Archive for the ‘Pickman’ Category
uttermost fields
Night shooting in DUPBO, Down under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saturday last, your humble narrator attended the first half of the North Brooklyn Boat Club’s annual “Rock the Pulaski” party. One arrived a bit early, staked out a spot of the bulkhead, and waited for it to get dark. Pictured above, obviously, is Frederick Zurmuhlen’s 1954 vintage double bascule Pulaski Bridge – owned and operated by the NYC Department of Transportation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While squeezing out tripod shots of the Newtown Creek scenery, this critter suddenly made an appearance. I’m told that it’s a juvenile Night Heron. It seemed to be doing some hunting, and was rather non-plussed when I attached the flash to my camera.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The bird was hunting worms, of the aquatic variety, and using a floating plank of wood as a platform from which to do so. That’s actually a peanut shell in its beak in the shot above. Apparently, Night Herons like peanuts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A long exposure shot of the scene, looking towards Long Island City’s Hunters Point neighborhood, and the Vernon Avenue Street end. Once upon a time, the Vernon Avenue Bridge and the Newtown Creek Towing Company (and an Ulmer Brewery saloon) would have been in the center of the shot. That’s what it looks like at night, in DUPBO.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Walking Tours-
Saturday, September 27th, 13 Steps Around Dutch Kills
Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura, click here for tickets and more info.
Sunday, September 28th, The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek
Walking Tour with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for tickets and more info.
molecular motion
First, you make a hole, then you fill the hole. Why bother?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not too many days ago, a humble narrator was startled by a positive cacophony arising from without. Even by the standards of Astoria, which seems to present one with oceans of variegated and unending noise, this was an outlandish amount of sound. Sounded like someone was tearing apart the very street. Turns out, they were.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This seemed to be a crew working for Verizon, the same ones I spotted on Queens Boulevard that were installing fiber optic lines and whose operation was examined in the post “nervous element.” They had the same saw truck thing, the CC155 Vermeer, which I feel deuty bound to point out the efficacy of – both in its intended role in sawing up the pavement, and for its potential as an anti “Horde of Zombies” weapon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One such as myself is endlessly fascinated by projects like this, wherein a cross section of “down there” stands revealed for a few moments. The layer cake of street, particularly over and around subways as in the case of Astoria’s Broadway, tells you a lot about how things actually work. You got sewers, pipes of all descriptions (many of which go nowhere and are connected to nothing that has existed above ground for a half century or more), that there’s all manner of buried items would suffice. There’s subway tracks below, so this actually isn’t a street at all – as in paved ground, so I suppose it’s actually a sort of roof that they’re noisily cutting into.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The operation kept on having to slow down and bring in guys with shovels, picks, and pry bars when the big zombie fighting saw machine started bringing up chunks of wood. The stuff splintered up, and seemed to be material that the crew needed to clear away manually. Some fairly large chunks of timber came out of the trench. A guess would be that’s it’s likely a layer of creosoted timber which is sitting on top of the steel and cement “cut and cover” subway tunnel that’s about 20 or so feet down. The scene also cast some doubt about the Vermeer being used against Zombies, whose splintered skulls would be similarly treated by the unit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I turned away from the scene for a bit, made some coffee and answered a few emails. Suddenly, the sound of a giant “not so appropriate for killing Zombies or tearing through wet lumber but amazing at trenching concrete and asphalt saw machine” stopped, and the scent of hot asphalt filled the air. The only sounds enjoyed at this time were the driving rhythm of a ground tamper and the staccato of a dump truck diesel engine. Soon, the crew’s carefully dug trench was carefully filled in.
The Vermeer was seen last night, parked over on Jackson Avenue in LIC, near 23rd street and in front of the former 5ptz. The crew was nowhere to be found, but to be fair, it was something like 9 p.m.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Walking Tours-
Saturday, September 27th, 13 Steps Around Dutch Kills
Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura, click here for tickets and more info.
Sunday, September 28th, The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek
Walking Tour with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for tickets and more info.
delicate adjustments
The night time is the right time…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering about Astoria with a little dog called Zuzu, one observes a series of interesting tableaus. Zuzu requires a certain daily amount of marching about, so as to check her “pee mail” at every tree pit – and given her legendarily thick double coat of fur, this is best accomplished long after the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself has exited the scene and the pavement has cooled. Luckily, this puts me out on the street just as the party seems to be getting started for everyone else.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The human hive is surprisingly active well into the wee hours around these parts. Parental admonishment rings forth from open windows, queer foreign voices drunkenly slur and babble in unknown tongues, automobiles operated by adolescents screech along the streets. The smell of curry and burning olive oil are everywhere, along with the occasional wisps of cannabis. Eventually, things will quiet down, usually when the saloon keepers have served their “last call.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lately, one finds himself yearning for elevation over the dross theater of Astoria. Vantage over the scene calls to me, although what one might encounter up here is no different than the sidewalks, except for its lower population numbers. You’ll find drunks and inebriates up here if you look, or forget to lock the door. Once or twice a week, when the LaGuardia flight path carries aeronauts over the neighborhood on the way to their landing strip, an NYPD helicopter will appear and play a light over these tar beaches – likely searching for foreign sappers seeking to cause chaos. Not up to anything more sinister than photographing one thing or another, your humble narrator usually just waves at the aerial gendarme. Zuzu could care less, as she cannot climb ladders.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Walking Tours-
Saturday, September 27th, 13 Steps Around Dutch Kills
Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura, click here for tickets and more info.
Sunday, September 28th, The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek
Walking Tour with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for tickets and more info.
half impassable
I’d say I was getting old, as if I wasn’t already there.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few archive shots in today’s post, as your humble narrator is busy licking his wounds. A tear to the skinvelope on my left foot, a minor injury, has been causing me to walk “funny,” or at least funnier than usual. The changes in my normal gait have, over the course of the last few days, created a few sore muscles in the lower back. This, in turn, has transmitted along the entire spine. Accordingly, today, I’m a hunched over malcontent given to emanating odd sighs and groans whenever a transition from sitting to standing is required.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The foot injury itself is decidedly superficial, a few irritated and or raw spots on the top layer of skin that don’t “hurt” but which are uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the affected area is found deep within my shoe, and walking mile after mile has caused further irritation on the tender spot. I’m a bit like a tropical flower, it would seem – delicate. I can tell you that twenty years ago, I could have laughed off a bleeding hole the size of a ping pong ball, whereas today an overly large pimple is capable of reducing me to bed rest. Summon the clergy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, I have a long list of pedantic tasks to accomplish before the computer and a longer list of books that require reading. Unfortunately, infirmity means I won’t be walking that much for the next couple of days in the hope that my skinvelope will regenerate enough tissue to protect the underlying firmament of tendon and muscle. The back thing has to sort itself out, as usual.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Walking Tours-
Saturday, September 27th, 13 Steps Around Dutch Kills
Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura, click here for tickets and more info.
Sunday, September 28th, The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek
Walking Tour with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for tickets and more info.
mournful planets
Caedite eos. Novit enim Dominus qui sunt eius.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Many times have I commented on the odd causality surrounding certain dates in the historical record. Obviously – September 11 has become the center of attention for NY historians since 2001, but this is a week wherein propitious events seem to have happened over the centuries. To begin with, the European discovery and description of our little town seems to have begun some four hundred and five years ago today.
In 1609, September 12th was the day that a fellow named Henry Hudson sailed up a certain river after having noticed two or three large islands in a natural harbor, onboard a Dutch East India Company ship called the Halve Maen.
Oddly enough, September 12th is considered to be the anniversary of the Battle of Marathon by scholarly sources.
Then there’s the First World War, and September 12th is the day that Gerry decided to dig in – which began three and a half years of trench warfare.
from greatwar.co.uk
From 12th September 1914 the German Army began to “dig in” on the high ground of the Chemin des Dames ridge on the north bank of the river Aisne. The Germans dug defensive trenches with the intention of securing the position and preventing any further possibility of withdrawal. This battlefield area witnessed the beginnings of entrenched positions and the change from a mobile war to a static deadlock between the opposing forces. From this date the entrenchments would gradually spread along the whole length of the Western Front, would become deeper and more impregnable and would characterize the siege warfare fighting of the Western Front for the following three and a half years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in the past, your humble narrator has been writing a bi-weekly column over at Brownstoner Queens.
There’s a few of these posts which I’d direct you to check out, including:
- Thousands of Gallons of Oil Dumped Into the Dutch Kills Tributary This Summer –
A scandalous act, and the impressive investigative prowess of the DEC are brought to bear - Introducing: The Smiling Hogshead Ranch, LIC –
Wherein an urban farm and community garden project on Skillman Avenue can finally be recognized - From High Above LIC –
Shots from atop the Z Hotel in LIC, and I finally get to meet Borough President Melinda Katz. - New York Consolidated Card Company Building –
A profile of the Dutch Kills factory building. - My Beloved Creek –
A boat trip with the AnchorQEA superfund contractors down my beloved Newtown Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Oddly enough, I’ve got this weekend off from tours and obligations.
I plan on attending Kevin Walsh’s Forgotten Tour #83, which will explore Little Neck and Douglaston, in an effort to ameliorate my utter ignorance about eastern Queens. Also, I just received my paper back copy of Robert Caro’s “The Power Broker” from Amazon, so there’s a bit of reading I’m anxious to get into.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Walking Tours-
Saturday, September 27th, 13 Steps Around Dutch Kills
Walking Tour with Atlas Obscura, click here for tickets and more info.
Sunday, September 28th, The Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek
Walking Tour with Brooklyn Brainery, click here for tickets and more info.
The Newtown Pentacle 