Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
glided regretfully
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Christmas lights game in Astoria is always strong, and especially so on 43rd street between Broadway and 34th Avenue. Look at that tree, huh?
I got to chat briefly with a member of the family who lights up the block thusly, and she was pretty pleased to hear my appreciation for their effort. The house is also done up with all sorts of electrical holiday doodads that blink and shine.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Major Auto World over on Northern Blvd. has a bit of construction work underway. The skinny is that they’re building a new auto showroom on the expansive lot they occupy. Major just sold off a lot across the street which is currently being demolished and which will be turned into an 8 story residential building. 44th st. and Northern Blvd., for the curious.
It really never ends, the real estate thing.
– photo by Mitch WaxmAn
Whilst wandering one night, chance carried my decaying bulk past a nicely lit up food truck on Broadway. One is currently fascinated by these roving kitchens, but not for gastrointestinal reasons. Food trucks seem to be engaged in a war with each other in which the primary tactic revolves around “attention getting.” They’ve got all sorts of lights and LED sign boards flashing and broadcasting color into the darkness of the Western Queens night.
They’re also quite challenging to shoot, as a note, due to the bright and saturated nature of the colored light they spew.
“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.
watcher’s window
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Firstly, as I’ve “caught up with myself,” Newtown Pentacle is returning to the familiar three images a day format for an interval. One had quite an abundance of photos to display from before and after the recent trip to Pittsburgh. Back home just in time for the Omicron surge, a humble narrator has resumed his “every other day” schedule of long and short walk around Western Queens.
Recent endeavor found one scuttling about Long Island City’s Court Square section, which has come to resemble Manhattan in terms of population density and building typology. One will point out – again – that despite this massive build out and investment in converting the “mixed use” zoning of LIC over to high density residential zoning, there has not been a similar investment in municipal services. Cops, fire, sanitation, hospital beds, transit. What that means is basically more mouths to feed with the same amount of bread as before. What could go wrong?
Nothing matters, and nobody cares.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The stolen sky of Long Island City is now populated by dormitories for the aspirant class and the already well heeled. One question that continually nags is why the new people don’t have or use window coverings. Drapes, Venetian Blinds, curtains – they seem to prefer letting it all hang out and displaying their lives to each other. I was visiting a friend a couple of years back who lives in Hunters Point, and was looking out of the windows of his tower apartment and noticed a guy across the street, clad only in his underwear, who was doing the dishes. I wondered why he didn’t have curtains, and more importantly – why you’d pay $3,000 plus a month in rent for a “luxury apartment” which didn’t have a dishwasher appliance installed. Weird.
Pictured above is what they call Five Pointz. Personally, I’d rather that the old Neptune Meter company building with its amazing artwork which the tower apartments have stolen the name of was still here, but that’s big real estate for you.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My neighborhood in Astoria is about to be similarly destroyed by a project called “Innovation Queens.” Proposed by Kaufman Astoria and Larry Silverstein, this monstrous ideation will decimate the south eastern section of Astoria by erecting a series of 20-30 story tall towers in a triangular section defined by 38th street and 35th avenue on one side and 43rd street and Northern Blvd./36th avenue on the other.
For those of you who know the area – the movie theater, PC Richards, the pool hall, Malbin Pipe, Harley Davidson, and all of those mechanic and used car businesses are toast. All of the blue collar “walk to work” jobs hosted by these businesses are similarly going to go bye-bye. If you want to make an easy $5,000 bucks, contact the Innovation Queens people and tell them you’ll advocate for the project.
You’ll have to get in line, though, since they’ve already bought off a local bar owner, the driving school people on Steinway, a couple of the NYCHA tenant association presidents, and a “community leader” to flack for them.
“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.
vague tradition
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A demolition crew has come in and eradicated the remains of Irving Subway Grate in LIC, along the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek. It’s been coming for a while, I guess. Apparently a concrete company is going to set itself up on the property, one whose operations have been based over in Ridgewood for a while.
Sigh. Another heavy truck based business from an industry notoriously noisome and noxious, water pollution wise. Whatever. Nothing matters and nobody cares.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s some of Irving’s grate, embedded in the sidewalk of 27th street. Exciting, no?
The green plywood and chain link fences with green fabric coverings have gone up around the site, so something is likely to start happening there fairly soon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When I was shooting this image, a group of teenagers were noticed a few blocks away and noisily coming my way. Brr. Teenagers lack impulse control and a humble narrator would make for a great target, so I kept an eye on their roving and undirected pack. This group moved in a terrifically unorganized manner, loping and leaping while exclaiming loudly. You could hear them from blocks away.
The only thing scarier to me than a regular mixed up group of teenagers is a group of teenage girls. The latter might say something mean to me, something really cutting, which was designed to mock or make me feel bad about myself. It would be like junior high school all over again…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Despite the adolescent threat’s approach, one continued on with his tasks. I kept an eye on them, as they brandished their phones and exulted gutturally to each other.
Said tasks being the capture of photos, walking around, and generally side eyeing things I don’t like or don’t approve of.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The teenagers were getting closer, only a few blocks away, so I quickened my steps. Seriously, I treat other people that are walking around these areas at night in the manner of them being a horde of zombies. Best to avoid, lest something bitey might happen.
After shooting this one, I ducked down a side street and hid behind a dumpster for a while.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One truly detests the idea of “others” these days. Staying away from these others, with their bizarre ideations, display behaviors which connote societal rankings to each other – that’s my mantra.
That, and “nothing matters and nobody cares.”
“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.
prattle feverishly
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, a bit of travel was in the cards for early December, and in the midst of preparing to pick up and split for the better part of a week, I decided to get in one last “short walk.”
This one never left Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They must’ve decriminalized graffiti bombing people’s cars. I’ve seen so much more of this sort of thing in the last two years…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned – short walk. Turn around point was at 31st street and Astoria Blvd.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Checked another gas station off my list at 44th street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Managed a shot of an old wrecker tow truck I’ve had my eye on.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Encountered evidence of an apparent miracle on 44th street, nearby 31st avenue, with an abandoned wheelchair.
“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.
died reverberantly
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another scuttle. This time, I was out for a long walk. One headed out at a conspicuously earlier time than normal, hoping for a colorful sunset. High clouds are favorable, conditions wise, for colorful sunrises and sunsets to set up. That’s my official photographer advice.
Pictured is a section of Long Island City’s Sunnyside Yards, with Amtrak train sets lined up in the foreground. As always, a tip of the hat to whoever is in charge of poking holes in the fences at the Federal Rail operation.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
These shots were gathered at the end of November, when I was preparing to go on another trip using Amtrak in early December, so I was wondering if any of these trains would be the one I got to ride on. Honestly, the day that I shot these feels like a hundred years ago right now. It’s funny the way that the mind works, ain’t it?
On this particular night, I was heading towards the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek, where I would end discovering that a big chunk of the shoreline had collapsed over Thanksgiving weekend.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a particularly weird night, as a note, with way too many encounters with the denizens of the streets. One in particular was just freaky, but I don’t want to get into the trading of war stories.
Sirens punctured my reveries, and I noticed an FDNY ambulance screaming it’s way along the Honeywell Avenue truss bridge over the railyard.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Due to all the street weirdness I’ve encountered and observed, I’ve fallen out of the habit of listening to audiobooks while walking around, preferring instead to have all of my sensory antennae fully deployed. I want to be able to hear the running footsteps slapping the pavement coming my way, before they’re too close for comfort.
Given my predilection for lonely places, the last thing I want to encounter or be surprised by are other people.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Every person you see coming at you is a possible threat these days. There’s a small army of lunatics and street level criminals that have recently been installed all around Long Island City, lawless and sly, who’ll look you up and down deciding whether or not it would be worth it to boil you down for elements to sell. It hasn’t been like this for a long time, here in the big city.
This is not exactly a politically correct thing to say, but the people who decide what’s correct or not have apparently never been punched in the nose or had a gun pulled on them by a mugger.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
People walk around like they’re safe or something. If they only knew.
Bah.
“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 