Archive for the ‘Pessimism’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with orchids. The truth is often painful and difficult to acknowledge, particularly when there’s no way to change it. Those who try to deny this do so at great cost. If you ignore what’s ugly about life, how can you possibly see the beauty?
Filed under: Decay, Disease, Dissonance, GWB Project, Orchids, Pessimism, Writers-German | Leave a Comment
Tags: Beauty, orange, Orchids, Schopenhauer, Truth, Ugly
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. You’d be surprised how often ‘str8 bros’ write in to tell us how ‘wrong’ we are in our assertions that this or that is homophobic, that we really shouldn’t be offended by something that’s ‘not that offensive,’ that we’re actually hurting the […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gay, GWB Project, Health, Language, Letters, Pessimism, Sickness, Stereotypes | 1 Comment
Tags: Hassles, Homophobia, Letters, Str8 Bros, The George Washington Bridge
On a Valentine’s Day Tower
In which The Gay Recluse remembers subtle forms of fourth-grade terror. It’s not hard to remember a phase we went through in elementary school, specifically fourth and fifth grade (and possibly sixth, although even now it pains us to think about this) when each Valentine’s Day, we took it upon ourselves to make increasingly elaborate […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, Drag Queens, Dream, Faith, Gay, Health, Longing, Memory, Pessimism, Ruins | 1 Comment
Tags: Elementary School, Ghey, Terror, Towers, Valentine's Day
On Death Culture at Sea: 1968
In which The Gay Recluse rocks out a lil? Listen on our Tumblr or download from the Death Culture at Sea web site. Can’t believe the things I have to say before I make it through the week I’m feeling sicker than philosophy I read a million useless words when I was younger then Today […]
Filed under: Bad Rock, Conspiracy, Death Culture at Sea, Good Rock, Nostalgia, Pessimism | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1968, Death Culture at Sea, Lofi
In which The Gay Recluse ponders Junot Diaz and the purpose of novels. Today we finished The Brief and Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz. For obv reasons — namely, the book won every award last year — our expectations were high, and but for the most part were met. In case we’re only the second-to-last […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, Dream, Literature, Pessimism, Washington Heights, Writers-American | 3 Comments
Tags: Dictators, Entertainment, Junot Diaz, Novels, Oscar Wao, Rafael Trujillo, Truth
On Netherland
In which The Gay Recluse recommends a book about loss. In Joseph O’Neill’s Netherland, we meet a narrator “Hans” — a Dutch expat originally from The Hague — who both at the beginning and the end of the story (this is not a spoiler, because we learn this in the first few pages) appears to”have […]
Filed under: Brooklyn, Decay, Literature, Pessimism, Ruins, Search, Writers-Irish | 1 Comment
On the George Washington Breathing Project: Good Steam Versus Bad Steam Edition (Includes Roundup!)
In which The Gay Recluse rather quickly dies of lung cancer. Some winter mornings, we wake up and consider the rooftops of Washington Heights, where — thanks to the sumptuous pre-war architecture, the expansive breadth of the Hudson and the gentle rise of the Palisades — we are charmed by the wisps of steam that […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, GWB Project, Health, Pessimism, Politicians, Science, Technology, Washington Heights | 1 Comment
Tags: Asthma, Boilers, Ghettos, Lung Cancer, Slumlords, Smoke
In which The Gay Recluse dreams of decorating garden walls and office spaces. While in Vienna, we visited the Secession Building. According to Wikipedia: “The Vienna Secession was founded on 3 April 1897 by artists Gustav Klimt, Koloman Moser, Josef Hoffmann, Joseph Maria Olbrich, Max Kurzweil, Otto Wagner, and others…In 1898, the group’s exhibition house […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Communism, Conspiracy, Dream, Fashion, Landscape, Pessimism, Ruins, Search, Sickness, Travel | 4 Comments
Tags: Art, Garden Walls, Jugendstil, Offices, Secession Building, Tedium, Vienna
In which The Gay Recluse is taken over by Zephyr. This December is even more stressful that usual, thanks to the economy. Everyone keeps canceling their holiday parties! And so what if you don’t get paid very much or have to work nights and weekends? At least you have a job! Maybe some day the […]
Filed under: Animals, Conspiracy, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, Pessimism, The Russian Blue | 2 Comments
Tags: Catsets, Couches, Jobs, Sleeping
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. For most of us, repetition is an unavoidable facet of modern life; we might even go as far as to say that it’s been like this as long as we have lived in one village or town or city. When we were […]
Filed under: Addiction, Architecture, Benefits of Being Gay, Capitalism, City Pattern Project, Communism, Conspiracy, Dissonance, Faith, Gay, GWB Project, Infrastructure, Obsession, Pessimism, Resignation, Travel | 1 Comment
Tags: Cities, iPods, Laptops, Powerbooks, Repetition, The George Washington Bridge, The Will, Villages
In which The Gay Recluse seeks to vex. Oh noes! It seems that we’ve upset Reader Arundel with our obsessive-compulsive need to repeat the same or similar photographic images over and over! Here’s what Arundel wrote: Hi. I forget where I first came across your blog, but I enjoy your posts and insights. Thank you. […]
Filed under: Addiction, Dissonance, Dream, Drivel, Letters, Pessimism, Sickness | 6 Comments
Tags: Affectations, Causual Readers, Distractions, Eyesores
On Senso
In which The Gay Recluse loves Luchino Visconti. After scouring the globe, we were finally able to obtain — from South Korea! — a copy of Senso, Luchino Visconti’s 1954 film about the Austrian occupation of Venice during the war for Italian independence. In what is arguably the most operatic of Visconti’s films, we follow a […]
Filed under: Dissonance, Film, Gay, Longing, Obsession, Pessimism, Resignation, Ruins, Writers-German | Leave a Comment
Tags: Communism, Gay Film Directors, Luchino Visconti, Senso, Walter Benjamin
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. Today we left work and had to walk crosstown in the drizzle. It was completely dark and we didn’t have an umbrella. Plus we were running late, and had overdressed; we regretted that it wasn’t snowing, as it would have been before global warming. But […]
Filed under: Animals, GWB Project, Longing, New York City, Pessimism, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cities, Gotham, Rain, Rush Hour, Sand, Time, Walks
In which Dante and Zephyr take over The Gay Recluse. Friends! Aren’t you tired of getting on the subway and listening to two teenage assholes engage in a loud debate about whether it’s “gay” or not to touch shoulders in the kind of “bro-hug” you see on the teevee when a team scores a goal/point/tee-dee? […]
Filed under: Animals, Gay, New York City, Not Every Cat a Lolcat, Pessimism, Resignation, Stereotypes, Subway, The Russian Blue | 3 Comments
Tags: Daily Grind, Dark Ages, Ghetto Life, Homophobia, Teenagers
In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with birds. So today we read a most excellent post on marriage at Emily Magazine, which we strongly recommend (and not just because we’re quoted at some length in it, lol!) We have to wonder, is it a coincidence that the only two bloggers to link into […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Dissonance, Faith, Gay, Government, Language, Pessimism, Philosophers | Leave a Comment
Tags: Civil Union for All, Ellie Smeal, Femiladyism, Gay Bffs, Gay Marriage, Marriage, N.O.W., Seagulls, The Hudson River
In which The Gay Recluse clarifies his thoughts on gay marriage after years of skirting the issue. Since we are gay and in a long-term relationship — almost ten years! — we are constantly besieged by frenz and relatives with questions that more or less could be summed up as this: “Oh it’s so sweet that you’re […]
Filed under: Disease, Dissonance, Drag Queens, Drivel, Gay, Government, Infrastructure, Landscape, Language, Law, Pessimism, Politicians | 5 Comments
Tags: Civil Unions, Gay Marriage, Marriage, Semantics
In which The Gay Recluse feels vaguely nauseous. So OMG did everyone hear that Keith Olbermann had a “special comment” last night (or was it two nights ago, whenevs) about Prop 8 and gay marriage? Chances are, if you spent five seconds on the internet today, you did! We were told not only to watch […]
Filed under: Disease, Dissonance, Gay, Government, Language, Law, Pessimism, Politicians, Resignation, Stereotypes, Television, The Gay Recluse | 8 Comments
Tags: Fucking, Keith Olbermann, Love, Shells, Teevee, The Gays, The Straights
The Gay Recluse 