Archive for the ‘Queens’ Category
pounding and piping
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ahh, the return of warmth and a fortuitous angling of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself has resulted in a vast series of walks, which form something of a survey when viewed homologously. Temperatures may continue to underwhelm, but the glorious light which distinguishes the western coast of Queens has woken from its hibernation, and so has your humble narrator.
A shabby juggernaut once more scuttles forth!
from wikipedia
Long Island City station was built on June 26, 1854, and was rebuilt seven times during the 19th Century. On December 18, 1902, both the two-story station building, and an office building owned by the LIRR were burned down in a fire. The station was rebuilt on April 26, 1903, and was electrified on June 16, 1910.
Before the East River Tunnels were built, the Long Island City station served as the terminus for Manhattan-bound passengers from Long Island, who would then connect to a ferry to the East Side of Manhattan. The passenger ferry service was abandoned on March 3, 1925, although freight was carried by car floats (see Gantry Plaza State Park) to and from Manhattan until the middle twentieth century. Today ferry service is operated by New York Water Taxi.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Experimentation with the digital image, from both the capture and the processing angles, resumes.
To wit, “single image HDR”, images- wherein (non photography people can just skip over this part) a single raw image is rendered 1 stop higher and then lower than the metered exposure and then combined in photoshop to highlight the “sweet spot” from all three iterations. Garish, the images nevertheless reveal a wide range of shadow detail and highlight compression otherwise unattainable in a single exposure. A digital image, indeed.
from wikipedia
The Main Line is a rail line owned and operated by the Long Island Rail Road in the U.S. state of New York. It begins in Long Island City and runs directly across the middle of Long Island, terminating in Greenport approximately 95 miles (153 km) from its starting point. Along the way, five branches diverge from the Main Line. Eastern portions of the Main Line are also identified by branch names. These branches, in order from west to east, are:
- Port Washington Branch (at Wood Interlocking in Woodside, Queens)
- Hempstead Branch (at Queens Interlocking along the Queens/Nassau County border)
- Oyster Bay Branch (at Nassau Interlocking in Mineola)
- Port Jefferson Branch (at Divide Interlocking in Hicksville)
- Ronkonkoma Branch – name given to the Main Line east of Hicksville
- Central Branch (at Beth Interlocking at Bethpage) – a single track with no stations, connecting the Main Line to the Montauk Branch
- Greenport Branch – name given to the non-electrified Main Line east of Ronkonkoma
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Highly “monkeyed around with”, there’s just something about these HDR shots which draws me in- but of course, your humble narrator was once a comic book artist and is naturally drawn toward these sorts of primary colorscapes. This section of the megalopolis could easily be called “Gotham” rather than “Long Island” City.
I would be remiss if the arrts-arrchives pages of historic photos and deep historical insight weren’t linked out to, so click here and here and here. These are VERY cool pages, and worth your time.
Project Firebox 23
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Scarred by sun and salt, an eternal vigil is nevertheless enacted on the corner of Northern Blvd. and 55th street in Queens where this centuried veteran holds fast. The tracks above are part of the fabled Hell Gate extension, which ultimately allows egress from the titan Sunnyside yard to the continent beyond for freight and passenger rail.
There’s a couple of announcements coming, describing some pretty cool “things to do”. Leave June 6th open, and be in Astoria… is all I can say right now.
little memories
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Primarily stated, I really have no idea just what it is you’re looking at right now. Was it sitting on the corner sidewalk of 43rd street and Broadway in Astoria on March 5? Yes. That’s the only factual thing which can be presented about it, along with a studied opinion that it’s some sort of ritual object.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the local gentry had shown me a cell phone photograph of something similar last year, which matched the style and workmanship of this object in substantial ways. The figurines seemed to be composed of some sort of dough, which brought to mind the exquisite and artistically evolved sculptural artifices of “Dia de los muerte” or “Day of the Dead” celebrations that emanate from the near equatorial cultures of North and Central America (Mexico, Ecuador, Honduras etc.).
Those objects, however, are stylistically differentiated from this.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What we’re looking at here, and we’ll take a closer look in the following shots, had obviously been intruded on roughly by the hustle and bustle of Broadway with its teeming multitudes. Doubt is expressed that this was the original configuration of these objects, which obscures its meaning.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, the obviously hand molded pieces appeared to be composed of dough. Notice the central figurine with the drawn in hair and face, and the torn lottery ticket. Notice also the grains of rice and coins.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Isolated to specific areas, various odd components seem to contrast each other, which is a standard technique in selecting ritual offerings.
The yellow orange powder in the North East corner had the appearance of having been machine milled, and looked a great deal like a saffron powder of some sort. There’s also a bead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
South East featured a rough hewn clump with a cocktail sword sitting in it and some unidentifiable brown organics which might have once been fruit or flowers.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
South West had this composite clumping, with another hunk of brown mystery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
North West featured variegation, with a bisected lime, several raw chile peppers, what appeared to be a piece of meat, coins, and rice.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long time readers know the ridiculous lengths normally gone to at this- your Newtown Pentacle- to explain and detail the meanings of these ritual sites and objects which may be found around the City of New York. Remember the weirding works at St. Michael’s Cemetery, the Grand Lodge of the Freemasons in Manhattan, or the witch knots at Calvary?
This one, however, has me stumped. Anybody out there have any idea what we’re looking at beyond the material and obvious?
Note: All comments are moderated (by me personally), so if you’d prefer to stay private, please indicate it and your message will not be “published” although I’ll filter out any identifying information about you.
weirdly afar
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Long have I harbored secret ambitions to some sort of throne, but ironic hubris would strike from its lurking perch. Rough hewn, this specimen was observed recently on Northern Blvd. in Queens, at the thoroughfare’s junction with 34th Avenue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is a difficult retail location, of course, which requires some showmanship and the grandiosity of this chair (obviously a showpiece) made me think about the sort of home decor into which it might blend.
One might expect to find a cheetah on a leash wandering about.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I jest of course, as my personal space looks like a server room, and hums audibly. Personally, I’d love to have one of those Frankenstein lightning things going in the corner, but my little dog objects to the sound of electrical discharges.
Which is how I’d describe this chair- upholstered electricity…
shadowy corners
“they’re building another one?” – photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the final installment detailing my experiences in western Queens, on that day when I finally located the grave of Calvary Cemetery’s first interment (Esther Ennis, 1848), stepped in a dead rabbit, picked up a paranormal companion on my long walk, found myself in a state of “stupendous ruin“, soon realized that my perceptions had grown “bafflingly homogeneous“, and that my senses had become occluded due to “sleep filmed eyes“.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned in yesterday’s posting, tardy delivery of content to this- your Newtown Pentacle- has been caused by a cavalcade of obligations. Both personal and professional, these obligations have placed me in a room next to personages who enjoy the highest reputation and standing, lettered academics and eidelons of “the professions” both have taken me to a private corner of the room and confessed to having had similar experiences to those which I’ve been describing in this series of postings- which is VERY interesting.
This day, I was in Tower Town, down by the East River in Long Island City… or Queens West as its proponents call it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Former days of grandeur, industrial might, and utility seem to be over for this part of Queens. Perhaps it is overworked and deserves a pastoral retirement as a park and residential center. Such meta-lopolitan planning is beyond the understanding of one like myself, who is cursed to wander through this infestation of the human hive but forbidden to do anything but observe. When my nervous scuttling and vast perambulations are performed, dark glasses are worn and the earbuds of my iphone are firmly in place- serving to isolate and insulate.
Of late, I like to wear my hood up, but loss of periphery can be a fatal mistake in these places I go.
Perhaps this is why I was casting two shadows.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My companion was familiar to me somehow, an atavist and insistent presence. Definitely male, the image of a double headed ax was impossible to banish from my thoughts as I neared the bridge…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
…THE QUEENSBORO BRIDGE!!! Queensboro is its name, not 59th street nor anything else that Manhattan elites might attach to it.
CALL HUNTERS POINT SOUTH OR WILLETS POINT “KOCH CITY” instead…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
…sorry that sort of thing just blurts out of me these days…
At right about this spot that I suddenly perceived that my spectral companion was no longer present, and when I noticed my nervous shadow had returned to its altogether wholesome and expected aspect. Whatever it was… perhaps it was just the moment when “one of my states” had passed…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was here in the shadows of that great machine called Queensboro that the splendid isolations which your humble narrator so enjoys returned, and roamed once more alone amongst the multitudes. The disturbing vision of that double headed ax though, seemed to stay with me and caused ponderings to begin.
What connection could there be between Long Island City, a largely Irish cemetery, and a battle-ax?
