Posts Tagged ‘Dormont’
Not shy
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One hasn’t really explored the ‘close/near’ vicinity around HQ all that much, which is specifically Pittsburgh’s Borough of Dormont. Take a look at that terrain and you can probably guess why. That this is one heck of a hill to walk up is something I can tell you from experience, and I also gotta tell’s ya – walking down it ain’t all that simple either. That’s Downtown Pittsburgh on the horizon, peeking out over the trees, which is found roughly 5 miles away.
Also, I don’t really like taking pictures of residential neighborhoods, which Dormont mostly is. People get all bent out of shape when they see some bloke with a camera wandering around as it is. Fair enough, I guess. They’re all paranoid about ‘pedos’ out here. There’s billboards. Another big worry is ‘human trafficking,’ apparently.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been playing around in the dark, however. HQ has a deck facing out into our yard which adjoins another ‘thing’ I never encountered before moving here, which is a ‘paper alley.’ It’s used as community drive, is a semi paved street that goes all tree and vegetation halfway up the hill before it then joins with two other alleys at the top of the hill, forming a T shaped intersection that parallels a nearby street. All of this is found in between all the houses/yards and whatnot. Interestingly, it’s meant to be owned by the Post Office, but is administered by the local municipality. Commonwealths, amirite?
The deck situation allows me to experiment with different camera setups in dark situations. I had a porch back in Astoria, but that was pretty much a light and air pollution hot spot because of the traffic, bridges, highways, restaurant exhausts, and LaGuardia.
Here’s something I can tell you – a 35mm f1.8 lens can allow a shot – no more than 8 seconds – of the night sky before motion is recorded into the image due to the rotation of the earth, relative to the starry dome. 4 seconds is actually preferable. ISO is basically whatever it has to be for the exposure, and for the other settings to be valid.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lastly… if you’re going to be playing Bagpipes while riding a unicycle around Pittsburgh on a sunny afternoon, somebody is going to take a picture of you. Possibly video as well. Don’t get all prissy at the photographer, as he’s not the one who decided to ride around a park on a unicycle while playing bagpipes. You’re not shy, as you’re the one riding a unicycle while playing bagpipes.
Sheesh.
Back next week.
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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.
Dormont noticings
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Mobile Oppression Platform, as I’ve named the Toyota, was purchased and registered in New York State before we left. One last payout in tax to Albany, for me. State law here in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania demands that resident vehicles be registered under their bureaucracies, and transferring the legal status of the vehicle – even between neighboring states – has proven to be surprisingly complicated due to having to handle the bureaucratic demands of two States and a large automobile manufacturer’s financing department. The long procedure was finally completed, and as the car is now wearing a Pennsylvania license plate, one had to bring the thing to a dealership for an inspection to scry its emissions and mechanical soundness. It’s a brand new car, so it obviously passed, but I still had to kill an hour or two. Luckily, just such a dealership is proverbially “around the corner.”
I did what I do when I’ve got time to kill, and walked around the periphery of the town I’m living in, called Dormont. There’s no such thing as a typical house here, according to my admittedly limited observations, but those homes pictured above are pretty typical and are likely in the 190-300k range. Unfortunately, they’re located along an arterial roadway and up the block from one of the worst McDonalds I’ve ever set foot in. I do like a McCoffee though, which is surprisingly decent as far as hot bean juice goes. Saying that – how do you screw up McDonalds? I used to work at a Burger King in high school, and I can tell you that it’s assembly line back in the kitchen. The only time you really have to pay attention is when your building the actual sandwich, everything else is timed and fairly automated.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I drive past these buildings just about every day on the tertiary arterial road which connects the two secondary arterial roads that define the larger neighborhood. The blonde brick one has the word “Hafer” in block type across its lintel, and an intriguing design element which I think I’ve seen before. I’ve found an old ad from 1971, hawking Carrier Air Conditioners, that lists “Hafer’s” in Dormont at this address as a store where you can buy one of their units. I’ve also found an announcement from 1919 that a C.A. Hafer had been awarded a valuable plumbing contract on a then new housing development. Hafer seems to be a fairly common name in Pennsylvania, incidentally, so there’s a lot of false positives. Curious.
At least I now have a leading question to ask when I pay a visit to the Dormont Historical Society. I recognize this sort of design as a mercantile building, and that three circled icon… it’s a tip of my tongue thing, one which I know I’ve seen before. Masons, Shriners, Odd Fellows? Something.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a chain of casual dining restaurants, of the sort which were called “diners” once, in the Pittsburgh area called “Eat’N Park.” It’s one of those not terribly healthy for you kind of menus – pancakes with bacon and eggs, or burgers and fries, or corn dogs, milkshakes and pies – but sometimes that’s what you want on a weekend morning. This outfit is pretty consistent from location to location with their branding, service, and food quality even though they’re found all over the geography in these parts. I’m told it’s a family owned company that’s getting ready for a growth spurt of new locations, and they’re observationally pretty popular.
Luckily for me, these dudes were fixing an illuminated Eat’N Park sign here in Dormont, just as I got stuck at a red light.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“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.
End of week, odds and ends
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few odds and ends photos from my recent exploratory visit to Pittsburgh’s Oakland. Popped this one out from behind the wheel of the Mobile Oppression Platform on my way home while stuck at a light.
The bridge in the distance is called the 30th street Bridge over the Monongahela River, but truth be told, I was pulled in by the painted “B&O” Railroad logo on the overpass. If that’s original… it has to date back to when I was in high school and that was before Metallica.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
See that shot above? Panther Hollow, that’s all I’m going to say. I know what time to be here, and now I know where it is. At the right time, and this is the right place, there’s going to be a train in future iterations of his shot.
I’ve now got two locations scouted for the “money” rail shots. Right place, not the right time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back home in Dormont, and Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself successfully went out for drinks and dinner and then took mass transit back home. That’s the T street car leaving the Potomac station at beer o’clock.
Back next week with more from Pittsburgh, lords and ladies.
“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.
Double Dormont Rainbow
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m a bit behind schedule today, so a single image captured at the end of January is on offer for this first day of March. 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.
The Hood
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last weekend, Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself found ourselves hanging around in the Pittsburgh suburb we landed in, which is dubbed Dormont. Given our proximity to the titular center of the City of Pittsburgh, which is about four and a half miles from here, it’s surprisingly well wooded and there’s critters all over the place. Deer, rabbits, every sort of bird you can imagine. It’s quiet and dark at night, and after midnight you can pretty much hear a pin drop. Of course, if you drop that pin, the neighborhood dog chorus is going to be forced to comment on the event.
We’ve been taking things one step at a time, and recently enjoyed a small bar crawl at several of the locals. This included what’s becoming my favorite spot – a pool hall which has a bar in it. They have Guinness on tap there, which is a bit harder to find here in Yuengling country than it was back in Irish Bar dominated Western Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The terrain is something else, and Dormont is part of a region in Pittsburgh called the South Hills. One of the resources available here is “The T” street car line which leads directly into downtown Pittsburgh. It’s about a 20 minute ride from Dormont to downtown, and costs $2.75 for us. They use a distance based fare system for the service.
Our place is down the hill from the street which the T’s tracks are set into, and I can see the red flashing lights which signal its movement from the back deck. Thereby, I can confirm that the service is fairly frequent and you wouldn’t be waiting long for one to arrive at the station. Some of the stations are just set asides on the street, whereas others are high platform stand alone ones. The T has two sets of doors, one for the street level stops which has a set of steps, the other for the high platform ones.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a little patch of woods in a… I’m not sure it’s gulley, a hollow, or a run… but it’s a shallow valley which sometimes has water running through it right across the street from our place. It’s meant to be connected across by a wooden bridge, but I haven’t found that yet.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As pictured above, the terrain here is madness when you’re on foot. The locals who grew up here display super muscular legs when they’re wearing shorts. They wear shorts (with a Steelers jersey) if the temperature is anything above 40. I’ve had people ask why I’m dressed for Antarctic clime when it’s literally freezing out and I have a winter coat on. Most of the blokes I see wear fleece sweatshirts in lieu of coats, but you do spend a lot of your time getting in and out of the car in this area so it’s a practical choice.
There are hundreds and hundreds of these municipal steps all over Pittsburgh, and it’s suburbs. As time goes by, I’m planning on exploring the somewhat hidden network of these things, and seeing what they’ll show me. I’ve been planning on taking a walk along one set that overlooks freight tracks which is tolerably nearby.
Good cardio, here in Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One walk we undertook was around that gully or hollow mentioned above which is literally across the street from the house and which we haven’t gotten around to exploring yet. The street I live on dead ends about a block from my front door and then supposedly transmogrifies into a path leading towards one of those steps. We regularly see transients and never do wells heading in that direction and not coming back. According to the neighbors, there’s a quite lovely rock formation hidden back there somewhere. Maybe the corpses of all this transients we see heading in the one direction too. I’ll find it, and them, when the weather is warmer.
The ridge at the top of the hill in the shot above is where the T street car line runs, on a street dubbed “Broadway Avenue.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are some truly lovely homes here, huge structures with decks and yards and multi car garages and driveways. There is not a single building style, it’s disturbingly heterogeneous.
One can confirm the “sylvania” part of the state’s name at this time. Lots of woods here.
Tomorrow – a walk along the Montour “rail to trail” is coming. Prepare!
“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 