Posts Tagged ‘Gas Stations’
something monstrous
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Gas Stations, as previously mentioned, are sort of grabbing my attentions when I’m out with the camera lately. Partially, it’s because I have a new camera I’m still getting used to, one which offers a tremendous advantage in terms of “dynamic range” over my old one. Difficult subject matter like a gas station at night is precisely the sort of thing I’m looking for when out scuttling in the night. Also, they look cool, and last year I didn’t have any in my library when a well known stock photo agency put out the call for images of them.
The Mobil station pictured above is found on Astoria Blvd. South, at 44th street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Astoria Blvd. was recently paid some attention by a humble narrator, in my role as the Transportation Committee Co-Chair of Community Board 1. Specifically, the area I inspected and photographed in minute detail was the stretch of Astoria Blvd. between 33rd and 49th streets. There’s a whole lot of stuff that I encountered which confirms that the last time anyone took a holistic look at this stretch was in the 1960’s.
This subject is something which the Committee voted to spend some of our organizational time on, and hopefully we can find ways to improve road conditions for all users of this particular stretch in the ancient village. There’s entire 2-3 block long stretches, such as the pedestrian bridge between 46th and 49th streets on Astoria Blvd. South, where there aren’t even functioning street lights. Grrrr.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another Gas Station, this one found on Astoria Blvd. South and 31st street. These little puddles of light and saturated color just fascinate me at the moment. Expect more loving shots of them in the next few months. Hey… it’s wintertime during a pandemic.
Back next week with something different, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, December 14th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
hitherto veiled
Flippity floopity, it’s Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the subjects which I found impossible to photograph (at night) with my old camera were gas stations. The problem wasn’t with technique, instead it was the limitations of “dynamic range” involving the camera’s sensor. The new camera captures a LOT more information than the older model does, and that means that I’ve been able to capture these little islands of bright color and light. Why, you might ask, am I finding myself motivated towards such activity?
Have you noticed that all the gas stations are beginning to disappear? Same thing with the supermarkets, or any other large lot business? What’s up with that, you ask? These property lots, occupied by businesses (or businesses like them) which have operated on this land in one form or another since the 1940’s or 50’s, are highly sought out and desired as development sites by the jackals and coprophages of the real estate industrial complex.
It won’t be Donald Trump’s self described best friend Larry Silverstein who buys this gas station, instead it will be somebody significantly further down the food chain who does. Have to keep prices low, which won’t happen if the seller realizes the president of REBNY (Real Estate Board of New York) and owner of the World Trade Center is the buyer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ever wonder why it is that the real estate people are such ardent supporters of bike lanes, ride share services, the elimination of street parking, and so on? It ain’t because they’re greenies, I’ll tell you that. It’s because NYC has a Planning Dept. requirement that demands they build space for resident parking in new development. Getting rid of everybody else’s parking makes their new development more valuable. Have to drive to Nassau County to fill up your gas tank? Well, remember the Borough Motto of Queens – Welcome to Queens, now go fuck yourself.
Think that sounds paranoid? Stare into a real estate developer’s eyes, and the only thing staring back at you from the depths of their ocular cavities will be an avaricious hunger. There’s a few ideas moving through the political world right now that are labeled as being “progressive.” Given that most think the word “progressive” means “liberal,” I feel obliged to remind others that Robert Moses referred to himself as a progressive. He “progressed” tens of thousands out of their homes to build his highways. See that gas station above? Wait until it’s “mandatory inclusionary housed” or “affordable housed” out of existence. The fact that it’s literally one block from Newtown Creek does not matter.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Wandering, ever wandering, that’s me. It’s best this way. Alone, in the cold night, scuttling about with a camera. Rattling along the fences of cemeteries and highways, poking the lens through brambles and barbed wire, one has always been and must always remain an Outsider. Reflective surfaces must be avoided at all cost, lest I spy the monster that others run away from.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, December 7th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
oddly sunburned
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Half of everyone I know act like dicks more than half of the time, which is why I like to wander around by myself in the dead of night.
Doesn’t matter what their politics or religious life is like, still “dick” half the time. I know Christians who embrace cruelty and conformity, lefties who want to ensure their own freedoms by attenuating yours, and ideologues abound for every philosophical point and bent. Everybody has a badly formed opinion about everything, or doesn’t care about who gets annoyed as they endlessly beat their drums and drone on about something they haven’t personally dealt with. Everybody, and everything, is so freaking predictable in this behavioral climate that I find it depressing. Actuate an idea, make it real. Otherwise shut up and go along, stop trying to hurt other people in the name of making yourself feel better about the things you see when you look in the mirror. Empathy? Compassion? Bah.
Also, here’s a bit of advice – strategy and tactic are two different things. If you’re “busting a move,” it’s best to keep it to yourself until afterwards. Conservation of energy dictates that if you are, indeed, “busting a move” you should have a goal in mind while doing so. Otherwise you’re just a feeble peacock spreading your feathers and saying “look at me.” “Busting a move” is a tactic, not a strategy.
What wasn’t predictable to one as all wise and knowing as myself was encountering the weird digital looking light pattern cast through a fence by security lights and onto a line of inactive taxi cabs in Long Island City. Neato.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
During this particular photo outing, a humble narrator found himself being “eyeballed” by some guy in a gray sedan. On more than one occasion during my walk, I looked up and there he was, watching me. I smiled and waved, even when he made it a point of pulling up in front of me with his headlights pointed directly into the lens. My response was to walk around his car, while smiling, and then set up on the passenger side of the vehicle. Mood that I’ve been in lately, I was absolutely praying that he got out of the thing and started some shit with me. It’s been a long, long time…
I’m scared of groups of teenagers, not other middle aged men.
If you want to see somebody act like a dick, piss me off. Once I’ve decided – and it’s me who decides, not you – that I no longer have to pretend to be a nice guy with you it ain’t pretty. Full Brooklyn mode is engaged. Should you not wither and die before the verbal assault – and it is an assault – the physical attack is spring loaded and ready. Not bragging here, and it’s not a set of behaviors I’m proud of, but screw with the bull and you get the horns. I live my life in this manner, knowing that lots and lots of people are simmering all the time, just like me, and are ready to pop like a firecracker. Knowing that I’ve got one of those flare up kind of tempers, I’ve gone to great lengths to institute a series of psychological stop gaps in my reactive mind, which is why you’ve never seen me on one of those wanted posters at the Post Office.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So why do people act like dicks half the time, when we all implicitly know that there are pressure cooker mentalities like mine ready to go off? Not everybody has learned to put a leash on their temper the way I have. Mike Tyson has famously opined that the reason for this is the lack of physical peril offered by the Internet when you say something ugly. You can’t get punched in the nose by Mike Tyson via Twitter. If Mike Tyson is ringing your doorbell, I guarantee you are going to try polity when attempting conflict resolution with him.
It’s good to be angry, and to argue your ideas. Just don’t be a dick about it, and maybe – just maybe – think about what you’re trying to achieve the next time you cancel or shun someone. Maybe it’s better to have somebody be a known quantity whom you can use tactically as part of an overarching strategy. When anybody gets too “woke” with me, I have a Libertarian or two in my social circles whom I unleash on them.
That’s the half of the time when I’m backed into acting like a dick.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, October 19th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
important sidelight
It’s National Potato Chip Day, in these United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Any part of the urban landscape which the voracious minions of the Real Estate craze sees as “having a large footprint” is in danger of being consumed by it. Supermarkets, factories, warehouses, and in the case of today’s post – gas stations. One has noticed over the last few years that filling stations with a small bodega have largely replaced the “gas pump and mechanic” style facilities. These latter versions, which host a larger number of pumping units than their forebears did, now seem to be disappearing as well. There’s a few left in the “central core” of NYC, but this non municipal infrastructure seems to be disappearing as well.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Used to be… not too long ago… back when I was a boy… how sick one grows of using these phrases. Cab drivers have told me that they are often forced to travel long distances to fill their tanks these days. Forget about “normal” vehicles, of course. What are we going to do when all that’s left in NYC are apartment buildings?
Pictured above is a gas station on Northern Blvd. at Steinway/39th Street, where one can witness – around 3:30 in the afternoon, an armada of taxi cabs filling up before the shift and driver change at 4 p.m. Here in the Astoria and Sunnsyide sections of LIC, there’s still a few gas stations left, but this one – so close to what would be the development site described in the Sunnyside Yards decking proposal – would clearly be wiped away.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Part of the reason that the yellow cabs fill up in Queens is that there are so few gas stations left in Manhattan. The taxi industry used to be based along Manhattan’s west side, until a real estate craze there in the 1970’s and 80’s pushed them out. They relocated to LIC, largely, where the same process that pushed them out of Manhattan is now playing out.
That’s one of the few survivors in Manhattan, below 96th street, pictured above. It’s at the northern edge of Hells Kitchen, adjoining the Hudson Yards development site.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
rattling carts
“Last stop for gas” spake the feckless quisling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For some reason, NYC’s Gasoline Filling Stations keep on catching my eye, but I think they’re supposed to do that. Probably, this interest has a lot to do with all the history posts about the Petrochemical industry along Newtown Creek, but it just might be something as simple as the usage of bright primary colors used in their trade dressings as I am simple and foolish. The one above is in Maspeth, at a location which is neither tick or tock but is instead found between them.
from wikipedia
A filling station, fuelling station, garage, gasbar (Canada), gas station (United States and Canada), petrol bunk or petrol pump (India), petrol garage, petrol station (Australia, Hong Kong, Ireland, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa and United Kingdom), service station (Australia, United Kingdom and United States), or servo (Australia), is a facility which sells fuel and usually lubricants for motor vehicles. The most common fuels sold today are gasoline (gasoline or gas in the U.S. and Canada, typically petrol elsewhere), diesel fuel, and electric energy. Filling stations that sell only electric energy are also known as charging stations.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Worry about imaginary Police reports, ones which describe a suspicious middle aged man that has been taking photos of fuel stations in Queens, have crossed my mind. So much so that the last time I had the ear of my local City Councilman – my paranoid imaginings were mentioned. He promised me that he wouldn’t let them take me to Guantanamo Bay, but couldn’t offer any specific guarantees about Rikers. Either way, the elected fellow promised to ensure that I got extra cookies with my dinner, should I end up in either institution.
from wikipedia
Gasoline /ˈɡæsəliːn/, or petrol /ˈpɛtrəl/, is a transparent, petroleum-derived liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the fractional distillation of petroleum, enhanced with a variety of additives. Some gasolines also contain ethanol as an alternative fuel. In North America, the term gasoline is often shortened in colloquial usage to gas. Elsewhere petrol is the common name in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Australia and in most of the other Commonwealth countries.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Most of the pumps I see are the modern kind, dressed with digital payment terminals and all sorts of fancy kit. One suspects that there’s probably more computing power in a modern gas pump than would have been found in a high end desktop pc from just ten years ago. I’ve actually seen the old timey style pumps still at work in certain quaint hamlets in the backwoods of Vermont and Massachusetts as well as standing extant in the vast archaea of Crete.
from wikipedia
The first gasoline pump was invented and sold by Sylvanus F. Bowser in Fort Wayne, Indiana on September 5, 1885. This pump was not used for automobiles, as they had not been invented yet. It was instead used for some kerosene lamps and stoves. He later improved upon the pump by adding safety measures, and also by adding a hose to directly dispense fuel into automobiles.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 