Posts Tagged ‘Maspeth’
split fingernails
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
November 15th also marked the last time I would be visiting DUKBO in Maspeth, an area found along the fabulous Newtown Creek’s Queens side. At the time of these photo’s captures, I thought it would be my second to last visit, but as it turns out…
I set up the tripod, and all the special camera gear and tools which I’ve mentioned to you over the years. It was nice, but there was a melancholy resonance to this, doing what was a very normal thing for me to be doing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This post is being written on Monday the 12th of December, while sitting in my favorite Irish bar in Astoria – also for the last time. By the time you’ve received it, I’ll solidly be living in Pittsburgh.
There’s a pint of Guinness on my right hand, and the iPad is glowing in front of me. This is not an unfamiliar image to my bartender. I’ve always loved sitting down in a bar by myself and doing some writing. Also, since there is no wifi in my old apartment right now as I’ve returned the equipment to the cable people, my only connection other than a cell phone is here… in fact, the movers have just come this morning, and took all my stuff with them to Pittsburgh – so beyond the wifi the apartment is empty – there’s just an inflatable bed and a couple of knapsacks in my crib. I’m leaving in the morning, on Tuesday the 13th. An all day drive awaits.
One has been living out a suitcase for a couple of weeks now, surviving on high fat and overly caloric foods. A regular sleeping schedule is something I can only hope for, right now. It hasn’t been uncommon for me to fall dead asleep as early as 9 p.m. in the last couple of weeks, out of sheer exhaustion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One way or the other, the part of my life that includes DUPBO, DUGABO, or DUKBO is all over by the time you’re reading this. Hopefully, I’m unpacking on the other side with Our Lady of the Pentacle and can resume some sort of normal life in a day or two before the madness resumes, around a different set of subjects.
Goodbye, DUKBO.
“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.
seventy steps
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off – Newtown Creek Alliance will be honoring John Lipscomb of Riverkeeper, Christine Holowacz, and… your humble narrator… this coming Thursday night (the 20th) at the annual “Tidal Toast” fundraising event. Ticketing information can be found here, and the tax deductible donation of your ticket money will help to fund NCA’s ongoing mission to Reveal, Restore, and Revitalize Newtown Creek. NCA has been at the center of my public life over the last 15 years, and I hope you can make it. This is officially my finale, in terms of public facing events, and the end of this chapter of my life.
Heading back towards Astoria, from a far ranging walk on the 16th of September, which saw me visiting places familiar and loved, I decided that the course northwards and towards HQ would involve 48th street, where Woodside and Sunnyside collide. To get there, I scuttled along an access road that follows the Brooklyn Queens Expressway’s connection to the Long Island Expressway.
This is a lonely path through my “happy place” borderlands of Industrial Maspeth. You needn’t fret overly about marauders, muggers, or molesters here, instead you worry about monsters. Not metaphorical ones either. If you’re going to get got by a werewolf or zombie in NYC, this is the neighborhood where that’ll happen. Vampires? Nope, that’s Queens Plaza.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Cool cars abound in the borough of Queens, but they’re given to mechanical failure, so tow trucks also must exist. Universal rule.
At the moment, since this is another one of the things people keep asking me, I’m still maintaining my every other day schedule of “part of one day out shooting and then one day back at HQ.” The length of the walks I take on one of the “out days” is based purely around whatever else I’m obliged to do that day and how the physical plant is behaving. Of late, it hasn’t been too easy to detach myself prior to about 4-5 in the afternoon, and as the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself is currently dropping down behind New Jersey sometime in the 6 o’clock hour here in NYC so I seem to be catching a lot of sunsets.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My mood is fairly serious but I’m not as anxious or stressed out as you’d imagine, as I’m driven by the exigent circumstances of the day, and I’m actually feeling quite positive. As described in the past, one of the things I do when scuttling around is think in a meditative fashion. I like to believe that all of this alone time over the last fifteen or so years has allowed me to figure some things out, about myself at least. What I can say is that I’m a very different person than I used to be.
Physically, I’m what I’d describe as “ok” but I’m still really fat and haven’t been able to drop the weight I put on during COVID, despite all the walking. Saying that, the trick left foot seems to be a little less tricky these days and despite being in my middle 50’s – four out of seven days a week I’ll walk between five and fifteen miles around this hellish industrial zone while lugging around ten pounds of camera crap with me. Rain, snow, hot, cold. That’s me. I’m still made of leather.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One looks forward to living in the Pittsburgh area. I’m thinking about augmenting my nascent car ownership with an electric pedal assist bike of some kind, which would allow me the option of parking the larger vehicle somewhere and then exploring the various neighborhoods of Pittsburgh on 2 wheels until I get a feel for the place. As mentioned in the past, I don’t think you can see or understand a place from behind the wheel of a car, as you’re moving too fast to notice things. Even a bike moves a bit too fast. Walking, that’s the trick, but until you’ve found pathways through a city it’s best to be mobile in case trouble lurks.
Perhaps I can find a pair of robot pants which would walk up and down those hills in Pittsburgh for me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Of course, there’s all sorts of stuff there that you can just walk right up to and photograph without having to shoot through a chain link fence like you do with literally everything in NYC. Pictured above is the interchange between the BQE and LIE, at the Maspeth/Sunnyside/Woodside border mentioned at the top of this post, the one whose access road I was walking along – and it’s a photo shot through a chain link fence.
This point of view is found along 48th street, at the Woodside and Sunnyside Border with the happy place of Industrial Maspeth. From here out, as I headed north, 48th street is entirely residential for several blocks. Nothing too interesting to shoot there, I’m afraid. I also don’t really like taking pictures of people’s homes, as it looks really, really suspicious and weird. Given how suspicious and weird I look as a default…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily for a humble narrator, just as I got to Queens Boulevard at 48th street, the Q104 bus was pulling up and after a quick “maximum boogie” sprint across the so called “Boulevard of Death,” I was utilizing the MTA’s newish OMNY fare payment system to buy myself a ride the rest of the way back home to the rolling hills of almond eyed Astoria.
The next few days were meant to be rather “involved,” and they certainly were. More on that 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.
impious amulets
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
June 15th found me taking a walk with an artist from Brooklyn, a fellow named Monte Antrim, who has been bitten by the Newtown Creek bug in recent years. I offered to take him on a “seeing tour” and introduce a few of the less obvious points of view for his consideration.
We started off in Long Island City, and ended our excursion at a bar in Bushwick – long after sunset.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally, it was kind of a “snap shot” day for me. I didn’t want to get busy with the camera in the normal sense, and was mainly in tour guide mode for most of the walk.
From LIC, we headed eastwards along the Queens side, through Blissville and then into Maspeth.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When we got to Maspeth, the sound of FDNY sirens were echoing down from the Kosciuszcko Bridge, and there was a plume of smoke rising out of Greenpoint.
I speculated at the time that it was probably a truck or car fire, but as it turns out a furniture manufacturer on Van Dam had suffered a two alarm fire.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Over at Maspeth Creek, these feathered dicks were loitering on the sidewalk. Newtown Creek and its tributaries are overrun these days by Canada Geese. So much so that I’ve learned to speak a little goose.
NAAAAAG.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road, even more of these dicks were encountered, including a bunch of youngsters.
NAAAAAAG.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
We crossed Newtown Creek into Brooklyn at the Grand Street Bridge, just as the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself descended behind New Jersey.
My trick left foot was singing opera for the second half of this walk, I must say. Ow.
“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.
rest without
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
April 24th saw me taking a very long walk indeed. Truth be told, I ended up having to stamp out a small fire in the afternoon, and decided to get the time back by taking a cab to an opportune jumping off point in Industrial Maspeth – or as I call it “The Happy Place.”
I just couldn’t stand the thought of spending an interminable hour and change walking through residential neighborhoods and losing the light accordingly. It was worth the $20.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
MTA has a maintenance facility hereabouts, and they were in the process of decommissioning several Long Island Railroad passenger cars. One scuttled on and on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At Maspeth Creek, I noticed a Canada Goose on a nest. She said “NAAAG” and stuck her tongue out at me, which I’ve since learned is goose for “go away.” I’ve since said “NAAAG” to other Canada Geese, and they seemed shocked that I’ve learned some of their language.
NAAAG. I speak a little goose now.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few blocks away, a Momma and a Poppa Canada Gooses were guarding their progeny, pictured above.
They’re so cute when young, and such assholes when mature, the Canada Gooses. Just like people. NAAAG.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What they were guarding the chicks against is pictured above, a nearly spherical floop of a cat. The kitty seemed surprised that I noticed it, and had probably convinced itself that it was a stealthy predator rather than an adorable fur balloon.
Floop.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A broken water main in front of a NYC DEP building flows freely in Industrial Maspeth, which is… just…
Anyway, the broken water main is accomplishing the goal of hydraulically removing litter and garbage from the streets of Industrial Maspeth. Unfortunately, that sewer grate above doesn’t lead to a sewer plant, rather it empties directly into Newtown Creek.
“DEP” stands for “Department of Environmental Protection.”
“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.
laminar dissection
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Keep on truckin – as the kids used to say. Unfortunately, the kids who used to say that are now retirement age, but there you are. A recent scuttle through Industrial Maspeth at night saw a cavalcade of diesel powered steel rolling past the camera and I just got caught up in the moment.
The one pictured above was hauling municipal waste products, aka the solid materials which the NYC DEP filters out of the sewer flow. That’s pretty common, as is the habit of parking the trailer’s carrying this redolent cargo – as displayed by several of the hauling contractors employed by DEP – on area streets for weeks at a time. That sad story wasn’t what drew my eye, instead it the Green Goblin lighting kit which adorned the tractor section of this rig.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a company over on 48th street nearby the on ramps to the Long Island Expressway (or is it BQE?) which has several impressive vehicles in their inventory. This particular outfit seems to be who’d you’d call if your truck or bus has broken down and you need a tow. The wrecker pictured above is one of a pair of giant vehicles they operate.
I was actually asked by one of its drivers if I was up to something, whereupon I asserted that I’m just a wandering photographer in an industrial zone at night who has a keen appreciation of heavy machinery. Yup, not suspicious at all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Graffiti’d panel trucks abound. This has become a regular sight for me, and is something that’s really accelerated during the Covid months. This sort of tagging on commercial vehicles is nothing new, of course, but seeing a panel truck that hasn’t been “bombed” by a crew of taggers has become the exception rather than the rule in the last couple of years.
Scuttling, just keep scuttling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Certain trucks and operations never get tagged… for reasons. There’s an enormous concrete operation in Industrial Maspeth called Ferrara Brothers. You see their trucks making deliveries all over NYC, but where they fill them with the good stuff is right back here in Queens.
I’m told that there’s a National level company which is buying up and consolidating all of the individual players in NYC’s concrete industry. Several of the medium sized companies, like Ferrara Brothers and NYCON, have already been gobbled up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
FDNY’s Ambulances are damned difficult to photograph when they’re flying past on a call. It’s all “worst case scenario” for operating a camera. You’ve got seconds to spin the dials and adjust the settings to compensate for a) night, b) flashing lights, c) subject moving at 50mph.
This one is from the border of Woodside and Maspeth, in case you’re wondering.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Closer to home, along Northern Boulevard, I spotted this fairly old tow truck parked nearby a car mechanic. Something about it just caught my eye. It’s a 1990 Ford F-Series, I’m told. Given the weird time warp we are all experiencing these days, I’d point out that “1990” makes it a 32 year old tow truck.
Ahh, 1990, when a young Bill Clinton taught us all how to laugh again.
The Newtown Creekathon returns!
On April 10th, the all day death march around Newtown Creek awakens from its pandemic slumber.
DOOM! DOOM! Fully narrated by Mitch Waxman and Will Elkins of Newtown Creek Alliance, this one starts in LIC at the East River, heads through Blissville, the happy place of Industrial Maspeth, dips a toe in Ridgewood and then plunges desperately into Brooklyn. East Williamsburgh and then Greenpoint are visited and a desperate trek to the East River in Brooklyn commences. DOOM! Click here for more information and to reserve a spot – but seriously – what’s wrong with you that you’re actually considering doing this? DOOM!
“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 