Archive for the ‘Subway’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station. Consider, if you will, one of 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 […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Communism, Decay, Graffiti, Infrastructure, Subway, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, Abstract Expression, Art, C-train, Glue, Masterpieces, Paper, Posters
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
On V (x4)
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates four uncommissioned masterpieces from the walls of an uptown subway station and finds evidence of paranoia, conspiracy and entropy.
Filed under: Addiction, Conspiracy, Decay, History, Infrastructure, Obsession, Subway, Technology, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, C-train, Graffiti, Modern Art, MTA, Thomas Pynchon, V
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 celebrates the demolition of an eyesore. Location: The intersection of Amsterdam and Saint Nicholas, between 162nd and 163rd Streets, in Washington Heights. Previously: We wish we had a photograph, but — alas! — a search through The Gay Recluse archives came up empty. Thus you will have to imagine a […]
Filed under: Architecture, Capitalism, Knockbusters, Landscape, Photography, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Amsterdam Avenue, Camper Van Beethoven, Columbia University, English Elm, Knockbusters, Rite-Aid, Saint Nicholas, Useless Shit, Washington Heights
In which The Gay Recluse — with help from our United Kingdom correspondent, The London Eye — examines life abroad (instead of just dreaming about it all the time). Today, this breaking news from The London Eye: Dear The Gay Recluse Here’s a photo of a TV screen in one of the tube stations (Picadilly […]
Filed under: Infrastructure, Subway, The Gay Recluse, The London Eye, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Advertising, Bakerloo, London, MTA, Picadilly Circus, Television Screens, Underground, Vandalism
In which The Gay Recluse — with help from our United Kingdom correspondent, The London Eye — examines life abroad (instead of just dreaming about it all the time). Here we contemplate another wall from the Leicester Square station and note striking similarities to the uncommissioned masterpieces of New York City.
Filed under: Decay, Infrastructure, Subway, The Gay Recluse, The London Eye | Leave a Comment
Tags: Leicester Square, London Underground, New York City MTA, Ruins, Subway Walls, The London Eye
In which The Gay Recluse — with help from our United Kingdom correspondent, The London Eye — examines life abroad (instead of just dreaming about it all the time). Today, we contemplate the wall of a London Underground station and note striking similarities to some of the greatest uncommissioned masterpieces of New York City.
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Infrastructure, Subway, The London Eye | Leave a Comment
Tags: London Underground, New York City MTA, Ruins, Subway Walls, The London Eye
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station. Dear readers: we invite you to submit any particularly inspiring (or uninspiring) examples of subway graffiti to us at thegayrecluse@gmail.com.
Filed under: Graffiti, Infrastructure, Pessimism, Subway, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: C-train, Color Palettes, Graffiti, MTA, Veggie Tales
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station. Dear readers: we invite you to submit any particularly inspiring (or any particularly uninspiring) examples of subway graffiti to us at thegayrecluse@gmail.com.
Filed under: Graffiti, Infrastructure, New York City, Subway, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Graffiti, MTA, Networks, Sundance, Sundance Film Festival, Television
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an uncommissioned masterpiece from the walls of an uptown subway station.
Filed under: Film, Gay, Infrastructure, Subway, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: C-train, Dumb Movies, Emotions, Funerals, Graffiti, MTA, Rambo, Sylvester Stallone, Tears
As we have discussed before, some of the best art in Washington Heights is in the subway stations. Here we pause to admire the genius of a delicate, floating (if raw and mildly distorted) line drawing of Jack Nicholson, which miraculously transforms a garish Hollywood poster into something subversive and entertaining, which is to say […]
Filed under: Graffiti, Infrastructure, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Art, Graffiti, Jack Nicholson, MTA, Posters, The Bucket List
Today we heard the unfamiliar whine of a dog on the subway. Poor thing! We can imagine no environment more foreign or artificial to a dog’s sensibility than a New York City subway car, between the plastic orange seating, linoleum floors, steel poles and preposterous advertisements. (Dr. Zizmor, anyone?) Or — from a sonic perspective […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Communism, Infrastructure, Longing, New York City, Subway | Leave a Comment
Tags: A-train, Dogs, Human Condition, New York City, Philosophy, Subway
On the Pleasure of Ruins
We read about the MTA’s proposal to raise subway fares with mixed feelings; on one hand, we would happily pay the extra five or six dollars a month for more frequent trains, but at the same time, as we consider the ruined state of our subway station — regularly cited as one of the dirtiest […]
Filed under: Architecture, Decay, Gay, Infrastructure, Literature, New York City, Subway, Washington Heights, Writers-Hungarian | Leave a Comment
Tags: Art Deco, Book of Memories, Fare Hike, MTA, Peter Nadas, Subway
On Memories of Paris
Perhaps it was the broken signal of the closing subway door — so that the usual New York City tones were reversed, with the low one first — that dislodged us from our usual evening commute and sent us reeling toward the city of light; or maybe it was the pair of women speaking French; […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Gay, Memory, New York City, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Chatelet, Dubuffet, Les Halles, Metro, MTA, Paris, Place St. Michel
On Putting the Garden To Sleep
We sweep the walk one last time, gathering up the birch leaves — a deep yellow — and the beech leaves — a magnificent, burned orange — before tossing all of them over the wall into the vacant lot next door. The wrought-iron table and chairs we place under a tarp; we bring the candles […]
Filed under: New York City, Subway, The Autumn Garden, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Candles, Copper Beech, Garden, Garden Furniture, Leaves, Terra Cotta, White Birch, Winter Tarps, Wrought Iron
On Tears for the Gay Recluse
Recent artwork in the local museum of the ephemeral:
Filed under: Infrastructure, New York City, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, C-train, Chelsea Boys, Gay, MTA, New York City, SubTalk, United States Marines
On the Dead Station
As we ride the uptown 6-train, we peer through the window to catch a glimpse of the dead station at 18th Street. A friend once went by foot through the tunnels to this station and described finding there among the abandoned gates and pillars irrefutable evidence of human habitation: a doll’s shoe, a pornography magazine […]
Filed under: Architecture, Infrastructure, Memory, Subway | Leave a Comment
Tags: , 23rd Street, 6-train, Dead Stations, MTA, New York City, Subway, Union Square
The Gay Recluse 