Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
hovering expectantly
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A lone tug plies the stormy harbor in this shot from 2012, and is our singular image for this Maritime Sunday. In the distance are the gargantuan cargo cranes of Port Elizabeth Newark.
Project Firebox 64
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sudden panic overcame me on Thursday last, when a yawning hole in my scheduled postings presented itself in a looming fashion- I had no fresh Firebox for Saturday!
In a huff, and something of a puff, your humble narrator meekly wandered around Astoria looking for some heretofore anonymous fire box with the goal of shooting its portrait. Luckily, on 38th and 28th, this scarlet century awaited me.
normal thing
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nothing earth shattering today, lords and ladies, just a few unrelated shots cracked out in the last couple of weeks. Pictured is an anonymous but industrious dog walker with his pack of charges awaiting the arrival of another companion in Long Island City nearby 21st street.
from wikipedia
Professional dog walkers, both individuals and businesses, are paid by dog owners to walk their dogs for them. Some dog walkers will take many dogs for a walk at once, while others will not. Also growing in popularity is dog running. Dog runners are professionals who will take your dog running, usually between 1 and 10 miles for a set fee, usually not more than 2 dogs at a time. In some jurisdictions dog walking businesses must be licensed and have animal first-aid-trained employees. Professional dog walking services can be obtained locally or thorough online referral services.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Western Queensicans will quickly recognize this joint, housed in the Home Depot parking lot on Northern Blvd. Rocco’s does these absolutely ridiculous sausage sandwiches that are the stuff of cardiologist nightmare, and overstuffed with stewed onion. I was there at night picking up a couple of buckets of joint compound, at Home Depot that is- not Rocco’s, and decided to do some of the low light exercise which has occupied me all winter while running the errand.
from wikipedia
Ready-mixed joint compound is most commonly used in hanging drywall for new or remodeled homes. Application is simple and easy, usually never taking more than three or four coats. When used for new walls, joint compound effectively eliminates all blemishes from the surface of the drywall, such as drilled in screws, hanging tape, or drywall tape. Joint compound can be used to finish gypsum panel joints, corner bead, trim and fasteners, as well as skim coating. In addition, it is also very handy for fixing minor blemishes or damages to walls. It easily patches up holes, bumps, tears, and other minor damages.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This fruit stand in Manhattan, with hand written signs, was catching a shaft of light which hasn’t been claimed by the upper crust yet. That crazy bokeh blur in the shot is all lens. I’ve been playing around a lot lately with my kit, in accordance with an intention stated a while back to “do a Costanza” and shake up my shooting habits a bit.
from wikipedia
A fruit stand is a primarily open-air business venue that sells seasonal fruit and many fruit products from local business. It might also sell vegetables and various processed items derived from fruit. The fruit stand is a small business structure that is primarily run as an independent sole proprietorship, with very few franchises or branches of larger fruit stand conglomerates.
impersonal investigator
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Often does a certain conflict arise within me regarding Calvary Cemetery and the various tales unearthed there which are then presented at this, your Newtown Pentacle. On the one hand, vainglory states that by speaking about the departed, and telling some part of their story, the interred are in some way kept alive.
In other cases, and this is typified by a soul chilling email received around a year ago which had the subject line “why is my grandmother’s grave featured in your blog?,” offer credence to my fears that a certain line is often crossed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A humble narrator subscribes to the bardic viewpoint which believes that a hero or villain is only dead when people stop talking about them, which is why Ghenghis Khan, Alexander Magnus, and Adolph Hitler are immortal.
There is another point of view, of course, which dictates that what happens at the cemetery stays at the cemetery. While researching the Early family, in whom my interest was sparked merely by the centuried integrity of their monument, this waters of this conflict bubbled forth.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Not much is out there about the Early’s, not an obituary nor a requiem or even a trail of legal bread crumbs. Specialists in Irish genealogy might be able to reveal more than I, but that’s not really the point. From a moral and ethical point of view, should the dead just be allowed to just keep their secrets?
Attempts have always been made, around NP HQ, to present historical necrologies in the best of all possible lights, as much out of respect for heirs and descendants as for the desire to not speak ill of the dead. One attempts to remain cold, clinical, and impersonal when constructing these narratives.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Conflicted, one nevertheless forges on in the attempt to create some sort of visual record of Calvary Cemetery, the great polyandrion of the Roman Catholics in New York City. All that can said of the Early clan is what is inscribed upon the stone- that it acknowledges the memory of the matron Ellen Mc Collough who died at 75 in December of 1893, a 21 year old woman named Rose who died in 1872, and finally the presence of the earthly remains of Mary Early who left the mortal coil in March of 1902.
The monument is a fine piece of carving, which has robustly weathered a century of exposure to the elements.
humanless region
“follow” me on Twitter at @newtownpentacle
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As one might have observed in recent media reports, the Mayor of New York City and certain hand picked lieutenants and allies deployed the “golden shovels” and officially “broke ground” at the so called Hunters Point South project in Long Island City. Funny, as construction has been going on around here for a while, mainly on improving the archaic sewer and water system.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On second street, there is a long ditch currently extant which reveals part of this work. Much of what is happening around here, I am led to believe, is closer to the East River. This assertion is easily proven if one is a customer of the East River Ferry, as the fence line one follows to the dock winds its way along the early phases of the construction site where this grandiose plumbing is being installed.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Spongy, the soil at Hunters Point has seen a lot of industrial tenants come and go over the centuries. At the penultimate southern terminus of the street is the notorious Newtown Creek, to the west is the squamous East River- which was known as the River of Sound to ancient mariners. Interestingly enough- the ground water, or at least the bits of it which have percolated into this pit, is not dissimilar in color or appearance to the very end of the Newtown Creek’s distant tributary English Kills in Bushwick.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Surprisingly, the “layer cake” normally observed in Long Island City street repairs was not visible. Like lower Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn, the streets are several centuries deep, and one will often see several layers of different pavement technologies on display. If one is very lucky and the street is very old- a layer of compacted and oiled earth, capped by a white chalky substance surmounted by a layer or two of gravel which lies under Belgian Blocks then cement and tar and then concrete and asphalt might be observed.
I’ve got a shot or two from Queens Plaza in which this layer cake is obviously encountered, for instance.
The Newtown Pentacle 