Posts Tagged ‘New York City’
dangerous blossoms
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mayan Apocalypse Countdown: just 3 days left until the 13th b’ak’tun ends, initiating the Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st. Tick, tock.
Our Lady of the Pentacle demanded that we enjoy this last weekend before the prolapse of reality on the 21st occurs.
Hence- we set off to a pair of holiday parties set at equidistant intervals from the subway and found ourselves negotiating an unfamiliar path on Queens Blvd. Saturday Night., which carried us past the Borough Hall of Queens in some garden called Kew.
Fever pitch, our anxiety over the fate of time and space was nevertheless abated as merrily we skipped along. Our bacchanal of perambulation, however, ended suddenly when we realized that there were shadowy forms crawling upon Civic Virtue.
from oldkewgardens.com
This landmark was designed by Frederick MacMonnies and sculpted by the Piccirilli Brothers (Ferrucio, Attilio, Furio, Horatio, Masanielo and Getulio) of the Bronx. (Attilio and Furio also sculpted Daniel Chester French’s statute of Lincoln in the Lincoln Memorial and the Lions in front of the New York Public Library.) Civic Virtue stood in front of City Hall [see the 1923 picture] until Mayor La Guardia decided he was sick of being mooned by it everytime he left the office. In 1941, La Guardia finally thought of a way to get rid of the thing. He made a gift of the statue to Queens County in honor of the opening of its new Borough Hall. Civic Virtue was moved to the park next to Borough Hall where it has remained since.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was on Saturday afternoon around 4:30, an odd time for non emergency service municipal employees or contractors to be at work. A large and adroit flashgun was attached to my trusty camera, and the tableau was revealed.
Immediately, one realized that the leaders of our fair borough- realizing that the forthcoming and foretold Mayan Apocalypse would wreak havoc upon the artistic heritage of future Queensicans, had begun certain preventative measures to preserve and protect the already deteriorated statue.
from queensnyc.com
A spokesperson from Borough President Helen Marshall’s office said, “Borough President Marshall is pleased that the statue will be restored and will work to see that the base of the statue, which will remain here, will be transformed into a public sitting area with benches and landscaping. She would also like the public area to pay tribute to outstanding women who have made a significant contribution to our borough and city.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
If there is one thing for which the masters of the Queens Borough Hall are known for, it is the protection of and frank veneration of the iconic symbols of Queen’s past – such as St. Saviours in Maspeth, and the Queens Plaza Millstones.
Also, it was obvious that by conducting this operation quietly, under a twilight sky and unpublished schedule, they were attempting to avoid any build up of anxiety or panic within the local population or the broader constituency of the City of New York.
Such diligent service- ensuring that the surprise of this long standing work just disappearing from a perch it has stood upon since the 1930’s would cause no great tumult during the busy work week, during which a torch bearing mob of depressives, self immolators, and arts enthusiasts would surely chain themselves to the statue in order to guarantee its permanence- is the hallmark of true civic virtue.
from nytimes.com
Despite the criticism, “Civic Virtue” remained in place, in part because politicians were leery of demolishing something on which $60,000 had been spent. It was left to George U. Harvey, borough president of Queens in 1941, to put Manhattan out of its misery. Discerning a kindred spirit, he welcomed “Civic Virtue” to Borough Hall that year, two months before Pearl Harbor.
“I have been kicked around for years, just as that statue has,” Mr. Harvey said. “I felt that he and I had so much in common that if he were over here, near my office, I could come out here sometimes and we could tell each other our troubles.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dross interpretations, influenced by politics and ideological pedagogy, described the statue as denigrating toward women. This is due to its representation of crime and vice in the fanciful form of serpentine hybrids. The 1922 Frederick MacMonnies statue originally stood in Manhattan’s City Hall Park, where it was loathed by more than one Mayor.
from politicker.com
Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz‘s push for a professional soccer team in his borough–possibly at the expense of Queens–did not go over well with a certain Astoria councilman:
“Queens Councilman Peter Vallone Jr., called it a declaration of war.
‘Brooklyn is already in the process of stealing our . . . Civic Virtue statue and moving it to Green-Wood Cemetery, so what’s next, the Mets?’ he fired back. ‘I better go and lock up the Unisphere.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It came to Queens in 1941, just as all of Manhattan’s problems do. A rumor has been planted that the Borough Hall wishes to construct a “monument to women” here in its place, but that can’t be true- it must be a ruse designed to disguise the fact (and avert panic over) that the sculpture is simply being protected from the fiery event horizon of the looming and inevitably indescribable horrors of the Mayan Apocalypse.
from queensbp.org
Out of all of Queens today, only one farm survives — and that as an historical restoration. Henceforth, all further development will necessarily involve infilling and upbuilding, deterioration and replacement, rejuvenation and adaptation, and similar processes. Queens today is a physically mature urban territory but also one of intense social dynamism.
amiable normality
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mayan Apocalypse Countdown: We are in the home stretch on Planet Earth. and just 4 days remain until the 13th b’ak’tun ends, initiating the Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st. Tick, tock.
In the face of predestination, prophetic warnings, and probable destruction- prosecution of all possible prophylaxis is both prudent and proper. Indisputable inklings of illuminated ideations, irresistible and insidious, inspired me to inquire whether the Free and Accepted Masons could intervene or otherwise interfere with the oncoming interval of destruction.
from wikipedia
Saturnalia was supposed to have been held on December 17 (ante diem xvi Kal. Ian.) from the time of the oldest Roman religious calendar, which the Romans believed to have been established by the legendary founder Romulus and his successor Numa Pompilius. It was a dies festus, a legal holiday when no public business could be conducted. The day marked the dedication of the Temple to Saturn in the Roman Forum in 497 BC.
By the late Republic, the celebration of Saturnalia had expanded to seven days, but during the Imperial period contracted variously to three to five days. Under Augustus, there was a three-day official holiday.[48] Caligula extended it to five.
December 17 was the first day of the astrological sign Capricorn, the house of Saturn, the planet named for the god. Its proximity to the winter solstice (December 25 on the Julian calendar) was endowed with various meanings by both ancient and modern scholars: for instance, the widespread use of wax candles (cerei, singular cereus) may refer to “the returning power of the sun’s light after the solstice”.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
December the seventeenth is another of those historical dates upon which the anniversary of several momentous events occur. In 546 AD- Rome was sacked by the Ostrogoths, and in 1398 Delhi fell to the armies of Timur.
In 1903- the Wright Brothers learned that men could fly if they were clever enough.
Looming loquaciously over the locus of 23rd street and Sixth Avenue, the Grand Lodge of the Masons and the group which inhabits it have been spoken about in four lengthy postings from way back in 2009.
Check out parts one, two, three, and four.
from wikipedia
The Aztec calendar stone, Mexica sun stone, Stone of the Sun (Spanish: Piedra del Sol), or Stone of the Five Eras, is a large monolithic sculpture that was excavated in the Zócalo, Mexico City’s main square, on December 17, 1790. It was discovered whilst Mexico City Cathedral was being repaired. The stone is around 12 feet (3.7 m) across and weighs about 24 tons.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Filled with a series of questions which only those who know the truth of history might answer, your humble narrator journeyed to Manhattan and joined one of the free tours regularly offered by the group. The tour follows a twisting path, entering rooms with a right turn and exiting with a left, moving in weird diagonals throughout their building.
The guide recognized my need for guidance, and soon I was brought before the God of America. Brazen, the gaze of the eidolon bore into ones soul, an accusatory and knowing permanence of vision radiating from beneath carven brows. The greatest of the Masons would have been resolute and unflinching in the eye of any storm, let alone some silly Mayan Apocalypse.
from wikipedia
The prophet is commemorated in the Coptic Church on the 23rd day of the Coptic month of Baramhat.
On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, the feast days celebrating St. Daniel the Prophet together with the Three Young Men, falls on December 17 (during the Nativity Fast), on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers (the Sunday which falls between 11 and 17 December), and on the Sunday before Nativity. Daniel’s prophesy regarding the stone which smashed the idol (Daniel 2:34-35) is often used in Orthodox hymns as a metaphor for the Incarnation: the “stone cut out” being symbolic of the Logos (Christ), and the fact that it was cut “without hands” being symbolic of the virgin birth. Thus the hymns will refer to the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) as the “uncut mountain”
Daniel is commemorated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod together with the Three Young Men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), on December 17.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Tribulations such as the forthcoming apocalypse and the embrace of such dubious reasoning would have embarrassed him. Rational men, Washington and his fellow conspirators against the Hanoverian throne knew the illuminable truth of things, that the world will continue on and on. His graven image assures and assuages.
from wikipedia
Today, Washington’s face and image are often used as national symbols of the United States. He appears on contemporary currency, including the one-dollar bill and the quarter coin, and on U.S. postage stamps. Along with appearing on the first postage stamps issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1847, Washington, together with Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Jefferson, and Lincoln, is depicted in stone at the Mount Rushmore Memorial. The Washington Monument, one of the best known American landmarks, was built in his honor. The George Washington Masonic National Memorial in Alexandria, Virginia, was constructed between 1922 and 1932 with voluntary contributions from all 52 local governing bodies of the Freemasons in the United States.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Still, trepidation and timorous doubt haunt. The cogs and wheels of the universe are immutably in motion, spinning in uncertain ways. Quantum theory teaches that all things are possible at all times, and that the condition of observed reality depends upon the quality and perceptions of the observer.
The Mayan calendar has been right before in its predictions of cultural doom, for was it not prophecied that at a certain time on a certain day in a certain year that a bearded man would arrive at Veracruz and signal the destruction of their own civilization? And did Cortez not arrive at the appointed moment? It occurs to your humble narrator that we should not fear the arrival of Nibiru, but rather the imminence of Quetzalcoatl.
from nasa.gov
Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?
A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.
mountain freedom
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mayan Apocalypse Countdown: just 5 days left until the 13th b’ak’tun ends, initiating the Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st. Tick, tock.
Luckily, since the world’s end is upon us, America is possessed of an enormous military capability. Even our littoral fleet is larger than most national navies, armed heavily, and staffed by expert marksmen. It is comforting to know that if the Mayan Apocalypse proceeds on schedule- we go down fighting.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Here at Newtown Pentacle HQ, preparations are under way. Our Lady of the Pentacle is sharpening knives, the dog has grown used to the bladed Kevlar body armor, and your humble narrator has crafted a quite fashionable series of tin foil hats. Of course, a recent announcement made the case that such chapeaus actually increase the efficacy of broadcast spectrum mind control radiation rather than providing prophylactic effect. Regardless, they are quite comfortable.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Down in the vast sub astorian bunkers excavated by Our Lady (during the really hot months of the summer), she used teaspoons for this endeavor by the way, we have a pretty nice set of digs. It was simple to dispose of the tailings from her mining using the “Great Escape” method. We opted out of the “Zion esthetic” from the Matrix movies and went for a “Hobbiton” Lord of the Rings sort of thing. Lots of faux wood and sconce lighting, with stacks and stacks of canned beans and dog food. The bunker is quite sound, and on the hatch is a sign that says “Gas, grass, or ass- no one survives for free”.
Obviously, this penultimate Maritime Sunday post is dedicated to Americas fighting men and women, and all our ships at sea.
clammy mass
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mayan Apocalypse Countdown: just 6 days left until the 13th b’ak’tun ends, initiating the Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st. Tick, tock.
Recent announcements by the reknowned archaeological scientists of North Korea discussed their discovery of the lair of a legendary unicorn high in the mountains. They needn’t have looked in such out of the way places, and instead visited Steinway Street here in Astoria. Unicorns abound.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Bing was not here” adjoins the wry graffiti, a response to an advertising campaign promoting a search engine. Such frivolity matters little to me, as preparation for the Mayan Doomsday is all consuming. The bunker, hidden deep below Astoria, has been activated. Your humble narrator is busy filling the vast pools of water and herding livestock into my subterranean grotto. Also, the still suits (modeled after the freemen models from dune) should be arriving from Amazon on Monday. The sleeper has awoken.
swaying shutter
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mayan Apocalypse Countdown: just 7 days left until the 13th b’ak’tun ends, initiating the Mayan Apocalypse on December 21st. Tick, tock.
Additionally, for the sake of “georgetheatheist”, it is now just 17 days to the Honeymooners Marathon.
It is said by adherents to the Christian faith, when discussing their own conception of the end times, that men will witness abominations in the days leading up to the apocalypse. Specific eschatology discusses weirding mixtures of men and beasts, who shall roam amongst us. Muslims too believe that when the last days come, the iron walls of Dhul-Qarnayn will shatter and allow an army of bestial chaos egress to the world of men.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just the other day in Manhattan, center of the great human hive, this unholy thing was witnessed moving amongst the crowds. It is realized that we live in a multi cultural society which champions diversity, however, your humble narrator refuses to acknowledge the rights of some escapee from the island of Dr. Moreau. Have the lessons of Orwell’s “Animal Farm” not been absorbed and embraced? Bipedal locomotion is exclusively ours (and the Kangaroos as well, don’t forget them).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is a sad state of affairs, that Baphomet the sabbath goat might walk unhindered about the megalopolis, unchallenged and haughty. In the days of Harry Truman or Rudy Giuliani such a thing would never have been allowed. Your humble narrator is preparing the bunker for active duty.
The Newtown Pentacle 