Archive for 2013
Project Firebox 80
An ongoing catalog of New York’s endangered Fireboxes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Like so many other Fireboxes in Queens, this sentry is emasculated by shrinking maintenance budgets and an odd notion which has caught on in Manhattan that everybody carries a cell phone whose easy access to calling 911 makes its kind redundant. Maspeth shudders in the manner of Troy, gazing down as its guardian lies helpless before Achilles.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
chief torment
Just a feathered friend today…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your eyes are not deceiving you, as you have seen this shot before.
This was gathered last year during a trip to South Brother Island, discussed in the July 2012 post “eery pinnacle.” I’m bust getting ready for tomorrow’s City of Water Day activities which will be occurring out on Governors Island, and hope you can forgive me for a short post today. Deadlines, deadlines, deadlines.
For more shots from South Brother, click here for the flickr set of what I saw when I visited with the Audubons.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
sardonic source
Fearful and frightful, be afraid… be very, very afraid.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sometimes you scare yourself, I know that I do, but then again I’m a fairly scary person- or so I’ve been told by those who seek my destruction. Looking out from behind my eyes, I believe that I set the standard of sanity for the rest of the world, a situation which terrifies me, as there has to be someone better upon which to draw the line between madness and sanity. Anxious, phobic, given to fits of melancholia and nostalgic ennui- your humble narrator is all ‘effed up.
from wikipedia
Most phobias are classified into three categories and, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV), such phobias are considered to be sub-types of anxiety disorder. The three categories are:
1. Social phobia: fear of other people or social situations such as performance anxiety or fears of embarrassment by scrutiny of others. Overcoming social phobia is often very difficult without the help of therapy or support groups. Social phobia may be further subdivided into
- generalized social phobia (also known as social anxiety disorder or simply social anxiety).
- specific social phobia, in which anxiety is triggered only in specific situations. The symptoms may extend to psychosomatic manifestation of physical problems. For example, sufferers of paruresis find it difficult or impossible to urinate in reduced levels of privacy. This goes far beyond mere preference: when the condition triggers, the person physically cannot empty their bladder.
2. Specific phobias: fear of a single specific panic trigger such as spiders, snakes, dogs, water, heights, flying, catching a specific illness, etc. Many people have these fears but to a lesser degree than those who suffer from specific phobias. People with the phobias specifically avoid the entity they fear.
3. Agoraphobia: a generalized fear of leaving home or a small familiar ‘safe’ area, and of possible panic attacks that might follow. It may also be caused by various specific phobias such as fear of open spaces, social embarrassment (social agoraphobia), fear of contamination (fear of germs, possibly complicated by obsessive-compulsive disorder) or PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) related to a trauma that occurred out of doors.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ignoble, embarrassing and meaningless- the dire consequence or ironic fate one fears most is to be taken down by some unturned screw or careless inattention to detail. Such an end would be more embarrassing than I can bear. A loosened brick, cast off tool, or some other loose bit of debris falling from on high worries me as much or moreso than being struck by an out of control vehicle or being torn asunder by wild dogs. Danger comes at you from 360 degrees here in the megalopolis and it is best to maintain a state of mild panic whenever you leave the house (which is a statistically dangerous place as well, but at least you die comfortably and with some private dignity at home). Fear everything, I always say, New York would like to see you die luridly just so she can tell the story when hanging out at the bar with Chicago and New Orleans.
from wikipedia
Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia (derived from Ancient Greek roots ἑξακόσιοι [hexakósioi, “six hundred”], ἑξήκοντα [hexékonta, “sixty”], and ἕξ [héx, “six”]; literally meaning “fear of [the number] six hundred sixty-six”) is the fear that originated from the Biblical verse Revelation 13:18, which indicates that the number 666 is the Number of the Beast, linked to Satan or the Anti-Christ.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having embraced the philosophies of the Terror War, wherein every neighbor is a potential person of interest to inform the Cops about and the innocent actions of children are viewed through a filter of threat assessment. That guy BBQing down the block just might be cooking up trouble on that grill- how do you know that propane tank he’s using doesn’t have some secondary and quite sinister purpose? One has decided to just allow paranoia to rule my days and let fear be my watchword. Be afraid, be very, very afraid. Trust no one. If you see something, say something. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain, by the way, he’s with the government.
from wikipedia
Panphobia (from Greek πᾶν – pan, neuter of “πᾶς” – pas, “all” and φόβος – phobos, “fear”) also called omniphobia, pantophobia, or panophobia, is a phobia known as a “non-specific fear” or “the fear of everything” and is described as “a vague and persistent dread of some unknown evil”.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
jester’s whim
Is reality real, really?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator spends an awful lot of time gazing at his navel, but can’t shake the sneaking suspicion that reality is some sort of confidence game. One of the “very bad ideas” which can literally drive you mad is the notion that none of this is real, and that the world is in fact either a simulation or hallucination. This is usually the time when my dad would slap me across the face, ask me if that felt real, and then remind me to pass him the screw driver he asked for. Still, one wonders, and more than wonders…
from wikipedia
A hallucination is a perception in the absence of a stimulus which has qualities of real perception. Hallucinations are vivid, substantial, and located in external objective space. They are distinguished from the related phenomena of dreaming, which does not involve wakefulness; illusion, which involves distorted or misinterpreted real perception; imagery, which does not mimic real perception and is under voluntary control; and pseudohallucination, which does not mimic real perception, but is not under voluntary control. Hallucinations also differ from “delusional perceptions”, in which a correctly sensed and interpreted stimulus (i.e. a real perception) is given some additional (and typically bizarre) significance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If your eyes are misting over at the thought of reading more of the self pitying existential claptrap which is periodically offered at this, your Newtown Pentacle, apologies are offered. The question of perception, and as an artist- of reproduction- is something which has long interested me. It’s one thing to be standing at Queens Plaza and perceive that a train has arrived, but how does the brain put that together – do the math- from a photograph?
A great primer on subjective realities and the circuitry of perception is found in Oliver Sacks’ “The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat,” which discusses how the intracranial landscape is both neurologically formed and kept informed by the data gathering network and sensors of the nervous system.
from wikipedia
The process of perception begins with an object in the real world, termed the distal stimulus or distal object. By means of light, sound or another physical process, the object stimulates the body’s sensory organs. These sensory organs transform the input energy into neural activity—a process called transduction. This raw pattern of neural activity is called the proximal stimulus. These neural signals are transmitted to the brain and processed. The resulting mental re-creation of the distal stimulus is the percept. Perception is sometimes described as the process of constructing mental representations of distal stimuli using the information available in proximal stimuli.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Perceptions of social “monkey” stuff are easy to understand, as the qualities of every interaction with another human is run through a checklist of prejudices, past grievances, wounds, and defeats for possible objection or approval. That is a purely individual thing, dependent on one’s past experience and cultural heritage or baggage. It’s why some folks “don’t like the look” of others, and forms the third leg of the “throne of evil” along with the first and second legs- disappointment and loneliness.
The question I always wonder about, however, is this- when two people say something is blue or red or yellow or round or sqaure, what subjective criteria can be asserted which defines what those terms mean to them? How do we know that a traffic light turned red looks the same to me as it does to you? Is it the same red we see?
What might you or I be seeing, that no one else can perceive?
from wikipedia
The ganzfeld effect (from German for “complete field”) or perceptual deprivation, is a phenomenon of perception caused by exposure to an unstructured, uniform stimulation field.
It has been most studied with vision by staring at an undifferentiated and uniform field of colour. The visual effect is described as the loss of vision as the brain cuts off the unchanging signal from the eyes. The result is “seeing black” – apparent blindness. It can also elicit hallucinatory percepts in many people, in addition to an altered state of consciousness.
Ganzfeld induction in multiple senses is called multi-modal ganzfeld. This is usually done by wearing ganzfeld goggles in addition to headphones with a uniform stimulus.
A related effect is sensory deprivation. With sensory deprivation, however, a stimulus is minimized rather than unstructured. Ganzfeld is thus perceptual deprivation. Hallucinations that appear under prolonged sensory deprivation are similar to elementary percepts caused by luminous ganzfeld, these include transient sensations of light flashes or colours. Hallucinations caused by sensory deprivation can, like ganzfeld-induced hallucinations, turn into complex scenes.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
unsanctioned frenzy
Pondering while wandering.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m all ‘effed up. As is my habit during the summer, vast explorations of existential angst and delusion rule those intracranial electrical impulses which one might generously describe as thoughts. Fear, repulsion, and raw terror are the contents of that glob of salty fat which sits between the oddly shaped ears, above the loathsome mouth, and an inch or two behind the spectacles. The particular organ in question has been giving me trouble of late, and in the future I intend to use it gently as a repetitive stress injury seems to be taking hold.
from wikipedia
A semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle. A large proportion of its weight is supported by a road tractor, a detachable front axle assembly known as a dolly, or the tail of another trailer. A semi-trailer is normally equipped with landing gear (legs which can be lowered) to support it when it is uncoupled.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Disappointment and loneliness are the root causes of all the worlds trouble, the Castor and Pollux of evil. One such as myself, however, is drawn to their stormy coastlines with its craggy delights. Your humble narrator has too full a schedule for the “Bon Vivant” and joys of summer, it seems, and is instead a mass of mouldering psychological injuries held together with string and sealing wax. Frivolities are not meant for such a creature- who is nothing less than an assassin of joy, mental weakling, physical coward, and a most feckless quisling.
from wikipedia
Emotional baggage is an everyday expression that correlates with many varied but similar concepts within social sciences, self-help movements, and other fields: its general concern is with unresolved issues of an emotional nature, often with an implication that the emotional baggage is detrimental.
As a metaphorical image, it is that of carrying all the disappointments, wrongs, and trauma of the past around with one in a heavy load.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Arcane ideations torment, coupled as they are with a startling emotional numbness, and one suspects that all this might not actually be happening. A sneaking suspicion, lurking maliciously at the scarred threshold of that glob of electrically charged, and quite salty, fat a couple of inches behind my glasses is not interpreting the world accurately, torments. A long standing delusion one suffers from, separate from the one which causes me to always look over my left shoulder when walking through Woodside at night, is that this all might be some sort of cruel simulation being run by an extra dimensional and all powerful entity which seeks to stress test and then judge one harshly according to an arbitrary set of rules. The existence of such a being would be outlandish, of course, as there is no evidence of such an entity other than in desert legends, folk stories, and peasant traditions.
from wikipedia
The simplest use of brain-in-a-vat scenarios is as an argument for philosophical skepticism and solipsism. A simple version of this runs as follows: Since the brain in a vat gives and receives exactly the same impulses as it would if it were in a skull, and since these are its only way of interacting with its environment, then it is not possible to tell, from the perspective of that brain, whether it is in a skull or a vat. Yet in the first case most of the person’s beliefs may be true (if they believe, say, that they are walking down the street, or eating ice-cream); in the latter case their beliefs are false. Since the argument says one cannot know whether one is a brain in a vat, then one cannot know whether most of one’s beliefs might be completely false. Since, in principle, it is impossible to rule out oneself being a brain in a vat, there cannot be good grounds for believing any of the things one believes; a skeptical argument would contend that one certainly cannot know them, raising issues with the definition of knowledge.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 