Archive for the ‘The Gay Recluse’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse hopes that a young woman will not succumb to the more conventional pressures that sadly ooze from this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Those looking for our quantitative analysis should click here. Want To Be My Girlfriend? Please Don’t Define By MARGUERITE FIELDS and THE GAY RECLUSE RECENTLY […]
Filed under: Gay, Landscape, Language, Longing, New York City, Search, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Conventions, Gay Modern Love, Marguerite Fields, Modern Love, The New York Times
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
On the Opinion Page: May 1, 2008
In which The Gay Recluse scores selected opinions in The Times. Gail Collins/How Will It Play in Apex? The Short Version: It’s hard to say who’s worse: Blabbermouth Bill or The Reverend Wright. In her words: “On the other hand, young voters who have yet to have their hearts broken by a politician find it wicked (sic?) […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drivel, Government, Politicians, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bats, Cut-and-Paste, Gail Collins, Jungles, Nicholas Kristof, The New York Times
In which The Gay Recluse lives in an alternate reality. For a long time we’ve kept an eye on the triple vacant lot at 573-577 West 161st Street, which we walk by every day on our way to the 163rd Street subway station. In January, we were pleasantly surprised to see two of the three […]
Filed under: Architecture, Gentrification, Government, Knockbusters, Longing, Monopoly, New York City, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | 5 Comments
Tags: Alternate Realities, Apartment Buildings, Bulldozers, Department of Buildings, Development, Monopoly, Recession, Uptown Real Estate
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 The Gay Recluse invites readers to get drunk enjoy art in person. Reader John Anthony Frederick sent us the following flier today for his photo exhibition in Albany: To all of our readers in Albany: Hey, we think you should go! The tree photos look extremely cool: distant, distorted and contemplative. (Why not […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Letters, Memory, Photography, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Albany, Art Openings, David Paterson, Gay Dates, Hot Singles, John Anthony Frederick, Trees
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
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. Today we received two unofficial entries for the contest, “unofficial” because 1) the first statue is in Europe and we are primarily interested in locating the hottest gay statues in the U.S., and 2) the second statue doesn’t exist except in someone’s photoshopallucination! Yet we […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dissonance, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Photography, Stereotypes, Technology, The Gay Recluse | 1 Comment
Tags: Bears, Chubby Chasers, Competitions, David, Florence, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Woof
In which The Gay Recluse updates his informal but rather telling quantitative analysis of Modern Love, the weekly Style Section (of The Times) column in which openly gay writers almost never appear, and even less frequently describe a romantic relationship. This week’s piece: Was I on a Date or Baby-Sitting? Subject: For some reason a […]
Filed under: Disease, Language, Pessimism, Search, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Bad Prose, Daniel Jones, Gay Modern Love, Homophobia, Modern Love, The New York Times
In which The Gay Recluse makes fun of the sad straights who appear in this week’s Modern Love offering in The Times. Those looking for our quantitative analysis should click here. Was I on a Date or Baby-Sitting? OMG! What an Asshole! By JULIE KLAUSNER and THE GAY RECLUSE Published: April 27, 2008 So this […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, The Gay Recluse, The Times | Leave a Comment
Tags: Daniel Jones, Gay Modern Love, Jule Klausner, Modern Love
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: Graffiti, Search, Subway, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 163rd Street, Abstract Expressionism, Art, C-train, Subway
In which The Gay Recluse contemplates an old friend. Date of Picture: April 24, 2008 Location: Our garden in Washington Heights. Even as a child in Pittsburgh, we loved this table. All winter it would sit out on the porch as we stared longingly at it. Every May, when it was finally warm enough (this […]
Filed under: City Pattern Project, Dissonance, Landscape, Longing, Memory, Ruins, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1970s, Chores, Porch Furniture, Porches, Spring Cleaning, Suburbs, Tables, Wrought Iron
The Gay Recluse 
On Our Own Method of Diluting the Homophobosphere
In which The Gay Recluse attempts to reconcile his traffic-whoring impulses with a desire to flee the crazies. In March, as part of a new traffic-whoring initiative, we opened up The Gay Recluse to commenters. By and large we’ve been very pleased with the results, not only in terms of traffic but in terms of the many […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Infrastructure, Knockbusters, Language, Letters, The Gay Recluse | 4 Comments
Tags: Commenters, Dilution, Homophobosphere, Traffic Whoring