Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
laurels instead
Focus is the topic for today.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator has many triggers which send him off into a spiral, but I’ve been too busy of late to really enjoy a good “freak out.” Little respect is offered to those who “lose it” on a regular basis or at inopportune times. One should not burden others with intangible or existential worries, I was instructed at an early age, nor “act up” in public lest personal inadequacy or weakness be revealed in doing so. Just last night, one of my little triggers convulsed when a mid level government employee used the phrase “Now, more than ever” while telling me about her vague suspicions that photography aids and abets terrorism.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unsurprisingly, one has built up an infinite and quite inaccessible reservoir of disappointment at the actions and intentions of others, as well as accepting my own failed dreams and punctured expectations as mere vainglory. It is difficult at best to remain focused tightly on goals in such an environment, instead it is best to just try and get through the day without entering into battle, despite the many novel and illusory windmills at which to tilt ones lance that are offered. Always do I remind myself- “it’s not good, its not bad, it just is.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sophists and corporatists, those who rule the roost these days with their corruption and vain indifference to the long term, hold these days. “Knowing my place” is not something which your humble narrator thinks he can do anymore. “If you see something, say something” is the mantra often repeated by these current masters of the local vicinity, an attempt to get us the rabble into the habit of snitching on each other and driving the train of bureaucracy forward. I do see something, often, and won’t be curtailed in saying something anymore. Unfortunately for the “powers that be” who often proffer this statement, more often than not what I see when searching for enemies of the state and common good is not some threat emanating from a faraway desert, but is instead the institutional culture of government itself.
Back in session, lords and ladies…
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
heavy grief
Today’s post is all about perspective.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s going to be hot today, so it’s time to think about staying frosty. The historic low temperature for June in New York City was set in 1972 when it was just 46 degrees. It’ll feel like double that at solar maximum today, so I thought that scenes from the snowpocalypses of recent memory might offer some comfort. Stay cool, kids.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Personally speaking, I unfortunately will be out all day in the direct gaze of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself. A busy series of Newtown Creek related intervals will carry me back and forth and forth and back from hallowed Astoria to hoary Greenpoint. One could always feign stomach illnesses, “nobody argues with diarrhea” as I always say, but I actually desire to fulfill my on site obligations- it wouldn’t be cool to back out at the last minute, you might say I was “being cold” and I wouldn’t want to be frozen out of future opportunities.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I am not at liberty to discuss what I’m doing in the morning yet, which will entail getting up just after sunrise, but suffice to say that I’m going to the last place you’d expect me to today. You might even say that you’d expect a cold day in hell would be more likely than what my actual plans are. Suffice to say that I’ll be wearing protective clothing despite the heat, which will include long sleeves, gloves, and a hard hat as well as steel toe boots. Stay frosty, lords and ladies, and to quote a certain popular television show- remember that winter is coming.
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
inexplicably weaker
Today’s posting comes direct to you from Astoria, Queens.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Just a short posting today, a couple of scenes recently recorded here amongst the blessed slopes of raven tressed Astoria. The couple shown in the shot above were observed on Steinway Street, taking an afternoon nap on one of the many new benches recently installed. Scenes reminiscent of the one above are the reason that the Koch administration removed this form of street furniture around the City in the first place, back in the 1980’s, as I recall.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Strongly contrasting with the first shot is this amazing hot rod Corvette parked just a few blocks away nearby Northern Blvd. Upon observation of this well appointed automobile, a humble narrator began to gibber and jump with acrimony over the fact that it is not his. It is high time that I have a midlife crisis, and this car would fit the bill for my last grasping attempts at youthful abandon. I would call it the Mitchmobile, and would be heard loudly and atonally singing “na na na Na Na, Wax-man” whilst touring the Newtown Creek at a thousand miles per hour.
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
Project Firebox 76
An ongoing catalog of New York’s endangered Fireboxes.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Where this Manhattan firebox is stationed was once the heart of a most wicked slum. In fact, its station was the Baxter Street side of an alley known as Bandits Roost. When Riis and the rest of the silk stocking swells got the place razed, and the Old Bailey and the House of Industry had court houses land on top of them, the Gangs of New York lost their old haunts here in the Bloody Sixth Ward. This crimson B’hoy came in with the officially sanctioned gangs- NYPD, the State Bulls, Bailiffs, and all the other badges, who dominate the spot to this day.
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
fascinated and repelled
A short post from a seemingly long pier.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It is actually inconceivable how utterly banal Manhattan has become in the last few years, as “Fun City” has been tamed. Unfortunately for one such as myself- I had a few hours to kill last week, and as my schedule offered little logic in going back to Astoria, decided to use it wandering around the so called center of the universe. Specifics on my little walk around lower Manhattan are few, as I mainly wandered about aghast. Is there any street life left these days which isn’t controlled, licensed, or false?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One of the things which annoys me is the propensity displayed by urban planners to drain all the fun out of a city by polishing away its rough edges and eccentric incongruities in favor of “order.” This “order” tends to eradicate the precise thing that makes a city fun to explore and discover in favor of bland homogeneity. Were modern New York a restaurant- its kitchen would be full of celebrity chefs with few line cooks and no dishwashers, and what food did actually make it to customers- rather than being nutritious and filling, would be artsy fartsy treacle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I wandered about for several hours last week, searching for something (anything) interesting to focus in on, and eventually gave up and just rode the Staten Island Ferry back and forth a few times. Hungry, your humble narrator found that lower Manhattan suffers a dearth of affordable lunch room options these days as well. High volume salad bars, fast food that is deep fat fried, or mass produced junk for tourists seemed to be all that was available or affordable. In the end, I ended up at Fraunces Tavern, where a delicious, healthy, and well prepared lunch was achieved for less than $15.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
Want to see something cool? Summer 2013 Walking Tours-
Kill Van Kull– Saturday, June 22, 2013
Staten Island walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Working Harbor Committee, tickets now on sale.
The Insalubrious Valley– Saturday, June 29, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Newtown Creek Alliance, tickets now on sale.
Modern Corridor- Saturday, July 13, 2013
Newtown Creek walking tour with Mitch Waxman and Atlas Obscura, tickets on sale soon.
The Newtown Pentacle 