The Newtown Pentacle

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s only one bridge in the entire country named after a visual artist, it’s in Pittsburgh, and it’s pictured above. That’s the Seventh Street/Andy Warhol Bridge spanning the Allegheny River, which opened in 1907. Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself crossed it in the rain, on foot. It was all very romantic, and a bit soggy.

There are two other somewhat identical bridges neighboring this one on the Allegheny which are of the same vintage. They are named for Baseball player Roberto Clemente and author Rachel Carson.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Now, as I’ve mentioned in the past – it ain’t all sunshine and handjobs here in Western Pennsylvania. There’s all sorts of ugly you can encounter. A nasty history of segregation and “race stuff,” lots and lots of junkies (opioid epidemic), and crime. The local police have a national reputation for being heavy handed, and you’re at the ideological crossroads of the toxicity of National Political Party politics. A white supremacist shot up a synagogue here in Pittsburgh not too long ago. Philadelphia and Pittsburgh are generally left leaning, whereas the center of the state is fairly Trumpist.

Saying that, they really do seem to have graffiti under control here. You don’t see garbage floating in the rivers. All of the bridges I’ve encountered here have combined bike and pedestrian paths, and whereas Our Lady and myself were moving around in areas which the Pittsburghers we talked to raised an eyebrow at and described to us as “sketchy,” we never felt unsafe. As it turns out, our AirBNB was at the edge of one of these feared “danger” zones, a neighborhood called Beltzhoover. Beltzhoover actually reminded me a lot of the sort of neighborhoods in which I’d lived in the boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens, except for all the nearly vertical hills and valleys. There ain’t no “flatbush,” here’s.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Speaking of our rented room for the long weekend, Our Lady of the Pentacle’s flight time was nearing and soon after clicking the shutter button for the shot above, we had to head back to Mt. Washington for her to gather up her traveling kit and call for a cab to take her to the Pittsburgh International Airport for the flight back home.

As mentioned in prior posts, I’d be taking Amtrak home the next morning and had been planning on a full evening of photographic pursuits. Pittsburgh’s legendarily volatile climate had other plans in store for me, however.

As a note, you’ll notice a building sticking up in the distance behind the bridge’s right side pier superstructure in the shot above. That’s the one that the fancy pants restaurant I mentioned yesterday is housed in, and it’s directly behind the spot where I was heading for my big night of photographic pursuit.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After a goodbye kiss was enjoyed and Our Lady was on her way, I was on my own again. My first destination was one of the inclines on Mt. Washington, where I was happy to see the rain clouds and stormy weather blowing out to the north and east. I think it was east, at least. My plan involved capturing dusk and sunset, and despite what the meteorological forecast was predicting – proper night time darkness with the city all lit up like a scarlet woman.

My desire was to execute a series of long exposure tripod shots, but the weather was not impressed by my plans. A wicked bit of wind began to kick up, and the temperature began dropping. There was an actual whistling sound being caused by the air flowing around the camera.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

That heavy wind was buffeting the camera, and several of my shots were ruined by the motion thereby introduced. I had to change my plan, from long exposures to ones that were significantly shorter. That’s part of the deal, when you’re standing behind a camera. Got to adapt.

I wasn’t ready for this sort of cold, though. This was early December, mind you, and winter hadn’t really set in yet, nor was I physically acclimatized to deep cold yet. Additionally, I had no long underwear or heavy gloves with me, and I was just wearing the usual “mitch suit” with a hoodie sweatshirt and the filthy black raincoat. This particular wintry uniform works great for me until the temperature begins to dip below thirty, whereupon I layer up with thermals and all that. I was naked under my clothes, which sounds kind of obvious when you say it out loud.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Before long, the atmospheric temperature had plummeted to just 21 degrees, and the wind had kicked up at the same time. Sustained 10-20 mph winds, with gusts of 30-40 mph, were now on the menu. By the time I had returned to the Duquesne Heights location I had found the night before, the only words on my lips were “fuck me, it’s freezing.”

An additional bit of circumstance is that I was standing on the veritable edge of a nearly thousand foot prominence overlooking the three rivers, and the wind was coming up the hill from behind and then dropping over the edge down to the water below. The physics of that slope increased the wind speed at the edge where I was, and meant that I also needed to vouchsafe against my camera getting toppled and smashing down to the ground – or worse still – getting blown over the edge of Mt. Washington.

I got some of the shots I wanted, sort of, but you’re going to have to wait for tomorrow to see them.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

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“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.

Tuesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Apparently, the section of Pittsburgh referred to as “the North Side” used to be its own municipal entity until 1907 – dubbed as either the Borough of Allegheny or Allegheny City depending on when you were doing the dubbing. There’s a terrific amount of historic buildings on this side of town, and notably in the 27 acre “Mexican War Streets” historic district. The National Aviary and several other interesting institutions are located nearby. I got to see a very unhappy looking Condor when we walked by.

I had my friend – Kevin Walsh of Forgotten-NY fame – speaking in my head while I was shooting these. Kevin would go absolutely gaga in this area, I kept on thinking. This sort of heterogenous Victorian and Edwardian era development would very much be his sort of jam.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Pittsburgh is climatologically notorious, due to its topography. The three rivers, coupled with the steep valleys and ridges it’s built into, as well as its geographic relationship to the Appalachia Mountain range and the faraway Great Lakes creates a volatile and quite changeable atmosphere hereabouts. Last time I was visiting, it was pouring rain about three miles away from me while I was standing under a blue sky with direct sun. Go figure.

This particular morning, it was drizzling. Occasionally it would start to “proper rain,” but it was mostly drizzle. Our Lady of the Pentacle is British, so she felt right at home.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Didn’t really matter to me, as part of my travel kit is an umbrella, and I notoriously wear a filthy black raincoat all the time.

It’s actually a pretty great umbrella, by the way. Bought a $25 folding one that was recommended by NY Times’ Wirecutter people. Lifetime replacement guarantee is offered for the Repel Folding Umbrella, with an automatic open and close switch on the handle, it weighs virtually nothing, and tying it onto my camera bag is a breeze.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Our Lady of the Pentacle was extremely interested in seeing Randyland. Randy Gilson is a local artist who has… well, here’s the Wikipedia article about Randyland.

I couldn’t help but think about how the NYC political and real estate establishment would go out of their way to eradicate and replace this area in the name of “affordable housing” if it was located in Brooklyn or Queens. The bulldozers would have long ago demolished this area and replaced it with soulless mirror box rhombuses, full of tiny studio apartments, which were cast roughly at the sky. There’d be a sign saying “Randyland used to be here” erected by a nonprofit.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

“Stealing the Sky” is the title of a book I’ll never write about Long Island City and big real estate in the early 21st century. It starts at the Pratt University and NYU urban planning department meetings in the early 1990’s, and ends when the last condo building goes up along Newtown Creek. They’re not even close to being done yet, incidentally, the dynastic real estate companies.

Nothing matters, and nobody cares.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Our Lady was satisfied with having witnessed Randyland and the Mexican War Streets historic district on the north side, and we began shlepping back towards the city center. We still had a few hours before the preparation for her trip to the airport to begin, and decided to walk in the rain for a bit. We stopped off for a coffee, then got eyeballed by a group of sketchy guys smoking weed in a bus shelter, and continued on our way. She said to me “they were noticing the camera.” I said “I know, but I’m not worried, I’m from Brooklyn.”

Seriously, when we leave our City and go to other places, it’s like being a tiger walking amongst hamsters. Ich bin ein Brooklyner.

More 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.

Monday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Luckily, I thought to gather these shots after eating dinner. Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself had enjoyed a weekend away in Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh and our marquis event meal was at a white table cloth restaurant on the prominence of Mount Washington – a ritzy section which I believe to be called “Duquesne Heights.” Fiendishly expensive, but worth every penny, the restaurant where we ate was set up in a structure perched on what seemed to be the highest point of Mt. Washington. They had floor to ceiling windows, and I’m told the views were epic as I sipped an “Old Fashioned” and shoveled steak into my face hole. I would have noticed them, but I was gazing lovingly at Our Lady. After dinner, I begged indulgence, and Our Lady graciously allowed a few minutes for me to get busy with the camera.

I try not impinge on such evenings with my obsessive need to photograph everything I see… but… just look at that view…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The entire reason we were able to get a table at this particular establishment on short notice was that what seemed like the population of the entire City of Pittsburgh was either within, or focused upon, Heinz Stadium, where the Pittsburgh Steelers were playing that night. This shot was my “money shot” of the day, although despite calling it that I didn’t and haven’t made a dime off the image.

As mentioned in posts last week, our plan for the weekend’s ending was to divide and conquer on our way back to NYC, traveling home using different modes. She was going to be leaving the following afternoon, a Monday, and I was meant to board an early morning Amtrak train on Tuesday morning. My plan, therefore, was to spend Monday night in a bacchanal of photographic pursuit and therefore I was trying to restrain myself while we were still keeping company.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Our Lady is long suffering, however, but nevertheless allowed me about a half hour’s time to “do my thing.” This shot looks up the Allegheny River.

I had set up the tripod, and was doing my landscape thing. That means low ISO settings coupled with a narrow lens aperture and hyperfocal lensing. It depends on the lens, ultimately, but what “hyperfocal” means is that anything sitting between a certain distance in the foreground and optical infinity will be in sharp focus. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but there you go – technical jargon. This is why she’s “long suffering,” if you were wondering.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

What I was actually doing while getting these shots was planning out what I wanted to do the next night when I didn’t feel any time pressure or was worrying that Our Lady was growing bored or impatient with my pursuits. It was a good plan.

I’ll talk about the way that went “ass over tits” for me later on in the week, but for now… I’m glad I got these when I did.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

There’s a weird statue found at this “POV,” depicting whom I believe to be George Washington squatting and staring at a Native American guy who is also staring and squatting. Probably something “French and Indian War” related, given that that’s a significant moment in Pittsburgh’s history. I mentally pronounce “Duquesne” as “Dookesknee” so I’m the wrong guy to guess as to the sculptor’s messaging. I’ll bet the intentions of the sculptor’s meaning and intent was entirely different from the way we see or read this sort of representation today. The smart thing to do for the Native American would have been to slaughter the Europeans as quickly as possible and never allow them any further beachheads, but that’s hindsight.

Anyway, we were stuffed and wanted to head back to the AirBNB we were staying at, so I broke down the rig and went back to hand held night shooting mode with this shot.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I felt pretty confident about my Monday night plan, after all, and looked forward to “doing my thing.” Vainglory.

We headed back to the room, settled in, and watched a bit of that Beatles documentary on Disney+. I soon lost consciousness, and hallucinated wildly for about seven hours. Upon regaining my composure the next morning, we set out for one last set of Pittsburgh adventures and explorations. More 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.

Friday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One is endlessly fascinated by the topography of the City of Pittsburgh. It’s a series of riverine valleys and ridges, and walking a single block can translate into the equivalent vertical ascent of several building stories. One block’s worth of horizontal space can see the two corners separated by a hundred feet of verticality. I grew up in a place called “Flatlands” which is next door to “Flatbush,” so this sort of up and down is weird to me. I always complain about how hilly Maspeth in Queens is, which is a flat plane compared to any given block in Pittsburgh.

These shots are from the prominences of Mount Washington, which seems to be the high ground framing the downtown area. When you’re on Mt. Washington, you’re looking down at the skyscrapers in the downtown area.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Housing stock in this area is packed in pretty densely, but still has a suburban vibe to this Brooklyn kid’s eyes. The streets are somewhat narrow, and apparently parking is a real issue here. There’s a thing people here do called “parking chairs,” where you leave a plastic or folding chair in “your spot” in front of the house to reserve it. Apparently, it’s a fighting offense to move another man’s parking chair.

Wow.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One of the things we wanted to experience here was the transit situation, which is actually a pretty impressive implementation for a City of Pittsburgh’s relative size and tax base. It ain’t the Subway, let’s get that straight. The T system is a catenary wire powered light rail which extends a few miles beyond the municipal center, and is designed to interact with a much further reaching network of buses and municipal parking lots. Basically, they don’t want you driving to downtown Pittsburgh so they created a system where you can leave your car somewhere safe and then get back and forth to work. Last mile transit, ultimately.

Within the inner ring of the city, transit is free to ride, but that’s really only a few stops in one direction or another.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

We boarded the Blue Line, pictured above, and rode it out to a terminal stop about a half hour away. Density wise – I’d analogize the communities it connected to as being not unlike the central and northern sections of Westchester County along the Metro North line. We didn’t have a car with us, so our observations were limited by what we could reach.

After turning around at the terminal stop, we rode the Blue Line back into the downtown area and then to its alternative terminal on the Allegheny River shoreline nearby Heinz Stadium.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This is a sports town, Pittsburgh. The Steelers are the center of the universe, or at least they were on the weekend in early December when we were there. The entire focus of the City was on the game. I met and was joking around with some youngster wearing a gorilla suit and a Steelers jersey while shooting the shot above. This was normal, apparently, and the young fellow offered that the gorilla suit would keep him toasty warm well into the December night.

I should mention that I’m not, and never have been, a sports ball enthusiast of any kind. Couldn’t care less, me.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Saying that, I was definitely the exception. This shot is from the T station overlooking Heinz Stadium. Lots of tailgating, a party atmosphere prevailed, and Steelers fans were posing next to the parked automobiles of their players for selfies. Cops were everywhere, but they seemed to be having a good time too.

To each his own, and more from Pittsburgh next week at this – your traveling Newtown Pentacle.

“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.

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A few last shots from the Gateway Clipper excursion which Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself enjoyed on a crisp and cool evening in Pennsylvania’s Pittsburgh back in early December. That’s the Ft. Pitt Bridge pictured above, spanning the Monongahela River.

As mentioned earlier in the week, one has become rather adept at predicting the somewhat tidal nature of the Covid pandemic. I knew a high tide would be arriving around Christmas and New Year’s. It’s logarithmic mathematics we’re living through, ultimately. Viruses are essentially random number generators, and not unlike genetic slot machines. A single slot machine will pay off rarely, but if you put enough of the mechanisms in one place, there’s a payout occurring somewhere in the room once an hour.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Covid genie is out of the bottle. It’s going to be reclassified as “endemic” pretty soon, which means that the state of emergency will end and we will just have to learn to live (or die) with it. If, like a humble narrator, you find yourself infected with it after you’ve been vaccinated – there’s an uncomfortable couple of days ahead of you. If you’re not vaccinated… that’s where that random number generator side comes in. Is it a jackpot of symptoms, or did you break even?

Pictured above is the skyline of downtown Pittsburgh, as seen from the start of the Ohio River, where the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers combine.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I spotted this push boat tug moving barges around while the Gateway Clipper was returning to dock along the Allegheny River.

You can recognize a logarithmic statistic when you see a graph and it looks like a hockey stick – 2×2 is 4×4 is 16×16 and so on. If you see your income taking on the shape of a hockey stick – Mazel Tov, and you should be purchasing bonds and other tax or inflation proof financial instruments to vouchsafe your windfall. If the hockey stick is going down, apply for a second job where you can work nights for a bit of extra income. If you see infection rates in your area “hockey sticking” then this is a pretty lousy time to hang around in bars.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Back on land, I spotted the “T” – Pittsburgh’s light rail train – entering a tunnel cut through the base of Mt. Washington. Signage indicated that this tunnel was exclusively for the use of mass transit, which also included buses.

We were heading up to the top of Mt. Washington, where a rented AirBNB apartment was our home base for the weekend. We also planned on getting dinner up there.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A quick ride on the Monongahela Incline carried us up and over. By the time we reached the top, the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself had slipped away and twilight consumed Pittsburgh.

Now, my plan for this weekend involved doing some night time shooting – using tripod and shutter release and all the usual bells and whistles. Saying that, Our Lady of the Pentacle was going to be flying home a day earlier than I. I wouldn’t be boarding the Amtrak train back to home sweet hell until Monday morning, whereas Our Lady was leaving on Sunday evening. My plan was to spend the alone time shooting, but more on that particular disaster next week.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A few hand held shots would have to do for now. We were hungry, she was cold, and both of us were a bit tired after having shlepped around as visiting tourists all day. It was time for a beer, and meal, and a good night’s sleep.

More tomorrow at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

“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.