oaken construct
Frustrated, bored, plagued.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were gathered last week – before, during, and after the Newtown Creek walking tour which I conducted in the dark and rain with a freshly broken toe. One of the more frustrating parts of my life since the emergence of the fractured phalange has involved that the atmosphere looked like this. Voluminous fog, wet streets, a generally distasteful and uncomfortable climate offers ideal conditions for the sort of long exposure urban nightscape photos which I crave to create.
There I was, stuck in the house watching netflix with my swollen foot elevated, and draped with an ice pack. It’s like that time I missed the Fourth of July.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I rarely take shots during tours, but for various reasons, I cracked this one out on the preternaturally dark and aptly named Railroad Avenue in Blissville.
By this stage of the recovery process, I’ve grown tired of trying to entertain myself. Haven’t read any of those books I said ai was going to, as I’m essentially crawling the walls at this point. There’s a community board meeting tonight, for a committee I’m not on, which I might attend just to have something to do. That’s how bored I am. I’ve got a college group scheduled for a Newtown Creek excursion on Thursday morning, and then a meeting for a committee I’m on the same night, so at least Thursday will offer some distractions.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Plague thing involves a horde of flies which enjoys buzzing about on my porch. A few of them have made it inside the house, and they’re all haughty because I’m unable to chase them around. Instead I’ve set traps. Another week like this one, and I’ll be in full “Jigsaw” mode (The “Saw” horror franchise) and setting ironic torture traps out for them. If I’m still hobbled two weeks from now, I’ll start working on a battalion of tiny murder drones to patrol the living room ceiling. Zuzu the dog doesn’t pay attention to anything smaller than mice, and I’ve got one of those living on my porch too.
Life is a cabaret, old friends.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Come to the library!
In the Shadows at Newtown Creek – The Roosevelt Island Historic Society has invited me to present a slideshow and talk about my beloved Newtown Creek at the New York Public Library on Roosevelt Island, on November 14th, 6 p.m. Free event!
Click here for more information.!
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.
debased attainments
The ole 11103.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given my current limitations, let’s just say that one of my normal pedestrian based travelogues through industrial Maspeth isn’t going to be on offer for a bit. One is more or less confined to a very narrow slice of almond eyed Astoria, and unless it’s directly related to a “have to” or work I’m not going to mess around with the healing process for the broken big toe. Luckily, Astoria is seldom boring.
Yesterday, my “have to” related to limping over to my optician to get the lenses in my spectacles updated with a new prescription. While waiting for the process to finish, I noticed this artifact of the recent holiday displayed vulgarly atop a fire hydrant.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Returning towards my side of Steinway Street along Broadway, laborers were busy clearing out the remains of the Duane Reade which has occupied the corner of Broadway and Steinway for the entire time I’ve lived here. Duane recently announced that their landlord had raised the rent for this cavernous space to usurious levels and the corporation decided to shutter this location.
Man, if Duane Reade can’t pay the rent…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I don’t title photos, since I’ve always hated the ego which such a practice displays. Back when I was a retoucher working on Madison Avenue, a standard refrain one might hear being shouted from my cubicle was “I HATE PHOTOGRAPHERS.” The level of preciousness attached to imagery by some of us just drives me crazy. It’s not an oil painting, despite the amount of skill and practice it takes to produce quality shots. Studio or big outdoor shots with props and lighting equipment do not change the equation all that much, in my mind. I know comic artists and fine art painters who don’t treat their works as preciously as some photographers do. The only members of the discipline whom I’ll grant the preciousness thing to are the photo journalists who work in war zones, capturing scenes of combat from “within the trenches.” That shot up there is a “snapshot” of a garbage can on 43rd street in Queens, and it doesn’t deserve much in the way of preciousness.
So, as mentioned, I don’t title photos. If I did, the one above would be called either “Childhood’s End,” or “Mommy and Daddy don’t live together anymore.”
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Come to the library!
In the Shadows at Newtown Creek – The Roosevelt Island Historic Society has invited me to present a slideshow and talk about my beloved Newtown Creek at the New York Public Library on Roosevelt Island, on November 14th, 6 p.m. Free event!
Click here for more information.!
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.
miasmic entree
DUKBO will always be the Poison Cauldron to me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In those halcyon days when a humble narrator’s roadway interface was still functioning within normal parameters – or simply before a week ago Sunday when my big toe got smashed – one was wandering through the hoary streets of Greenpoint, specifically the area which I’ve long referred to as the Poison Cauldron of the Newtown Creek. That’s the Brooklyn side of DUKBO, Down Under the Kosciuszcko Bridge Onramp, if you’re curious. Broken toe or not, I’m still an idiot.
That’s when I spotted this pack of black cats with pale yellow eyes glaring at me from behind an industrial fenceline. I did not see any clipped ears, so these little predators aren’t being looked after by the TNR (Trap Neuter Release) folks, but they were hanging out at an industrial site, so they are likely being offered some sort of shelter, water, and food. The “Blue Collar” crowd are secretly softies when it comes to critters, in my experience. There’s likely lots and lots of Costco brand pet food somewhere back there behind the fence.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily for the cats, this open hydrant and the small pond it maintains attracts birds. The birds do bird things, and based on the scattered piles of feather you see stuck into the sticky mud which the water creates, the cats then do cat things to them. The Audubon people I’ve met over the years are horrified by this sort of thing, reacting in much the same way that the bicycle people do when somebody throws a candy wrapper into one of the bike lanes.
Me? I see something eminently hopeful, as even here – in the darkest of the hillside thickets – you give the natural world an inch and it will take a mile. Awesome sauce.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last week, on Friday afternoon specifically, I finally sought out medical attention from the Mt. Sinai operation here in Astoria for the smashed up toe. X-Ray confirmation of a fracture was attained, and they gave me a prescription for an anti biotic which was so completely off the charts strong that I spent Friday night and much of Saturday cowering here in HQ. I stopped taking the pill, but it took about 24 hours for me to piss the poison out. At no point did anyone in the hospital mention side effects, drug interactions, or mention that Tylenol (which I told them I was taking for pain control) mixed with this mega dose of anti biotic would BBQ my liver. Also not mentioned was the long list of potential side effects, including one which would have wiped out my gut flora and likely caused a C Diff infection in my intestines.
All of you reading this who are running for Borough President or considering a bid for Costa’s council seat here in Astoria are going to receive an earful when I see you, so be warned. I strongly suggest that any of you regular people reading this requiring emergency care bite the bullet and head into the City rather than rolling the dice with the second rate jobs program that is health care in Queens.
“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.
agonizing mortality
Three Boroughs today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Right up there is the very first shot ever published at your Newtown Pentacle, which is an oldie but a goodie. Queensboro Bridge just before it’s centennial parade, and I was the only person on the upper level when this was captured. Archive shots will be greeting y’all for a bit while my smashed toe heals, an endeavor which is shaping up to be quite the ordeal. I’m heading over to the hospital later on to get it properly looked at, since – despite one of my hidden talents being first aid and the ability to tie off a sterile field dressing – things aren’t progressing as I’d like them to and I have to consult with somebody whose first name is Doctor.
I really cannot afford to do this, invoking the broken medical system here in NYC, but you have to do what you have to do and a possible infection related to a broken bone is not something you want to play around with.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m not sure what the name of that rail bridge is in the shot above, but I can tell you that it’s in the Bronx. Another archive shot, I captured it during another one of the Centennial events about ten years ago, celebrating the Madison Avenue Bridge.
Man, my foot is killing me today. The swelling has gone down, but that means that I can now fully experience and enjoy the injury.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s what it looks like when the ship or boat you’re on is entering the Gowanus Canal, and that’s the Hamilton Avenue Bridge. Got this one a while back on a Working Harbor Committee excursion to Gowanus Bay and the canal. My pal Joseph Alexiou was on the mike, who is someone you should be paying attention to on all matters involving the Gowanus and South Brooklyn in general.
Oww.
“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.
joy denying
The most wonderful time of the year.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
To start, Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself will be gathering with our crew at Doyle’s Corner (found at the Times Square of Astoria, 42nd st and Broadway) after 4 p.m. to hand out candy to the children. Join us. I’ll be the one wearing the Mitch Waxman costume. To continue, I’m aghast at the efforts of the Dental Industrial Complex to deny the youth their annual birthright, and really must offer the chide that you people have to get a grip and quit it with the teachable moments. For the sake of all that is unholy, don’t politicize Halloween.
You’ve got your radical Pentecostals, Evangelicals, Hasids, and other groups who propagate the mythology that Halloween is a celebration of the Devil itself. That’s just ignorant. Also, the Dentists should embrace this holiday, as it means their cash drawers will be full by Thanksgiving.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s probably several radical lefties who don’t like this holiday as well. Pumpkins causing global warming? Somebody out there announcing that the carbon points of each candy bar can be calculated into a seemingly random number of dead Rhinos? Some stupid statement about the day which got tweeted out of the White House? What did the Mayor and Chirlane dress as? Halloween as an example of a capitalist or consumerist orgy of sugary greed coming from the socialists? Are the Trick or Treaters blocking your bike lane? Are Halloween’s origins in the European Catholic mythos exclusionary to Muslims, Buddhists, or the Baha’i?
Take a break today, folks, it’s a holiday. At least give the rest of us a day off to have a little fun without it having dire import.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In my case, I don’t need to watch any horror movies today. The swelling in my smashed toe is going down, which means I am now experiencing the fullness of pain one would associate with a fractured bone. Regardless of this uncomfortable situation, one cannot ignore his obligation to sugar up the neighborhood kids, lest a refusal of treats results in an abundance of tricks.
I’m officially bored to tears after several days of rest and keeping the foot elevated, and cannot endure watching any more television. I haven’t annoyed anyone who works for the government this week either. Officially, I’d like to thank everybody who has filled my head with horror stories of people they know who have suffered foot injuries which became infected which led to sepsis, amputation, and early death as well. That has been a real treat, having that in my head while trying to fall asleep as the toe throbs.
“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 