Posts Tagged ‘Manhattan’
unpeopled and illimitable
A visit to the center of the universe.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Times Square, I believe, is likely not just the former physical location of the Garden of Eden but is possibly the exact location where the Big Bang happened (might have been herald square- too close to call). All of reality unfolded out from this spot, when a super massive particle achieved its potential, birthing stars and galaxies and the night sky. Then the area laid relatively fallow for a few billion decades until NYC came along. I have no scientific proof to back this statement up, but it feels kind of right, and in 21st century America belief or a hunch is all you need to claim a belief or statement as a scientific fact.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Magical thinking- “god is on our side” or “don’t worry, it’ll all work out in the end”- is something we are all guilty of at one time or another. It is important, as Americans, that we don’t imagine ourselves as having limitations or being ready to acknowledge any sort of harsh reality. Times Square is, and always has been, all about harsh reality. For generations, it represented the failures of NYC with its open air drug dealing, prostitutes, and unpoliceable violent activity. Today it represents the takeover of the American city by international entertainment franchisees.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What I can describe to you however, is that the underbelly is still present in Times Square- lurking around the service entrances and alleys and sleeping on nearby piers. You don’t see it during the cacophony of the day and evening, lit harshly by neon and led signage, but shamble about the place during the off hours and you’ll soon discover that the old Times Square never went away. Its still here, in this spot where a female Australopithecine bit into an apple and damned us all.
Happy Labor Day
It took a whole lot of labor to build this thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Don’t get sunburned, eat too much, or too drunk today. I got all those things out of the way yesterday, during and after the Tugboat Race on the Hudson.
sonorous chanting
In today’s post- darkness in the Shining City
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing the brief moment of joy and hope for a better future which the large apertures of my new lens have made possible, a recent jaunt through the malevolent tunnels and filthy canyons of Manhattan saw me capturing images which were formerly out of reach with that other equipment which has suffered a long tenancy at my side. Loathsome, corrupted, and redolent, the rotting heart of the megalopolis nevertheless offers the wandering mendicant multitudinous opportunities to test and experiment the new device in its frontier of unnatural darkness, and to remain alone amongst the anonymous many.
Always, must I remain, an Outsider.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
South Street Seaport, at night, is subsumed in a preternatural darkness offered by the elevated FDR Drive with its muted sodium street lamps. One fears the presence of Nosferatu in the area, or at least the sudden approach of crowd of drunken Wall Street executives seeking to compliment their evening’s display of excess with a round of fisticuffs. It is amazing, what these favored sons get up to at night amongst the exclusive bars and restaurants, and what they get away with in this patrician enclave of a protected plutocracy.
Crassus would have felt very much at home in the rat infested Lower Manhattan of modern times, and would probably consent to be Mayor if the plebes begged him to do it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As a young narrator, it was a stated desire to “get the hell out of Brooklyn and live in the City.” For many years did I dwell on the shadowy island, with its constancy of noise and the horrible randomness during which ones life would be trampled upon and impacted by external powers. One night, a Barbara Streisand production- I believe it was Prince of Tides- set itself up on my corner and decided that lighting up the side of my apartment building would be esthetically pleasing, for instance. Waking up at 3 in the morning when an artificial sun is pointed at your window is something that stays with a guy.
Best choice I ever made was picking and moving to the blessed rolling hills of almond eyed Astoria, here in Queens.
Things to do!
Working Harbor Committee presents: Great North River Tugboat Races and Competition, September 1st, 2013
9:30-11:30 a.m. at West 42nd Street and the Hudson River. Spectator Boat tickets now on sale.
gradual glow
She floats thro’ the air with the greatest of ease
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Like one of the personalized parables which populate “Thus Spake Zarathustra,” your humble narrator dares not tread the sky for he knows that failure will result due to personal inadequacy and a hidebound mind. This youngling spotted at South Street Seaport’s “Trapeze School New York,” it seems, has no such limitations placed on her “Will to Power.”
from newyork.trapezeschool.com
Trapeze School New York is dedicated to making flying trapeze available to anyone who seeks inspiration, challenge, fitness or just a couple hours of unique fun. Our mission every day is to create a safe, fun, challenging environment where our students strive to surpass limitations and more richly enjoy their lives.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trapeze section of Pier 16 is well fortified, with nets and rigging, and is surrounded by a chain link fence to keep the curious out of harms way. The procedure, as I’ve observed it, is to allow participants an opportunity to learn the circus art under tutelage. They come up, one by one, and train in handling themselves on the wire.
If your humble narrator was to attempt something like this, it would merely provide an EMT the opportunity to learn how to resuscitate someone who died of fright.
from wikipedia
A trapeze is a short horizontal bar hung by ropes or metal straps from a support. It is an aerial apparatus commonly found in circus performances. Trapeze acts may be static, swinging or flying, and may be performed solo, double, triple or as a group act.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve never had the urge to swing from a series of ropes, ride a wild or even tame horse, nor drive without a seat belt on. Vast physical cowardice is my thing, having long ago decided that disease or old age will suit me nicely, rather than accidental or violent death. These people are meshuggeneh.
from wikipedia
meshugaas, also mishegaas or mishegoss: Crazy or senseless activity or behavior; craziness (Yiddish משוגעת meshugaas, from Hebrew məšugga‘ath, a form of the above)
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nothing wrong with the activity, however, they are all trussed up with safety lines and every participant observed ends their routine by practicing a drop into the safety net, which is actually pretty smart. Still, it takes some sort of fortitude to do this in front of hundreds of people a couple of dozen feet over the dock. This is one wild hobby to cultivate- swinging roughly through the air, on the flying trapeze, at South Street Seaport.
from wikipedia
Courage is the ability and willingness to confront fear, pain, danger, uncertainty, or intimidation. Physical courage is courage in the face of physical pain, hardship, death, or threat of death, while moral courage is the ability to act rightly in the face of popular opposition, shame, scandal, or discouragement.
In some traditions, fortitude holds approximately the same meaning as courage. In the Western tradition, notable thoughts on courage have come from philosophers such as Aristotle, Aquinas and Kierkegaard; in the Eastern tradition, some thoughts on courage were offered by the Tao Te Ching. More recently, courage has been explored by the discipline of psychology.
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
abysmal descent
I’ve got 99 problems, here’s three.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At least once a day, and moreso as the years have advanced, your humble narrator finds himself unable to maintain consciousness and suddenly finds himself unconscious. During these intervals of helpless autonomic writhing, vast hallucinations occur, and immediately upon reacquiring cogency an enormous disorientation is experienced. Physical symptoms, apparent to all witnesses, include a display of clumsiness and overt muscle stiffness. Additionally, unpleasant expulsions of waste products are urgently required upon a return to regency over the body, which is worrying. This has been happening to me since early childhood, and one wonders how long this condition will last.
I endeavor to increase the resiliency of my psychological infrastructure.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tender pink envelope in which my viscera and skeleton are contained has- on more than one occasion- been found punctured, blistered, crushed, torn, or slashed open by environmental interactions. Additionally, enormous nervous system signal activity, which I understand as being commonly called “pain”, has been generated by this skinvelope when overexposed to the damaging radiation which emanates from the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself. This too is a problem which has afflicted me for decades.
It is my goal to install some sort of armor about myself, before the next assault is offered.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Little trust exists for my perceptions, either, as I’m all ‘effed up. Some sort of damage exists in the wiring between those sensors which adjoin the outside world and which transmit environmental data into the skull with its underpowered central processing unit. Inability and organic weakness cause one to experience odd intuitions and bizarre ideations, no doubt due to limits and defects in the CPU’s wetware. Perhaps this is why I slavishly record everything I see, an attempt to visually catalog and contain those torrents of information which assault and inform, and explain away that which is witnessed.
Were it only possible to fix and fortify the brain.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, August 10, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
13 Steps around Dutch Kills– Saturday, August 17, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
The Newtown Pentacle 