Archive for November 2024
Archives #035
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Directly after this photo was taken in 2010, then NYS AG Andrew Cuomo transmogrified into a crab monster and chewed the heads off of eleven journalists, a television sound person, and three videographers. Luckily, your humble narrator was using a telephoto lens, and was thereby far enough away to avoid this carnage. A limo arrived, and every step Cuomo took toward it saw him reeling in the extra limbs and eye stalks, and a seemingly human creature in a tattered suit entered the vehicle, which drove away. Building superintendents appeared, who hosed down the charnel gutter. The viscera flowed into and out of the open sewers, and the Newtown Creek ran red with the third estate that day.
You don’t mess with Andy Cuomo.
In 2010, all the fancy people came to Brooklyn and gathered along the Newtown Creek to commemorate the end of legal hostilities between Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the transnational energy giant regarding the Greenpoint Oil Spill.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Jesus! There’s something about mass production meeting the sacred, and it leads to an all too obvious and somewhat French influenced commentary about… it’s wank though. Nothing matters anymore. Still, commodifying the belief system of others for personal profit is a pretty delicate thing.
Whereas, at the time of this archive post’s publication – there was not – but now – there is – a fully articulated and posable Jesus action figure out there. Someone’s going to hell over this one, right? I mean… $55 for a doll?
In 2013’s ‘not inefficient,’ your humble narrator became transfixed by a series of plastic religious statues on sale in one of Astoria’s multitudinous 99 cent stores.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That bright orange business on the right hand side of the shot above is the Queensboro Bridge, with Manhattan at top of the shot and Queens Plaza in the fore. I got this one when a friend allowed me access to the roof deck of the condo building he was occupying for a spell.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
In 2018, ‘momentous talk’ showed off a few photos from high over Long Island City, at night! Why don’t any of the new people have curtains?
Back next week.
“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.
Archives #034
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself lived in Astoria for about nineteen years and I think that I walked over the Pulaski Bridge between LIC and Greenpoint at least once a week for about fifteen of those years. I christened the surrounding area as DUPBO – Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp. It seems many of the mouth breathers from Maspeth take umbrage at this, but I really don’t care.
Over the years, the Maspeth crowd always disappointed me, regarding Newtown Creek. The general sentiment there is to pave it over.
2018’s ‘professional duty’ wandered around ‘DUPBO’ in Long Island City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The part of Brooklyn I grew up in is practically not in the same Borough as Williamsburg/Greenpoint. My Dad went to Automotive for high school, I’d mention, and back when I was a teenager – if the subject of either neighborhood came up – he’d say ‘Stay outah Nort Brooklyn.’
Long story short, I was a Good Humor Man for most of a summer at the end of high school, and my ice cream selling partner and I ended up getting into a high speed (30mph, as these trucks are not quick) ice cream truck chase with Mister Softee on the Belt Parkway (starting all the way out by Kings Plaza), which ended in Williamsburg when our truck’s engine conked out. Softee escaped the wrath for poaching our territory.
Needing a ride back home from Williamsburg, I called the old man, waking him up. I told him the tale and when I mentioned where we were, he slammed the phone receiver down. Back then, you could hear the phone’s bell chime ring just before the signal went out. A half hour later, the old man shows up in the 1963 Buick Skylark, and me and my partner get in the car. I turn to thank the old man, and then get popped on the side of my head as he said ‘I toldja to stay outah Nort Brooklyn.’
Other than an Italian bakery on Grand street, which made particularly lovely cookies, he avoided the area like the plague. He would have really been pissed off if he was alive when I was doing the whole Newtown Creek thing.
2019’s ‘thing depicted’ focused in on the Verrazano Bridge. This was about the halfway point in the ice cream truck chase.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m not sure what my ‘long walk’ possibilities are going to be, for a while. I might have to buy a bike or something. All of these trails I’ve been walking here in Pittsburgh are bikes too, so… I guess it would be nice to have some range as well – distance here in Pittsburgh is very, very different than it is in New York with its feature rich environment.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
In 2023, ‘low to high’ was published, which discusses a section of a somewhat long walk in Pittsburgh. I got to see a train!
Back 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.
Archives #033
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One cannot describe how much I wish to puncture my sick room boredom and get out with the camera again. The foot is recovering, although it’s my ankle that got broken. The ghastly consequence of the ankle injury caused a significant amount of damage to the foot’s skinvelope, which felt like a burn for much of the last fifteen hundred and thirteen hours. The constancy of pain has fallen off as the injury and post surgical situation has healed, and my old mutant healing powers have resurfaced. When I was young, I healed like Wolverine. Not so much anymore.
I may get my balls busted mercilessly for it in the comments section occasionally, but it’s been a practice of mine to try and be radically honest about the various health issues I’ve experienced over the years while writing this periodical. 2012’s ‘lurk unseen’ was published while I was experiencing a short term back problem, for instance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the prime reasons why I got so involved with the Governmental and regulatory nitty gritty around Newtown Creek was to create access for the camera. I managed to get into places that nobody else – including the TV networks – could get close to. Over the years, I had to endure literal days of OSHA classes and training into get to some of these places, but you gotta do what you gotta do if you want the shot. Saying that, once you’re ‘CERT’d’ by one industrial entity, that’s good enough to satisfy insurance requirements for others. These shots were taken by a humble narrator wearing a vest, hard hat, and very uncomfortable steel toe boots. Nobody gets hurt, that’s the rule. Except for the boots, they hurt.
2015’s ‘brought up’ details a visit to the still under construction Kosciuszko Bridge project and shows various stages of the work. I’d mention that both ‘then’ Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, were also on this walk but not ‘officially’ so ‘no photos of them’ was requested as it would have become a ‘thing’ with the Governor’s office otherwise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s actually kind of amazing, all the stuff I’ve gotten to do, and especially so between about 2009 and 2020. Covid closed a bunch of doors, ones which never reopened. Separately from this sudden need to exploit the Pentacle archives, your humble narrator has been sorting through literally hundreds thousands of photos in pursuance of finally building a portfolio site based around these ‘prime’ years of mine. One thing that’s popped up during this process is that I’ve got a lot of dead friends, many of whom I used to do all this crazy stuff with.
Used to be, when Captain John Doswell called you up and asked if you’d be interested in riding on a boat to Albany, in January, with Bernie Ente onboard and Bill Chambers acting as skipper…
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
I capture a huge number of photos – under normal circumstances – while accomplishing my daily round, many of which are ‘odd balls’ that don’t necessarily fit the narrative of a post. Every now and again, I’ll pull a few of these shots together and run them together as an ‘odds and ends’ post – as in 2020’s ‘stagger back.’
Back 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.
Archives #032
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This week’s archives were somewhat difficult to gather together, as this is the part of the year where I’d normally be taking a break and offering single image shots. Under what were my normal conditions, Newtown Creek tour season would have just wrapped up and I’d be taking a minute to collect myself after a spring and summer’s worth of talking. I’m a chatterbox, admittedly, but after guiding dozens of groups composed of hundreds if not thousands around the creek, a break was always required.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are randomly pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
2015’s ‘distant whine’ discussed and bitched about the inequalities betwixt the two sides of the Queensboro Bridge, as far as how the municipal pie gets divided up in City Hall. Everything is Manhattancentric.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some years, this calendar date fell on a weekend, or one of those single shots was occupying the slot. In a couple of cases, the post that published on this date kind of sucked, or was ‘filler’ as in when I’ve got nothing to say about what’s in the photos so I riff on an unrelated topic.
In 2018, it seems I was seeking nocturnal altitude, as described in ‘disclosures which.’ A few friends ended up opening their doors to me, with one pair of friends in particular allowing me hours of time up on the roof deck of the condo building that used to be the LIRR powerhouse.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, the physical therapy component of the broken ankle story is yielding a great result. My foot looks like somewhat like its mate on the other leg again, instead of a swollen out and magenta colored version of one of those 1970’s ‘hang 10’ stickers.
In 2019, I had a smashed big toe but I also had a gig doing a slide show/lecture at the library on Roosevelt Island, about Newtown Creek, so I had to suck it up – pain wise – and do my thing. Mission!
Back 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.
Archives #031
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Things are improving around HQ, exponentially at this point, as my broken ankle’s physical therapy routine is tangibly addressing the pain and swelling of early recovery. They’ve even had me walking in ordinary shoes at the ‘PT’ sessions. I’m recovering some of my confidence in the stride as well, in terms of trusting my affected limb.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are randomly pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
2010’s ‘narcotic flowers’ was published on this date, which discussed public health measures that were introduced in NYC, during the late 19th century, to combat epidemics and pandemics arriving daily at the port with the floods of immigrants from peasant lands in Europe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pal Will from NCA recently sent a photo of my beloved Dutch Kills tree to me, and the thing has turned into a real whopper over the last couple of years. Next time that I’m back home, I plan on getting a few shots of this survivor. Spring, likely.
During the pandemic, your humble narrator was walking around in the dead of night at Newtown Creek for want of any other purpose. 2020 gave me a chance to get ‘technical’ with the photos, and really slow things down, as seen in the post ‘livid marks’ which visits the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m thinking that I might actually be able to get back to my normal pursuits by mid-December at this point, but I’m taking things slowly and following the program as laid out by the professionals. Their first name is ‘Doctor,’ after all, and I’m just a schmuck with a camera.
November 18, in 2022, was smack in the middle of an intensely busy period as Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself were deep in preparation for our move to Pittsburgh and your humble narrator was attempting to ‘see everything one last time.’ Luckily, by this point, I had taken possession of the car, and was able to zip about Queens freely.
“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 