Archive for the ‘Pickman’ Category
crushed convulsively
A ritual observance observed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Spotted this on Northern Blvd. at 35th avenue last Sunday. Similar to prior findings, this assemblage of ad hoc sculpture seemed to be composed of common kitchen items. The best peasant magicks usually are. Oddly enough, Queenscrap ran a piece today about a similar find from nearby in Woodside – check it out here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As to the “prior findings,” this looks eerily similar in technique and medium to the subject of the 2011 Newtown Pentacle post “little memories.” Incidentally, that find also happened during the month of March.
The Queenscrap post links out to a thread at Reddit which postulates that this is a Tibetan offering/arrangement, called a Torma. Ignorance is my watchword, and your humble narrator confesses to it. These things have stumped me whenever I’ve tried to figure them out, which is odd as obscure occult lore is one of my hobbies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m pals with a Tibetan guy that lives across the street from me – a combat hardened U.S. Marine (and immigrant) with multiple tours in Afghanistan and one in Iraq under his belt who is trying to readjust to civilian life. Think I’ll show him these pics. Maybe he’ll be able to confirm or deny their Tibetan provence, or perhaps he’ll take one look at them and run screaming into the night knowing that these idols signal the presence in the neighborhood of an unspeakable cult that was old when the world was young.
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terrible phantasms
Photographing professional photographers while they photograph.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pro photographers, particularly the press folks, are know for… ahem… sharp elbows. When your dinner depends on getting the shot before the hundred other people standing around you can, this is a talent you learn to develop. Your humble narrator, a retiring sort of fellow who always aspires to let someone else have the last piece of cake, stood amongst this corps of elbows yesterday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The event was the St. Pat’s Day for All parade, an annual event in Sunnyside. It attracts elected officials like flies, so an army descends upon Skillman Avenue assembled from Newspapers, TV Stations, and every “legitimate” news gatherer in New York. None of these people pay the slightest attention to Queens the rest of the time, so its kind of galling watching them take over for the afternoon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Worst of all is when these photographing photographers and reporters “cock block” my shots. The TV people are the worst about this, as depicted above, when Bobby Cuza from NY1 starts interviewing Michael Gianaris right in front of me. I figured I’d get this as my shot instead of just the Senator, and if you hear a shutter flipping about in the NY1 interview footage when it airs, that’ll be me – as the TV camera was inches from my own lens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I can only imagine what Paparazzi work is like, what with having to fight off Alec Baldwin and all. That would require very sharp elbows, I think. Also, I need to figure out how to get myself a press pass. When I said “blog” to the NYPD Community Affairs Officer he actually made a “pffft” sound and told me to get behind the barrier. Luckily, I snuck in to the press pen by sticking close to NY1’s Bobby Cuza and his camera operator as they entered. Heh.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
stress and hardships
For a while there, I used to chew a lot of gum. These days, not so much.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you may have guessed by this point, your humble narrator was all over Brooklyn in the last week. Pictured above is the view from (literally) DUMBO – Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Onramp. You may want to tell me that this drippy warren of pigeon shit stained and ankle turning cobbles is the very model of a modern major city if you like, but you can have it. It’s always dark down here and that’s precisely how you get a vampire infestation started. How’s that for a rumor – Did you know that there’s a Vampire problem in DUMBO? That would suck.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Vampires are silly, of course, and kind of passé. All the cool kids are into Lich’s these days, or so I’m told by the Moroccan kid downstairs. I did spot a tugboat floating by, but didn’t head down toward the ConEd substation at the waterfront to follow it. My path was not one of exploration, as mentioned earlier in the week, rather I was just walking from Red Hook to Astoria and keeping the river in sight the whole way. Next time, I’ll pick around the side streets and see what wishes to noticed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One thing that I couldn’t help but notice was this CitiBike rack across the street from the Navy Yard, frozen in a three foot block of plow shaped ice. For some reason, this crystallized the period of turnover from Bloomberg to the current Mayor for me. Nothing cutting offered there, it just seems to be kind of emblematic. Good luck with the cold and snow today. Your humble narrator unhappily offers that a return to Red Hook, despite the blistering cold, is on his schedule for today – but I most assuredly will not be walking home.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Creek “Magic Lantern” Show
The Newtown Creek Magic lantern show returns, tomorrow night at Brooklyn Brainery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On February 27th, your humble narrator will be narrating humbly at the Brooklyn Brainery – here’s the details. This is the 2014 version of the thing, btw, updated with newly learned information and recently captured images. In the past, this photo presentation and info dump has been offered to political clubs, historical societies, and to the general public at a variety of venues.
Come with?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Brooklyn Brainery is a swell operation, located in the nice part of Brooklyn nearby Grand Army Plaza and several Subway lines. I’ve worked with them a few times in the last year, doing walking tours, and they’re very cool folks. Also, the space they’re located in is very nice – physical comfort wise and such.
From their website –
We host classes about all sorts of things: from physics to Australian desserts, from HTML to shorthand and just about every nook and cranny in between.
All of our course topics are dreamed up and suggested by you, and our teachers are a group of awesome people from around Brooklyn and the whole city. Anyone can teach–you just need a passion for the topic and a desire to share it with others. We do all the planning, taking care of sign ups, marketing, and materials, so you can focus on the important stuff (teaching, duh).”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The presentation will be about 2 hours long, with the actual slideshow and talk occupying roughly one and a half hours. What follows will be a Q&A session, wherein questions will be offered that a humble narrator will endeavor to intelligently answer. Brooklyn Brainery is asking $12 for the class.
There are still a few tickets left, so click on through and join the conversation about Newtown Creek on February 27th at 8 p.m.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
tone and tenor
Gear envy in today’s post, and the joy of photographing photographers as they photograph.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Funny thing about the part of Brooklyn wherein one finds the modern day Brooklyn Bridge Park is that, within my lifetime mind you, it has become a relatively safe place. I’ve been told tales of photography people hiring toughs and ruffians to guard their equipment around these parts to scare away trouble “back in the day,” lest the baser elements of the NY streets be allowed to pilfer expensive equipment.
People walk around like they’re safe or something these days.
Last week, your humble narrator wandered through, on a terror filled walk from venerable Red Hook to an end destination in reliable Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Observed were two photographers, but one was presumptively an assistant.
One of my smaller joys is photographing photographers as they photograph, as it satisfies some urge in me to document everything I see. Also, those of us who brandish cameras about constantly are ridiculous and are seldom ridiculed because we are out of frame when a photo is captured. I find these shots fascinating, and there are all these dramatic postures which are spontaneously displayed when photographers photograph, so whenever I can photograph photographers as they photograph, I do. I like to shoot shoots, as it were.
These guys though (I don’t mean the kid with the iPhone), profit greatly from the fact that no one is going to come and take away their stuff in modern day Brooklyn. They had something like 70 grand worth of equipment out there for all to admire. This was me, I’d have Hank the Elevator Guy and a couple of the stoutly built Croatians that populate my neighborhood in Astoria along to keep things nice and even.
Look at that lens, just look at it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My educated guess as to the identity of the lens this fellow is using, with my conjecture based purely on its physical appearance, is that it’s either a more than $10,000 Canon EF 500mm f/4L (an actual model number or variant is difficult to distinguish) or the top of the line $13,000 plus Canon EF 800mm f/5.6L. The cameras being bandied about were Canon EOS-1D X‘s, which will set you back around $7k a unit. The small black lens on the guy in the foreground’s camera costs about $2,300, and in just a few minutes, I saw about $20,000 worth of glass swapped in and out of that suitcase – the sort of lenses I dream about using let alone owning. Those tripod legs alone are about $1,500 to $3,000 each, and those tripod heads ain’t cheap either – so tack on another few thousand bucks.
Wow. All this gear for a mid-day, winter sun, outing. Me, I’m going to be there early and late, not the afternoon. The sun is at a bad angle to the City from December to Mid March, it’s the worst time of year.
These guys must have been on their way back from the Olympics in Sochi or something and had some time alone with the gear before their kit had to be returned to AP or the Times.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 