Posts Tagged ‘Pittsburgh’
All cars are street cars… just sayin
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Christmas Day is when these shots of the ‘T’ streetcar, speeding through the Borough of Dormont here in the Pittsburgh Metropole, were shot. Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself had met up with neighborhood friends at the local dive bar for a few holiday drinks.
Me? It was actually somewhat bright outside and I couldn’t help but wander about a bit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T pictured above and below is a Siemens SD-400 model streetcar, which runs on Pennsylvania Trolley Gauge tracks. These are facts I learned by visiting a detailed and nicely researched post found at tramreview.com.
These streetcars replaced a fleet of earlier and ‘proper’ Trolley cars. I’m planning on heading over to the PA. Trolley Museum at some point in the coming months to learn more.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It was nice having a little get together with the neighbors on Christmas, and also getting a few belts in during the early afternoon.
Day drinking, amirite?
It ain’t the 7 train, the ‘T,’ but I find it pretty interesting. Still haven’t taken a bus or checked out Pittsburgh’s ‘Bus ways.’
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.
Glass, & Ceratops Quīnquāgintā Septem
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh does a ‘Holiday Market’ dealie near the PPG tower, which is a castellated office building complex that was designed by architect Philip Johnson. Johnson was a guy who would regularly cast stones, even though he literally lived in a glass house for 58 years.
Personally, I’m not really a fan of Johnson’s sterility architecture, as his installations generally create urban deserts around the buildings, blighting any sort of organic street life in an antiseptic and uninviting order. I prefer the chaos of urban heterogeneity, me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An ice skating rink is set up in the ‘plaza’ of PPG Place for the Holiday Season, and locals drive in from extant points to indulge. Our Lady of the Pentacle wished to visit a nearby holiday market which was set up a block or two away.
While there, I was closely watching her every move and mentally recording whatever she reacted to positively, as far as the holiday market’s offerings. All of this was in the name of filling her Christmas Stocking, of course, so when I revisited the spot a couple of days later…
On this particular day, however, our sole purchase was a bottle of mull wine, which we would serve at a holiday gathering for a couple of the new neighbors back at HQ.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A statuary display of a Ceratops Quīnquāgintā Septem (that’s how you’d pronounce the number 57 in Latin) or perhaps it was a Heinz Triceratops, was on holiday display nearby the entrance to the PPG tower.
PPG stands for ‘Pittsburgh Plate Glass’ just in case you’re curious. They’re one of Pittsburgh’s ‘anchor’ companies, born and bred.
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.
Golden crossing
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As described last week, a humble narrator was taking one of those regular but quite existential ‘long walks,’ here in Pittsburgh. The scuttling motions were not following any particular design or desire, nor was there an esoteric photographic subject which my steps were chasing toward. Rather, one was simply wandering about, in the manner of a mendicant, clothed in black sack cloth.
The car was back at HQ, and I had taken mass transit (The T Streetcar service) to the northern shore of the Allegheny River. Pictured above are two of the ‘Three Sisters’ bridges spanning the waterway in this section, as captured from the ‘Three Rivers Heritage Trail.’
I don’t remember exactly, but I think the bridge pictured above is the one named for Roberto Clemente, an athlete who was beloved by the masses of this city. The span is also known as the Sixth street bridge, if I’m right about which one it is.
They all look alike, this triad, hence ‘three sisters.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I’m fairly sure that this shot was gathered on the Rachel Carson (author of Silent Spring) or Ninth Street Bridge, which I crossed the river upon, from the ‘North Side’ to ‘Downtown.’ Nothing really matters, however, and nobody really cares.
Longtime readers of Newtown Pentacle will remind the newer victims that a humble narrator often gets a bit morose around this time of year – it’s the cold and the dark and the paucity of opportune moments, and most of all – serendipity – which puts me into a mood.
Not anyone’s problem but mine, though, and I always end up finding something ridiculous or interesting to do, the novelty of which blows away the shroud of winter cobwebs, and lights those shadowed places wherein I dwell in garish fashion.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The curative to the sort of mood I’m experiencing is discipline based, for one such as myself.
Got to get out, keep on walking, shooting and ‘experiencing.’ A big part of my recent somnambularity has been weather and holiday related, but mostly it’s been Pittsburgh’s environment. We’re experiencing what the locals will often refer to as “the Gray.” Overcast, dark, cold, and wet. Bah.
The day I was taking this walk, on the other hand, offered a brief six or so hour spell of blue skies and a chance to absorb the radiates of the burning thermonuclear eye of god itself, freely spilling down from the vault in unoccluded fashion, so I took advantage.
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.
Scuttle, rinse, repeat
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another of my ‘long walk days’ arrived, and for this one I was feeling a hankering for pointing the lens at downtown Pittsburgh’s North Side.
Up the hill one scuttled, and to the T streetcar station did one shamble.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pittsburgh’s buses come in different colors, but I cannot describe the logic behind the polychrome, as my ignorance on the subject hasn’t been punctured.
There’s a pretty extensive network of bus routes hereabouts, a municipal service which I haven’t taken advantage of yet. The unit above was sitting idle nearby the terminal stop on the T.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As always, I followed the direction my toes happened to be pointing towards, and found myself in front of Heinz Acrisure Stadium where the Steelers carry the hopes and dreams of millions upon their broad backs.
I was traveling light on this walk, with a bag full of prime lenses rather than zooms.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The stadium abuts the Three River Heritage Trail, which follows the Allegheny River, and that’s where I was heading.
This time around, my headphones were in and I was listening to an audio adaption of Stephen King’s ‘Children of the Corn.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the trail, the river, and the downtown section of the city of Pittsburgh pictured above. The Mr. Rogers memorial is on the left.
People ask: Why Pittsburgh?
Answer: this Brooklyn kid always wanted to live in Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. Won’t you be my neighbor, you effin icehole?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The trail proceeds up the Allegheny River, away from its end at the confluence of the Three Rivers, and that’s the Fort Duquesne Bridge pictured above.
More 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.
Flats to Hills
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Today’s post is a short one, offering a few shots gathered while walking from the Birmingham Bridge to a T streetcar station found on the south side of the Monongahela River, here in Pittsburgh.
There’s a bunch of really interesting, and disturbingly heterogeneous, housing stock found in the South Side Flats area. Looks to be late 19th, early 20th to me, and are mainly ‘workers cottages.’ This neighborhood used the Philadelphia style of planning for its layout – short blocks with narrow streets and sidewalks and populated by humble row houses.
I was intrigued by the fire escape on this particular home, for some reason.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Along my path, several sets of those ‘City Steps’ were bypassed. An accommodation for Pittsburgh’s crazy terrain, these things are everywhere you look. I plan on doing some exploring of this infrastructure in the coming year.
A humble narrator made it to the station just as a ‘T’ Red Line streetcar was arriving, and I quickly boarded it for the five or so mile ride back to home. A random thought invaded, and I rode past my stop to the neighboring community of Mount Lebanon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
There’s a bar nearby this stop which unfailingly offers Guinness beer on tap. Ubiquitous in NYC, Guinness was always my choice of poison, and I miss being able to count on its presence in the saloons of Queens and Brooklyn. It was time for a pint, and a quick text to home summoned Our Lady of the Pentacle from her domestic comfort to join.
As the poet O’Shea Jackson would say – I gotta say it was a good day.
“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 