The Newtown Pentacle

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Summing up what ended up being a solid month’s worth of posts describing a four day trip, at the start of June, wherein your humble narrator returned back to ‘the old neighborhood’ in New York City – so, today’s post seeks to gather it all together in one place.

Links to the published posts of this series will be offered inline below. You may have seen some of the embedded shots in today’s post before, although I did attempt to not repeat.

Long story short: flew out from Pittsburgh on an early morning flight, hung out with my Pal Val on the harbor and then headed upstate.

Returned from upstate on Day 2, went to Long Island City and Newtown Creek and eventually Woodside and Middle Village.

Back to the creek for Day 3, and after riding the L to Canarsie, dinner at a kosher deli with my cousins and then back to Middle Village.

Day 4 was LIC again, and a walk over the Queensboro Bridge before riding the 7, and visiting ‘hole reliable’ at Sunnyside Yards and then heading over to LaGuardia Airport, and then back to Pittsburgh.

Whirlwind!

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I didn’t get a window seat on the plane to NYC, or on the one back to Pittsburgh, which was disappointing. Managed to get Newtown Creek in the bottom right of the shot above, but it’s blurry and weird looking due to the distortion of shooting through the plastic window at an angle.

Next time around, have to ensure that I’m at a window. If there is a next time, that is. I’ve never seen the Pacific Ocean, visited the Alamo, gone to Yellowstone… there’s other stuff, too, that I’d like to take a picture of.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Day one in NYC produced a lot of photos, as is always the case when I’m out on the waters of New York Harbor with the camera.

Chronicles of June 3rd’s adventures started with ‘Homeboy,’ followed by ‘Puddle People,’ ‘Working the Harbor,’ ‘Surf and Turf,’ and ‘Next stop, Willoughby.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

June 4th saw NYC’s climate go sultry hot, and your humble narrator suffered through the heat while pushing himself forward. Plenty of time to sleep when I’m dead, I always say.

June 4th also saw me returning to the ‘zone’ from upstate NY via Metro North in ‘Omphalos,’ returning to LIC and Newtown Creek in ‘Like every other bit of wind blown trash,’ plunging toward Blissville in ‘DUPBO 2025,’ heading towards the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge in ‘DUGABO awaits,’ and visiting the Borden Avenue street end along Dutch Kills in ‘DULIE 2025.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

June 5th, from a climatological point of view, was a difficult day to wake up in NYC. Hot, humid, swamp ass weather. Doesn’t matter, a humble narrator is fairly able to ignore and overcome environmental hazards, especially so at Newtown Creek. Lots of practice.

‘Estate Reality, Dutch Kills,’ ‘Old Friends,’ ‘DUGSBO and the plank road gooses,’ ‘The happy place,’ and ‘First DUKBO’ explore a longish walk that started at the Grand Street Bridge, then proceeded over the Kosciuszcko Bridge on my way to Newtown Creek Alliance HQ in Greenpoint.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

‘DUKBO 2 DUGABO,’ and ‘DUGABO 2 Canarsie’ finished out the cavalcade of horror and fear that I had seen and experienced on the 5th of June in NYC. My cousin drove me back to Middle Village, and the home of Hank the Elevator Guy, where I’d be staying the night.

My plan of ditching worn clothing into the trash along the way paid off mightily by this point, and after bidding my buddy Hank ‘adieu’ and offering my thanks for his hospitality, I set out on my way with just the camera bag to manage.

On the 6th, experiences and photos for ‘And on the fourth day,’ ‘Queensboro Pedestrian Path,’ and ‘Queens Plaza to Sunnyside Yards & LGA’ were gathered.

This was a heck of a trip, back to the old neighborhood.

Tomorrow – the Paris of Appalachia – at this, your Newtown Pentacle.

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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.