Posts Tagged ‘Pickman’
sane harborage
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Last week, one was wandering through Blissville. For one reason or another, a humble narrator decided it would be good to get a few shots of the enormous masonry wall offered by First Calvary cemetery for the amusement of passerby on Review Avenue.
My understanding of the function of this structure is that it acts as a retaining wall. Laurel Hill, the landform which Calvary was carved into starting in 1848, used to slope down towards Newtown Creek. Review Avenue is a “cut” and the engineers who worked for the Church probably had to worry about mudslides when laying out the place.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The wall itself is enormous, and based on observation from within the cemetery and atop it, around ten feet thick at the top and an unknown width at bottom. It’s composed on concrete and boulders, and likely bottoms out several yards under the level of the street and sidewalk. The boulders are typical glacial till, likely harvested from native soils, and nothing special.
My intention when shooting this was in theoretical pursuance of doing a cutaway illustration of the wall and subterrene, which was going to be accompanied by a bit of narrative reminiscent of an HP Lovecraft short story called “The Statement of Randolph Carter” wherein the exploration of a mortuary complex’s underground chambers results in a typically horrifying conclusion for a Lovecraft tale. That’s my actual thought process leading up to actuating the camera shutter.
That’s when I spotted them.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When queried as to why I always have a camera with me, the answer is usually “if I don’t have this, then a ufo would land in the intersection and Bigfoot and Elvis would disembark from it.” Usually, a camera is your best defense against anything interesting happening within eyeshot.
These two defied that maxim, however, and they are to be applauded.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They seemed to be a couple, these two, just picking their way along the rock wall.
So intent on their task were they that notice of the strange old fellow with a camera trained on them standing across the street and laughing hysterically didn’t seem to register. This genuinely amused me, and I like to believe that one of them said to the other that “the floor is lava.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
They never got more than five or six feet off the lava, I would mention.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As I’m often quoted as saying – you never know what you’re going to see at Calvary Cemetery. Even when the place has remained inexplicably closed to the public at exactly the moment when its acres of green space have been most needed, the people of LIC will make it their own.
Awesome sauce.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, September 14th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
nameless panic
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The view of NYC you encounter when onboard the Staten Island Ferry is – as the British would say – “gob smacking.” You’re looking at the peninsular section of lower Manhattan called the Battery. To the south east are the Brooklyn and Queens East River coastlines of Long Island, and on the north west is New Jersey and the Hudson River section of the world. My understanding is that there are other places beyond the actual omphalos of the universe which is New York City, but I can’t speak to legend.
The actual site of the Garden of Eden is found at the crossroads of 42nd street and Broadway in Manhattan – that’s a fact. The tree of Good and Evil – it was a fairly substantial sized garden, Eden – was found at Herald Square, which later became a hellmont. The hellmont factor is why the 34th street subway complex is always so incredibly hot, as it’s a vertical tunnel that leads directly to the fire of Gehenna itself.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s always something interesting to see when riding the Staten Island Ferry, such as the Vane Bros. Hunting Creek tug managing a fuel barge with a whole pile of maritime cranes providing a backdrop for it.
One didn’t spend too much time on… Staten Island… and after checking out the vainglorious shopping mall which has recently opened to thunderous silence in St. George – Good Work, EDC – I boarded a Manhattan bound big orange boat and headed back towards Pier 11 and the NYC Ferry Astoria line for a ride back home.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another tug managing another fuel barge was spotted on the way home, this time nearby Corlears Hook – which is better known as the section of Manhattan that the WIlliamsburg Bridge touches down on.
One of the epicenters of ship building during the colonial era in NY Harbor, this is the neighborhood that spawned my favorite “Gangs of New York” era group of tough guy bandits – the Sewer Rats. Freshwater pirates, they would row out into the river in the dead of night and rob anchored shipping.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, September 7th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
tremendous resolution
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s all still there! Despite what the television said, the hot war between Antifa and the Boogaloos hasn’t actually burned the City away and left it looking like Dresden. Son of a gun! That’s the Helen Laraway Tug, spotted as it passed by an old fruit pier in lower Manhattan which has been converted over to a vehicle maintenance facility for the DSNY in modernity. That’s where the proverbial banana boat used to dock, that pier, and it’s the one that your grandmother would accuse new neighbors of having arrived into NYC via.
As mentioned yesterday, a long-standing resolution of mine has been to get the hell out of Queens for an afternoon and go ride on the ferries. This is the first year in more than a decade that I haven’t spent a good number of my summertime evenings riding around on boats and photographing the maritime world, so I had to do something about that before it turns cold and dark again.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Brooklyn Bridge – still there. Lower Manhattan too.
My plan for the day was to a) spend as little as possible and b) get as far away from Queens as was feasible. The Astoria line NYC Ferry travels south along the East River. Its new north terminal stop is at 90th st. in Manhattan, then there’s Astoria, Roosevelt Island, LIC North, 34th st., Brooklyn Navy Yard, and the southern terminal stop is at Pier 11 Wall Street in lower Manhattan. From there, the Staten Island Ferry is about a ten minute walk away.
The NYC Ferry Fair was $2.75, and the Staten Island Ferry is free. That’s “A.” Staten Island accomplished “B.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Upon debarking from the NYC Ferry, a dredging operation being committed by the DonJon company was noticed. This is just south of Pier 11, and I can make several presumptions as to who, when, what, where, and why. Thing is that I’d just be speculating that; the EDC, in some time prior to March, decided to expand Ferry operational capabilities here at the foot of Wall Street, to please their masters in the real estate industry. Speculation, however, so don’t take that to the bank.
Tomorrow – what I saw from onboard the big orange boat.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, September 7th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
sardonic stare
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
“You know what I haven’t done in literally months” was what I said, and it was less of a question than it was a statement. Our Lady of the Pentacle clutched at a pillow and pushed herself backwards into the couch while saying “What?” with a concerned look on her face. “Get out on the water” exclaimed a humble narrator. “Hence” shouted I.
One scuttled over to the NYC Ferry Dock here in Astoria, accordingly. Heroically boarding a ferry, a humble narrator returned to the sixth borough.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Sludge boats were bounding across the aqueous meadows, as were tugboats and all sorts of other maritime contrivances. The rule on the Ferry requires being masked up, which creates quite a situation when you’re standing in the slipstream of wind up on the top deck. Managing my baseball cap, sunglasses, and mask while operating the camera made one wish for a third arm. Despite all the time spent at Newtown Creek, one still hasn’t spawned a new appendage, unfortunately. A third arm would make clothes shopping difficult, I admit.
That’s the NYC DEP’s MV Red Hook sludge boat pictured above.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The Astoria line makes a stop at the venerable Brooklyn Navy Yard along its route, and that’s where the Dann Towing’s Ivory Coast tug was spotted, as evinced by the shot above. My plan for this afternoon excursion involved riding the Astoria ferry to Pier 11, then hopping onto the Staten Island Ferry to St. George whereupon a reversal of course would be enacted.
I’ve missed galavanting around NY Harbor, and the particular photographic challenges it presents.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, September 7th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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.
invincible evil
Feels like Monday, but it’s Tuesday, pal.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been freely ranging about the City for the last week, as mentioned, and visiting several places which have been left unobserved during the pandemic months. That FDNY Fleet Services Wrecker was spotted in Greenpoint when I was on my way to the Newtown Creek Nature Walk, for instance.
Generally speaking, the Fire Department has the coolest gear in the entire municipal sphere. The Cops have cool toys too, mind you, but FDNY seems to have at least one of everything and they keep their stuff “mint.”
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This tree is found on the block I live on in Astoria. It’s in front of a noisome fellow whom the block’s lifers call “John the Pollock.” John doesn’t like dogs pooping or pissing in his tree pit, and has been the subject of much online conversation due to his habit of seeding the grass with pepper flakes and other irritants to discourage the canines from explorations. I don’t know if John is responsible for this scene or not.
Everybody in my neighborhood seems to have some sort of descriptive nickname. At the local bar, we have an abundance of fellows named “Chris.” There’s Croatian Chris, Crazy Chris, Glazier Chris, Real Estate Chris, Pharmaceutical Chris, and Substance Abuse Chris, amongst others. The latter Chris recently got carted off by an FDNY ambulance and I haven’t seen him for at least a week. Hope he’s ok. I asked after him with Vlad the waiter and Sean the Carpenter, but nobody has seen Substance Abuse Chris. Hopefully he doesn’t just disappear like Mattie the Vampire did.
…Astoria…
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One plan which a humble narrator did manage to actuate recently was the caper where I ride the NYC Ferry and get out on the water, but more on that in subsequent postings. On my way to the ferry, the gate was open at an Ice Cream Truck storage and maintenance yard on Broadway at the corner of Vernon, so this shot was gathered.
The branding on these trucks is “New York Ice Cream” which indicates they were part of the breakaway faction of Mister Softee drivers who formed the “Master Softee” outfit. The Masters were sued by the Mister people in federal court over infringing on their trademark jingle and branding, hence the refit to New York Ice Cream.
More tomorrow.
Note: I’m writing this and several of the posts you’re going to see for the next week at the beginning of the week of Monday, September 7th. My plan is to continue doing my solo photo walks around LIC and the Newtown Creek in the dead of night as long as that’s feasible. If you continue to see regular updates here, that means everything is kosher as far as health and well being. If the blog stops updating, it means that things have gone badly for a humble narrator.
“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 