Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
Coking up in Clairton
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the U.S. Steel Clairton Works pictured above and below, which manufactures Coke from Coal. Still can’t tell you all that much about the place, other than directing you to a Wikipedia page about the town it’s found in, and pointing out that this plant has its own sub-site at EPA.gov.
It makes for a nice picture, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I posted the first shot in one of the Pittsburgh Facebook groups, accidentally touching off a contentious conversation/argument amongst the Yinzers about the mill. One side was ‘how do you expect to have things and jobs and fund the county if…’ and the other argument revolved around ‘environmental justice and late stage capitalism…’
What if both sides of an argument are valid? What if we all climb down from the calcified positions of the respective political pulpits we inhabit to inhabit and solve problems instead of pointing fingers? Crazy idea, no?
Bah. As I learned to say it, and often stated, on Newtown Creek – it’s not bad, it’s not good, it just is. Are you working to maintain the status quo, trying to improve the situation, or striving to make things worse? Are you doing nothing at all and just sitting on the sidelines while telling people ‘why bother’?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I had a friend in town for about a week, and she received a bit of a tour of all the cool spots and sights I’ve discovered so far in Pittsburgh. Clairton was one of them, which is how I ended up taking a picture and then accidentally setting off a debate on the internet. Pictured above is a community called Elizabeth, where I had a very nice plate of french fries with an ok burger for lunch.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
Not shy
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One hasn’t really explored the ‘close/near’ vicinity around HQ all that much, which is specifically Pittsburgh’s Borough of Dormont. Take a look at that terrain and you can probably guess why. That this is one heck of a hill to walk up is something I can tell you from experience, and I also gotta tell’s ya – walking down it ain’t all that simple either. That’s Downtown Pittsburgh on the horizon, peeking out over the trees, which is found roughly 5 miles away.
Also, I don’t really like taking pictures of residential neighborhoods, which Dormont mostly is. People get all bent out of shape when they see some bloke with a camera wandering around as it is. Fair enough, I guess. They’re all paranoid about ‘pedos’ out here. There’s billboards. Another big worry is ‘human trafficking,’ apparently.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’ve been playing around in the dark, however. HQ has a deck facing out into our yard which adjoins another ‘thing’ I never encountered before moving here, which is a ‘paper alley.’ It’s used as community drive, is a semi paved street that goes all tree and vegetation halfway up the hill before it then joins with two other alleys at the top of the hill, forming a T shaped intersection that parallels a nearby street. All of this is found in between all the houses/yards and whatnot. Interestingly, it’s meant to be owned by the Post Office, but is administered by the local municipality. Commonwealths, amirite?
The deck situation allows me to experiment with different camera setups in dark situations. I had a porch back in Astoria, but that was pretty much a light and air pollution hot spot because of the traffic, bridges, highways, restaurant exhausts, and LaGuardia.
Here’s something I can tell you – a 35mm f1.8 lens can allow a shot – no more than 8 seconds – of the night sky before motion is recorded into the image due to the rotation of the earth, relative to the starry dome. 4 seconds is actually preferable. ISO is basically whatever it has to be for the exposure, and for the other settings to be valid.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Lastly… if you’re going to be playing Bagpipes while riding a unicycle around Pittsburgh on a sunny afternoon, somebody is going to take a picture of you. Possibly video as well. Don’t get all prissy at the photographer, as he’s not the one who decided to ride around a park on a unicycle while playing bagpipes. You’re not shy, as you’re the one riding a unicycle while playing bagpipes.
Sheesh.
Back next week.
“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.
Run, Montour, Run
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An exercise day, which I’m trying to have occur every other day, arrived one morning and I drove over to the Montour Trail in pursuit of a bit of a walk. This trail is about 150 miles long, and whereas I could technically walk to Washington D.C. from Pittsburgh, I’m basically exploring the Montour Trail a few miles at a pop. I’ll pull the car into one of the lots attached to the trail, which is a former railroad ‘right of way,’ and then walk to the next parking lot and back. This usually ends up being 2-3 miles one way and then back again. It’s an easy walk, usually on a well graded and crushed limestone surface, and you’ll see bike riders and joggers doing the same thing as me, except I’ve got a camera. It’s actually… nice…
The water pictured is Montour Run, and there are former railroad bridges spanning the stream. Some portions of the Montour Trail are a walk through what this city boy would call woods, whereas others give you an interesting POV on the surrounding area’s industrial present or past. Here’s a few other sections of the Montour Trail I’ve visited, with this one found in the South Hills of Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you see in the photos, spring had just sprung. I encounter the term ‘run’ for a waterbody everywhere in Pittsburgh. It seems to indicate a steadily flowing stream or creek with mostly shallow water no more than few feet deep, but which is typically a few inches deep. The nature of the terrain is definitely part of the reason these waters flow, but I have the distinct sense that it was the railroad people who shaped these runs when their tracks were being laid down, to act as drainage for their infrastructure. ‘Run’ also seems to be an artifact of earlier times, like the word ‘Kill” is back in NYC – Kill Van Kull, Dutch Kills, etc.
I was extremely happy, of course, since there was a sewer plant on the opposite bank and it’s been a while since I smelled the good stuff. You can just see the treatment tanks peeking in at the top left of the shot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
On roadways which adjoin the ‘run’ waterways, you encounter signage admonishing drivers to be mindful of flooding during weather events or the spring thaw. I wonder how high the water has to rise for that to happen?
A bunch of kids who I ran into later on during this walk had been swimming just upstream, and I also saw several people fishing as well. This area of Pittsburgh is home to a gargantuan park complex called South Park, and the Montour Trail section I was in had to be less than a mile from the edge of the place. There’s conservation areas here as well, not sure if this is one of them or not. From what I understand, designated conservation areas are either watershed or ‘natural island’ related. Probably both.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
Old fashioned
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That Porta Potty in the shot above might actually be a Tardis, used by a Time Lord like Doctor Who to travel through time and space. At least that’s what it looks like to me. The rubble used to be a cold storage warehouse which is in the process of demolishment, but there’s a stoppage at the site currently since the process has destabilized buildings on neighboring lots. Guess what they’re going to build here? Yup, ‘affordable housing.’
After the Doors Open tour we attended, which allowed us access to a few amazing spots including two very interesting Roman Catholic Churches, it was time to head home. Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself had left the Mobile Oppression Platform (the Toyota) back at HQ and were traveling ‘to and from’ using the T Light Rail system.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After negotiating our way on foot to one of the T stations in Downtown Pittsburgh, we had about a 15 minute interval to wait before we boarded. The T runs off a catenary wire when it’s outside, but I think it uses a third rail shoe underground. The service is fairly frequent, even on the weekends, and there are multiple lines. It costs $2.75 to get back and forth from HQ.
Seriously, I’m absolutely loving having a car, especially one with a hybrid engine that regularly clocks in at 39 mpg while I’m living in a City where ‘all day parking’ costs something between $6 and $9, but there are days when I’d rather cut my head off than drive. The availability of transit is one of the factors that drove our choice of location regarding HQ here in Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the Red Line T arriving at the station. Notice the absence of garbage on the tracks, the lack of graffiti, and that nothing is dripping mystery sludge onto the platforms, and also the complete absence of pizza rats. Old ladies sat on a bench chatting while waiting for their train, without a care in the world. Nobody’s head was ‘on a swivel,’ except mine.
I used to always refer to NYC as ‘Home Sweet Hell’ in a joking matter. I don’t smile anymore when saying that.
Back tomorrow.
“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.
St. Patrick R.C. Church
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A few blocks away from St. Stanislaus Kostka Roman Catholic Church, which Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself got to visit on a walking tour of Pittsburgh’s Strip District offered by the ‘Doors Open Pittsburgh’ organization, is another church called St. Patrick’s. It has an interesting history, one which is detailed at this site.
I was struck, while our guide was describing the place to us, by the accoutrements. Sculpture and stained glass were everywhere, as were several oil paintings of important former Vicars and Priests. The Pieta pictured above was particularly well sculpted, in my opinion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I once did a comic that involved the Angels, using Sammael/Lucifer and Michael to fight back an analogous form of Cthulhu, but I interpreted them through a superheroic and pop cultural lens. I’m thinking that’s the Archangel Michael pictured above, as interpreted in the form of stained glass. Patrick is one of the Saints I’ve never seen rendered up like a medieval soldier with wings, which is conventionally how you see Gabriel or Metatron or Michael represented, instead it’s mostly bishop or monk robes for him. The rendering above is a bit more ‘Bible compliant’ than most of the Catholic art related to the Sons of Fire (men are the Sons of Clay), with the multiple sets of wings set into a roundish shape. Read the Book of Ezekiel if you want to know more about that description of God’s Squad.
If this Angel business is a topic that you have any sort of scholarly interest in, there’s an amazing set of books by a fellow named Jeffrey Burton Russell which explores the development of Christian philosophy from prehistoric times into the modern era. The conceit used is eminently Zoroastrian in nature – as in you cannot perceive the light without studying the shadows – so Russell focused in on what individual cultures during the various eras described as being tempting evil to discern what heights they aspired to instead. Russell’s bibliography includes ‘Satan: The Early Christian Tradition (1981),’ ‘Lucifer: The Devil in the Middle Ages (1984),’ ‘Mephistopheles: The Devil in the Modern World (1986)’ and others. Fully footnoted in both Latin and Greek, I would mention. Great stuff.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The stairs at the bottom of the shot above are a ‘Scala Sancta’ or Holy Stairs, which congregants are meant to ascend only on their knees. This is the ‘sacred space’ chapel area, which is remarkable for its unadorned and plain nature. Normally, Catholic spaces I’ve visited in the United States are more like St. Stanislaus Kostka – ornate and somewhat baroque with paintings and sculptures everywhere. This sort of chapel reminds me of small village churches I’ve seen in Europe.
Back tomorrow.
“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 