Archive for the ‘newtown creek’ Category
utter nullity
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The least developed and most interesting character in the Star Wars fictional universe – to me, at least – is Emperor Shiv Palpatine. I consider him a role model, actually. Found a way to breathe life into a moribund federal state, where no societal advancement had taken place in literally centuries, created several sleek and deadly military branches, and rid his society of a conservative group of superstitious religious zealots – who armed themselves with laser swords and meddled in politics. Sure, he had to build a couple of moon sized space stations armed with planet popping cannons, but think about all the jobs that represented. In all fairness, he did nothing to confront the glaringly obvious role of the Droids as slave labor. Why do you think they used restraining bolts and wiped droid’s memory frequently? I think the reason that we don’t know much about the Emperor is because R2D2 never spent much time with him. The entire Star Wars deal is actually about the adventures of R2D2, who hung around with several generations of a single family.
Finally got to the Empire State Building observation deck last week, so lots of eye candy is coming your way, true believers. Pictured above, my beloved Creek in a wide shot with a whole lot of vignette. I was using one of my crop sensor lenses at this stage of my visit, and you can see the image circle when it’s wide. That vignette is actually the inside of the lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Let’s say that a humble narrator takes a few years off and goes walkabout. While traveling with Pirates and Smugglers in the South Pacific, he encounters an ancient temple nearby the island of Pohnpei. Therein, he learns of and begins to gather knowledge of the Dark Side of the Living Force. What emerges from the temple is no longer a man, he has become a Sith Lord just like Andrew Cuomo. A beeline is made for the mainland, and an overly complicated plan goes into effect which results in the overthrow of Democracy and the creation of the “American Empire of Freedom” is announced on the world stage. Ok, I’d be full Sith Lord evil – like Andrew Cuomo – so instead of a couple of Death Stars, I’d build the “Giant American Army Boot in Space.” That would look like exactly what it sounds like, by the way. A giant metal army boot that descends from the sky and grinds cities down under its heel as if they were giant cigarette butts. All the nations will tremble before the power of the American Empire of Freedom’s Giant Army Boot in Space, and thereby before that of the Emperor – Darth Mitch, Lord of the Sith.
Just realized that since the “rule of two” applies to Sith Lords, at some point I’d end up having to laser sword fight with Cuomo… I’m going to have to learn that “shoot lightning from my fingertips” deal. Scary man, him.
Same lens, same Creek, just a bit tighter in. As the thing zooms into about half of its intended range, the vignette disappears. This lens zooms out to 300mm, a focal length which I haven’t yet filled in with the lens kit for the new camera. Honestly don’t know if I will, though. If I have or want to, that’s the answer on that one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Sith Apprentice position would be hard to fill. Palpatine saw his guy get burned up in a volcano, and had no idea that the kid had knocked up a Princess. What was left of the kid, he stuck in robot suit and told it to kick ass. I’ve got a couple of friends with young kids who might fit the bill for robot suit assassins someday, but I have no idea where the nearest volcano might be. I dunno… Connecticut? The Princess’s kids screwed the whole Empire thing up, of course. Poor Shiv Palpatine, he did his best.
I’m sure there would be some Rebel scum who would futilely try to take me down, but what… they’re going to blow up the American Empire of Freedom’s Giant Army Boot in Space or something? Pfah.
This is looking over Alphabet City on the Lower East Side of Manhattan towards the coastline of Williamsburg in Brooklyn, along the East River. I’d switched to a different lens here, a 24-105 zoom. I was carrying an uncommonly large kit with me this evening, and made it a point of rotating them through the course of time that I spent at Empire State Building.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Actually, if I did acquire the power of a Sith Lord, I’d keep the whole “Darth” thing quiet and just be a master criminal. Just imagine waving your hand at NYPD and saying “I am not the old man in a black bathrobe you’re looking for” and having the Cops agree with you. You could also use the Force to float up stairs instead of getting all sweaty, get coffee, and you’re always carrying a super bright flashlight that can also cut steel. You could also probably use your magicks to try and figure out what this whole bitcoin thing is about.
This one is looking at the Freedom Tower, and the Statue of Liberty, and basically Manhattan from 34th street to the Battery. That green lumpy thing in the distance is Staten Island. Best baseball seats in NYC out there, at the Staten Island Yankees stadium.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you may have guessed by now, my goal of watching all of Star Wars, in the story’s chronological order, is moving along. This is in story timeline order, btw, not by theatrical release date. That means “Phantom Menace” followed by “Attack of the Clones” and then the “Clone Wars” series and then “Revenge of the Sith.” Now, I’m trying to get through awful “Solo” whereupon the very good “Rebels” cartoon will slot in. Then I’ve got “Rogue One” followed by the original three Star Wars flicks from the 70’s, and then Mandalorian. I’m going to completely ignore the three Rey movies as they suck and shouldn’t be considered part of the continuity.
Whew. What did you do during the Pandemic?
This one is looking towards Queensboro Bridge, Astoria, and Ravenswood over the shoulder of the Chrysler Building on Manhattan’s 42nd street. Still using the 24-105 zoom for this one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back at where all things start and end, the fabulous Newtown Creek. Every time I’ve been up on the Empire State Building’s Observation Deck, it’s been a fairly short and well timed interval which ends too quickly. Maybe this is just because of the Pandemic and the lessened crush of tourists moving through, but I ended up hanging around up there for more than two hours – which was awesomesauce!
The second half of my excursion occurred at and shortly after sunset, and you’ll be seeing shots from that interval tomorrow.
In the meantime… execute Order 66.
“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.
no anguish
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Whale Creek tributary of the larger Newtown Creek pictured above. The nomenclature of “Whale Creek” harkens back to a fairly forgotten era in NYC, when illuminating fuels were derived from the distillation of cetacean fats rather than petroleum. Before Kerosene, which was more or less invented by a fellow named Abraham Gesner in 1854 and manufactured on the Queens side of the Newtown Creek, the way you conquered darkness in NYC was either by buying whale oil from a fellow in Brooklyn named Ambrose Kingsland (as in Kingsland Avenue) or manufactured gas from a variety of industrial outfits which were based on the east side of Manhattan. Manhattan’s “Gas Light District” was the zone currently occupied by Stuyvesant Town in the East River facing “teens and twenties.” A complex of gas manufacturing and storage was evident all the way up to “blood alley” in the high 30’s and low 40’s. Blood Alley was where you’d encounter abattoirs and slaughterhouses, and the United Nations complex is more or less sited in that zone.
Modern day Whale Creek is nestled entirely within the properties of the NYC DEP in Greenpoint, and it’s surrounded by the gargantuan sewer plant they’ve constructed, which handles about 900 million gallons of our corruption daily. Well, it’s Manhattan below 96th St.’s corruption, mainly.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Court Square station in Long Island City is considered to be a “historic place” given that it’s one of the original elevated IRT Flushing Line subway stations that were erected in LIC, and it opened in 1916.
The modern day “Court Square Station” is actually a portmanteau of three different stations which were connected together back in 1990. The connections were part of a rezoning effort by NYC which began the build out of large scale buildings in LIC, notably the Citigroup tower which kicked off the building frenzy that continues to this day.
One yearns for perspective.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking eastwards towards Newtown Creek from the Empire State Building offers one such perspective, and allows you to view the region in the way that governmental entities do. There are not individual lives playing out in this area, rather there are trends and large infrastructure resources found therein.
Tomorrow and Friday, I’ll be showing you shots from this perspective, as I finally dropped the hammer on heading up to the 86th floor observation deck last week. The weather was right!
Back tomorrow, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
abhorred necropolis
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yup, still working on this shot at Queens Plaza. Just a matter of time till the right time and place collide. Unfortunately for me, a massive collection of “have to’s” and “I’d really like to but need to do this pedantic and boring thing instead’s” have obligated one to photogenically unproductive activities for the last couple of weeks. Boring.
I really want to get on a boat, or a series of boats, sometime in the next week and just relax on the water while shooting whatever N.Y. Harbor decides to send my way. Serendipity awaits.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While stuck listening to a long and boring meeting, one noticed a thunderstorm approaching HQ and I was hoping that I might capture some lightning to punctuate the boredom of it all. I didn’t, but I did manage to record the weird color changes to the sky which such turbulent weather manifests. About a minute after this shot, the low clouds collapsed and inundated Astoria with heavy rain. No lightning, though.
I mentioned a fantastic offer that Amtrak was offering last week, which priced 30 “segments” of travel at $299. Given that two segments (and three days of travel) are enough to get me to California if I wanted, you can see the value of buying the package which I did. I have until the fall to activate it, whereupon I need to use it all within 30 days. Where am I going to go?
There’s definitely a day trip to the pretty city of Pittsburgh and it’s amazing collection of bridges coming up (there’s also a significant number of “connections” to Newtown Creek there), and it’s also likely that day trips to Washington D.C., Albany, Erie, and Boston are going to happen. My plan for all of them is to have a well designed shot list and route planned out. Leave NYC in the pre dawn and return late at night sort of things. Fun. I’ve been saying I need a vacation from “the zone” and now I have a very affordable and comfortable mode of travel. Probably going to execute all this moving about at the end of the summer when the light is a bit nicer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back at Newtown Creek, we had an in person get together for the fully vaxxed crew at Newtown Creek Alliance recently. We’ve all been interacting over zoom and phone during the pandemic, but it’s been a while since the staff and board members were all in the same room at HQ in Greenpoint.
Spotted a DonJon tug moving barges around at SimsMetal on the Queens side from the green roof at 520 Kingsland Avenue, where NCA is headquartered. See what I mean about N.Y. Harbor serendipity? You go to a gathering to inhale some pizza and beer, and there’s a maritime industrial show going on in the background.
Ahhh… my beloved Creek, she never disappoints.
“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.
mindless animal
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sorry for the late update and single shot today, but what can I tell you other than that I’ve been about 24 hours behind schedule since Thursday of last week. Busy, busy, busy.
Back tomorrow with more, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
mistily defined
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few weeks ago, three young fellows drove a car into the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek in Long Island City and died. Somebody has erected a roadside memorial at the spot that they drove into the water.
According to the cops, these three unfortunates were proceeding down Borden Avenue at a prodigious rate of speed. They didn’t make a certain turn and instead headed for this dead end under the Long Island Expressway, and their vehicle went airborne and into the water. The cops and Fire Dept. brought out divers and all sorts of equipment but couldn’t save the trio.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A view of the same spot, from about a block away.
The official narrative is that the speeding car hit skateboard ramps, which caused them to go airborne. Something I haven’t mentioned during the pandemic is the sudden and unofficial creation of a skate park on the Borden Avenue street end at Dutch Kills. I’ve encouraged everyone who either knew about it or was involved with it to apply for “Open Streets” status which would have seen barriers erected but nobody every listens to me until something awful has happened. That’s when they admit I was right.
“Yes Commissioner, this is a great idea but Greenpoint has a history of industrial fires so maybe putting that high pressure gas main in this spot is a bad idea, next week there’s going to be a recycling plant fire directly across the street and next month a semi is going to drive through the sewer plant’s fence and land where the main is meant to go.” “Yes, City Council Member, but building out 35,000 units of residential without creating a single new hospital bed is short sighted… what if a plague sets up in NYC, which according to our history happens every so often…” “Yes, Mayor, but decking the Sunnyside Yards will be fiendishly expensive and you’re running the risk of radicalizing the otherwise stable and predictable political system of Western Queens and destabilizing…”
Call me Ezekiel, for I am a prophet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As to the narrative revolving around this traffic accident, which cost three young men their lives… I seriously doubt the skateboard ramp theory since – as you can see – the ramp is quite intact and anything a car might touch when it’s moving at 100 mph generally doesn’t remain intact.
Why do I care? Nothing matters, nobody else cares, and we’re all going to hell in a handbasket. Get yours, I’m going to get mine, and then get the ‘eff out of this hellhole. I’m done.
As a note, today’s the anniversary of the General Slocum disaster.
“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 