Archive for the ‘Astoria’ Category
other metals
Cool Cars of Astoria, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One recent afternoon, my pal Larry and I decided to walk our cameras around the neighborhood. Our entirely random path found us heading towards the forbidden north coast of Queens, and after taking in the recently refreshed murals at Welling Court, we continued on in the direction of Old Astoria. That’s when I spotted this 1962 Ford Falcon two door sedan which was bathing in the powerful afternoon illuminations of the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself.
Cool Cars indeed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The early sixties were a time when American cars were getting bigger and bigger, and imports from Japan and Germany were getting smaller and smaller. It’s also a time when many families were thinking about acquiring a second car, and the Ford motor company decided to get ahead of the game by introducing a compact. Their marketing was geared towards the stay at home suburban mom after research revealed that the ladies found the land yachts common to that era were just too cumbersome for their needs.
Data was all that mattered to the Ford executive who created and ran the Falcon enterprise, Robert McNamara. McNamara is the same fellow who would eventually become the United States Secretary of Defense and coin endearing concepts like “acceptable losses” regarding the possibility of nuclear war, and is the fellow that designed the strategic bombing program for the Viet Nam theater of operations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Ford Falcon was produced between 1960 and 1970, and the design of the thing had budget and economy of scale in mind. The factory used parts and systems which were already being manufactured for other models to keep costs low. Back in the 50’s and 60’s it was common practice to design automobiles with an entirely unique series of parts and components, rather than utilizing the modern practice of modularity which dictates that a single carburetor or muffler could be installed in several different models or lines. McNamara was a data guy, a “bean counter” as it was known at the time. He would end up being the President of Ford before jumping over to the Government posts for which he is justly infamous, and for which he evinced great regret in his dotage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Falcon was a success for Ford, and versions of the line were produced internationally – there’s a somewhat famous Australian variant which customized and used for competitive racing. The 1962 model pictured in today’s post was a product of American manufacture, and the specimen encountered here in Astoria was in pretty good shape all things considered. This thing is older than me, but my pal Larry had a few years seniority on it. Larry is holding up pretty well himself, but occasionally has engine trouble and is worried about his struts and suspension but that’s another story.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When conversing with “Astoria Lifers” the early sixties are often referred to as a golden era here in Queens and seeing these cool cars persist in situ is a particular joy to them. For those of you “youngins” who have never driven a 1960’s American car, I cannot describe the thrill of having the massive horsepower respond to your commands. I know you’ll miss your Bluetooth stereo and seat belts, or the entire concept of being able to walk away from a wreck intact, but wow – when these old cars start up – it is exhilarating.
The Falcon, according to Ford’s corporate propaganda at the time, could do around 30mpg in terms of fuel efficiency. It was powered by a six cylinder 101 HP engine, and could seat six. There were a lot of variants available at the time – station wagons and four door sedans as well as a sort of van. The station wagons were available with those faux wood vinyl stickers on the doors and fenders, btw.
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clumsy modifications
The Newtown Pentacle is back in session.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been creeping and crawling about, here in Astoria and in those spaces beyond, in pursuance of certain – lets just call it “esoteric” information. Hidden amongst the dross facts, the conventional interpretations, and the expected interpretations are hints at the true nature of things hereabouts. Dark undercurrents flow beneath the pavement here in the Newtown Pentacle, following ancient pathways which were wisely buried and carefully occluded by those generations for whom the setting of the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself meant naught but shadowed terror. Once, wolves prowled freely across the sunken meadows and painted nocturnal terror across the stinking marshes of western Queens and North Brooklyn. The Dutch, and later the Angles, went to great pains to hunt down and exterminate these canid predators – eventually causing their local extinction.
Who is to say, though, what moved into that niche once occupied by the wolves? Or what old world horrors the seafaring Nederlanders and Britons unknowingly carried here from their far flung journeys to the Far East? The settlers of this area were heretics and rebels, cultists who rejected the orderly religious practices of their times. Did Thomas Case and his followers speak truly when they promised adherents to their bizarre form of Quakerism that bodily transmogrification and eternal life could be attained upon this plane of material existence?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
During the two week interval which saw this, your Newtown Pentacle, enter into a “holding pattern” – your humble narrator has been traveling non stop across the megalopolis in pursuance of carefully hidden reference. Uncommented private libraries have been visited, and the counsel of diabolist and clergy alike have been sought. It is once again the “most wonderful time of the year” as the liturgical wheel rolls towards Hallowmas and Samhain. Those hidden waterways which still gurgle and splash beneath the sunlit streets, dripping into night black grottoes and hidden voids perverted by modernity’s sewage and filth… Do the phantoms of those primeval wolves gather along them even now?
Who can guess, all that there is, that might be buried down there?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The presence of occultists and magick workers amongst us has long been established by multitudinous postings at this and other publications. Long time readers of this – your Newtown Pentacle – will attest to the presence of ritual altars and offerings found along area streets, railway junctions, and even within the gates of the mortuary complexes which distinguish this section of the megalopolis. Consultation with souls braver than myself confirms the presence of subterranean populations of humanity living in abandoned tunnels and forgotten vaults beneath the pavement. Forbidden books suggest that they might not be alone down there, and members of the underground communities refuse to speak, other than in hurried whispers, of things which stalk in the shadows.
It is best, ultimately, that those of us who exist in the open air warmed by the emanations of the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself remain ignorant of such things… or so they say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Were it to become generally known what exists in the dank earth, amongst the plumes of industrial chemicals and atavist stream beds which litter the deep city, if the truth behind all of those “lost pet” posters were to be acknowledged… It might be enough to depopulate the City of Greater New York and signal the descent of humanity into madness and the glad acceptance of a new dark age.
The good news in that, however, would be that rents would likely go down.
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upon all
Triborough and Hells Gate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, one is taking a short break – hence the singular image which greets you above. Back soon with new stuff.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours and events –
October 10th, 2015
Calvary Cemetery Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets
noisome air
Rain, rain, rain. Bored, boredity, bored, bored.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One thing is certain, which is that the next few days will exhibit some truly ugly weather here in the Newtown Pentacle. In today’s post, library shots of wet weather are presented. Above, somewhere within the Shining City of Manhattan, from whence cometh the greater part of that flow of sewer juice that doth enter my beloved Creek during rain events.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everybody I meet gets a lecture at one point or another about the sewer system, and the Combined Sewer problem that bedevils our community. Suffice to say that it takes as little as a quarter inch of rain, citywide, for a billion gallons of storm water to propagate into our waterways. Days like this one, and the next few, will carry hundreds of billions of gallons of raw sewage into the water.
Pictured above, a manhole or access cover, originally laid in place by the “Bureau of Sewers Borough of Queens” which I believe to have been absorbed into the larger Municpal entity that would someday become the DEP around the time of the LaGuardia administration. I’m a bit hazy on this one, historical like, and promise that I’ll find out more and report the facts when they’re in hand.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From what I’ve been told, the MTA hasn’t been having too good a time for the last 24 hours or so, with more than a few outages on major lines. One wonders, and more than wonders, why the MTA only seems to plan and engineer the system around the conditions of ideal weather?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I mean… it’s going to rain. It’s also going to snow, eventually.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m the first person, literally, to throw shade at the commissioners and deputy commissars of the DEP during their periodic visits to Newtown Creek. DEP bosses lie like rugs, do so with a smirk, and every time there’s a political shake up in City Hall – the new guy isn’t bound by the promises made by the last set of “powers that be.” Saying that, I’m thankful for the rank and file who will be doing what they can during the coming deluges. Pictured above is the sewer plant in Greenpoint, getting rained upon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here in Astoria, folks are taking the gathering storm quite seriously. There’s chanting and everything, and store shelves are fairly bereft of the puzzling combination of batteries, milk, bread, and toilet paper that everyone seems to require when a storm is on the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My neighbor Mario spent yesterday evening cleaning our sewer catch basin and the gutter of leaves and the garbage which everyone just seems to drop. Saying that, there’s a whole lot of sweeping to do.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last rainy day shot, which was captured close to a decade ago at Greenwood Cemetery. Good luck, lords and ladies, with the stormy weekend. If you’re reading this on Monday, it’s likely my internet is out, and I’ll post as soon as Time Warner comes back online.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
October 10th, 2015
Calvary Cemetery Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets
swinging and plunging
It’s all so depressing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not too long ago, a humble narrator left HQ and soon found himself at Hells Gate. One always finds it amazing how alone you can feel when surrounded by literally thousands of people, but there you go. Melancholy and regret notwithstanding, it was decided to sit down and watch the surrounding city for a spell from a stationary vantage point.
“Winter is coming” is what was on my mind.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Off in the distance – a tugboat was towing a barge down the East River from the direction of Flushing Bay, and since there was literally nowhere else for me to go, I sat and waited for it to transit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tug was the McAllister Girls. The fuel barge it was towing was clearly empty, given how high it was riding in the swirling maelstroms of the Hells Gate section of the estuarine East River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The background was provided by the DEP’s Wards Island plant, where centrifugal machinery separates a pestilence of filth out of a watery solution which the sewer people refer to as “honey” but the rest of just call “sludge.” In NY Harbor, it is difficult to avoid fecal matter, as the harbor is full of it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The currents in this section of the river, spanned by both Triborough and Hell Gate bridges, are notorious and powerful. Once, Hells Gate was a breaker of ships and consumer of lives, before the Army Corps of Engineers exploded the underwater geology which promulgated the formation of whirlpools and ripping tides.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Even today, it takes a bit of skill – and a powerful set of engines – for Mariners to conquer the cross currents and tidal action of Hells Gate. It’s nowhere close to the historical force of water, spoken about with awe and respect by sailors in the historical record, but this stretch of the river is still fairly treacherous.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
McAllister Girls, of course, managed Hells Gate with little trouble. The tug and barge continued along, entering the east channel of the river and continuing along to the south. Likely, she was headed for Kill Van Kull or Arthur Kill to drop off the empty barge and begin the process of moving another full one to some farm of coastal fuel tanks.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was all pretty depressing though. Winter is coming.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
October 10th, 2015
Calvary Cemetery Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets
The Newtown Pentacle 