Archive for February 20th, 2025
Archives post #051
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As threatened, today brings you an ‘archives’ post, as a continuing spate of winter weather has absolutely grounded all of my ambitions and I’ve got nothing new to present today.
On February 20th in 2014, a similar climatological situation saw me offering a post on a few of my favorite NYC bridges. Check out ‘approaching triumph’ if you’re interested in such matters.
As established during the hermitage which saw me recovering from the busted ankle, the conceit underlying exactly which posts I’m pulling out of backup for a second look is entirely calendrical in nature. Everything presented as a part of these archives posts were published on this date, in their respective years, sometime between 2009 and 2025.
Yes, I’ve been doing this blog for a pretty long time now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On this date in 2018, ‘scarcely be’ described the scene, as observed in the dead of night, at the fabulous Newtown Creek’s Grand Street Bridge where the currently undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens can be both experienced and surmounted. Miss those nights, wandering around the concrete devastations all by myself. This was when I still was using headphones when scuttling about, a habit I had to drop during COVID when things starting getting weird out there.
There were just a few times that I thought I was in trouble during that interval, and I either got lucky or the other guy decided that it wasn’t worth the trouble to jump me. There was one interaction with a creature of the streets that was extremely disturbing, one I’ve mentioned only to a few close friends and my old bartender in Astoria. Weird shit, yo.
Don’t ask, won’t talk about it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In 2020, ‘those miniscules’ was published here, which confessed to a bout of trespassing around Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary. The focus for these shots was the DB Cabin rail bridge. What you don’t see in these shots is who I was trespassing with, an elected official who represented this section of LIC whom I was attempting to ‘sell’ the concept of converting the Montauk Cutoff into public space. Didn’t happen, and now the cutoff is basically a homeless camp. Good show, NYC.
Back tomorrow, likely with another archives post. Good news is that the weather is meant to cure up around Pittsburgh over the next week, meaning I get to resume my happiness.
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“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.
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