Archive for the ‘Queens’ Category
Archives #043
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This post is being written on Thanksgiving Day, and after my most recent physical therapy or ‘PT’ appointment, I’ve got a lot of thanks to give.
My ‘PT guy’ has issued an expiry on me wearing the walking boot, and wants me to phase into just using a pair of regular shoes full time again. Additionally, it looks like I’m cleared – as far as the second week of December goes – to start my walks again. It’s going to be a slow start – 1,000 feet and back for the first day and then increased increments after that – but this ankle nightmare is finally moving into the category of ‘something that happened’ as opposed to ‘something that’s happening.’
2012’s ‘glassy eyes’ was part of a survey of Newtown Creek’s uplands with a Columbia professor who was gathering samples of whatever biologies the flood waters had deposited upon LIC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve entirely missed autumn this year, which blows. Additionally, it’s been so long since I’ve shot a photo that I’m going to have to inventory what’s inside my camera bag. Charge the batteries, clean the glass…
It’s like having a prison warden tell you that the parole board has approved your application, this.
2013’s ‘strange instruments’ saw me pondering both the corrosive dissolution of aging, and whether or not there are subterranean grottoes beneath Queens Plaza.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I should mention that the evolving situation with the ankle has never been pain free, and the joint seems a little angry about losing the bracing of the walking boot, but since that cast came off a little over a month ago – everyday has been a little better than the one before. I’m sleeping through the night without getting woken up by sudden pain, for instance.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
2017’s ‘after action’ detailed an encounter with a thoroughly destroyed automobile on the corner of Vernon and Jackson in LIC.
“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.
Archives #039
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator is getting close to recovery from the broken ankle at this point. I’ve taken multiple heel to toe strides wearing just a normal shoe by this stage of the ‘PT’ process. I should be able to resume a somewhat normal, albeit hobbled, existence soon.
On November 28th in 2017, ‘reconised from’ was published, and the post discusses a few obscure historical tidbits about LIC and the East River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Overall, the fall off from unrelenting 24/7 agony has been nice. It’s important to keep on reminding myself to ‘don’t do that, not yet.’ Take it slow, move with purpose, don’t get ahead of yourself and ignore distractions. No multi tasking. One thing at a time.
2018’s ‘choking gas’ gets high over LIC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, I’m absolutely dying to get out and do some creative work again. So many things to see and learn about, and I’m stuck sitting on my butt waiting for the ankle to heal. You can’t win, I say.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
2019’s ‘diminished perceptibly’ found me at Grand Central Terminal in Manhattan.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
Archives #038
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here are the keys to the mausoleum, and all the liquor is inside.
That’s what my pal at Atlas Obscura said before disappearing for an hour to gather the crowd of paying guests at an event, leaving me all alone at the Whitney Mausoleum in Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery. I did the only logical thing, which was to call Kevin Walsh from Forgotten-NY and tell him where I was, trying to make him jealous. You don’t get to make that guy jealous often, savor it when you can.
On November 27th in 2013, ‘fastened ajar’ arrived in subscriber’s inboxes, describing a nocturnal visit to Greenwood Cemetery in Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The train thing isn’t really a new subject for me, it’s just that I used to be extremely limited in terms of what was on offer. Long Island Railroad often popped into focus here at Newtown Pentacle, as did several of their freight contractors.
In 2015, it was the LIRR which caught my attention in ‘continuous system.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 7 Line is the most photogenic of NYC’s subways, which is a hill I’ll die on. Yes, Smith/9th street is quite comely, but for pure urban goodness, the 7 is the best.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
In 2017, a ride on the 7 line was discussed in ‘cryptic formulae.’
“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.
Archives #036
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
One of my notions, when I lived in Queens, was that the abundant grave yards along the Brooklyn Queens border which form the so called ‘Cemetery Belt’ are fantastic places to stretch your legs and get some exercise. Few or no cars, lots of trees and birds… just stick to the roads and paths. If you see a path nearby a fence… definitely walk that way, never know what you might find and it very well might involve extinct North American elephants.
In 2010 on November 25th, ‘Things you learn from being a ghoul’ published, describing a walk through St. Michael’s Cemetery in Astoria that proves the point I always make about paying attention to little things.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As the story goes, I was on my way to some midtown bar for a friend’s birthday when a powerful thunderstorm roared through the City. I had my trusty old Canon G10 with me, which at the time sported a magnetic tripod mount. I clanked the thing down onto a fire hydrant as an ad hoc tripod, as the sky displayed a meteorological phenomenon called Mammatus Clouds. The light was unreal for about a minute. I got lucky.
2015’s ‘or depend’ was actually a Thanksgiving week archive post, so double boomerang on this one. Incidentally, the photo above is my most pirated shot – ever.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Famously, if I’m ‘out and about,’ I’ve got the camera deployed and ready.
Have to take a subway somewhere? Why not get a shot of it? All of those meetings I used to have to attend, in all of the bizarre places they were held, often brought me to visually interesting areas. Sometimes, I’d go ride the trains for ‘shits and giggles’ when I was physically compromised or the weather sucked.
2019’s ‘wholly allied’ saw me riding the 7 train corridor at night.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
Archives #025
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
This post is from 2012, and it’s a part of the post Hurricane Sandy survey I was conducting along Newtown Creek’s Queens side.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the time this post publishes, a humble narrator is once again at a ‘physical therapy’ or ‘PT’ appointment, exercising and stretching the broken ankle under medical supervision. Apparently this is now how I spend a significant amount of my time, three times a week in the office with homework assignments for the entire week. An interesting movement exercise is that three times a day I’m meant to draw the shapes of the alphabet, using my great toe on the affected foot as a pointer. The letter ‘Y’ really hurts, as a note.
This 2019 post was published when I had a different severe injury on my left foot than the one at crux of my current dilemma. It’s always my left foot that gets busted up for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This weekend, I’m planning on finally programming a radio scanner I bought, which will let me listen to locomotive radio communications and preclude the ‘standing around for two hours and nothing’ factor of photographing trains. Used to be, I’d just stand at a rail choke point and they’d come to me.
This posting from 2022 is from the period when I was trying to see everything one last time before moving away. I spent a lot of time and effort photographing Sunnyside Yards, during all of those years that I lived in Astoria.
Back next week.
“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.
