Archive for December 2013
thither wouldst, thither shouldst
Bah.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My harbor chums invited your humble narrator along recently on a holiday event, one which involved the arrival of Santa Claus riding on a small tug called Sea Gus. The whole shebang was sponsored by Circle Line, specifically their World Yacht brand, and there were hundreds of people awaiting the arrival of the man in red on a chilly night at the Hudson River in Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Paparazzi and hordes of fans mobbed the giver of gifts, and he was clearly overwhelmed by the attention. Probably, this is why he acts alone and at night, like assassins do.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Circle Line folks filled up a couple of boats, served hot chocolate and cookies to the crowds, and conducted a short excursion down the Hudson. Santa stayed on land, and it was said that he had a meeting with the NYC EDC which he had to attend. Bike paths at the North Pole workshop will gobble up much needed parking spaces, and the elfs are being priced out of their apartments by development. The old fella was meant to submit a statement to them condemning the plan to build luxury condos with an “affordable housing” component at the pole, asking instead for simple dormitories.
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extended indefinitely
Manny hatty keeps on forcing me to visit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For someone who actually loathes visiting Manhattan, preferring the ruinations of western Queens and devastations of northern Brooklyn to the Shining City, I do seem to be spending an awful lot of time there of late. Another recent series of events demanded that I visit the Bloody Sixth Ward and Old St. Patrick’s Cathedral, so down the hole and into an electrically driven aluminum box of monkey meat did I go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The visit to Old St. Patrick’s was all business, introducing a certain engenue to the Church’s resident historical hierophant. While on site, I snapped a few quick shots, all the while wishing that I had brought my tripod along with me. Unfortunately, the bulky tool is a bit of a carry, and unless I expressly know that I’m going to be utilizing the thing it gets left home. When I’m not on that rattling contraption that hurtles beneath the streets, I’m walking, after all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While doing some of that walking, on my way back to the underground monkey mover, this absolutely cliche “little italy” shot appeared before me. It looked so incredibly staged, couldn’t help but record it.
Note: A holiday schedule of single images will be presented here next week, although I’m going to be solidly ensconced in Queens as no one will have me. Time for a little break, and to mix things up a bit. You may have noticed that Maritime Sunday hasn’t splashed into port the last couple of weeks- which is mainly due to my inability to get out on the water during the cold months, precluding the gathering of fresh and or interesting content for the feature. It’ll return in the future, when I’m able to get out there again.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
especial region
Walking over rivers, that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent occasion found me with several appointments in rapid succession, one of which carried me to the shining city of Manhattan. Having accomplished the pedantry which this obligation required a bit quicker than anticipated, a longer interval of time became available to me than originally planned, and it was decided to walk to my next appointment instead of using the subway. Off to Brooklyn went I, a scuttling over the venerable Manhattan Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a visceral sense of menace to the pedestrian walkway on this bridge, unlike the other east river spans- you feel isolated and quite far from the ever watchful NYPD up here. The graffito covered cement confirms the availability of time and opportunity, and were there Nosferatu operating in the megalopolis, this surely would make an excellent hunting ground (in the evenings at least).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The views of lower Manhattan, specifically that ancient section called Chinatown, are quite breathtaking from up here. Breathtaking in the sense that amongst the buildings closest to the bridge, one can observe a relict stock of 19th and 20th century buildings whose only commonality is that they were thrown against the sky in as inexpensive a manner as possible.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m always fascinated while observing these open and undraped windows visible only from the bridge. Questions arise in me, such as “if your window is so incredibly wide open to all of NY, wouldn’t you hang a curtain?”. Its weird though, peering in through the window of something that might accurately be described as a tenement window, like seeing a sociological ghost.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s the longest possible history in this Manhattan neighborhood, which sits nearby the fabled five points at the edge of the so called Bloody Sixth Ward. There’s a series of apartments in New York City which I always wonder about, these that run alongside the Manhattan Bridge on the Chinatown side are amongst them, which I think must be the most onerous rentals available. Who lives here, with the subway and a possibly vampire infested pedestrian walkway right outside their window? What path has life carried the lessee to the wrong side of this window?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Brutal reality is best defined by the sweeping movements of a ticking clock, however, and despite having had a surprisingly long interval open up that allowed me the caprice of walking to Brooklyn- it was time to lean into it and get moving. Flatbush Avenue was awaiting, as was a meeting at the fabled Juniors, and it was time to kick my heels and get to DUMBO and infinite Brooklyn.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
convulsively against
They really like the sterile and antiseptic these days, huh?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering about Queens, the shot above was captured at the Court Square station at the foot of the Citigroup Megalith incidentally, one always wonders what it is that the architects of modernity are trying to tell us to think. It’s actually where the “art part” of the building trade comes in to play, wherein an arrangement of blocking shapes and the massing of form accomplishes the delivery of an idea or impression upon the viewer. Get it wrong, you can literally drive a population crazy- just ask anyone who lives in a city project what budget driven homogeneity (and strict adherence to the crypto fascist theories of LeCorbusier) does to your head when it’s expressed in mortar and brick.
This spot at Court Square tells one such as myself that I’m trapped in a sinister exultation of all that might go wrong in America, and that an escape from this cylindrical construct of sapphire glass and shrouded steel should be immediately and expeditiously sought. Maybe that’s what they wanted, to help move people out of the subway as quickly as possible?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some places in Queens, its obvious what the builders and designers intended, despite the post modernity and broad strokes of obtuse symbolism. Of course the Unisphere at Flushing Meadow Corona Park’s (the former Worlds Fair) is a unique sort of thing in a unique sort of place, but were it some Darth Vaderesque conglomeration of steel and bluish green glass with a 53 story tall building looming, would it encourage that same feeling of dread and entrapped menace?
Your humble narrator is largely ignorant about the fashions and caprices enjoyed by the modern architect, all I can tell you is I know what attracts my eye and gravitate toward those forms which do not impart unto me a sense of being imprisoned or surveilled.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every era has its genius, its witty play, its fancy. Somebody is always trying to throw a curve ball at prevailing style. The 1960’s JFK structure above is a great example of form, function, and whimsy (and admittedly, asbestos contamination) in which you actually are being surveilled- but you don’t really mind it that much. Weird how it contrasts with the modern world, and even weirder that it suggests a long gone and hope ridden era – which was the 1960’s?
Can’t tell you what the ideal is, but it sure ain’t the walls of mirror glass which fly up toward the sky, for me at least.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
refractive power
Adrift on seasonal ennui, that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
T’is not a kind month, December.
Memories of childhood disappointment and debasements, diminished expectations, and dire existential crises are those anniversaries celebrated concurrently with December by one such as myself. Nevertheless, despite the short intervals of daylight, and lowered frequencies of natural ambience, your humble narrator stumbles forth to record the audient void of Queens.
Mainly, I’m looking for rusty stuff like the sign above, which is increasingly hard to find in Long Island City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Occasion carried me to Hunters Point recently, and specifically that section of the ancient Dutch village which I refer to as Tower Town. Observed, extant, was an installation of some of that “green infrastructure” that area wags and the municipal princeps have been discussing and presenting to the general public as a prophylactic measure against the return of Hurricane Sandy to the Metropolitan area.
It was a tree pit, stoutly fortified against canine degradations, which hosted a plethora of ornamental cabbages.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I noticed cabbage in a Manhattan tree pit recently, and when I saw this installation of leafy plants one began to wonder if ornamental cabbage was “a thing.” My pal Gil over at the Smiling Hogshead Ranch, and the folks at Brooklyn Grange, tell me that we should be growing food everywhere we possibly can, literally every nook and cranny that light and water can reach. But ornamental cabbages? Why not try growing some kale or carrots, here in Tower Town?
I jest, of course, as in city wide aggregate the thousands of tree pits will add up to a significant acreage and offer a not insignificant amount of storm water someplace to go other than into the combined sewer system.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 