Posts Tagged ‘New York City’
Archives #004
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Continuing with the archives posts today, due to a humble narrator’s broken ankle dealie. I screwed up the whole date thing yesterday, thinking that it was the 11th rather than the 9th, so there you go as far as a window into how messed up my brain is at the moment.
This post from 2013 details an art project on the old Mobil refinery site in Greenpoint, designed and executed by Jan Mun and Jason Sinopoli in partnership with ExxonMobil. Miss those days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve grown bored with the Police body cam footage thing, and am honing my list of ‘20 things not to do when the Cops show up’ list for future dissemination. #3 is ‘not threatening to track them down and rape their families when you get out of jail.’ The Cops react badly to that one.
Compositional magic in photos? Umbrellas are discussed in this context in this post from 2018.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Seeing my beloved Creek in these photos really grinds as -surprise- I was scheduled to be back home for a few days next week. Had plane tix and everything. Best laid plans and all that, huh?
Here’s a few shots from Newtown Creek in this 2019 post,
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Archives #003
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Day #3 of archive posts arrives here at Newtown Pentacle, as your humble narrator continues to recover from a broken ankle. As mentioned previously, I’m pulling forgotten posts from prior years out of the dustbin. These were all published, on this date, sometime between 2009 and 2024.
On October 11th, in 2012, this post offered observations on a ritual site that was discovered in LIC’s Calvary Cemetery. This particular ritual site, on a hidden hill, was regularly inspected during my walks through the polyandrion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m happy about one thing, though, which is that I’m not in that walk up apartment back in Astoria during this ordeal. This whole experience would have been a hundred times worse in NYC. When the ambulance brought me into the ER here in Pittsburgh, I was immediately taken care of and didn’t have to wait my turn on a gurney in some hallway for hours and hours, which is common experience back in NYC.
Thought viruses, transmitted by written words, which can only infect the literate? This concept was pondered back in 2016 in this post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every day there’s a bit of improvement to my situation. I’m sleeping fairly well, despite not having anything to feel tired about, as I’m sitting all day long. I long for a walk, to feel the radiates of the burning thermonuclear eye of God itself striking my skinvelope, waving the camera around as I go. Hell… I’d be happy just to be cleared to drive again.
This post from 2021 and it is the conclusion of a ‘72 hour’ series captured in Vermont’s Burlington. Whereas I didn’t discuss it publicly, the decision to move out of NYC had already been made, and this was a ‘first interview’ for what turned out to be my second choice for where to flee.
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“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.
Archives #002
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Day two of archive posts greets you, lords and ladies, as your broken but still humble narrator recovers from a fairly severe fracture of multiple bones in the ankle. My life at the moment isn’t much fun, and I’m sitting down all the time – which is anathema to one such as myself. It’s a bit like that Hitchcock movie ‘Rear Window’ here around HQ.
On this date in 2019, this post was published here, describing a minor adventure wherein I was riding on an all electric boat, and spotted the USCGC Katherine Walker anchored on the East River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thankfully, I don’t require the pain dulling medications anymore, which introduced a fog of narcotic haze into my thoughts. Attention spans of less than 10-15 minutes on that stuff. It’s good to be able to mentally focus again, although I’m still a little drug drunk after two weeks of opioids. Hangovers, amirite?
2018’s October 8 post was focused on me getting back to Astoria and negotiating one of MTA’s meltdowns, while needing to poop. I’ll point out that NYC isn’t a ‘City of Yes,’ it’s the city of ‘No, there aren’t any public toilets.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Trouble I’m having right now is how to occupy my mind. Boring, boring. I’ve found myself watching hour after hour of Police body cam videos, and can advise the citizenry on roughly 20 things not to do when the Cops show up. You don’t want to set the Cops off with #7 – spitting – for instance.
One of my tricks to avoid the madness of isolation during the pandemic months was to go ride the NYC Ferry, as described in this post from 2020.
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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.
Archival offerings
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well, here we are.
Recovery from the broken ankle and the concurrent surgery has been pretty rough. A humble narrator has been staring out through a mask of painkillers and a narcotic fog. Luckily, the prescribed course of opioids has ended and it’s just Tylenol at this stage, so my brain is beginning to go ‘normal,’ or at least as close to normal as I get, again. Saying all that, I’m still sitting in a wheelchair as you’re receiving this, and won’t be getting out and about with the camera for quite a while. Luckily, I’ve been updating and posting here at Newtown Pentacle since 2009, so there’s lots of buried archival posts to re-present. My conceit will be calendrical, and you’ll see call backs to something published on ‘this date in XXXX.’
This post from 2012, for instance, contains a series of ‘odds and ends’ photos from the Manhattan Bridge Centennial event which I was a NYC Parade Marshal for. How about that?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The pain side of the ankle injury, at the moment, has nothing to do with the broken bones. According to the X-Rays, everything within the limb is proceeding according to the surgeon’s plan. There’s screws and a bracket – all kinds of stuff – holding my broken bones together. The main source of discomfort is actually found on the surface of the foot, where a ghastly looking series of wounds from the clamping down of my foot during the surgical procedure are afflicting the skin. Feels like a burn.
This one is from 2021, and depicts a trip to Vermont’s Burlington. Burlington was our #2 choice for where to move to – post COVID – but the ferocity of the winter up there made the choice for Pittsburgh obvious.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m still on the disabled list, and for a while, it looks like. Can’t drive, as I honestly have no idea how I’d get in and out of the car, and the opiates are still in my system despite not taking them for a few days now, so I don’t exactly trust my spatial perceptions at the moment.
I’m going to try and get the schedule restarted up here again this week, since it at least gives me a focus beyond this nightmare. Can’t promise anything like dailies right now, but I’m going to try.
Finally, here’s one from 2022, depicting a boat ride here in Pittsburgh.
“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.
Parting shots
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few parting shots from a recent visit back to NYC greet you today, as captured by an expatriate but still humble narrator. This one is from the Greenpoint Avenue Bridge, looking westwards along Newtown Creek.
I was still on foot for this one. My next move was to call a cab and head to my old ‘local’ in Astoria – Doyle’s Corner – to meet up with friends, and drink pints of beer over a bar menu dinner. I was told there that the owner had decided to retire, and Doyle’s had been sold. It’s meant to reopen with a new name and set of renovations, and although I’m sure that the same set of barflies will be found along the rail when it does, it was sad to hear. Nothing lasts, everything is change.
As a note, although I spend a LOT of time in bars, I don’t actually drink all that much. I’m known for nursing a pint for an hour or so, which annoys my friends who drink quickly. I can spend all night in a bar and only have two or three drinks over several hours. I often refuse the ‘buy back’ – which is a colloquial NYC tradition, I’d mention – one that doesn’t exist here in Pittsburgh. It’s not even the alcohol, it’s the volume – I couldn’t sit down and just drink a quart and a half of seltzer in two hours, let alone an adult beverage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I spent some time with my pal Val the day before leaving for the west, and we found ourselves back at the Maspeth Plank Road after inhaling an enormous breakfast at a diner on Grand Avenue. That’s another thing I don’t do anymore – eating breakfast at a restaurant – since moving away.
Lifestyle, these days, involves a new motto: the only thing you eat at a restaurant is something you can’t make at home. Both Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself have sharpened up our cooking skills since moving away, and we have a proper full sized kitchen at our new HQ in Pittsburgh, so few things are out of reach. We have a plug in Belgian Waffle press, for instance, so…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was my ‘last look’ at the fabulous Newtown Creek. After taking care of the stuff I had returned for, my buddy in Middle Village who was putting me up for the week prepared a huge and fabulous dinner at his place. My old friend Armstrong came by too, and stayed the night there as well. I had to make it an early night, however.
The next morning, I staggered out of bed at 4:30 a.m. and filled my thermos with coffee. I was behind the wheel and driving over the Triborough by 4:55 a.m. and then passing through the Delaware Water Gap choke point on I-80 by 6:15 a.m. Having successfully avoided the crunch of morning traffic in NYC, it was smooth sailing for the next 6 or so hours back to Pittsburgh and the loving arms of Our Lady and the snapping jaws of our insane puppy/adolescent dog Moe.
Back tomorrow with something different.
“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.
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