Archive for the ‘Long Island City’ Category
Archives #007
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s the little things… like crossing your legs when sitting… that you miss when orthopedically challenged. The cast on my busted ankle is made of those fiberglass bandages which the Doctors like, and it’s both heavy and omnipresent. Even when asleep, you’re aware of it. Existential comfort is dearly wished for, even as the pain levels off.
This 2014 post details the existential dread I always experience while waiting for something interesting to happen, or for a subject to just pass in front of my lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The busted ankle event occurred roughly a month ago, which kicked off an interval of some of the most challenging weeks I’ve ever experienced. Pain, painkillers, the annihilation of personal dignity, and the loss of ability to take care of all the little needs which pop up during the course of your day. I’ll never take being able to use the bathroom freely for granted again, for instance, nor drop a pen on the floor without worrying about causing a dog related crisis.
In 2019, this post discussed the fact that I had grown jaded as far as all the cool stuff I used to see, on the regular, back at Newtown Creek and NY Harbor in general.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator is crunched up in a sitting position, and aching to get some exercise. My phone’s health app just informed me that I’ve taken 3,495% fewer steps than usual in the last month. Yesterday, my step count was 45. I miss taking photos and moving around big and interesting landscapes. Hell, I miss standing.
Another series of shots from a 2021 Amtrak trip, which were captured in Washington D.C., are contained therein this post from October 15th.
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Archives #006
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s been an interesting thing, pulling these prior offerings out of deep backup for the archives posts. Workflow and all that has evolved over the years, and seeing the posts where I figured that evolution out has been fascinating. All of the call backs today were published on October 14th in their respective years, which is the main criteria for their choice. Also, for those of you who think that the ‘train thing’ is something I’ve only gotten into since moving to Pittsburgh… LIC and the LIRR wants to have a word with you.
A 2011 post ruminated on how banal the 21st century had become, and asks ‘where’s my jet pack’?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ankle situation continues, with lots of random pain and swelling. I really could use a jet pack, just to get to the toilet. I’ve got another three weeks to go before I’m invited back to the surgeon’s office to undergo whatever comes next, but there probably won’t be any sort of future tech on the table for that. Ostensibly, I’m going to be moving from a cast to a ‘boot’ at some point and starting a course of physical therapy, but I’m still in the dark on the schedule. Guess it all depends on what the X-Rays reveal, when I go in.
People actually got offended by this post, which was offered in a strictly tongue in cheek fashion, back in 2013. Can’t take me anywhere, I tell’s ya.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of this sitting around has been absolutely devastating for me. My leg muscles feel like wet noodles. One misses getting around and seeing interesting things which beg for a photo. I was meant to be in NYC this week as well, and had planned on spending a day riding on boats, followed by a long walk around Newtown Creek. Bah!
In 2021, this post was offered, which described part of a photowalk on the National Mall in Washington D.C.
“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.
Archives #003
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Day #3 of archive posts arrives here at Newtown Pentacle, as your humble narrator continues to recover from a broken ankle. As mentioned previously, I’m pulling forgotten posts from prior years out of the dustbin. These were all published, on this date, sometime between 2009 and 2024.
On October 11th, in 2012, this post offered observations on a ritual site that was discovered in LIC’s Calvary Cemetery. This particular ritual site, on a hidden hill, was regularly inspected during my walks through the polyandrion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m happy about one thing, though, which is that I’m not in that walk up apartment back in Astoria during this ordeal. This whole experience would have been a hundred times worse in NYC. When the ambulance brought me into the ER here in Pittsburgh, I was immediately taken care of and didn’t have to wait my turn on a gurney in some hallway for hours and hours, which is common experience back in NYC.
Thought viruses, transmitted by written words, which can only infect the literate? This concept was pondered back in 2016 in this post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every day there’s a bit of improvement to my situation. I’m sleeping fairly well, despite not having anything to feel tired about, as I’m sitting all day long. I long for a walk, to feel the radiates of the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself striking my skinvelope, waving the camera around as I go. Hell… I’d be happy just to be cleared to drive again.
This post from 2021 and it is the conclusion of a ‘72 hour’ series captured in Vermont’s Burlington. Whereas I didn’t discuss it publicly, the decision to move out of NYC had already been made, and this was a ‘first interview’ for what turned out to be my second choice for where to flee.
“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.
revenant mother
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
November 15th found Alternate Side Parking regulations working against a humble narrator’s happiness again, and the Mobile Oppression Platform – as I’ve nicknamed my car – needed to be somewhere other than where it was. Thereby, one planned out yet another trash run, heading full bore at both the paper recycling guy, and the metals and electronics guy. One deleted roughly a third of all his material possessions during the ramp up to moving.
Since I was already out and about and at Newtown Creek… why not?Every time might be the last time, after all.
First up was DUPBO. Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp. That’s the Vernon Avenue street end. Not Boulevard, mind you. This street end is a one block avenue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One navigated the ‘MOP’ or “Mobile Oppression Platform” about, shooting out the window of the vehicle with my zoom lens like some common paparazzi. Free time like the interval experienced on this particular day became increasingly rare for a humble narrator right around this part of November.
The big move to Pittsburgh loomed. Suddenly, an avalanche of “have to’s” erupted and all my attentions were drawn to the exigent circumstances thereby presented.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every time might be the last time, as I’ve been saying, and you know what? As it turns out, this was pretty much the last time for DUPBO, and for visiting First Calvary Cemetery in Queens’ Blissville section.
I’m totally faklempt about this fact. 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.
severed aspiration
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
November 12th, and I was hanging out with none other than the webmaster of Forgotten-NY himself – Kevin Walsh. If you don’t follow the fellow, you’re missing out. Kevin practically invented the genre of urban history blogging here in NYC back in the dial up days, and I’m honored to consider him as being my friend.
One of the people whom I had to spend some of my last time in NYC with was Kevin Walsh. Thereby, I drove out to the Forgotten Cave’s secret entrance nearby the Forgotten mansion, and offered to take him wherever he wanted to go.
Kevin wrote about the day we spent at his Forgotten-NY site, which you can check out here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I should mention that the car I got, and I had virtually zero choice in color or trim – it’s what the factory sent us, take it or leave it, due to the whole supply chain thing – looks a great deal like the sort of thing you’d expect Star Wars Stormtroopers to drive around in. It’s white with black trim. It looks like Empire or First Order technology, so I decided to fashion a nickname for the vehicle as being the ‘MOP’ or “Mobile Oppression Platform.” Someday, I’ll mount a laser cannon on the roof bars… someday… right now, I’m debating whether the “MOP’s” all season radials will get me through the winter or if I’ve got to drop a bunch of money for snow tires.
Decisions, decisions. Despite what literally every New Yorker thinks, Pittsburgh actually get’s less snow than NYC does. It’s because of where they are in relationship to the Appalachias, and the fact that NYC sits next to… Y’know… the ocean. It does get colder for longer periods, apparently, with deep freezes persisting a bit longer than they do in the coastal areas of NY and NJ.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Kevin Walsh hungers occasionally, which is a dark and terrible moment for any nearby. Thunderously, He demanded entry to the Bantry Bay Inn on Greenpoint Avenue, and so did the trees of Calvary tremble as he passed. Within the establishment, Innkeeper Clooney answered his demands for sustenance and grool. Soon sated, the webmaster of Forgotten-NY returned to his normal state of geniality. We returned to the Mobile Oppression Platform, and a humble narrator did convert the webmaster back to the Forgotten Cave in Eastern Queens.
The Forgotten Cave isn’t in Little Neck, which Kevin’s propaganda would have you believe. It’s location is secret. It’s where the Forgotten Computer, the Forgot Alert, and the Forgotten Cycle are stored. Several of the specialized Forgotten costumes may be observed – the underwater one, the space one, and the Iron Forgettatron are – in particular – deserving of the attentions of his few visitors.
“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 