terrible keenness
The southern side of Woodside, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the 27th of December in 1657, the Flushing Remonstrance was presented to Peter Stuyvesant, over in the City. That’s your Queens history factoid of the day. I’m going to a holiday party in the City tonight, and I can virtually guarantee that nothing quite so earth shattering as the emergence of the legal precursor of Constitutionally protected religious freedom will emerge from the endeavor. There will likely be soft cheeses, crackers, and wine however.
Life is shit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, whilst wandering along the fence lines of and through the “House of Moses” in Elmhurst, Winfield, and Woodside the other day I got to thinking about something that bugs me. During political type conversations with various folks in the last couple of years, a common statement has been offered to me which states that the U.S.’s Constitutional Bill of Rights “grants” me this and that (including the notion of the freedom of conscience which was first clarified to Peter Stuyvesant way back in 1657 Queens). If you check the actual language of the thing – it “acknowledges” “certain inalienable human rights.”
“Grant” means that it gives you these rights, and that it can take them back if warranted. That’s “stinking thinking” if you ask me, but what do I know? I’m no law scholar, just some idiot with a camera and an afternoon off, which I spent walking along a highway in Queens. I do know what “inalienable” means, however, and that “acknowledge” is better than “grant.”
Think about it in terms of acknowledging the right you have to live another day without being murdered, versus being granted another murder free day. This is the sort of stuff which keeps me up nights, incidentally.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Anywho, the little path I picked for myself was quite hilly. I followed Laurel Hill Blvd. in Woodside while trailing the BQE on my way back to Astoria from Elmhurst. My pal Kevin Walsh from Forgotten-NY could probably have built around a hundred posts out of the area I wandered through, but as I’ve mentioned in the past – residential neighborhoods ain’t my thing.
I like the wastelands, which is why I was walking along a highway. I picked the hilly path just for the cardio.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are numerous scenarios which I can envision that would explain the shot above. I prefer the one involving modesty, wherein a naked hydrant was somehow offensive and one of the neighbors decided that it needed some dress up.
You don’t ask, in Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been looking and looking for the last few months, and finally I’ve spotted another type of manhole or access cover which I haven’t previously recorded. On the whole subject of trade, international deficits, and so on – why aren’t we forging these things in the United States? I’m positive that “made in Pittsburgh” would fit if a smaller font was used.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
apparent coherence
One last set of archive shots, for Boxing Day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our Lady of the Pentacle hails from the UK, so Boxing Day is kind of a thing in our house, and that’s today. The British tradition originates, at least in its modern form, from the habit of allowing the servile to go visit their own families after facilitating the Christmas celebrations of their masters. The Lords and Ladies would present their servants with boxes of gifts to take back to the hovels that they were created in. As times changed, modern Boxing Day became sort of what Christmas Day is in the United States, the calendrical marker wherein gifts are distributed and families gather to feast, drink, and argue.
It’s also Saint Stephen’s Day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saint Stephen was the protomartyr of the Christian tradition, as in he’s the first martyr to die horribly after the boss got hung up on the rood. Stephen (or as he likely spelled it – Στέφανος) was a Hellenistic Jew and later Christian Deacon, supposedly appointed by the Apostles themselves, whose church was found in first century AD Jerusalem. Stephen pissed off the Jerusalem establishment, specifically the conservative Pharisees, and he was stoned to death after they accused him of blasphemy. The denunciation, trial, and carrying out of the sentence was supposedly witnessed by a fellow named Saul of Tarsus – later Saint Paul – who provided the only primary source material for the story of Stephen.
BTW – politics, history, religion, politics. If you read up on Baruch and the Persians, the hot and cold wars between Rome and Persia/Parthia, and the role of the City States of the Levant caught between the Italians, Greeks, and Persians during this period – the bible suddenly makes a lot more sense. The Three Wise Men? They were Mede and Persian priests who illegally crossed the border into a Roman conquest, formerly a Persian Suzerainty, to anoint a new king of the Jews… Frankincense, Myrrh, Gold? All things which a warrior King would require to claim his kingdom. That’s the way that the Romans saw it, at least.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In the former holdings of the British Empire, with the notable exception of the United States, Boxing Day has turned into a capitalist bellwether holiday – analogous to “Black Friday.” The only holdover of Boxing Day in the good old USA is found in the former states of the confederacy, which gives public employees a paid day off on the 26th of December. Saint Stephen’s Day is celebrated in several countries with traditions that predate the Roman Empire, with pagan Celtic and Viking rituals that have been Christianized. In Ireland, for instance, you’ve got “Lá Fhéile Stiofáin” or “Day of the Wren.” In Welsh culture it’s “Gŵyl San Steffan,” and Catholic Germans celebrate “Zweiter Weihnachtsfeiertag.”
Happy Boxing Day.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
febrile energy
Getting high in LIC, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
None of these shots are recent, I’ll first offer. To magnify that statement, due to the recent and quite abysmal climatological conditions, one has been forced to dig into the archives this entire week. Secondly, one is so thoroughly bored at the moment that if a television reporter suddenly presents a story about a black hole opening up in Astoria – interpret that as the fact that my event horizon has finally collapsed and I’ve given in to the ennui.
Pictured above is a set piece from an Angeline Jolie movie that was being filmed in LIC around seven years ago.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One is full of desire and ambition, wanting to get higher and higher in the name of gathering uncommon views of everyday things. The most photogenic of NYC’s subway lines is in the shot above, as is a NJ Transit train heading back to the City after sitting out the day in Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Northern Blvd., looking towards 31st street, in the shot above. I call the section of Northern between 52nd and 31st streets the “Carridor” for several reasons.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Sunyside Yards, with the Degnon Terminal behind it. For some reason, LaGuardia Community College, which is partially housed in the big white structure once known as “The Thousand Windows Bakery of the Loose Wiles Company” has decided to paint their building gray and brick over the thousand windows.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
obsolete phraseology
Getting high, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s not so easy getting high in the age of terror. Once upon a time it was fairly easy to gain entrance to a building and find your way to the roof, but not so much anymore. Accordingly, whenever I get the opportunity, the camera is deployed.
This one is from a friend’s wedding, which was held at a Manhattan hotel on Park Avenue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Gridlock Sam didn’t necessarily want me to be bodily hanging out one of his office windows, on Broadway and Houston Street, but since I was there anyway for a meeting…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This one was gathered in LIC from the roof deck of one those shiny new condo towers, and looks down on Hunters Point Avenue, the LIE, and a little bitty piece of the Sunnyside Yards.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
secretive youth
Existentialist archive stuff, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everything is kind of gray at the moment, ain’t it? I’ve always preferred the British spelling of the word gray, incidentally, they use “grey” over there. They also use “colour” which is a prettier spelled word than ours, IMHO. That’s some nameless and bland east side of midtown Manhattan office building in the shot above, just if you’re curious.
The shot was chosen purely for its bleak and hopeless character.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You wouldn’t believe the amount of preparation it took to get the moon shot above, at least in the chaotic environment and sooty air of Astoria, Queens. Tripod, long lens, lens extender, manual focusing, compensating for the counter revolutions of the planet and planetoid… yeesh, at least it wasn’t cold out that night. As a note, there’s some math genius out there who has calculated lens focal length vs. maximum aperture and created tables which tell you how long your exposure can be before movement begins to affect image fidelity. Google it.
The moon moves across the night sky in a surprisingly fast fashion, incidentally, at least when you’re looking through something like 700mm of optical magnification.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of Astoria, or “Point A” as I call it… it’s always great to come back here from Points B or M (or Point SI for that matter) even if it’s dark and raining. Can’t see the moon on those nights, of course, but Astoria rules no matter what the weather is like. Well, the cold sucks, but…
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 