Archive for the ‘Jackson Avenue’ Category
fiercely and menacingly
Darkness reaches out for darkness.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Negativity and the desolation of loneliness can turn an otherwise wholesome individual into a warped and twisted crone, I believe, one whose daily round is described by ignoring their own condition and place while casting a yellowed eye of jealousy about. Those who seek, those who find, those who discover- these are the ones whom these corrupted individuals find loathsome. They close ranks, proclaim themselves to be an elite, and forget the lessons of history.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Corruption is a term bandied about often in public circles, often referring to a “quid pro quo” between a government representative of some ilk and an illicit activity performed by another which is “swept under the rug” in connection with some sort of monetary or social reward. Religious leaders opine that if one is offered a glass of dirty versus clean water, all will choose the latter, but these people believe in a fairy tale wherein an omnipotent entity waits in the sky to adjudicate over and welcome the dead. What one observes in the daily round however, especially over in the Shining City, has nothing to do with that ideal. There, baser desires and other supernatural imperatives are adhered to.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The self appointed elites of that Shining City reel, for their chosen champion has received a sound thrashing in a recent plebiscite, something that was plain to see coming for anyone who exists in this megalopolis beyond the rivers. Corruption as described above was never the cause of this defeat, instead it was a different form of corruption which damned their eidelon, that of hubris. They have feasted long and well, these elites. Meal time is over, and its time for the rest of us to serve them all a rich and well deserved desert.
Upcoming Tours
Saturday- September 21, 2013
13 Steps Around Dutch Kills Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura- tickets on sale now.
Saturday- September 28, 2013
Newtown Creek Boat Tour with the Working Harbor Committee- tickets on sale now.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
everyday tourist
Lurking, in fear.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It would seem that much like the hordes of rodents who tunnel and writhe below, your humble narrator is always skittish and ready to bolt for safety. Recent travels carried me through the familiar and entirely wholesome Court Square zone surrounding the megalith here in Long Island City. Certainty that I was being watched, and not just by that thing which cannot possibly exist in the sapphire cupola of the aforementioned megalith, ruled over me. Waggling my whiskers and sniffing at the air, your humble narrator suddenly felt that the presence of predators was likely and decided to make for a hasty retreat.
l’m all ‘effed up.
from wikipedia
Insanity, craziness or madness is a spectrum of behaviors characterized by certain abnormal mental or behavioral patterns. Insanity may manifest as violations of societal norms, including a person becoming a danger to themselves or others, though not all such acts are considered insanity. In modern usage insanity is most commonly encountered as an informal unscientific term denoting mental instability, or in the narrow legal context of the insanity defense. In the medical profession the term is now avoided in favor of diagnoses of specific mental disorders; the presence of delusions or hallucinations is broadly referred to as psychosis. When discussing mental illness in general terms, “psychopathology” is considered a preferred descriptor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Perception is a deucedly odd thing, half instinct and half observation. A poor specimen, both physically and psychologically, I don’t fare well in any sort of challenge. I’ve never hit the game winning home run, acted the hero, or done much else other than cause angst and agony. It is for the best that I stay out of these bright places, and it would likely be preferable if one such as myself was exiled to a small guarded room somewhere and confined lest I corrupt or debase others.
Corrosive agonies abound in my presence.
from wikipedia
Before the American Civil War, the mentally ill were often placed in poorhouses, workhouses, or prisons when their families could no longer care for them. Patients were often forced to live with criminals and were treated likewise: locked in a cell or even chained to walls. By the 1860s, Americans wanted to provide better assistance to the less fortunate, including the mentally ill. The number of facilities devoted to the care of people with mental disorders increased significantly. These facilities, meant to be places of refuge, were referred to as insane asylums. Between 1825 and 1865, the number of asylums in the United States increased from 9 to 62.
The establishment of asylums did not mean that treatment greatly improved. Because doctors did not understand what caused the behavior of their patients, they often listed the possible causes of mental illness as religious excitement, sunstroke, or even reading novels. They believed that the patient had lost all control over their morals and that strict discipline was necessary to help the patient regain self-control. Asylums often employed straitjackets to restrain patients who could not control themselves.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This proclivity toward self recrimination is accelerated whenever I’m near mirrors, whose shocking imagery always offers horrible revelations that puncture those lies which one tells himself. Perhaps this is what set me off, while innocently traveling to and fro across the concretized realities of Long Island City, for when one observes that the absolute eidelon of senile corruption and debased sanity reflected in the mirror glass is no idle fantasy or wild illustration but is rather yourself…
How can one not realize the verisimilitude displayed, to those scurrying legions of the eternal subterranean night, and not enter into the comforting arms of madness?
from wikipedia
Paranoid personality disorder (PPD) is a mental disorder characterized by paranoia and a pervasive, long-standing suspiciousness and generalized mistrust of others. Individuals with this personality disorder may be hypersensitive, easily feel slighted, and habitually relate to the world by vigilant scanning of the environment for clues or suggestions that may validate their fears or biases. Paranoid individuals are eager observers. They think they are in danger and look for signs and threats of that danger, potentially not appreciating other evidence.
They tend to be guarded and suspicious and have quite constricted emotional lives. Their reduced capacity for meaningful emotional involvement and the general pattern of isolated withdrawal often lend a quality of schizoid isolation to their life experience. People with this particular disorder may or may not have a tendency to bear grudges, suspiciousness, tendency to interpret others’ actions as hostile, persistent tendency to self-reference, or a tenacious sense of personal right.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
dogged patience
Sector one, one, one, zero, one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An area which most refer to as Long Island City has been assigned the postal zip code of 11101. That translates from the binary to the decimal as the number 29.
Oddly enough, that’s the average number of days it takes earth’s moon to complete its cycle (actually 29.530589 days) and roughly the number of earth years it takes the planet Saturn to orbit the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself.
In the I’Ching, the number 29 is referred to as K’an / The Abysmal.
from wisdomportal.com
In man’s world K’an represents the heart, the soul locked up within the body, the principle of light inclosed in the dark— that is, reason. The name of the hexagram, because the trigram is doubled, has the additional meaning,
“repetition of danger.” Thus the hexagram is intended to designate an objective situation to which one must become accustomed, not a subjective attitude. For danger due to a subjective attitude means either foolhardiness or guile. Hence too a ravine is used to symbolize danger; it is a situation in which a man is in the same pass as the water in a ravine, and, like the water, he can escape if he behaves correctly
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The zip code of any community is somewhat arbitrary, the Post Office basically started the numeration of postal zones up in Massachusetts and worked their way down the East Coast and then moved west. The Zip Code system was introduced in 1963, and the way it works is that the first three digits describe a Sectional Center Facility (Mail Sorting Center) which handles a particular region. The last two digits are a bit more specific, referring mail sorters to a group of delivery addresses within a particular city or region. Midtown Manhattan, for instance is in 10001, which translates to 17 in binary. LIC’s 11101 indicates SCF 111, delivery area 01, and again- translates as 29 in binary.
Element 29 is Copper.
from wikipedia
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from Latin: cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is soft and malleable; a freshly exposed surface has a reddish-orange color. It is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, a building material, and a constituent of various metal alloys.
The metal and its alloys have been used for thousands of years. In the Roman era, copper was principally mined on Cyprus, hence the origin of the name of the metal as сyprium (metal of Cyprus), later shortened to сuprum. Its compounds are commonly encountered as copper(II) salts, which often impart blue or green colors to minerals such as azurite and turquoise and have been widely used historically as pigments. Architectural structures built with copper corrode to give green verdigris (or patina).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Occultists believe in the symbolic power of numbers, although I believe this to be “twonk”, as my English father in law would say. Perhaps my prejudice against the viewpoint stems from a basic inability to perform simple mathematics accurately. I had the Chicken Pox in second grade when they taught long division and have never been able to catch up since. Cursory research on the way that those who ascribe to the occult worldview indicates that 29 is an ill omen, and associated with unlikely conspiracy theories centering around unholy bargains which the Rothschild and Rockefeller families are said to have entered into with extraterrestrials.
The number 29 has always terrified me personally, however, as it indicates that the rent is soon due.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
rather discouraging
Today’s post points out that you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You may have noticed that I’ve not been posting too much about my beloved Newtown Creek of late, which is of course, the titular focus of this blog. Haven’t been ignoring the old girl at all, she’s still very much in the cross hairs, instead I’ve been attempting to cut down a bit on my exposure to it and explore the railed tendrils and vehicular paths which snake out and around the waterway on their way eastwards into Brooklyn and Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a difficult thing to do, of course- but as I don’t live next door to Newtown Creek, I enjoy the luxury of allowing its hazards to eke out of my system periodically. Personally, I thrive in its post apocalyptic miasma, but prudence demands that one take a break every now and then. This is a luxury, as mentioned, one not enjoyed by entire communities in North Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Meetings of Newtown Creek Alliance, Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee and other groups regularly draw me into the insalubrious valley, an industrial and remote spot known for mephitic vapors and unwholesome sights, and whenever I get the chance to just hang around the slightly less toxic neighborhood I live in- I grasp, and gasp, at it.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
crude diagrams
Today’s post takes a walk around Long Island City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having a few minutes to kill, your humble narrator will often wind up wandering all about the neighborhoods, and Hunters Point in particular is a frequent destination these days. Pictured above, the Long Island Railroad at work. There is no rhyme or reason at work as to why I wind up at one spot or another. Rather, I’m due at some location or another later in the day or evening, and were I to not take the “scenic route,” my arrival would be suspiciously early.
Luckily, Queens gets me to where I need to be, and never disappoints.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whimsy and intuition guide my steps, sometimes leading me into dimly lit subterranean ceramic corridors whose underground expanses honeycomb the human hive. Inevitably, access to the street will appear, but one fears whatever might lurk beyond the oddly alloyed gates which guard against casual access to that which might be beyond. Other times, one has found himself upon towers and bridges, in contrast.
You never know what Queens wants you to see, trust in her.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Eventually, of course, one must get back to the business at hand. A meeting or job somewhere has to get done, and the world will shatter and spin off of its access if your humble narrator doesn’t get it done. At least in those interludes between tasks, one can find a few minutes to walk the earth and listen to what Queens is trying to say.
It should be mentioned though, that Queens speaks something like a hundred languages all at the same time, a cacophony which sounds a bit like thunder.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours–
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 