Archive for the ‘Astoria’ Category
Archives #022
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another archive post today, which pulls prior postings that were published on this date in their respective years out of backup. I’m still recovering from my broken ankle, but will definitely be voting today. Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing ads on TV which aren’t political as of today. This election cycle has been going on forever.
I used to spend a LOT of time walking around the cemeteries of Western Queens, where I’d often notice weird things going on. To wit, 2010’s ‘pounding on the rocks’ offered observations about a ritual site at St. Michael’s cemetery in Astoria on November 5th of that year.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve shot a LOT of press conferences and public events over the years, and have photos of a lot of famous people in my archives. Some are terrifying.
2013’s November 5th ‘olden king’ post talks a bit about the exit of Michael Bloomberg from City Hall, and foreshadows my (100% correct) intuitions about the incoming administration of Bill De Blasio. I hadn’t yet coined the term ‘Dope from Park Slope’ when this post was published. I was stoked when that somehow went mainstream and Curtis Sliwa ran with it during his Mayoral campaign (which I had nothing to do with, btw).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I hate people. Thereby, I prefer taking photos of large machines doing things, as large machines generally don’t promulgate political theories which have no basis in observable reality.
In 2021, a post about Pittsburgh was published on this date – dubbed ‘luckily attainable’ – which laid out a particular ‘place’ that my psychology had gone in the months following the end of COVID.
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Archives #019
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The most wonderful time of the year, and I’m missing it. Bah.
Some good news which this humble narrator can share with you is that my doctor has cleared me for use one of those boot things and then encouraged me to WALK AROUND WITH IT ON. I start physical therapy next week, so I’m taking things slow, but I actually left the house yesterday and drove around Pittsburgh for a few hours. Filled the car’s gas tank while I was out, and had the camera with me while I was motoring about and listening to Black Sabbath, on an atypically warm afternoon. Didn’t take a single shot, the camera just came along for the ride.
Hey! It’s Halloween!
A fairly well read post – by this point in time some 15 years after its original publishing date – is 2009’s Halloween offering of a western Queens ghost story called ‘The White Lady of Astoria.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As I’ve mentioned in the past, given the number of people and residences in NYC, there are surprisingly few city ghost stories. I’ve always chalked this up to real estate valuation, as haunted condos don’t sell as well as the ones without spectral amenities. NYPD seems to not use the term ‘serial killer’ that often, I’d also mention. Probably don’t want to get the people nervous.
Just saying… If you calculate NYC’s head count (The New York City metropolitan region, often called the Tri-State Area, has a population of around 20 million people. This includes New York City itself and surrounding areas in New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut), a strictly statistical point of view demands that there have to be at least a few serial killers loose and ‘doing their thing’ in the five boroughs at any given moment. (Historically, it’s estimated that about 0.3-0.4 serial killers per one million people are active in the U.S. each year. Translating that into a percentage, this rate would be approximately 0.00003% to 0.00004% per million people annually.)
2014 saw my revelation of the Queens Cobbler’s activities back in Western Queens and revealed them to the world. How’s that for a Halloween post?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I seem to recall being ‘stuck’ for a Halloween post for this one. A post I was working on fell apart, so I left the house and shot some spooky photos around LIC at night, and got to writing something ‘grimdark.’ The rail bridges in the shot above are the Montauk Cutoff, by the way, on Skillman Avenue.
This grimdark post was from Halloween, in 2018,
Back tomorrow.
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Archives #012
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Broken ankle guy Mitch here (hashtag ‘Brankle’), with today’s Newtown Pentacle archives post. These postings were chosen in somewhat random fashion – with the commonality and conceit of the grouping being that they were all published on this date in their respective years, falling sometime between 2009 and now. It’s going to be a while before I’m presenting anything that’s been newly gathered here, as I’m literally writing this post while sitting in the same wheelchair that I’ve been inhabiting for the last month.
This 2014 post discussed the coin operated ‘rides’ and vending machines which populate the sidewalks of Astoria outside of deli’s and pizzerias.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Putting these posts together, especially in my current physical state, have offered me an interesting experience. I seldom look backwards at the road I’ve walked, except to check if I’m being followed, of course. The archive post may be talking about some obtuse historical talking point, or arguing against this or that issue of the day, but the photos always bring me right back to the day/hour/minute existential reality of capturing them. I remember walking down Roosevelt Avenue in the cold – vividly – on the night that the shot above was captured. The image calls up memory of smell and sounds for me. That’s what’s so interesting about pulling these old posts, and seeing all the places that this ‘schmuck with a camera’ had managed to talk his way into.
Heh, check me out – nostalgic.
This post from 2018 mentions that today is the anniversary of Edison electrifying the first light bulb, amongst other things, and runs three fairly unrelated photos as illustration. It was also a Monday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The escape from New York was being planned for a lot longer than I let on, and by October of 2021 it already was looking like Pittsburgh was where we would be headed towards. A sudden appearance of posts talking about lands which might be found beyond New Jersey or …Staten Island… begin to populate the archives here in 2021.
October 22 in 2021 saw this Pittsburgh post published, with images captured in a long walk that asked the question ‘could I live here?’
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
Archives #006
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s been an interesting thing, pulling these prior offerings out of deep backup for the archives posts. Workflow and all that has evolved over the years, and seeing the posts where I figured that evolution out has been fascinating. All of the call backs today were published on October 14th in their respective years, which is the main criteria for their choice. Also, for those of you who think that the ‘train thing’ is something I’ve only gotten into since moving to Pittsburgh… LIC and the LIRR wants to have a word with you.
A 2011 post ruminated on how banal the 21st century had become, and asks ‘where’s my jet pack’?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ankle situation continues, with lots of random pain and swelling. I really could use a jet pack, just to get to the toilet. I’ve got another three weeks to go before I’m invited back to the surgeon’s office to undergo whatever comes next, but there probably won’t be any sort of future tech on the table for that. Ostensibly, I’m going to be moving from a cast to a ‘boot’ at some point and starting a course of physical therapy, but I’m still in the dark on the schedule. Guess it all depends on what the X-Rays reveal, when I go in.
People actually got offended by this post, which was offered in a strictly tongue in cheek fashion, back in 2013. Can’t take me anywhere, I tell’s ya.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of this sitting around has been absolutely devastating for me. My leg muscles feel like wet noodles. One misses getting around and seeing interesting things which beg for a photo. I was meant to be in NYC this week as well, and had planned on spending a day riding on boats, followed by a long walk around Newtown Creek. Bah!
In 2021, this post was offered, which described part of a photowalk on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
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“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
cryptical marginalia
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
During my waning hours in Astoria in the last week of November, time to pursue any activity, other than facilitating the move to Pittsburgh, just ran out. There was so much to do.
I’d find myself waving the camera about occasionally, but a deadline was approaching, one which once reached would find me driving Our Lady of the Pentacle and a car load of “essentials” out to Western Pennsylvania on November 30th, so we could take possession of our new space on December 1st.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By the 24th and 25th of November, we had packed up all of our dinner plates as well as the pots and pans. That meant that if we wanted to eat, we had to either do so while eating out of take away containers while sitting on foldable camping chairs amongst the boxes, or head out for a restaurant meal. “Comfort” was a thing of the past at this point.
Me? I was just hoping that NYC didn’t find a way to kill me before this plan finished playing out. NYC is a malefic motherfucker, has an active intelligence, and she offers a cruel sense of humor. Thereby, every step taken and street crossing attempted involved a great deal of care.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Convenience, and the easy availability of alcoholic beverages and cheeseburgers, made my favorite little Astoria bar – Doyle’s Corner, found at the Times Square of Astoria at 42nd and Broadway – the obvious choice for dinner and drinks.
It was chilly, and rainy, that last week – but despite all that we did the outdoor dining thing with NYC’s sense of ironic consequence in mind. In the weeks since we’ve relocated to Pittsburgh, news has filtered back to us of friends (many of whom still mask, and are super careful) who have regardless been swept up in the latest wave of COVID infection. Apparently, we got out just in time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Right about this time is when the Innovation Queens project began rattling forward towards its inevitable approval. This last true neighborhood in Queens is about to be decimated by the Real Estate people. I’m not going to be returning to NYC for a long, long time. That’s my plan, at least. I think that when and if I return in a couple of years, Astoria will look like Williamsburg or Long Island City.
Where I’m living now in the suburbs of Pittsburgh, which is where this post is being written, is a place where it’s dark and quiet at night. That’s a half hour away from the titular center of one of the great American cities.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
No longer do I have thousands of vehicles a day passing under my windows while drivers angrily steady honk their horns. I haven’t witnessed drunks having a knife fight under my bedroom window, yet, either. There have been no observances of fart cars.
Early explorations of the Pittsburgh metropolitan area have shown me that there’s lots of “wrong” nearby, I should mention. Dire poverty, hopelessness, addiction – all that is here. So’s post industrial environmental degradation. Thing is – the volume is turned down considerably.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So ended the Queens part of my life. I’ve got a Brooklyn part, and a Manhattan part too. Goodbye. The cover is closed on this installment of the story, and I’m now living in Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
You’re going to be seeing a few “best of 2022” posts over the next few days, and Pittsburgh oriented posts will be beginning in the new year.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 