Archive for October 2025
Flats scuttle
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After worrying about hidden subterranean tunnels housing armies of atavist cannibals, Day Walking Vampires, and all the other usual stuff I think about while walking down the Sterling Street Steps here in Pittsburgh, your humble narrator had arrived in the South Side Flats neighborhood.
The end goal at this point involved grabbing a beer at a favorite spot, and waiting around with the hope of photographing a few trains.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the PJ McArdle Roadway, which I’ve mentioned (and walked down) several times. There’s a sizable homeless colony which exists below it, along the Norfolk Southern trackage. A recent Mayoral election here in Pittsburgh, and a concurrent ‘cleanup’ order issued by the incumbent, saw several of the large encampments in this very public area disassembled by Police and Sanitation departments. ‘Squeezing the zit,’ as it were. The incumbent lost anyway.
If a Vampire feeds on heroin or opiate enthusiasts, can they catch an addiction sympathetically? Do drugs work on the armies of the night?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yeah, I made a couple of turns I shouldn’t have while walking, and had to consult Google Maps when I went the wrong way. Signage told me that I had.
You have to figure that Vampires are absolute reservoirs for all sorts of blood based diseases. Hep C comes to mind. I’d also imagine that the Nosferatu must have food prejudices and preferences. ‘I only feed off Vegans’ or ‘Nope, he’s been eating Cod.’ Maybe ‘I’m in the mood for a nice juicy Christian’ or ‘I feel like Chinese tonight.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, I’ve established that you can’t trust the ground, or any people that you might meet as they might be Day-Vampires. What about the air itself? Think there’s miasmas or floating jellies up there in the vault, just waiting for a chance to eat you up? Can you rule that one out? Everything is possible, now, after all.
I’ve advised against swimming in the ocean my entire life. The seas are giant open stomachs and everything in there wants to digest you.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nowhere is safe, everything and everyone is a threat. If not to your person, than to your sense of reality and self. Best thing to do, thereby, is barricade yourself up within a personal castle and hide away with your guns and your god. It’s only going to get worse, chaos rules.
Really… I cannot tell you how many people tell me stuff like that these days. The world is the world and always has been, bad things abound, but something like 5,000 puppies are being born every minute of the day, globally speaking. Get a grip, people’s.
Sure, there’s Vampires. Why not act like a Van Helsing then? It would be hard to explain to a judge, I admit, burning down Carfax Abbey.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, I arrived in the ‘zone’ which I had been ultimately been walking to for a couple of hours, nearby the ‘Colors Park’ and the brewery where I planned on spending the next hour of my life photographing trains.
Something to do.
More on that 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.
Back to level ground
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator was highly satiated and satisfied by scuttling the spectacular Sterling Street Steps in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes section, as described in prior posts. The subsequence of this walk played out on the way downhill, and then into the South Side Flats area. I was already thinking about photographing trains.
Saying that, what a fascinating place this neighborhood must be to live. Challenging, though.
What if you drop an apple or orange on your way back from shopping?
The tumbling cultivar might build up enough momentum, rolling down that hill, to achieve ballistic speeds. You wouldn’t expect that, an orange moving faster than the speed of sound smacking into you. That’s ‘how they get ya.’
Also, as you’ll recall from a few posts ago, I’m quite concerned about the idea of Diurnal Vampires – Day Walkers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just like back in NYC’s Queens, all those centuried waves of immigration to Pittsburgh have also allowed egress for hordes of parasitic ghouls, devils, and all the horrors that bedeviled these populations in the old world who followed their victims overseas. These entities have long set up shop here in the Republic.
Vampires are just part of the ‘evil equation,’ and luckily they’re pretty rare. You can’t have too many human hunters in one area, even in NYC, for the same reason that Tigers are solitary and have to maintain huge hunting ranges. A wolf, for instance, needs to consume 5-7 pounds of meat a day. Too many predator vampires, not enough blood. Basic economics suggest thereby that the price of keeping a human alive prior to exsanguination becomes expensive, and inflated. Best to spread out.
There’s persistent local legend here in Western PA., about ‘hill people’ who secretly inhabit the larger Appalachian region – as in they’re cannibalistic ‘people’ who live inside, and under, the hills who grab and carry away kids and hikers from the woods. It doesn’t get talked about.
Actually, Lore Lodge recently did discuss it extensively.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wittering and worrying about the armies of the night on a brightly lit afternoon just speaks so much about my psychology… I can find a ray of darkness in any point of light…
This part of Pittsburgh was extensively mined in the 18th and 19th century. Mount Washington, which is the landform that these steps are set into, used to be called ‘Coal Hill.’
Coal mines that were abandoned, even the ones which the State environmental people know about, are a real problem in these parts.
About a year ago, some poor woman and her dog were swallowed up by a sink hole that spontaneously subsided in their back yard. That hole dropped them down about 40 feet into an old coal mine which nobody knew about. The lady died, but the dog was rescued by Fire Dept. personnel. Concrete was poured into the mine’s void and the ground restored.
It seems that you didn’t need to file a building plan with the local Government, back to the 1830’s and most of the way to the 20th century, when you wanted to start digging into the verge in search of fortune. Lots and lots of small scale mining activity happened below the surface, and no records were left behind of the subterrene corridors, columns, and chambers which were carved out and then abandoned.
Pennsylvania has maps of the abandoned mines which are known to exist, but every Academic and Authority bemoans that it’s incomplete.
Beyond these abandoned voids allowing a place for the ‘Hill People’ and other legends to congregate and lurk in fuligin darkness, abandoned mines also produce acid runoff and other environmental hazards. Good news is that Pennsylvania leads the nation in terms of mushroom harvest.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A rickety steel bridge at Mission Street, overflying a park and also neighboring a municipal water pumping facility, marked my turn off from the Sterling Street Steps and corridor. From this point out, it was all fairly familiar ground.
The plan from here out was to really lean into my strides and walk as quickly as I could, these days. Flat ground was nearby.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve walked down South 18th street quite a few times. Steeply graded, South 18th’s severely angled pavements have helped me regain the strength in my calves after the broken ankle incident.
South Side Flats isn’t an area where I’ll worry about esoteric things like Ghasts or Day Walkers, instead I’m looking out for the ‘dope sick’ and desperate who might decide to try and take something from me to feed their habits.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Were I younger, and I mean in my early thirties, the South Side Flats would have been where I wanted to settle here in Pittsburgh. A nearby commercial street is full of restaurants, bars, nightlife. Great spot. Lots of junkies, street people, and tons of ‘law and order’ trouble at night, however. Very much reminds me of First Avenue or Avenue A in NYC’s East Village.
I’m old, though, so we moved to the suburbs, and just come down here when a night out is desired.
My toes had already pointed in the direction of the Sly Fox Brewery, where a pint of beer and – hopefully – a bunch of CSX trains would be waiting for me for the price of walking another mile or so.
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.
Styling down Sterling St.
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, I had no idea that an event called ‘Steptrek’ was playing out on the particular day I took this walk, but it was.
I’ve been slowly consuming Laura Zurowski’s ‘City Steps of Pittsburgh’ book, and visiting some of the interesting locations discussed by the author, when ‘fancy’ strikes, or I just need a good downhill sort of workout for my still gamey ankle.
In this case, that how I ended up at the Sterling Street Steps, found in the South Side Slopes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This ‘zone’ is somewhat insane, in terms of building a neighborhood onto terrain this challenging and steep. The City Steps of Pittsburgh allow for pedestrian egress around these hills and valleys. They also provide unbeatable views of the city.
There’s ‘orphan houses’ up here, which are only connected to the outside world via the City Steps. No other street access.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking down at the entrance/top of the Sterling Street Steps, and in the distance is the Birmingham Bridge, over the Monongahela River. On the other side of the river, that’s the neighborhood of ‘Uptown’ squatting on ‘The Bluff.’ Beyond, it’s the ‘Hill District’ for that tree line, and towards the right is Oakland, where the colleges are. It’s all very exciting, really.
It was a perfect day, weather wise, in Pittsburgh. Temperatures in the middle/high 60’s and low humidity. The sky was milky, but clear.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As far as the event I’d inadvertently wandered into, there were lots and lots of people with printed out maps who were wearing athletic clothing and participating in ‘StepTrek.’
Chatted with one bloke from the promotion for a few minutes, on these steps, imparting him with every bit of encouragement I could to dare walking Rialto Street and then trying out the St. Nicholas Church trail. I advised him about how horrific the latter experience is, but opined that you really have to just scratch that one off your list.
Hey, check me out, I actually know something about Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Longtime readers will tell you that I’ve been assiduously working my way around, over, down, and through Pittsburgh’s many corridors since getting the ‘all clear’ from the Orthopedic people in late Spring. At first, my post broken ankle movements were truncated, pained, and difficult. Penguin walking, as I described it.
Throughout the summer and early autumn, gradual improvements in stride and pace have occurred as I’ve fought to build my strength back up.
Nobody is chanting ‘playah’ when I scuttle past, but there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
No matter what happens to you, you need to keep moving.
An unstoppable person is an irresistible force. Get out into the world and see it with your own eyes. Don’t believe half of what you read or any of what you hear until you’ve witnessed it for yourself. All is false and phoney. The only truth out there is what can be seen and touched and smelled. And photographed, of course.
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.
Overlook! Now, more than ever!
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, I was kicking dirt at the West End Elliot Overlook park while waiting for Our Lady of the Pentacle to return home from a trip abroad. Passing time until the summons to pick her up at the airport, one set up the camera and the tripod, and I was soon perpetrating some low light photography – something which hasn’t been practiced in a while.
I still had my ‘daylight Zoom lens’ on the camera, even though conditions didn’t favor it. A bit of motion blur began to manifest, but there you are.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There was plenty of stuff to keep me busy while Our Lady was traveling. Primarily, care and attention for Moe the Dog, but I was also developing a few hundred photos and doing several other digital tasks in the home office which I have set up in the basement of HQ. Beyond that, the necessities of life were obliged – the cooking and cleaning, life stuff.
This evening was my first release from the domestic and canine maintenance schedule in about a week, and it felt great to be outside shooting. It was made sweeter by the imminent return of Our Lady to Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Eventually, I switched out the daylight zoom lens for a lowlight 85mm f2 prime, a device which is a much more apt tool for the job.
The wider aperture also allows for faster shutter speeds, which eliminates most of the motion blur.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m planning out a winter time project which will all be ‘night stuff,’ as it’s a lot easier to pull off during the winter months due to the intransigence of the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself’s presence in the celestial vault during the winter season. Doesn’t get light out until relatively late in the mornings, and it’s getting dark by 5-6 p.m. Add in some rain, and you’ve got noir dripping all over the joint.
On it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My time here was growing short, and it wouldn’t be long before the text arrived from Our Lady that her plane had landed. It would be about a twenty or so minute drive to get to the airport, and then an indeterminate period defined by however long it took her to get through customs. Luckily, this ain’t JFK, so she was out toot sweet.
There are just so many things which I don’t miss about NYC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The last shot gathered was of a vessel in the Gateway Clipper’s tourist boat fleet, which features a massive catering hall – built onto a barge – that’s permanently attached to an old tugboat.
The text message finally chimed in, and then I hurtled through the darkness to the airport to retrieve Our Lady. Moe the Dog was absolutely apoplectic when his favorite person returned home. Me too.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
Kicking dirt at West End Elliot Overlook
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After an interminable interval, Our Lady of the Pentacle had finally boarded a flight, from the UK, and was on her way back home via the Pittsburgh International AirPort.
Me? I had time to kill while anxiously waiting to pick her up from that facility, and had positioned myself in a photogenic spot to pass the time until that joyous moment when a text arrived saying ‘I’ve landed.’
I picked the West End Elliot Overlook Park to go kick dirt, partially because it’s about a five minute drive to a highway onramp which would then send me hurtling in the direction of Our Lady in the automobile.
About a 25 minute drive at this time of day, more or less, from this spot to the airport. Perfect.
The tripod was set up, my lens cleaned of dust, and I got busy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This little outing of mine occurred just before sunset, and the Overlook is a great place to shoot ‘urban landscape’ for both sunrise and sunset. A city park, there’s a parking lot with a port-a-potty installed in it, and there’s always some people there. Some picnic people were observed, a few pot smokers, others sipping hooch from a bottle hidden in a paper bag. Lots of dog walkers, too. Nice quiet and cool spot, this.
There was maritime traffic down on the ‘Mon,’ with a Towboat towing an enormous raft of what looked like twenty empty barges under the Fort Pitt Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Ronald D. Koontz Towboat. Marinetraffic.com offers this page about the vessel, which hides what you’d like to see behind a paywall that renders the formerly great functionality of their site moot. Cory Doctorow has coined the term ‘enshittification’ to describe what’s going on with the internet these days, and I’m in agreement.
The future has turned out to really suck, hasn’t it?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself’s emanations faded, I was keeping myself busy. Panoramas, long exposures, the whole quiver.
If you’d like to see a full sized version of the panorama image above, click here for its Flickr page and zoom in. Go to town. Carnival!
The two bridges in the shot are the Fort Duquesne Bridge over the Allegheny River on the left, and the Fort Pitt Bridge over the Monongahela River on the right.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I kept checking my phone for the anxiously awaited text that Our Lady had landed at the airport. In the meantime, I kept shooting.
It’s been a long time since I did any ‘night stuff.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s West End Bridge over the Ohio River, which is frequently mentioned here. I’ll often walk over that span on one of my scuttles, after taking the T light Rail to Pittsburgh’s North Side from HQ.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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 