Posts Tagged ‘Metro North’
Omphalos
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The first day of my recent visit ‘back to the old neighborhood,’ as detailed in posts last week, ended with a Metro North trip up to NYS’s community of Cold Spring, right across the Hudson River from Storm King Mountain and West Point. I stayed the night with one of my oldest friends, and after quaffing a heavy breakfast in the town, your humble narrator was once again on the move.
The evening before, I grew so tired that I was becoming incoherent, it was a bit like being drunk. When I was shown the bedding upon which I’d be sleeping, an immediate loss of consciousness occurred. I’d been on the go for something like twenty straight hours at that point.
Pictured above is a Metro North unit moving away from the city.
What? I’ve always passed the time when commuting by shooting trains.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a few minutes, the Manhattan bound train arrived, right on schedule. It would take a little over an hour to get into town. In accordance with my advance plans, the underclothing worn the day before was thrown in the garbage (I packed a series of ‘end of life’ garments to wear which would have shortly ended up being used as cleaning rags back home). Home base would be established this evening, for the next couple of days at least, in Queens’ Middle Village. There I’d be able to dismantle my pack a bit and leave some stuff behind, but at this moment I still needed to carry everything everywhere. Bah!
I settled into a seat on the water side of the train. A camera gizmo was affixed to one of the lenses, a silicone ‘baffle’ shroud which promised to block window reflections. It actually worked as described, but was a fairly clumsy thing to handle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
MTA has a repair and maintenance facility along the tracks up here, which our train hurtled through. I was using my usual camera formula for this sort of circumstance – setting the thing to aperture and ISO sensitivities which are normally used in low light situations, while setting the shutter speed to an insanely quick exposure speed in the realm of 1/6400th or 1/8000th of a second in order to ‘freeze’ the image.
In between shooting, I roamed around inside my camera bag, ensuring that everything has survived the trip and yesterday’s efforts. Double checking things is almost an ADD issue for me, but it insures that I don’t lose track of or damage important – or expensive – things.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After passing by the Tappan Zee Bridge on the Hudson, the whole ‘shoot out the windows’ setup was disassembled, and a wide angle 16mm lens was affixed for the arrival at Grand Central Terminal.
The next stop after getting to Manhattan would be the 7 train, and then I was heading out to Hunters Point in LIC, to meet up with a couple of the new employees at Newtown Creek Alliance who were hired after I debarked NYC for Pittsburgh. They had a couple of new things to show me, and they also had never experienced the ‘Mitch Waxman at Newtown Creek thing.’
My beloved creek…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I always experience a rush when entering the main chamber at Grand Central. Back in art school, during the 1980’s, I had a drawing class proctored by a guy named John Ruggiero which met here. Back then, Grand Central was a de facto homeless shelter, and the mission for the class was more or less visual journalism. Approach somebody, find out a little bit, ask if you can draw them. About half of the time, they’d say yes in exchange for a bagel and coffee. Almost 40 years later, and where am I and what am I doing most of the time – but with a camera instead of a drawing pad? Hmm.
Man, I just kept on getting reminded of my past on this trip. Everywhere I went… stories.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I decided to get to the 7 via the long way, by walking outside the building and circling towards the station via 42nd street. When people in Pittsburgh ask me what NYC is like, I usually say ‘it smells like college.’
What I mean is that the ubiquitous skunk of Marijuana is absolutely omnipresent in midtown Manhattan since legalization. Wow. Used to be that you had to walk a few blocks east to avoid the cops while partaking.
I’m all for the local and national end of prohibition, incidentally. Prohibition didn’t work out for alcohol, won’t ever work for drugs and we have the entire 20th century to look for proof of that. If there’s demand for anything, sellers will emerge to profit from it. A market arises, and you can’t beat a market. Best bet thereby is legalization, and high tax, just like alcohol and tobacco. I have spoken.
Back tomorrow with more.
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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.
Next stop, Willoughby
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Finally, I had made it to Grand Central Terminal in midtown Manhattan.
Planes, automobiles, ferries, subways, and now trains. It had been a busy day for me since waking up at one in the morning back in Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One entered Grand Central, which is always a rush, and proceeded to the tickets counter to purchase a fare card for a Cold Spring bound Metro North train. The wide angle 16mm lens was still affixed to the camera.
Luckily, I didn’t have long to wait as far as boarding the train, and clicked out a few photos while crossing the great lobby.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My energy was really starting to lag. The lifestyle I’m living in Pittsburgh these days is built around ‘early to rise and early to bed’ logic. Most nights I’m snoring by 11 p.m., and am awake again by 6 a.m. My night owl ways, as lived back in NYC, don’t fit in with the rhythm of life in Pittsburgh.
Luckily, the train was beginning boarding, so I just needed to find a seat and then relax for a little over an hour until reaching my destination.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I made it, and settled into a seat. I was trying out a $15 camera gizmo on the way up north, a large silicone lens baffle which promised to cancel out window reflections when used properly.
The thing worked, sort of, but it wasn’t any sort of major improvement over my home made baffles made from the kind of foam you stuff in around a window based air conditioner. It was only $15, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ride north was uneventful, except for when that wagyu burger from the Staten Island Ferry Terminal produced a massively sulfurous fart, which emerged unbidden into the train car. Sorry, everyone.
I texted my buddy, letting him know I was heading towards him.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The LIC/North Brooklyn real estate frenzy is happening in the South Bronx too. I know… as a child you said to your parents ‘mommy, I want to live in the South Bronx, please.’ Sigh…
Back next week from a visit to the greatest city in the history of mankind.
“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.
forty alleys
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the 12th of August, my pal Val had arranged an event up in Yonkers, wherein an abandoned NY Central railroad power plant would be opened up for the inspection of a group of photographers by its new owners. These new owners have some pretty ambitious plans for the site, but more on that next week. In the meantime, I had to get from Astoria to Yonkers.
Luckily, this is accomplished fairly easily. The M60 Select Bus service runs down Astoria Boulevard, and has a stop at Steinway Street. Out of the house early, thereby, with a ham egg and cheese sandwich in hand, went a humble narrator.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had padded an extra half an hour of “shit happens” time into my schedule, and spent that interval photographing the Metro North and Connecticut Rail commuter rail trains which travel along the old NY Central Railroad’s right of way.
125/Lex is a pretty busy station, I tell you.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above looks south along Park Avenue towards Midtown Manhattan and Grand Central Terminal. It’s called a “terminal” because its always been the “end of the line.” The 7 train Subway enters a part of the facility called “Grand Central Station,” which is called that because it’s not the last stop of that service. Station = passing through. Terminal = last stop.
As far as the whole Pennsylvania Railroad and NY Central thing – man… it’s complicated and I don’t want to even get into that whole story. Suffice to say that the MTA is one of the many orphaned love children which fell out of their contests, courtships, troubled marriage, and bankrupted divorce.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I hung around the 125/Lex platform for about a half hour, and never ran out of trains coming and going to take photos of. My destination was in Yonkers, but one stop past the “big” Yonkers stop. Glenwood, that’s the one I’d need to get to.
I’ve got a buddy who grew up in Yonkers, and he’s always pronounced the place’s name as “AhYonkahs.” This is the same guy who always kept a series of loaner gorilla suits in the trunk of his car, in addition to his personal gorilla suit, in case he had the sudden urge for company when it was time to go “aping.” I’ve aped with him, which would take the form of us climbing on things, invading bars and fancy restaurants while wearing gorilla suits, and clowning around with pretty girls. I can confirm the idea that you can get away with literally anything while wearing a gorilla suit. Even Cops will find your antics entirely humorous, because of the gorilla suit.
AhYonkahs, that’s where I was heading. No Gorilla suit though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My chariot arrived, and away did I go.
I was hoping to get a few “out the window” train shots while crossing the Harlem River, but Metro-North’s windows seem to be composed of thousands of small fractures and the sun was not on my side. C’est la vie.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Annoyingly, whereas my destination was literally next to the train station, I had to walk about a half mile, up and down hills, and over dales (actually a baseball field) to get to it.
More next week, with a detailed look at a long abandoned NY Central Railroad Glenwood Power Plant, found along the Hudson River in AhYonkahs.
“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.
frenzied throng
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you may have noticed from the little flickr badge on the right hand side of this page, it’s been a rather busy few days for your humble narrator. The Working Harbor Committee Tugboat races were a hoot, as always, but I’ve had to develop and deliver the shots in a somewhat timely manner- despite the annoyance of a computer system crash and a concurrent setback in my overall schedule.
Such is life.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some extremely exciting stuff is on the front burner right now, and October is looking to be another incredibly busy month. I can’t discuss any of it yet, but there will be several intriguing “events” which will be described to you in some detail in the coming weeks that I’m involved with.
Suffice to say- “Want to see something cool? Come with me, bring a camera and ID”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
What does all this shadowy discussion and veiled promise have to do with shots of speedy trains and hidden trackbeds? Nothing at all, but this is a visual metaphor for what it feels like to be me at the moment.
A deer in the headlights, with a juggernaut hurtling ever closer.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just in case you were wondering- the trains are Metro North at Spuyten Duyvel, LIRR at Woodside and then DUPBO near Hunters Point, and Amtrak at Sunnyside Yards.
Catching up on the latest round of research, getting the next series of postings together, getting back on track. Expect regular but rather short posts for the next few days as I pull together the next session of this, your Newtown Pentacle.
The Newtown Pentacle 