Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
Archives #042
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek, as seen from the former Uneeda Biscuit factory in Long Island City, which is currently called LaGuardia Community College’s building C. I shot this one right before the first ever press conference that I was supposed to speak at on behalf of Newtown Creek Alliance, and this was also the first time I met Rep. Carolyn Maloney. She taught me how to smile for the cameras, and offered the trick of mushing your tongue up against the back of your teeth while grinning to cover up any gaps in the dentition.
In 2010, ‘Hunters Point Avenue Bridge Centennial, Dec. 11’ was published, hawking a free event which – as it turns out – was the first Newtown Creek event that had my name on it. This event is where all the tours and boat trips and Creekathons started. It’s also the last time that my pal Bernie Ente attended one of these goofy events before he got sick and passed away.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the things which I consider as being pure serendipity is that during the years I was focused on Newtown Creek, a mad king in Albany decided he wanted to replace the Kosciuszcko Bridge. I’d swing through the work zone about every two weeks and do a photo survey of the project. Eventually, I was invited to join the stakeholders group, which gave me onsite access. In the end I managed to record the scene before, during, and after the construction project played out.
In 2014, ‘worse because’ brought readers to DUKBO – Down Under the Kosciuszcko Bridge Onramp – on the ragged border of Maspeth and LIC.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Want to know why everything costs more these days? Corporate consolidation, that’s why. The concrete sector of the building industry in NYC, for instance, has been purchased away from ‘family’ companies by a national conglomerate – bit by bit. Monopolies charge whatever they want for their product, as there’s no competition.
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.
2015’s ‘flat platform’ explores what the modern version of NYC would be like if we were still using pack animals to move things around instead of using trucks and other vehicles.
“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 #041
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happy Monday, lords and ladies. Progress, recovery from the injury wise, continues here at HQ. Hoping that sometime towards the end of this week or the start of the next… I might just be able to wield the camera again. Cross your fingers, mine are.
I think I’ve mentioned it previously, but since I started receiving physical therapy treatments for the ankle recovery my healing factor has gone into overdrive. This week’s posts are being written on Thanksgiving, I’d mention, so you’re a few days into my future while reading this.
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.
2013’s ‘monstrous guilt’ appeared today, addressing a few of the many accusations leveled at your humble narrator in the early days of this publication by various malcontents and madmen back in Queens, in a post illustrated with photos of walking around in Manhattan. Paranoid, much? Sheesh. Don’t miss a certain subsection of y’all at all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m still under Doctor’s orders to wear the walking boot when I’m out and about, but around HQ I’ve just been instructed to wear just a pair of my normal shoes again. I’ve also been growing capable enough to handle the bare minimums of adulthood again, cooking light meals and such.
Just watch, though… the day I say ‘I’m going out to go get some shots’ is the same day a blizzard appears and buries Pittsburgh in thirty stories of snow.
2014’s ‘faint draft’ saw me attending the christening and launch of the NYC DEP’s newest (at the time) sludge boat on Ward’s Island in the East River.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It grinds that I’ve lost three months out of my life to this experience, but hey – I’m still kicking. I’m constantly reminded, however, that time grows short and the shadows are stretching out long. I’ve got a lot of dead friends, Y’see.
Time is precious, don’t piss any of it away if there’s a choice about it.
2015’s ‘marine things’ is a lament about another friend of mine dropping dead, this time it was Staten Island’s own John Skelson.
“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 #035
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Directly after this photo was taken in 2010, then NYS AG Andrew Cuomo transmogrified into a crab monster and chewed the heads off of eleven journalists, a television sound person, and three videographers. Luckily, your humble narrator was using a telephoto lens, and was thereby far enough away to avoid this carnage. A limo arrived, and every step Cuomo took toward it saw him reeling in the extra limbs and eye stalks, and a seemingly human creature in a tattered suit entered the vehicle, which drove away. Building superintendents appeared, who hosed down the charnel gutter. The viscera flowed into and out of the open sewers, and the Newtown Creek ran red with the third estate that day.
You don’t mess with Andy Cuomo.
In 2010, all the fancy people came to Brooklyn and gathered along the Newtown Creek to commemorate the end of legal hostilities between Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and the transnational energy giant regarding the Greenpoint Oil Spill.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Jesus! There’s something about mass production meeting the sacred, and it leads to an all too obvious and somewhat French influenced commentary about… it’s wank though. Nothing matters anymore. Still, commodifying the belief system of others for personal profit is a pretty delicate thing.
Whereas, at the time of this archive post’s publication – there was not – but now – there is – a fully articulated and posable Jesus action figure out there. Someone’s going to hell over this one, right? I mean… $55 for a doll?
In 2013’s ‘not inefficient,’ your humble narrator became transfixed by a series of plastic religious statues on sale in one of Astoria’s multitudinous 99 cent stores.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That bright orange business on the right hand side of the shot above is the Queensboro Bridge, with Manhattan at top of the shot and Queens Plaza in the fore. I got this one when a friend allowed me access to the roof deck of the condo building he was occupying for a spell.
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.
In 2018, ‘momentous talk’ showed off a few photos from high over Long Island City, at night! Why don’t any of the new people have curtains?
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 #033
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One cannot describe how much I wish to puncture my sick room boredom and get out with the camera again. The foot is recovering, although it’s my ankle that got broken. The ghastly consequence of the ankle injury caused a significant amount of damage to the foot’s skinvelope, which felt like a burn for much of the last fifteen hundred and thirteen hours. The constancy of pain has fallen off as the injury and post surgical situation has healed, and my old mutant healing powers have resurfaced. When I was young, I healed like Wolverine. Not so much anymore.
I may get my balls busted mercilessly for it in the comments section occasionally, but it’s been a practice of mine to try and be radically honest about the various health issues I’ve experienced over the years while writing this periodical. 2012’s ‘lurk unseen’ was published while I was experiencing a short term back problem, for instance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the prime reasons why I got so involved with the Governmental and regulatory nitty gritty around Newtown Creek was to create access for the camera. I managed to get into places that nobody else – including the TV networks – could get close to. Over the years, I had to endure literal days of OSHA classes and training into get to some of these places, but you gotta do what you gotta do if you want the shot. Saying that, once you’re ‘CERT’d’ by one industrial entity, that’s good enough to satisfy insurance requirements for others. These shots were taken by a humble narrator wearing a vest, hard hat, and very uncomfortable steel toe boots. Nobody gets hurt, that’s the rule. Except for the boots, they hurt.
2015’s ‘brought up’ details a visit to the still under construction Kosciuszko Bridge project and shows various stages of the work. I’d mention that both ‘then’ Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, and former Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, were also on this walk but not ‘officially’ so ‘no photos of them’ was requested as it would have become a ‘thing’ with the Governor’s office otherwise.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s actually kind of amazing, all the stuff I’ve gotten to do, and especially so between about 2009 and 2020. Covid closed a bunch of doors, ones which never reopened. Separately from this sudden need to exploit the Pentacle archives, your humble narrator has been sorting through literally hundreds thousands of photos in pursuance of finally building a portfolio site based around these ‘prime’ years of mine. One thing that’s popped up during this process is that I’ve got a lot of dead friends, many of whom I used to do all this crazy stuff with.
Used to be, when Captain John Doswell called you up and asked if you’d be interested in riding on a boat to Albany, in January, with Bernie Ente onboard and Bill Chambers acting as skipper…
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.
I capture a huge number of photos – under normal circumstances – while accomplishing my daily round, many of which are ‘odd balls’ that don’t necessarily fit the narrative of a post. Every now and again, I’ll pull a few of these shots together and run them together as an ‘odds and ends’ post – as in 2020’s ‘stagger back.’
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 #032
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This week’s archives were somewhat difficult to gather together, as this is the part of the year where I’d normally be taking a break and offering single image shots. Under what were my normal conditions, Newtown Creek tour season would have just wrapped up and I’d be taking a minute to collect myself after a spring and summer’s worth of talking. I’m a chatterbox, admittedly, but after guiding dozens of groups composed of hundreds if not thousands around the creek, a break was always required.
These archive posts are reaching into Newtown Pentacle’s backups, and are randomly 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.
2015’s ‘distant whine’ discussed and bitched about the inequalities betwixt the two sides of the Queensboro Bridge, as far as how the municipal pie gets divided up in City Hall. Everything is Manhattancentric.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Some years, this calendar date fell on a weekend, or one of those single shots was occupying the slot. In a couple of cases, the post that published on this date kind of sucked, or was ‘filler’ as in when I’ve got nothing to say about what’s in the photos so I riff on an unrelated topic.
In 2018, it seems I was seeking nocturnal altitude, as described in ‘disclosures which.’ A few friends ended up opening their doors to me, with one pair of friends in particular allowing me hours of time up on the roof deck of the condo building that used to be the LIRR powerhouse.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described yesterday, the physical therapy component of the broken ankle story is yielding a great result. My foot looks like somewhat like its mate on the other leg again, instead of a swollen out and magenta colored version of one of those 1970’s ‘hang 10’ stickers.
In 2019, I had a smashed big toe but I also had a gig doing a slide show/lecture at the library on Roosevelt Island, about Newtown Creek, so I had to suck it up – pain wise – and do my thing. Mission!
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 