Author Archive
Operation Achpamsin
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yeah, it was kind of a mistake going out on a day like this one. Middle to low 20’s in temperature, kind of wet, and quite windy. Days and days of accumulation of ice and snow were everywhere. No bueno.
Thinking to myself that Moe the Dog was probably wondering where I was right now, your humble narrator decided to cut off half of what he planned to do this day and begin the journey back to HQ in Dormont.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First step was getting to the Monongahela River, and then crossing it.
Easy peasy, that. Just a matter of carefully crossing a few high volume streets, but soon I found myself at the Smithfield Street Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After walking over the river, and resigning myself to the fact that it was Sunday and that means that I’d be waiting a very long time for a CSX train to pass through on the tracks found beneath the bridge, I headed over to the light rail station and boarded a train set heading back towards HQ.
All told, this abortive effort ended up being about five miles worth of walking. Worth doing from an exercise POV, of course, but one yearned to wander aimlessly and ‘see some stuff.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T dropped me off in Dormont. I had cooked a big meal the night before and had lots of leftovers sitting in the fridge, so no worries on the evening repast.
The various camera straps were adjusted into a comfortable situation and then I headed down the hill.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A bit of signage was observed, blocking the sidewalk while cautioning against something happening soon in a cryptic manner. Me? I was vouchsafing my gamey ankle while walking through all that ice where this thing was blocking the sidewalk. Sheesh.
So far, so good.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the block in Dormont which HQ is found on the far corner of.
The hill doesn’t look as challenging or steep as it actually is in this shot, but there’s about five to six building stories worth of differential in just a thousand or so feet from one corner to the next. Usually when walking up the hill, midway, I take a minute to let my heart rate slow down.
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.
Operation Tahalna
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A brief aperture, in a seemingly constant barrage of winter weather that had been battering Pittsburgh occurred, and your humble narrator soon found himself at the local ‘T’ light rail station awaiting his ride. The weather window would be closing within a few hours, so it would be a short scuttle for me on this particular day. Stretching the legs, as it were.
Traveling light with a minimum photo ‘kit’ in the bag, one was nevertheless swaddled in insulating clothes to combat the atmospheric temperatures. I’ve described the minimum kit bag in the past, but – two prime lenses and a few ‘odds and bobs’ of essential gear.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T was ridden to Pittsburgh’s north shore, where I discovered that the legions were beginning to assemble for a football game that night.
Realization that I had wandered into exactly the sort of setting I don’t want to be in – where the human infestation would soon be swarming – my plans for the afternoon began to alter.
Also, a considerable amount of ice and snow was present on the pavements, even in those areas which receive dedicated maintenance. Did not want to find out what things looked like in spots where nobody is taking care of the sidewalks.
Orthopedic incident… it still occupies a big part of my brain, a fevered tenancy wherein no rent is paid.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Acrisure Stadium, where the action would be happening later on.
I understand that the Steelers won that night, but I didn’t see anyone sacrificing a bull or anything – this time. My amended plan for the day, thereby, would be to loop around the stadium and get back on the T light rail, which I’d ride over to a different section of the City which would hopefully be a bit less populated.
In the ‘inner ring’ of Pittsburgh, the light rail runs in a ‘free zone.’ Hop on, hop off, it’s cool.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Allegheny River has been pushing out ice flows for a few weeks now.
The river’s source is far to the north, nearby PA.’s border with New York State. Kinzua, I’m told.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Made it back to the T’s terminal stop, and boarded a train set heading towards the South. Chatted with some Canadian guy from Quebec who was a tourist, and he was in town for the football game. Recommended a place to eat and grab a drink to him, near his hotel, and then one debarked at the ‘Steel Plaza Station,’ under the U.S. Steel Building, in the downtown section.
Back on the streets, where I belong.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I noticed that the sculptures in this park were sporting some sort of plastic or vinyl protective covers. Interesting, that. It was getting colder with every step, I should mention, and the thermometer had been at 24 degrees when I left HQ.
Regardless, I’ve got to keep moving or I’ll stop moving.
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.
Hey now!, and a boat
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A triplet post for this final installment of a fairly long scuttle that began on Troy Hill, crossed the Allegheny River and then proceeded through Pittsburgh’s Downtown to the Monongahela River and then finally over to the South Side Flats section. At this final destination, the CSX Pittsburgh subdivision’s locomotive traffic flows along their right of way, often offering a wandering photographer the opportunity to say his favorite thing:
HEY NOW!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Presumptively, those rail cars are filled with either coke or coal, but since I don’t know for sure – let’s just call it minerals. This sort of specificity has gotten me in trouble with the sort of people who see everything through a political filter. ‘Freaking liberal pansy boy,’ call it coal. Well, in response, I don’t know – for a fact – what it is. Looks like, smells like, but ‘fact’? Can’t swear on a Bible about something? Then you should speak in general terms about it. That’s the mantra.
The locomotive was heading ‘towards Ohio,’ which is something I can actually say categorically.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Out on the water, a Towboat was negotiating itself against the river currents. I watched it for a bit, but it didn’t seem to be docking so I headed back out to the streets. A rideshare chariot was summoned and soon I was back at HQ and fending off the attentions of Moe the Dog.
Back next week 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.
Who’s a big boy?
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thump, thump, thump… my walking gait has improved significantly since the orthopedic incident, and one can scuttle normally again. Managed to not drag the affected limb about in recent efforts, and on this walk in particular (the longest one I’ve pulled off since the event) the ankle was playing ball and not troubling me overly.
Saying all that, I had to go into ‘junkie avoidance’ mode while scuttling this section of downtown Pittsburgh, as some ‘creature of the streets’ had noticed the camera and was conspicuously following me.
Crooks in Pittsburgh are blatant, and obvious.
It ain’t like Brooklyn, where you’re walking along peaceful and calm and then ‘blammo,’ and you wake up buck naked in a hospital with a cracked skull and there’s a cop there asking what your name is. Brooklyn street crooks would have already set up new credit card accounts using your stolen ID, even before the FDNY collected you off the sidewalk.
The crooks out here are mainly looking for something – anything – of value they can exchange for drug money.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve chatted with some of the street people here, whom I’d describe as being like ‘sick dogs.’ Suffering, hungry, cold, bereft of affection – they’re surface sympathetic characters all – but will randomly bite you if you let your guard down. Substance abuse is a toxic combination of two of the seven deadlies, specifically gluttony and sloth. It’s often hard to feel compassion towards a drunk, but there we are.
I went into my evasion mode. Walking a bit faster, erratic heel spins to signal that I knew he was following me. A couple of hard stares in his direction. Sick dogs back off, they don’t want prey that might fight back as it’s not worth the calories. The fellow broke off his pursuits, and disappeared into the grid.
Probably went looking for an old lady to push over, instead of this old man.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A peculiar street treatment involves a former department store location downtown, where the sidewalk proceeds through a tunnel. There’s a street here as well, and the entrance to the former department store’s parking lots. The street is an ‘alley,’ and it’s called Cherry Way.
The department store above me was the founding location of the Kaufmann’s empire. As an interesting aside, the scion of the Kaufmann family in the 1920’s – Edgar G. Kaufmann – commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to design his offices, and also commissioned the architect to design a ‘country home’ for him.
That home would end up being Falling Water.
Who knew?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One continued along his lonely path. The next passage I was worrying about getting to was a bridge over the Monongahela River, which would carry me into some overly familiar areas on the southern bank.
This began the last third of my outing, and since I was interested in getting a few shots in of some trains…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Smithfield Street Bridge was crossed, and the overly bright sunlight situation began to abate as the orb began transiting behind Mount Washington, or more accurately Mount Washington got rotated into opposition to the thing.
Really have to avoid ‘solar maximum,’ timing wise, in the future.
My destination was the usual one, nearby that brewery along the train tracks which I often shoot from. Wasn’t going to be a ‘have a beer day,’ unfortunately, as I had things to do later in the evening and their progress wouldn’t have been helped by such inebriants.
As an aside, I write all of these posts on my iPad. Thereby, IOS spellcheck asserts itself often, and sometimes I’ll have to rewrite an entire sentence after I type the period due to rippling sentence wide changes it automatically makes. I’m often frustrated and sometimes amused by these changes, although it’s become a real chore to find all of them before hitting ‘schedule post.’
IOS spellcheck’s contribution of the day involves that word at the end of that last paragraph – ‘inebriants’ – which it turned into ‘I diss ants.’
Gotta love that. Just gotta.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the other side of the river, a polychrome assortment of Porta-Johns were spotted. I like to think that these are all Tardis’s and that a Time Lord Convention was under way in Pittsburgh.
Back tomorrow with some ‘Hey Now’ and a Choo-choo.
“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.
Dark by design
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mid scuttle begins today’s post, between my starting point up on Troy Hill and what could be called a middle point here on the 16th street bridge.
As mentioned previously, this was the first set of clear skies that Pittsburgh had offered in a couple of weeks, and the cloudless situation was causing no end of trouble for the camera, regarding the unoccluded burning thermonuclear eye of god itself bobbing about in the sky.
All caught up.
Look at me, complaining about the sun after I decided to walk south west while facing into it in the middle of a clear afternoon. Schmuck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thing is, I really like inclement lighting conditions as they’re so difficult to capture. Strobing, hot spots, deep contrast – difficult. Nepenthe.
For the last couple of weeks, I’ve been carrying a ‘bare minimum’ kit in my camera bag. Haven’t been able to handle the thought of dragging the big knap sack around, so it’s been a sling bag with two prime lenses and a few necessities like extra batteries. The big 24-240mm zoom lens is installed on the camera for this sort of duty.
I like an ‘all in one’ for photowalks.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Exiting the 16th street bridge, discovery of where all of Pittsburgh’s pigeons like to hang out occurred. A gigantic flock of the rock doves were involved in a panicked murmuration, sparked off by the passing of a semi truck on the streets below.
This section of my scuttle was little more than an inconvenience, passing through the Downtown section, as I didn’t have anything to shoot in this zone which would draw me here or there.
The goal was to just push through the warren of ‘Dahntahn’ streets as quickly as possible, and emerge onto the Monongahela River’s shoreline to continue with my peregrinations in search of interesting things to point the lens at.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a whole generation of urban planners from the 1960’s and 70’s whom I hope went straight to hell when they died. Shadowing the streets with massive bridges and buildings, eliminating any possibility of organic growth in pursuance of… ‘traffic flow’… bah! They do a lot better these days, but… hell… they rammed this monstrous thing right through middle of their downtown back in the 1980’s to complete an idea that Robert Moses gave them back during the Great Depression.
Pittsburgh didn’t have a Jane Jacobs to lead the charge, I guess.
One of the things that’s just maddening about ‘Dahntahn’ is that the office buildings were built without setbacks on the upper stories, creating monolithic shapes that form forever shadows on the streets below.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not exactly an inviting pedestrian experience, downtown, nor one that draws me into it with the idea of spending some cash. The big draws in the particular direction pictured above are a series of high end and middle of the road hotels. A few blocks away from that there are dying shops, bars, restaurants which suffer from a lack of foot traffic. The owners of the buildings blame all on a hangover from Covid, work from home policies, and everything else they can think of.
It’s their high rents, in an area that’s not exactly ‘salubrious.’ Think Downtown Brooklyn’s Flatbush Avenue Corridor in the late 1980’s for what I mean by that.
Also, the downtown area is a bit ‘crimey.’ Literally the only place in Pittsburgh where I’m looking over my shoulder, and doing those little NYC style heel spins on the regular to see if anyone’s following me. A few times, somebody was – in fact – following me. Junkies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lighting. Lighting fixes a lot of a City’s problems. In areas of persistent shadow, like the ‘way’ alley pictured above, a 24/7 street lamp will solve whatever it is you’re worrying about. The trick with modernity is that junkies have cell phones, and I’ve developed a perception about this. You walk past one group of junkies and one of them starts texting. Guy coming has got a camera, that’s probably what the text says. By the next corner there’s somebody already waiting, and watching. Networked junkies.
Now, yeah – I’m a bit paranoid. Saying that, I also lived in NYC for half a century and I can literally sense ‘it’ coming, almost in the manner of extra sensory perception or ‘ESP.’ I can ‘feel it’ when I’m being watched by the creatures of the street. There was some character who was following me for a spell while I was shooting these, as a note. I did the ‘stand and stare’ move, which this fellow found disconcerting and he broke off.
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.
The Newtown Pentacle 