Archive for July 2020
omphalos gazing
Friday, Friday, which seat should I take?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While the above shot was being captured, one was standing just a few feet away from one of the City’s Bioswales – or as they’ve been renamed “rain gardens.” Absolute legions of cockroaches were seething in and out of the planting. I don’t mean roaches of the sort that you might encounter under your kitchen sink, I mean the giant two inch long flying variety. The kind that doesn’t give a shit about you, or how many times you stamp your feet.
In NYC, the conqueror worm is a cockroach. If they ever get organized…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While I was taking this shot, behind me and across the street, some fellow was sitting behind the wheel of his car staring at me while he was smoking a marijuana cigarette. Whoever was in the passenger seat must’ve dropped something, since I saw their head repeatedly bobbing up and down in the shadows within the car. They seemed nice.
One decided to head back home to Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here at the HQ fortress, with its moat and towers, one felt safe from any possible incursion by Antifa, Trumpist Militias, Woman hating Neckbeards, Rosicrucians – or just about any other random threat which click hungry websites have told me are coming this way to take away my things. Without things, what are we?
Back next week with something totally different.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 13th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
obsolete phraseology
Thursday, in LIC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Frustrated by yet another unsuccessful expedition and attempt to photograph “it,” one decided that since midnight had been arrived at it was time to begin plying a course back to HQ in Astoria. The night was hot and humid, and despite the absence of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself bobbing about in the sky, sweat was running freely from my skinvelope. It had rained heavily earlier in the day, and olfactory observation indicated that NYC’s Combined Sewer system had contributed some meaningful amount of untreated sewage into the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek, here in the Long Island City section of Queens.
Also, I’d been on my feet for hours at this point.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The latter statement proved my undoing. Knowing this area as well as I do, places where one can take the proverbial load off for a few minutes are a part of my list of features and attractions. In the shot directly below, you’ll notice a picnic table and umbrella in front of the surprisingly excellent delicatessen “Sparks.”
I did mention the heavy rain? Did I mention that before I sat down at the picnic table I didn’t check to see if the seat was concave in shape and hosting an absolutely terrific amount of rain water? Well, I hadn’t, and so didst one sit down. As I felt the liquid penetrating up through my pants, and underpants, it occurred to me that I should have – in fact – checked to see if it was wet. I didn’t, and now I was.
At least it is was quite cooling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This incident prompted one to summon a cab, which is something I’ve only done twice in the pandemic period. Not having wet skivvies, as far as “twice” goes. I mean taking a cab. Nothing is more miserable than walking multiple miles in wet clothing during a heat wave. Chafing, it affects us all, and some more than others. Masked up, a car was summoned for my trip home via the miracle of cellular telephony.
Everything mundane is scary now, in the age of the killer cooties, even calling a Lyft.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 13th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
writing impossible
Wednesday photos of the after times, and the search for “it.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nothing to see here, Officer, just an old schmuck with a camera hanging off the side of the Borden Avenue bridge at midnight, shining a laser into the water to excite the schools of little fishies in the hope that their activity will attract “it” into frame. Of course, if any of the rumors about “it” are true, it would be big enough to pull a large dog off the shore and drag it to the bottom of Dutch Kills.
Excitement abounded, during the process described above, when a sudden flurry of shoreline movement and chittering began to emerge from the darkness.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whipping out my pocket flashlight, I soon discovered that the sound wasn’t coming from “it” but rather from “them.” On my way to this particular location, one encountered a lovely woman named Virginia whom I discovered as being the mysterious person that had been feeding the colony of feral cats along Dutch Kills for the last few months. Her deposits of cat food and water, apparently, had been contributing to the growth of a family/colony of Procyon lotor – or Raccoons if you must. The notion that wild mammals are inhabiting the banks of Newtown Creek is encouraging, given the fearsome reputation and environmental issues which put the waterway on the Federal Superfund list.
I only got a clear shot of the one pictured above, but I counted around seven sets of eyes shining back at me from the self seeded brush lining Dutch Kills’ banks. Speaking as I do on behalf of other creatures of the night, being shy and careful is a great survival mechanism.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My inspection for “it” continued, and given that “it” has always been reported to me as being aquatic, the camera was again pointed at the water. Unfortunately, the mirror surface of Dutch Kills betrayed the fact that not too much in the way of living activity was occurring this particular night. During the summer months, oxygen levels in the waters of Newtown Creek fall precipitously due to the heat. The warm water, which is fed into by NYC’s Combined Sewer system, becomes a haven for algae that live and die in the stagnant water. When the algae die off, their remains precipitate down into the water column and bacterial entities go to work consuming these leave behinds. The life cycle of the bacterial world consumes dissolved oxygen in the water and produces carbon dioxide and other gases in its stead. The bacteria then die and putrefy, which in turn promulgates the growth of the next algal bloom.
If you spend enough time around Dutch Kills, you’ll notice the waters are sometimes yellow ochre, then olive green, then black, then silver, and then the cycle repeats.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 13th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
blood secured
Tuesday searching for “it” at Dutch Kills
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just the other night, one began to wonder about “it” again and a walk over to the Dutch Kills tributary of the fabulous Newtown Creek ensued. My first stop was nearby the Hunters Point Avenue Bridge, found in the remains of the Degnon Terminal.
As mentioned in the past, the modern day shaping of Dutch Kills occurred in the first decade of the 20th century at the same time that the Pennsylvania Railroad Company was building the Sunnyside Yards. Michael Degnon was a construction magnate whose company completed the Williamsburg Bridge’s masonry, and famously finished the construction of the subway tunnels which carry the 7 line from Queens to Manhattan. Digging out the subway tunnel generated a lot of rock debris which he needed to dispose of, which was accomplished when Degnon purchased the estate holdings of former Governor Roscoe Flowers here in LIC, an area referred to as the “waste meadows.” The fill was used to reclaim and raise dry land from the wetlands, and Dutch Kills was canalized under supervision from the United States Army Corps of Engineers into its current form. That’s when the modern Hunters Point Avenue and Borden Avenue Bridges we’re built. Degnon built an industrial park surrounding the canal which offered rail to barge infrastructure and attracted enormous concerns like the Loose Wiles bakery, Chicle Gum, and Ever Ready Battery to Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
21st century industrial degeneracy aside, Dutch Kills was an absolute mirror on the hot and humid night which I most recently visited it during. There is little to no laminar flow in Dutch Kills, which causes sedimentation and shoaling. Rumors from my network of local informants and Creek watchers have reached me in recent months describing something which strains credulity, but since I have very few things to occupy my time otherwise during this interminable pandemic, one is on the hunt for “it.” I won’t bore you with the rumors, as I don’t pass on stories which I either can not verify or that I don’t have photos to back up.
On this particular night, one spent a bit of time shining a green laser into the depths, which excited the schools of small fishies that nocturnally shelter from predators here. Since “it” would likely occupy the niche of a top predator, exciting the prey animals might have drawn it to me, hence the laser.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As above, so below, the saying goes. Never is the case more so on Dutch Kills on a night when the poison winds are quiet and the gelatinous fathoms are calmed.
The thick humidity hanging in the air made this particular walk perspiratory in the extreme. While shooting these shots, I encountered employees of the NYC Department of Transportation’s Bridges unit, a nearly invisible organization which has been curiously present in recent months during the pandemic. You normally never see these folks unless a bridge needs to open for passing maritime traffic, but for some reason I’ve encountered them repeatedly at both Borden Avenue and here at Hunters Point Avenue in the dead of night.
Perhaps they have heard about “it” as well?
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 13th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
particular period
Monday shots from the after times.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found one walking a friend who has recently acquired the photography habit around the industrial quarters of Long Island City. My intent was to inculcate a few safety oriented customs into his mind, since the first rounds of photos he had been posting scared the heck out of a humble narrator. As is often repeated, Newtown Creek and the industrial business zone areas surrounding it are an easy place to get dead if you’re not cautious, careful, or have some background knowledge of the way that the “hard hats” operate. Photos my friend had been posting demonstrated that he had no understanding of the place’s code, which I set out to rectify. Dutch Kills in LIC was a great place to start.
I sort of gave him a tour, which is something I miss doing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One did not gather too many pictures on this outing, but I couldn’t resist a shot of this ivy which had been graffitied over. The weird sodium lamp light pouring out of a nearby shipping company’s property just added to the attraction.
The shipping business continues to expand and expand around the Newtown Creek, and despite the fact that I broke the story last year that an enormous Amazon facility is about to be constructed over in Maspeth on Grand Avenue, other people are acting like it’s news. Of course, nobody cares about this, until the tractor trailer and delivery trucks leave the IBZ and drive through the residential neighborhoods lying between it and the highways or the approaches to Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I can’t say this scientifically, as in I can’t point to a traffic study conducted by a professional outfit like the one run by Sam Schwartz, but observationally I’ve seen heavy traffic in and out of the Newtown Creek Industrial Business Zone magnify significantly over the last few years. It’s all part of the ever evolving national economy, of course, and what with the pandemic and all, we’re all relying on businesses like United Parcel Service or FedEx to service our needs more and more.
I do wish that our elected officials would demand that these companies incorporate more rail and water transport into the plan. The UPS barn pictured above is across the street from Dutch Kills, and a giant FedEx facility is directly located on the bulkheads of the same waterway about a block away, and there are freight tracks everywhere in LIC just awaiting reactivation. Saying that, there’s some fairly big news on the water transport front along the Creek that is still forming up. I’ll keep you posted.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, July 13th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 