Archive for June 2013
objectless writhing
In today’s post, the tallest manmade thing in the western hemisphere is noticed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s actually starting to grow on me. Third tallest thing on earth at 104 stories, One World Trade (aka the Freedom Tower) has been steadily dominating or demanding my attentions of late. Generally, I’m not a fan of this style of architecture, but the effect that the structure conveys is one of awe. A lot of it has to do with the mirror like surface, and some of it is associated with the way that the building seems to interact with the environment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Its visible from pretty much everywhere around the archipelago now, and big enough to be masked, obscured, and offered perspective by atmosphere alone. The mirror surface pulses with light, which in turn makes altitudinal mist and ambient humidity in the air glow, imparting to the structure a sort of halo. The reflective surface offers the same luminosity enjoyed by the sky to the Freedom Tower, which is an interesting caprice.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot was gathered a week or so ago during heavy weather whilst onboard one of the “Working Harbor: Beyond Sandy” boat tours, and depicts the lower Manhattan skyline at sunset as a thunderstorm moves north and east behind it. The scene looks photoshopped, but this is what it actually looked like. The sky was in a dynamic mood with the setting sun low on the horizon. It was dark and bright orange all at the same time.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
old but empty
Signs and portents, portents and signage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The problem with literacy is that one is constantly bombarded with instructions, warnings, and messaging whilst moving about the megalopolis, the visual field carries an unavoidable flood of missives adjuring one to follow posted directives. Reading, for one such as myself at least, is an instant and unavoidable pathway directly into the brain. In a city like New York, everyone from the municipality to the neighbors enjoy leaving little notes around the place which are designed to alert, adjure, or advise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Visual clutter has and will always be a part of urban life, the Romans probably had little chunks of carved rock hanging about reminding citizens to visit the Appian Way or to pick up after their slaves. There’s probably a cuneiform tablet in the British Museum which was designed to warn the citizens of Ur not to litter or face a fine, or a polychrome sketch adorning a cave wall in France that advises its audience to avoid the sticky situations around tar pits.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having worked in the advertising industry for many years, your humble narrator is guilty of having helped to propagate this clutter, which is just part of the long list of things which I feel guilty about. The things I’d like to see on signs these days- missives such as “politicians are your employees,” or “don’t try to argue with cops on the street,” don’t seem to make it past the cutting room floor, of course.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
suffer no singers
A short post about pussies today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator has been stumbling about the last few days, reeling from obligation and worry. Accordingly, I’m a bit behind on my schedule- hence this latest and decidedly late posting of the most ephemeral sort- focusing in on the internet’s favorite critters.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These two were spotted living in the rip rap lining the shoreline of Staten Island just last week. I don’t envy out door cats, but at least they get to hunt.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s unlike my cat hoarder neighbors’ beasts, who are regularly observed in fits of pique when unable to satisfy their urges.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Will be back tomorrow with something a bit more substantial for you, lords and ladies. Always hunting around in the dark corners looking for something tasty to find you.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
went silently
Sometimes you get what you pay for.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering about in DUKBO recently, specifically western Maspeth (aka Berlin) nearby its border with Blissville, your humble narrator found himself confronted with one of the many conundrums which torment. My Dad was a “working guy,” one whose entire body was thrown into the meat grinder of manual labor during his working life. Routinely exposed to paint, solvents, and all sorts of other chemicals which his trade utilized, the old man eventually succumbed to cancer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The old man had a list of industrial accidents which he would rattle off to those who asked. The time he fell off a ladder and was blinded for a few months when a pail of lye splashed into his eyes, or a freak accident that somehow opened up his inner arm from wrist to armpit which needed 400 stitches to close, or the long lasting bursitis and arthritic after effects of having worked at an industrial butcher in the freezer room when he was a kid. There were busted toes, bad knees, a gamey hip, bulging vertebrae, broken ribs, a shoulder that made sounds when he moved it, and the scar tissue on his hands had formed into thickened gloves.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Other than insisting that I figure out some way to get a desk job instead of following in his footsteps, the old man had no real regrets other than never having won the lottery nor owned a Cadillac. He did what he had to do and always tried to get the job done right, or at least as half assed as he could get away with. This has been referenced before, and when I see working guys doing what the fellow in the shot above is doing, I cringe a bit and start to think about the old man. The guy in the shot is doing so many things wrong, safety wise, that I was half expecting him to just burst into flame as I walked by.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I spend enough time around the union types that I’ve kind of been infected by their logic. My upstairs neighbor sets out safety cones and a fire extinguisher when he barbecues, but he does something at work which he calls “firewatch” that requires permit and certification. “Even if ya don’t need it Bro, god forbid something happens you can at least say you did everything you could.” Also mentioned, in the past, has been the physical cowardice for which I am famous.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given to capricious fits of panic and paranoia, your humble narrator attempts full situational awareness at all times, constantly scanning the local vicinity for threats. Those who know me personally will confirm the constant stream of warnings about broken sidewalks, things which drip, or suspicious personages to watch out for that spews forth. Additionally, I advise strangers who are crossing Northern Blvd. to stand behind something while standing at corners and waiting for the light to change. I’m all ‘effed up, but this really isn’t the old mans fault, I was just born weird. One of the things which allows one such as myself nepenthe is the presence of union guys like my pal upstairs, or these poor schmucks on a picket line in front of that dry ice and compressed gas place right at the corner of Laurel Hill and Review. Union labor keeps things nice and safe for the rest of us. You won’t find them sitting on a ladder using a metal grinder to remove paint without wearing glasses or a mask, nor wearing highly flammable synthetic fabrics while doing so.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The old man wasn’t in a union, he had some objection to them- something about the mafia and being Jewish and his older brother- a story which he changed periodically to prove a point or win an argument. I kind of wish he was, at least he would have gotten paid a lot better, and likely wouldn’t have been quite as busted up by the job. This little conundrum of mine, pondered while marching across the concrete devastations of DUKBO, is this: why do I care so much about what happens to strangers, nor mind my own business? Also, if I care so much, what can I do about it?
What would Superman do?
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
gnaw and glut
It’s Maritime Sunday at Newtown Creek!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While hanging around Newtown Creek recently, specifically the Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant’s Nature Walk, the Kimberly Poling tug was spotted towing a seemingly empty fuel barge. The tug is a regular visitor to the Creek, carrying refined product to the BP Amoco yard in Greenpoint at Norman Avenue and Apollo Street. Also, its always called towing, even if the tug seems to be pushing the barge from behind- don’t know why, it just is.
Note: in an interesting coincidence, this year’s April Fool’s day posting, “outward course,” depicted this same tug and barge from the Queens side of the Newtown Creek. It discusses both the towing company and the vessel herself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That 9.98 acre BP Amoco yard, (see the great fires of 1919 and 1882) is a distribution center which feeds bulk supplies to delivery trucks which handle end user customers. Kimberly Poling and her barge are equivalent to nearly 40 of these trucks, I am told.
Oil refining ceased at Newtown Creek by the middle of the 1960’s, and today its all about distribution around here. One doesn’t think of New York City as a refinery town, but this is where Mobil was born, when it was called the Standard Oil Company of New York.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The expression “bringing coal to Newcastle” would be apt, were it offered to someone whose frame of reference was Greenpoint in the 1920’s. A hypothetical time traveller would probably be dumbfounded at the notion of bringing oil to Newtown Creek, and sending an empty barge back out into the harbor.
Maritime Sunday shout outs to the crew of Kimberly Poling, which is a nice looking boat, abound.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
The Newtown Pentacle 