Archive for the ‘Astoria’ Category
common superstition
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Things have been relatively quiet over in St. Michael’s cemetery of late. The declaration refers to the lack of occultist activity, documented in earlier posts, at a certain spot which is high on a hill that has served some unknown individual in the past as an altar- likely in accordance with one of the syncretic Afro Cuban religions adhered to by many of the new neighbors in Queens who hail from the Caribbean and South American locales.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The week before Halloween, and Sandy, your humble narrator walked over to the polyandrion and surveyed the scene. By all appearances, there was little to report, with the exception of extraordinarily deep ruts in the ground thereabouts. By all appearances, it seemed that something quite heavy stood here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ruts were in a roughly tripodal configuration, with a fourth that was not quite as deep. Other than this puzzling series of indentations, no bottles of fluid nor the presence of melted candles was detected. How I would love to set up a camera nest in a nearby tree on the night of a full moon, and witness what this unknowable cultist gets up to, but one does not hang around in cemeteries after the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself has set into the western sky. Not here, in the Newtown Pentacle.
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Hallowed Eve
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Apologies for the lack of a proper Halloween post this year, but your humble narrator has been otherwise occupied with cowering alongside a small dog and glued to the television. The non stop bad news has really become quite off putting, and it was decided that today- one must leave the cocoon and subject certain places around the Newtown Creek to inspection.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ll show you what I saw in tomorrows post, and special thanks are offered to “Hank the elevator guy” for chauffeuring me around the neighborhood(s). Saw lots of interesting things. Lots of tree damage, especially around the public housing projects at the Woodside Houses and over in Ravenswood. Have as good a Halloween as you can, and best wishes to my buddy John Skelson over in Staten Island.
unplaced and forgotten
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in the past, an oft repeated refrain is that “In Queens, illegal dumping is an art form”. Walking home from a soul numbing journey to St. Michael’s Cemetery in Astoria, a perambulation which sought to temporarily alleviate the coruscating horror of my own company, this pithy little installation was observed along the service road of the Grand Central Parkway from the stout little overpass that carries Astoria Blvd. South over the larger highway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given my mood of late, such confirmations of the destructive malice of my neighbors bring an evil smile to the leathery face worn by this charmless mendicant. Should there be a moment in life during which a memory of pleasant character may rise to the surface, displacing the endless litany of failings and missteps which comprise my actual conscious milieu, such wanton disregard for the public grounds might dampen it. Of course, such moments do not come for one such as myself.
Also- Upcoming Newtown Creek tours and events:
for more information on the November 9th Newtown Creek Magic Lantern Show, click here
for an expanded description of the November 11th Newtown Creek tour, please click here
drifting sands
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator speaks from a deep cavern, a lonely chasm of sorrowful legacies and charred ambition. This is no happy place of wonder, instead a frozen waste and illimitable desert of hope. Nobody stares into this particular abyss and concurrently, I have no one to stare back into.
It is the season of the wolf, at last.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mounting storms and threatening seas stretch out to and occlude all horizons, and a vastly indifferent universe spins along its axis. The air smells of something, perhaps some sort of solvent or maybe house paint, and the water has a taste. Water should not have a taste.
Maybe it is time to go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
World weary, diseased, likely insane. Outsider, shunned by those who bask in the light, pariah. One can only hope for the sandwich board signage of the doomsayers, or the ashen cloak of the hermitage. Hope is extinguished, the light fades. The village dogs are scratching at my door, and slaver hungrily for delight.
Perhaps it is time to allow them to feed.
Also- Upcoming Newtown Creek tours and events:
for more information on the October 27th Newtown Creek Boat Tour, click here
for more information on the November 9th Newtown Creek Magic Lantern Show, click here
for an expanded description of the November 11th Newtown Creek tour, please click here
Cherry
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When your humble narrator was just a lad, this model of automobile was as ubiquitous as the penny. Changing vehicles fashions, age, and the vagaries of the free market- of course- have seen them reduced in number. Recently, while exiting from the East River Ferry in Greenpoint, one observed this late model Volkswagen in all its atavist glory.
from wikipedia
The Volkswagen Beetle, officially called the Volkswagen Type 1 (or informally the Volkswagen Bug), is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003. With over 21 million manufactured in an air-cooled, rear-engined, rear-wheel drive configuration, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single design platform, worldwide.
for an expanded description of the October 20th Newtown Creek tour, please click here
for more information on the October 27th Newtown Creek Boat Tour, click here
for more information on the November 9th Newtown Creek Magic Lantern Show, click here
for an expanded description of the November 11th Newtown Creek tour, please click here
The Newtown Pentacle 