Archive for 2010
Eulogy
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Kinda personal post today, its been a bad day.
Yesterday, Tuesday the 25th, your humble narrator was helping out on a Working Harbor Committee tour of New York Harbor. The goal of this tour was to encourage a group of inner city kids to continue their education beyond secondary school and to present the notion of a career in the maritime industries for their consideration. Several notable speakers made the case while I shot pictures of the event, and of course- passing tugboats and other watercraft. That’s when the phone rang.
It was a Doctor, a nursing home staffer on Staten Island that had been caring for my Mom. He adjured me to make all haste toward their facility as her time was near. Trapped onboard the ship, however, I would either need to return to Manhattan and catch the Staten Island Ferry or jump ship and swim – the irony was that my actual location in the Kill Van Kull was a mere mile from their inland location. Within moments, the phone rang again, and the Doctor informed me that Mom had died.
from wikipedia
The Kill Van Kull is a tidal strait approximately 3 miles (4.8 km) long and 1,000 feet (305 m) wide between Staten Island, New York and Bayonne, New Jersey in the United States.[1] Spanned by the Bayonne Bridge, it is one of the most heavily travelled waterways in the Port of New York and New Jersey.
Kill Van Kull connects Newark Bay with Upper New York Bay. The Robbins Reef Light marks the eastern end, and Bergen Point its western end. Historically it has been one of the most important channels for the commerce of the region, providing a passage for marine traffic between Upper Bay and the industrial towns of northeastern New Jersey. During the colonial era it played a significant role in travel between New York and the southern Thirteen Colonies, with passengers changing from ferries to coaches at Elizabethtown. Since the final third of the 20th century, it has provided the principal access for ocean-going container ships to Port Newark-Elizabeth Marine Terminal, the busiest port facility in the eastern United States, and Howland Hook Marine Terminal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My mother has been dying for nearly 10 years, with periods of intense illness followed by long lulls spent in a half life of pharmacological stasis. Her once vast intellect had shattered, her body weakened, and finally her physicians ordered her to give up the smart little apartment she had bankrupted herself for. She checked into a nursing home, which was her last mailing address.
Suffering from dementia, she ended up on the sixth floor, where the screamers are. Her life became something very close to my personal vision of hell- an institutionalized and undignified existence without a shred of freedom or self determination. Confused, sick, confined.
Don’t get me wrong, the old lady was no angel, this isn’t one of those stories. Just like every other post here, at your Newtown Pentacle, this description of her fate was neither good nor bad- it just is.
Today, a priest who never met anybody in my family will officiate at a ceremony in some town on Long Island that we have no connection to at a burial ground which adheres to a peripheral and unfamiliar religious system. He will speak in a language that nobody present will understand, and say prayers that were ancient when Rome was founded. At the end of it, the extended family will disperse to diners.
People will try to comfort me, offer open ended promises, and search my face for emotional cues to follow. Problem is that I’m a cold fish, very hard to read, and will appear aloof. Nobody can do or say anything right now, and the offers are appreciated, but one of the traits my Mom beat into me was “freak out later, take care of business now”.
from wikipedia
The Jewish funeral consists of burial, also known as interment. Cremation is not considered a viable possibility. Burial is considered to allow the body to decompose naturally. Burial is intended to take place in as short an interval of time after death as possible. Jewish law forbids embalming. Displaying of the body prior to burial does not take place.
In Israel the Jewish funeral service will usually commence at the burial ground. In the United States and Canada, the funeral service will either commence at a funeral home or at the cemetery. Occasionally the service will commence at a synagogue. In the case of a very prominent individual the funeral service can begin at a synagogue or a yeshivah. If the funeral service begins at a point other than at the cemetery the entourage accompanies the body in a procession to the cemetery. The funeral itself, the procession, the burial, are referred to by the word levayah, meaning “accompanying.”
Levayah means “accompaniment” because the funeral procession involves accompanying the body to the place of burial. Levayah is Hebrew and it also indicates “joining” and “bonding.” This aspect of the meaning of the word levayah conveys the implication of a commonality between the “souls” of the living and the dead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The great commonality of human existence is that nobody dies well. There is no “good death”. As long time readers can attest, I understand the actual physical processes of death in arcane detail, and it ain’t nice.
Mom, however, died in a bed with a team of experts doing their level best (within the legal restrictions of her wish to not be subjected to “heroic measures” commonly called a DNR order) to save her. How lucky, and wonderful an end, for in her last moments- Mom had regained control over her life again. That’s something.
The Pentacle won’t be updating with anything new for a day or so, your humble narrator has to engage with the funerary industrial complex for the next couple of days.
Altissima quaeque flumina minimo sono labi, indeed.
from wikipedia
A do not resuscitate document is a binding legal document that states resuscitation should not be attempted if a person suffers cardiac or respiratory arrest. Abbreviated DNR, such an order may be instituted on the basis of an advance directive from a person, or from someone entitled to make decisions on their behalf, such as a health care proxy.
DNR documents are widespread in some countries and unavailable in others. In countries where a DNR is unavailable the decision to end resuscitation is made solely by physicians.
a mediocre fellow
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Fragile and mercurial in temperament, your humble narrator has been suffering from stormy weather of late. Sleep has been an elusive and foresworn luxury, and a season of tumult has settled over Newtown Pentacle HQ, here in the silken heart of Astoria. Seismic twistings of my little world are underway, again.
Always, I must remain, an Outsider.
from wikipedia
In Western philosophy, misanthropy is connected to isolation from human society. In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates defines the misanthrope in relation to his fellow man: “Misanthropy develops when without art one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later discovers him to be bad and unreliable…and when it happens to someone often…he ends up…hating everyone.” Misanthropy, then, is presented as the result of thwarted expectations or even excess optimism, since Socrates argues that “art” would have allowed the potential misanthrope to recognize that the majority of men are to be found in between good and evil. Aristotle follows a more ontological route: the misanthrope, as an essentially solitary man, is not a man at all: he must be a beast or a god, a view reflected in the Renaissance of misanthropy as a “beast-like state.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Always desperate for praise and attention from relative strangers, your humble narrator has found himself walking in august company of late. In the last months, I’ve met (and in some cases actually touched) a Mayor, a Congressman, a Senator, several members of the City Council, 3 Borough Presidents, and a sampling of those third and fourth tier authorities who actually run New York City.
Heady stuff for one such as myself, and such experiences have been forcing me to question exactly which road I’m scuttling down these days. I’m not crowing about this, rather reeling from the experience, as I am neither right nor left- merely lukewarm.
from wikipedia
The industrial revolution produced a parallel revolution in political thought. Urbanization and capitalism greatly reshaped society. During this same period, the socialist movement began to form. In the mid-19th century, Marxism was developed, and socialism in general gained increasing popular support, mostly from the urban working class. Without breaking entirely from the past, Marx established the principles which would be used by the future revolutionaries of the 20th century namely Lenin, Mao Tse Tung, Ho Chi Minh and Fidel Castro. Although Hegel’s philosophy of history is similar to Kant’s, and Marx’s theory of revolution towards the common good is partly based on Kant’s view of history, Marx is said to have declared that on the whole, he was just trying to straighten out Hegel who was actually upside down. Unlike Marx who believed in historical materialism, Hegel believed in the Phenomenology of Spirit.[18] Be that as it may, by the late 19th century, socialism and trade unions were established members of the political landscape. In addition, the various branches of anarchism, with thinkers such as Bakunin, Proudhon or Kropotkin, and syndicalism also gained some prominence. In the Anglo-American world, anti-imperialism and pluralism began gaining currency at the turn of the century.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Politics are a nasty business, one I have little interest in other than as a spectator sport.
I find myself pining for the empty streets of Long Island City, the canalized horrors of Newtown Creek, and the mysteries of Calvary. These places, and their stories, have become like old friends to me and I’m missing their company. The other night, engaged in conversation with a known and influential member of the national Republican party, I was told that my politics are far left. Just a week or two ago, the horror and shock exhibited by a group of so called leftists I was sharing a bottle with at a local bar, as I argued against a few meme based theories and “accepted truths”, was followed by accusations of my membership in some mythical Nazi party and fidelity to a debauched national mythology.
Sigh…
What can I say, other than that technology and progress is part of the answer, and not all of the problem.
from wikipedia
The terms “left” and “right” appeared during the French Revolution of 1789 when members of the National Assembly divided into supporters of the king to the president’s right and supporters of the revolution to his left. (The seating may have been influenced by the tradition of the English parliament, where the monarch’s ministers sit to the speaker’s right, while the opposition sit to his or her left.) One deputy, the Baron de Gauville explained, “We began to recognize each other: those who were loyal to religion and the king took up positions to the right of the chair so as to avoid the shouts, oaths, and indecencies that enjoyed free rein in the opposing camp”. However the Right opposed the seating arrangement because they believed that deputies should support private or general interests but should not form factions or political parties. The contemporary press occassionally used the terms “left” and “right” to refer to the opposing sides.
When the National Assembly was replaced in 1791 by a Legislative Assembly composed of entirely new members the divisions continued. “Innovators” sat on the left, “moderates” gathered in the center, while the “conscientous defenders of the constitution” found themselves sitting on the right, where the defenders of the ancien regime had previously gathered. When the succeeding National Convention met in 1792, the seating arrangement continued, but following the coup d’etat of June 2, 1793, and the arrest of the Girondins, the right side of the assembly was deserted, and any remaining members who had sat there moved to the center. However following the Thermidorian Reaction of 1794 the members of the far left were excluded and the method of seating was abolished. The new constitution included rules for the assembly that would “break up the party groups”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s funny the way that the culture has fractured, around outdated 19th century descriptors like republic, capitalism, or socialism, or even the “nation state“. The whole notion of right and left is a relict of earlier times, and the ideation of the New York megalopolis being confined to its legal borders is ridiculous. Our local economy, even in its current state, is greater than that of most countries. Somehow though, everybody seems to be parroting the same lines on the left- and the right has fractured into a million little pieces. Everyone is pissed off, all the time, and ready for battle…
from wikipedia
The economy of New York City is the largest regional economy in the United States and the second largest city economy in the world after Tokyo. Along with London, New York City is the leading financial center of the world and a premier headquarters location for leading global financial services companies. New York is distinctive for its high concentrations of advanced service sector firms in fields such as law, accountancy, banking and management consultancy.
The financial, insurance, health care, and real estate industries form the basis of New York’s economy. The city is also the most important center for mass media, journalism and publishing in the United States, and is the preeminent arts center in the country. Creative industries such as new media, advertising, fashion, design and architecture account for a growing share of employment, with New York City possessing a strong competitive advantage in these industries. Manufacturing, although declining, remains consequential.
The New York Stock Exchange is by far the largest stock exchange in the world by market capitalization of listed companies. The NASDAQ electronic exchange has the most companies listed and is third largest in the world by market capitalization of listed companies.
The New York metropolitan area had an estimated gross metropolitan product of $1.13 trillion in 2005, the largest regional economy in the United States. The city’s economy accounts for the majority of the economic activity in the states of New York and New Jersey.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Meanwhile, that omniscient thing- which neither sleeps nor breathes nor lives but eternal hungers- looks down from the megalith, amused by the ants.
Musings about the politicians and the philosophies of the bosses stop here, though, on the street…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
…where the wise asses are and the tyranny of “the real” begins. It is going to be a hot summer, I think, the sort of season we haven’t seen since the 1970’s in New York.
Who can guess…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hatches abound in the Newtown Pentacle, dimly lit tunnels to another world. On the surface- logo, design, manufacturers marks- all indicate the existence of former incarnations of the City. The BSBQ identifier on the one above means that it was installed by the Bureau of Sewers, Borough of Queens, and I saw it in ancient Maspeth.
an incomplete list from wikipedia
This is a list of manhole cover markings found in New York City.
- Bell System
- BMT = Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit Corporation
- BRT = Brooklyn Rapid Transit
- BSBQ = Bureau of Sewers, Borough of Queens
- CT&ES Co. = Consolidated Telegraph & Electrical Subway Company
- ConEdison = Consolidated Edison
- Con Edison Co. = Consolidated Edison
- ECS Co. LIM = Empire City Subway Company Limited
- EDISON = Edison
- FDNY = FDNY
- GAS = Brooklyn Union Gas
- IRT = Interborough Rapid Transit
- LIC = Long Island City
- NYM = New York Municipal Railway
- QMT = Queens Midtown Tunnel
- RTS = Rapid Transit System
- NY&QEL&PCo = New York & Queens Electric Light & Power Company
- BPM = Manhattan Borough Monument
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the lid of a coal chute, found on Broadway in Astoria. A near identical model was shot by Kschlot1 at flickr, check it out. This kind of relict is actually the origin of one the mottos here at Newtown Pentacle- Who can guess, what else there may be, that might be buried down there?
from good.is
The Knickerbocker sewer is a 12-foot wide intestinal tract that runs beneath the streets of Brooklyn. Flashlight beams falter at 50 feet against the tunnel’s swirling vapors. Wading knee-deep through the bacterial wash, it’s difficult not to imagine what, exactly, constitutes the inches of silt between the sole of one’s rubber boot and the sewer floor. It is here, where the city breathes and belches, where Steve feels most at home.
As he wades upstream one winter night, he runs his hand along the sewer’s red masonry walls, a 120-year-old vestige of a time when New York was a city built in brick. Duncan is wearing hip-high rubber boots, a headlamp and a respirator to protect him from the fumes. He also brought his tripod, a camera bag and Shane Perez, a 26-year-old photographer with a mohawk, whose personal interest in urban exploration centers on shooting nude women in abandoned industrial plants.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Commonly referred to as manhole covers by everyday New Yorkers, these iron plates can serve as guideposts to the hidden underworld and occluded past. Often, wonderings of this underground system and all that which might dwell in the sunless depths below our great human hive spark moments of terror in your humble narrator. This one is from Ridgewood, incidentally.
from nytimes.com
For decades, city workers and contractors who want to make any change to New York’s vast water and sewer networks have had to retrieve browning maps, drawn by draftsmen and stored away in each borough hall and the department offices in Queens. To help them find the sewer and water main maps — some dating back to the Civil War — city clerks have had to consult indexes, created by each borough before the city was unified in 1898. The maps were cataloged on 3-by-5-inch cards.
Project Firebox 5
Project Firebox, 1314 – photo by Mitch Waxman
Storied and replete with historical allegories and cautionary tales, Greenpoint in Brooklyn hosts some of New York’s most ancient street furniture. This survivor of the 20th century, I am told by certain reputable experts, would have had a lit globe at its summit when new. Said globe would light to indicate to arriving firefighters where the fire alarm was raised. This is on Provost street, near the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant.
As it turns out, Provost street is named for one of the original European settlers of Greenpoint:
from nyc-architecture.com
The Praa’s and Volchertsen’s, together, with the Mesorole’s, Calyer’s, Provoost’s, and Bennet’s formed the core of settler farmer families that lived and flourished on the land consisting of Green Point. They and their ancestors would do so for almost 200 years. The fertile land provided enough to supply the needs of the families that toiled on the land, and an abundant excess to trade at nearby markets. Each family kept a large row boat on the river to transport their harvest to the markets downstream in the emerging cities of Williamsburg and Brooklyn, and across the river in New York. Thus, Green Point became a major agricultural center and breadbasket for the area. It’s grains, cereals, fruits, vegetables and livestock made it possible for others to take up other trades in the New World, and contributed to the overall success of the pioneer efforts of that era.
MV Red Hook at Brooklyn Bridge
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle suffers much for my obsessions with the municipal sewage infrastructure of the City of Greater New York. Endless hours of monotone exposition greets her whenever a significant appliance or facility is encountered, and today you- lords and ladies- will share her pain. That’s the M/V Red Hook sludge boat soldiering down the East River, and passing beneath the Brooklyn Bridge.
from wikipedia
Contemporaries marveled at what technology was capable of and the bridge became a symbol of the optimism of the time. John Perry Barlow wrote in the late 20th century of the “literal and genuinely religious leap of faith” embodied in the Brooklyn Bridge … “the Brooklyn Bridge required of its builders faith in their ability to control technology.”
References to “selling the Brooklyn Bridge” abound in American culture, sometimes as examples of rural gullibility but more often in connection with an idea that strains credulity. For example, “If you believe that, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.” References are often nowadays more oblique, such as “I could sell you some lovely riverside property in Brooklyn …”. George C. Parker and William McCloundy are two early 20th-century con-men who had (allegedly) successfully perpetrated this scam on unwitting tourists. The 1949 Bugs Bunny cartoon Bowery Bugs is a joking reference to Bugs “selling” a story of the Brooklyn Bridge to a naive tourist.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speculative destinations for the Red Hook could include storied Greenpoint, where the product of the Temple of Cloacina might require transport, or the Wards Island facility where the syrupy product of New York’s human infestation will be dewatered and processed into cakes of concentrated nightsoil.
Sludge treatment
The following are typical stages of the sludge treatment process.
Thickening
The sludge produced by primary and secondary treatment is approximately 99% water and must be concentrated to enable its further processing. Thickening tanks allow the sludge to collect, settle and separate from the water for up to 24 hours. The water is then sent back to the head of the plant or to the aeration tanks for additional treatment.
Digestion
After thickening, the sludge is further treated to make it safer for the environment. The sludge is placed in oxygenfree tanks, called digesters, and heated to at least 95 degrees Fahrenheit for between 15 to 20 days. This stimulates the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which consume organic material in the sludge. Unlike the bacteria in the aeration tanks, these bacteria thrive in an oxygen-free or “anaerobic” environment. The digestion process stabilizes the thickened sludge by converting much of the material into water, carbon dioxide and methane gas. The black sludge that remains after digestion has the consistency of pea soup and has little odor. This is called digested sludge.
Methane gas is often used as an energy source at the City’s wastewater treatment plants. The gas may be used in engines to produce electricity or directly drive plant equipment. Gas is also used in boilers to provide heat for digestion and plant-wide buildings. Currently, DEP and the New York Power Authority (NYPA) have jointly installed fuel cells at four of the City’s water pollution control plants; 26th Ward, Red Hook, Oakwood Beach and Hunts Point. Fuel cells convert the methane gas and carbon dioxide into heat and electricity that is then used to operate the plants. This technology contributes to New York City’s efforts to enhance clean air operations at its facilities. There is a significant reduction in air emissions as a result of using fuel cells.
Digester sludge is pumped from sludge storage tanks to a dewatering facility. At some treatment plants, where there are no dewatering facilities on site, the sludge is transported for processing through a pipeline or by a sludge boat to a plant that has a dewatering facility.
The Newtown Pentacle 