Archive for November 2024
Archives #025
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
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.
This post is from 2012, and it’s a part of the post Hurricane Sandy survey I was conducting along Newtown Creek’s Queens side.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the time this post publishes, a humble narrator is once again at a ‘physical therapy’ or ‘PT’ appointment, exercising and stretching the broken ankle under medical supervision. Apparently this is now how I spend a significant amount of my time, three times a week in the office with homework assignments for the entire week. An interesting movement exercise is that three times a day I’m meant to draw the shapes of the alphabet, using my great toe on the affected foot as a pointer. The letter ‘Y’ really hurts, as a note.
This 2019 post was published when I had a different severe injury on my left foot than the one at crux of my current dilemma. It’s always my left foot that gets busted up for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This weekend, I’m planning on finally programming a radio scanner I bought, which will let me listen to locomotive radio communications and preclude the ‘standing around for two hours and nothing’ factor of photographing trains. Used to be, I’d just stand at a rail choke point and they’d come to me.
This posting from 2022 is from the period when I was trying to see everything one last time before moving away. I spent a lot of time and effort photographing Sunnyside Yards, during all of those years that I lived in Astoria.
Back next week.
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Archives #024
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Things continue to improve for a humble narrator, who attended the first of many ‘physical therapy’ or ‘PT’ appointments yesterday. At one point, I actually stood up on both feet without any sort of brace on my busted ankle, although most of the appointment involved various stretches and exercises to get the thing working properly again. Needless to say, last night and this morning the limb is sort of angry.
These archives posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts from 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.
November 7th in 2016 saw a series of photos of Astoria’s Halloween festivities presented, as captured from the old ‘local’ bar on the corner of 42nd and Broadway – the Times Square of Astoria – which I used to hang out at.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Man, I miss just being to do ‘stuff.’ It’s been fifty days since this rather crappy adventure began, but I prefer to think it in hours – as in its been 1,211 hours of constant and often overwhelming pain. There’s been no way to be ‘comfortable,’ so I’ve just had to compartmentalize the agonies. It’s an interesting part of the human brain which allows us to ignore deep wounds and fundamental problems just in the name of sleeping.
There’s always a crisis at MTA, isn’t there? This 2019 post admittedly rants a bit, but points out that they never seem to blame the management.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, I’ve got friends who have been willing to endure my company, telephonically speaking. Our Lady has been caring for me, in ways I can never pay back. A humble narrator doesn’t enjoy feeling vulnerable, and especially doesn’t like having others observe such moments.
I was already packing stuff up back at HQ in November of 2022, when I was also trying to see and photograph everything one last time. I figured it might be a good thing to leave behind some instructions for the real estate people, on stealing more of the sky in Long Island City.
Two years later this sounds a lot like ‘City of Yes,’ don’t it?
“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 #023
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Over in England, yesterday was Guy Fawkes day. I’m writing this on America’s Election Day, not too long after getting back home from voting. Hopefully, things are just swell for the Nation. Everywhere, and for everyone, swell.
Me, I’m recovering from a broken ankle so I’m just swollen.
November 6th’s 2011 post, ‘Remember, Remember, the 6th of November’ is the first time (I think) that I advanced my pet theory that the consolidation of the City of Greater New York in 1894 is the worst thing that ever happened to both Brooklyn and Long Island City, whereas it’s the best thing that ever happened to the Shining City of Manhattan.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve always found points of curiosity abound in things ubiquitous or mundane. How traffic lights work can be revealed at any sixth grade science fair, along with the fundamentals of volcanology, but how do interconnected networks of traffic lights do their thing? How did asphalt come to be, where does our garbage or the sewer water go, why is the 42nd street IRT station always so hot? What’s that smell?
2015’s ‘discoursed of’ explored a favorite amongst these obscure topics – manhole covers (more accurately ‘access covers’) and the insanely detailed historical stories which they can tell.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been consciously staying at a surface level with Pittsburgh, learning ‘broad stroke’ stuff about the City. Unlike NYC, I can’t have an intelligent conversation here about where Blackbeard’s treasure was buried, or why the trolley to Calvary stopped at Penny Bridge rather than connecting to the Queens side of Newtown Creek.
Finally, this 2023 Pittsburgh post, called ‘Getting Around,’ discusses the always riveting reality of a ‘Mitch got a new lens’ photowalk. This time around it was a wide angle 16mm prime.
“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 #022
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another archive post today, which pulls prior postings that were published on this date in their respective years out of backup. I’m still recovering from my broken ankle, but will definitely be voting today. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing ads on TV which aren’t political as of today. This election cycle has been going on forever.
I used to spend a LOT of time walking around the cemeteries of Western Queens, where I’d often notice weird things going on. To wit, 2010’s ‘pounding on the rocks’ offered observations about a ritual site at St. Michael’s cemetery in Astoria on November 5th of that year.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve shot a LOT of press conferences and public events over the years, and have photos of a lot of famous people in my archives. Some are terrifying.
2013’s November 5th ‘olden king’ post talks a bit about the exit of Michael Bloomberg from City Hall, and foreshadows my (100% correct) intuitions about the incoming administration of Bill De Blasio. I hadn’t yet coined the term ‘Dope from Park Slope’ when this post was published. I was stoked when that somehow went mainstream and Curtis Sliwa ran with it during his Mayoral campaign (which I had nothing to do with, btw).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I hate people. Thereby, I prefer taking photos of large machines doing things, as large machines generally don’t promulgate political theories which have no basis in observable reality.
In 2021, a post about Pittsburgh was published on this date – dubbed ‘luckily attainable’ – which laid out a particular ‘place’ that my psychology had gone in the months following the end of COVID.
“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 #021
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The situation continues to improve here at HQ, after the surgeon who restored my broken ankle removed the hard cast and replaced it with a walking boot/brace. I’ve still got a lot of pain occurring from the aftereffects of the surgery, which is more of a dermatological problem rather than an orthopedic one, but there we are. At any rate, another archives post greets you today, with all posts having originally been published on this date in their respective years.
2012’s offering on the 4th of November was ‘Sinister Swamp,’ which continued the post Hurricane Sandy survey of Newtown Creek which I was conducting with Hank the Elevator Guy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been asked, multiple times, over the years about the odd titles I’d assign to these posts. Literally, I had a book of Lovecraft short stories on my desk and I’d just flip it open. Whatever two word phrase my eyes randomly landed on would become the title of that days post. If you know what Lovecraft named his cat, you’ll understand why I had to be a bit more careful in title selection than just randomly grabbing lingo from the old boy. There’s a vast amount of ugly embedded in Lovecraft’s writing.
2015’s ‘abetted by’ discussed a few things observed during a Working Harbor Committee excursion, and laid out what the difference between a ship and a boat is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m managing to get up and down the very stairs which felled me, drive the car for short intervals, and do basic tasks like making a sandwich. This walking boot is a ‘get out of jail’ card. I’ll be able to vote tomorrow, which I’m very much looking forward to. Nice thing about living in a swing state is that your vote actually matters.
2020’s ‘stolen fearfully’ showed part of a night time pandemic walk which I undertook in Astoria. Man, I miss those deserted streets.
“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 