Archives #016
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Jesus!
Also, it’s been just shy of six weeks since the broken ankle interrupted my preconceptions and existential plans, and I’m still spending most of my time either sitting in a wheelchair or hobbling about on crutches. Thereby, archive posts are being offered, which draw on the abundance from prior years, here at Newtown Pentacle, which has been updated on a mostly daily basis since 2009. The conceit at work in choice of presenting past work is that each of the postings featured in these archive trios is that they were published on this date, in their respective year.
Famously, when Newtown Pentacle was first launched, your humble narrator avoided colloquial or conversational styles of language and instead filtered everything through a deliberately archaic HP Lovecraft styling. This framing device is one I used to discuss First Calvary Cemetery in LIC, as in this 2010 post, and it was the search for Gilman.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The good news is that I’m meant to be visiting the surgeon this week, and if I’m lucky, and the healing process has proceeded along with expectations, your humble narrator’s prison door might get unlocked soon. Cross your fingers for me, lords and ladies. I really need to get out of the house.
On this date in 2018, this post was published, describing part of a car trip out to South Brooklyn with my Pal Val.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As stated in the past, this process of ‘looking back at the road I walked’ has been very interesting – psychologically speaking. First thing I can tell you is this: I’ve got a lot of dead friends. Saying that, I know a LOT of people, so… law of averages, but… the second observation is that I did not leave the confines of NYC for something like ten years in a row.
Wow… no wonder I’m all ‘effed up.
In 2021, this ‘visiting Pittsburgh’ post arrived in your inboxes.
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Archives #015
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I miss walking, mainly. This broken ankle business is absolutely no fun at all. Today’s archive posts are plucked from previously published stuff, all of which was made public on this date in their respective years.
This October 25 post was published in 2013, and scuttles about in a section of LIC defined by Skillman Avenue.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I am not a huge fan of the showrunners at South Street Seaport, but I’ve got a lot of respect for the people who maintain and operate their small fleet of historic vessels.
Back in 2017, this post discussed a Working Harbor Committee get together onboard South Street Seaport’s Wavertree.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every single hole in the fence at Sunnyside Yards which you could fit a camera lens through was catalogued and regularly visited, pretty much for the entirety of the time I lived in Astoria. This was along my walking route back and forth to the creek, after all.
Talking about one of the apertures – which I called ‘hole reliable’ – at Sunnyside Yards is what this 2022 post discusses.
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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.
Archives #014
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with the archives posts today, as a humble narrator ‘keeps on keeping on’ in terms of recovering from a severely broken left ankle. This experience is just no fun whatsoever, I’d mention. The three posts offered today were all published on this date in their respective years.
This post from 2009 delves deeply into a visit to Manhattan’s Grand Lodge of the Freemasons, and was the first of multiple posts describing the experience.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I really doubled down on night time photos in 2018 and 2019, and I’d often be observed wandering around Newtown Creek’s concrete devastations in the dark. Miss those times, and my splendid isolation.
This 2018 post sees me ‘freelance philosophifizing’ about the state of the world, which is a string of narrative and reasoning that led ultimately to my final motto in NYC – nothing matters and nobody cares.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I think that I was attending a Working Harbor Committee meeting before shooting the photos in this post, but that’s a guess. Can’t imagine why I would have been in the theater district otherwise.
In this 2019 post, I reveal the fact that the Times Square subway station sits on top of a subterrene Hellmont to the general citizenry, which accounts for why it’s always so hot down there.
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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.
Archives #013
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My beloved Creek, how I miss thee… This shot looks towards Brooklyn’s Greenpoint from LIC’s Blissville along the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge. What’s missing here is a rail bridge which used to connect LIRR freight trains to the Brooklyn side, where the Mobil Refinery used to stand.
Today, another archives post from broken ankle country (#brankle) greets you, with all represented posts having been originally presented on this date in their respective years.
This 2015 post discusses the garbage train in LIC’S Blissville section.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I always figured that if I broke an ankle it would be all the way back in Brooklyn at the end of English Kills, which is also the end of Newtown Creek, and is found some 3.8 miles from the East River. I never liked going back here alone, either. Too easy to get hurt and too difficult to get help if you did.
This 2017 post visits the actual last mile of Newtown Creek in Brooklyn.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
End of December in 2022 is when I left NYC and moved to Pittsburgh. No regrets, I would add. Again, it’s an interesting thing for me to recollect about the actual sensory experience of this particular day when viewing the photos. I remember the day this shot was captured as offering near perfect weather conditions for a long walk.
This 2023 post from October 23 involved me trying to ‘get back on the stick’ exercise wise, after an interval of being stuck at home while caring for Our Lady of the Pentacle after she endured a medical procedure. A year later and our positions have reversed, and I’m the one in trouble.
Back 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.
Archives #012
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Broken ankle guy Mitch here (hashtag ‘Brankle’), with today’s Newtown Pentacle archives post. These postings were chosen in somewhat random fashion – with the commonality and conceit of the grouping being that they were all published on this date in their respective years, falling sometime between 2009 and now. It’s going to be a while before I’m presenting anything that’s been newly gathered here, as I’m literally writing this post while sitting in the same wheelchair that I’ve been inhabiting for the last month.
This 2014 post discussed the coin operated ‘rides’ and vending machines which populate the sidewalks of Astoria outside of deli’s and pizzerias.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Putting these posts together, especially in my current physical state, have offered me an interesting experience. I seldom look backwards at the road I’ve walked, except to check if I’m being followed, of course. The archive post may be talking about some obtuse historical talking point, or arguing against this or that issue of the day, but the photos always bring me right back to the day/hour/minute existential reality of capturing them. I remember walking down Roosevelt Avenue in the cold – vividly – on the night that the shot above was captured. The image calls up memory of smell and sounds for me. That’s what’s so interesting about pulling these old posts, and seeing all the places that this ‘schmuck with a camera’ had managed to talk his way into.
Heh, check me out – nostalgic.
This post from 2018 mentions that today is the anniversary of Edison electrifying the first light bulb, amongst other things, and runs three fairly unrelated photos as illustration. It was also a Monday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The escape from New York was being planned for a lot longer than I let on, and by October of 2021 it already was looking like Pittsburgh was where we would be headed towards. A sudden appearance of posts talking about lands which might be found beyond New Jersey or …Staten Island… begin to populate the archives here in 2021.
October 22 in 2021 saw this Pittsburgh post published, with images captured in a long walk that asked the question ‘could I live here?’
“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 