Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
thrillingly suggestive
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After exiting the One World Trade Center Observation deck, and having scratched a “I want to do this before I move away” item off of my list, the so called Oculus was also found on that list, so I got it in as well.
Regarding the “congestion pricing” toll that the Governor is about to allow, remember the Oculus when you’re talking about giving the MTA more money to spend, beyond the billions they already consume annually. They are like a raging Californian fire when it comes to spending other people’s money in vainglory – indiscriminate, unaccountable, unpredictable, and irreducible.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m not sure what they were thinking here… this structure does nothing to improve the experience of – y’know – taking the train. It does offer a shopping mall for the Wall Street guys to buy fancy watches and $11 cups of coffee, so maybe that’s what it’s always all been about.
Silly me, talking about function over form when it involves tax dollars. I should mention that whereas the MTA is an absolute gas, they’re only a side player in the Oculus’s story, as this boondoggle $4 Billion project was handled, designed, and built under the auspices of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and its contractor Skanska. Here’s the whole story on the Oculus at Wikipedia.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Bah!
My plan for getting back to Astoria involved a preferred route – using the NYC Ferry – so one scuttled eastwards through the financial district towards Pier 11 at the foot of Wall Street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Given that this area is pretty much the HQ of global capitalism as well as the seat of Government for NYC, you’d kind of expect the streets to not be as scummy as they are in Lower Manhattan. I don’t mean that from a moral relativism point of view, by the way. I mean that my shoes were literally sliding around in a black and khaki mix of liquifying trash, weird jellies, and greasy crap as I walked along. Rats were scurrying around during the daylight hours as well, which is really over the top, and signals “peak shithole” – if you ask me.
It’s all rotten. “Someday, a real rain will”… actually, nothing will clean these streets. Sandy didn’t. “What this City needs is a good plague”… ok, that didn’t do it either. Tornado, maybe?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My apologies, lords and ladies… I’m so thoroughly “checked out” at this point that I just can’t care about it anymore. The City is doomed.
We had a window, over the last twenty to thirty years, during which times were good and the City’s coffers were full. It was squandered on handouts to big real estate and political vanity projects. All that’s left for NYC now is a return to the Cinema Verite world of the 1970’s.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Unfortunately, just as I arrived at Pier 11, the Astoria Boat was leaving the pier. That meant I had as long as possible to wait for the next one, so I made a couple of business calls that were on my “to do” list and waited out the interval.
It was a nice day anyway, and it’s never a terrible thing spending time at the East River when you’ve got a camera hanging off of your shoulder.
“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.
equally silent
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On August 19th, one endeavored to scratch another one of the items off of my list of “I really should do this thing before I move away’s.”
Accordingly, I soon found myself in Lower Manhattan and heading for the One World Trade observatory deck. Personally, I’ve been put out since they stopped calling the 1,776 foot tall monument to National Tragedy “The Freedom Tower.”
A quick review of the observatory deck would involve offers of recrimination about reflection, refraction, and the usage of blue tinted glass for a thing designed to offer panoramic views of the greatest city in the history of mankind. The Observation Deck is a fairly difficult spot to shoot from because of those factors, and in comparison – both the Empire State Building and 30 Rock observatories allow you to be outside and unoccluded rather than caged up behind blue glass, so they’re better for the photographically inclined visitor to NYC. I haven’t done Hudson Yards’ overlook thing, and don’t plan to.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I was there in the early morning, about nine or so. The light when I first arrived was fairly abysmal, but it improved as the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself wheeled about in the sky. I don’t know what the time limit is, as far as how long you can linger before getting the boot, but I guess I was up there shooting for about 90 minutes to two hours.
Naturally, the first thing I did was ascertain the location of Newtown Creek and get a wide angle shot of it.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
You’ll see that Tug pictured above and framed by the Brooklyn Bridge at water level in a post later this week. It was the Joker (flagged out of Philadelphia) and she was headed for the Brooklyn Navy Yard with a barge full of what seemed to be sand.
As mentioned, the light began to change a bit as the burning orb moved through the vault of the sky. I also decided that I needed to compensate for the cold blue tint that the windows were causing, as seen above, and jacked up the color temperature on the camera to accomplish that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking northwards across Manhattan from the financial district towards midtown and the Empire State Building, I kept on laughing to myself about the “Midtown Manhattan needs to be denser” rhetorical arguments currently vomiting out of the Gubernatorial and Mayoral mansions.
We’re right on the precipice of “Blade Runner” style development these days. What was the answer to 9/11? Battery Park City and Luxury Condos. What was the answer to Sandy? Hudson Yards and Luxury Condos. Want to guess what NYC’s answer to Covid will be?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At any rate, looking across the dystopian shithole of residential Manhattan, which a generation of city planners will tell you is the solution rather than problem, and towards the ruinations of Hunters Point and Greenpoint’s intersection with Newtown Creek. In the distance at the top of the shot is Flushing Bay and the northeastern extants of the East River. You can just make out the Whitestone Bridge.
I did a quick lens swap at this point, and whipped out a “long” telephoto one which would allow for more “reach.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The tallest building in the shot, on the LIC or Queens side and roughly at center top, is the “Sven” at Queens Plaza. At dead center of the photo, dwarfed in modernity, is the 1992 Citigroup building – aka the Sapphire Megalith of LIC. Everyone of those giant structures except for the megalith have risen over just the last fifteen years, a build out unaccompanied by a similar rise in the number of Hospital Beds, Libraries, Police Stations, Fire Houses, or any significant increase in Sanitation or Sewerage capability.
Despite the promises of the City Planners, and the Real Estate Developers, despite all of this new inventory coming on line in the last 15 years, rents are at an all time high in NYC.
It’s the problem, not the solution, and if you believe in “trickle down real estate,” I can get you a great deal on the bridge pictured in the third slot on todays post.
“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.
narrower alleys
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One last shot of the Power Plant in Yonkers, specifically its Hudson River moat, was gathered on the way back to My Pal Val’s Valmobile. She offered to drop me off somewhere convenient on her way back to Nassau County on Long Island, so I greedily lept at the idea of catching a ride at least part of the way back home.
She had opted for the Whitestone Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I cracked this one out through her windshield while we were on a highway, which is a lot easier said than done. I think it’s the Whitestone, but it could also be the Throgg’s Neck. I’m sure some nagging presence on one of my social media accounts will take the opportunity to hijack this post and use it to express how much more knowledgable they are than I about the bridges of the East River.
Soon, we touched down in Queens, and I was dropped off nearby the Whitestone Expressway’s exit and entrance ramps in Flushing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well… don’t mind if I do, Flushing Bay.
I had a bit of a walk ahead of me to get to the 7 train. I could have easily made it to Main Street and the station there, but it was a pretty nice day and I wasn’t quite done with shooting yet so I scuttled off towards Citifield instead.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There are multiple generations of politicians in Queens who should burn in hell for what they’ve done to or allowed to be done to our ancestral waterways.
Sigh… nothing matters, nobody cares, nothing matters, nobody cares, nothing matters, nobody cares.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After the one above, I packed up the tripod kit and reverted back over to handheld shooting mode. I decided to walk over to the Citifield stop in order to catch the 7 line, which I’d take to Jackson Heights and transfer to one of the two underground lines that stop near HQ.
My “escape New Yorkmobile” is on order, and I’m expecting the dealership to be calling any day to let me know it’s time to come in and sign the loan agreement which will allow me to leave this dystopian shithole behind me at last. Saying that, I’m enjoying all the mass transit I can before becoming part of the problem.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I keep on telling myself that there’s plenty of super polluted waterways where I’m going. The good news is that I’ll be able to drive to them.
Tomorrow – 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.
forty alleys
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On the 12th of August, my pal Val had arranged an event up in Yonkers, wherein an abandoned NY Central railroad power plant would be opened up for the inspection of a group of photographers by its new owners. These new owners have some pretty ambitious plans for the site, but more on that next week. In the meantime, I had to get from Astoria to Yonkers.
Luckily, this is accomplished fairly easily. The M60 Select Bus service runs down Astoria Boulevard, and has a stop at Steinway Street. Out of the house early, thereby, with a ham egg and cheese sandwich in hand, went a humble narrator.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had padded an extra half an hour of “shit happens” time into my schedule, and spent that interval photographing the Metro North and Connecticut Rail commuter rail trains which travel along the old NY Central Railroad’s right of way.
125/Lex is a pretty busy station, I tell you.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The shot above looks south along Park Avenue towards Midtown Manhattan and Grand Central Terminal. It’s called a “terminal” because its always been the “end of the line.” The 7 train Subway enters a part of the facility called “Grand Central Station,” which is called that because it’s not the last stop of that service. Station = passing through. Terminal = last stop.
As far as the whole Pennsylvania Railroad and NY Central thing – man… it’s complicated and I don’t want to even get into that whole story. Suffice to say that the MTA is one of the many orphaned love children which fell out of their contests, courtships, troubled marriage, and bankrupted divorce.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I hung around the 125/Lex platform for about a half hour, and never ran out of trains coming and going to take photos of. My destination was in Yonkers, but one stop past the “big” Yonkers stop. Glenwood, that’s the one I’d need to get to.
I’ve got a buddy who grew up in Yonkers, and he’s always pronounced the place’s name as “AhYonkahs.” This is the same guy who always kept a series of loaner gorilla suits in the trunk of his car, in addition to his personal gorilla suit, in case he had the sudden urge for company when it was time to go “aping.” I’ve aped with him, which would take the form of us climbing on things, invading bars and fancy restaurants while wearing gorilla suits, and clowning around with pretty girls. I can confirm the idea that you can get away with literally anything while wearing a gorilla suit. Even Cops will find your antics entirely humorous, because of the gorilla suit.
AhYonkahs, that’s where I was heading. No Gorilla suit though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My chariot arrived, and away did I go.
I was hoping to get a few “out the window” train shots while crossing the Harlem River, but Metro-North’s windows seem to be composed of thousands of small fractures and the sun was not on my side. C’est la vie.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Annoyingly, whereas my destination was literally next to the train station, I had to walk about a half mile, up and down hills, and over dales (actually a baseball field) to get to it.
More next week, with a detailed look at a long abandoned NY Central Railroad Glenwood Power Plant, found along the Hudson River in AhYonkahs.
“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.
commencing to
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One can never resist grabbing shots of the high steel of the Long Island Expressway when I’m moving through the “empty corridor.”
“Blighting Long Island City since 1939” – they should put that on a sign.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a reason I call this area the “empty corridor.”
Who cares anymore? I keep on saying that to myself these days. I’m in the process of “checking out” right now. Severing ties seems to be the order of the day, as I prepare to separate from NYC. I see fire shooting out of a manhole cover, I do nothing and…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Well, unfortunately, I’m still me and I’m still here.
On the day that this post was written in mid August, for instance, a downed signal light on Northern Blvd. and a looming sewer backup issue were reported to relevant local authorities. I have a sense, however, that beginning in 2023 – Western Queens is going to be consumed by a series of easily fixable problems without me being able to reach out into agency land to get them to notice things spotted “in the field.” If Astoria ends up falling into the river, you’ll say “man, wish Mitch was still here.”
Saying that, I really don’t care anymore. Somebody else’s problem.
Hey, look at that – an Amtrak train set heading into Manhattan from LIC’s Sunnyside Yards! Neato.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
During the entire walk on August 10th, which started out quite comfortable, the atmospheric humidity was rising at a precipitous rate. Having arrived at the Hunters Point Avenue station, one nevertheless masked up and headed down into the sweating concrete bunker below.
My habit in recent months has been to use the 7 Line to go from subterranean to elevated and land on high at Queensboro Plaza. A transfer over to the N or W Astoria Line keeps me elevated and up high all the way to Astoria’s Broadway, and then I scuttle about ten blocks back to HQ. Yeah, I could transfer at Court Square for the M…
Part of my “Doctor Nerdlington” persona is extremely satisfied by executing a series of transfers when using the subways.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The 7 service is pretty good these days, in my experience. Every ten minutes or so, you’ve got one arriving.
I was planning on hanging around Queensboro Plaza for a spell, given the relative infrequency of the Astoria line trains, but the MTA’s ways are wild, and many,
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Arriving at the platform, an Astoria bound train was sitting there, so that funny train rapid dash that we New Yorkers execute occurred, the one followed by the realization that the train would going nowhere for a few minutes and you standing there feeling foolish for having rushed.
Off to Broadway went I, heading eastwards back to HQ and the sweet embrace of Our Lady of the 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 