The Newtown Pentacle

The steely resolve of nature in darkest Brooklyn – photo by Mitch Waxman

A state of satisfied exuberance hangs about the age scarred countenance of your humble narrator. The company of lettered scholars and antiquarian esthetes, combined with the unique cultural milieu called Astoria and the machinations of the larger metropolis beyond, has occupied my nervous attentions.

The Forgotten-NY tour of Ridgewood was cheerfully narrated by Kevin Walsh himself, and that font of metropolitan lore managed to keep the large group’s mood bright, despite the appearance of sometimes heavy rains. Of course, this weekend was the last phase of the “Blood Moon“- a period of latent energy and transition in occult terminology- whose autumnal occurrence coincides with the atmospheric unpredictability customarily experienced along the Atlantic coast during equinox. After the tour, a few of us stalwart Astorians walked home- picking our way through the heavy industry and railheads surrounding the Newtown Creek.

Later that night while walking- I discovered one of my neighbors- an affable hibernian barkeep who suffers from a disorder of the nerves affecting his legs- had collapsed a few doors away from his house. A pair of good hearted urchins had come upon him and assisted him to the stoop, but two young boys cannot lift a 200 pound man, and both myself and another of the neighbors were enlisted to assist the afflicted saloonkeeper to his quarters. We struggled and managed to get him to the third floor apartment, up the narrow stairs of the Matthews Model Flat in which he dwells. I then continued on the walk, which was originally dedicated to the happiness of my little dog, Pazuzu, and proceeded home. I then slept for exactly 4 hours.

Pazuzu the dog – photo by Mitch Waxman

Upon waking, Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself stumbled into the dawn and went to serve as Manhattan Bridge Parade Marshalls. She later went to a dog birthday party in Long Island City, and I went to a fireworks show (alongside the Williamsburg Bridge) which celebrated the Manhattan Bridge…

More on all this in later post- which will return to our accustomed pace and format shortly- after I run through and process the astounding amount of photos I’ve taken in the last month.

Haven’t disappeared or anything, folks, the next batch of photos is in development right now. I’ll be back with a new post within the next day. -Mitch

I have climbed over, crawled under, floated through and scuttled across a lot of New York City during the last few months. A keen awareness that everything is about to change has driven me to focus on what was, where it happened, who did what and when, and offered conjecture as to why. My search for understanding has taken me far afield, sometimes, I take photos of the people I see as I’m ambling about.

5 Alarm Fire in Astoria – photo by Mitch Waxman

I don’t know any of these folks, they just caught my eye when I was wandering around. I try not to take pictures of people I don’t know, as I think its kind of rude, and because my camera has a really shallow zoom. However, I do it sometimes and seldom show them, as my best shots are always of the metroscape.

from Park avenue at 19th street – photo by Mitch Waxman

I’m somewhat shy about this sort of street photography business. All of them are shot in “public”, by the way. If you or someone you know is in the shot, and don’t want it displayed for any reason, contact me.

Astoria Family – photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s no editorial meaning ascribed to them, and a few are taken as far away from the Newtown Pentacle as you can get. They’re just shots I like, and periodically I’m going to just post a few here. Check em out.

Astoria Couple – photo by Mitch Waxman