Archive for the ‘Broadway’ Category
not inefficient
Action figures found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle has a weird affection for those 99 cent stores, which seldom have dollar items on sale, which you find peppered about in Astoria. Gewgaws and doodads are the stock in trade for this sort of establishment, and while following her around last week, I encountered what seemed to be the entire cast of RC Comics available as limited articulation action figures. They had the big guy, and all the supporting players on sale.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Idolatry notwithstanding, these were actually piss poor as far as the moldings and likenesses side of things go. DC and Marvel figurines often amaze with their clever construction and quality of verisimilitude to the licensed character, but these RC figures were frankly reminiscent of the sort of things kids were offered back in the 70’s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Still, a complete set of Saints with the Big Guy clothed in all three identities is hard to turn down. It would be cool to have the entire Justice League displayed, but I’ve got to find a 99 cent store where the Injustice Society is available as well. I doubt they’ll only be $1.39 a piece, instead their cost will be probably be diabolical.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
public squares
Prejudice and Ursidae derision in today’s Columbus Day post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Call me Ursophobic, but your humble narrator has had it up to some proverbial line – drawn somewhere around his eyebrows – with these occasionally bipedal inebriates who have been turning up in Astoria for the last few years. Admittedly, their days are difficult, but that’s no excuse for them to just pass out on the street in some honey induced stupor, like the derelict pictured above. Who are these bears, where did they come from, and why were they allowed to come here in the first place? Is it ok to pass out in the trash where they come from? I think not.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Does he have a family somewhere nearby, with a brood of anchor cubs? Is there some she bear staring out the window wondering where he is, growing increasingly anxious that he might be honey drunk again, or that the bees exacted a horrible revenge upon him? Where are the cops? How can a dangerously besotted creature like this be allowed to just pass out on Broadway in Astoria? This neighborhood is going to the caniforms, if you ask me, and I won’t be a bit surprised if in a couple of years Astoria is known as an Ursidae neighborhood. This is how it starts.
Upcoming Tours
Saturday – October 19, 2013
The Insalubrious Valley of the Newtown Creek with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale now.
Sunday- October 20th, 2013
The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek with Brooklyn Brainery- tickets on sale now.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
known gods
It certainly has been quite an interesting life.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
No man is a failure who’s got friends, or so they told George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Homespun aphorism and Capraesque cliche notwithstanding, I would argue that having the wrong friends is a wholly different sort of failure which far outweighs the dollars and cents of conventional success. A loner, malcontent, and altogether difficult and argumentative know it all- your humble narrator’s few acquaintances tolerate my presence, but only in small doses.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You’ve got to use it or lose it, but what if you never had “it” in the first place? One such as myself, bereft of natural advantages such as speed, grace, strength, or athletic prowess on any level knows full well the shame of fumbling, stumbling, and or striking out. The only advantage possessed by me is a rat like cunning, although given my standing amongst the humans it would be logical to presume that I would make a poor specimen of Rattus rattus.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Like some ancient mariner lost upon the storm tossed waves go I, lashed to the frozen deck of a broken life. My wants and desires are nonexistent beyond the purely existential issues of food and shelter, as I have long ago given up pursuit of material success. There is no plan, things just happen, and the daily round is just a series of dull events. Your humble narrator is not at all driven by avarice, vainglory, or ambition in the ways that most are. Just think of me solely as the battered, the disabused, the disenfranchised, and always an outsider- if you feel the strong urge to categorize or quantize me.
Upcoming Tours
Saturday – October 19, 2013
The Insalubrious Valley of the Newtown Creek with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale soon.
Sunday- October 20th, 2013
The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek with Brooklyn Brainery- tickets on sale now
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
clumsy modification
I call thee vibrant and diverse, names by which thou shalt be known.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bland and homogenous, the rest of New York City must be a wasteland ruled by a monolithic uniculture wherein all speak the same language and subsist on a flavorless protein paste. Woe to the quartet of other boroughs, for Queens has locked up all the color and intrigue, and it is both illegal and immoral to cook with curry or cumin in Staten Island or the Bronx. We got all the peppers out here as well, so enjoy your bland gravies Manhattanites.
I have come to this realization the last time somebody in the City reacted to the unexpected news that I live in Astoria with the ubiquitous “I love Queens, it’s so vibrant and diverse, and I was in Astoria sometime in the 70’s when I had Greek food.”
By the by, the two kids in the shot above had a small table with signage that read “everything, a dollar.”
from wikipedia
Astoria is a middle class and commercial neighborhood with a 154,000 population in the northwestern corner of the New York City borough of Queens. Located in Community Board 1, Astoria is bounded by the East River and is adjacent to three other Queens neighborhoods: Long Island City, Sunnyside (bordering at Northern Boulevard), and Woodside (bordering at 50th Street). Astoria is patrolled by the New York City Police Department’s 114th Precinct.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To begin with, Astoria ain’t all that Greek anymore, they’ve largely moved on and are renting out restaurant space to the highest bidder. The section I live in is equal parts Croatian, Brazilian, Mexican, Ecuadorean, African American, and everybody else is a product of the old 20th century melting pot. The societal engineering that drove my grandparents to speak heavily accented english is gone, and the best way to describe the modern system is to reference the old testament.
This “vibrant and diverse” thing drives me crazy, something that is touted by Manhattan liberals who live in vertical affluence and believe what Time Warner Cables’ NY1 tells them and who haven’t visited Queens since that time in the 70’s they went out for Greek. Get to Queens and talk to somebody who doesn’t look like or agree with you, cliff dwellers.
from airbnb.com
If you’re looking for great Greek food or an exotic microbrew, look no further than Astoria. This northern Queens neighborhood exudes a youthful charm and welcoming attitude. In Astoria, mom-and-pop shops snuggle up to humble townhouses whose residents address one another by name. Strikingly diverse groups of people intermingle with appreciative ease in this laid-back neighborhood’s various culinary destinations and quiet streets.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some of our vibrancy is expressed in illegal dumping, the native art form of western Queens. To wit, recently observed is yet another iteration of the single shoe phenomena on Broadway nearby the 46th street stop on the R. I’ve written about this a couple of times, and am not altogether convinced that there isn’t some amputee serial killer at work in the neighborhood. Vibrant diversity, however, would explain the presence of a population of peg legged sociopaths.
from oddshoefinder.com
Welcome to Oddshoefinder.com, a free site that connects people with odd shoes with people who need odd shoes! Many people with feet of different sizes buy one pair of shoes for each shoe size and use only one shoe from each pair, leaving a closet full of unused shoes. The purpose of this site is to help you get those shoes out of your closet and put money into your pocket.
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek – Saturday, August 24, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
company graveyard
Home, home on the range, where the deer and the photographers play.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Great excitement abounds in a humble narrator due to the recent purchase of a new lens. The equipment in question is the Sigma 18-35 F 1.8 DS, which is magical for both its sharpness and ability to drink in light. The shot above was captured at 3 in the morning, for instance, while it was raining. Normally, this is an easy shot to pull off when the camera is on a tripod and I can leave the shutter open for a second and a half or so, but this one was shot handheld.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been the happy owner of one particularly good lens, manufactured by Canon, which the vast majority of shots that have run here in the last couple of years have been captured with. Problem is that it is a “daytime” lens as its widest aperture is f4. For those unfamiliar with the nitty gritty of photography, the f stop represents the size of the hole which the lens can make for light traveling to the sensor. Wider the aperture is the more light you get, but that comes with an increase of “depth of field” which renders the plane of focus very narrow. I can focus on your eyes at a wide aperture, but the tip of your nose may be blurry, for instance. Not so with this new sigma.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Accordingly, I’ve been making it a point of shooting everything I come across in the name of testing the new unit out, which has also coincided with an August resolution to try and spend a lot more time in Astoria than has been the case in recent months. Friends, group affiliations, and work take me to Brooklyn on a regular basis. Unfortunately, this means that I spend a lot of my time there, and do a lot of my shooting there. My focal point has been, and will continue to be in Queens, which needs far more attention paid to it than North Brooklyn which can take care of itself just fine. I intend to live up to that statement in the coming months, and spend a lot more of my time here.
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 