Archive for the ‘Astoria’ Category
common case
Echo… cho… o… o…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The show often comes to me, as was the case the other night when an industrial wrecker appeared and towed away a broken down DHL delivery truck here in Astoria. Speaking of Astoria, I’m happy to report that a few of the local shops have reopened, which has eased a few of the supply issues experienced here at HQ. A cache of milk bone cookies can only last so long, and Zuzu the dog doesn’t want to hear about plague, pale horses, or other excuses when she wants a snack. The dog is demanding. She does a lot for morale, and expects her tithe.
The operation to get the DHL van hooked up to the wrecker was surprisingly complex, as a note. The wrecker’s crew had to raise and chock the front tires of the van in stages until its nose was high enough relative to the street to slip the tow bar under it. Luckily, this operation was undertaken while I was pay per viewing “The Rise of Skywalker,” which is officially the worst Star Wars product ever made in my opinion – and that includes an infamous 1978 TV “special’ called the “Star Wars Holiday Special.” Watching a tow truck crew at work was preferable.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A recent walk through the concrete devastations found me on Borden Avenue, staring down the Empire State Building and the Queens Midtown Expressway section of the larger Long Island Expressway. Just on the other side of the fence with all the barbed wire on it, as seen in the left side of the shot above, were dozens of FDNY ambulances awaiting their turn on the lifts at a mechanic and maintenance facility operated by the fire service. There was a fair amount of civilian traffic moving around, which I wasn’t really surprised by. I’ve noticed automotive traffic is inching back up, everywhere.
I call this area DULIE – Down Under the Long Island Expressway. As I often opine, you need to get ahead of the real estate crowd on this sort of thing, lest they rename your neighborhood “Karen,” or “Todd.” It’s where I like to go to be by myself, just like industrial Maspeth. The latter is next on my list, and I plan on heading over there sometime around when you’re reading this.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Blissville is where this photo was gathered, along Review Avenue. One positive thing that’s come out of all this free time I suddenly have has been the gradual conquering of the LED light dilemma. The unnatural frequencies offered by LED lights have been bedeviling me, exposure wise, for a while. Still haven’t quite got them locked down or licked yet, but as the shot above suggests I’m starting to get there.
One thing I really miss on my long walks involves not having my headphones jammed into the ear holes and listening to my “theme music” playlists. As mentioned a few times, I’m trying to be more fully aware of my surroundings right now, as the deserted streets offer up all sorts of uncertainties. There’s the possibility of finding myself the center of attention for adolescent rowdies or gutter toughs or even street muggers, there are hot rod clubs burning rubber all around the Creek, and if you had noticed the bands of Raccoons and Canada Geese prowling about like they own the place as I have – you’d desire “total situational awareness” too.
Still – It’s just not the same without “Sabbath Bloody Sabbath” grinding out.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, April 20th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
judicial majesty
CoronAstoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ambulance pictured above recently spent a fair amount of time in front of the apartment building next door to HQ, here in Astoria. The virus is everywhere. What can you do though? Take photos, that’s what I say! Don’t end up acting like Martin Sheen at the end of “Apocalypse Now,” use your camera to produce images instead! Show, don’t tell.
I’ve counted how many socks I own by this point, and it’s an odd number, which is disconcerting. Additionally, the thing which amuses me more than anything else at the moment is imagining Barack Obama doing a cover of the first Doors album in his particular speaking style. Also, I’d like to discourage those of you who want to attend one of those anti lockdown protests from doing so, but if you’re so hostile to science and medical expertise that you think it’s a good idea to do so… well… Darwin is calling.
Meanwhile, take some photos. Be like Dennis Hopper in Apocalypse Now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was going to rain during a recent evening, so my constitutional walk occurred in the late afternoon and I happened upon a firebox which some enterprising soul decided to raid for copper and other valuable metals. Anti social much?
Maybe we can blame the Chinese Government for this? Maybe it was Jared Kushner, or alternately the Democrats or the Mainstream Media, or Bill Gates? Are we supposed to be worried about a sudden infliction of Sharia Law anymore? Socialism? Maybe this is all France’s fault.
Get a grip, folks, go count your socks. Better yet, go take some photos.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, I get nervous whenever I’m walking past an entrance to the sweating concrete bunkers of the transit system, which I now refer to as the Covid well. God only knows what’s going on down there these days. Every time I’ve left the house, my travel has been on foot, and no small amount of care has gone into avoiding the presence of the humans. Luckily, they still tend to congeal in familiar spots, so I know where and where not to go. When you skulk about in the shadows during normal times, it’s fairly easy to social distance.
Down there… in those metal boxes…
Count your socks. I’ll take the photos.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, April 20th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
phenomenal softness
Back in Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A longish night time walk from Astoria to the Pulaski Bridge spanning Newtown Creek, and then over the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge and back into Queens, was punctuated by FDNY activity at nearly every step of the way. A deployment at one of the homeless shelters in Blissville actuated not only the fire house on nearby Greenpoint Avenue, it also pulled in units from Brooklyn’s Greenpoint as well. Engine 238 (pictured) and Tiller Truck 106, if you’re curious about Brooklyn fire units. I can’t help but take photos when FDNY is doing their thing. Firemen, firemen!
This shot is from the corner of Greenpoint and Review Avenues, looking towards Brooklyn across the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pathway home took the shape of walking along Greenpoint Avenue, where the startling view of a Long Island Expressway with no traffic whatsoever greeted me. Earlier in the evening, one observed something similar at the Queens Midtown Tunnel.
Last time I saw anything like this was in the week or two following Hurricane Sandy. Should one be lucky enough to survive this pandemic business, I hope to be awarded a three disaster ribbon by the City. It’s been one heck of a couple of decades here in the megalopolis, hasn’t it?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, just as I arrived back in the zone of HQ, an ambulance went screaming past. I’m not going to launch into some speech here, rather…
You want to underexpose for a passing ambulance, due to the strobing light. I already had the color temperature of the camera set to 3750K, my standard “go to” for modern day NYC street lighting at night. It’s f2.8, 1/200th of a second, and at ISO 6400. The shot did get noodled around with a bit in the developing process, but most of that involved dealing with sensor noise.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the end of the week of Monday, April 6th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
venomous inundation
I call Northern Blvd. “the Carridor.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, I’ve mentioned a few times that I distinguish between a “long walk” and a “short walk.” A long walk would be, say… from Astoria to East Williamsburg and back via Ridgewood and Maspeth – about 10-12 miles. A medium walk would involve heading from Astoria to the East River and Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary and back via Sunnyside – about 6-7 miles. A short walk involves a fairly rapid gait, and takes advantage of the hypotenuse like relationship that Northern Blvd. has with the street grid of Astoria – about 4-5 miles. Indefinite numeration for the amount of distance involves serendipity, noticing something that catches my eye, or just the sudden realization that “I never walked down that street before, wonder what’s there.”
Pictured above, and encountered whilst on a short walk is a type of truck called a Car Carrier. There are several large used and new car lot operations along Northern Blvd., and the car carriers which bring stock to these businesses are a regular sight. The semi tractor section of the equipment is manufactured by a company called Western Star. The trailer is a fairly intricate machine, with lots of hydraulic ramp plates that reconfigure for the loading and off loading of smaller vehicles – it’s a car carrier, after all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Creepy late winter trees that haven’t started to bud leaves yet? The Standard Motor Products building somewhat softened and obfuscated by mist, and the streets are also wet? If it’s dark out, when you see all these things you’ll probably notice a weird old man in a filthy black raincoat furiously dialing settings into his camera. These are all things a creature like me loves, yearns for, and seeks out.
I’ve captured a shot very similar to this one in the past, but that was under normal circumstance when the Carridor was performing its design function as a local connector between the Queensboro Bridge to west and the nearby Brooklyn Queens Expressway to the east. No cars? Wow, this is Northern Blvd. at about 10:30 p.m. on a Monday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The interval during which these three images were captured was defined by a lapse in precipitation, which had been constant all day and was scheduled to resume by about midnight. One began scuttling back towards HQ, where a cup of hot tea would be quaffed as a reward for the evening’s effort. This particular short walk also involved a few “getting things done” stops – bank atm, buying a piece of fruit or two from one of the few remaining open shops, that sort of thing.
On the plus side of all this, I’ve actually been eating a fairly healthy menu. One of the things we can all do to bolster the immune system right now is to eat the sort of food we should always be eating but normally don’t for the sake of convenience or just gluttony. I’ve had one slice of pizza in the last three weeks, for instance, and one hamburger. Everything else has been fresh vegetables, rice, lean meats and fish, and barely any cheese. I’ve eaten an entire field’s worth of Broccoli in the last few weeks, I’ll tell ya.
Back Monday with more reports from CoronAstoria.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the end of the week of Monday, March 30th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
odd wrench
Little birdies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Instinct is a non quantifiable resource, but I’ve always famously followed mine. It’s kept me out of a lot of trouble in the workplace over the years, helped me avoid wandering into race riots back in the 1980’s, and I’ve missed out on being trapped in a structural fire or two over the years because of it. I call instinct “my little birdie,” and when it’s chirping I listen. Desperate for diversion and chomping at the bit for some exercise, an otherwise perfect evening for photographic pursuit was marred by these chirps, so I opted to stay at HQ and see what I could conjure up. That’s the alley behind HQ, so if you’ve been wondering what it looks like behind the shops on Astoria’s Broadway, now you know.
What with the cessation of most automotive traffic and the airborne effluents of commercial activity, you could actually see the stars in NYC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having lived in NYC my entire life, the amount of sensory data which my eyes and ears normally “tune out” is fairly prodigious. The car engines and horns, the sound of raucous idiots gibbering at each other, even the bells on the door of the now closed Bodega chiming as customers enter and leave. The luminance of store signage, the chimney smell of restaurant fryers and stoves, the sound of some delivery guy chaining up his bike – all of that is missing. For the first few days after the shutdown began, my ears were ringing in the same way they do when I visit a rural or wooded area. Saying that, there’s too many ambulance sirens right now.
While shooting the shot above, I snapped my fingers and heard an actual echo.
Also, yes, my landlord still has a TV antenna attached to the roof. There are also about three generations of satellite dish up there, none of which are cabled to anything below the roof nor do they have any utility. The archaeologists of the future are going to absolutely love digging us up someday, and I mean Western Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another night, one wherein my little birdy was silent, and another walk through the empty streets. Constitutional exercise is required, and at least in my case the benefits are spiritual and psychological, as well as cardiologist pleasing. As mentioned several times, one is omitting the pleasure of listening to various forms of audio entertainment at the moment, in favor of remaining 100% aware of my surroundings. The streets… look a lot like the late 1980’s used to look – deserted at night except for weirdos like and unlike me, and with everyone else huddling up within their fortress apartments. The Cops are busy with other stuff right now, and there’s a real feeling of being on your own and “having to just handle it” if something untoward happens. Like I said, 1980’s.
There used to be a saying – People walk around like they’re safe or something.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the end of the week of Monday, March 30th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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 