Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
What squirrels see
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator had regained ground level again, after having descended about a thousand feet along the cantilevered roadways of Mount Washington, here in Pittsburgh. One suddenly felt the need for some liquid refreshment, and headed over to the usual watering hole in this area for a pint of icy cold beer.
As is the case with this locale, found alongside the Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks of the CSX Railroad, it didn’t take long before the ‘show’ arrived. Choo-Choo.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One ended up drinking two pints, in the end, after a lovely and quite warm afternoon which saw me walking a pretty decent distance. As mentioned last week, I’ve resumed an old habit of consuming audiobooks and podcasts while scuttling about. This time around, I was relistening to an old favorite – 1906’s ‘The Jungle’ by Upton Sinclair. That story is set in Chicago, of course.
There’s a great version of The Jungle – which is free – available at Lit2Go – and this was the actual iteration of the novel which I was listening to. Highly recommended, but remember that Sinclair was a ‘muckraker’ and that the litany of horrors experienced by the characters in the book are a compilation of dozens of people’s troubles. Sinclair was also an activist, and his book is a part of the political story which led to the creation of the Federal Food and Drug Administration which regulates the meat industry in modernity.
It should be mentioned that the unregulated capitalism and political corruption of this era was not unique to Chicago, and that any ‘company town’ which exploited the naïveté of new immigrants thusly produced similar horror stories. Sugar in New York, Steel in Pittsburgh, Meat in Chicago – it’s all really the same tale. Stick that one in your ‘captains of industry’ bootlicker phrase book.
Incidentally, that’s the T Light Rail navigating itself onto the Panhandle Bridge, above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, a couple of trains passed through while I was enjoying my pints, and one made it a point of recording their passage. A few people here in Pittsburgh have questioned why I’m so interested in this sort of pedantry, to which I answer that back in NYC a native ‘lifer’ would hardly notice the Empire State Building or an elevated subway line in their daily round. I experience a need to notice the fantastic, the extraordinary, the incredible – and so would you if you were carrying a camera about with you everywhere you go.
Pittsburgh is full of wonders, but to the folks who have spent their lives amongst them, it’s all just part of the day to day landscape.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One paid his bill, after getting one last shot of the west bound CSX freight train pictured above, and set off on his way back home. I’ve been trying to time things out lately so that I can hit the interesting times of day – light wise – while moving around.
My heavy back pack was once again resting on my shoulders, and then a scuttling off did I go. My plan for the day was to use the light rail to get home, but there were still a few more shots to gather along the way.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One headed up onto the so called ‘Highline,’ an elevated truss which overlooks the area where I had just been dwelling. I didn’t bother with tripod or fancy gimmick on this one, rather I was just waving the camera about and leaning in on a fence.
Sometimes, it’s just elbows that you need.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few people have inquired as to what this watering hole I’ve been shooting from looks like, so there it is – the Sly Fox Brewery, and the outdoor seating it hosts. This joint connects to the ‘Color Park’ and is set in along the ‘Great Allegheny Passage’ trail on the south side of the Monongahela River.
The T Light Rail’s Station Square stop is about a half mile’s walk from this spot, so on the days when I leave the Mobile Oppression Platform at home, this is a great spot for me to take a bathroom break and refuel with beer and or food.
Back tomorrow with more, at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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What crows see
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, a humble narrator was scuttling downhill along the face of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington and recording a series of views from on high. After capturing a series of train photos, one continued along his way. There was a sports ball tournament playing out on an athletic field down below, and I couldn’t help but pop out a few more shots of all that.
I don’t know if the fire brigade had been dispatched or were on duty in case of an injury, but there they were.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The sports ball teams were busily pushing each other about. My understanding is that this particular field hosts high school teams from the greater Pittsburgh Metro region, but that’s second hand knowledge which has somehow infiltrated my mind.
Another bit of software – like religiosity – which never got installed in my mind is the ability to care about, or have any interest whatsoever, in sports. I’ve never been the ‘athletic’ type, and most of the people I know, or whom I’m related to that are… well, they’re generally not my favorite companions.
Want to talk about Star Trek? Superman, maybe? That’s me, as I’m a total and complete nerd. I can also talk, quite intelligently, about sewage.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along my path, a nice shot of that Ukrainian church I’m fascinated by appeared. My next destination was a bit of a scuttle away from this spot, and along the way there were a triad of fellows watching the game. One of them was caught on the horns of a dilemma, while trying to figure out if he wanted to mug me and take the camera for himself.
He was younger than I, quite well muscled, and he also had the two friends, so I definitely would have lost this battle. Saying that, my Brooklyn honed street senses had already worked out a plan of attack (the English move) and defense which would have resulted in him having a fantastically expensive and painful experience at the Dentist’s office, afterwards. A well used camera ain’t worth all that much, so there’s that too.
Of course, being a New Yorker I spotted him and gauged his intentions from a good fifty feet away, and thereby did my usual evasion thing to sidestep trouble. Thing about Pittsburgh is that people walk around like they’re safe or something… but like sports and religion, that’s also something I ain’t got.
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“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.
Very trusting
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I actually couldn’t believe what I was looking at, and knew that none of my friends from NYC would accept the story, so I took a picture of it. Some guy on my block left his car running, and driver’s side door hanging open, and then went inside his house for some reason. I stood there watching the car idle for a good five minutes, tamping down my innate desire to steal it, just to teach him a lesson. Brooklyn.
People in one of the Facebook groups for my Town/Borough here in Pittsburgh (Dormont) have been complaining of late about people breaking into their cars in the dead of night. The ‘break in’ they describe incorporates no broken windows or jimmied locks, instead their car doors are simply left unlocked. It’s inconvenient to lock them, they say…
The fuck? The stupidest thing in the world is an unlocked door. They apparently do this with their houses too. As in go to sleep at night with the doors open. Brooklyn? Wowza.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Compared to the real life ‘Batman movie’ which I grew up and spent most of my adult life in back in NYC, Pittsburgh is comparatively ‘safe.’ The City of Pittsburgh is more or less entirely contained within Allegheny County, but the county also encompasses several other satellite communities as well. As of 2022, there were about 1.2 million residents who live in about 546,000 households here in Allegheny County. Also in 2022, there were 129 Homicides, as so reported by the cops. The vast majority of those homicides were ‘kid stuff,’ with gangland and drug trade motivations. That’s a murder rate of 0.01075%, statistically speaking.
“People walk around like they’re safe or something.” That’s something we used to say a lot back in the 1980’s. NYC has a 2022 population of about 8.5 million, and there were 433 murders during that interval, which creates a rate of 0.00509411765%. Thereby, believe it or not, Pittsburgh has a higher murder rate than New York. Saying that, the unlocked door thing contributes to a staggeringly high level of burglary and home invasion which no New Yorker would tolerate. Saying all that, statistics don’t really tell the whole story, and I wonder what those numbers would say if we were to superimpose Pittsburgh’s footprint over part of the NY/NJ metro area (say, I dunno, Western Queens), an area whose population represented just 1.2 million citizens, and then do a 1 for 1 comparison.
As I’ll often point out – Y’know who has most of the world’s lightbulbs, or toilet seat covers, or pencils… China, followed by India. Know why? Lots and lots of Chinese and Indian people who live in cities. Want to light up a Republican’s cloister? Tell them that China has more or something than America does.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As I’ve mentioned a few times, I find the criminals and street people of Pittsburgh absolutely adorable. They’re so obvious. Saying that, there’s rough customers here whom you definitively don’t want to deal with, and this part of the country is extremely well armed. I recently saw a news report about the Cops holding a fair to make it easier to get a concealed carry permit for the pistoleer crowd. The Cops!
Me? I carry a camera, not a gun, at least not yet. I lock my car doors, and the last thing I’ll do before going to bed is to methodically visit all the doors and windows in the house to ensure that they are securely locked up. I don’t leave my car door open with the engine running, and whereas I hate the phrase ‘keep your head on a swivel,’ that’s the way I learned to live my life back in NYC.
Back tomorrow with something else, at this – your Paranoid 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.
CSX parade
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
CSX #62 was the first locomotive to pass by the Sly Fox Brewery, here in Pittsburgh, as a humble narrator ‘rehydrated’ himself with several pints of beer after a long walk on a hot day. As a note, regarding anything I’m passing along about these trains in todays post – make/model etc. – is based on a ‘scratch the surface’ level of google search. I freely admit that this subject is one that I’m absolutely not an expert on. I like taking pictures of, and having a general knowledge of, locomotive stuff but that’s it. If something is incorrect here, please share the skinny in the comment section.
Supposedly, this is a ‘GE AC44CW’ model 4,400 HP locomotive, built in 1995. It was hauling a staggeringly heterogeneous load – tankers, cargo boxes, etc. That was the first one.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up was CSX #5426, a ‘GE ES44DC’ which was loosed upon the nation’s rail system in 2007. It was also hauling a mixed up collection of various forms of cargo boxes. Both of these trains were heading towards the Ohio River side of the city.
Right about this point, I headed into the brewery and ordered a second beer and a cheeseburger. I had earned that burger, dammit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the opposite direction, heading away from the Ohio River in the direction of McKeesport, CSX #7247 hurtled past the lens. I’m led to believe that this model is a ‘rebuilt GE CM44AC’ but I have no real idea what that means.
It was also hauling a conglomeration of random cargo cars.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Next up, and heading for the Ohio, was CSX #5209. This train is the same model GE ES44DC as CSX #62 in the first shot, and I’m told it has been hurtling around North America since 2005.
Burger quaffed, second drink guzzled, I headed back inside the brewery to purchase more fortification, as well as a tall glass of ice water. It’s critical to mix some water in when you’re drinking beer. It’s nice to catch a buzz, I always say, but being drunk is a miserable experience. At least it is for me.
A fumbling idiot with no dexterity, absolutely zero emotional or behavioral barriers, fairly useless.
That description is applicable to me when I’m still sober, by the way. Drunk me… that can be chilling.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Heading the other direction, away from the Ohio, CSX #5101 showed up next. It’s a GE AC44CW, same model as #62, and I have no idea when it started juggernauting around America’s rail system. Other than that it was built sometime between 1993 and 2004, when General Electric was still producing this model of locomotive.
I should mention that I had some company, two young guys whom I had struck up a conversation with on my way into town on the T. They were talking trains, and when they said ‘heritage unit,’ I realized they were railfanning, I turned them on to my ultimate destination at the brewery and they met me there. Turns out the two guys I was hanging out with were employed in one way or another as Railroaders. One of them was a sales agent who booked space on a competing company’s trains, and the other worked as a freight train conductor for that same entity.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By the time that CSX #7238 appeared, I had basically spent as much time at the brewery as I had done walking around. The bar was closing up, and we were bid a fond adieu about 9:30 pm.
That’s a ‘GE U30C’ model train, and nearly as old as I am having come out of the factory in 1969. It was doing mineral hauling, with cars that were emblazoned with the logo of ‘coke express.’ That means that they had been working on delivering the stuff to a steel mill further up the Monongahela River, and were heading back to the Ohio side empty.
I took the ‘T’ back home, and Our Lady of the Pentacle was floored when she saw that my normally grim visage had been replaced, as I crossed the threshold by a hideous imposture of a smile upon my face.
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.
Objects in motion…
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s Pittsburgh’s ‘T’ light rail coming off of the Panhandle Bridge, and hurtling towards the Station Square stop on the south side of the Monongahela River. Hurtling is probably overstating it, but there you are. One had used the service to go to that self same stop after a bit of a hullabaloo, ridden the Monongahela Incline to Grandview Avenue atop Mount Washington, and was proceeding on foot down the north face of the landform in a manner diagonal. It was hot in Pittsburgh, with rising humidity, but a pleasant breeze.
A humble narrator was shvitzing heavily due to the ambient dew point and temperature. That’s the suss.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The PJ McArdle roadway, as this ‘truss pontem’ on the north face of Mt. Washington is called, is where one scuttled. This is the “upper” section being explored in these posts, if you want to see the “lower” section – or any of the times that this structure has been discussed – click here.
One had a whole other plan for the rest of the day as it led into evening, of course. Remember that bar I had found, the one with the nearby rail road tracks? Yessir, that’s where I was going.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the same bridge pictured above, which the T is seen riding on in the first shot of today’s post, and is offered for completeness’s sake. “Up, down, all around,” that’s my motto. One navigated his scuttling towards the ‘rails to trails’ pathway.
As mentioned in prior posts, this was a fairly warm day in Pittsburgh. I hadn’t drank anything at all (water, Gatorade, etc.) since leaving HQ about 4-5 hours previously, and one was a bit parched by this point. That’s another big difference between NYC and Pittsburgh – no bodegas to stop into and grab either the Gatorade or bottle of cold water from.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I cannot walk past that rusty earth mover above without taking a shot of it, can’t tell you why. My plan was to spend an actual evening at the brewery, including having dinner there. On my way into Pittsburgh from Dormont, a couple of younger guys on the T were talking and passing a phone back and forth looking at pictures. I overheard one of them said ‘heritage unit,’ and I couldn’t help but but in and ask if they were railfanning.
Somewhat sheepishly they said no, and then ‘kind of.’ I told them where I’d be in the evening and invited them to join in, and eventually they met up with me at the Sly Fox Brewery.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This spot is gentrification, Pittsburgh style. The centerpiece of this spot is a building which used to be the world’s largest terminal warehouse or something like that. A NYC real estate developer bought it and refashioned it as ‘The Highline,’ which is branded with a silhouette of the pre Hudson Yards NYC skyline. Odd choice, that.
It’s quite reminiscent of the Bush Terminal complex in South Brooklyn, but is a little less ‘head up its own ass’ than that NYC EDC clusterfuck in Sunset Park is. The project doesn’t seem to have ‘landed’ well, other than the brewery, and observationally speaking they’ve had trouble attracting commercial tenants. Perhaps, then, it is actually just like the Bush Terminal in Brooklyn.
So, what am I doing, hanging at a gentrifier/yuppie place? Dinner, drinks, and a show. That’s what.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The show got started. I like this spot, in particular, because of the grade crossing, with its obligatory signal bells and barrier arms. You get a few minutes of warning that a train is coming, allowing for the setting up of the camera and positioning of the photographer.
That’s CSX #62 coming into view, my fellow nerds. The first of many, as it turned out.
Tomorrow – an absolute parade of CSX’S Choo-Choo trains on the Pittsburgh Subdivision.
“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 