Hey Now! Come and Go
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! CSX #6926 was approaching!
These shots are from the end of a shortish walk on the 24th of August of this year, which began up in the South Side Slopes neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and then continued on to the South Side Flats section, a path which eventually carried me here – to a pinch point along CSX Transportation’s Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks.
Said tracks are what remain of the once gigantic P&LE RR (Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR) rail yard.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given how often I gather shots from this spot, you know that I dig it.
The concrete factory in the background, with its web of conveyor belts and other cool gear, and the Liberty Bridge too. The Panhandle Bridge is back there too, and when all the stars align there’s a T light Rail unit in the frame too.
Existentially, there’s shade and public seating here, in a park like environment, with a nearby brewery which offers not just food and drink but toilets too.
The park area is also set along one of the waterfront trails.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I headed up to the upper level of the location.
There’s another park like public space up there, and since I had already gotten #6926 from below, I figured that I’d head up there for a different POV should another train appear.
I cooled my heels for around twenty minutes before the signal arms began to chime and descend.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now! That’s CSX #801.
Both trains were heading ‘away’ from Pittsburgh to the south east. In that direction lies the three big USS Steel plants, and ultimately Maryland and West Virginia. The highly industrialized shorelines of the Monongahela River, and the communities that the mills and factories exist in, are referred to locally as the ‘Mon Valley.’
Normally, I do a ‘one and done’ for these CSX shots, but on this day I decided to follow #801 through the pass.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the train rolled through, your humble narrator had to get himself all encased in the web of bag and camera straps again. I was traveling with the ‘full pack’ on this one, which weighs around thirty pounds all told.
Ended up using the one zoom lens – which was on the camera when I left HQ – all day, so I carried all that heavy gear for nothing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve had to rethink my pack a bunch since moving out to Pittsburgh from NYC. Here, I have to carry a water bottle as there aren’t any bodegas.
Right now, I’ve got three different camera bag setups which I switch back and forth between, depending on what the day’s plan is. It’s all very confusing.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Self imposed
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While descending a set of dissolving city steps, found beneath Pittsburgh’s Mission Street Bridge, one observed Norfolk Southern #9898 hurtling past on an elevated trestle. Hey Now!
This scuttle began on Sterling Street, as you may recall from Thursday of last week, and my plan for the day mainly involved kicking my feet about and moving at a good clip while walking.
Ultimately, I’d be looping back to the Light Rail station here on Pittsburgh’s ‘South Side’ on my way back to HQ in nearby Dormont.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Places like this are unusually welcoming to me.
As a reminder, the Newtown Pentacle time warp continues to flux.
These photos are from the last week of August, and the post itself is being written on the 7th of September. If my scheduling is correct, right now you’re fairly close to overdosing on Pumpkin spiced latte.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path I was walking must be a familiar one to regular readers by this point. The transit service I utilize – a light rail outfit called ‘The T’ – leads me back towards a nearby station.
The South Side Flats section is built up on the flood plain of the Monongahela River, nearby an area along its waterfront which was once highly industrialized with rail yards, and steel mills, and iron furnaces. The packed together housing here in the ‘flats,’ and up in the ‘slopes,’ were where the workers of those businesses dwelt.
Lots of churches hereabouts, too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along with not having any desire to visit a casino or gamble in general, one of the bits of emotional software which many of you possess and which I do not involves religiosity.
Not putting it down, faith, for those of you who indulge in the worship of some allegorical sky father that counts up all the times you’ve masturbated and then holds that number against you, but here we are.
To use the word ‘atheism’ would indicate a certainty of belief in a null state rather than a supreme being, which means to me you enjoy an irrational ‘belief’ which I would describe as being somewhat religious in nature. There’s a lot to be said for not thinking about the supranatural at all, and embracing the ‘ultramundane,’ instead – as I do. The ultramundane is what your sky father or mother installed you into, so appreciate the setting.
Non-secular humanism, anyone? Hey now?
Gotta love all the religions – though – as after all, I’m a fan of ‘man.’
As I often say: Whatever… you do you, boo… I’m just passing through.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One seems to actually pass through here a lot, due to two reasons.
First is that aforementioned light rail station, the other is a set of CSX tracks nearby a brewery I frequent.
As a note: ‘Drinks’ offers a much smaller ‘lure’ to me than the ‘sure thing’ shots of railroads, at arms length, which this location offers.
One fears that I’ve introduced a narrative here over the last couple of years which suggests I’m drinking a lot more than I actually do. These days, in my dotage, two beers are plenty for me and a third is sleep inducing. Additionally, weeks often go by without a drop of the stuff passing into my mouth hole. Just saying…
Nearby pedestrian bridges over the Norfolk Southern tracks are also a ‘sure thing’ location for me- RR spotting wise.
At both locations, however, you need to ‘hurry up and wait’ for those trains to come to you, and the location (by the brewery/CSX) that I was heading for is a hell of a lot more comfortable to wait around in.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, this wasn’t a ‘have a drink day,’ as it was something like 11 in the morning when I started my ‘out and about.’ It couldn’t have been much later than one in the afternoon by this particular point in the day.
Couldn’t help but get a shot of those two painting over graffiti.
Back tomorrow with Choo-Choo’s.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Dragon Spittle
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everybody, and everything, hates me instinctively and innately on sight.
One has mentioned that cats hiss, dogs squeal, old ladies start to clutch at their purses, and flower blossoms close up as if it’s nighttime as I’m approaching. The human’s eyes grow wide, they scan my hands for possible weaponry, and my intent is often questioned.
I haven’t been chased by a mob of torch bearing commoners to an old mill yet, but I did once get chased by a group of old Greek ladies coming out of St. Irene’s in Astoria who became convinced that the presence of a camera in my hand indicated I was a member of Al Qaeda. True story.
This presumption of ‘stranger danger’ is nothing new to me, as I even used to catch ‘shade’ and suspicion when I was a little kid.
One has never understood this reaction that I engender in the gentry.
I don’t even litter, let alone paint graffiti, or do much more else than just simply walk around with a camera.
One of my little aphorisms demands that I leave behind nothing in my wake but footprints, wherever I go. I famously carry any trash I might generate along my path with me until a proper receptacle is found. I pay my tax, play music at low volumes, drive sanely and more or less within the posted speed restrictions. I’m the guy who’ll call 911 for strangers and wait with them until the ambulance arrives.
Sheesh!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everybody hates me, on sight, basically.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that most of the people who’ve known me will believe and embrace almost anything negative that’s said, no matter how crazy it sounds. I often have to explain this situation to new people who are entering my sphere, lest they believe me to be a paranoid, or become influenced by the ‘chorus.’
Your humble narrator thereby has to behave in a stiff and curiously upright manner while moving through the world, given that if someone might have said:
‘I saw Mitch – he was wearing a bright yellow bikini while shaving kittens down to skin, and then throwing them into Newtown Creek, after tattooing his ‘effin blog’s logo on them.’ The answer coming back from the receiver of that news would likely be ‘Yeah, I could see him doing that, what a jerk.’
(as a note: there’s no logo for this blog, I’ve never shaved a kitten, wouldn’t know which end of a tattoo machine to use, and the only thing I’ve ever ‘thrown’ into Newtown Creek was the time that I accidentally dropped an air blower from my camera kit on the Grand Street Bridge, and the thing bounced away from me and landed in the drink)
Literally – my whole life. Pariah.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yeah, I know. If something is coming at you from everywhere and everyone, it’s not ‘them,’ it’s you. You’re the commonality.
Bah! Best to retreat to the lonely places, that’s where I belong and where the human infestation is less likely to reach out to touch or hurt me.
I don’t belong in the company of men, the jungle is my home…
A recent walk through one of Pittsburgh’s parks, which is spanned by the Mission Street Bridge, revealed a set of city steps which fall off of it and since I was passing by the very top of that set of steps on this day…
Rooty, rooty, zoot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Something peculiar was occurring to the steel or iron bannister along these steps. It looked like something was dissolving the metal.
An engineer buddy of mine saw these shots and immediately came back with ‘concrete efflorescence,’ and continued that ‘lime was leaching out of the concrete drips’ and dissolving the metal.
How long has this been going on, and how much longer will it be before somebody decides to blame me for it?
‘Didja hear about Mitch? He’s dissolving metal bannisters in Pittsburgh now, what an icehole… Yeah, I could see him doing that…’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The lower bannister has been severed by this process – wow. Check out that splash on the step – here’s a close up of the splash pile.
My engineer buddy continued on, telling me that this is the same process by which stalagmites and stalactites are formed in caves.
The engineer doesn’t seem to hate me yet, but I’ll just give that one some time. Everyone comes around eventually, to hating me. Apparently, if you haven’t burnt me in effigy yet, you’re missing out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By the way – I’m not being paranoid or weird here – it’s lived experience.
I’m sort of ok with somebody hating me after they’ve gotten to know me, but the whole hissing cat and ‘shade’ thing from passing strangers just freaks me out.
Back next week with more paranoia – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Hey Now! and then Sterling
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Same old, huh? This shot of CSX #917 was captured at my ‘usual’ spot, nearby that brewery on Pittsburgh’s South Side which I hang around.
Wasn’t out for a walk on this particular evening, rather Our Lady and myself were on our way to a fantastic sushi dinner and had decided to stop off for a quick pint as we were early for the reservation. Birthday.
Saying that, a desire has been building of late in my mind, for the novel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nevertheless – exercise day arrived again, and despite my desire to experience something which I hadn’t seen before – one nevertheless returned to Sterling Street’s City Steps – in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes section.
This is a particularly long set of City Steps, and as I keep reminding myself – every scuttle doesn’t have to the Odyssey, or be about ‘art.’
Sometimes a walk is just a walk.
I was dropped off by a rideshare car, thereupon my ghastly physical realities oozed from the thing and one puddled up on the street, where I belong. Your humble narrator got organized, straightening out all my bag straps and dangling camera gear, whereupon my feet got down to kicking dirt again.
An infinity of time was not on my menu, as I’d had a fairly busy early morning and there was ‘stuff’ to do in the evening, so only a three to four hour window to wander about was available to me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Stage one of this outing involved Sterling Street’s installation of one of the Pittsburgh’s City Step infrastructure. To the left in the shot above is the extant property of a city park, and within there were a group of people from its ‘friends of’ group planting and caring for trees.
From this POV, it looks like a ‘straight shot’ to the Birmingham Bridge spanning the Monongahela River below, but the relationship between appearances and deception is an old trope.
Especially so in Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the span – mentioned above – pictured, and it’s dubbed as being the Birmingham Bridge, which is often featured here at Newtown Pentacle as I cross it on foot and also by car frequently.
It was a fairly warm day, but the humidity and breeze were both at comfortable levels, as far a day in late August goes.
The Newtown Pentacle time warp has alleviated slightly as I secretly took a bit of time off at the end of the summer, from all of the writing and photography. Didn’t go anywhere or do anything worth mentioning, but I’m still maintaining my ‘advance padding’ of scheduled posts. These shots were gathered on the 24th of August, and the words were mostly written on the 6th of September. If the scheduling works out as anticipated, you’re seeing this on the 15th of October.
Yes, I’m now six weeks out from publication date. This is not a bad thing, for me at least, but I’ve got to spend some time getting Halloween posts together for spooky season.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back at where I’d just scuttled…
These long downward courses have absolutely been what the doctor ordered, as far as getting my legs back into shape and reversing the muscular atrophy experienced during the broken ankle interval.
I’m still dealing with muscular and tendon related after effects from that injury, as a note. They said it would take two years or more, for full recovery, at my orthopedist’s office…
Sigh…
As described in the past, the benefit of walking these long downward step courses involves development in the front meat of the thighs and calves, which are otherwise hard muscles to ‘hit.’
The act of walking down these steps, despite the background PTSD I experience (the injury occurred on a set of steps in my house) while scuttling down long courses of rises and runs, also causes the actuation of a bunch of those hidden ‘rubber bands’ found in the foot and ankle which are otherwise calcified, and still stiff from the injury.
I’m all ‘effed up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you descend, the steps take the form of several homes sidewalks.
I always muse to myself about how difficult it must be to handle the ‘business of life’ here in the South Side Slopes. Food shopping, parking the car, getting a delivery – all must be informed and constrained by this crazy terrain.
Back tomorrow with more.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Liminal Space overload part 2
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the Pittsburgh Mills Galleria, a fairly empty shopping mall nearby Pittsburgh in Fraser Township, your humble narrator just kept on shooting photos. Our Lady and myself were struck by the surreal neature of the experience in this ‘liminal space.’
As mentioned yesterday, one kept on noticing how ‘maintained’ everything was. Dusted, vacuumed, mopped.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We had to cancel an outdoor activity – due to high waters on areal waterways, caused by unusual precipitant volumes recently fallen – which promulgated ‘flash flood’ warnings from the authorities. Our initial ‘out of doors’ destination was thereby scrapped, so we visited this place instead.
As often mentioned, I’ve got ‘a list,’ and much of it is already pinpointed on a Google map. Whenever I find myself somewhere unexpectedly with time to kill, I’ll check that map, and see what’s nearby.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I didn’t see any part of Pennsylvania’s anti-vampire systems nearby – no giant white steel crosses on the hillsides, for instance – and wondered if perhaps this place gets real busy at night? Maybe the invasive vampire issue they’re vouchsafing against to the south is related to Maryland, or West Virginia, as you see more of those hillside crosses in that ‘border zone’ than in the northern parts of the region.
Go figure. Meshuggeneh Goyem, huh?
Churches, too, could make great use of the cavernous interior spaces here in this mall. Supposedly, there used to be a Baptist denomination which met up in here somewhere for services, and for some reason I seem to think that it was set up in the former movie theater.
One reads a lot of background stuff before writing one of these posts, some of it gets linked to, and some of it is just absorbed for texture.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Concern began to grow that I had led Our Lady into a hellish maze.
It’s impossible to maintain a sense of ‘where’ you are in relation to the outside world in here. I kept on thinking that we’d make the next turn and see Judas being chewed up in Satan’s mouth, at the deepest levels of Gehenna. I was also worried about a series of Dungeons and Dragons monsters lurking about. Beholders… brr.
What an odd experience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We began to near the entrance which brought us into this place, which would provide an exit back to the parking lot where we had stored the Mobile Oppression Platform, a Toyota. Getting here definitely requires a vehicle, although I’m sure that there’s an arcane and kind of weird multi hour route you could use Pittsburgh’s bus system to execute.
All told, this is just under an hour’s drive from HQ in the South Hills region where Newtown Pentacle HQ is found in Dormont.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Regarding the Newtown Pentacle time warp – these shots, and the ones from the Tour-Ed Mine, were gathered on the 14th of August and the text in these posts entered on the 23rd of the same month. As you’re receiving this in middle October, I’ve got a problem emerging.
Not publishing Halloween oriented posts at Christmas.
I’ll figure it out.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
