Archive for the ‘Pickman’ Category
great purgation
Greenpoint, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in prior posts, I have no idea as to how the medallion yellow taxi people are going to survive CoronAmerica. They were taking a real beating from the ride share business, as well as predatory financial speculators, before all this started. Here on Provost Street, nearby a taxi company’s HQ, there are hundreds and hundreds of these normally busy vehicles just sitting idle. At a similar facility closer to home in LIC, I noticed that many of the cabs had their medallions removed from the bonnet or hood plate, no doubt for safekeeping or possibly to oblige some obscure regulation.
One didn’t intend to spend much time here in Brooklyn, I was just looping through Greenpoint and circumnavigating the sewer plant on my way back to Queens after walking over the Pulaski Bridge. Incidentally, they’ve changed the name of the sewer plant again. It’s now the Newtown Creek Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility. Accordingly, from now on I’m just going to refer to it as “the sewer plant in Greenpoint” or something similar. Can you imagine being the person who answers the phone at someplace called “Newtown Creek Wastewater Resource Recovery Facility”?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Supply lines,” that’s what I was thinking while grabbing a shot of this semi tractor trailer truck parked opposite the sewer plant in Greenpoint. The “human factor” of our supply lines is something I worry about all the time. You can offer a long haul trucker all the money in the world to make a run, but he’s still going to have to convince his wife that it’s worth the risk for making the run into NYC. Our Lady of the Pentacle is British, and she receives a series of worried missives from friends and family overseas whenever a news report airs describing the center of the pandemic as being in Queens and literally two subway stops away from where we reside. The lurid newscasts are presenting us living in a war zone, here in the City. Can’t imagine how the rest of the country is reacting towards all of our bad news, and “supply chain” or “trucker’s wife” wise, what the effect of that will be.
Will our supply of Soy Milk be interrupted?
The truck carries the corporate branding of a company called Sunland Distribution, a Florida based company specialized in temperature controlled shipping.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One continued back towards Astoria, marching across the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge into LIC’s Blissville section. There seems to be a bit of bulkhead reconstruction going on at what was once part of the Mobil refinery on the Brooklyn side of Newtown Creek. ExxonMobil still maintains an operation or two just up the Creek from here, which are dedicated to operations revolving around the recovery of the Greenpoint Oil Spill.
More of the outside world tomorrow, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the end of the week of Monday, April 6th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
minor operations
Up on the Pulaski Bridge, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One was desirous of capturing the current Empire State Building lighting display, meant to honor the efforts of First Responders and Medical Staff during the CoronAmerica crisis, so a longish walk was embarked upon. Well, longish by the current standard… I ain’t exactly walking to Red Hook right now, if you know what I’m saying. One kept to the shadows, walking in a westerly direction from Astoria along streets and byways which are unpopulated during normal times, and soon found myself shlepping and scuttling up the Pulaski’s pedestrian path, connecting Jackson Avenue and 11th street in Long Island City with McGuinness Blvd. and Freeman Street in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section. Annoyingly, new construction in LIC has obscured the view of the Empire State from one of the normal “stations of the cross” which I’ve been visiting for better than a decade, but I managed to get my shot nevertheless.
I wouldn’t mind all of this new construction so much if it was at all visually interesting, or didn’t embrace the banal at every opportunity. Seriously, you invest tens of millions in waterfront development and what you build is another soulless glass box? How’s about a rhombus, maybe? A cone, or cylinder, perhaps?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My beloved Newtown Creek hasn’t dried up or been filled in during the quarantine, which is good news for me. The shot above looks north, towards LIC, along the pathway of the double bascule Pulaski Bridge and its bridge house. When all of this is over, I have got to find a way to get inside of that bridge house and take some photos. I’m fairly curious about the “works” within. I know who to call.
Despite the aforementioned quarantine, there were a substantial number of automobiles crossing the Pulaski, although bicycle and pedestrian traffic was virtually non existent. It was difficult to find a thirty second interval during which to actuate the camera without a passing truck or suv rattling the bridge’s structure.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having to alter the exposure triangle for these shots from my normal tripod/night “go to” actually allowed me to capture the weird luminance of the Kosciuszcko Bridge, for once. The Kosciuszcko is about two miles away, and this shot looks down Paidge Avenue in Greenpoint past the sewer plant towards the thing. My lens was comically zoomed out.
My walk on this particular excursion found me entering Brooklyn for the first time in at least a month, whereupon a circuitous path was followed. Avoiding population centers is a big part of the game plan for my constitutional walks.
Cooties.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the end of the week of Monday, April 6th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
venomous inundation
I call Northern Blvd. “the Carridor.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, I’ve mentioned a few times that I distinguish between a “long walk” and a “short walk.” A long walk would be, say… from Astoria to East Williamsburg and back via Ridgewood and Maspeth – about 10-12 miles. A medium walk would involve heading from Astoria to the East River and Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary and back via Sunnyside – about 6-7 miles. A short walk involves a fairly rapid gait, and takes advantage of the hypotenuse like relationship that Northern Blvd. has with the street grid of Astoria – about 4-5 miles. Indefinite numeration for the amount of distance involves serendipity, noticing something that catches my eye, or just the sudden realization that “I never walked down that street before, wonder what’s there.”
Pictured above, and encountered whilst on a short walk is a type of truck called a Car Carrier. There are several large used and new car lot operations along Northern Blvd., and the car carriers which bring stock to these businesses are a regular sight. The semi tractor section of the equipment is manufactured by a company called Western Star. The trailer is a fairly intricate machine, with lots of hydraulic ramp plates that reconfigure for the loading and off loading of smaller vehicles – it’s a car carrier, after all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Creepy late winter trees that haven’t started to bud leaves yet? The Standard Motor Products building somewhat softened and obfuscated by mist, and the streets are also wet? If it’s dark out, when you see all these things you’ll probably notice a weird old man in a filthy black raincoat furiously dialing settings into his camera. These are all things a creature like me loves, yearns for, and seeks out.
I’ve captured a shot very similar to this one in the past, but that was under normal circumstance when the Carridor was performing its design function as a local connector between the Queensboro Bridge to west and the nearby Brooklyn Queens Expressway to the east. No cars? Wow, this is Northern Blvd. at about 10:30 p.m. on a Monday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The interval during which these three images were captured was defined by a lapse in precipitation, which had been constant all day and was scheduled to resume by about midnight. One began scuttling back towards HQ, where a cup of hot tea would be quaffed as a reward for the evening’s effort. This particular short walk also involved a few “getting things done” stops – bank atm, buying a piece of fruit or two from one of the few remaining open shops, that sort of thing.
On the plus side of all this, I’ve actually been eating a fairly healthy menu. One of the things we can all do to bolster the immune system right now is to eat the sort of food we should always be eating but normally don’t for the sake of convenience or just gluttony. I’ve had one slice of pizza in the last three weeks, for instance, and one hamburger. Everything else has been fresh vegetables, rice, lean meats and fish, and barely any cheese. I’ve eaten an entire field’s worth of Broccoli in the last few weeks, I’ll tell ya.
Back Monday with more reports from CoronAstoria.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the end of the week of Monday, March 30th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
odd wrench
Little birdies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Instinct is a non quantifiable resource, but I’ve always famously followed mine. It’s kept me out of a lot of trouble in the workplace over the years, helped me avoid wandering into race riots back in the 1980’s, and I’ve missed out on being trapped in a structural fire or two over the years because of it. I call instinct “my little birdie,” and when it’s chirping I listen. Desperate for diversion and chomping at the bit for some exercise, an otherwise perfect evening for photographic pursuit was marred by these chirps, so I opted to stay at HQ and see what I could conjure up. That’s the alley behind HQ, so if you’ve been wondering what it looks like behind the shops on Astoria’s Broadway, now you know.
What with the cessation of most automotive traffic and the airborne effluents of commercial activity, you could actually see the stars in NYC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having lived in NYC my entire life, the amount of sensory data which my eyes and ears normally “tune out” is fairly prodigious. The car engines and horns, the sound of raucous idiots gibbering at each other, even the bells on the door of the now closed Bodega chiming as customers enter and leave. The luminance of store signage, the chimney smell of restaurant fryers and stoves, the sound of some delivery guy chaining up his bike – all of that is missing. For the first few days after the shutdown began, my ears were ringing in the same way they do when I visit a rural or wooded area. Saying that, there’s too many ambulance sirens right now.
While shooting the shot above, I snapped my fingers and heard an actual echo.
Also, yes, my landlord still has a TV antenna attached to the roof. There are also about three generations of satellite dish up there, none of which are cabled to anything below the roof nor do they have any utility. The archaeologists of the future are going to absolutely love digging us up someday, and I mean Western Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another night, one wherein my little birdy was silent, and another walk through the empty streets. Constitutional exercise is required, and at least in my case the benefits are spiritual and psychological, as well as cardiologist pleasing. As mentioned several times, one is omitting the pleasure of listening to various forms of audio entertainment at the moment, in favor of remaining 100% aware of my surroundings. The streets… look a lot like the late 1980’s used to look – deserted at night except for weirdos like and unlike me, and with everyone else huddling up within their fortress apartments. The Cops are busy with other stuff right now, and there’s a real feeling of being on your own and “having to just handle it” if something untoward happens. Like I said, 1980’s.
There used to be a saying – People walk around like they’re safe or something.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the end of the week of Monday, March 30th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
latent fright
Review Avenue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The property at the left handed side of the shot above is all that remains, original building wise, of Standard Oil’s Queens County Oil Works. Workers at Standard referred to this facility as the “Candle Factory,” I’m told, as their principal product output involved the handling and manufacture of materials which would be incorporated into road flares and other fuel “candles” made from petroleum derivates like naphtha and paraffin. The footprint of the old Queens County Oil Works site incorporates the properties of the first large oil works on Newtown Creek, but that’s another story.
On the right hand (or eastern side) of the shot is First Calvary Cemetery’s great masonry wall, which contains the tomb legions.
The (presumptively) Consolidated Edison people have been busy for the last six months or so on that eastern side of the street replacing a few utility poles and stringing new high tension electrical wires between them, as well as digging out underground vaults for and then installing new electrical transformers in.
The new wires they’ve arrayed interact with tree branches growing off of the masonry elevation’s crown at Calvary, the interaction thereof producing eerie sounds as they sway in the wind. There’s a “clacking” staccato when the branches strike the wires, and a deep basso sound is produced when the wires rub sonorously against the wooden boughs. It sounds a great deal like some grandiose orchestra is playing a weird and alien tune, and kind of freaks you out.
Again, not wearing headphones nor listening to music or an audiobook at the moment, in an attempt to be 100% aware of my surroundings.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One often opines to elected officialdom and NYS regulator alike about the overload of weight that the utility people place onto those poles of creosoted wood, which carry the abundant wiring that keeps our civilization powered and connected here in Western Queens. I notice things, and this thing is concerning.
To wit, observe the bowing of that utility pole in the shot above, at the corner of 37th street and Review Avenue. The only thing keeping this wooden cylinder from snapping in half, as this is an older utility pole and not a newly installed one, is a conduit of iron piping which is acting like a spine.
A non emergency problem to solve in a different time, I say. Another reason to survive all this is looking forward to annoying the NYS Utility Board regulators on this topic – and looking forward to it, I am. One was conspiring with Assemblyman Brian Barnwell’s office on this topic, regarding the utility pole situation back in Astoria, before CoronAmerica manifested its ugly face and the world went to hell.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Observationally speaking, I’m not sure how the medallion taxi industry is going to survive this crisis. Everywhere that I’ve been marching about, which as you’ve seen here are the abandoned industrial streets of Long Island City, entire fleets of yellow cabs are sitting inert. Whereas the FEMA people famously have their “Waffle House” index to gauge the impact of hurricanes and storms, I have a yellow cab index.
I also have a drug dealer index. Now, I’m not in that particular market, but I keep an eye on it and periodically check in with people I know who are narcotic enthusiasts about the supply and demand situation. I like to know commodity prices. It seems that a “weed drought” is on, and that the heroin people are literally climbing the walls trying to find a fix. Don’t know many coke people these days, but apparently that’s another imported commodity which is becoming ever harder to acquire.
Also, on a personal note, today is the day in 2011 that we lost my Newtown Creek Alliance pal Bernie Ente.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the end of the week of Monday, March 30th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates as we move into April and beyond, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
“In the Shadows at Newtown Creek,” an 88 page softcover 8.5×11 magazine format photo book by Mitch Waxman, is now on sale at blurb.com for $30.
The Newtown Pentacle 