Archive for the ‘Broadway’ Category
noisome herd
There really is no hope for the future, is there?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor saw a humble narrator headed eastwards towards the ancient hillocks of Maspeth from Astoria, and since time was short, a bit of the old mass transit was called for. My plan involved getting to Elmhurst by train and grabbing a Q53 bus at Queens Blvd. which would carry me up the surprisingly steep slope that 69th street is set into to my eventual destination nearby Borden Avenue and the LIE. Accordingly, one found himself at the estimable Steinway Street stop of the R and M lines.
This particular subway station is one of two I frequent, the other being 46th street. Both are in somewhat deleterious condition, as least as far as the passenger visible areas are concerned, but are fairly serviceable. A bit of steam, bleach, and elbow grease could work wonders for these facilities but… well… the borough motto is… after all… Welcome to Queens, now go fuck yourself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a lot of fingers you can accusingly point at our commonly held municipal employees, particularly the ones who work for the NYCTA division of the MTA. The transit system is the last true home of trade unionist sentiment, and often it seems that if a fire was to break out down in the sweating concrete bunkers that the trains move through, it would be allowed to spread if no representative of “Fire Alarm Pullers Local 103” were present.
Fair enough, I guess, as the Union guys and gals who work down here are battling against the Doctor Doom of faceless bureaucracy on a daily basis. Nobody beats the MTA for what the military would call “fold up fucktard” policies, or at least that’s what I’ve been told by people who work for them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The situation, however, pictured above isn’t the fault of either Union Labor nor Albany Wonk. This one is on us. There’s observably been a growing issue with litter citywide, wherein entire generations of New Yorkers seem to have been able to get all the way from Kindergarden to College without once being exposed to the concept that you shouldn’t just abandon your trash wherever you feel like it. The concept of finding a proper receptacle for trash is alien to most, it would seem.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Never mind the eclectic collection of beverage containers and bits of paper, who tosses a soccer ball into a Subway pit? If a train’s leading edge caught this ball in Astoria…
Seriously, what is wrong with you people, would you do this at home?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not to be a scold, but here’s the way it’s supposed to work:
If you have generated trash during your daily rounds – say, a water bottle or crumpled up piece of foil from a sandwich or something – you are meant to hold on to it until you spot a proper receptacle. Said receptacle is called a “garbage can.” A group of Municpal employees will ostensibly come by at somewhat regular intervals to empty these cans. What you don’t do is a) just drop it, b) throw it onto the Subway tracks.
I swear, what this City needs is a good plague.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
October 3rd, 2015
Calvary Cemetery Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets
joined to
Shots from the 11103, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One seems to have caught the “night shooting” bug again, and my various bits of camera support have been dusted off. The shots above was captured one recent evening during a thunderstorm, and represents a 15 second interval. NYC never looks better than it does during the rain.
Someday, a real rain will come, and wash away the iniquity and corruption which pollutes our community – which is a polite and verbose version of the sort of thing that Robert Deniro’s Travis Bickle character in the Taxi Driver movie might have said. Since officialdom in City Hall seems hell bent on recreating their romantic version of that era, let’s remember what NYC was actually like back then, as it was hardly romantic.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above is what I call “cloud porn.” It’s porn inasmuch as it doesn’t deliver anything other than a puerile thrill and doesn’t say much. It’s an interesting shot for me, technically, from the capture point of view. The evening thunderstorm which was deluging the bodega in the first shot was still building during the afternoon shot above, and controlling the light in order to build the cloud contrast was an interesting exercise.
It’s somewhat representative of my mood at the moment, btw, with all the foreboding and dire portent that our little community here in Astoria has been experiencing in recent months.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Astoria’s Broadway has been under siege by a large group of drunks and vagrants, a group who are composed of base characters that generally represent the worst sort of individual. Inebriated hordes descend upon the neighborhood every day, drunkards and ne’erdowells who seem to be beneath the notice of law enforcement. The municipal response to them is to send in the Fire Department, rather than the Police.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
September 20th, 2015
Glittering Realms Walking Tour
with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for details and tickets
party feeling
Complaint Department, that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above sort of sums up my mood at the moment. Go, stop, or exercise caution? Do all three at the same time? That’s where a humble narrator finds himself at the moment. September is always a bad month for me, it’s generally when people in my life tend to die (just this week, two elderly Aunts shuffled off the Earth).
Perhaps it’s some psychic residual from childhood, as the impending sense of doom which signaled the start of a new school year has never really dissipated despite my advancing age. It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since I’ve had to begin a new scholastic season, of course, but remembrances of social failings and playground beat downs never really go away. Others romanticize their childhood, but all I remember is the crushing ignominies of it, wherein you are denied the most basic of liberties – from the clothes you wore to what and when you would eat. Go, stop, or exercise caution.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Perhaps it’s the remembrance of the Jewish ritual calendar which colors the early part of September for me? Jewish holidays, or at least the holidays as observed in the particular sect of Judaism which my family participated, are fairly somber affairs. Days of Atonement and so on, during which you’d have to wear a suit and tie to temple, despite the stifling heat.
One doesn’t even own a suit as an adult, as I refuse to wear a ritual costume for anyone anymore. It’s stupid, and I try not to do stupid things. Depression is nipping at my heels, and great psychic effort is being expended in the name of remaining outward looking and optimistic, but it is – after all – September.
Go, stop, or exercise caution?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What would Superman do, I remind myself. Never give up, never surrender. Exercise your strength for those who aren’t able to, do no harm, and always – always – strive to do the right thing even if you’re the only one who can perceive what the right thing is.
Unfortunately, Sophistry abounds. The decision to “Go, stop, or exercise caution” is made most often these days based on bias and the politics “of the now” rather than on observable data. Bah!
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
September 13th, 2015
Poison Cauldron Walking Tour
with Newtown Creek Alliance, click here for details and tickets
September 20th, 2015
Glittering Realms Walking Tour
with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for details and tickets
parched and terrible
Hello 114th precinct, it’s me again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Since my last post on this subject, concerning “Los Borrachos” on Astoria’s Broadway, the 114th precinct has definitely been doing “something.” Can’t say exactly what, but the population of these alcoholic mendicants has been visibly reduced from the mid July high of 20-25 down to a late August bakers dozen. The shot above, and several of the ones following it, were gathered at the Times Square of Astoria – 42nd and Broadway – which is the central muster point that these fellows use, just last weekend.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
NYPD continues to inexplicably roll right past these guys, however. What sets me off, incidentally, and what has made these inebriates rise to the top of the list of “things I have to deal with” are reports from the ladies of Astoria as to the comments they are offered while passing by this crowd.
Even passing familiarity with the old “espanol” is enough to piece together sentences and phrases from the lingo which include “chupa” and “mi penga.” Sexual harassment of women walking down the streets by a drunken crowd of vagrants… is that OK?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A Sunday afternoon, and public drinking is not challenged nor noticed by the cops. Everyone else in the neighborhood notices it, as people move to and fro with their children. If you’re curious, that’s Vodka that fellow is drinking.
Gordon’s Vodka to be precise, an assertion of brand loyalty which is based on the empty bottles littering the curbs along Broadway. The Times Square of Astoria indeed, only it seems to the Times Square of the 1980’s around these parts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The effects of the alcohol reduces these fellows to an insensate condition, regularly. For all of you “City Club head up your ass liberal” types who seldom walk the streets of New York – preferring your Uber or Limo for getting around – Progressivism isn’t about permissiveness. This is not something which Eleanor Roosevelt would have reacted to with any sort of empathy. John Lindsay or David Dinkins, on the other hand…
Don’t get me wrong here, I like a good tipple as much as the next guy – more so in fact. It’s the fact that this situation has gotten completely out of hand this summer, and whatever your intellectual notion is of who these guys are is completely fabricated from your own politics. These are bums, drunks, and hobos. We have a decent number of Homeless people here, who are referred to as “The Harmless.” Mostly down on their luck or mentally ill folks, Astoria takes care of its own – whether it’s just a slice of pizza or a bottle of water or a buck slipped into their palm.
The fellows showcased in these posts get off the R train, drink in the neighborhood all day, and then commute back to somewhere else if they can still keep it together enough to do so. If not, they just pass out on the sidewalk.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Often, Astoria’s Broadway looks like a WW1 battlefield, with bodies arrayed haphazardly on the street. The shot above was from a Friday afternoon around 2. All that’s missing is a dead horse in the tree.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A smoke condition down in the Subway drew the FDNY to the Times Square of Astoria last Sunday, whose actions and blaring sirens served to awaken the sleepers from their distillery dreams. Other units of FDNY would undoubtedly be back on the corner later, to scoop up the insensates. NYPD?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Three in the afternoon on a Sunday.
The funny thing about this shot is that a friend of mine who works for the City spent years working on installing these Subway grate covers (intended to keep snow melt and storm water from infiltrating down to the tracks), which were specifically designed with the idea that they would be fairly impossible to sleep on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Notice that white car with the blue stripe just at the edge of the shot above?
Guess which uniformed and highly trained branch of City Government drives white cars with blue stripes. Why, 114th precinct, is this being allowed to continue? Do you really want the civilians in this neighborhood to be the ones to deal with this, as we currently are forced to? A day doesn’t go by when one of us is forced to shoo “Los Borrachos” off their stoop or out of a driveway. Often the only thing which will get them to move on is the threat of calling “La Policia.” The Police, however, seem reluctant to lance this boil.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
September 3rd, 2015
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Open House NY, click here for details and tickets.
September 20th, 2015
Glittering Realms Walking Tour
with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for details and tickets
noisy and numerous
Puzzling are the neighbors.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is a helper parrot named Jiminy. Jiminy is a local celebrity in Astoria, and what he helps with is controlling his owner’s blood sugar. It seems he can sniff out when his Mom’s glucose is low and warn her to drink some juice. “Drinking juice” is why a small crew of my neighbors and friends often collect at the Times Square of Astoria – 42nd and Broadway – which is where you’ll find a pub called Doyle’s. Jiminy likes the fried calamari on the bar menu, btw.
Doyle’s is Newtown Pentacle’s District Office, and you’ll often spot a humble narrator enjoying a pint of beer at this location on summer evenings. You want to keep track of what’s going on in the neighborhood? Best place to start is at the bar, I always say.
Not long after the above shot was captured, Jiminy turned to me and said “Feed the Parrot.” Yes – he talks, follows conversation, and often interjects with surprisingly astute observations. Jiminy mentioned that something was going on across the street which we should pay attention to. When a Parrot points something out, you should listen.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This couple was carefully measuring the distance between a fire hydrant and a parked car. The lady seemed annoyed at participating in the operation, but the fellow seemed to be on some sort of mission. Over the course of around twenty minutes, they measured and remeasured the interval between street furniture and automobile, then disappeared into one of the two story private homes which line 42nd street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Shortly, the fellow reappeared, after having donned a business suit. He began to recalculate the distance again. The lady didn’t accompany him this time, formal attire notwithstanding.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Jiminy and I watched as the fellow began to photograph the tape measure with his smartphone. The group at our table speculated upon his plan of action, and we came to a generally agreed upon theory that he had either received a parking ticket or was performing prophylactic measures in anticipation of receiving one.
“Feed the Parrot” rang out again, and Jiminy’s mom ordered a plate of calamari – ostensibly for the table, but we all knew who it was for.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
August 22nd, 2015
First Calvary Cemetery – LIC, Queens Walking Tour
click here for details and tickets.
September 3rd, 2015
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Open House NY, click here for details and tickets.
The Newtown Pentacle 