Archive for the ‘DUKBO’ Category
persistently haunted
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in Friday’s post, a humble narrator set out for Greenpoint’s “Penny Bridge” street end to capture a few sunset shots. What with the heat and all the rain we’ve been having, it’s been difficult to find the right time and get to the right place. Penny Bridge is at the foot of Meeker Avenue, incidentally, where there used to be a crossing to Queens. The Penny Bridge, as it was called, was demolished in 1939 when the original Kosciuszcko Bridge opened. My pals at Newtown Creek Alliance have been looking after this spot, and have even installed a bit of historic signage about Penny Bridge. If you visit, be careful with the everpresent mud found there, as it’s quite slippery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The mud clogs up a sewer grate, meaning that there’s also always a giant puddle of super nasty water. Luckily, this allows what seems like a billion mosquitoes a place to breed. That’s the good stuff, I tell’s ya.
The night I was at Penny Bridge was about 24 hours after Tropical Storm Henri blew through the City, and my beloved Newtown Creek was particularly aromatic. The “licking a battery” smell of raw sewage was prevalent due to the Combjned Sewer Outfall system. Mixed into the aroma was a distinctly petrochemical perfume, and the nearby waste transfer stations that handle municipal refuse were introducing the scent of wet garbage into the atmospheric cocktail. Never has Anosmia sounded so good, thought I.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The weird emanate of light from the Kosciuszcko Bridge paints the landscape of the Newtown Creek with a lacquer of surreal and over saturated colors. The hues and intensity of the bridge’s lights are like no earthly color. Instead, they are not like some colour out of space or anything, instead they remind one of a certain Greek coffee shop back home in Astoria.
More tomorrow.
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“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.
tilted simultanously
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One found himself at the Penny Bridge site in Greenpoint recently, along the fabulous Newtown Creek, when the Tug Mary H labored past. She was towing a fuel barge, which was likely headed for the Bayside Fuel Terminal on Metropolitan Avenue nearby the eponymous bridge.
By me, this is exciting stuff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s moments like these that all of the low light shooting I’ve been doing for the last few years pays forward. Seriously, would not have been able to capture anything close to this with my old camera.
Luckily, the thing was already up on the tripod, since I had come out here specifically for the sunset period of the day. Funnily, the tripod actually limited what I could capture, but that’s where the low light capability of the new camera sings.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in the past, it doesn’t matter if a tugboat is pushing or pulling, it’s called “towing.” Next week, I’ll show you the sunset shots, but for now, I’m not sure what the next few days hold. Looks like the heat is going to break and that’s going to bring a bunch of storms into play, but I’m anxious to try out the new NYC Ferry Staten Island Route. The plan is to take the 7 to the 34th street dock, ride to St. George, get on the big orange boat and head back to Manny Hatty. Once in the City, I’ll shop over to Pier 11 and head back home via the Astoria route.
That’s me, I now commute for fun.
“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.
local perspectives
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few last shots from a spectacular sunset at the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road, along the turning basin of the lugubrious Newtown Creek. This is about two and a half miles back from the East River.
Some of you seem upset by my recent philosophical turn, the embracing of sociopathy as my governing morality. Well, in accordance with sociopathy, who cares what you think? I don’t. I don’t care about anything anymore.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Seriously, whatever it is, I don’t want to know nor am I going to oblige you with an argument.
One has arrived exactly back where he once was, offering his middle finger to the programmed and robotic ideologues. Did you know that during the early days of the Nazi military advance into Russia, the Wehrmacht encountered Russian made roads of ice? These Russian ice roads used German prisoners of war as structural railroad ties. The captured German soldiers were bound, forced to lie in a trench while still breathing, and then drowned in briny water which the Soviet armies pumped in which instantly froze and killed them. The Russian winter solidified the whole affair into something that trucks and armor could move quickly on during their retreat. The Wehrmacht officers described heading east on these roads, and the disconcerting experience of having thousands of panicked blue eyes lifelessly staring up at them as they passed.
This is lateral thinking at its finest. It’s also a parable for all of the shopping mall warriors in this country who think a Civil War might be fun.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Maspeth Avenue Plank Road has been extant at what was once called Furman’s Island since the Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant. Grant, and Sherman, taught the ideological forebears of the modern day “know nothings” about consequence.
I used to care about that, but now it’s just another fact. Happy Friday the 13th.
“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.
godlike solemnity
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is what I went to industrial Maspeth for, that’s what I’d like to say. Instead, I was actually there to pick up a package at UPS that I’d missed delivery for and wasn’t able to access it prior to 9 p.m.
Killing two birds with one stone, however, is the Mitch Waxman way. Why not spend the waiting time shooting the celestial light show as the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself slipped behind New Jersey.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Experience indicated that this particular evening, with low hanging clouds, would offer quite a show.
My embrace of sociopathy, however, indicated that I couldn’t enjoy the sights. This is the double edged sword of being emotionless. Everything, mood wise, is in the middle. A baby is born, and another one dies, and you force yourself to feel nothing at all. It’s a bit like stoicism, but gray. How did Orwell describe the future? Something about a boot and a face?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the shadows got inky, and the Kosciuszcko Bridge lit up, things got interesting. There’s such a narrow window for this sort of thing in the summer months.
Normally, I try to capture the Kosciuszcko lighting when it’s facing through the hot colors of the spectrum, but given the crimson and orange light – I went for the blues and greens.
“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.
The Newtown Pentacle 