Archive for the ‘newtown creek’ Category
anxious band
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I keep coming up empty at Calvary lately. Today’s examination of the great polyandrion of the megalopolis centers around an odd monument of somewhat ambiguous vintage. It likely dates back to the time of the Civil War, give or take ten years on either side. The face of the piece is in rather bad shape, exhibiting a partnership between natural weathering and acid rain coupled with what would appear to be impact damage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An attempt to describe the inscription:
I read the first grouping as:
“In Memory of Jeanne Du– obscured text is possibly a P and a U- Epan in Pau FR– obscured text is likely ANCE or France.
There is a Pau in France, so that means she was likely French!
The stone follows:
“On the– obscured text is possibly 14th- of November, 18- X5, – obscured text is possibly DIED- in the City of New York, November 10 18- X5.”
“In memory of– obscured text”
“John P. Ferr– obscured text is possibly an E. Born in– obscured text is likely France. Died Jan – obscured text is possibly an 18 or 28- – obscured text is likely 1876. Aged– obscured text likely 73 or 78- Years.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All attempts at searching for the couple, using variations of Jeanne D’s name likely for someone of her ancestry and variations of the gentleman’s name, failed. This is deucedly odd, as Calvary normally gives up her secrets to me. The monument is remarkable for the double portrait, incidentally, which is a signifier of social standing and material wealth. I will continue to research this spot, which is nearby the Connell monument recently discussed at this, your Newtown Pentacle.
Also:
Remember that event in the fall which got cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy?
The “Up the Creek” Magic Lantern Show presented by the Obscura Society NYC is back on at Observatory.
Click here or the image below for more information and tickets.
whispered warnings
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All is fleeting, foot prints in the dust of eternity. Water will always win, and the accomplishments of an age of miracles will someday melt away into rust and sand. Like some ancient mariner, with his hands frozen to the wheel of a sinking ship and lost in tempest, so too does your humble narrator resist this and other truths of the world.
Welcome and nepenthe are found only amongst the tomb legions, so off to the polyandrion scuttle I.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A fairly early monument, by Calvary standards, is the 1858 obelisk and accompanying freestanding sculpture of the Connell monument.
It dominates in a prominent section of the great cemetery, occupying a position of prestige and the monument is evidentiary of a family possessed of certain material wealth and standing in the pre civil war era of 19th century New York City.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was the age when Tammany was born, and the teeming masses of Europe were arriving in daily tides to lower Manhattan. The City was bursting at its seams, and the inequality of wealthy and poor was never as wide as it was then. This is a New York that let pigs loose in the street to eat up the garbage, in which plumbing seldom extended beyond the ground floor, and in which children slept five to a bed just to stay warm. It was the time of the B’hoy and the mob.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Connell family has been difficult to track down, despite their obvious wealth and influence. Evidence of a Thomas M Connell, a “Commissioner of Deeds” during the early stages of the Tammany era who was forced from office might be one of the fellows who is buried here, but the obscured lens of the historical record makes this speculation at best.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Glaring and obvious to most, but always startling to me, is the manner in which important or at least famous members of the City’s upper crust just drift away. At the time of the Connell family’s residency in NY society, they were likely familiar and oft spoken of members of the community, either famous or infamous.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the world suffered by most in the 19th century, anybody who could afford to erect a thirty foot marble obelisk and surround it with free standing sculptures in Calvary Cemetery was clearly well off. Consider also, the societal standing and respect needed for Church officials to allow such a grandiose monument to be erected here.
Calvary is considered to be part of the altar of St. Patrick’s Cathedral by the Archdiocese, a holy of holies, and not a place to allow some “new money” bourgeois merchant to show off.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All else I can tell you of the woman who inspired this extravagant monument is of a singular nature.
Her name was Mary Frances Connell, who died on a Saturday- July 17- in 1858, and she was nineteen years old.
Over at NYTimes.com, a short obituary for Ms. Connell. Click here.
Also:
Remember that event in the fall which got cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy?
The “Up the Creek” Magic Lantern Show presented by the Obscura Society NYC is back on at Observatory.
Click here or the image below for more information and tickets.
massing around
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An arrangement was made to meet up with some of my North Brooklyn chums to hash around a few ideas and discuss the news of the day at the thankfully reopened Ashbox restaurant in Greenpoint. A bit early for the assignation, your humble narrator drifted down to the street end, and former bulkhead of the Vernon Avenue Bridge, whereupon the Iron Wolf motored by.
from seawolfmarine.net
TUG: IRON WOLF (SINGLE SCREW) 450 HP, COASTWISE, MODEL BOW, HAWSWER TUG
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long have I wished that my parents had been avid motorcyclists and named me Iron Wolf, but alas. In fact, anything even remotely canid would satisfy this urge, but this could have resulted in my name being “Laddie”, “Butch”, or “Spot.” Iron Wolf sounds like a metal band from the early 1980’s, the sort that would have headlined at L’Amour’s over in Bay Ridge.
from tugboatenthusiastsociety.org
Name: IRON WOLF,
- O/N: 0653661
- Tug, Length: 50
- Width: 16.7
- HP: 400
- Built Year: 1983
- Built At: New Bedford, Ma.
- Builder: Bear Marine Service
- Home Port: New York, NY
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All I could find online about Iron Wolf was terse, straight to the point, and in “all caps.” I suppose that’s appropriate. IF YOU NAME SOMETHING IRON WOLF, YOU SHOULD USE ALL CAPS TO DESCRIBE IT. TERSE GREETINGS AND A MARITIME SUNDAY SHOUT OUT TO THE IRON WOLF. WELCOME TO NEWTOWN CREEK.
from wikipedia
A tugboat (tug) is a boat that maneuvers vessels by pushing or towing them. Tugs move vessels that either should not move themselves, such as ships in a crowded harbor or a narrow canal, or those that cannot move by themselves, such as barges, disabled ships, log rafts, or oil platforms. Tugboats are powerful for their size and strongly built, and some are ocean-going.
Also:
Remember that event in the fall which got cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy?
The “Up the Creek” Magic Lantern Show presented by the Obscura Society NYC is back on at Observatory.
Click here or the image below for more information and tickets.
colossal portrait
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A constant desire for your narrator is the betterment of his palette wherein the esthetic appreciation of high culture is concerned. Accordingly, a recent perambulation brought me to the galleria of the native art form of the Borough of Queens, which is illegal dumping.
This salon is found on 29th street, adjoining that loquacious tributary of the Newtown Creek which men have referred to as Dutch Kills for better than three centuries.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The rotating displays offered here are many, and varied. Currently installed is an anonymous work comprised of empty vessels which formerly held liquor. Wry, such commentary on the human condition does not escape one as highly cultured and trained in the arts as myself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Neither is the sly repetition and utilization of manufactured items, nor their seemingly random pattern, unnoticed. Random takes a lot of effort to get right. So does the solemnity of a suggested narrative.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The entire piece speaks to one on a visceral level, intoning mental images of some lonely bacchanal besottingly acted out- over and over during the course of weeks- happening in the same spot. Kudos are awarded the designer, for the subject matter and overall composition.
Well done, sir or madam, lord or lady.
Also:
Remember that event in the fall which got cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy?
The “Up the Creek” Magic Lantern Show presented by the Obscura Society NYC is back on at Observatory.
Click here or the image below for more information and tickets.
ghastly stillness
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whilst scuttling across Jackson Avenue in the venerable section of Long Island City recently, the ebb tide of traffic emerging from infinite Brooklyn carried a small vehicle which caught my eye. It was an Italian motor scooter, the perennially in fashion Vespa, but this one had a sidecar.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator has a soft spot in both heart and head concerning the subject of attaching sidecars to any sort of two wheeled transportation devices, as well as an acquired appreciation for the finer points of Italian vehicle design. I’ve never owned one, but were I to purchase such a conveyance, a sidecar for my little dog Zuzu would be part of the deal. I suppose Our Lady of the Pentacle could ride around in it too, but this desire is really built around seeing the dog in a leather aviators cap and goggles.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Practical transportation like this is commonplace in Europe and Asia, where streets are Medieval in size and scope, and the price of Petrol makes even the outrageous modern rate of $3-4 a gallon seem cheap. One of the things which future generations of Americans will never experience, and this may or may not be a bad thing, is cheap gasoline.
Also:
Remember that event in the fall which got cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy?
The “Up the Creek” Magic Lantern Show presented by the Obscura Society NYC is back on at Observatory.
Click here or the image below for more information and tickets.
