Posts Tagged ‘Long Island City’
yellow rays
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recorded recently in the neighborhood of Dutch Kills, not the waterway but the neighborhood which the waterway once flowed into. It’s confusing, as the waterway is often cited or mentioned in these postings and is “way over there” from the perspective of the neighborhood- which is found between Ravenswood, the East River, and Astoria. Large hotels are on the rise in the area, and there’s a whole lot of construction underway. For street artists, this is a bit of a playground.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, this is my kind of stuff. Garish in color and whimsical, not like the dark sarcasm and obviate ideations often observed in Brooklyn. Moreover, where one would expect to find elaborate renderings of “tags”, figurative cartooning trumps.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A fairly even temper hangs about the brow of a humble narrator today, and this splash of color is much appreciated by this withering shadow.
fear eclipses
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The warmth was welcome, but the mists and fog were not. Multiple journeys into and out of the concrete devastations of the Newtown Creek watershed in recent weeks have garnered nothing but terror for your humble narrator. What unknown things, too small to notice, might have been carried aloft by those vapors? After all, if you can smell something… you are breathing it in.
That thing which cannot possibly exist in the cupola of the Sapphire Megalith was surely unaffected by those whose flapping and flopping might be observed only with the aid of microscopy, in its perch high above the mists.
I’m all ‘effed up.
from wikipedia
Delusional parasitosis, also known as Ekbom’s syndrome, is a form of psychosis whose victims acquire a strong delusional belief that they are infested with parasites, whereas in reality no such parasites are present. Very often the imaginary parasites are reported as being “bugs” or insects crawling on or under the skin; in these cases the experience of the sensation known as formication may provide the basis for this belief.
The alternative name of Ekbom’s syndrome derives from Swedish neurologist Karl Axel Ekbom, who published seminal accounts of the disease in 1937 and 1938. This term is also used interchangeably with Wittmaack-Ekbom syndrome, another name for restless legs syndrome (RLS). Although delusional parasitosis and RLS were both researched by Ekbom, and RLS sufferers sometimes describe some of their symptoms as if they have, for example, “ants in my veins”, they are distinctly different disorders. RLS is a physical condition with physical causes, whereas delusional parasitosis is a false belief.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Intimate associates and clandestine confidants have been acting oddly since those foggy days during the third week of March, leading me to experience entirely uncontrollable and unpermissive pulsations of paranoid wondering. It was so odd, experiencing the weather of early summer at this stage of the year, imparting a sensation to me that we had all somehow skipped ahead a month or two in time according to the whim of some extra dimensional overlord- but only for a short interval.
Perhaps time itself has come undone.
from wikipedia
The Capgras delusion theory (or Capgras syndrome) is a disorder in which a person holds a delusion that a friend, spouse, parent, or other close family member has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor. The Capgras delusion is classified as a delusional misidentification syndrome, a class of delusional beliefs that involves the misidentification of people, places, or objects. It can occur in acute, transient, or chronic forms. Cases in which patients hold the belief that time has been “warped” or “substituted” have also been reported.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mayhaps it was was the influence of whatever it was that arose on the billowing fog that caused my reason to falter and imaginings to take on a sinister cast. The miasmic clouds which blanketed and caressed could not have been anything more than mere humidity, not some noxious atmosphere of industrial exhaust and foul microscopic life clinging to those tiny water droplets hanging suspended in the air. Such wonderings are merely paranoia, but one wonders… and more than wonders…
from wikipedia
Between people of different faiths, or indeed between people of the same faith, the term omnipotent has been used to connote a number of different positions. These positions include, but are not limited to, the following:
- A deity is able to do absolutely anything, even the logically impossible, i.e., ( 2 ) pure agency.
- A deity is able to do anything that it chooses to do.
- A deity is able to do anything that is in accord with its own nature (thus, for instance, if it is a logical consequence of a deity’s nature that what it speaks is truth, then it is not able to lie).
- Hold that it is part of a deity’s nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for said deity to go against its own laws unless there was a reason to do so.
- A deity is able to do anything that corresponds with its omniscience and therefore with its worldplan.
Under many philosophical definitions of the term “deity”, senses 2, 3 and 4 can be shown to be equivalent. However, on all understandings of omnipotence, it is generally held that a deity is able to intervene in the world by superseding the laws of physics, since they are not part of its nature, but the principles on which it has created the physical world. However many modern scholars (such as John Polkinghorne) hold that it is part of a deity’s nature to be consistent and that it would be inconsistent for a deity to go against its own laws unless there were an overwhelming reason to do so.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator must simply be drinking too much coffee.
from wikipedia
Caffeine overdose can result in a state of central nervous system over-stimulation called caffeine intoxication (DSM-IV 305.90), or colloquially the “caffeine jitters”. The symptoms of caffeine intoxication are comparable to the symptoms of overdoses of other stimulants: they may include restlessness, fidgeting, anxiety, excitement, insomnia, flushing of the face, increased urination, gastrointestinal disturbance, muscle twitching, a rambling flow of thought and speech, irritability, irregular or rapid heart beat, and psychomotor agitation. In cases of much larger overdoses, mania, depression, lapses in judgment, disorientation, disinhibition, delusions, hallucinations, or psychosis may occur, and rhabdomyolysis (breakdown of skeletal muscle tissue) can be provoked.
ALSO:
Your humble narrator will be narrating humbly at this year’s Obscura Day event on April 28th, leading a walking tour of Dutch Kills. The tour is already a third booked up, and as I’m just announcing it, grab your tickets while you can.
“Found less than one mile from the East River, Dutch Kills is home to four movable (and one fixed span) bridges, including one of only two retractible bridges remaining in New York City. Dutch Kills is considered to be the central artery of industrial Long Island City and is ringed with enormous factory buildings, titan rail yards — it’s where the industrial revolution actually happened. Bring your camera, as the tour will be revealing an incredible landscape along this section of the troubled Newtown Creek Watershed.”
For tickets and full details, click here :
obscuraday.com/events/thirteen-steps-dutch-kills-newtown-creek-exploration
warm and fragrant
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An appointment in Greenpoint carried me across the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge last Tuesday, and as my habit is to be early to meetings, some time was available for photography. It was an unusual and foggy day, and the mists were creating an enormous depth of field atmospherically. Always a visual pleasure, the GPA bridge offers views of the former Tidewater pumping station on the Queens bank as well as the tank farms of Lukoil and Metro fuel on the Brooklyn bank- which are pictured above.
That’s when I noticed something disturbing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We are lucky that we live in the age we do, when an oil slick moving down the languorous Newtown Creek is a remarkable sight. Once upon a time, such visualizations were commonly extant and regularly observed. Luckily, due to regulation and improved industrial practices, such events happen far less frequently than they once did.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The standard protocol to follow when you observe an oil slick on the Newtown Creek, or anywhere in New York Harbor, is to first document it by taking a picture using your cell phone or digital camera. Make a note of your location and the time. Next, call 311 to alert city authorities, followed by a call to the State DEC spill hotline- 1 (800) 457-7362.
They take these matters quite seriously.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Take note of whether the tide is coming in or going out, as this will help authorities to pinpoint the source of the contaminants. On this day, the tide was ebbing and the oil slick was flowing toward the East River along the tepid current. It should be mentioned that the obvious petroleum industry presence found alongside the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge is maintained by fairly responsible parties in modernity, and the shot above is not meant to indite or should be viewed as indicative of being responsible for the event depicted in this post.
The slick was coming from the other direction, flowing east to west and traveling beneath the bridge toward them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Later that afternoon, after having accomplished my intended goals in Greenpoint, and returning home via the Pulaski Bridge to Queens- a new feature on the lower Creek was noticed. A temporary or floating dock installed nearby the Vernon Avenue Street End, and one of two “work boats” was traveling eastward from it and moving under the Pulaski.
It moved too fast for me to ready the camera, but it bore the screed “spill response boat” upon it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everybody’s friends at Riverkeeper, whom I informed of my observations upon returning home, made inquiries with DEC officials about the nature and extent of this possible spill event. DEC sent back word that the slick was no spill, rather it was likely a result of sediment sampling efforts being carried out by the Federal EPA as part of the ongoing discovery phase of the Superfund process. It seems that while dredging up small quantities of the so called “Black Mayonnaise” which lines the bed of the creek for study, some effluent might have been released into the waterway.
Project Firebox 37
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Found in Long Island City, at the border between Tower Town and the forthcoming Hunters Point South development, is this survivor of earlier times. Strung loosely to a temporary lamp post, it sits just outside of a certain ancient building which has incalculably survived both the 20th century and the tidal forces of real estate speculation. This structure held the private offices of a certain and quite notorious figure, a man who was known simply as Paddy to those who knew him. The firebox isn’t talking, but a humble narrator will in future postings at this- your Newtown Pentacle.
acquired archaism
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The internationalists and potentates whose congress calls itself the so called United Nations would have you observe “World Water Day” on this date. This cabal of diplomats, intriguers, and acolytes desire you to imagine and contemplate the assertion that at least a sixth of the living human infestation has no reliable access to pure water. From their headquarters in the Shining City of Manhattan- designed by the gallic crypto fascist LeCorbusier- their edict rings out, and we all must take heed of “Agenda 21”. Pictured in the shot above is the largest source of fresh water flowing into the Newtown Creek, some two to three miles from their base.
from wikipedia
World Water Day has been observed on 22 March since 1993 when the United Nations General Assembly declared 22 March as World Day for Water.
This day was first formally proposed in Agenda 21 of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Observance began in 1993 and has grown significantly ever since; for the general public to show support, it is encouraged for the public to not use their taps throughout the whole day, the day has become a popular Facebook trend.
The UN and its member nations devote this day to implementing UN recommendations and promoting concrete activities within their countries regarding the world’s water resources. Each year, one of various UN agencies involved in water issues takes the lead in promoting and coordinating international activities for World Water Day. Since its inception in 2003, UN-Water has been responsible for selecting the theme, messages and lead UN agency for the World Day for Water.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Burgeoning, the human infestation continues to intensify upon the skin of the planet, threatening to overwhelm the fragile biosphere with a monoculture of killer apes. Sophistry and numerical manipulation make the case for Agenda 21 to play out, attempting to induce guilt and damned realization into the mainly western minds of the post industrial world, those who are well fed and watered. Your humble narrator plans on not flushing the toilet today, much to the chagrin of both “Our Lady of the Pentacle” and our little dog Zuzu. Additionally, none of us will eat or drink. A fast day will be observed for the suffering multitudes.
from unwater.org
There are 7 billion people to feed on the planet today and another 2 billion are expected to join by 2050. Statistics say that each of us drinks from 2 to 4 litres of water every day, however most of the water we ‘drink’ is embedded in the food we eat: producing 1 kilo of beef for example consumes 15,000 litres of water while 1 kilo of wheat ’drinks up’ 1,500 litres.
When a billion people in the world already live in chronic hunger and water resources are under pressure we cannot pretend the problem is ‘elsewhere’.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The unfortunate truth, globally, is that much of the fresh water which the human infestation might consume is fouled by sewage. Whether it is agricultural lagoons of animal waste, municipal infrastructure or lack thereof, or outright industrial effluent- this is the true issue which Agenda 21 ignores. If you want to save the multitudes of the developing world- eliminate malaria and a host of other pathogens almost overnight- build sanitary sewers. Of course, we haven’t managed to swing this in New York City let alone sub Saharan Africa, so you might as well despair.
from nycgovparks.org
Social Hour: World Water Day, Thursday, March 22, 2012. 6:30 P.M.–8:00 P.M.
Celebrate World Water Day by learning more about the Croton Reservoir and Central Park’s historic role in supplying New York City with fresh drinking water. Co-presented with the NYC Department of Environmental Protection.
This event is recommended for adults (18 and over) only.
Provided at no cost to you! No advance registration. More details, including rain plans and directions, are on the Central Park Conservancy calendar.
The Newtown Pentacle 