Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
higher order
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Happy Monday Newtowniverians, and a healthy one is wished for all the Brooklynites and Queensicans out there.
Today’s post displays a couple of interesting shots I managed to grab before a meeting held at LaGuardia Community College for the Newtown Creek CAG.
This CAG is a sort of advisory/community group which has formed up around the edges of the EPA Superfund project. The CAG is a requirement for EPA, and they periodically convene a meeting to inform us about their activities and overall status of the process.
from epa.gov
A Superfund Community Advisory Group (CAG) is made up of members of the community and is designed to serve as the focal point for the exchange of information among the local community and EPA, the State regulatory agency, and other pertinent Federal agencies involved in cleanup of the Superfund site.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
In this meeting, during which a presentation from the NYC DEP was offered describing a forthcoming dredging project on Newtown Creek, discussion of various issues surrounding the Superfund project between Federal officials and community representatives was offered. Everyone else in the room was a lettered professional or community leader or of high professional caliber, representing every conceivable office, power, and potentate involved in the Newtown Creek story.
Then there’s me, who kept on having his attention drift over to the Sunnyside Yard and the fantastic views of it at rush hour which I wasn’t photographing.
from newtowncreekcag.wordpress.com
Newtown Creek CAG membership is structured on a rolling basis. The Superfund process on Newtown Creek will take many years, and interested stakeholders are encouraged to become CAG members as they learn of and want to fully participate in the process.
The CAG is designed to serve as an ongoing vehicle for information-sharing, discussion, and, where possible, consensus-building regarding decision-making related to the Newtown Creek Superfund Site. Its members represent a diverse cross-section of key stakeholder interests, including affected property owners, concerned residents, local governments, community groups, environmental groups, health experts, the business community, and others as appropriate. Requirements and responsibilities for CAG members are described in the CAG’s Operating Procedures, posted in the Resources tab.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An odd duck, even after all these years, it is so strange to think that someone like me is even allowed in the building let alone invited to participate and offer both questions for correct answering and contribute direct observations of obscure places being discussed. The folks at EPA have shared some of their early findings, which have greatly excited the scientific minded and fired the imaginations of those who imagine a “greener” city. Check out the CAG site for details.
“out of your depth”- meaning: in water that is so deep that it goes over your head when you are standing: I’m not a strong swimmer so I prefer not to go out of my depth.
Project Firebox 66
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“Bro, this thing has been on this corner since nobody knows how long, its furniture- y’know? This is, you know where, in Astoria on 38th and 31st, near the Souvlaki guy- the one with the smoke- in front of that Brazilian restaurant with the good coffee. C’mon Bro”.
Such local Astorian, or patois, would best delineate the position and surroundings of this exemplar of municipal service, the humble firebox, were it to be described by far more than one of my neighbors.
eternal day
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Back in Queens, a humble narrator has been rather busy for the last few days.
Next week, the schedule of spring and summer Newtown Creek tours will be revealed to you at last, as well as some details about the ambitious schedule of boat tours which the Working Harbor Committee is planning. Short perambulations around the neighborhood have been my only distraction from the plotting and planning of this year’s excursions. Unnatural and unseasonable cold, however, has left the streets adorned in a drab winter appearance.
One starves for color.
from queensnyc.com
On Sunday, we joined over 140 people aboard a New York Water Taxi for the Working Harbor Committee’s tour of Newtown Creek. The tour was narrated by Mitch Waxman whose encyclopedic knowledge and passion for the area can be seen on his blog The Newtown Pentacle, and on his tours and work as the historian for the Newtown Creek Alliance.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Resorting to hanging around the produce departments of storefront merchants brings no surcease to this desire for the bright hues of Spring. Normally, one would expect the trees to show some sign of returning vitality and conscientious property owners would have already begun planting early varietal. Free ranging grasses should also be raising bright green shoots by now. Instead, the yellows and browns of winter linger, as does an unnatural chill.
One thirsts for warmth.
from nytimes.com
Not that Mr. Waxman is any sort of an academic. While the Newtown Creek Alliance, an environmental advocacy group, lists him as its resident historian, his credentials were earned on the street and the Internet, through countless solitary walks and countless nights poring over obscure archives.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mainly, I’m just tired of hanging around in the cold wastes waiting for something to happen, and truly look forward to a day spent entirely out of doors and unencumbered by the heavy garments of an overly long winter. The next few months should be pretty interesting, lords and ladies, and without spilling a certain can of beans- pencil me in for May 26th.
One desires company.
from blsciblogs.baruch.cuny.edu
Usually it’s not a great thing when your memory of the first time you met someone person is inseparable from a terrible, gag-inducing stink. But with Mitch Waxman, it comes with the territory.
great suddenness
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The spectacle of the FDNY deployment on 59th behind me (as detailed in yesterday’s posting), while descending into the underground bunkers of concrete and steel which house the subway platforms, a commonly photographed view of Central Park was laid out before me.
It was decided, as part of my “doing a Costanza” experiment, to break one of my primal rules and go for the “easy meat.” This is where all of the night shooting that I’ve been engaging in all winter , accomplished in the preternatural darkness of Queens, begins to pay off.
from wikipedia
George returns from the beach and decides that every decision that he has ever made has been wrong, and that his life is the exact opposite of what it should be. George tells this to Jerry in Monk’s Cafe, who convinces him that “if every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right”. George then resolves to start doing the complete opposite of what he would do normally. He orders the opposite of his normal lunch, and he introduces himself to a beautiful woman (played by Dedee Pfeiffer) who happens to order exactly the same lunch, saying, “My name is George. I’m unemployed and I live with my parents.” To his surprise, she is impressed and agrees to date him.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It sounds simple, really.
Open your aperture and increase the iso speed, drop the exposure time.
Hand held shots in the dark, however, are not just how the camera is set. There’s a whole series of things to remember, such as breathing out while depressing the shutter, and shooting in short bursts- which are actually military sniper techniques. I’ve even found that a different hand posture is required to hold the camera as well. The great thing about photography is that there is always some new mountain to climb.
Mine happens to be in NYC, and it is badly lit.
from howto.wired.com
The first thing pros will suggest is to ratchet up your camera’s ISO or “light sensitivity” setting. Traditionally, high speed film (ISO 800 and higher) was better suited for low light photography. Unfortunately, where high speed film produced enlarged grain, which could often be used for artist effect, higher ISOs on digital cameras tend to just produce color noise — little specks of red green and blue scattered across your image.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Were I to have the opportunity to do this shot “right,” a tripod would certainly be employed. There would also be around 10-15 flashes on radio triggers at various points around the scene- especially a few up in the trees. I’d have my lens set to a small aperture to control the flares around the street lights, and my iso speed would be at 100. This would be a fifteen to 20 second exposure under such conditions. Unfortunately, all I own are two flashes and no radio trigger, so this is a purely intellectual exercise.
I keep wondering about that guy in the shot above, what’s he doing in Central Park all by himself in the dark?
People walk around like they’re safe or something these days…
from ghosttheory.com
An assistant-manager at a certain hotel that overlooks the park, Barry told me that on the day in question – which was a sunny weekday in either June or July 1997 – he was strolling through the park, while on his lunch-break from his then-job as a store-worker.
All was utterly normal until, as he approached one particularly tree- and bush-shrouded area, he was shocked to the core when, out of nowhere, an unknown animal burst wildly through the foliage.
Barry claimed to me that the creature was man-like in shape and covered in hair of a distinctly rusty color – but, unlike the towering Bigfoot of the west-coast, was little more than three-feet in height. Little-Foot might have been a far better term to use, I mused, as I listened to the very odd tale.
Barry could only watch with a mixture of shock and awe as the diminutive man-beast charged across the path in front of him at a distance of no more than about twenty feet, came to a screeching halt for a couple of seconds to stare intently into his eyes, and then headed off at high speed again, before finally vanishing: beneath a small bridge inside the perimeter of the park, no less.
what manner
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hideous memory recalls an age whereupon your humble narrator dwelt within the Shining City of Manhattan.
The Upper West Side, as I knew it (I lived upper upper west side, just a few blocks shy of Harlem), was a bit seedier in those days than it is today. The neighborhood has gone strictly upper crust in the last decade and has in the process lost an idiosyncratic charm which once possessed it.
Atavist professional relationships from that period of my life persist, which have drawn me uptown on a semi regular basis over the last few weeks.
from wikipedia
The Upper West Side is bounded on the south by 58th Street, Central Park to the east, and the Hudson River to the west. Its northern boundary is somewhat less obvious. Although it has historically been cited as 110th Street, which fixes the neighborhood alongside Central Park, it is now sometimes considered to be 125th Street, encompassing Morningside Heights. This reflects demographic shifts in Morningside Heights, as well as the tendency of real estate brokers to co-opt the tony Upper West Side name when listing Morningside Heights and Harlem apartments. The area north of West 96th Street and east of Broadway is also identified as Manhattan Valley. The overlapping area west of Amsterdam Avenue to Riverside Park was once known as the Bloomingdale District.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An Accountant and an Optometrist are my only ties to this place, for like me, most of my friends have long vacated. The latter relationship, the one with my Optometrist, has been developing into a bit of an ongoing and somewhat endless saga but I won’t bore you with tales of incompetence today. A few old acquaintances still inhabit here, but most of the restaurants and bars frequented during a long tenancy are either lost or have transformed beyond all recognition due to the influences of the Real Estate Industrial Complex.
Big Nick’s is still open, thank christ.
Regarding the legendary Sal and Carmines Pizza… “Hank the Elevator Guy” texted me the other day with this exact quote:
“Ah, even with sal now making pizza for god this place still got it, carmine is still there looking like he always did, pissed off. But the pizza is just the way it always is. Pretty fucking good.”
from businessweek.com
…thousands of homebuilders, real estate agents, civil-rights leaders, and bankers who aim to deliver a similar message to Congress: Preserve government support for housing. Together, these groups represent what one might call, with apologies to President Dwight D. Eisenhower, a real estate-industrial complex that transcends partisan politics, geography, and socio-economic divides.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One could simply take the Astoria to Manhattan bound train to midtown and transfer from the Broadway local to… a Broadway local… but instead the path one elects to follow is defined by walking from 5th and 59th up to Broadway in the 70’s. Interesting Architecture on the way, well cared for, Upper West Side is the poster child for gentrification.
Not for me anymore, but not some blasted hell hole. Me, I like blasted hell holes.
The only part of the walk I mind is when the carriage horses, whose tenders await customers along Central Park South, gaze at me. I fully understand the role and reality of working animals, attempt not to project an anthropomorphized soul upon them, but it is impossible to not feel empathy for pack animals who spend their days around automobile traffic.
I feel guilty when these critters look me directly in my eye, how about you?
from aspca.org
The ASPCA believes that carriage horses were never meant to live and work in today’s urban setting. In addition to the dangers of working in congested areas, these horses spend their days directly behind cars, trucks and buses, inhaling their fumes. Given the constraints and challenges that New York City presents, and as the primary enforcer of New York City’s carriage horse laws, the ASPCA does not believe New York City can meet the needs of its horses. Neither the New York City environment nor the current law can provide horses with the fundamental necessities to ensure their safety and well being.
