Archive for the ‘Photowalk’ Category
cunning mask
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, a college student contacted me and asked if she might tag along on one of my walks around Newtown Creek. After enduring my usual admonishment toward the wearing of sandals, we met in Greenpoint and engaged In a generalized saunter around certain points of interest in what I refer to as “The Lower Creek,” specifically the area contained on both north and south banks between the Greenpoint Avenue and Pulaski Bridges. At the Newtown Creek Waste Water Treatment Plant Nature Walk in Greenpoint, we encountered the Captain Zeke tug.
Welcome back to Maritime Sunday at this, your Newtown Pentacle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Captain Zeke has been discussed before, in the posting “average specimens” from February of 2012. The barges Captain Zeke was handling seemed to be headed for the Allocco dock whose street address is on Kingsland Avenue in Greenpoint. That would indicate that these barges are for moving bulk materials such as rock, gravel, or even scrap metals. From my vantage, I could not see any cargo in the barges, and they were sitting quite high in the water so they were likely empty.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After maneuvering their charge into place, the tug crew began moving around the boat, coiling rope and stowing away equipment. The tug reversed itself away form the barges and proceeded eastwards up the Creek to unknown destinations. In this case, the hearty Maritime Sunday shout out was offered in person, as the tug was less than 100 yards away from where my collegiate friend and I stood and the sailors onboard waved back.
As always, the thing in the Megalith watched on.
Project Firebox 66
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Bro, this thing has been on this corner since nobody knows how long, its furniture- y’know? This is, you know where, in Astoria on 38th and 31st, near the Souvlaki guy- the one with the smoke- in front of that Brazilian restaurant with the good coffee. C’mon Bro”.
Such local Astorian, or patois, would best delineate the position and surroundings of this exemplar of municipal service, the humble firebox, were it to be described by far more than one of my neighbors.
eternal day
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in Queens, a humble narrator has been rather busy for the last few days.
Next week, the schedule of spring and summer Newtown Creek tours will be revealed to you at last, as well as some details about the ambitious schedule of boat tours which the Working Harbor Committee is planning. Short perambulations around the neighborhood have been my only distraction from the plotting and planning of this year’s excursions. Unnatural and unseasonable cold, however, has left the streets adorned in a drab winter appearance.
One starves for color.
from queensnyc.com
On Sunday, we joined over 140 people aboard a New York Water Taxi for the Working Harbor Committee’s tour of Newtown Creek. The tour was narrated by Mitch Waxman whose encyclopedic knowledge and passion for the area can be seen on his blog The Newtown Pentacle, and on his tours and work as the historian for the Newtown Creek Alliance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Resorting to hanging around the produce departments of storefront merchants brings no surcease to this desire for the bright hues of Spring. Normally, one would expect the trees to show some sign of returning vitality and conscientious property owners would have already begun planting early varietal. Free ranging grasses should also be raising bright green shoots by now. Instead, the yellows and browns of winter linger, as does an unnatural chill.
One thirsts for warmth.
from nytimes.com
Not that Mr. Waxman is any sort of an academic. While the Newtown Creek Alliance, an environmental advocacy group, lists him as its resident historian, his credentials were earned on the street and the Internet, through countless solitary walks and countless nights poring over obscure archives.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mainly, I’m just tired of hanging around in the cold wastes waiting for something to happen, and truly look forward to a day spent entirely out of doors and unencumbered by the heavy garments of an overly long winter. The next few months should be pretty interesting, lords and ladies, and without spilling a certain can of beans- pencil me in for May 26th.
One desires company.
from blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu
Usually it’s not a great thing when your memory of the first time you met someone person is inseparable from a terrible, gag-inducing stink. But with Mitch Waxman, it comes with the territory.
hollow voiced
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A specialized filter for my camera lens arrived one day, in the mail. I had not ordered the thing, but beggars cannot be choosers- as is oft repeated by area wags- and the optic element was attached. Happily enough, your humble narrator went about his tasks and recorded a few hundred images over the course of a few days whilst moving about the Megaloloplis.
When one emptied the memory card of the camera, loosing a flood of images onto the hard drive of my trusty computer, a phantasmagoric cavalcade of horror was unleashed. In “the field” these odd… they must be some sort of digital artifacts… lets just call them artifacts… artifacts were not displayed upon the preview screen of the camera nor were they detectable by any of the normal compliment of human senses.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Seeking to track down who sent me this bizarre optic, your humble narrator soon found himself in the back of a mobile phone franchise storefront, on Main Street in Flushing, arguing with an aged woman via the proxy and translations of her American born grandson. The old woman informed me that the package I had received, whose shipping address resolved back to the very shop she owned, was a complete mystery to her and that I should stop wasting her time and go find a job.
More than once, I thought that I spotted a young girl moving around behind the curtain separating the back room from the sales and service counters. It was an intuition, more than anything else, but I did hear a strange sort of clicking or gurgling back there and water was pooling on the floor. The girl was likely mopping up a flood and cursing under her breath, thought I.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Does this seemingly wholesome and quite utilitarian seeming lens filter have some coating or innate quality which allows it to discern the intangible, allowing the camera to record that occluded and squirming truth which is the true reality around us? Who sent this anonymous and possibly eldritch amulet to my home, and why?
In the week or so that these images have been festering on my hard drive, odd things have been happening around HQ. Sleep may never come easily again, as my computer has begun to randomly play early 1990’s modem sounds, and… sometimes the compositions in these images will appear change- entirely of their own accord. The shot above, for instance, is far more toothsome than when originally captured. Lets just call them… artifacts…
And if you believe anything like this fancily illustrated tall tale, especially on April 1, I’ve got this to sell you.
Project Firebox 65
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Always on the look out for friendly neighborhood Fireboxes which have eluded my notice, this sturdy specimen was encountered on Astoria Blvd. at 42nd street. Unfortunately malfunctioning, it bears familiar signage adjuring the reader to rely on telephone contact with the Fire Department instead of using the alarm system.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Engine 263 and Ladder 117’s station house happens to be on the block” thought a humble narrator. “Why would there actually be a firebox on the same corner as a fire house” entered my mind next, but then I remembered that this was, after all, Queens. Logic and Queens are often exclusive of each other.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
No sign of the crews inside, so one imagines that this sign, advising one to use the broken firebox on the corner would need updating. Shame, as it is lovely typography.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A seeming memorial, this firebox like device ornaments a prominent spot on the building’s facade. The “343” is a reference to the number of FDNY personnel who perished at the World Trade Center at the turn of the century.
The Newtown Pentacle 