allegheny cemetery
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
While Our Lady of the Pentacle was enjoying herself at an event occurring at the Pittsburgh Convention Center in the “Downtown” area, a humble narrator was busy exploring. One of the places on my list was Allegheny Cemetery, which I’d describe as being “Pittsburgh’s First Calvary,” although it actually predates Calvary’s founding by four years.
I’m glad that I drove there, as a note. The hills and valleys of Pittsburgh are physically daunting. As I’ve said to a few of the locals since arriving – I grew up in places with names like “Flatbush” or “Flatlands.” A walk in NYC is a walk across an alluvial flood plain, and even in hilly areas like Maspeth or Northern Manhattan, there’s nothing like the crazy changes in elevation you’ll encounter in Pittsburgh on just a single block. It’s taking a lot of getting used to, conquering these hills. I find myself having to stop and take a break mid block to allow my heart rate to simmer down.
Just a matter of getting used to it, I suppose. Saying that, the street I live on has a hill which rockets your “beats per minute” heart rate up into territories I normally only experience on the treadmill that my team of Doctors would make me run on during “stress tests.” It’s physical here, yo, but I’m still fat as a house after the COVID years and need the exercise so… win?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Allegheny Cemetery actually hosts a pond at its prominence, which was unfortunately providing a habitat to a pile of those noisome Canada Goose dicks. Nasty animals, the Canada Gooses.
The surrounding neighborhood around Allegheny Cemetery seems to house a large number of youngish people, suggesting to me that college students populate the area in large numbers. The residential housing stock nearby Allegheny Cemetery is reminiscent of Philadelphia, with row houses connected by narrow sidewalk pavement. These row houses are set up along tightly constrained roads that clearly predate motor vehicles, where people park their cars half up on the sidewalk so as not to block traffic. There is a significant commercial/nightlife footprint nearby as well, with large beer breweries and restaurants.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hundreds of people were hiking about in the cemetery, which is truly enormous. I was driving around on the cemetery’s roads, pulling over occasionally to get out of the driver’s seat and wave the camera about, but I’d only consider this first encounter as being a scouting mission.
Of course, the first thing I do is go to a cemetery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’d imagine, there’s several “notables” buried here. Who are they and what did they do to be notable? That’s something I’m planning on figuring out in the spring. My main goal for the last few weeks, other than handling the “have to’s” and making sure that the new digs are outfitted properly, has been to try and learn my way around. As you’re reading this, I’m actively beginning to look for a job.
Most of the phone based navigation software I’ve tried – Google maps, Waze, etc. – fails tragically in the vertical mazes that Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods offer. The software seems determined to put me on highways rather than local streets, and it never misses an opportunity to have me circle through residential areas which can mean climbing and descending a 1,000 feet in altitude for absolutely no reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saying that, I’ve begun to be able to get back home from a few different points without getting lost, and the beginnings of a mental map of “turn here” landmarks has started to form.
In the case of this particular day, however, my pathway was more or less paralleled to the Allegheny River on the north side of the triangular center of Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The burning thermonuclear eye of God itself was dipping down in the sky, and I still had an hour to kill prior to picking up Our Lady of the Pentacle at our designated time and spot. I began making my way back towards the local street grid outside of the cemetery. So much to see.
I will be back to Allegheny Cemetery, however.
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new paradigm
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, after dealing with an all day drive in one horrific rain storm on November 30th, we had finally made it out of NYC. Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself had now “officially” picked up stakes, and moved westwards some 400 miles to the pretty City of Pittsburgh. On our first night in the new climes, we decided to head out for a fancy pants celebratory dinner. Pictured above is the Smithfield Street Bridge along the Monongahela River, which I spotted while heading out for the meal.
First up in 2023, let me explain a thing or two – for the last 13 years, whenever I was assigning a title to a post here at Newtown Pentacle (and a lot of people have asked about this over the years, which I’d usually refuse to answer) I’d flip open a book of HP Lovecraft’s short stories and find some random two word phrase on the page and use that for a title. The titles were thereby absolutely random and had zero to do with the rest of the post. As of 2023, that conceit is done, and going forward the titles of the postings here will be representive of what’s going on in the post, and act as an actual “title.” Second thing is that since I no longer have a deep background understanding of what I’m looking at, or writing about, as I did in NYC, you’re invited to come along with me as I discover the wonders of this new place.
Odds are I’m going to get stuff wrong (particularly at the start), or misinterpret something I’m hurriedly researching. If that’s the case, and you know better, I’m begging you to share your knowledge in the comments or by email, and educate not just a humble narrator but everybody else reading this publication.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The fancy pants restaurant we ate at is found in the old “P&LERR” or Pittsburgh & Lake Erie Rail Road building found nearby the Smithfield Street Bridge. This structure is an anchor for a post industrial redevelopment operation they’ve got going on there which is dubbed “Station Square.” The restaurant we ate at was called the “Grand Concourse” and it was a pretty great dinner. The building, and in particular, the restaurant space we were in, has been restored beautifully to its 19th century glory, and is ultra well maintained. A “cathedral of capitalism” indeed.
That’s another thing that’s going to be a bit different moving forward which I’d like to mention. When Newtown Pentacle first appeared, I made sure that links to sources and “primaries” were included in the narrative. Over the years, as I ended up becoming more and more the de facto “authority” on the subject of Newtown Creek (in particular), these posts became a lot more conversational and colloquial and I would just throw down a statement without any backup or external link. There came a point, somewhere around 2015 or 2016 that I just decided you could “take my word for this.” Also, particularly over the last couple of COVID years the posts here have transformed into a sort of journal for whatever I was up to, where I was going, or to explore whatever governmental hi-jinx I was privy to and able to discuss publicly. That’s also over, as far as this being a “journal” type site. I’ve got too much to learn here.
The way I learn things involves photographing, researching, and writing about them. Pittsburgh is largely a mystery to me, and you’re invited along on the journey as I try to figure it out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We’ve moved into the Borough of Dormont in Pittsburgh’s South Hills. I truly wish I could explain the complicated governance structure they’ve got here, but I find it truly bewildering at this moment. The “City of Pittsburgh” versus all of the annexed or incorporated municipal entities which are part of it but have their own separate governments, and elected officials, is something I still haven’t wrapped my head around. A good way to understand any municipality, I think, is to look at how they organize their Cops and Fire Departments.
On a related side note to that statement, we got to Dormont just as the Fire Dept.’s of Dormont and its surrounding communities were staging a holiday parade which – of course – I had to go photograph. As you’ll see, there’s lots of local Fire Departments.
Last time I was in town, I started a conversation with a couple of Pennsylvania State Troopers and asked how “Cop things” worked here. I explained to the officers that my lifetime experience was with NYPD, wherein 38,000 Police Officers work under a common command structure, rules, and academy training. The PA cops – after asking me to confirm again that NYPD’s active duty force numbers 38,000 (to which their jaws dropped open) – said that there are several local colleges which offer a curriculum in Law Enforcement. Upon graduation, you’re either recruited by or apply to one of the many City Police, State Police, or Sheriff departments in the area. What’s confusing to me is that whereas there are similarities in uniforms, equipment, and vehicles, I’ve noticed the different flavors of Cop hereabouts do things very differently from each other – operationally speaking. It’s all very confusing, really.
Pictured above is one of the features that made Dormont attractive to us, which is a street car line called the “T.” The vast majority of “getting around” here revolves around automobiles, but the T is fairly well used. I like the concept of not having to drive when I don’t want to.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pictured above is the view from the backyard deck of our new digs in Dormont, where it is quiet and dark at night. The first night we were in the new house – which hosts not just a dishwasher but a washer and drier AND one of those refrigerators you see on TV that does cold water and crushed ice, with a driveway and garage which are all mine – a deer walked into our yard and gave us a once over look before huffing it’s nose and wandering away into the darkness. This is what 4.3 miles from the titular center of the City, and four blocks from that street car line, look likes here.
Our Lady of the Pentacle was anxious to take part in an event going on in that downtown city center mentioned above a couple of days after we arrived, and we packed into the car. I had zero interest in this event, so I dropped her off at the Convention Center where it was being held, and then I headed eastwards along the Allegheny River or “North Side” to explore a bit on my own.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Freight rail regularly transits through Pittsburgh, and by Springtime I plan on having a mental map of where these tracks are, and what travels on them and when. I also have to figure out a “system” as far as shooting photos with a car involved. This is a whole new world for me, not sweating how I’m going to shave a half pound out of my camera bag because I’ll have to carry it on my back for eight miles of walking.
My explorations have been both limited and enhanced by the amount of “have-to’s” involved with setting up housekeeping here. Pittsburgh is full of surprises, and it pays to lift the occasional stone to see what’s crawling around underneath it. While seeking out a Walmart to buy groceries and a few things we needed for the house from, I inadvertently found myself atop “Brown’s Dump” in the community of West Mifflin about 20 minutes from Dormont. Wow.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An interesting thing I’ve noticed in this post industrial City is that it has a lot of available land. That land might be historically poisonous due to the heaviest industrial footprints you can think of – steel mills, petrochemical and gas manufacturing, all of that – but there’s a lot of it. What that abundance of land means is that there’s virtually no financial imperative to build “up” as you would in the NYC area, and thereby businesses tend to build out horizontally. The Walmart SuperCenter in West Mifflin mentioned above, for instance, could easily house both Kings Plaza and the Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst within its walls. That’s one store, mind you, in a complex of similarly airplane hangar sized buildings purposed towards big box stores, such as the aforementioned Walmart SuperCenter or Sam’s Club and Dick’s Sporting Goods.
I spent the late afternoon trawling about Pittsburgh, looking at stuff, making notes to return to certain locations, and causing concern for various security guards about the weird guy in a filthy black raincoat waving a camera around, while Our Lady did her thing.
More tomorrow at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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virtual monopoly
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the last post featuring NYC. Monday, as in next year, starts a new chapter at this – your Newtown Pentacle. I hope you’ll stay with me as I begin to explore and discover an entirely different part of this great country. Happy New Year!
“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.
assorted hands
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with 2022’s “best of’s” in todays post:
May started off with a visit to Philadelphia’s Schuykill River and downtown area. Back home in Queens, Dutch Kills and its collapsing bulkhead received one of what would end up being weekly inspections by me in “ugly trifles.” One did his fair share of riding the NYC Ferry, as in “ivied antique.” Long Island City’s Newtown Creek coastlines became a particular point of focus, as in “torture of.” I made it a point of collecting sunset shots around Newtown Creek all year, as in “nimbus over.”
A growing sense of outrage at the despicable management of our commonly held municipal assets, given the high price which the citizenry pays for these basic services to support the political intrigues of City Hall and Albany, began to manifest in a less than subtle way right around the time which “weary journey” appeared in your inbox.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
June of 2022 started off with a tugboat encounter on Newtown Creek in “peradventure may,” continued on with another visit to Hells Gate in “whisper leeringly,” checked in on that collapsing bulkhead along Newtown Creek’s Dutch Kills tributary in Long Island City in “crystal coldness,” visited industrial Maspeth in “rest without,” gave the Pulaski Bridge a portrait session in “ever been,” kept on working the sunset angle in “seemed older,” and rode the Rockaway Ferry in “emotional need.” I tried to photograph a lunar eclipse in “hidden pneumatics,” and Sunnyside Yards was visited in “fiendish subjects.”
All year, I kept on trying to push myself to not just get a good photo, but to try and get a category defining photo. This meant moving around with all of my gear on my back. This was a real pain, but unlike “normal” conditions, I couldn’t just come back in the future. There would be no ‘next time.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
July of 2022, things got started with an LIC post that visited Dutch Kills and then took a ride on the 7 line in “cacodaemonical ghastliness.” An artist friend of mine turned me on to a spot along Jackson Avenue in LIC’s Court Square in “frequent fumbling,” I went to a carnival in Astoria Park at Hells Gate in “fumbling in,” visited Staten Island’s Fresh Kills in “torn to,” and in “retinue of” I went hunting for a 7 train/Queensboro Bridge sunset shot.
In “stifling age,” it was revealed that I had visited Pittsburgh again, and that this particular journey also included a visit to Wheeling, West Virginia in “assented without.” I applied a bit of discipline on myself, and did a researched Pittsburgh history post in “boldly away.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
August rolled into town, and that’s when I decided to show you what the July 4th fireworks shows – the Macy’s one in “thing therein,” and the Astoria Park one in “wrinkles formed,” looked like. A rental car allowed me to range pretty freely for a few days, first in “nervous overstrain” at Newtown Creek, then to College Point in “breathing sleep,” and even out to Nassau County in “desolate pitch.”
My last dragon to slay, as I’ve been calling the collapsing bulkhead at 29th street along Dutch Kills, received a bit of political focus in “scintillant semicircle.” I got caught out in a violent thunderstorm along Dutch Kills in “palsied denials,” justified trespass in “so inquisitive,” and got a few nice Tugboat shots for “breathing things.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
September found me trying to do and experience everything all at once one last time. For most of 2022, I was able to maintain a decent “lead time” on these posts, and some of them were scheduled as far ahead as a month in advance of publication. This is the way I like it, incidentally, and was a personal achievement. A particularly photogenic evening was encountered at Sunnyside Yards in “significance of,” a colorful sunset captured at Dutch Kills in “harrow up,” “ten beings” found me at an abandoned power plant in Yonkers, I visited the World Trade Center observation deck in “equally silent,” Hudson Yards in “nightmare spawning,” and I was back in Pittsburgh with “churchyard teachings” and several other posts at the end of the month.
October saw the Pittsburgh posts continue, as with “politely holding,” but we were soon back at Newtown Creek with “subdued sort.” I attended a performance at the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road in “falling on,” wandered around Queens in “insistent pleas,” walked over the Kosciuszcko Bridge in “times amidst,” and my pal Carter Craft gave me a boat ride down Newtown Creek starting in “devilish anxiety.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
November and December are a bit of a blur for me. Posts like “unearthly immanence” or “brood capriciously” don’t say too much, but I’m fond of the photos. I spent a lot of time by myself, when I had some time, in posts like “unguessed companion” or “amorphous blight.” In “noxious heap” and “disreputably nourished,” there’s a certain melancholy reeling in around the edges.
Then my new car arrived and the entire moving away project kicked into overdrive. I quit Community Board 1, Access Queens, and Newtown CAG. I started tooling about – Flushing, College Point, all over. Newtown Creek Alliance gave me the “reveal award” at the annual gala. My pals on the John J Harvey Fireboat conducted a public facing tour on Newtown Creek for me, as described in “humming music,” and then I was back in Pittsburgh with Our Lady of the Pentacle in “crystal stream” and other posts. Every time might be is the last time became the mantra, and posts like “severed aspiration,” “tradewinds sweep,” and “treasure house” were expressions of that.
Whew!
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Buy a book!
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molasses sloops
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
2022 started off here at Newtown Pentacle with a particularly long early morning walk from the Brooklyn Navy Yard to Greenpoint’s Newtown Creek coast line. The encampments under the Brooklyn Queens Expressway discussed in “he shuns” were eliminated by a combination of Police and Sanitation Department action about a month after this post, when the Mayor and the Bicycle People both decided that there should be a bike lane on Meeker Avenue and “fuck the homeless.” Swagger!
The walk continued from the Navy Yard, and then I had arrived at Newtown Creek’s “Penny Bridge” Meeker Avenue street end. My increasingly disillusioned POV – regarding the City of Greater New York – was discussed in “he seeks” which saw the start of a certain thematic statement which would carry through the entire year.
Nothing matters, and nobody cares.
Regardless of this growing ennui, I still had my duties to perform on Newtown Creek – which as in the case of “he flees” – involved introducing a Grad student to the Creek.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My growing interest in Pittsburgh caused me to travel out and explore the place again, and write about what I was seeing, as in the post “dawning love” from the end of January. By this point, Our Lady of the Pentacle and I knew we wanted to move somewhere else, but hadn’t made the decision as to where yet.
In February, I was scuttling around Queens and Long Island City at night again. “fantastic figment” visited Sunnyside Yards, which like the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek, was always on my shot list when leaving HQ.
“puerile kind” paid a nocturnal visit to Hells Gate on a foggy night in Astoria. “amorphous amenity” found me wandering back towards home on the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge over Newtown Creek. “limitless limitations” discusses the time I met an Opossum while scuttling my way over towards the Kosciuszcko Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Throughout the pandemic months and as it ended up – years, one maintained a personal discipline of walking the camera around every other day. One day “in” and one day “out.” My strategy to avoid the various disease vectors involved moving around at night, and visiting industrial hellscapes where nobody in their right minds would find themselves. “bodily emanations” is a fairly typical post for this period of time. So is “stony plateau,” but that one was shot in Astoria instead of Industrial Maspeth.
You want social distancing? Pfah. Welcome to Newtown Creek at night, asshole.
“psychopathic institution” details what I saw in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint section after receiving word that a barge had sunk in Newtown Creek. “perilous disposition” is one of dozens of posts which focused in on the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek in Long Island City. Another Dutch Kills post, “harmless stupidity,” emanates from the time that I decided to shoot the place at sunrise, on what would turn out to be the second coldest day of 2022 in NYC.
Frostbite in six of ten fingers and three of the toes was the consequence of that decision.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator was really on a roll during this interval, photography wise, if I do say so myself.
The decision to leave NYC had been agreed upon by Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself in early March, which informed the rest of the year for me. We had a plan. At that point it became a logistics problem, and logistics are one of my specialities.
Now that there was a theoretical end to my endless scuttling about in LIC, one decided that what I really needed to do was to create one last catalog of photos of my little empire of dirt. Efforts were redoubled, and one began to push his comfort levels and boundaries.
“Every time might be the last time” joined with “Nothing matters and nobody cares” as the governing mantras.
“hellish hours” detailed one of my frequent visits to Sunnyside Yards, “somnolent stillness” went to Flushing, “laminar dissection” is from Industrial Maspeth, and the less viewed sections of Dutch Kills were recorded in “plumbed descent.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My last dragon to slay, as I described a collapsing Dutch Kills bulkhead along LIC’s 29th street to Our Lady of the Pentacle, began to catch my eye in “yellow rays.” Throughout the year, I never missed a chance to ride the 7 train, as I did in “all observant.”
The 7 is, far and away, the most photogenic of all of NYC’s subway lines.
April began with another dark sky visit to Hells Gate in “uncertain outlines,” I took a walk over the Queensboro Bridge in “perfumed jungles,” got some nice shots of the Kosciuszcko Bridge in “whirling fancy,” and in “assignable colour,” “sentiently over,” and for “more hexagonal” I took a night time walk over the section of the Triborough Bridge which I had some responsibility for in my community board Chair of Transportation committee role.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“those obeisances” was when I revealed the horrible truth about all of those ‘not in service’ MTA buses that shuttle about at night – from Cemetery to Cemetery – all across the Newtown Pentacle.
“secrets stood” paid a visit to Queens Plaza at night, where vampires lurk in the steel rafters of the elevated subway tracks.
More “2022’s best of,” here at Newtown Pentacle 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 