Archive for the ‘Subway’ Category

In which The Chaos Detective concludes his European assignment in Paris. Watch on Facebook. THE CHAOS DETECTIVE is a teevee series for the internet. “City of Dreams” is a five-part episode set in Europe. Future episodes will be located in New York City. City of Dreams (Part 1) City of Dreams (Part 2) City of […]


In which The Gay Recluse considers a subterranean masterpiece. Our friend Paul just sent us this from his phone: “So what if I voted for McCain?” OMGLMFAO! We’re not sure exactly where this was taken, but Paul lives in Harlem, so we’ll give our downtown neighbors credit for this piece of brilliance. (But Paul would […]


In which The Gay Recluse maybe becomes slightly more technically adept. Yesterday we took some footage of the snowstorm — or actually the aftermath — and made two vidoes with commentary. We had some technical diffs, though, so wanted to post them again in case anyway tried to click through and was harshly rebuffed! 1) […]


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? […]


In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the city. More than any other candidate in recent history, Barack Obama can be considered a product of the city. And not just because he’s black, obvs, but because he lives in a city and seems to genuinely appreciate its fundamental character, not only in a […]


In which The Gay Recluse is always late. This morning we reluctantly got out of bed at 7:15 am — instead of our usual 7:30 — so that we would have enough time to do everything we needed to do and catch the 8:20 train instead of the 8:30, because we had an important 9:00 […]


In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with naps. Lately we’ve had trouble sleeping, so have begun to rely on naps. Sometimes the best place to sleep is on a crowded subway train. (If you can get a seat!) Especially on the A or D between 59th and 125th Streets, a trip that during […]


In which The Gay Recluse loves trees. So we sit down on the subway next to this guy who starts to aggressively hum. (We’re like: why us?) And then he karate chops at the air in front of him. We ignore him and think about Chamaecyparis obtusa.


In which The Gay Recluse becomes increasingly obsessed with the George Washington Bridge. Today on the subway this woman wouldn’t move her leg over two inches to make room for us to sit down. But we sat down anyway, because we were tired and didn’t see why she should take up two seats. Then we […]


In which The Gay Recluse contemplates life, on the subway. Today on the subway — this, during the evening rush — we sat down next to a woman, perhaps 25 or so, with long, thin arms and straight blond hair. We noticed because a few seconds later, she leaned over and yelled “Dad!” And it […]


In which The Gay Recluse sees remnants of craft in the morning commute. This is where we stand every morning to wait for the train. And dream of stenciling this pattern onto the walls of our office.


In which The Gay Recluse goes to the museum. 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, all displayed in a collage with the glue […]


In which The Gay Recluse finds a silver lining. We’ve already written about our bad karma at the 34th Street Station, which is filled with ungainly chrome columns and awkward ramps. But just the other day, we noticed an infinite wall of gold tile. We’re not sure why it took us two years to find. […]


In which The Gay Recluse is nonplussed. From our subway station at 163rd Street: We’re all for organ donation, but we find this advertisement rather too exuberant. Is this woman giving or receiving? Oh and another weird thing: someone graffiti numbered all the people in this poster. Seriously: creepy. “Awesome! I’m 24!” We’ve never seen […]


In which The Gay Recluse becomes obsessed with orange tiles. We recently spent some time in Berlin at the conference center, much of which was done in orange tiles. Yes it was garish but there was something appealing about it. Maybe it’s just because it seems like nothing you ever see on this side of […]


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, […]


In which The Gay Recluse sees you on the dark side of the moon. We’d like to put forth the case that the most random graffiti can be found uptown. Exhibit A: Spotted on the southbound platform of the 163rd Street subway station: The cock is stupid, but we have to admit that the Roger […]


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, […]


In which The Gay Recluse has a bad day and indulges in a lil rant. Here’s a shot of one seriously fucking annoying thing some people do on the subway, i.e., leave their shopping bags on the seat next to them when the entire train is filled with passengers. Most days we would just tell […]


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, […]