Archive for June 2013
tightly packed
Today’s post is a bit of vouyerism from under the FDR Drive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pathologically early, your humble narrator is often observed loitering about in locations wherein a future appointment will take place. Menacing aspect and suspicious body language betray one such as myself as an odd but otherwise harmless outsider, rendering and relegating me down to background status. You stop noticing me, in my cloak of social invisibility.
Accordingly, I enjoy sneaking up on and photographing photographers these days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When you’re in the spot that these guys are, you stop noticing everything but what you’re shooting. Gear, pose, background, settings, trying to squeeze every drop of light from the scene that you can, composition- all that. On top of that you’ve got the problems of corralling the group into the shot. No fun whatsoever, except if you’re just a few yards back and like shooting shoots.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The photographer was lucky, a good looking bunch of kids willing to play along and follow instructions is a godsend. Where he wasn’t lucky was that it was raining and misty, which reduces what you do with the flash a bit. It wasn’t this scene that really drew my attention though, not at first. I had noticed this bridal party, of course, when I arrived down at South Street Seaport for a boat tour, but what had originally drawn my eye wasn’t them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was this other bride, who seemed to be standing alone as her friends went to the limo. I was actually hoping that some sort of bride fight might break out, but no such luck.
Now that would have been some photo, two brides duking it out under the FDR drive.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
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.
feverish digging
Today’s Maritime Sunday post, from Port Newark.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 2013 Working Harbor Schedule is underway, and while attending one of Captain Doswell’s intriguing “Beyond Sandy” Hidden Harbor tours, the Elizabeth McAllister emerged from the rain and mist. The evening was distinguished by the difficult atmospheric conditions, which obliterated the lighting effects of the setting of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself in the western sky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The weather was actually ridiculous, with heavy fog and rain lashing through it, accompanying unseasonably low temperatures. Hardship for land lubbers, that is, because NY Harbor keeps working no matter what nature throws at it. Sailors are used to this sort of thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Elizabeth McAllister was launched the same yeur that I was, in 1967, but unlike me- she has changed her name a few times. The always brilliant tugboatinformation.com site has a great work up on her that details her birth, a 1988 calamity, and chronicles the tugs career.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tug was headed over to the RORO cargo ship Freedom Ace to assist the larger vessel’s transit through the narrow Kill Van Kull. The Maritime Sunday shout out this week is sent to the cast and crew of Elizabeth McAllister, and mention should be made that if you too would like to see scenes like this one- get onboard with the Working Harbor Committee.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
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.
Project Firebox 74
An ongoing catalog of New York’s endangered Fireboxes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Under the El on 31st street at 28th road in raven tressed Astoria, stands a firebox which has never long known quiet. It could tell stories, but they’d largely be in Greek.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
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.
steamy shadows
Today’s post follows Old Mitch home to Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A marriage ceremony, uniting an old friend with his beloved at the Frying Pan restaurant and bar in Manhattan, drew me to the cruel streets of “the City.” Distaste for the island of Manhattan is a growing and risible inclination for me, but fealty nevertheless pulled me in. After the occasion, Our Lady of the Pentacle and I splurged on a taxi for our return journey to the glories of Astoria and I decided to make use of the rare indulgence to crack out a few more shots for “operation: night shooting.”
Unfortunately, being amongst others set me off (especially if they knew me as a child), and I fell into a bit of mood.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The darkness of Manhattan is palpable, as the Shining City only actually shines high above the vomit and urine caked pavement. The high flying kabuki offered by the oligarchs is hollow, a monument to themselves, and one which foreign tourists travel far and wide to witness. For those of us who reside in the boroughs, the truth of such things is always apparent- and behind the facade is naught but corruption, rot, and a banal sensibility.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the Taxi careened through the teeming streets, filled with those who acquire and purchase, anxiety ruled over my thoughts, and my own carefully maintained facade of civility and sanity fell away. Beneficent, Our Lady of the Pentacle attempted to smooth the furrows in my brow, assuring me that we would be home soon enough. Everywhere I pointed the camera, throngs of people wandered, seeking something new to consume or buy. Big night out in the city, I guess.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mighty Queensboro allowed egress back to the big island, away from the rats maze and exploitations of midtown Manhattan. As the gaze of that thing which cannot possibly exist in the Sapphire Megalith of Long Island City once again fixed itself upon me, at last was I able to breathe easily.
Home awaited, a refuge found amongst the raven haired slopes of ancient Astoria, and the concrete devastations of Western Queens.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
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.
augmented party
Today’s post shows you how to wash a dirty locomotive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hanging about and walking around Queens with a friend one afternoon, our path carried us up Skillman Avenue and past the gargantuan Sunnyside Yards. Luckily, something I’ve been trying to catch as it happens began to happen when Amtrak 934 sauntered into view.
from wikipedia
The Pennsylvania Railroad (PRR) completed construction of the yard in 1910. At that time Sunnyside was the largest coach yard in the world, occupying 192 acres (0.78 km2) and containing 25.7 mi (41.4 km) of track. The yard served as the main train storage and service point for PRR trains serving New York City. It is connected to Pennsylvania Station in Midtown Manhattan by the East River Tunnels. The Sunnyside North Yard initially had 45 tracks with a capacity of 526 cars. The South Yard had 45 tracks with a 552 car capacity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It seems that there is an entire industrial sector for whom the manufacture and maintenance of “train washes” is a focal point. It also seems to be the case that having a shiny clean locomotive pays a dividend in terms of aerodynamic drag and that the cleaner your train is, the more efficiently it runs.
from wikipedia
The AEM-7 is a twin-cab B-B electric locomotive that is used in the United States on the Northeast Corridor between Washington DC and Boston and the Keystone Corridor between Philadelphia and Harrisburg in Pennsylvania. They were built by Electro-Motive Division from 1978 to 1988. In the Boston Mechanical Department of Amtrak they are known as “Meatballs” and in the Washington Mechanical Department they are known as ASEAs since some of their major parts and components were designed in Sweden by ASEA (Allmänna Svenska Elektriska Aktiebolaget; translation: General Swedish Electrical Inc), which merged with Brown Boveri in 1988 forming ABB. They are also referred to as “toasters” by railfans, owing to their boxy appearance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is informed by railfans that once upon a time, this was a tedious task accomplished by a sizable crew of laborers, who used pole mounted brushes to clean away the grime. The “modern” system (the unit pictured is somewhat archaic by 2013 standards) is far more efficient and highly automated.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Fundamentally, its the same thing that happens when you wash your car, except for scale. The train rolls past water jets and a system of rotary brushes which chip away the patina of dead insects and grime which the train picks up during normal operation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This train wash is nothing new, of course, and has been on my radar for awhile. Were my methodology the same that is employed by most, I would have just lingered around this spot until I got my shots, but that’s not how your humble narrator rolls.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Instead, if its not happening while I’m passing by, it might not have happened at all for all I care. You can’t force Queens into revealing herself to you, instead, you must trust in serendipity and that she will position you in the right place and at the right time.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 