Posts Tagged ‘Astoria’
after lighting
This week is for the birds.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happenstance and scheduling have finally conspired to give a humble narrator a bit of summer time off, which I’m considering as being a lucky stroke, and which indicate that the universe wants me to take a week off. I’m out galavanting around the City, accordingly, waving the camera around and smiling sardonically.
Next week, I’ll show you what I captured, if it’s not crap.
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.
horrible yelps
You see things in Astoria, Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As predicate – two things; The first is that the Transportation Alternatives Bike Lane people never mention Unicycles in their agitprop for expanding the bike lane network. The second is that last Friday, an old friend was in town and I made it a point of getting to the local bar early to grab a choice outside table in the shade.
I wasn’t there five minutes before the fellow pictured above came rolling past.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I knew a guy in High School who rode a unicycle, but it was the smaller kind that circus clowns are known to frequent. The following series of shots are rare vertical format ones (rare for this publication, at least) as this specimen from Astoria put its rider’s center of gravity at least six to seven feet up from the pavement.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The fellow was doing a bit of a dance as he rode the thing, throwing his arms about in a somewhat comical fashion to maintain balance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The best part of experiencing this was that he had a bluetooth speaker somewhere on his person, and he was loudly playing Michael Jackson’s “Thriller” album while riding.
Specifically speaking, it was the song “Thriller.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I look forward to the day when the bike people begin advocating for Unicycles. #carnage? Someday, my friends, someday.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Thrillercycle continued eastwards along Broadway in the direction of Woodside.
The first few people who had arrived at the bar for the gathering and I all looked at each other all quizzical like. Somebody asked “you saw that too, right”?
Yes, yes I did.
“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.
pierced stone
Scuttling, always scuttling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last week, after finishing up the Greenpoint walking tour I conducted for NYC H2O, a humble narrator shuffled along the old mortal coil in pursuance of getting back home. Along the way, NYC was doing its thing and showing off. She does that during the summer. These shots were gotten with a recent addition to my lens kit, a bargain basement Canon 24mm pancake lens that’s little more than a body cap with a tiny piece of autofocusing glass in it. The “itty bitty” nature of this particular lens allows me to give the camera a fairly good look through chain link fencing, even the tight meshed sort that you’ll find on the Pulaski Bridge.
DOT likes the fine mesh stuff. The “diamonds” created by the overlapping wires can’t be more than 3/4 of an inch on the fine mesh variant of chain link fence, which is a ruinous thing when you’re using more traditional glass with front elements in the neighborhood of 77-100mm in diameter. Bother.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m continually surprised at the pancake lens, as a note. It’s got few of the optical formula sorts of issues you’d expect to find in a “cheap” lens, and is f2.8 on the wide end which… as mentioned, is not what you’d expect to find on such an inexpensive device. In bright sunlight, the thing is tack sharp at f4 and above.
This isn’t meant to sound like a “sell” for the thing, I just really like it. Finally managed to get a shot of the Queens Midtown Tunnel, which I’ve been desirous of for awhile, with it – as seen above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of these turbulent storms, and high atmospheric humidity, has really made for some incredible sunsets of late – don’t you think?
Got the shot above on Broadway in Astoria sometime last week, and I’m fond of it.
“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.
kindred wells
The Astoria street furniture dance has begun anew.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The other night, one noticed the display above on the corner of Broadway and 43rd street. The cast off box spring somehow evaded the bulk pickup day efforts of the DSNY, or it came from an “illegal” apartment, and had made its way down to the corner, where some wise Astorian had decided to attempt disposal of the large item by putting it into proximity with the corner trash basket. The entirely accidental nature of its pleasing esthetic – with a slab laid in triangular fashion over the cylindrical trash barrel – is fairly common for these parts. Everyone is an artist, even if they don’t know it.
For those of you not in the know, or who sleep on the floor, a box spring (or Divan) is a wooden or metal frame covered in fabric that encapsulates metal springs. It provides a base for, and adds height to, a softer mattress which sits on top of it. Box Springs used to be a fairly western european and american “thing” but as the material and financial pleasures of a “modern western economy” have spread around the planet, so too has this style of bedding. A notable holdout on this are the Japanese people, who still prefer their traditional “futon” style bedding.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Box Springs, and mattresses for that matter, are fairly robust in construction and cause no small amount of trouble for DSNY (NYC Department of Sanitation) and other entities that handle the flow of waste and trash. Bedding is fairly huge, easily lights on fire, and is designed to resist both weight and pressure. Bedding items choke shredding machines, fill landfills and collection trucks up rather quickly, and given their central role in the citizenry’s off hour pursuits (sex, sleep, drooling etc.) are often biohazards. Recent years have seen regulations created here in NYC that demand box spring and mattresses left out for bulk collection be wrapped in specialized plastic sheeting to keep them from spreading the plague of bedbugs (or vantsem, in Yiddish).
Here in Astoria, where we have a fairly severe problem as far as the subject of illegally dumping unwanted items on the sidewalks on a good day, the dance of the street furniture has officially begun. This thing will be, and has been, moving around Broadway.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above was captured the same night as the first two, just a few hours later when I was returning from my evening activities.
So… why did the box spring cross the road?
Short answer is the likely one, which is that the building owner on the side of Broadway where it was originally discarded didn’t want to take the chance of getting a ticket from the DSNY inspectors who would be showing up along with the collection trucks the next morning, so they shunted the problem off onto someone else. I’ve observed the “dance of the street furniture” before, and it’s entirely likely this thing is going to become very well travelled before it finally gets taken away.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours and Events
Thursday, July 25, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Greenpoint Walking Tour w NYCH20
Explore Greenpoint’s post industrial landscape and waterfront with Newtown Creek Alliance historian Mitch Waxman.
Click here for ticketing and 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.
cracked whining
Locusts, I predict locusts. Repent.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent wandering through Astoria revealed that the loathsome serial killer called the Queens Cobbler still stalks, and continues to taunt both community and law enforcement by leaving their macabre singular shoe trophies on public display. Also revealed is the continuing disobedience towards littering and sanitation law displayed by the citizens of Astoria. Sheesh, there’s a garbage can on the next corner, bro.
One is a bit worse for wear today, it was a weird week last time around, what with the pounding we took from the weather and my doctor appointments.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few of you contacted me after I mentioned that I had visited a doctor to deal with a couple of weird things I had going on, evincing concern. Thanks, but everything is ok, I’m just in a process right now wherein instead of just “having” health insurance, I’m trying to “use” my health insurance. My goal in this is largely prophylactic, as other than a few normal aches and pains I’m largely healthy, but it’s been a good decade since a good full body head to toe (and into orifices) examination has been undertaken and baseline condition was determined by a team of Doctors. Given my calendrical age, and the statistical likelihood of things starting to randomly go to hell, it’s logical to establish a “state of Mitch” report. On Friday, I went to an optometrist for the first time in more than two years, for instance, and discovered that my spectacles prescription had changed.
I’m also trying to keep all of this local, as in here in Astoria. Formerly, I was rolling with Beth Israel over in Manhattan’s Union Square, but that got pretty nasty when I had to commute into the City to see a doc for flu or whatever, so I’m establishing relationships with medical professionals closer to home. I’ll be complaining about invasive procedures and the draining of vital fluids and ichors for months, I can assure you.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has no idea what’s going on with the shot above, other than offering a sure opinion that if you were to step into that chained off square you’d be transported into some blasphemous realm where the elder gods still gambol and play.
This is going to be a fairly busy week for a humble narrator. I’m doing two walking tours, and hopefully this week I won’t find myself huddled with the group on the Borden Avenue Bridge during a wild thunderstorm like I did last week. That sucked.
Keep an eye out for single shoes cast off and left around your neighborhood, for it means that the Queens Cobbler stalks in your midst.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours and Events
Thursday, July 25, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Greenpoint Walking Tour w NYCH20
Explore Greenpoint’s post industrial landscape and waterfront with Newtown Creek Alliance historian Mitch Waxman.
Click here for ticketing and 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 