Archive for the ‘Pittsburgh’ Category
Archives #013
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My beloved Creek, how I miss thee… This shot looks towards Brooklyn’s Greenpoint from LIC’s Blissville along the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge. What’s missing here is a rail bridge which used to connect LIRR freight trains to the Brooklyn side, where the Mobil Refinery used to stand.
Today, another archives post from broken ankle country (#brankle) greets you, with all represented posts having been originally presented on this date in their respective years.
This 2015 post discusses the garbage train in LIC’S Blissville section.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I always figured that if I broke an ankle it would be all the way back in Brooklyn at the end of English Kills, which is also the end of Newtown Creek, and is found some 3.8 miles from the East River. I never liked going back here alone, either. Too easy to get hurt and too difficult to get help if you did.
This 2017 post visits the actual last mile of Newtown Creek in Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
End of December in 2022 is when I left NYC and moved to Pittsburgh. No regrets, I would add. Again, it’s an interesting thing for me to recollect about the actual sensory experience of this particular day when viewing the photos. I remember the day this shot was captured as offering near perfect weather conditions for a long walk.
This 2023 post from October 23 involved me trying to ‘get back on the stick’ exercise wise, after an interval of being stuck at home while caring for Our Lady of the Pentacle after she endured a medical procedure. A year later and our positions have reversed, and I’m the one in trouble.
Back 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.
Archives #012
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Broken ankle guy Mitch here (hashtag ‘Brankle’), with today’s Newtown Pentacle archives post. These postings were chosen in somewhat random fashion – with the commonality and conceit of the grouping being that they were all published on this date in their respective years, falling sometime between 2009 and now. It’s going to be a while before I’m presenting anything that’s been newly gathered here, as I’m literally writing this post while sitting in the same wheelchair that I’ve been inhabiting for the last month.
This 2014 post discussed the coin operated ‘rides’ and vending machines which populate the sidewalks of Astoria outside of deli’s and pizzerias.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Putting these posts together, especially in my current physical state, have offered me an interesting experience. I seldom look backwards at the road I’ve walked, except to check if I’m being followed, of course. The archive post may be talking about some obtuse historical talking point, or arguing against this or that issue of the day, but the photos always bring me right back to the day/hour/minute existential reality of capturing them. I remember walking down Roosevelt Avenue in the cold – vividly – on the night that the shot above was captured. The image calls up memory of smell and sounds for me. That’s what’s so interesting about pulling these old posts, and seeing all the places that this ‘schmuck with a camera’ had managed to talk his way into.
Heh, check me out – nostalgic.
This post from 2018 mentions that today is the anniversary of Edison electrifying the first light bulb, amongst other things, and runs three fairly unrelated photos as illustration. It was also a Monday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The escape from New York was being planned for a lot longer than I let on, and by October of 2021 it already was looking like Pittsburgh was where we would be headed towards. A sudden appearance of posts talking about lands which might be found beyond New Jersey or …Staten Island… begin to populate the archives here in 2021.
October 22 in 2021 saw this Pittsburgh post published, with images captured in a long walk that asked the question ‘could I live here?’
“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 #005
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The broken ankle kept me up half the night yesterday, which I guess is good as that’s related to healing. Yeah? Hope so. Things get a little better every day around HQ, as I’m getting my strength back and Our Lady of the Pentacle continues the heroic level of care she’s providing for both me and Moe the Dog.
This 2016 post discussed NYC’S DEP in a positive manner, which is a rare event in the Newtown Pentacle archives. They solved an Astoria problem lickety split.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A couple of times a day I need to lie down just to stretch a bit. The ankle situation has me in a wheelchair, and I’m spending all day sitting. Hunched over in a chair gets super uncomfortable, with the abdominal organs compressed down under the ribs. Ugh. I really need to take a walk, but that’s not possible.
This 2020 post discusses a walk through industrial Maspeth, which I always called my happy place. I like post apocalyptic landscapes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned the other day, the only blessing in this situation is that I’m not living in NYC anymore. All of this would have been so much more difficult to deal with back home.
This 2023 post is from Pittsburgh, and describes a short walk back to the light rail which I took, after having a beer and photographing trains.
Back next week, I hope.
“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.
Archival offerings
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well, here we are.
Recovery from the broken ankle and the concurrent surgery has been pretty rough. A humble narrator has been staring out through a mask of painkillers and a narcotic fog. Luckily, the prescribed course of opioids has ended and it’s just Tylenol at this stage, so my brain is beginning to go ‘normal,’ or at least as close to normal as I get, again. Saying all that, I’m still sitting in a wheelchair as you’re receiving this, and won’t be getting out and about with the camera for quite a while. Luckily, I’ve been updating and posting here at Newtown Pentacle since 2009, so there’s lots of buried archival posts to re-present. My conceit will be calendrical, and you’ll see call backs to something published on ‘this date in XXXX.’
This post from 2012, for instance, contains a series of ‘odds and ends’ photos from the Manhattan Bridge Centennial event which I was a NYC Parade Marshal for. How about that?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The pain side of the ankle injury, at the moment, has nothing to do with the broken bones. According to the X-Rays, everything within the limb is proceeding according to the surgeon’s plan. There’s screws and a bracket – all kinds of stuff – holding my broken bones together. The main source of discomfort is actually found on the surface of the foot, where a ghastly looking series of wounds from the clamping down of my foot during the surgical procedure are afflicting the skin. Feels like a burn.
This one is from 2021, and depicts a trip to Vermont’s Burlington. Burlington was our #2 choice for where to move to – post COVID – but the ferocity of the winter up there made the choice for Pittsburgh obvious.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m still on the disabled list, and for a while, it looks like. Can’t drive, as I honestly have no idea how I’d get in and out of the car, and the opiates are still in my system despite not taking them for a few days now, so I don’t exactly trust my spatial perceptions at the moment.
I’m going to try and get the schedule restarted up here again this week, since it at least gives me a focus beyond this nightmare. Can’t promise anything like dailies right now, but I’m going to try.
Finally, here’s one from 2022, depicting a boat ride here in Pittsburgh.
“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.
Here’s the scoop
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Written from a wheel chair – So… last week, your humble narrator was locking down the house in preparation of going to bed. Our Lady, and Moe the Dog, had already retreated from consciousness but I’m a night owl and had been watching some meaningless television show before surrendering to biology. Little did I know that my particular biological function would soon become quite the topic of conversation moving forward.
While watching said televisual presentation, I realized that I had left my phone on the office desk found downstairs. Cursing, as I had already locked the door leading down to ‘the engine room,’ your humble narrator stepped onto one of two short flights of steps leading downstairs, separated by a landing.
My left foot lowered onto the second to last of the lower steps, which ended up being a pretty important moment, lifestyle wise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My ankle rolled, and then I went tumbling forward in space. For a split second, I saw the top of my knee and the sole of my foot at the same time, as I pitched forward. I fell into a roll, at which point I saw my left foot turned opposite the direction it was pointing at just a second or two previously, and a loud cracking/popping sound was heard.
I landed on my side, rolling with the momentum. A loud ‘gahhh’ sound erupted from your humble narrator, and pain blossomed. Now, I’ve been hurt a lot over the years, and even had a heart attack once.
Nothing in my experience, however, has been as painful as – or compares – to this moment.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Instantly, shock set in. Perspiration coated the skin, my breathing assumed a quick and staccato rythym, and I reached down to grasp at my left ankle and foot. Upon doing so, the foot made a grinding/clicking sound. Agony ensued, and I sat there for a moment holding my ankle – which was also making a similar but separate grinding and clicking sound. That’s when I noticed that the ankle bone, which has historically occupied the interior side of my calf, was bulging out from the front of the shin.
It took about two or three minutes to gather myself and soon I was shouting upstairs at Our Lady for help. She arrived quickly, and upon assessing my appearance asked if we needed to call 911. My answer was yes, and after placing the call so she gathered up some personal items I’d need for a trip to an emergency department at some nearby hospital. Wallet, etc.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An ambulance arrived, and then two EMS medics entered the house. They instantly assessed my situation as serious and stoutly carried me onto a stretcher, and into their Ambulance. On the way, a hypodermic of Morphine was injected into my arm, and a field dressing splint installed onto my ankle. My foot hung loosely during this, in the manner of a sock filled with a ham sandwich, and the splint ameliorated the painful side to side shaking of the thing as the Ambulance sped to the hospital.
We arrived at the hospital, and I was transferred via back board to a hospital bed within. I was soon in a ‘room’ in the Emergency ward, and an X-Ray technician appeared with a portable examination unit. Things get hazy around here, due to all the medical grade drugs in me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A diagnosis was soon pronounced, and the injury was described as being a Trimalleolar fracture with dislocation. The ankle bones which protrude into the skin on both sides of the joint were now free floating, and a third bone in the foot was also fractured. The foot itself was dislocated from the joining with the leg bones of the calf. Surgery would provide the only fix, but that wouldn’t happen until the next day.
This is when they switched me off of Morphine and over to medical Fentanyl to control the pain. Before this journey through the operating room and back to HQ would be completed – Dilaudid, Ketamine, and eventually OxyContin were added to my list of drugs I’ve taken but never wanted to experience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Surgery took around three hours, I’m told, but it’s all a haze. Recovery will take – at a minimum – six months, but it could stretch out as long as two years depending on circumstances. Obviously, I won’t be taking any walks – short or long – for a long time. What about this here Newtown Pentacle, then?
My plan for the interim is to link back into the extensive archives of past posts published here. The conceit I’m planning in terms of choosing these posts will be calendrical in nature. Three past posts chosen from a given day/month which match up with whatever the new post’s publication date is.
Thereby you’ll be seeing a lot of Newtown Creek, Queens, and NY Harbor stuff here again. I’m going to try and maintain my regular publishing schedule this way while I get back onto my foot, and I hope y’all will stay with me through this trial – something which I have no choice but to endure. I’ll try for five days a week, but cannot make any promises at the moment.
Back tomorrow – hopefully.
“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 