Archive for the ‘Obsession’ Category
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 the firethorn. Orange is one of the best colors in the autumn garden. It will have to sustain us through the winter. Fortunately, we never get tired of looking at it. Today as we contemplated the clusters of tiny fruit, illuminated by the eastern sun, we […]
Filed under: GWB Project, Memory, Nostalgia, Obsession, Pleasure, The Autumn Garden | Leave a Comment
Tags: Colors, Firethorn, Mountain Ash, orange, Sadness
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
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
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Yesterday morning. Yesterday evening. I too had an obsession with the GWB when I lived in the Heights in the ’80s. Mine was doing as much cruising as possible under that majestic bridge. The “little red lighthouse” was used for a probably […]
Filed under: Architecture, GWB Project, Obsession, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1980s, Cruising, Gay Cruising, Little Red Lighthouse, The George Washington Bridge
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with Corsican mint. We were worried that our Corsican mint wouldn’t come back this year. So we bought some more! But then it did come back, just as we were told it would. Some obsessions are obviously more benign than others. Of all the groundcovers we introduced […]
Filed under: Gay, Good Rock, GWB Project, Obsession, The Gay Recluse, The Summer Garden | Leave a Comment
Tags: Corsican Mint, Groundcovers, Mentha requienii
In which The Gay Recluse watches birds. Tonight we saw one bird in the fading sun. Which was one more than we usually see. Which begs the question: Are the birds not usually there? Or are we just learning how to see?
Filed under: Animals, GWB Project, Landscape, Obsession, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Birds, Palisades, Sunsets
In which The Gay Recluse hears a song from another life. Yesterday we turned on the stereo in our basement. We hadn’t played it in years. Miraculously, it worked! The receiver and speakers are from ninth grade. Hey computers! Sometimes bigger analog speakers still sound better! More miraculous was that a CD was already in […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, Dream, Good Rock, Memory, Obsession, Photography, The Gay Recluse, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Compilation, Hamish Kilgour, Rent Control, Rocks, Sky, Soho, The Clean, West Broadway
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 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 contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station. Consider the old panels on the subway platform wall, and observe the finely wrought precision with which each strip of peeling paint has by the hands of time been distressed in the subtlest shades of gold and silver, […]
Filed under: Infrastructure, Obsession, Photography, Ruins, Subway, Technology, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, Abstract Expressionism, MTA
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 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 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 Dante and Zephyr take over The Gay Recluse. Friends! We have spoken on this subject before, but feel that it bears repeating. Discard your assumptions and stereotypes! Open your mind to new experience! And — most of all — remember: not every cat is a lolcat!
Filed under: Animals, Conspiracy, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, Obsession, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cats, Dante, editor, Lolcats, technical assistance, Zephyr
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with The George Washington Bridge. Time and date of photographs: April 17, 2008, 7:00 – 8:00 pm (ish). Originally the George Washington Bridge was meant to be clad in stone but fortunately they ran out of money. This is not a pattern we ever get tired of […]
Filed under: Architecture, GWB Project, Landscape, Obsession, Photography, Pleasure, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Blur, Sunset, The George Washington Bridge, Zoom Lens
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 celebrates Easter. It was not until eleventh grade — in Mrs. S____’s English class — that we began to appreciate the obsessive and illogical side of literature, which of course is to say we were reading Wuthering Heights. Do you remember Mrs. S____? How thin and small and severe she […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Dream, Landscape, Language, Literature, Memory, Obsession, The Gay Recluse, The Spring Garden, Washington Heights, Weather, Writers-British | 1 Comment
Tags: Catherine, Easter, Emily Bronte, Fort Tryon Park, Heathcliff, Heather, Sylvia Plath, The Moors, Wuthering Heights
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Los Angeles is kind of like New York City except it’s in California, and instead of subways you have to drive everywhere! Crazy, right? But that said, like New York City, there are LOTS of gay […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Landscape, Law, Letters, Longing, Obsession, Ruins, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Gay Statues, Hot Gay Statues, Immigration, Los Angeles, The Getty Museum
In which The Gay Recluse provides a postscript to our gay alternative to this week’s Modern Love piece in the Times by Kayla Rachlin Small. (For those looking for our informal-but-telling quantitative analysis of Modern Love, click here.) Dear TGR, I loved your riff on “The Steep Price of Your Forbidden Kiss” (a title which, […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Film, Graffiti, Letters, Longing, Obsession, Photography, Pleasure, Ruins, Search, Sickness, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Cystic Fibrosis, Gay Modern Love, Kayla Rachlin Small, Lesbian, Modern Love, Other, The New York Times
The Gay Recluse 