Archive for the ‘Steinway Street’ Category
inexorably crawling
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
- photo by Mitch Waxman
One is fascinated by the automotive corridor through western Queens that is known as Northern Blvd. It is literally an “automotive corridor” as in the sense of it being a busy vehicular roadway, but it is also an industrial corridor which speaks of a forgotten moment in NY history when automobiles were manufactured in the five boroughs. This is largely a start of the twentieth century sort of thing, of course, but it was a pretty big deal back in the 1920′s.
That’s before the American auto industry consolidated itself around the City of Detroit, of course.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Standard Motor Products is still located at the corner of Steinway/39th street and Northern, of course, but they don’t make anything here anymore- it’s just offices. At that, SMP only uses a small section of their former factory, which famously carries a modern day rooftop farm at its crown. This “history of the automobile industry in Queens” thing is a topic which has been gathering steam and certain interest for your humble narrator of late, but my research has only just begun and intelligent presentation of fact is still far off in the future.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
There is still a significant amount of auto related commerce going on around these parts, but it’s all about sales these days, not manufacture. An incalculable number of used… sorry… industry parlance is “pre owned”… cars are available along that stretch of Northern Blvd. which sits happily between Queens Plaza and the Grand Central Parkway. Something I’m working on, one of many background tasks and research projects performed and underway here at Newtown Pentacle HQ.
cursed season
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
- photo by Mitch Waxman
During the snow storm on Friday, Our Lady of the Pentacle indicated that she had become a bit peckish and desired a meal. Unfortunately for us, many of the restaurants here in Astoria had wisely shuttered their doors early.
Accordingly, we set off across the frozen waste to find acceptable comestibles. Naturally, one brought a camera along with him.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
This will be a week of darkness explored, here at your Newtown Pentacle.
As mentioned in an earlier post, an effort to betray normal sensibility and habit is underway, one of which is to shoot during the optimal hours of diurnal light. Nocturnal Astoria was fairly deserted, at least by Astoria standards, and an eerie pall of quiet hung about the place- punctuated only by the sound of plows and salt spreaders and the occasional exhalations of Spaniard revelry.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Small groups picked their way through the snow, as an obscuring miasma of wind blown ice particles occluded vision. It was not particularly cold, oddly enough, just windy. Road salt lent an oddly oceanic scent to the air, which mingled with those foul humours rising up from the subterranean sewage tunnels underlying the street.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
A fine icy powder as it fell, the snow hardly interfered with my lens, as it did not cling to the glass. In the end, it was the always reliable Politos Pizza on Broadway just off Steinway which satisfied the gastronomic urges of Our Lady and myself. An alcoholic drink was procured next door at the venerable Cronin and Phelan pub for dessert.
At only ten at night, the barkeep announced last call, an indication that the storm was growing worse- for if a NYC Irish bar is closing up early…
Also:
Remember that event in the fall which got cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy?
The “Up the Creek” Magic Lantern Show- presented by the Obscura Society NYC- is back on at Observatory, on February the 15th- This Friday.
Click here or the image below for more information and tickets.
reflecting ribbon
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
- photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots emanate from a time in the past, an era when a young George W. Bush taught us all how to laugh. The colorful display, unfortunately, no longer graces the tableau found at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and Steinway Street. A car wash still inhabits the spot, but the variegated signage has since been removed and replaced by the banal.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
The prevailing light and atmosphere of 2012′s last couple of weeks is epitomized, I think, by the shot above. A sincere desire to drink in chromatic splendor demanded that the first shot in today’s post be displayed, in order to break up the fungoid monotony of December.
clammy mass
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Mayan Apocalypse Countdown: just 6 days left until the 13th b’ak’tun ends, initiating the Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st. Tick, tock.
Recent announcements by the reknowned archaeological scientists of North Korea discussed their discovery of the lair of a legendary unicorn high in the mountains. They needn’t have looked in such out of the way places, and instead visited Steinway Street here in Astoria. Unicorns abound.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
“Bing was not here” adjoins the wry graffiti, a response to an advertising campaign promoting a search engine. Such frivolity matters little to me, as preparation for the Mayan Doomsday is all consuming. The bunker, hidden deep below Astoria, has been activated. Your humble narrator is busy filling the vast pools of water and herding livestock into my subterranean grotto. Also, the still suits (modeled after the freemen models from dune) should be arriving from Amazon on Monday. The sleeper has awoken.
