Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
offhand solution
Easter, a great weekend for probable trespassing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Ask any of the Urban Explorer types who have encountered your humble narrator over the years, and they’ll recount my lecture about doing things nice and legal. I still adhere to this philosophy, in general, but when I specifically request access to photograph a site – through proper channels – and my request is ignored… over and over and over… well…
What’s a boy to do? You come to Newtown Creek, and you don’t even invite me over for a coffee? Ok, no more Mr. Nice Guy.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
First off, your Union employees left the gates wide open on Easter weekend. This is kind of disturbing, but not unusual. One Christmas, some dummy left the gates to the Sunnyside Yard open and unguarded. This is the sort of thing that I know, and y’all don’t, because you live in an office and I live in the street. That’s the BQE back there, and I could have had unchallenged access to its foundations. I’m a good guy, but… what if I wasn’t?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Second, the contractor who’s doing the demo work for y’all really needs to train on addressing dust remediation, which is defined as setting up a hose and a lawn sprinkler in this sort of situation. They never do this at Brownfield sites around Newtown Creek, because they think nobody is watching, but one just needs to smell the “Breeze” to know who the demo contractor at work is.
I’ve been watching them for years.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Third, It might be smart to secure spots like this one, wherein the structural integrity of a building has been compromised. Don’t worry, I didn’t enter the site, but there was no reason for me not to other than common sense. There were no safety cones, no signs proscribing proper “PPE,” and certainly no security around. I even yelled out “security” at the top of my lungs. Did y’all capture that on camera?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At your front door, I could have easily slipped inside the job site on a sunny Saturday afternoon – unchallenged. The only thing holding me back from doing so was… well… respect. I never cross a fence line, as I’m like a Vampire, and need to be invited in before I can do my work.
So, the question is this… Are you going to allow me and the readers of this – your Newtown Pentacle – a chance to peer in periodically, or are we just going to play cat and mouse for the next decade? Either way, I’ll get my shots. Up to y’all.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
May 3, 2015 –
DUBPO, Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp
with Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, a free tour offered as part of Janeswalk 2015, click here for tickets.
May 31, 2015 –
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.
nearby where
This one just makes me angry.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
So, the other day I’m walking up Steinway Street towards the Museum of the Moving Image to go shoot some party for my Brownstoner column. It’s not the sort of thing I’d EVER cover for your Newtown Pentacle, of course, but there you go. As I’m walking along, what seemed at first to be some sort of weird statuette in a store window began to move, and that’s when I noticed that this particular shop had a live and quite exotic bird living in its front window.
An extremely ill one, at that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Awww, hell. Cue the Sarah McLachlan music.
This poor thing had pecked and scratched itself bald. Our Lady of the Pentacle, upon examining these rather ugly photographs, offered that the bird likely has untreated mites or some other parasitic infection. It chest was quivering, and the beating of the heart and action of respiration was quite visible.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When I see a bloodied drunk laying face down in the street, I know what to do. Same thing with a fire, or car accident, or even who to complain to about excessive noise emanating from a commercial business. Smell the sewer? Spilt some oil? Yup, I can tell you whom to call and what to tell them. A sick bird?
Is it even my business, this? Who do you call? Sure doesn’t seem to be Police business. Am I meant to storm into the store and demand to speak to their Vet?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Let’s just presume that this particular blog post is merely intended to point out that there seems to be a pretty sick bird, in a shop window on the west side of Steinway Street in Astoria, between 35th and 36th avenues. That bird… well, there might be certain signs that someone versed in handling this sort of situation could observe to find and help it.
I’m truly ignorant on the subject of avian veterinary health, perhaps that shivering miserable looking creature isn’t as bad off as it looked to me, and I’m simply over reacting.
Just saying.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Upcoming Tours –
May 3, 2015 –
DUBPO, Down Under the Pulaski Bridge Onramp
with Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, a free tour offered as part of Janeswalk 2015, click here for tickets.
May 31, 2015 –
Newtown Creek Boat Tour
with Working Harbor Committee and Newtown Creek Alliance Historian Mitch Waxman, click here for tickets.
assented without
Color, in today’s post.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whilst wandering about the ruined flood plains of Ravenswood, here in Queens, one encountered this lot of out of service Taxi Cabs. As it was one of those rare days where the gloom had cleared away and allowed the warming emanations of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself to shine down upon the concrete devastations, some effort was expelled in attempting to capture the scene in all of its chromatic splendor.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There is, soon to be was, a huge Taxi industry footprint in LIC.
This is just north of Queens Plaza, btw, for those of you who aren’t familiar with the area. These cabs all seemed to be missing “something.” Most of them had no roof lights, some were missing the “trade dress” stickers, and none of them were adorned with the valuable medallion indicating that they are licensed and ready for business. The area surrounding this lot is full of body shops, garages, and mechanic shops. There’s also a lot of taxi meter shops in the near vicinity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whilst shooting these, the question “hey, what are you taking pictures of” came floating by from across the street, offered in a heavily accented voice. Again and again, I get asked this question is alarmed and defensive tones. Nobody notices the millions of smartphone cameras which seem to be at work, but the DSLR always gains the notice of someone who is somehow threatened by the idea that a photo is being captured. Funny thing is, if I was really looking to screw someone over by capturing some sort of incriminating shot, I would do it “cop style” with a long lens from a couple of blocks away – not with a wide angle lens while hanging over a fence.
Dichotomy, this.
Big announcements coming on Monday, so enjoy your holiday, Lords and Ladies.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
strange cry
Aprils Fool’s Day is for the birds.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Normally, one would present some sort of elaborate gag to you on April Fool’s, but I’m not in a joking mood at the moment. Accordingly, here’s a few shots of the feathered variety. It has been an intensely busy few weeks for old Mitch, and I think it’s likely that the two remaining posts this week will be single image ones (unless something interesting happens right in front of me, of course).
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unfortunately, the busy time has little to do with actually producing anything worth talking about – accounting tasks for the annual tax filing, negotiating the sometimes hostile waters of setting this year’s walking and boat tour schedule… the whole Sunnyside Yards thing… it’s been a doozy of a March in 2015.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
All of this, coupled with the interminable darkness and gloomy cold of a never ending winter, has really kept me from producing images worth seeing in March. Looks like there’s a day or two of OK weather ahead of us now, so if you spot some mendicant in a filthy black raincoat scuttling along the pavement in Ridgewood or Queens Plaza or something – that’ll probably be me.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
crawled into
A short one today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Recently, one found himself in Manhattan – I had to pick up a job from my printer – and transfixed by a lovely building facade in the 19th century’s version of “Tin Pan Alley” on Broadway in the 20’s.
This was once NYC’s theater district, Gershwin had offices nearby, and although I’m speaking strictly out of my admittedly hazy memory here – I believe this structure on Broadway at 29th street was originally built as a fancy hotel.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
The Newtown Pentacle 