Archive for the ‘Pickman’ Category
when during
People walk around like they’re safe or something…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the childhood aphorisms which one carries about with him is the use of the word “accidentals” to describe traffic collisions. It’s taken me nearly half a century to control the urge to call tree rodents “Skwerlows,” as a note. Pictured above is a rare sight, an NYPD cruiser – throughly demolished – on the streets of Astoria. The shot is from 2012, and the story as it was transmitted to me involved the coppers responding to a call at high speed. They encountered one of those sudden elevations in the street which caused them to lose control of the car in a shower of sparks, whereupon they took out two parked cars and a tree in addition to a few street signs. The commander of the 114th pct., at the time, assured me his cops recovered from injuries they sustained during the crash.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Jackson Avenue in LIC is a heavily travelled road, and accordingly has a higher than average statistical number of “accidentals” than other streets. The odd sight pictured above was noticed and recorded in 2014 whilst a humble narrator was scuttling to or from the noisome Newtown Creek on some sunny day. The physics of what occurred here mystify one such as myself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The “Carridor” is what I call Northern Blvd. Tens of thousands of vehicle trips a day carry west and eastbound traffic through Western Queens on their way to and from Manhattan via the Queensborough Bridge. Sometimes I like to just stand there to watch and wonder, since unlike me, all these drivers have someplace to go.
A recent bout of Flu has left a humble narrator a bit worse for wear, and short on new content this week. Accordingly, shots from the archives have been pulled and will be presented thusly, as this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
in researches
A cholesterol festival.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Astoria has a reputation for being home to some of the best restaurants in NYC, which is something that I honestly cannot say that I agree with. There’s a few gems, just like in every neighborhood, but… “best?” Also, on the side of Astoria I live on, we ain’t got that many Greeks. People hailing from the former Yugoslavia actually seem to be the largest single “group” hereabouts, at least in my experience. Saying that, the population is so heterogenous that it’s hard to point at any one group that dominates, until you start looking at “racial” populations (Black, White, Latino etc.). Even then, things are pretty evenly distributed around here.
That’s actually pretty good news, as far as the restaurant thing goes, as there’s usually something new to try. I will always, however, regret trying the Bosnian Chicken Soup at some joint on 30th avenue which would have never be considered one of the City’s “best” we’re it still open. Feh… The dish above was served at a no longer extant operation called the Queens Kickshaw on Astoria’s Broadway nearby Steinway Street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is a Mediterranean lunch pie dealie, which was on offer at Sacs Pizzeria on Astoria’s Broadway. If you haven’t been, Sacs is highly recommended. The pie was basically spinach, feta, onions, and a few other hits of green veg baked in a pastry shell. They do “normal” pizza as well, and there’s a sit down side to the place where you can do a whole Italian meal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Also on Astoria’s Broadway, and just down the block from Newtown Pentacle HQ is Muncan’s. This is an old school European smoked and cured meats shop, and they make all sorts of sausages, salamis, prociutto on site. They have a smoke house in the back yard of their shop and my practice is to be out drinking my coffee when they open the flues of the place in the morning. The bacon wind, as I refer to it, offers all the joy of smoked pork with zero cholesterol. Win!
A recent bout of Flu has left a humble narrator a bit worse for wear, and short on new content this week. Accordingly, shots from the archives have been pulled and will be presented thusly, as this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
other hand
Did a shave and a haircut ever actually cost “two bits,” also, what’s a “bit” worth in 2018 money?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in 2015, whilst bumming around the East River waterfront in LIC, one took a picture of a seaplane. That’s it, right up there. Difficult shot to pull off, this was, what with the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself hanging directly behind the venerable Empire State Building. The City really was shining that day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In 2017, I took a different photo, this time it was of a train. Specifically a Long Island Railroad train, crossing Borden Avenue in Long Island City and heading towards the Hunters Point Yard. This is one of my favorite spots in Queens, and a humble narrator will often be spotted while grievously squatting upon a pedestrian bridge over the track. Look for a corpulent vulture like thing with a camera, that’s me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here in Astoria, this 1957 Pontiac Star-Chief was noticed and photographed on a lovely afternoon in 2013.
A recent bout of Flu has left a humble narrator a bit worse for wear, and short on new content this week. Accordingly, shots from the archives have been pulled and will be presented thusly, as this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
assured by
Critters I’ve met over the years… they all hated me, even the dead one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in 2010, I scared the hell out of this rat in an Industrial Maspeth warehouse by setting off a camera flash. It said “Eep.” Then, it scurried behind a giant bale of cardboard just as the place returned to near darkness. The next time my flash went off, the rat was back, with a bunch of his pals. I skeddaddled, you can’t mess around with a squad of rats in the dark and expect to come home without some lasting physical or psychic scar tissue.
You don’t fool around in Industrial Maspeth.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In 2016, this skeletonized cat was encountered up on the Montauk Cutoff railroad tracks. In recent years the number of carcasses I’ve been spotting along the streets has noticeably diminished. I’d estimate 2011 as being the recent high water mark for encountering “dead things” on the streets of Brooklyn and Queens. Lots of pigeons, and other birds too. Scores of what we’d call “flat rats” back in the old neighborhood. A few cats, one or two possums, or the odd raccoon.
You don’t see stray dogs anymore.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In 2013, this Rooster was encountered in upstate New York. He was kind of a jerk, if you ask me.
A recent bout of Flu has left a humble narrator a bit worse for wear, and short on new content this week. Accordingly, shots from the archives have been pulled and will be presented thusly, as this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
smoldering hillocks
One has never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My “flutastic” week is nearly over, wherein a vast and somewhat hallucinatory experience with a viral infection has nearly been completed. This year’s variant of the influenza virus is a doozie, as compared to the prior iterations which I’ve experienced. The worst part of it, to me at least, was the inability to achieve a lasting period of sleep. For a couple of days there, the longest interval I could muster was no more than a few hours at a pop. These brief junctures were typified by bizarre dreams, typified by one in which I was counting the forks found in my silverware drawer in the kitchen. Worst part of that was that it was a serial dream. I’d get to fork number 42 (I don’t have that many forks, incidentally) and wake up.
A couple of hours later, I’d manage to pass out and immediately resume counting with fork number 43.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A doctor friend of mine, who often was concerned about my casual disobeyance of maintaining regular sleep patterns, advised me that you need a daily minimum of seven hours for your kidneys and liver to “turn over” your blood supply. She knew me well, and by supplying an actual scientific index and practical reason for surrendering to unconsciousness guided one towards a bit more of a sustainable lifestyle. Saying that, I’ve always hated the biological need for sleep, and resented the notion that one third of my total existence on this planet will be spent while unconscious.
I’ve never been a “tough guy” but as it has turned out, I’m fairly resilient from a physical point of view. I can drink like a Russian, endure physical pain and discomfort that would make others blanch, and there is not a single paper bag on this planet that I can’t punch my way out of. This particular physical fortitude has made me vainglorious, unfortunately, and when a minor event like an influenza infection occurs it makes one question – and more than question – my entire conception of self. Losing a few days of sleep used to be something that would roll off my back like rain, these days it’s a hammer blow to the cranium.
Also, my fork count got all the way to 764, but that was Wednesday night, which is also when I decided not to drink any more cough syrup. Fever dreams are just bizarre.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is a bit short of content for this, your Newtown Pentacle, as a result of all this illness and hallucinatory counting. Accordingly, next week, expect a few posts of singular images which will act as placeholders while one resumes his wanderings.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 