Archive for the ‘NY 11103’ Category
Project Firebox 64
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sudden panic overcame me on Thursday last, when a yawning hole in my scheduled postings presented itself in a looming fashion- I had no fresh Firebox for Saturday!
In a huff, and something of a puff, your humble narrator meekly wandered around Astoria looking for some heretofore anonymous fire box with the goal of shooting its portrait. Luckily, on 38th and 28th, this scarlet century awaited me.
blazing through
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An ongoing saga, the repairs visited upon a formerly smoldering Con Ed street pit here in Astoria continue unabated. The repair crew visualized in the images adorning this post wore Orange (the first wore blue), as can plainly be perceived, but a third unit arrived who were clad in grayish white costume. This tertiary band of pale laborers escaped photographic scrutiny, I am afraid, but the Oranges were not so lucky. For the first installment of this ongoing urban epic, vist the post “perfect service” and the ancillary “shrank away.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Orange brigade attacked the street vengefully, hurling their equipment at the pavement with an alacrity and conviction terrifying to behold. It felt to one such as myself, a deadened and unfeeling thing, that these Oranges might have been offended by this street pit’s very existence. Again, and again, the blades of shovel and diesel powered earth mover were hurled noisily against the street pit and its surroundings.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Suddenly, they were done with the task at hand, whereupon certain members of this crew began to secure trophies of their victory. Happily, these trophies were gathered onboard a waiting truck, no doubt to be carted off and displayed as totems of sacrifice, vigor, and prowess. When they were finished with the collection of their stony prize, a large sheet of steel was produced from the truck and lowered- ominously- over the far widened maw of the street pit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is not the same safety cone which was detailed in the second posting, that one made its way down Broadway over the course of a few days where it was run over by dozens of trucks. This is the new one, which came along with the steel plate. As more news develops, a humble narrator (who still hasn’t forgotten nor forgiven Consolidated Edison’s Great Astoria Blackout of 2006) shall of course bring it to you at this- your Newtown Pentacle.
groping again
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Perhaps one has become an internet troll.
I do spend an awful lot of time scuttling around beneath bridges and overhead trusses of all kinds, while wandering throughout the concrete devastations of the Newtown Pentacle. Then I find myself posting photos of them to the internet, which offers connection via correlation. As the scions of some mythical “old neighborhood” might proffer: “Dictionary definition, look here douchebag, trolls live under bridges. That means you a fucking troll. Fuck you, troll.”
That really is a quote, incidentally, from a Dungeons and Dragons comrade in Canarsie back during the 1980’s. Essential usage of the Brooklyn patois, at that time, always involved explaining your work when cursing someone out. It was a gentler age, when a young Joe Piscopo taught us all how to laugh again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Perhaps, one can be cast as a paparazzo for decaying infrastructure and artisan pollution instead. Imagine a humble narrator clad in scarf and motor scooter, zipping around town searching for remnants of the forgotten and occluded world of fat rendering and manufactured gas while always keeping a watchful eye on the once and future king of the Creeks, called Newtown.
Dynamic, this lifestyle of the paparazzi would, given the poor and mediocre existence currently endured, irrevocably brighten ones outlook.
Back in the “old neighborhood,” which was not all that old or really much of a neighborhood, it was opined as best to keep ones sights set low lest disappointment and regret rule ones mind in extreme old age. It was commonly decided that prudence demanded the acquisition of a government job with benefits and regular hours, receiving a pension after 25 years, and then moving away from “all the bullshit” to be the best course of action one could take.
There were a lot of cops, garbage men, firemen, and EMT’s in the old neighborhood. Nurses too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unfortunately, it does seem that one has indeed become this much maligned creature of hideous modernity called an “Internet troll.” If you spot some scruffy bag of mostly water, all wrapped up in a filthy black raincoat and scuttling about while clumsily picking its path around and beneath a bridge, that very well might be me.
What else it might be, for my countenance is somewhat unbearable to behold by the unprepared and there are certain asymmetrical oddities in my gait and postures which defy impersonation, few can say. I will continue to post these captured photons on the internet, notwithstanding that they might be dispatches from Trollheim.
inexorably crawling
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is fascinated by the automotive corridor through western Queens that is known as Northern Blvd. It is literally an “automotive corridor” as in the sense of it being a busy vehicular roadway, but it is also an industrial corridor which speaks of a forgotten moment in NY history when automobiles were manufactured in the five boroughs. This is largely a start of the twentieth century sort of thing, of course, but it was a pretty big deal back in the 1920’s.
That’s before the American auto industry consolidated itself around the City of Detroit, of course.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Standard Motor Products is still located at the corner of Steinway/39th street and Northern, of course, but they don’t make anything here anymore- it’s just offices. At that, SMP only uses a small section of their former factory, which famously carries a modern day rooftop farm at its crown. This “history of the automobile industry in Queens” thing is a topic which has been gathering steam and certain interest for your humble narrator of late, but my research has only just begun and intelligent presentation of fact is still far off in the future.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There is still a significant amount of auto related commerce going on around these parts, but it’s all about sales these days, not manufacture. An incalculable number of used… sorry… industry parlance is “pre owned”… cars are available along that stretch of Northern Blvd. which sits happily between Queens Plaza and the Grand Central Parkway. Something I’m working on, one of many background tasks and research projects performed and underway here at Newtown Pentacle HQ.
shrank away
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the posting “perfect service” a few days ago, the tableau of a Con Ed street repair was described. The gentlemen who performed this repair left behind a safety cone sitting on top of the manhole cover to their street pit. Two days later, the cone was moved for a time by a group of gentlemen with a giant masonry saw powerful enough to cut street.
It was all very exciting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After packing their saw back up onto a truck, they replaced the cone.
One is beside himself waiting for the next pulse pounding installment. Will someone come with a drill, punching holes in the asphalt? Will the entire block drop through the subway below? Lasers, perhaps? I will keep you posted.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
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The Newtown Pentacle 