Posts Tagged ‘New York City’
falling on
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On September 10th, one found himself at the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road, here in NYC’s borough of Queens. The Tribute in Lights at the World Trade Center site in Manhattan, and this section of Newtown Creek has pretty good views, so there you are.
This shot was gravy, I was there for a musical performance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My pals at Newtown Creek Alliance helped out with this event, called the Newtown Odyssey. Kind of ethereal music, the high concept kind, was being performed. As part of the ensemble, they had rigged up these floating doohickeys with ukulele’s. A bow attached to a connected but separate float that rose and fell with the water differently the ukulele one did would play the ukuleles like violins.
There you go.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in Astoria, on September 13th, and I was at a bar drinking a beer when this “Smash My Trash” truck came by. Do yourself a favor and check out the site link for this outfit.
At last, lords and ladies, real anti-zombie equipment is in the field. Mobile, fuel efficient, smashing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the 14th, a humble narrator waited until about a half hour before sunset to sally forth for an evening constitutional. This was a relatively short walk, all in all. One of the type where I walk somewhere sort of far away from HQ and then take the train back to Astoria. On this particular night, my penultimate destination was the Hunters Point Avenue 7 train stop in Long Island City.
I stopped by “hole reliable” at Sunnyside Yards, and photographed trains for a little while.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was a relatively busy interval at hole reliable, and commuter trains were zipping around down at the track level of the Sunnyside Yards. The one, on the left coming at you, is an Amtrak heading for the Hell Gate Bridge via the NY Connecting Railway, and the one on the right is a Long Island Railroad heading into the City.
I’ve literally taken this sort of shot, from this vantage point, thousands of times. Can’t get enough of it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One decided that since I hadn’t been to Dutch Kills in a couple of weeks, and inspected its collapsing bulkhead on 29th street, that it would be a good idea to do so.
South, headed a humble narrator. More 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.
furtive groping
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, one was perambulating through a long walk back to Astoria from East Williamsburgh in Brooklyn, and transversing Maspeth. There’s lots to see, and even more to photograph on this route.
Along the Long Island Railroad tracks nearby the legendary Haberman siding, a company involved in the minerals trade was filling rail cars with their stock products.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A brief sit down in a shady spot along Rust Street was enjoyed, and one of those Spotted Lantern flys landed on a branch nearby. I wish that I had a macro lens on the camera for this one, instead of the long lens telephoto job that was already onboard. This is an extremely cropped and zoomed in photo, if you’re wondering.
One continued down hill, and along the way ran into an old friend with whom I argued about vaccines for a few blocks. She was heading off in another direction, and I was heading for the sort of place which is everybody’s last mailing address, eventually.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was told that this is a Kestrel, by an actual Ornithologist, and it was spotted sitting on top of a statue monument at First Calvary Cemetery in Long Island City’s Blissville section.
It’s been a long, long time since I wandered through Calvary, a place where I used to spend a lot of my time.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All the familiar places, huh? Leaving NYC at the end of the year, and the psychological process that’s kicked off, has made me soppy and sentimental. Every time that I find myself in a place which has had meaning for me in the past, I think “this is likely the last time I’ll see this.”
The last boat trip on Newtown Creek, the last East River Ferry ride, the last walk through Calvary… that’s me, right now. I’m also trying to see a few friends whom I’ve not been in the physical presence of for a while, because realistically – odds are I’ll never see them in person again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After crossing out of Calvary, and over the Long Island Expressway, I was in “proper” Long Island City and heading north. Along the way, I had the horrible realization that the teenagers are physically back in school now when walking past Aviation High School.
Brrr… teenagers… no impulse control.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some will tell you that the section of Queens you’re looking at above is in Sunnyside, but most of them are Real Estate Agent Shit Flies. I stand hard on the notion that Sunnyside starts at 39th street. Don’t argue with me, I’m right and you’re wrong if you disagree. This is LIC.
More 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.
subdued sort
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After returning from Pittsburgh, a humble narrator set about developing photos and chilling out for a couple of days before resuming the normal round. Some Newtown Creek Alliance business found me in Brooklyn’s East Williamsburgh section, alongside the Metropolitan Avenue Bridge, on September the 8th.
We were checking out a venue for our annual fundraiser – the Tidal Toast – and needed to do a walkthrough. NCA is awarding a humble narrator with the “Reveal” award in this – my last year on Newtown Creek – on October 20th. If you’d like to attend, and support a great organization which has been central to the last 15 years of my life, click here for more information.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a week of traveling in Pittsburgh, and all of those heavy breakfasts, the idea of a walk back to Astoria afterwards sounded fantastic to me. The weather was great, and my camera batteries full.
This is the view from the venue that the Tidal Toast will be held at, which is the Brooklyn studios of a hand painted advertising sign and billboard company called Colossal Media.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan for the afternoon was simple. I walked down Grand Street, towards the Grand Street Bridge crossing on Newtown Creek’s tributary English Kills, where Grand Street transmogrifies into Grand Avenue when it enters the Maspeth section of Queens.
Along the way, there’s a lot of sights. Pictured above is a metals recycling operation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Grand Street Bridge, which is going to be replaced fairly soon. Something I’m going to miss out on.
Since I was in the neighborhood, one pointed his toes first at the Maspeth Avenue Plank Road, and then at the Maspeth Creek tributary.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There were a passel of Canadian Dicks Geese in the poison waters of Maspeth Creek, swimming around and dunking their heads into the slimy liquidity, to eat up whatever debased forms of life they subsist off of.
In recent years, Newtown Creek has become infested with noisome and quite aggressive Canada Geese.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A cast away automobile was visible on the shoreline when I was passing by. Visibility is related to where you are in the tidal cycle for this sort of thing.
The geese didn’t care, nothing matters to them either.
“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.
doglike things
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a terrifying visit to a cautionary tale known as Hudson Yards, a quick ride on the 7 train carried me back to the gently rolling hills of Western Queens where a transfer at the Queensboro Plaza subway stop was actuated and I was soon on an N train heading towards almond eyed Astoria. This was from the end of my journeys on Sunday – August 21st – which were meant to include riding on a Fireboat, but which ended up in a staggered scuttle about the abominable Hudson Yards.
One was hoping to wander through a street festival or something lively in the way home through Astoria – a Detestation of some Abyssal Power, or a Celebration of a Lord or Lady of Light – but it was just another Sunday in the ancient village.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Notice was taken of this woman feeding a group of birds. The birds seemed to be arranging themselves into a geometric pattern, but logic dictates that it was just the pattern of the woman’s arcing throws of seed or bread that they were following. Still, one wonders, and more than wonders…
Once I caught a photo of a group of birds sitting upon a series of Astoria power lines, in a pattern which reminded me of musical notation. I sent it to a musician friend of mine for analysis. He refused to discuss the matter after viewing the image, instructing that I should never mention it again and advising that I destroy the image.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the 24th of August, a day trip to visit a friend in the pretty town of Hudson, New York was undertaken. It was a long drive and my photographic curiosities were stifled due to social obligation.
There used to be a whaling fleet who’s home base was here in Hudson. The financial benefits of this industrial activity explains how they could afford the expenses of building out the grandiose architecture from the 1840’s – 1880’s era which is still extant in the town, as said fleet often did business with Ambrose Kingsland in Greenpoint. The Newtown Creek tributary “Whale Creek” is so named because of Kingsland’s whale oil refinery, and the corollary industries of rope manufacture, blacksmithing, shipwrighting, and miscellaneous ship supply hugged the shores of Whale Creek in Greenpoint.
Staten Island artist John Noble actually painted Whale Creek during this era – here’s a link to the Noble Museum at Snug Harbor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hudson is a very attractive town, and I wish that I had more time to explore. I also really wanted to get a shot of the old docks where the Newtown Creek bound whaling ships would launch from, but as mentioned above – this was a social visit and not a photo mission.
The shot above is from a park along the Hudson River that obviously used to be part of a barge to rail setup.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Saturday the 27th of August, and this shot was from something like 8 in the morning, captured while sitting in the passenger seat of a late model Mercedes on the George Washington Bridge.
The Mercedes belongs to my pal Max, and we were on the road heading west for a week long “away game.” I left the pinstripes at home, put on my gray uniform, and configured the camera to a very odd group of settings.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ISO was set into the range I normally use for night time low light conditions, the aperture was set to either f8 or f11 depending on time of day and ambient light, and the shutter to 1/8000th of a second.
When you’re traveling in a late model Mercedes at about 70 miles per hour, westwards through Pennsylvania, you need to take steps to freeze the action for the camera.
More next week.
“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.
nightmare spawning
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hudson Yards is an abomination. The Related Companies have been allowed to steal the sky, blotting the firmament out and privatizing it for those who can afford to pay their price.
This is unfortunately the future, and one of the models that NYC will be using for future development. As you’re reading this, the “powers that be” are at work on the area just east of this development. The Penn Hotel is being torn down, as Midtown Manhattan is underdeveloped, and the Political Estate’s sponsors are slavering for more.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When you flush a toilet here, your bodily waste flows through underground pipes to a NYC DEP facility on 13th street and Avenue D, right in the middle of the projects. It’s then pumped under the East River to Greenpoint, where it’s processed along Newtown Creek. If there’s a summer blackout in Brooklyn or the Bronx, you can bet your bottom dollar that the lights will stay on at Hudson Yards.
If you spend any time interacting with the vampiric aspirations of big Real Estate, and speak against one of their projects, you will be called a “NIMBY” by one of their sock puppet “non profit” organizations that describe themselves as being “YIMBY’s.” NIMBY is an acronym for “Not in my back yard,” and YIMBY is “Yes in my back yard.” These YIMBY’s will accuse you of denying people – who haven’t been born yet – homes because of racism. Never will the hundreds of thousands of apartment units currently warehoused, and purposefully kept off the market, by their masters in the Real Estate industry with the intention of keeping their market prices on an always upward trajectory be mentioned.
Jared Kushner. Donald Trump. The Durst Organization. Larry Silverstein. The Tishmans and the Speyers. These are the sort of creatures who control the discourse over housing and development in NYC. The aspirant politicians are sponsored by these forces, and expected to do their bidding when appointed elected to office. Oddly, the most “Socialist” of the electeds also happen to be YIMBY’s. So are the hardline Republicans, the middle of the road Democrats – everybody in office seems to be bought off to one degree of another by Real Estate.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hudson Yards is an abomination. Ever wonder what it must be like to live in a building where you can’t open the window for some fresh air?
On the plus side, you don’t have to worry too much about getting rained on in the Hudson Yards area. There ain’t that much visible sky there to allow a cloud to piss down on you.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The only reason you can see the Empire State Building in the shot above is due to a NYC Dept. Of City Planning rule about “preserving sight lines.” The fellow who oversaw this project for City Planning was Vishaan Chakrabarti, who was the same guy that the NYC EDC hired to oversee the Sunnyside Yards proposal. Now… do you understand why I fought so hard and long against that one?
This is what was going to happen to Sunnyside and LIC if that project moved forward. If the Mayor overrules the Council member and Borough President on the Innovation Queens proposal, this is what Astoria is going to turn into in about 10 years. NIMBY my ass.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given the huge input of $1.2 billion in public money, you’d imagine that the rents here were somewhat reasonable, huh? Well, if you’ve got $7,100 a month for a furnished one bedroom – you’re set. That’s $85,200 a year, which would have to come out of your post taxation paycheck. If you want to buy instead, their available condos start at $5.5 million and range up to a 4 bedroom, 5,000 sq ft. one on sale for $29.5 million.
Does this sound like an industrial sector which requires tax breaks that divert moneys away from the public sector?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hudson Yards is an abomination.
“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 