The Newtown Pentacle

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There has been a single post about a visit to Polish Hill during the interval that I’ve dwelt within Pittsburgh, which can be accessed here.

Despite my vow in that post to get inside of and photograph the Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church, I have not done so yet. Ready your darts for hurling, as I have not done what I said I would do.

For those of you who don’t know me in real life, you should know that the mantra of ‘do what you say, say what you do’ is one of my core mottos.

I’ll get it going eventually… that ‘Sacred Spaces’ project of mine is likely going to kick into gear as we slide into winter, I think. Churches require a bit of social networking to get access to. I’ve been busy with suffering from the ankle dealie, so haven’t been social at all.

God’s lonely man, that’s me at the moment.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Leaving Bigelow Boulevard for the local street grid on Polish Hill, one soon found himself walking down a steeply graded street.

My routes are still being cherry picked for down hill slopes. This is part of the recovery process from the busted ankle, as these steep slopes allow me to specifically ‘stretch and strengthen’ the muscle groups which atrophied during the ‘sit around and wait’ part of this experience.

See that… an existential crisis has now transmogrified in my mind to being ‘an experience.’ It’s now just ‘something that happened to me,’ but saying that, I’m not going to print up t-shirts and start a nonprofit to advocate for ‘ankle safe spaces.’ Nor will I deride people who aren’t ‘ankle aware.’

Man oh man, do I hate the way that the future has turned out.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Our living future is just so pedantic, and seems to mirror the plot line of the movie ‘Robocop 3.’ Are there moving sidewalks? Only in airports. Jet packs? Nope. Space bases? Pfah.

We did get cryptofascism, pocket computers, government surveillance, and all that though… Bah!

That’s the Immaculate Heart of Mary RC Church pictured above.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Another set of City Steps were encountered, but I was still pretty determined not to stray from my course.

Famously, I like to plot out my paths using Google Maps in advance of a walk. There’s lots of dead end streets and cul de sac neighborhoods here in Pittsburgh, and coupled with the steepness of the streets… you don’t necessarily want to find yourself having to walk back out of a dead end street that’s set into a twenty degree grade.

I don’t use the Google app ‘in the field’ all that much, I just like to plan out a route which gets resolved while I’m walking it.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s an abandoned catholic school alongside the church, and those city steps, above. Clearly, if any building is going to be haunted, it’s this one.

I’ve read that the RC Church here in Pittsburgh is anxious to disburse itself of real estate holdings left over from when the City’s population was double or triple its current size, during the era of steel.

There’s actual church buildings and all sorts of scholastic and medical buildings available. One of the stop gaps for the real estate people, surrounding these properties, is that the RC church wants top dollar for the real estate and they insist on ‘covenants’ governing what can be done with some parts of the land once it changes hands. You’ve also got ‘historic district’ limitations on a lot of their stock, so… it’s complicated.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Seriously: haunted looking, ain’t it?

One continued on with kicking the dirt, and following his downhill spiral.

Back tomorrow.

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