Archive for the ‘Photowalks’ Category
rather discouraging
Today’s post points out that you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You may have noticed that I’ve not been posting too much about my beloved Newtown Creek of late, which is of course, the titular focus of this blog. Haven’t been ignoring the old girl at all, she’s still very much in the cross hairs, instead I’ve been attempting to cut down a bit on my exposure to it and explore the railed tendrils and vehicular paths which snake out and around the waterway on their way eastwards into Brooklyn and Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a difficult thing to do, of course- but as I don’t live next door to Newtown Creek, I enjoy the luxury of allowing its hazards to eke out of my system periodically. Personally, I thrive in its post apocalyptic miasma, but prudence demands that one take a break every now and then. This is a luxury, as mentioned, one not enjoyed by entire communities in North Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Meetings of Newtown Creek Alliance, Newtown Creek Monitoring Committee and other groups regularly draw me into the insalubrious valley, an industrial and remote spot known for mephitic vapors and unwholesome sights, and whenever I get the chance to just hang around the slightly less toxic neighborhood I live in- I grasp, and gasp, at it.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
carnivorous organisms
Today’s post visits DUKBO, Down Under the Kosciuszko Bridge Onramp.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An angle between neighborhoods, this spot is in Maspeth and Sunnyside and Blissville and Laurel Hill all at the same time. It’s alongside the Brooklyn Queens Expressway and the Queens leg of the 1.1 mile long Kosciuszko Bridge Complex and the Long Island Expressway. To the west lies Calvary Cemetery and its tomb legions, and it is known to all simply and aptly as Laurel Hill Blvd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the spots where Europeans originally settled in Queens, as early as the 1680’s there were farms and houses here, it is nevertheless a forgotten and desolate place seldom traveled to but rather through. In actuality, if you were to count all the humans who travelled by on any given day, the number would suggest one of the most crowded spots on the planet.
Luckily, local artisans have inscribed the spot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Vast graffiti has been installed, decrying the clarion call of the outer boroughs upon the titan masonry of the bridge’s approach ramp. Epic wit emblazoned with such panache surely indicates the presence of a latter day bard here in this angle between neighborhoods.
Pithy expression, and the freedom to pursue it, indeed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happily, everything in Queens faces Manhattan these days, and on a clear day one might be able to discern this delicate missive from the Shining City if atmospheric and lighting conditions are just right. Also, the thought paid by the artist to those visiting the interred at Calvary must be heeded.
Imagine the joy of describing to your grandchild what the word “Scumbag” means as he stands in front of a loved ones grave.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
necrophagous feelers
Today’s post walks around in the dark.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you may remember, South Street Seaport and the surrounding area in Manhattan experienced a bit of trouble last year during the storm. What’s surprising is that so little of the area has recovered by now. I’m led to believe that electrical systems in particular still haven’t been restored, and based on the number of shuttered store fronts, inclination to accept this theorem is found.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few of the bars and restaurants are open, but the streets are dark and an area, which is observed normally as having a moderate pedestrian population moving about in the evenings, was a ghost town when transversed recently. Hopefully it was just the weather.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is odd that basic services are taking so long to reassert, in this place so close to the center of political and corporatist power.
Heading up to the train and pondering this dilemma, one noted that the truly important things have been seen to with due alacrity by the powers that be, for ultimately- one must have an interesting project to mention at cocktail parties and fundraisers.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
feverish digging
Today’s Maritime Sunday post, from Port Newark.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 2013 Working Harbor Schedule is underway, and while attending one of Captain Doswell’s intriguing “Beyond Sandy” Hidden Harbor tours, the Elizabeth McAllister emerged from the rain and mist. The evening was distinguished by the difficult atmospheric conditions, which obliterated the lighting effects of the setting of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself in the western sky.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The weather was actually ridiculous, with heavy fog and rain lashing through it, accompanying unseasonably low temperatures. Hardship for land lubbers, that is, because NY Harbor keeps working no matter what nature throws at it. Sailors are used to this sort of thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Elizabeth McAllister was launched the same yeur that I was, in 1967, but unlike me- she has changed her name a few times. The always brilliant tugboatinformation.com site has a great work up on her that details her birth, a 1988 calamity, and chronicles the tugs career.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tug was headed over to the RORO cargo ship Freedom Ace to assist the larger vessel’s transit through the narrow Kill Van Kull. The Maritime Sunday shout out this week is sent to the cast and crew of Elizabeth McAllister, and mention should be made that if you too would like to see scenes like this one- get onboard with the Working Harbor Committee.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
steamy shadows
Today’s post follows Old Mitch home to Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A marriage ceremony, uniting an old friend with his beloved at the Frying Pan restaurant and bar in Manhattan, drew me to the cruel streets of “the City.” Distaste for the island of Manhattan is a growing and risible inclination for me, but fealty nevertheless pulled me in. After the occasion, Our Lady of the Pentacle and I splurged on a taxi for our return journey to the glories of Astoria and I decided to make use of the rare indulgence to crack out a few more shots for “operation: night shooting.”
Unfortunately, being amongst others set me off (especially if they knew me as a child), and I fell into a bit of mood.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The darkness of Manhattan is palpable, as the Shining City only actually shines high above the vomit and urine caked pavement. The high flying kabuki offered by the oligarchs is hollow, a monument to themselves, and one which foreign tourists travel far and wide to witness. For those of us who reside in the boroughs, the truth of such things is always apparent- and behind the facade is naught but corruption, rot, and a banal sensibility.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the Taxi careened through the teeming streets, filled with those who acquire and purchase, anxiety ruled over my thoughts, and my own carefully maintained facade of civility and sanity fell away. Beneficent, Our Lady of the Pentacle attempted to smooth the furrows in my brow, assuring me that we would be home soon enough. Everywhere I pointed the camera, throngs of people wandered, seeking something new to consume or buy. Big night out in the city, I guess.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mighty Queensboro allowed egress back to the big island, away from the rats maze and exploitations of midtown Manhattan. As the gaze of that thing which cannot possibly exist in the Sapphire Megalith of Long Island City once again fixed itself upon me, at last was I able to breathe easily.
Home awaited, a refuge found amongst the raven haired slopes of ancient Astoria, and the concrete devastations of Western Queens.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? June 2013 Walking Tours-
The Poison Cauldron– Saturday, June 15, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets now on sale.
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 