Archive for the ‘Blissville’ Category
amorphous amenity
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lucky. Just happened to be in the right place at the right time, which happened to be the Brooklyn/Queens border, found on the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, at about 8 o’clock at night on a Friday in middle January. The tug is the CMT Pike, a 1979 vintage push boat operated by Coeymans Marine Towing.
This was a very, very difficult shot to get the exposure right for, as a note. The difficulty was due to the contrasting environment of bright lights and deep shadow, and complicated by the boat being operated at full steam and sliding quickly across the gelatinous waters of Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One doesn’t like heading home along the same path which he left it from, so my toes were pointed in a generally “Maspethian” direction for the return leg of things. There’s a little park, on Review Avenue at the corner of Laurel Hill Blvd., that was constructed along with the new Koscisuzcko Bridge. One likes to have a bit of sit down there when out for a long walk, and although sitting on a block of concrete in January isn’t exactly comfortable, it’s still nice to be able to take a load off for a few minutes and “unclick” my back.
As long as I was there, why not get in a couple of shots of the bridge? Why be lazy when you’re already out and about, and sitting down on a block of frozen concrete which is draining your body heat away through your butt?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My path back to HQ in Astoria found me walking through Sunnyside Gardens, and looking over my shoulder a lot. My paranoia alleviates around Newtown Creek, given how relatively depopulated it is. Sunnyside, however, enjoys quite a dense population. Using my old rubric that 2 out of every 10 people are straight up evil, what that means is that when you’re moving through a densely populated neighborhood about 20% of that population might screw with you.
My “rule” is that out of every ten people, two are evil and two are good. The remaining six are in the middle, and can go either way depending on whether or not they follow their social cues from the good two or the evil two. “The company you keep” isn’t just something your grandmother warned you about, in my mind.
“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.
cliffside cabin
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Intriguing are the bits of property which my Dad always referred to as “community driveways,” like the one in Astoria pictured above. The particular one above is interesting to me as it’s a dirt road. You don’t encounter much in the way of open soil here in Western Queens. A community driveway, for the uninitiated, is a pathway which leads to a “behind your house” parking spot and often a garage at the basement level. It’s an amenity!
Even the laconic Croats, and the other similarly reserved “Yugoslav” populations they coexist with here on Astoria’s southern edge, will get misty eyed when the subject of a private parking spot comes up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering around in the cold night, a humble narrator found that the aphorism “All roads lead to Calvary” was quite true when he found himself standing at the gate. It’s been quite a while since my last visit to the great polyandrion of the Roman Catholics, but since this one was well after sunset – the gates were securely fastened, as is the habit of the cemetery management. Couldn’t resist cracking out an exposure through the gate, however.
When leaving HQ, one told Our Lady of the Pentacle that I’d be taking a long walk, but that I didn’t plan on leaving Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not wanting to make a liar of myself, one walked onto the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge over Newtown Creek but didn’t cross the legal border into Brooklyn. Instead, I lingered mid span for an interval, and got lucky with what Queens wanted to show me. As a note, I sort of love the photo above, depicting a fuel truck traveling across the double bascule drawbridge.
More tomorrow.
“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.
tinsel emptiness
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 11th of July was meant to be a “Manhattanhenge” night, and despite the gloomy weather a humble narrator decided to throw the dice and see what could be seen from up on the Kosciuszcko Bridge. The weather precluded any sort of henge, but what – I’m not going to set up the tripod and get busy after shlepping over here from Astoria?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Obviously, this shot was gathered a bit earlier than the first one. Heavy humidity and low flying clouds marred the astronomical phenomena of Manhattanhenge, wherein the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself’s transit through the sky aligns neatly with the street grid of NYC’s master cylinder. Regardless, I was digging the fact that the skyscrapers were actually scraping sky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The bum foot and pulled muscle in my back resulted in me waiting for yet another cab to carry my sorry butt back to HQ in Astoria. I’ve discovered that if you stand on the Maspeth side of the street, as opposed to the LIC side, Lyft knocks a few bucks off the fare. That’s a pro tip for y’all.
See you next week. Vote Quimby.
“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.
moving outrageously
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The great thing about Astoria is that even on a day when you’re staying in, Queens brings the show right to your front door. The shot above is from May 22nd, when a largish protest group was moving through the neighborhood demonstrating in support of the Palestinian cause. Luckily for me, I was able to shoot them going by from the comfort of an outdoor porch. Here’s the whole set of shots.
Before any of you get started on debating the Israel/Palestine thing… just don’t. I got kicked out of Jewish Summer Camp when I was 11 for my particular set of opinions (yes, I’ve always been like this) on this subject. Suffice to say that there’s a largish number of very poor people who have been stuck between a military death machine and an organized crime family since 1949. Everyone involved is both entirely right and utterly wrong. There is no solution, only intermittent cessation between slaughters. The Romans couldn’t fix this problem with crucifixions. The Turks couldn’t with literal flaying. There is no justice, there is no peace, never will be. End of conversation, as far as I’m concerned.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A Memorial Day shot from Blissville, depicting current Queens Borough President Donovan Richards “speechifying.” There’s a tiny triangle park right at the corner of Van Dam/Greenpoint/Review Ave. dedicated to the memory of Sgt. Daniel Kish. If memory serves, Blissville’s Kish died at the battle of Guadalcanal during WW2. For many years, this memorial was looked after by a nearby American Legion Post, but that organization seems to have aged out and become defunct. The memorial is in poor condition, and Hurricane Sandy claimed the flag pole that used to be here, so City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer just allocated a sizable amount of cash to the Blissville Civic Association to spruce the memorial up and erect a new flagpole there. Jimmy did an event here on some random Thursday to announce the funding, but I couldn’t make that one.
Since this is election season, of course, and Jimmy Van Bramer is running for Borough President against the incumbent Mr. Richards… Holy smokes has the Kish triangle become a political hotbed. At the event which the shot above was captured at, another BP candidate – Liz Crowley – also showed up, as did City Council candidates Brent O’Leary, Julia Forman, Amit Bagga, Emily Sharpe, and there were several others who showed up as well. Here’s the whole set of shots from May 31, 2021.
Man, the amount of effort it takes to get these people to Newtown Creek when it’s not an election cycle… The following week, two other candidates – Jonathan Bailey and Stephen Ragga – did another event here. General consensus is that if the election was just about who has the best hair – Bailey wins. Here’s a few shots from that one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last, I was on the R heading to Jackson Heights to make a connection with the 7 so I could hit LIC before the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself slid behind New Jersey when I spotted this little fare dodger sitting on some dude’s shoulder.
Fun times in the ancient villages of Western Queens, I tell’s ya.
“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.
horrible familiarity
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The only times I’m actually happy are when I’m operating the camera. Accordingly, one found himself lingering about on the Koscisuzcko Bridge recently awaiting the occlusion of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself behind the Manhattan shield wall. I had the whole kit and kaboodle with me for a change, and figured to make good use of the tripod I had been laboriously carrying around.
Funny thing about the new camera is that I really don’t need the tripod that often anymore and only carry it with me when a specific shot that requires it is in mind, such as the first image in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having accomplished my goal of “getting a nice sunset shot of the creek” after hanging around on the Kosciuszcko Bridge for awhile, I broke down the tripod setup and got back to normal handheld shooting. There’s a couple of other shooters I see up there periodically, an older guy who carries a Nikon and a young woman who favors the Sony system. My guess is that they’re both Greenpoint people. I’ve tried to chat about camera stuff briefly with the old guy, but there’s a language barrier we keep running into. The woman always has headphones on, which is a “tell” saying “I don’t want to chat.” Read the room, huh?
At any rate, gear safely stored for carrying, I pointed my toes towards Queens and began scuttling back towards home.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Naturally – thereby – after I had packed everything up and affixed a non zoom lens to the camera, the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge opened up about 3/4 of a mile to the west. Sigh.
More tomorrow at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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 