Archive for the ‘Queens’ Category
clumsy modifications
The Newtown Pentacle is back in session.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been creeping and crawling about, here in Astoria and in those spaces beyond, in pursuance of certain – lets just call it “esoteric” information. Hidden amongst the dross facts, the conventional interpretations, and the expected interpretations are hints at the true nature of things hereabouts. Dark undercurrents flow beneath the pavement here in the Newtown Pentacle, following ancient pathways which were wisely buried and carefully occluded by those generations for whom the setting of the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself meant naught but shadowed terror. Once, wolves prowled freely across the sunken meadows and painted nocturnal terror across the stinking marshes of western Queens and North Brooklyn. The Dutch, and later the Angles, went to great pains to hunt down and exterminate these canid predators – eventually causing their local extinction.
Who is to say, though, what moved into that niche once occupied by the wolves? Or what old world horrors the seafaring Nederlanders and Britons unknowingly carried here from their far flung journeys to the Far East? The settlers of this area were heretics and rebels, cultists who rejected the orderly religious practices of their times. Did Thomas Case and his followers speak truly when they promised adherents to their bizarre form of Quakerism that bodily transmogrification and eternal life could be attained upon this plane of material existence?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
During the two week interval which saw this, your Newtown Pentacle, enter into a “holding pattern” – your humble narrator has been traveling non stop across the megalopolis in pursuance of carefully hidden reference. Uncommented private libraries have been visited, and the counsel of diabolist and clergy alike have been sought. It is once again the “most wonderful time of the year” as the liturgical wheel rolls towards Hallowmas and Samhain. Those hidden waterways which still gurgle and splash beneath the sunlit streets, dripping into night black grottoes and hidden voids perverted by modernity’s sewage and filth… Do the phantoms of those primeval wolves gather along them even now?
Who can guess, all that there is, that might be buried down there?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The presence of occultists and magick workers amongst us has long been established by multitudinous postings at this and other publications. Long time readers of this – your Newtown Pentacle – will attest to the presence of ritual altars and offerings found along area streets, railway junctions, and even within the gates of the mortuary complexes which distinguish this section of the megalopolis. Consultation with souls braver than myself confirms the presence of subterranean populations of humanity living in abandoned tunnels and forgotten vaults beneath the pavement. Forbidden books suggest that they might not be alone down there, and members of the underground communities refuse to speak, other than in hurried whispers, of things which stalk in the shadows.
It is best, ultimately, that those of us who exist in the open air warmed by the emanations of the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself remain ignorant of such things… or so they say.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Were it to become generally known what exists in the dank earth, amongst the plumes of industrial chemicals and atavist stream beds which litter the deep city, if the truth behind all of those “lost pet” posters were to be acknowledged… It might be enough to depopulate the City of Greater New York and signal the descent of humanity into madness and the glad acceptance of a new dark age.
The good news in that, however, would be that rents would likely go down.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
upon all
Triborough and Hells Gate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, one is taking a short break – hence the singular image which greets you above. Back soon with new stuff.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours and events –
October 10th, 2015
Calvary Cemetery Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets
more nearly
Queensboro.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, one is taking a short break – hence the singular image which greets you above. Back soon with new stuff.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours and events –
October 7th, 2015
Our Polluted History:
A Non-Toxic & Fascinating Forum on Greenpoint’s Environmental Past panel discussion
with GWAPP, click here for details
October 10th, 2015
Calvary Cemetery Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets
noisome air
Rain, rain, rain. Bored, boredity, bored, bored.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One thing is certain, which is that the next few days will exhibit some truly ugly weather here in the Newtown Pentacle. In today’s post, library shots of wet weather are presented. Above, somewhere within the Shining City of Manhattan, from whence cometh the greater part of that flow of sewer juice that doth enter my beloved Creek during rain events.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everybody I meet gets a lecture at one point or another about the sewer system, and the Combined Sewer problem that bedevils our community. Suffice to say that it takes as little as a quarter inch of rain, citywide, for a billion gallons of storm water to propagate into our waterways. Days like this one, and the next few, will carry hundreds of billions of gallons of raw sewage into the water.
Pictured above, a manhole or access cover, originally laid in place by the “Bureau of Sewers Borough of Queens” which I believe to have been absorbed into the larger Municpal entity that would someday become the DEP around the time of the LaGuardia administration. I’m a bit hazy on this one, historical like, and promise that I’ll find out more and report the facts when they’re in hand.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From what I’ve been told, the MTA hasn’t been having too good a time for the last 24 hours or so, with more than a few outages on major lines. One wonders, and more than wonders, why the MTA only seems to plan and engineer the system around the conditions of ideal weather?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I mean… it’s going to rain. It’s also going to snow, eventually.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m the first person, literally, to throw shade at the commissioners and deputy commissars of the DEP during their periodic visits to Newtown Creek. DEP bosses lie like rugs, do so with a smirk, and every time there’s a political shake up in City Hall – the new guy isn’t bound by the promises made by the last set of “powers that be.” Saying that, I’m thankful for the rank and file who will be doing what they can during the coming deluges. Pictured above is the sewer plant in Greenpoint, getting rained upon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here in Astoria, folks are taking the gathering storm quite seriously. There’s chanting and everything, and store shelves are fairly bereft of the puzzling combination of batteries, milk, bread, and toilet paper that everyone seems to require when a storm is on the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My neighbor Mario spent yesterday evening cleaning our sewer catch basin and the gutter of leaves and the garbage which everyone just seems to drop. Saying that, there’s a whole lot of sweeping to do.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last rainy day shot, which was captured close to a decade ago at Greenwood Cemetery. Good luck, lords and ladies, with the stormy weekend. If you’re reading this on Monday, it’s likely my internet is out, and I’ll post as soon as Time Warner comes back online.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
October 10th, 2015
Calvary Cemetery Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets
abnormal horrors
Salutations and Happy Wednesday, from here in the dimly lit Newtown Pentacle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent endeavor found one wandering about in the early evening, along the border betwixt Sunnyside, Woodside, and Astoria. Pictured above, a gas station found at the corner of Northern Blvd. and Woodside Avenue. It’s a Mobil station, as the corporate branding would imply, which historically means that it’s a SOCONY or Standard Oil Company of New York filling station.
SOCONY was based, of course, along my beloved Newtown Creek in Brooklyn. The modern world may be dross, but if you know what you’re looking at, history is writ large across it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above was shot from a spot solidly within Astoria, and depicts the iconic credo of the LIC Turn Verein. The Turners were a Duetche organization, who are actually still around but based further east of Queens than formerly, who promulgated the idea that physical and spiritual exercise were inextricably linked. This rather esoteric idea is what’s behind their iconic combination of a dollar sign and a crucifix, as seen above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Woodside Avenue, one is happy to report, is still there. I will check in on and confirm the continuing presence of the ancient lane once the week long rain event that has begun today has reached its conclusion.
On the subject of Tropical Storm, or possibly Hurricane, Joaquin – this weekend’s walking tour of Calvary Cemetery with Atlas Obscura has been rescheduled for the following weekend, specifically for Saturday the tenth of October. It just ain’t going to be too safe to walk around on the saturated ground there, as my long experience with the property informs that the turf will be syrupy and difficult for perambulation. Last thing I ever want to happen on one of my tours is for someone to get hurt, and a slip and fall at Calvary could easily result in a serious injury, what with the vertical slabs of stone sticking up all over the place.
Also, lightning and open fields really aren’t a good combination.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Newtown Road’s terminus at Northern Blvd. is where you’ll find the NYCHA Woodside Houses, depicted in the shot above. Hopefully, Mayor Vain de Glorioso isn’t planning on instituting his asinine plan to build condos on the green space and playgrounds of this public housing development, but you never know. He is so tall that his head is literally lost in the clouds, and he walks upon the earth with gigantic feet that progressively crush all that are regressive enough to not get out of his way. When Ragnarok arrives in November of 2017, the Jotun (storm giant) is likely to experience some stormy weather and lightning. Hopefully, an electoral hammer will be thrown and find its mark, which will drive him and his ludicrous ideology back to the frosty shores of Park Slope.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
October 10th, 2015
Calvary Cemetery Walking Tour
with Atlas Obscura, click here for details and tickets

















