Posts Tagged ‘New York City’
In which The Gay Recluse lands. We finally descended through the clouds, and — while looking out at the approaching city — were confronted by two questions. Is it possible that we actually live here? And could it really be 2009?
Filed under: Conspiracy, Decay, Dissonance, Dream, Landscape, Travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Air France, Europe, Flights, Middle Age, Modernity, New World, New Year's Day, New York City, Old World
In which The Gay Recluse holds a contest. Sort of. Today we received this submission from Ed, a reader in Murray Hill who writes: Dear Gay Recluse: Since you launched your competition I have kept my eye open for hot gay statues in Murray Hill, which is my neighborhood (32nd and Lexington, to be exact). […]
Filed under: Architecture, Competitions, Gay, Hot Gay Statues, Letters, New York City, The Gay Recluse | 4 Comments
Tags: Eagle, Gay, Gay Statues, Hot Gay Statues, Irving Marantz, Murray Hill, New York City, Park Avenue, Peace Obelisk
In which The Gay Recluse shares a letter. Robert from Ohio writes: “I saw the article you wrote on the Corsican Mint. I live in North East Ohio, which is just as harsh a climate as NYC. I have planted the mint at several folks’ homes and it does come back every year. Sometimes the […]
Filed under: Letters, New York City, The Spring Garden, Washington Heights, Weather | Leave a Comment
Tags: Corsican Mint, gardening, New York City, Northeast Ohio, Winter, Zone 7
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 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
On the Empire State Building
In our dreams, the Empire State Building hovers and glows with a radiance that is seriously awesome to behold; it is a beacon to all who seek refuge in the city, and furthermore is not — as Fay Wray tells us — unstinting or cold in this respect, even if like the rest of us […]
Filed under: Architecture, Dream, Film, Gay, History, New York City, Sickness | Leave a Comment
Tags: Architecture, Empire State Building, Fae Wrae, New York City, Walter Benjamin
The deserted, haunted quality of the oldest mansion in Manhattan is — like so much of Washington Heights — almost exhilarating when you consider the extremes of neglect it has endured to join us here today. The sign tells us that George Washington made his headquarters here during the fall of 1776, following a British […]
Filed under: Decay, Drag Queens, History, Landscape, The Gay Recluse, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Alexander Hamilton, Candy Darling, George Washington, History, John Quincy Adams, New York City, Revolutionary War, The Morris-Jumel Mansion, Thomas Jefferson, Washington Heights
Stark and imperial, during the day the white travertine facade of the Metropolitan Opera seems as inviting as a walk across a desert, but at night glows like a beacon to the modern, urban spirit in which it was conceived. The cloud-like apparitions of Chagall’s paintings hypnotize us and soften the disdain of the high roman arches through which we pass […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Good Rock, Memory, Opera, Resignation, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: Aida, Amneris, Chagall, Giuseppe Verdi, Lincoln Center, Luciana D'Intino, New York City, Opera, Rademes, The Metropolitan Opera
We leave work and walk the long blocks from Madison to Sixth Avenue. We hurry down the stairs into the station, where we mindlessly extract our card from our wallet and slide it through the reader. In the distance we can sense the deep, subterranean rumble of what is surely an empty uptown D-train approaching […]
Filed under: Infrastructure, Longing, Resignation, Subway, The Gay Recluse | Leave a Comment
Tags: D-Train, Fate, God, Homophobia, Karma, MTA, New York City, Pessimism, Proletariat, Schopenhauer, Subway
Here we take offense with Andrew Sullivan‘s unthinking assertion that “[f]or all his many faults, [Rudy Giuliani] turned a city around.” Rather than rebut this ourselves, however, we turn to the infinitely more eloquent and compelling words of Herbert Muschamp, who sadly is no longer with us to tell the truth, which resonates in ways […]
Filed under: Drivel, Gay, Infrastructure, Memory, Sickness | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrew Sullivan, Giuliani, Herbert Muschamp, New York City
The thuds you hear on the roof? No, it is not rain or sleet or thunder, or at least not in the meteorological sense of these terms; rather, it is a rain of debris brought down upon us by the merciless gods who throw garbage from the windows.
Filed under: Decay, Infrastructure, Politicians, Sickness, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: 311, Garbage, Gentrification, New York City, Rats, Washington Heights
There is a tawdry quality to the buildings lining the main street into town that even we find it difficult to romanticize, as it does not recall an excess of abandoned grandeur (in this regard we have been literally ruined by Washington Heights) but a desperate, opportunistic desire to skim off the hordes (us among […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Longing, Travel, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Goth-Punk, Lake Placid, New York City, Saranac Lake, Washington Heights
Thank you so very much for your keen insight and generosity, your willingness to come all the way up here to protect us! Your words have been so reassuring; we feel so much better knowing that you will do everything in your power — including next week’s important meeting with the mayor — to prevent […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Decay, Drivel, Gentrification, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Gentrification, New York City, Washington Heights
We were recently informed via e-mail of the fait accompli retirement of Glitza Gardenia, a woman who had labored in the administrative trenches of our organization for over three decades. Despite efforts of her manager — the author of the e-mail in question — to honor these years of unflinching service, Glitza refused to consider […]
Filed under: Capitalism, Drag Queens, Pleasure, Resignation, The Autumn Garden | Leave a Comment
Tags: Commuter, Gardenia, Glitza, Midtown, New York City, Retirement, Work
To those who complain about our subway station, we will not dispute your claims regarding the legions of rats who live on the upper platform, the large underground cavern now filled with trash that has long been closed off to riders; nor will we deny that the smell of piss is pervasive, and that at […]
Filed under: Decay, Infrastructure, Pleasure, Resignation, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andy Warhol, ESPN, Michael C. Hall, MTA, New York City, Sarah Silverman, Washington Heights
There are many games of dominoes in Washington Heights, but we prefer to avoid those on Broadway — populated by noisy, drunken louts — in favor of the more intense and serious version found on the side streets leading up to Amsterdam. Here the diamond-studded drug lord steps out of an armored SUV to take […]
Filed under: Drag Queens, Pleasure, Washington Heights | Leave a Comment
Tags: Beatrice, Broadway, Candy Darling, Dominoes, New York City, Walter Benjamin, Washington Heights
The Gay Recluse 