Posts Tagged ‘New York City’
Magic Lantern Show in Ridgewood
Your humble narrator will be narrating humbly on Friday, February 24th at 7:30 P.M. for the “Ridgewood Democratic Club, 60-70 Putnam Avenue, Ridgewood, NY 11385” as the “Newtown Creek Magic Lantern Show” is presented to their esteemed group. The club hosts a public meeting, with guests and neighbors welcome, and say that refreshments will be served.
The “Magic Lantern Show” is actually a slideshow, packed with informative text and graphics, wherein we approach and explore the entire Newtown Creek. Every tributary, bridge, and significant spot are examined and illustrated with photography. This virtual tour will be augmented by personal observation and recollection by yours truly, with a question and answer period following.
For those of you who might have seen it last year, the presentation has been streamlined, augmented with new views, and updated with some of the emerging stories about Newtown Creek which have been exclusively reported on at this- your Newtown Pentacle.
For more information, please contact me here.
interest and speculation
- photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator can never be 100% sure about anything, as I live in a hallucinatory dreamscape of thwarted ambition where angles that appear obtuse are often in fact acute, but this would seem to be the head of a tunnel boring machine at the Sunnyside Yards. The device is of Byzantine complexity and cyclopean size, but sits suspended.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots are from the middle of January, the 18th to be exact (which is also Robert Anton Wilson’s birthday), and were captured at a fortuitous moment when the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself was hanging low in the sky.
A video of the second avenue subway project’s tunnel crew bursting through the the skin of the earth is extant upon the interwebs, and I believe this to be the front of that mechanism which has been grinding out its subterranean course for the last several years.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
It is a rare thing to see equipment like this out in the open, let alone suspended above the ground by steel spars erected by the estimable engineers of Bay Crane. A mere week later, the device was entirely disassembled into constituent parts, no doubt to allow it to be easily shipped off to the location of its next task.
hideous complexity
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a quickie today, a shot taken from some point in space which straddles the borderline of Brooklyn and Queens (although this one is slightly more in Brooklyn) taken from the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge. Apologies for the brevity, but a humble narrator is busy staggering across the boroughs today, and in the midst of preparing for a series of meetings and presentations. Be back tomorrow with something more substantial.
ironclad
- photos by Mitch Waxman
It was 150 years ago today, that John Ericsson taught the band to play.
Shots from the Greenpoint Monitor Museum parade, held yesterday, celebrating the launch of the USS Monitor 150 years ago today. Not entirely sure what role Llamas played in the Civil War, of course, but their presence was quite welcome.
feasible means
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Don’t tell Newtown Creek, as I wouldn’t want her to think that I’m cheating on her- but occasionally, I visit the Gowanus Canal.
It’s no tryst I’ll confess to- I’m a one superfund site kind of guy- but I’ve always enjoyed harmless flirting.
Witness the Loujaine, therefore, one of the Gowanus Canals permanent guests.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Once upon a time, Loujaine was the proud property of “Arabian Bulk Trade” or ABT, and served as a cement and dry cargo ship for the Saudi Arabia based company. That green and white funnel (smokestack) with the running critter in it is their logo.
The ship was built in the Nagoya, Japan of 1966, and lost its certification in 1985.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Reliable sources indicate that the ship was originally rigged as a bulk carrier, and that its original name was Bahma.
Arabian Bulk Trade was formed in 1977, acquired Bahma in the early 1980′s, and converted the ship for cement handling. They renamed it the “Abu Loujaine”.
ABT, incidentally, is part of a larger Saudi company which is called Xenel.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
Xenel is an enormous conglomerate which dominates several Saudi markets, and is one of the companies operated by the House of Alireza.
A mercantile clan, the Alireza are somewhat analogous to the Rockefellers, or so I am told. The fellow who runs Xenel is an accomplished businessman and international statesman.
He went to Berkeley.
- photo by Mitch Waxman
It arrived in Brooklyn (I am told) in 1985. Ownership has changed hands a couple of times since the ABT days, but according to the maritime websites it is currently owned by a local cement company of sizable reputation.
My understanding is that the ship was “decommissioned” and serves as a so called “floating discharge terminal”, warehouse, and barge for concrete products.
Now promise me, if the Newtown Creek asks, tell her I was with you- ok?
