Posts Tagged ‘photowalk’
Run and gun through Skunk Hollow
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You may recall that – on Friday last – your humble narrator had involved himself the latest medium length scuttle here in Pittsburgh.
The walk began on the Bloomfield Bridge, and routed into the Bloomfield neighborhood, which posits itself as ‘Little Italy.’ The very day that I was moving through here was the start of an Italian heritage focused street fair called ‘Little Italy Days’ and a terrific amount of activity was underway to prepare for the event. I wanted nothing to do with all that, and my toes were pointed away from the festivities.
As also mentioned last week, this walk had a purpose, namely ‘cardio’ and I was attempting to move a bit faster than normal while kicking the dirt. Unfortunately it was terrifically hot out, which changed my plans.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My route diverted away from the population center, and down into Skunk Hollow.
This is a ravine, found between the prominences of the Polish Hill and Bloomfield sections, which returns visitors to the ‘grid’ of streets at the edge of the Lawrenceville section on its western side. The street is sharply graded, heading downwards.
I wouldn’t have complained if any trains had appeared while moving through here, but no ‘Hey Now!’ for me on this part of the scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As also mentioned above, it was ungodly hot out.
Additionally: The Newtown Pentacle time warp is very much still in effect, as a note. These shots are from the 13th of August, and the words are being inscribed at the end of the same month.
I waved the camera about a bit, but again – this outing was about making my ‘body’ work – rather than my ‘head.‘
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The path through Skunk Hollow is largely an industrial zone, with railroad tracks and neighboring contractor yards. Several times along the route, I had to take up a safe position as heavy trucks rolled past.
I mention ‘safety’ a bunch, and having been invited onto several industrial sites during my Newtown Creek years, one has received several ‘OSHA’ focused training sessions. Some of these sessions were only an hour or two in length, with others playing out over multiple days.
One of the facts embedded in my brain by the safety people is to stop moving, after acquiring a safe spot, and waiting until being acknowledged by the driver when a heavy truck is moving past you.
The whole trick to the ‘tradie’ world is expectations. What does a truck driver ‘expect’ you to do? What do you expect the truck will do? You ain’t gonna win a fight with a loaded dump truck moving at thirty plus miles per hour… so…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Admittedly, I was a little disappointed that I didn’t catch a shot of a train moving through the hollow, but there we are. It was too hot to stand around and wait. My big problem at this point revolved around a multi mile path in front of me that offered zero cover from the radiates of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself. Shvitz!
What to do, what to do?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back on the street grid… and wait a minute… that’s the Herron Avenue Bridge leading down from Polish Hill… which overflies… one of the busways! Salvation!
One of my stated goals has been to get ‘all familiar’ with Pittsburgh’s busway transit system, right? I’ve said that multiple times, right?
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.
Bopping, over Bigelow
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Once more unto the breech, and a ‘stretch and shvitz’ kind of exercise day was on my menu.
A rideshare dropped me at the veritable gateway to the Bloomfield Bridge, here in Pittsburgh, and after a moment of personal organization regarding the camera and bags and straps your humble narrator was soon on the move, and scuttling against the inevitability of entropy once again.
The Newtown Pentacle time warp grows ever more severe. These shots were gathered, and the walk perpetrated, on the 13th of August. If my scheduling all works out, you’re receiving this in early October.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One such as myself straight up loves pedestrian bridges like the one pictured above and below, spanning over Bigelow Boulevard, which de facto is an arterial road despite being classed as a ‘local’ one.
This ped bridge has to date back to the 60’s or 70’s – governments just don’t ‘spend’ on pedestrian infrastructure like this anymore. It’s part of why they like bike lanes so much – as the lanes are just paint and plastic sticks (vertical delimiters), which are cheap to install.
Up I went. The sound I made was analogous to that produced at the extreme right hand side of a piano’s keyboard as it is being ‘plinked.’
Bink, bink, bink…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dynamism, that’s my thing. Every chance I could find to strike a pose on the way up, and then across, was taken. I made the Zoolander face.
It was hot. Really, really hot. High 80’s, with about 70% humidity. It was about 10 or 11 on a Thursday morning when I started this effort, and it was already unbearable out. There was supposed to be a street fair in front of me, but to be honest – that’s just an obstacle – and I had no interest in participating in Bloomfield’s ‘Little Italy Festival.’
The big celebrity draw for that event was the presence of actor Vito Spatafore, who was simply being billed as ‘Vito from the Sopranos.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan was to move as quickly as I could through an obstacle course of Pittsburgh’s various geological barriers. Eventually, and as usual, I’d need to get back to the T light Rail somehow to get back to HQ.
I took a lot of pics, but the main motivation for me on this day was to get my heart rate up and then keep it elevated for a few hours.
One was walking a bit quicker than usual, up around three mph, as my normal/comfortable velocity is slightly slower at 2.3 – 2.6 mph.
Yes, I keep track of all that on my phone… metrics. It was a big deal for me, post broken ankle, when I broke through the 2 mph barrier.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The muscles in my legs have hardened up again.
The thighs are iron, the calves bronze, if I do say so myself.
The ankle still hurts all the time, especially so after a long walk. I’ve got arthritis in the affected joint now too. The skinvelope is still oddly discolored around the joint, and it’s not just on the side where the surgical scar is found. Lots and lots of visible blood vessels have also sprung up around the site of the injury, offering the appearance of a spider web of varicose veins. It’s all quite spectacular, really, but as I’m also closing in on the brink of sixty…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One thinks about his calendrical age a lot these days.
I reminisce about my Dad when he was at my current age, and I have to say that – my perception – is that I’m a far younger man – at the same age – than he was. At least I don’t fall asleep behind the wheel at red lights, like the old man used to.
My relatives and friends all point out that this is all perceptual bullshit and self aggrandizement when I utter something like this, gleefully reminding me of all the things medically and psychologically wrong with me, and then end their admonition with that most Jewish of expressions:
‘Shut up, you wanna give call down a conahurra on yourself?’
Back next week with more – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
Weird giant mushrooms
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This post is a bit of an aside, and describes a situation which popped up in the back yard of HQ, here in Pittsburgh’s Dormont. Weird giant mushrooms, which arise shortly after heavy rain events, and display an incredible amount of growth in quite a short interval.
The thingie pictured above transformed into the flopped over monster seen below, and all within 24 hours.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I put a soda can alongside of the fungal protuberance for scale.
Big, I tell you, it was big.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At night, the thing began to balloon out and open. By the time that this process played out, the crown of the mushroom had flattened out and got to the size of a dinner plate with about a one inch hard vertical edge.
It’s odd.
Incidentally, these mushrooms weren’t glowing red, instead I had set my pocket led flashlight to red earlier, and couldn’t remember how to actuate the combination of clicks required to get it back to displaying white light.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When it fully opens, the mushroom displays its gills and flops over. The spores will fall out of the gills, onto soil or to get picked up on the wind.
A quick google search revealed these mushrooms as likely being ‘Green-Gill Parasols,’ a poisonous specie colloquially known as ‘The Vomiter.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One wasn’t satisfied with that first shot of the flopped over mushroom, and had to rearrange my flashlight’s luminance because that sort of thing matters to me.
What piqued my interest about these things was the fact that my back yard here in Dormont is an herbivore superhighway. Deer, woodchucks, groundhogs, two different kinds of squirrel, a population of rabbits so extensive that we’ve started giving them names. All these critters drive Moe the Dog absolutely crazy.
All of those herbivores, and not one single nibble into those giant, weird mushrooms. The Vomiter, indeed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Thereby- I present the Vomiter to you, lords and ladies, lit up in scarlet.
Somehow it feels like the last seventeen years of my life have all been leading up to offering that last sentence.
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.
All you kids, say ‘Hey Now’
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These locomotive shots were gathered during various summer outings in Pittsburgh, and likely captured sometime around the end of July or early August. Mostly during short walks that I was taking here and there, or while waiting for something else to happen and killing some time.
On CSX’s tracks, along the southern shore of the Monongahela River, I spotted a BNSF train set – which is extraordinary to my experience in Pittsburgh.
Normally, you just see CSX blue and gold rolling through here.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A Norfolk Southern unit, seen from the same South Side Flats area as the BNSF train above, but transiting on an elevated trestle along the face of Mount Washington. The ramps surrounding it are vehicular roadways, specifically the PJ McArdle Roadway at the top and Sycamore Street directly above the train.
The business of life finds me visiting many sections of the city, not just the areas where which I particularly like waving the camera about, such as here on the South Side.
When I’m out for walk, however, I like scenery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Over on the north side, during one of those walks in the Manchester/Chateau neighborhood, this Norfolk Southern unit seemed to just be aching for something to do.
You’ll often see a double engine like this just sitting there idling at rail yards, with this one dubbed as being the Island Avenue Yard.
It was difficult angle to shoot from, over fences and through surveyor holes, so a move was busted and I found a better POV.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There we are.
I wasn’t satisfied yet, and so began scuttling South. Towards Allegheny Commons Park, and that cool rail trench it hosts.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hey Now!
These shots were captured during that brutally hot interval at the end of July. and the beginning of August. Was not fun being out, and especially not so with the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself staring at my back. Always keep the light source behind you, or just to the side…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not going to lie, this T light rail shot was captured in the same session as the BNSF one at the top, but it does illustrate my mass transit journey back to HQ.
Back tomorrow with something different – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
“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.
Quarry Scuttle
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another scuttle.
Back to Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes for this one, and another walk that I’ve been ‘saving up’ for myself. I’ve wanted to, but… Y’know… the broken ankle. Now that your humble narrator is more or less ‘back,’ one decided that it was time – at last – to check out the South Side Quarry park.
This pathway spends a bit of distance in an area designated as parkland, and then spits you back out onto South 21st street in the South Side Flats.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It took a bit of bobbing and weaving to get there, but it wasn’t a difficult walk at all. I had myself dropped off by a rideshare, at a convenient spot, and then off I went.
Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the other/street facing side of these homes, all you’d see is a single story and a set of steps leading downwards. There’s a path here which leads directly into the park itself.
South Side Park was ‘established’ in 1965. Here’s the wikipedia page about it, and I’m led to believe that the pathway/park that I was walking through used to be used for the combination of an incline funicular, and there was also a brick manufacturing outfit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The place was deserted, but to be fair – it was a weekday afternoon.
My plan for the day started here, but there were also other things I wanted to do and see around this ‘zone.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That 1939 vintage metal bridge, pictured above, carries a local street over the ravine and it’s called the Mission Street Bridge.
I ran into, and joked around with, some dude walking his dog right around here. I’m garrulous, so I made him laugh. My work was done. The dog was nice too, but wanted to get on with his sniffing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Surprisingly there’s another set of City Steps here, which fall off of the Mission Street Bridge, and that’s something which I’ll have to inspect on my next walk through this area.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
