselves in the aural safe harbor that is our “portable media player” but instead had to brave the sound system at the gym. You ask: exactly how barren is this sonic wasteland? We will tell you! Today’s […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Capitalism, Gay, Good Rock, Government, Memory, Nostalgia, Sickness | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alienation, Bob Seger, Conformity, Geddy Lee, George Harrison, Grand Funk Railroad, iPod, Journey, Morrissey, Neil Peart, Pittsburgh, Rush, Suburbs, The Eagles, The Gym, The Smiths, WDVE
The Gay Recluse 