Posts Tagged ‘newtown creek’
Archives #030
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nothing like shooting a bridge, I always say. They hold stock still, don’t blink or sneeze, and never break the pose to worry if their ‘hair is alright.’ Saying that, it’s all about time of day and lighting when bridge photos are sought. The one above was captured while onboard a Working Harbor Committee tour of Newark Bay.
This 2010 post offered a ‘Happy Birthday’ greeting to the original configuration of the Bayonne Bridge spanning the Kill Van Kull.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The ‘big kahunas’ of New York Harbor are all found within a few miles of each other, with Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges at the center of the garland. I never missed taking a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge every time I happened to be passing it by. On a boat before sunrise, in Brooklyn on foot, or on Manhattan by foot. Its presence in a shot is a ‘place maker,’ just like having the Empire State Building somewhere in a shot, and iconically screams ‘this is New York City.’
In 2016, I spent a bit of time under the Brooklyn Bridge in Lower Manhattan and came across the oldest tavern in NYC, which was destroyed by Sandy and was still closed 4 years later.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Minor bridges are also kind of a thing for me, and my beloved creek had no shortages in that department for the wandering photographer to record.
On November 15th in 2019, I published this post – called ‘correlated causeways’ – as a catch all post to simply describe all the bridges of Newtown Creek in a single post.
Back next week.
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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.
Archives #028
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Your humble narrator will admit to feeling nostalgic about my beloved creek, back at the undefended border of Brooklyn and Queens. I miss a lot of things about New York, it should be mentioned. Notably it’s the style of life which was normative due to my long habitation of NYC, but my longings always omit the omnipresent piles of blood, scabs, and hair. It also shies away from reminiscences of the smears of dog excrement, and those vomit puddles adorning the curbs which also float the litter. I also haven’t seen anyone ‘bleeding out’ in close to two years now. Imagine that?
This November 13th post in 2018 visited Maspeth Creek in the middle of the night. I was focused in tightly on night shooting at this point, and the shot above was captured while taking quite a risk.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in Astoria, our crib had a terraced and covered outdoor space which allowed me to be outside a lot, and observe the milieu from about twenty feet over the sidewalk. There was a catering hall across the street which hosted all sorts of events.
One night, there was some kind of teen dance thing going on there, and most of the kids in attendance were East Asian. My guess is that they were Korean, but that’s a guess. The doors of the catering hall suddenly blew open, and all the kids spilled into the street. They started fighting. They were popping the rear view mirrors off of parked cars to throw at each other, and one of them yanked the two wooden poles supporting a newly planted tree out of the soil. The kid wielded them like Bo sticks, fighting off two other kids. Kung fu style kicks were thrown and a general Donnybrook was under way. That’s until a Toyota Land Cruiser full of their Moms arrived. The fight ended immediately and the kids adopted a particular pose of submission in response to this recently arrived ‘greater authority.’ This was just one of literally dozens of such occurrences which would manifest under my very nose.
These days, I’m psyched if I see a deer in my yard.
In 2019, November 13th came along when I was recovering from a smashed and broken toe, and archives shots were offered from the library. In this case it was a series of experimental macro shots of fruits.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned previously, your humble narrator seems to be on the mend. Physical Therapy started shortly after the cast holding my broken ankle together was removed, and I’m following the program laid out – including the ‘at home’ exercises and stretches which I’ve been assigned. I’m getting my strength back, and have gradually been reassuming my daily round of mundane tasks. Hey – two weeks ago, the victory moment was consistently being able to pee while standing up, so…
Finally, shots from a visit to LIC’s Montauk Cutoff one afternoon were published on 2020’s November 13th, in the post ‘organic metabolism.’
Back 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.
Archives #025
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are pulling posts that went public on this date, in their respective years, going back to 2009. This practice will continue until I’m back on both feet full time, and new photos and stories can be gathered. For anyone who hasn’t heard the news, I broke my left ankle at the end of September.
This post is from 2012, and it’s a part of the post Hurricane Sandy survey I was conducting along Newtown Creek’s Queens side.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the time this post publishes, a humble narrator is once again at a ‘physical therapy’ or ‘PT’ appointment, exercising and stretching the broken ankle under medical supervision. Apparently this is now how I spend a significant amount of my time, three times a week in the office with homework assignments for the entire week. An interesting movement exercise is that three times a day I’m meant to draw the shapes of the alphabet, using my great toe on the affected foot as a pointer. The letter ‘Y’ really hurts, as a note.
This 2019 post was published when I had a different severe injury on my left foot than the one at crux of my current dilemma. It’s always my left foot that gets busted up for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This weekend, I’m planning on finally programming a radio scanner I bought, which will let me listen to locomotive radio communications and preclude the ‘standing around for two hours and nothing’ factor of photographing trains. Used to be, I’d just stand at a rail choke point and they’d come to me.
This posting from 2022 is from the period when I was trying to see everything one last time before moving away. I spent a lot of time and effort photographing Sunnyside Yards, during all of those years that I lived in Astoria.
Back 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.
Archives #021
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The situation continues to improve here at HQ, after the surgeon who restored my broken ankle removed the hard cast and replaced it with a walking boot/brace. I’ve still got a lot of pain occurring from the aftereffects of the surgery, which is more of a dermatological problem rather than an orthopedic one, but there we are. At any rate, another archives post greets you today, with all posts having originally been published on this date in their respective years.
2012’s offering on the 4th of November was ‘Sinister Swamp,’ which continued the post Hurricane Sandy survey of Newtown Creek which I was conducting with Hank the Elevator Guy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been asked, multiple times, over the years about the odd titles I’d assign to these posts. Literally, I had a book of Lovecraft short stories on my desk and I’d just flip it open. Whatever two word phrase my eyes randomly landed on would become the title of that days post. If you know what Lovecraft named his cat, you’ll understand why I had to be a bit more careful in title selection than just randomly grabbing lingo from the old boy. There’s a vast amount of ugly embedded in Lovecraft’s writing.
2015’s ‘abetted by’ discussed a few things observed during a Working Harbor Committee excursion, and laid out what the difference between a ship and a boat is.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m managing to get up and down the very stairs which felled me, drive the car for short intervals, and do basic tasks like making a sandwich. This walking boot is a ‘get out of jail’ card. I’ll be able to vote tomorrow, which I’m very much looking forward to. Nice thing about living in a swing state is that your vote actually matters.
2020’s ‘stolen fearfully’ showed part of a night time pandemic walk which I undertook in Astoria. Man, I miss those deserted streets.
“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.
Archives #017
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Archives, archives… luckily, I’m fairly prolific and Newtown Pentacle has been updated almost daily since 2009. All of these posts were published on this date in their respective years. As you’re receiving this, my broken ankle has theoretically just been X-rayed, and I’m talking to the Doc about what’s going to happen to me next. Road to recovery, all that…
Back in 2010, this post discussed encountering the tomb of ‘The man who could dodge bullets’ at First Calvary Cemetery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This shot of Newtown Creek was gathered with a telephoto lens, from the Empire State Building observation deck – if you’re curious. It’s contextually found in the post linked to just below.
Hurricane Sandy was on its way to NYC in 2012 when this October 29th post was published.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hopefully, the Doc has improved my situation somewhat by the time you’re reading this post.
2018’s October 29th saw this post published, which explores the fact that there are some calendrical dates in the historical record on which profound things just seem to randomly occur throughout the centuries.
Back 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 