Archive for November 2013
formal studies
A night time trip to Greenwood Cemetery with the Obscura Society, part one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior postings, your humble narrator has been in a bit of rut of late, so when the Atlas Obscura crew announced an opportunity for nocturnal exploration of Greenwood Cemetery over in Brooklyn was at hand, one jumped at the chance and leapt upon a Q train which would carry me to the Gowanus Heights.
from wikipedia
Green-Wood Cemetery was founded in 1838 as a rural cemetery in Kings County, New York. It was granted National Historic Landmark status in 2006 by the U.S. Department of the Interior.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The event was conducted by Alison Meier and Megan Roberts of the Atlas crew, and involved stopping at several notable or exalted mausolea and monuments while moving inexorably towards the grandiose structure on Ocean Hill which caps those catacombs housing the mortal remains of the Whitney family.
from wikipedia
Stephen Whitney (1776–1860) was one of the wealthiest merchants in New York City in the first half of the 19th century. His fortune was considered second only to that of John Jacob Astor. As a prominent citizen of the rapidly growing city, he helped to build some of its institutions, including the Merchants’ Exchange Building, the first permanent home of the New York stock exchange.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A full moon certainly hung somewhere beyond the occluded sky, but a tenebrous fog had set in. Palpable darkness and flickering illumination lent an air of dread purpose to this perambulation of the notable polyandrion of New York. The fog, which did not smell of salt or wholesome sea, drove the airborne humidity levels up to 90% and higher, causing your humble narrator to perspire both precipitously and persistently. The chill temperatures worked with that moisture absorbed by my clothing, from both atmosphere and bodily secretion, to slowly drain all the energy reserves one such as myself can hope to claim.
from wikipedia
Fear is an emotion induced by a perceived threat which causes entities to quickly pull far away from it and usually hide. It is a basic survival mechanism occurring in response to a specific stimulus, such as pain or the threat of danger. In short, fear is the ability to recognize danger leading to an urge to confront it or flee from it (also known as the fight-or-flight response) but in extreme cases of fear (horror and terror) a freeze or paralysis response is possible.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Allison Meier led the group, narrating in the orange light of hand held lanterns, occasionally producing an electric flashlight for the purpose of illuminating this significant thing or that important monument. I will mention that the shot above was from sometime between 8:30 and 11 P.M., in November, as are all the shots in this series of posts. It was dark, as in “tenebrous dark”, and any ambient light extant was being swallowed up by the fog. Tripod shots weren’t really possible on the walk, and flash was out of the question because of the aforementioned fog.
from wikipedia
Necrophobia is a specific phobia which is the irrational fear of dead things (e.g., corpses) as well as things associated with death (e.g., coffins, tombstones). Necrophobia is derived from Greek nekros (νεκρός) for “corpse” and -phob- from the Greek phobos (φόβος) for “fear.” With all types of emotions, obsession with death becomes evident in both fascination and objectification.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a breath taking (literally, Greenwoood is very hilly) walk, the group finally arrived at the Whitney Mausoleum, which was ablaze with the light of candles. So then, at that moment, was the Obscura Society adjured to enter the crypt.
from wikipedia
A mausoleum is an external free-standing building constructed as a monument enclosing the interment space or burial chamber of a deceased person or people. A monument without the interment is a cenotaph. A mausoleum may be considered a type of tomb or the tomb may be considered to be within the mausoleum. A Christian mausoleum sometimes includes a chapel.
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not shocking
Maritime Sunday returns.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the end of the 2013 schedule of NY Harbor tours conducted by Working Harbor Committee, a circumnavigation of Staten Island was offered and I was onboard. We left the familiar confines of the Kill Van Kull and turned left, onto the Arthur Kill.
from wikipedia
The Arthur Kill is a tidal strait separating Staten Island, New York City from mainland New Jersey, USA, and a major navigational channel of the Port of New York and New Jersey. Arthur Kill has also been known as Staten Island Sound.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unknown country for your humble narrator, great expectations of maritime industrial activities were met when the Barbara McAllister tug appeared of the early November air.
Built in 1969, by Halter Marine Services of New Orleans, Louisiana (hull #226) as the T.J. Sheridan for the Sheridan Transportation Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a beautiful, if bracing, trip. Luckily, I had a flask of hip pocket whiskey with me which provided for some warming comfort.
from mcallistertowing.com
McAllister Towing & Transportation is one of the oldest and largest marine towing and transportation companies in the United States. We operate a fleet of more than 70 tugboats and barges in 17 locations along the U.S. East Coast from Portland, ME to San Juan, PR. The fleet of over 100,000 H.P. consists of 24 Z-Drive/ Tractor tugs, 6 Tier II compliant tugs, 20 plus vessels involved in coastal towing and 35 ABS load line classed vessels.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A hearty maritime Sunday shout out to the Barbara McAllister is offered, and to the Working Harbor Committee for another excellent year on the harbor.
also from mcallistertowing.com
McAllister Towing has provided superior tugboat service to New York Harbor since 1864, when Captain James McAllister, great-grandfather to current president Brian A. McAllister, bought his first sail lighter to carry cargo from Manhattan to Brooklyn . Today, McAllister’s tugs provide a wide variety of services to the busy ports of New York and New Jersey , serving the most concentrated and affluent consumer market in the world and handling a significant part of the 16 million tons of cargo that passes through the port every year. In addition to ship docking services and general harbor assist work, New York based tugs are regularly employed in offshore towing along the entire East Coast.
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Project Firebox 97
An ongoing catalog of New York’s endangered Fireboxes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This bad boy hangs out on a corner in Maspeth, Queens. Should have stayed in school, but you can’t complain about the road you’re on when you get started. Kay sera sera. Props to the scarlet.
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not inefficient
Action figures found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle has a weird affection for those 99 cent stores, which seldom have dollar items on sale, which you find peppered about in Astoria. Gewgaws and doodads are the stock in trade for this sort of establishment, and while following her around last week, I encountered what seemed to be the entire cast of RC Comics available as limited articulation action figures. They had the big guy, and all the supporting players on sale.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Idolatry notwithstanding, these were actually piss poor as far as the moldings and likenesses side of things go. DC and Marvel figurines often amaze with their clever construction and quality of verisimilitude to the licensed character, but these RC figures were frankly reminiscent of the sort of things kids were offered back in the 70’s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Still, a complete set of Saints with the Big Guy clothed in all three identities is hard to turn down. It would be cool to have the entire Justice League displayed, but I’ve got to find a 99 cent store where the Injustice Society is available as well. I doubt they’ll only be $1.39 a piece, instead their cost will be probably be diabolical.
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not voluntary
The banal joy of it all is what today’s post explores.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Have to admit that despite my confession to suffering from a bit of a rut, which is a seasonal complaint often offered at this time of year, the places which I continually find myself seldom disappoint. Case in point today are shots collected from the Queens side of the fabled Newtown Creek, amongst the concretized wasteland of DUPBO (Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp). Pictured is a view of my beloved Creek looking towards Greenpoint and the GMDC (Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center) found at the Manhattan Avenue Street End in Brooklyn from DUPBO, which is ultimately kind of a depressing image for me. Your humble narrator has been spending far too much time in Brooklyn lately, and not enough in Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Brooklyn is lost in soliloquy again, currently obsessing over ways to spend its ExxonMobil settlement money. There’s all sorts of stuff going on over there, with everyone in 11122 cooking up an idea to mulch this or compost that and applying for funding. It’s all good stuff, but gardening isn’t going to do much against the torrents of waste and sewage which flow out of Manhattan everyday. Greenpoint is the Mississippi delta of municipal waste, and Manhattan is an upstream pig farm whose shit pipes flow directly into the river. Western Queens, on the other hand, knows exactly what role it is expected to play in Manhattan’s gang of subordinates and doesn’t pretend not to know.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Carpet baggers from all over the City and State, sometimes from other states even, can smell the cash over in Brooklyn and want to take a bite. Foundations and think tanks roam about over there, pronouncing the need for “green infrastructure” (gardening) and other buzzy concepts which the masters over on Manhattan (and their Brooklyn representatives) have decided on as the fix for all things related to sewage runoff. I’m not against it, of course, how can you stand up against gardening? It’s just that over in Queens, We’ve got a highway which feeds a couple of hundred thousand auto trips a day into a tunnel that is just a couple of blocks from the Creek. Said highway runs alongside the concentrating point of all rail on Long Island, which is neighbored by two major automobile bridges (Queensboro and Triborough).
How can you garden your way out of that?
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The Newtown Pentacle 