Archive for January 2022
cheerful trifles
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The thing I was saying all summer was this – “if we don’t collectively hit 70% vaccines saturation by late July, Halloween and Thanksgiving will be fine but it ain’t going to be a very Merry Christmas and New Years is going to suck.” Since we didn’t hit that magic vaccine saturation number either locally or nationally, Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself scheduled a holiday trip for the first weekend of December under the presumption of rough seas arriving for the holiday week. Of course, we spent Christmas watching tv by ourselves, and regardless of that, we both had a Covid experience for New Years so – “Call me Ezekiel, for I am a prophet.”
We couldn’t agree on our mode of travel for our weekend away – her schedule is far more demanding than mine currently is, so Our Lady decided to fly whereas I opted for experiencing another journey on the Amtrak. I vastly prefer travel on trains as compared to planes, as a note. It’s just a comfort thing, and I hate airports, and don’t mind spending a bit of down time reading or staring out a window.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One hopped on the subway from Astoria, and headed over to Manhattan’s Moynihan Penn Station on Manhattan’s west side. Upon arrival, I realized that one of the 2021 resolutions I had made – to explore and photograph the newly opened facility in some detail – has gone undone. It’s the “mask thing” holding me back, ultimately. Give me the choice between being outside and unmasked versus within a structure and masked up…
Generally speaking, I seldom wear a mask when outside – I’m vaxxed, and unless a crowd suddenly forms around me – am not too worried about Covid exposure as long as there’s a breeze blowing. Beyond legal requirements for mask usage inside buildings, it’s fairly prosaic and smart to religiously wear one indoors due to ventilation issues.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The National order for masking up on mass transit is, and was in early December, still in effect. One of the problems with these requirements for Covid era facial accoutrements revolves around wearing prescription eyeglasses, as I do. Getting the mask to sit just right so as to not fog up my glasses has been a struggle for me since March of 2020. I’ve tried anti-fog spray, positioning the thing just right… you name it. The only tip I can offer which has had any sort of positive effect on the fog front involves washing down your eyeglasses with a dot of Dawn dishwashing liquid before heading out into the world. Getting them factory clean and “degreased” with the detergent ameliorates, but doesn’t eliminate, the issue.
Regardless, the Amtrak announcement that my train was leaving the station was received, and I queued up to get onto the locomotive.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First stop that the Amtrak people allowed us to get off the train at was in Philadelphia at 30th street Station. A roughly 15 minute layover, this is where Amtrak changes out the actual locomotive engine of the train. Northeast corridor trains operate on electrical power, whereas the ones that will be heading deeper onto the continent generally use diesel. It’s a pretty simple procedure – the Amtrak people disconnect a series of cables and the big steel locket thingamabobs that connect the locomotive to the passenger cars. The original “Cogen” locomotive rolls away and another rolls in, which then has its cables and bits and bobs connected to the passenger cars. There’s a bunch of people wearing overalls who wave lanterns at each other from either side of the train while this is going on.
Finally, bells ring and you’re instructed to get back onboard, or to stay in Philadelphia and get used to eating lousy pizza or cheese steak sandwiches in the City known as America’s consolation prize. Really, as a New Yorker, I’m obligated to shit talk Philadelphia.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We arrived at our destination about five minutes late, which really isn’t bad when you get down to it. Four hundred and forty six miles of travel, which ate up about 8 hours of my life. I enjoyed myself immensely doing absolutely nothing. Stared out the window, watching America roll past, that’s what I did.
I also ate the Amtrak hamburger again, as I’m a masochist.
When we were deciding where to go on our weekend away, the travels of September kept on intruding into the story, and since I had such a great time in Pittsburgh when I was there by myself…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Welcome back to the Steel City, lords and ladies.
We were staying in an AirBNB on Mt. Washington this time around, not the downtown area where my lodgings were last time. More tomorrow.
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prattle feverishly
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, a bit of travel was in the cards for early December, and in the midst of preparing to pick up and split for the better part of a week, I decided to get in one last “short walk.”
This one never left Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They must’ve decriminalized graffiti bombing people’s cars. I’ve seen so much more of this sort of thing in the last two years…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned – short walk. Turn around point was at 31st street and Astoria Blvd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Checked another gas station off my list at 44th street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Managed a shot of an old wrecker tow truck I’ve had my eye on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Encountered evidence of an apparent miracle on 44th street, nearby 31st avenue, with an abandoned wheelchair.
“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.
died reverberantly
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another scuttle. This time, I was out for a long walk. One headed out at a conspicuously earlier time than normal, hoping for a colorful sunset. High clouds are favorable, conditions wise, for colorful sunrises and sunsets to set up. That’s my official photographer advice.
Pictured is a section of Long Island City’s Sunnyside Yards, with Amtrak train sets lined up in the foreground. As always, a tip of the hat to whoever is in charge of poking holes in the fences at the Federal Rail operation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were gathered at the end of November, when I was preparing to go on another trip using Amtrak in early December, so I was wondering if any of these trains would be the one I got to ride on. Honestly, the day that I shot these feels like a hundred years ago right now. It’s funny the way that the mind works, ain’t it?
On this particular night, I was heading towards the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek, where I would end discovering that a big chunk of the shoreline had collapsed over Thanksgiving weekend.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a particularly weird night, as a note, with way too many encounters with the denizens of the streets. One in particular was just freaky, but I don’t want to get into the trading of war stories.
Sirens punctured my reveries, and I noticed an FDNY ambulance screaming it’s way along the Honeywell Avenue truss bridge over the railyard.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Due to all the street weirdness I’ve encountered and observed, I’ve fallen out of the habit of listening to audiobooks while walking around, preferring instead to have all of my sensory antennae fully deployed. I want to be able to hear the running footsteps slapping the pavement coming my way, before they’re too close for comfort.
Given my predilection for lonely places, the last thing I want to encounter or be surprised by are other people.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every person you see coming at you is a possible threat these days. There’s a small army of lunatics and street level criminals that have recently been installed all around Long Island City, lawless and sly, who’ll look you up and down deciding whether or not it would be worth it to boil you down for elements to sell. It hasn’t been like this for a long time, here in the big city.
This is not exactly a politically correct thing to say, but the people who decide what’s correct or not have apparently never been punched in the nose or had a gun pulled on them by a mugger.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
People walk around like they’re safe or something. If they only knew.
Bah.
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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.
drown something
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That is a fine tow truck, thought I, and compelled was a humble narrator to get a quick shot. Generally speaking, owners of illegally double parked vehicles are less than keen about seeing a weird old guy in a filthy black raincoat taking pictures of their rides in the dead of night, so I did a “gun and run” shot.
I regret not going wide angle with a tripod and capturing the strobing effects of its warning lights on the surrounding environment. Ahh, the milieu…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now, that’s a truck. If I was to set myself up as a super villain or mad scientist, that would be my ride. I’d have it painted with evil branding elements, of course. Also, anti personnel weapons of a fiendish kind – hoses that shoot live fire ants, pepper spray grenades – that sort of thing.
Someday… an army composed of my own race of Atomic Supermen… someday…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When I got to Jackson Heights, I turned back around and headed up Roosevelt Avenue. It’s such an interesting and horrible corridor, Roosevelt. Existentially, it’s horrific – the train noise, the constant traffic, noise, tumult. Just like industrial Maspeth, you constantly remark that people actually do live here – despite everything going on around them. They’re obviously made of sterner stuff than I.
Visually speaking, it’s endlessly fascinating, Roosevelt Avenue is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My path was now heading south westwards, back towards HQ. Short walk, this one, starting at Astoria’s Broadway in the 40’s, then down to Northern Blvd. and 39th Avenue to the intersection with Roosevelt Avenue and then back to HQ. Lots to see, got my legs moving, and the elevated tracks provided cover against threatened precipitant.
Apparently, the used furniture store pictured above is offering a sale. I like signage that’s overwhelmingly literal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Endless fascination surrounds the complex of stairs, elevators, and overhead rail tracks encountered at 61st street and Roosevelt Avenue. This is where Long Island Railroad and the IRT Flushing Line Subway intersect. What a potpourri of calamitous design this is.
I found myself desirous of getting away from the humans after this, after avoiding several skirmish lines. A skirmish line is when (usually) a family or a group of friends arrange themselves shoulder to shoulder as they walk down the street. This is an unbreakable formation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Crossing over the border to Sunnyside, you encounter an old shop with new signage. As mentioned, I like literal signage. What do any of us really want, ultimately, other than a bit of simple convenience?
More tomorrow.
“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.
ceaseless poring
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another walk. As mentioned, one is increasing the frequency of his exercises in the name of reducing his body weight. Thereby, a lot of “not too far from home” scuttles are underway.
That’s a section of the Sunnyside Yards in Long Island City pictured above, as seen from a fence hole along Thomson Avenue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Before the recent spike in Covid numbers, one had been enjoying the option of using mass transit again, but c’est la vie.
That’s an M line subway entering the Court Square station, heading into Queens from Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I laugh a bit whenever I encounter this particular food truck, which proclaims itself as being “The Boss of The Tacos.” I wonder if there’s any consensus between the food trucks as to who’s boss. Are there Taco factions, rivals, or breakaway Birria enthusiasts? Tacos are artisanal by their nature, since you’ve got to touch all of the components with your hand to assemble them.
Los Tacos, soy el Jefe!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve mentioned my recent fascination with photographing gas stations. It’s a damned difficult shot to get the exposure right, and also a real task to handle the photoshop/RAW processing on them. Bright lights, contrasting, saturated colors that want to go all comic book on you.
This one’s on Northern Blvd. and Newtown Road, nearby the Woodside Houses NYCHA campus.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A similar set of issues occur with car washes. This operation is a couple of blocks east of the gas station pictured above. The difficulty encountered with this shot is that I was standing across Northern Blvd. on the opposite sidewalk, and finding a fractional shutter interval without a vehicle moving into frame takes a while.
As you may have guessed, this particular evening’s walk was headed east rather than west. I like to mix things up occasionally.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a small industrial zone found at the border of Astoria/Woodside/Sunnyside which I like to wander through. It’s a little too “populated” for my taste, surrounded as it is by a residentially zoned area. Check out that graffiti van though. That’ll teach this guy not to park here anymore, huh?
Back tomorrow with more.
“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 