Archive for the ‘linkage’ Category
Remember, Remember- the 21st of December
Pour me a drink and I’ll tell you some lies – photo by Mitch Waxman
An axial tilt of loathsome memories, shifting identities, and unrealized vengeance torments your humble narrator and makes him thankful that December 21st is, indeed, the shortest day of the year. The long nocturne of the Solstice, however, is no cause for celebration here in the Newtown Pentacle.
Solstice indicates that the Famine Months of January and February are upon us. The ancient Hellenes would enact the barbarous Lenaia bacchanal on solstice, and the Maenads would feast upon human flesh. It was also the central night of a week long Babylonian festival called Zagmuk, a celebration of divine Marduk’s victory over the darkness called the Anunnaki and their champion- the chaos dragon Tiamat. In modernity, in the nation of Mali, the Amma Cult of the atavist Dogon will sing and offer boiled millet at the conical altar of their high god.
from dailyworldbuzz.com
Today is the Celebration of Winter Solstice Traditions – Monday, December 21, 2009 marks the Winter Solstice traditions, and this is the announcement of the official start of the winter in the Northern Hemisphere. Winter Solstice is also known as Yule.
More precisely, winter solstice will take place at 12:47 pm EST (1747 GMT) on Dec. 21. It is a date that will also mark the shortest day and longest night.
Winter solstice falls every year around Dec. 21. It is because of the earth’s axial tilt, which is farthest away from the sun at its maximum of 23° 26′. At this time of the year, the sun is closer to the horizon, thus giving out least amount of daylight therefore shortening the day and lengthening the night.
But there is a bright side to it. Starting Tuesday, the days will start getting longer, leading to summer solstice, which in 2010 will fall on June 21. At that time, the day will be the longest with the daytime lasting for about 15 hours compared to 9 hours on Monday.
Long Island City is ready for an undead invasion, so are parts of Greenpoint – photo by Mitch Waxman
Tonight- Cernunnos- the Horned God of the Wiccans, who the Arabs call Dhu’l Qarnayn, will be reborn after being ritually slain on October 31st.
December 21st is a special day in history, signs and portents abound.
Disraeli and Stalin were born in 1879 and 1804 respectively, Pierre and Marie Curie identified radium in 1898, Elvis had his famous meeting with Nixon in 1970, Ireland finally won its independence from a large and aggressive neighbor in 1948 and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves premiered in 1937. Oh… and then there was Apollo 8.
from wikipedia
Apollo 8 was the first human spaceflight mission to achieve a velocity sufficient to allow escape from the gravitational field of planet Earth; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to planet Earth from another celestial body – Earth’s Moon.
shot on June 21st 2009 – Summer Solstice – photo by Mitch Waxman
Do not be surprised if you see oddly costumed people beating out unfamiliar melodies on drums today as you make your way around the great metropolitan city. Gatherings of initiates are sure to form, and wild orgiastic dancing will ensue.
Can you be sure, were you to find yourself caught up in some modern celebration in Long Island City or Greenpoint, that you weren’t in the company of flesh eating Maenads? Or that you hadn’t become one yourself? Your humble narrator, lords and ladies of Newtown, will be casting one eager eye at that rivulet of arrested misery called the Newtown Creek- in particular.
from souledout.org
At certain ancient cairns in Ireland the sun only reaches deep inside on the winter solstice, only on that one day is the inner chamber lit … like the celestial body of male Sun impregnating the Mother Earth with rays of light.
At the winter solstice the sun reaches its southernmost position in the northern hemisphere perspective (**), and begins to move northward as it enters into the cardinal, earth sign Capricorn. Through the ages, the period when the sun moves northward again ~ from the winter solstice to the summer solstice ~ has been regarded as a festival season. In many lands and civilizations the winter solstice season has been associated with the coming of a Sun-God to save the world ~ bringing light and fruitfulness to the earth, and bringing hope to humanity.
Gabled roof of netherlandish design, windows glowing with a strange colour, Astoria Church – photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, this whole rumination on the Solstice takes place against the dominant culture’s winter holiday season. For the better part of a month, ritual feasting and familial gift giving consumes the modern mind. This period of the year, beginning with “Thanksgiving”, culminates in Advent/Yule/Christmas and ends with celebration of a calendar cycling.
1,096 days ago, I was in a hospital bed, and hadn’t yet experienced the pale ecstasies found in the glass strewn alleys and loamy graveyards of the Newtown Pentacle. 26,309 hours ago…
The darkest day, the longest night- my hour of the wolf is an interval of brutal introspections- here at Pentacle HQ in the ice choked heart of Astoria.
Note: Please say a quiet devotion for the ever patient and long suffering “Our lady of the Pentacle” today… she’s going to have to put up with and listen to this kind of maudlin revisionist crap all day…
from wikipedia
In many countries Advent was long marked by diverse popular observances, some of which still survive. In England, especially in the northern counties, there was a custom (now extinct) for poor women to carry around the “Advent images”, two dolls dressed to represent Jesus and the Blessed Virgin Mary. A halfpenny coin was expected from every one to whom these were exhibited and bad luck was thought to menace the household not visited by the doll-bearers before Christmas Eve at the latest.
In Normandy, farmers employed children under twelve to run through the fields and orchards armed with torches, setting fire to bundles of straw, and thus it is believed driving out such vermin as are likely to damage the crops. In Italy, among other Advent celebrations, is the entry into Rome in the last days of Advent of the Calabrian pifferari, or bagpipe players, who play before the shrines of Mary, the mother of Jesus, the Italian tradition being that the shepherds played these pipes when they came to the manger at Bethlehem to pay homage to the infant Jesus. It is the second most important tradition behind Easter for Roman Catholics.
In recent times the commonest observance of Advent outside church circles has been the keeping of an advent calendar or advent candle, with one door being opened in the calendar, or one section of the candle being burned, on each day in December leading up to Christmas Eve.
and just as a note: December 21 is also the anniversary of the Pilgrims landing on Plymouth Rock and getting the whole “America thing” started.
Some old movies
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sometimes, a humble narrator needs to admit defeat, kick off his shoes (which are showing signs of having picked up some of that queer colour observed around the odd shimmerings of the Newtown Creek) and soak in some passive entertainment.
courtesy of the Prelinger archives at archive.org–
1940 ethnic New York–
Focusing in on the “new community” concept of the ethnic melting pot in 1940. This is Roosevelt era propaganda, incidentally. First push to what NewSpeak calls multiculturalism (not for it or against it, just what it is).
![[item image]](https://i0.wp.com/ia301541.us.archive.org/2/items/Aroundth1940/Aroundth1940.gif "[item image]")
page link with info and multiple movie versions:
Unfit For the Living (ca. 1949)-
Robert Moses Propaganda, selling Public Housing as Panacea. Shows building of Alfred E. Smith Houses and makes the case for slum clearance with the promise of an ideal life in New York City Public Housing Projects.
![[item image]](https://i0.wp.com/ia301515.us.archive.org/0/items/FortheLi1949/FortheLi1949.gif "[item image]")
page link with info and multiple movie versions:
Social Class in America (ca. 1957)-
One of the “nose on your face” third rail topics in American Politics, which is not discussed in a modern “identity politic” defined culture. Poor people have a whole lot more in common with each other as a social class than they do with their ethnic groups. Dividing the city into groups based on how they comb their hair is Tammany Hall at its finest, there’s only 2 groups- the bosses and everyone else.
![[item image]](https://i0.wp.com/ia311028.us.archive.org/2/items/SocialCl1957/SocialCl1957.gif "[item image]")
page link with info and multiple movie versions:
Manhattan Waterfront (ca. 1937)-
Incredible infrastructure pornography for the tugboat and bridge fetishist crowd. Shots from Shore Road by Astoria Park of Hellgate and Triboro Bridges. Also, Manhattan waterfront shanty towns of indigent labor- not something that normally gets edited into the story of heroic modern New York.
![[item image]](https://i0.wp.com/ia301515.us.archive.org/3/items/ManhattanWat/ManhattanWat.gif "[item image]")
page link with info and multiple movie versions:
One of the money shots in the film is contrasted by the photo below, shot in summer of 2009.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despotism (ca. 1946)-
![[item image]](https://i0.wp.com/ia301516.us.archive.org/1/items/Despotis1946/Despotis1946.gif "[item image]")
A terrifying warning from “the greatest Generation” about how to determine how close to despotism your community is- which virtually predicts the modern United States after the first decade of the 21st century. Really, watch this one, scariest thing you’ll see today.
page link with info and multiple movie versions:
– photo by Mitch Waxman
and just as a note: December 18 is Robert Moses’s Birthday.
Back amongst the living
Wasn’t it nice of this movie production (an Angelina Jolie flick no less) to be setting up for a shoot at the end of the Queenboro Centennial Parade? – photo by Mitch Waxman
Newtown Pentacle Cemetery Month went a little long, by about an extra month and a half, sorry. We’ll be out and amongst the living city for a awhile. I promise.
Although I’ve got a few Calvary Cemetery posts “in my pocket”, I’m going to hold off the graveyard stuff for a bit, and need to go do some shooting and research at Mount Olivet anyway.
Here’s a few interesting links, including a “things to do” happening in the Subway.
- A page on Review Avenue’s Pennybridge Station came to my attentions- although I seem to be the last person to have found this site:
Check out Arthur John Huenke’s Flushing Railroad Company and Penny Bridge Station. - Occult Crime: A law enforcement Primer, from the State of California
- A special event will be happening down in the Subway on the V line in December, Vintage Cars. Click here for more.
- Check out this reportage of the Tammany Club carving up Queens into a recognizably modern shape in a 1901 NYTimes.com article
- Although this was a “summer thing”, I still bust a gut when I see this.
Linkage, and its Gettysburg Address day
It’s the Eastern Orthodox feast day of Obadiah, and the anniversary of Christopher Columbus stepping his european foot on Puerto Rico.
Lostcity has been drilling down through the years on the enigmatic origins of the Brooks Restaurant in Long Island City.
The Light at the End of the Tunnel?
I am ashamed. For years, I’ve told myself: “One day, I’m going to get to the bottom of the mystery of 1890 Brooks Restaurant in Long Island City, and uncover its shrouded history.” But sloth and inertia took over, and now intrepid reader Ian Schoenherr is having all the “Eureka!”s.
via Lost City: The Light at the End of the Tunnel?.
just a warning, the bulleted links below lead to BRUTAL nature photos and GRAPHIC footage, if you’d rather not think about such things or are squeamish, feel free to skip these links:
- timesonline.co.uk has an incredible series of photos documenting a fight between a herd of hippos and a crocodile. Click here.
- I confess to participation in the debates over which top predator might win in a fight over another apex niche animal, and have done my level best to warn others of the horrible realities of chimpanzee attack– well before the famed mauling in New England, and it gives rise to a notion that Mankind’s innate desire to deforest and exterminate all other life forms upon the earth may be something necessary. Believe it or not, this stuff came up while researching Flushing Creek.
Today is the anniversary of the Gettysburg Address, as well.
Here’s the little 10 sentence speech that Lincoln was rumored to have scribbled down on the back of an envelope.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate…we can not consecrate…we can not hallow this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government: of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
Linkage, and it’s Exploding Whale day
Some really great stuff has come through the inbox this week, here’s some to check out
Ms. Heather, over at NYShitty
posted an amazing video of 2 Greenpointers attempting to report an oil slick floating down the Newtown Creek to the DEP and receiving brusque treatment in return for their efforts. Funny thing for the DEP operator, who forgot the call center maxim of “you don’t know who you’re talking to, so be polite”, is that the 2 Greenpointers were Laura Hoffman and Christine Holowicz.
This is the public part of who Christine is:
Christine Holowacz immigrated to the United States from Poland in 1972. She became involved in environmental issues in the Greenpoint community during the 1980s. President of the Greenpoint Property Owners since 1989, Christine devotes much of her time to issues concerning senior citizen homeowners. She is also the Church of St. Cecilia political and housing coordinator. Christine served on the Greenpoint Community Board #1’s 197a Committee as well as its Rezoning and Kosciusko Bridge upgrade Task Forces. She initiated the first meeting in the successful fight against the proposed Key Span/Con Edison power plant in Greenpoint, leading to the founding of GWAPP, which she co-chairs. She is currently part of the Greenpoint Coalition, St Nicholas Preservation and the Greenpoint Williamsburg Waterfront Task Force, and is the Community Liaison at the Newtown Creek Wastewater Treatment plant for the Newntown Creek Monitor Committee (NCMC). Christine received the Woman of the Millennium and the Carmine “Dusty” De Chair Community awards from the Seneca Club, (2001 & 2002) for her work with GWAPP and a Citation in 2002 from the Borough President for her work in the Polish Community. She holds a BA in Economics and Accounting from Brooklyn College.
Laura is a member of the Newtown Creek Alliance, Greenpoint Waterfront Association for Planning and Parks, and gowanuslounge.com did a great profile on her in 2007- which can be accessed here.
I know these two ladies from Newtown Creek Alliance meetings and they are formidable women. I actually feel bad for the DEP operator.
The EPA page
to watch for news and community coordinator for the Superfund Newtown Creek drama can be found here. Its the beginning of something very large, which will take decades, and will cost hundreds of millions of dollars. A river of federal money will wash out the creek, and all the poisons in the mud will be hatched out, or so say the G-Men. Every community along the Creek will be irrevocably altered by this process. The dragon of “Progress” is awakening again.
just posted a cool “slice” of Little Neck, click here
Just over the weekend, I mentioned the Moore Jackson Cemetery, in the “More on the White Lady of Astoria” post. I was sent a link to scoutingny.com, which did a great workup on the place just yesterday- the 11th of November. Check it out here.
Queenscrap posted a great article…
on the efforts our friends at the Greater Astoria Historical Society are undertaking to preserve a piece of Queens history
from Queenscrap
Meeting to preserve the millstones
![[amd_millstone.jpg]](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_kulnm8Gjhh8/SvnxT6GNSeI/AAAAAAAAQKY/mHIvC87L1RU/s1600-h/amd_millstone.jpg)
The Greater Astoria Historical Society and the community of Long Island City/Astoria, are concerned about the safety of the historic millstones located at Queens Plaza.
Hidden in plain site, the two millstones, some say, date from the 1600’s and are the oldest European artifacts in Queens. The city’s recent stewardship has not been very good. Photos over time show significant wear and tear to their fabric. Recently, a multimillion-dollar renovation at the Plaza has dropped them from view and construction debris litters the site.
The New York Daily News covered the issue:
Ancient millstones grist for historians
$43M Queens Plaza face-lift hits the fast lane
Colonial-era millstones in danger at Queens Plaza construction site, preservationists peeved
We ask the city to support the community’s heritage by:
- Making the millstones available to the community by moving them from the hazards of a construction site to an exhibit space at the Greater Astoria Historical Society (or another location within the local neighborhood) where they will be not only safe, and on display, but accessible to the public along with an exhibit outlining their history.
- Making the millstones available to historians and scholars to conduct research (during the period while they are out of the ground), and to support efforts to make them official New York City Designated Landmarks.
- Open the millstones’ permanent installation process by selecting a location that will not only ensure their preservation within the community with an installation that will be marked with appropriate signage.
The Greater Astoria Historical Society, which not only has assumed the mantel as a watchdog over the LIC–Astoria community’s heritage, but has taken a very active role in their preservation, is calling for all interested parties, from the city planning, civics, preservation experts, and, most importantly, the general public, to come to a meeting at the Greater Astoria Historical Society, 4th Floor, 35–20 Broadway, LIC, at 6:30 PM on Wednesday, November 18, 2009.
All opinions and suggestions are welcome. Go to www.astorialic.org for additional information and pictures. Questions? Call 718–278–0700 or email astorialic@gmail.com.
Now for the Exploding Whale.
Click here for the youtube link to the video, you’ve seen it before, but today’s the anniversary.
from wikipedia
On November 12, 1970, a 14 m (45 ft 11 in), eight-ton sperm whale died as a result of beaching itself near Florence, Oregon. All Oregon beaches are under the jurisdiction of the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department, but responsibility for disposing of the carcass fell upon a sister agency, the Oregon Highway Division (now known as the Oregon Department of Transportation, or ODOT). After consulting with officials from the United States Navy, they decided that it would be best to remove the whale as they would remove a boulder. They thought burying the whale would be ineffective, as it would soon be uncovered, and believed the dynamite would disintegrate the whale into pieces small enough for scavengers to clear up.
Thus, half a ton of dynamite was applied to the carcass. The engineer in charge of the operation, George Thornton, stated his fear that one set of charges might not be enough, and more might be needed. (Thornton later explained that he was chosen to remove the whale because the district engineer, Dale Allen, had gone hunting).
The resulting explosion was caught on film by cameraman Doug Brazil for a story reported by news reporter Paul Linnman of KATU-TV in Portland, Oregon. In his voiceover, Linnman alliteratively joked that “land-lubber newsmen” became “land-blubber newsmen … for the blast blasted blubber beyond all believable bounds.” The explosion caused large pieces of blubber to land near buildings and in parking lots some distance away from the beach, one of which caused severe damage to a parked car. Only some of the whale was disintegrated; most of it remained on the beach for the Oregon Highway Division workers to clear away.
The Newtown Pentacle 