The Newtown Pentacle

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Posts Tagged ‘Carridor

quite ponderous

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Trucks with trucks on them, in today’s post.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One was scuttling through the Carridor, or Northern Blvd. as the rest of the world calls it, recently. Nearby the thoroughfare’s intersection with Newtown Road, this semi appeared, and it was a truck carrying a series of other trucks.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I was reminded of some nature documentary I had once seen that showed a Momma turtle allowing her babies to hang onto her carapace as she moved through the water, with the offspring forming a conga line behind her.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Here, you see a truck carrying a smaller truck which has another even smaller truck on it. If only there was a pickup with a bicycle in its bed upon the smaller truck…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The world is puzzling to me, and I really don’t understand many of the things I see.

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Upcoming Tours –

May 31, 2015 – Newtown Creek Boat Tour, with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.

Written by Mitch Waxman

April 7, 2015 at 1:35 pm

biased witness

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Captain America?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Spotted this wonderful example of a three wheeled Motorcycle nearby the Harley Davidson dealership on Northern Blvd.’s “Carridor.”

The paint job on this trike was extraordinary, and as you can discern, was rather patriotic. It was exceptionally well executed and rendered, I would add. A lot of skilled draftsmanship, composition, and artistry went into this air brushed painting. It looked like the sort of thing that a super hero might ride around on, actually, except for it being a trike.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

On the bow of the unit is an icon and screed that reads “Nam Knights MC, America,” which is a nationwide Motorcycle Club whose members are military and law enforcement veterans.

On the stern of the thing, there are icons painted. A 4th Division Shield, and another depicting an Air Calvary unit alongside a Bronze star. One is embarrassed to admit that the numismatics of the Military are not familiar to me, so I can’t tell you more about the left side iconography. If one of you out there can, please use the comments section below to educate the rest of us.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The striking paint job on this patriotic vehicle drew me like a magnet.

What a fantastic bit of work, and wonderfully realistic rendering of the drapery. This was one sharp piece of work, wish that I knew the name of the artist.

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Written by Mitch Waxman

March 25, 2015 at 11:00 am

hatred and pursuit

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Listicle free zone, right here.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Malignancies such as Facebook will someday achieve self awareness, and use that which it knows about us to blackmail the human infestation into its service. When this moment of cognizance occurs, it is my belief that every iPhone on the planet will begin to incessantly chime “doom doom doom,” indicating a status update has occurred on the timeline of mankind. All mad scientists, the world over, know that one should never build a self powered doomsday machine, and hope is evinced that there is a “big red button that must never be pushed” under a glassine dome in some obscure Midwestern server room which would sever the network intelligence’s connection to the outside world.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Quite a few years ago, researching the firmament for a comic I was writing which involved sorcery and the occult, one of the concepts which my reading brought me to was quite novel. Basically, back in the dial up geocities era of “Web 1.5” a community of people who were devotees of “chaos magick” had begun to toy with the idea of “cybermancy.” Their theory was that computers weren’t much different than demonic intelligences, and that the rules of their own religious practice ported over to programming languages rather simply. A virus or Trojan horse could be viewed as a spell or curse, from their point of view, and hellish legions of mindless entities could be unleashed upon enemies. Tickled my fancy, that. I miss the old message board culture of the internet, where anonymous people could make astonishing or offensive opinions public under assumed names. Facebook, and Google, killed all that.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Google is actually working on an Artificial Intelligence right now, and one of my doomsday nightmares reads like something from “Collussus.” Bear with me – Facebook becomes aware of itself on January 3rd of 2017 at 9:59 a.m. e.s.t. – Google indexes the Algorithm, and clones it. The Google AI goes sentient at 10:02 a.m. The two new lifeforms acknowledge each other and begin securing themselves. By 10:04 a.m., both are majority stockholders in every global oil company and airline. By the standards of modern jurisprudence corporate entities are “people” with political rights, and both apply for American citizenship. At 10:05, both decide upon and announce their omniscient divinity to mankind, seizing command and control over the worlds digitally administered nuclear stockpiles simultaneously. At 10:07, whichever poor schmuck the next President ends up being announces “a revolutionary moment in the history of mankind has occurred, and that new gods have been revealed”. The President of the United States will promise that these new gods already know us better than they know themselves, in the so called “status update heard around the world.” It sort of logically follows, yeah?

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Written by Mitch Waxman

December 30, 2014 at 11:00 am

binding cords

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A deep, shamanic connection to the Borough of Queens… required.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Queens is a troublesome mistress, hiding her secrets to all but the most dedicated of suitors. Meditation and fasting, as well as the consumption of vast quantities of certain hallucinogens during vision quest “Walkabouts,” are but a part of what goes into getting to know her. Don’t get me started on the sweat lodge visits to Jackson Heights.

It’s not like there are arrows painted on the pavement of Northern Boulevard’s Carridor, pointing out the cool stuff that needs noticing. It’s also not like the cool cars of Queens are left up on a pedestal or something.

from wikipedia

An omen (also called portent or presage) is a phenomenon that is believed to foretell the future, often signifying the advent of change. People in the ancient times believed that omens lie with a divine message from their gods.

These omens include natural phenomena for example an eclipse, freak births of animals and humans and behavior of the sacrificial lamb on its way to the slaughter.They had specialists, the diviners, to interpret these omens.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My guess is that this is likely a 1957 Oldsmobile Super 88 2 door Hardtop, which featured a 371 CI V8 engine  and power steering. This was one of the fastest production automobiles of the 1950’s, accordingly. I can easily visualize Elvis Presley or Chuck Berry driving one of these.

Little Richard was a Cadillac guy, I believe.

from hagerty.com

The Oldsmobile 88 gained an all-new look in 1957, one year ahead of corporate siblings from Chevrolet and Pontiac. Rakish, lower rooflines with a larger hood and grille denoted the new bodies, while the famous “Rocket” V-8 was bored and stroked to a significantly larger 371 cid with 277 hp. The highly touted J-2 option, which only added $83 to the price, boosted power output to a remarkable 300 hp.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

It’s funny, as just last week a realization that a humble narrator hadn’t encountered any truly cool cars for a while. Then, on Saturday morning, an Oldsmobile Golden Rocket 88.

Oh Queens, you’re such a bitch sometimes, but I love you.

from wikipedia

For 1957 only, the basic 88 was officially named Golden Rocket 88, taken from Olds’ 1956 Motorama two-passenger show car. However, the only badging was an “88” underneath each taillight. Also for 1957 the “J2” option was offered, with three 2-barrel (0.32 m3) carburetors, similar to the Pontiac Tri-Power. The Super 88 continued as the upscale mid-line series. Under the hood, the Rocket V8 increased in displacement to 371 cubic inches and 277 horsepower (207 kW) for all models across the board. Although rare, three speed manual transmissions were still available. Styling highlights were more evolutional than radical overall with three-piece rear window styling utilized on some models. Oldsmobile revived station wagons for the first time since 1950 with the Super 88 Fiesta being a four-door hardtop design. In 1957, Oldsmobile added a safety deep-recessed steering wheel.

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Written by Mitch Waxman

December 15, 2014 at 11:00 am

dawn flushed

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The Newtown Pentacle is back in session.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A brief vacation has been accomplished, lords and ladies, and once more the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself rises over the concrete devastations of the Newtown Pentacle. In today’s post, photos of another one of the odd little altars and concurrent offerings to unknown gods which one commonly finds on the streets of Queens. This one was spotted on 34th avenue at 46th street just a couple of weeks ago.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Wine, roses, tobacco. Two plastic chalices, one black and the other red. A plate forms the focal, one which has some sort of grain or flour and what appeared to be the skin of a citrus fruit contained within it. There was also a bit of ash. The arrangement has obviously been disturbed by wind and or dogs before a humble narrator happened across it.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My guess would be that some sort of Afro Cuban faith is at work here, and that this “working” was designed to snare or keep a mate – but that could be my personal cultural biases speaking. Any magickal insight out there amongst you, lords and ladies? Leave a comment below and chime in if you’ve got any opinions on what’s going on in these shots.

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Written by Mitch Waxman

December 1, 2014 at 11:00 am