Archive for the ‘Travel’ Category
In which The Gay Recluse provides a more accurate version of Arthur C. Clarke’s obituary than the one that was just released by AP. (For The Times version, click here.) Arthur C. Clarke, Science Fiction Writer, Dies at 90 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS and THE GAY RECLUSE Published: March 18, 2008 Filed at 6:41 p.m. […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Science, Sickness, Stereotypes, The Gay Recluse, Travel, Writers-British | Leave a Comment
Tags: 2001, Arthur C. Clarke, Arthur Clarke, Associated Press, Gay Obituaries, Gay Stereotypes, Gay Voice, Gay Writers, Homophobia, Sri Lanka, Stanley Kubrick
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. Let’s face it: when it comes to gay rights hot gay statues, Europe is miles ahead of the United States. Reader Anthony Goriainoff, a journalist and photographer based in Madrid, writes: “Madrid these days is really into its art and it takes itself very seriously. […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Gay, The Gay Recluse, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Gay Statues, Hot Gay Statues, Igor Mitoraj, Madrid, Spain
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. On the topic of hot gay statues, one of our readers — David from Queens — writes with an important observation/challenge: Great contest, Gay Recluse. But it would be virtually impossible for our splendid nation to top the statue of Hercules and Cacus (attached) in […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Decay, Gay, Ruins, The Gay Recluse, Travel | 2 Comments
Tags: Contests, Firenze, Florence, Gay Statues, Hercules and Caucus
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 exclusive analysis from The London Eye: “These [statues of Antony Gormley] seem to be naked, and possibly gay, but not necessarily hot …” (Photo […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Hot Gay Statues, The Gay Recluse, The London Eye, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Antony Gormley, Construction Workers, Hot Gay Statues, London, Naked Statues, Woof
In which The Gay Recluse runs a contest. Sort of. We are extremely pleased to announce that we’ve already received our first hot-gay-statue submission, from Andrew of 801a.info, who tells us: “This is in Washington D.C., directly across from the White House. The pictures could be taken to look more salacious, I guarantee.” Really? We’re […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Competitions, History, Hot Gay Statues, Ruins, The Gay Recluse, Travel | 6 Comments
Tags: 801a, Contests, D.C., Gay Statues, Military Instruction, Washington, White House
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 yesterday’s Times, we were told that Italy has sunk to new depths of despair on many fronts, “struggling as few other countries do with fractured politics, uneven growth, organized crime and a tenuous sense of nationhood.” There is widespread malaise, or malessere. Quoted is Walter Veltroni, the mayor of Rome: “It’s a country that […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, History, Nostalgia, Resignation, The Gay Recluse, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Economy, GNP, Italy, Schopenhauer, The New York Times, Turin, Venice
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 the Blue Atlas Cedar in Snow
The first snow of the season in our Washington Heights garden, and naturally we are drawn to that most unnatural of colors: the electric slate blue of the atlas cedar (Cedrus atlantica). Suddenly — are you with us? — we are on a train in northern Italy, watching the countryside drift past; here, it seems […]
Filed under: Communism, Landscape, The Gay Recluse, The Russian Blue, The Winter Garden, Travel, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Blue Atlas Cedar, Cedrus atlantica, Columnar, Fastigiata, Saturnine, Snow, Turin, Venice
It already seems years away, those hours spent sweeping up the golden leaves of the European white birch, which has always been the focal point of our garden in Washington Heights. Each leaf, of course, represents a day in our past, and for this reason might seem more valuable if there weren’t so many. And […]
Filed under: Decay, Memory, Politicians, The Autumn Garden, The Gay Recluse, Travel, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Betula Pendula, European White Birch, Gardens, Italy, Travel, Venice, Wisteria
On Reagan National Airport
The taxi dispatcher blew his whistle: “Reagan National?” he asked, referring to the airport just outside of the city. We shuddered visualizing a similar exchange twenty years in the future and the many monuments that would inevitably be erected to honor our current leaders. But as the cab pulled into the circular drive of the […]
Filed under: Decay, History, Infrastructure, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Airports, Marriott Wardman Park, Ronald Reagan, Spleen, Washington DC
A young runner — perhaps twenty years old — had stopped to stretch at one of the Parcourse installations in Rock Creek Park; it did not take more than a single glance to realize why he looked so familiar. In a short conversation, he confirmed that he had in fact just this year graduated from […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, Good Rock, Infrastructure, Landscape, Memory, Nostalgia, Opera, Pleasure, The Gay Recluse, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Center for Marine Conservation, Cornell University, Institute for Local Self-Reliance, Parks, Rock Creek Park, Running, Stretching, The Meat Puppets, The Smiths, Washington DC
On the Rock Creek Park Parcourse
AMERICA’S NEW OUTDOOR FITNESS SPORT IS FOR EVERYONE. Join the millions of participants who enjoy Parcourse regularly to maintain overall physical fitness and good health. Parcourse consists of a series of fitness stations (where you perform specific exercises) which are spaced along a jogging and walking path in this area, as you can see from […]
Filed under: Decay, Infrastructure, Landscape, Memory, Nostalgia, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1970s, Democracy, Exercise, Parcourse, Populism, Rock Creek Park, Washington DC
On Die Tote Stadt
The modern hotel is a mammoth, sprawling fortress on a hill; its endless hallways are dim and silent and uniform except for the temporal, scattered remains of room service left outside a door. If we see anyone at all — and this is rare, although we have been told the hotel is fully occupied — […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Infrastructure, Opera, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Keycard, Marriott Wardman Park, Paranoia, The Dead City
On the Cotillion Ballroom
As we descend the wide, curving stairs to make our entrance into the Cotillion Ballroom, we look up and observe six — no, eight! — crystal chandeliers hovering above us, massive structures roughly the shape of upside-down umbrellas, each one magically suspended under the 30-foot ceiling. This is a grand interior space reminiscent of those we have seen […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Film, Infrastructure, Pessimism, Politicians, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Aristocracy, Law, Marriott, The Supreme Court, Visconti
On Flight
The bleak and vaguely militaristic atmosphere of the terminal is now behind us; we have endured the stifling tedium of the runway and the paralyzing terror of the lift-off, during which we considered the high likelihood of our imminent death and regretted our many missteps. We thought with great tenderness of Dante and Zephyr and […]
Filed under: Dream, Infrastructure, Resignation, The Autumn Garden, The Russian Blue, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Cats, conifers, LGA, US Airways
I sat down in Terminal C next to an older woman, who in a long black dress and ostrich-feather hat appeared oddly elegant among all the business suits. “I hope it’s not too crowded,” I remarked in a somewhat stilted attempt to engage this mysterious woman in conversation, as if we were both waiting to […]
Filed under: Dream, Gay, Memory, Opera, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: LGA, Liebestod, Opera, Spleen, Tristan and Isolde, Wagner
Since we last saw the hills around Saratoga a few days ago, they have become drab and mundane, the color of an unwatered suburban lawn, while further south the Catskills have grown equally tired and pedestrian. Did we really talk with any enthusiasm about wanting to visit either of these spots? Even the Hudson River […]
Filed under: Good Rock, Memory, Obsession, Opera, The Autumn Garden, Travel, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Adirondacks, Catskills, George Washington Bridge, Hudson River Valley, Palisades Parkway, Saratoga Springs, Washington Heights
Whenever the gay recluse leaves home, we find our dreams inhabited by those we have left behind. Several times in the passing nights we feel the slight pressure of paws walking across the terrain of the bed, pausing now and again to balance on our legs, as if to ask us if anything we have […]
Filed under: Dream, The Russian Blue, Travel, Writers-French | Leave a Comment
Tags: Baudelaire, Dream, Russian Blue, Spleen, The Clock
The Gay Recluse 