Posts Tagged ‘Long Island City’
disjointed jargon
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whilst marching past the sky flung and quite cyclopean walls of First Calvary Cemetery, which form the border between life and death along Review Avenue here in Queens, your humble narrator found himself stricken with certain longings for times past. Not the usual longings, borne of long nocturnal studies into the occluded and dim history of the fabled Newtown Creek and environs, but instead a desire to return to that moment in time when it was all new to me- just a few years ago. Far have my solitary marches across the concrete desolations of the Newtown Pentacle taken me from that original path.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When that hellish green flame of revelation was first lit, before I found out about Conrad Wessel and Cord Meyer and had no idea who Michael Degnon or Dagger John might be, the wonderland of Newtown Creek was merely another industrial area which had fallen on hard times and the sort of place which I always found myself wandering through. As a kid, it was south Brooklyn and the maritime era leave behinds which adorn Jamaica Bay. These days I’m conducting tours of the area for academic and political crowds, and speaking extemporaneously on the historic ramifications of it. Fear has risen in me that I’m losing my focus.
I almost walked past this glob of risible decay without photographing it, for instance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recent inundation, which has been typical for the storm addled year of 2011, has saturated the low lying alluvial plain around the Creek and betrayed its past as wetlands. Accordingly, anything lying on an open patch of dirt immediately becomes soaked. I couldn’t tell you what this glutinous mass with a vaguely fibrous texture once was, but I am oh so glad I was still capable to notice it. The thing about the Newtown Pentacle, a term coined to describe the pentangular geographic distribution of the early European colonies in western Queens and Northern Brooklyn, is that the devil is always in the details.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Microscopy upon any subject often obscures the larger themes surrounding it, in essence when you follow Alice down the rabbit hole, you forget that the shire still lies without. The pile of discarded newspapers in the shot above, which are curiously and analogously arranged in the shape of a fallen man, obscured a bag of pots and pans. Repulsively filthy, one of the cooking pans was filled with human excrement.
Curiously, the pans were in the approximate location that a pelvis might be found on a human.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It has been painful to stand in public, as to be seen by so many diminishes me. Duty, however, demands that I tell the story of this place, no matter the personal cost.
This Sunday, the public tours of Newtown Creek will be departing from Pier 17 at South Street Seaport. The afternoon session is already sold out, but a few tickets are still available for the morning one. Heavily discounted (and I would point out that I have zero financial interest in the tours) at $10, due to a grant from NYCEF fund of the Hudson River Foundation, these will most likely be the last chance for the general public to see the Newtown Creek by boat until the spring.
And your humble narrator is anxious to get back out on the streets and find more mystery globs of risible decay, altars of unknown and foreign gods, and the graves of both Battle Ax Gleason and “he who must not be named”…
infinitely narrow
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above originated just last week at the Metropolitan Water Aliiance’s gala “Heroes of the Harbor” event. MWA choreographs a “parade of boats” on the Hudson River at sunset, and this year the coup de grace of the parade was the presence of the brand new “343” fireboat. Luckily for me, it maintained a static position on the river while firing its water cannons, and I was able to shoot this neat long exposure image of the FDNY’s new flagship.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Those stalwart stewards of the public trust at the United States Environmental Protection Agency contacted me the other day and asked that I might disseminate news of two upcoming “Public Information Sessions” which will be conducted in Brooklyn and Queens next week. For more information on specifics, or for more information about the event, check out the official flyer here. I will definitely be attending the Brooklyn event, oddly enough, but scheduled obligation might preclude me from visiting the famed Degnon Terminal (LaGuardia) one.
The dates, locations, and times- as forwarded are:
Tuesday, October 25
St. Nicks Alliance 2 Kingsland Avenue
Arts@Renaissance at the Garden Level, 2:00 to 4:00 pm and 7:00 to 9:00 pm
Thursday, October 27
LaGuardia Community College
31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City
Conference Room E-500, 2:00 to 4:00 pm and 7:00 to 9:00 pm
winding ways
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a note today, with the intention of thanking everybody who came along for the “Open House NY Weekend” tours I conducted of Dutch Kills Saturday and Sunday. Well attended, I nevertheless discovered messages on my phone post factum from a few who had ran afoul of transit difficulties. The tours were consciously delayed from the assigned starting time, but unfortunately we had to move. Don’t worry, this isn’t the last time I’ll be bringing company along on this particular walk.
Special guest speakers Penny Lee, Kate Zidar, and Kevin Walsh offered their own perspectives on the various sights and wonders found along the route and are offered a hearty thanks.
nighted secrets
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This has been one crazily busy few days for your humble narrator, and frankly- I’m a nervous wreck.
Tonight, the Metropolitan Waterfront Alliance will be hosting the “Heroes of the Harbor” soiree at Pier 61 on the Hudson River at 6 p.m.- that’s Chelsea Piers for those unfamiliar with the demarcation of Manhattan’s surviving docks.
The MWA will be presenting the “Parade of Boats” at sunset, which will include (amongst others) the FDNY’s bon vivant “Three Forty Three” Fireboat. I’ll be there attempting to photograph the show.
Additionally, I remind you of the announcement made late Friday afternoon about the Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance produced boat tours of Newtown Creek on October 23rd which I will also be participating in. Tickets sales are flying, so order yours today.
“Join me on two Newtown Creek boat tours, both on October 23rd, 2011. I’ll be your tour guide, narrating humbly.
These tours are the co production of the Working Harbor Committee and the Newtown Creek Alliance made possible by funding from the NYCEF Newtown Creek Fund of the Hudson River Foundation. Accordingly, the tours will be heavily discounted, and tickets will cost only $10.
Made possible by funding from the NYCEF Newtown Creek Fund of the Hudson River Foundation”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Inadvertently, your humble narrator caused some confusion with that aforementioned post from Friday afternoon when a draft version was published which listed the wrong date and time for the two tours, and apologies are offered. Thanks are offered to the many sharp eyed readers of this, your Newtown Pentacle, who immediately let me know that an error had been published.
I long for the days of winter at this point, when solitary communion with my beloved Creeklands can be embraced again.
Oh, to fly with the night gaunts over the concrete desolations and haunt the rolling hillocks of Newtown once more …
So speaks the contemplative mood experienced by your humble narrator today…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
For those of you new to my little world- here’s how this whole thing got started:
Several years ago, after a serious illness brought on by a slothful and overly indulgent lifestyle, my staff of doctors had prescribed exercise and wholesome activity as a curative. They told me to run, but having grown up in Brooklyn- I only run when someone of something is chasing me- so I began to walk. A shabby and defeated man in a filthy black raincoat, camera in hand, reduced to walking the earth in the manner of a mendicant. Vastly inferior to others, and perhaps the worst of men, I am an unpleasant fellow given to tidal fluctuations of mood and temperament which cause me to display an uncompromising face to all. Accordingly, the world had crumpled me up and thrown me away like so much refuse. I put away childish things, and disappeared into the wastelands of western Queens.
Like every other discarded piece of wind strewn trash casually thrown away in the city of New York, I eventually turned up at the Newtown Creek. The emerald devastations of Calvary, the mysteries of a forgotten world of industrial supremacy, the wonders of a deeply hidden world had been awaiting me. The hellish green flame of revelation soon presented itself here, at the Creek, and before I knew it- my various researches, photographs, and activities were noticed by both the historical community and political establishment of Queens.
Before long, I found myself standing alongside respected scholars and scientific pillars, advocating for the Creek in public, and telling its story to boat loads of eager enthusiasts. This is something which I am still getting used to.
A few aphorisms and truisms have emerged in the preceding years- “make no assumptions”, “it’s not good, it’s not bad, it just is”, “next time I go down English Kills in a rowboat, I’m wearing a respirator”, and “if it can happen, it happened here, and if it happened here it was ten times worse than anywhere else”. When the Open House NY walks on the 15th and 16th are done, and the boat tours are finished in October, my plan is to resume solitary wanderings and delve into deeper waters at the Creek which the general public need not visit. As always, I’ll be sharing my pedantic adventures with you, my lords and ladies of the Pentacle.
The Second… Welcome to Newtown Creek…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Join me on two Newtown Creek boat tours, both on October 23rd, 2011. I’ll be your tour guide, narrating humbly.
These tours are the co production of the Working Harbor Committee and the Newtown Creek Alliance made possible by funding from the NYCEF Newtown Creek Fund of the Hudson River Foundation. Accordingly, the tours will be heavily discounted, and tickets will cost only $10.
Made possible by funding from the NYCEF Newtown Creek Fund of the Hudson River Foundation
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Two tours are scheduled, both are two hours in length. The first will leave LIC at 10am sharp (returns at noon), the second is at 1pm (returns at 3). A constellation of speakers will be onboard, including your humble narrator, who will be serving as Tour Chairman and MC. We will be onboard vessels provided by NY Water Taxi, which are comfortable and climate controlled boats with great sound systems.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Our anticipated itinerary will carry you from Hunters Point, and visit nearly all the communities of the Newtown Creek Watershed as we proceed east through Greenpoint, LIC, Blissville, Maspeth, Ridgewood, and finally East Williamsburg when we proceed all the way back to the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge.
Literally a once in a lifetime opportunity, you are invited to come and experience Newtown Creek (for an insubstantial fee- only ten bucks) and I’m hoping to see you onboard.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you’d imagine, tickets are going to sell out fast at this price, so please order your tickets expeditiously. An incredible amount of planning has gone into this endeavor, and your ticket price includes a free 8 page booklet describing certain facts and facets of what you will be experiencing onboard. Newtown Creek, from the water, is one of the most incredible sights in New York City and you have never seen anything like it.
The Newtown Pentacle 