Posts Tagged ‘queens’
insipid novels
Wednesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The first decent snowfall of this year was at the end of the first week in January, and like the heavy fog which drew me over to Astoria Park, the weather system produced an interesting series of atmospheric conditions. This time around, I left HQ in the late afternoon, as I had timed this “long walk” to the Dutch Kills tributary of Newtown Creek in Long Island City to coincide with sunset. Luckily, the storm which had just dumped the snow was still visible, but moving quickly away towards the south.
High clouds equal lots of color in the sunset, low clouds mean murky and muddy skies.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Far and away, my favorite part of Newtown Creek is Dutch Kills. Lots of bridges which offer points of view over the water, and a feature rich landscape of fairly low lying industrial buildings that don’t block the light. I’m quite fond of other spots on the creek, Industrial Maspeth and the area surrounding the Kosciuszcko Bridge are “happy hunting grounds” for the camera. What all of my favorites have in common is some form of access to the shoreline without having to climb a fence or trespass on private property to get there.
Dutch Kills is my jam, though. It’s the first section of Newtown Creek that I explored and studied, all those years ago, and is a relatively “easy reach” for me when I’m headed out for a walk from HQ in Astoria.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The leftie contingent of politicians here in Queens hate capitalism, but they love big real estate, which is a dichotomous situation. They believe in the “YIMBY” or “yes in my back yard” ideation, which states that in order to have “affordable housing” you need to demolish the existing and currently affordable housing stock, and then replace it with luxury condo buildings which will offer a small percentage of rooms in the new structures as “below market rate” “affordable apartments.” Given that “below market rate” is often offered at a 25-35% higher in rent price than what they replaced…
Nothing matters, and nobody cares.
Hey, check it out – from what the YIMBY’s refer to as “a transit rich corridor along Borden Avenue” you can see the sewer plant in Brooklyn, looking south past the tracks of the garbage train, and a giant recycling oriented waste transfer station which is down the block from an even bigger facility that handles putrescent garbage, alongside a Federal Superfund Site. Or, as the real estate people refer to it – the Borden Avenue Corridor.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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“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.
hidden byway
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Having accomplished the “distant foggy” shots which drew me out of HQ, a humble narrator began the scuttle back home but I was far from done with the evening’s exertions. For those keeping score – the walk to Astoria Park and the waterfront adjoining Shore Boulevard from HQ and back is found somewhere on the dividing line between a “long” and a “short” walk for me. Basically, it’s further away than you perceive it to be when leaving the house, but not all that far, really.
At least it’s mostly flat. I’m pretty sensitive to discrete changes in altitude and declination for some reason. If you pay attention to the “lay of the land” it’s possible to ignore the built environment’s masonry distractions and “see” what the actual topography is like.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Obviously, the area surrounding the early 20th century vintage Hells Gate and Triborough Bridges had been thoroughly worked over by crews of laborers. There was an “Astoria Park” prior to the modern shaping, which you can observe on old maps from the 19th century, but it was nothing like the modern park other than location.
One hung around the park for a bit, shooting from various spots, but I won’t bore you with those photos since they really weren’t anything special. The fog had started thinning out in anticipation of a forthcoming bout of rain, so I pointed my toes back towards HQ.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Good golly, do I ever enjoy the weird lighting offered by food trucks for some reason. It’s funny the way that you suddenly become entranced by something that was formerly ignored. Throughout the pandemic months, I’ve found myself noticing things – gas stations, for instance – that I used to just scuttle right past.
Tomorrow – something completely different at this, your Newtown 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.
puerile kind
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Now that’s what I call fog, baby. A promising weather report drew me over to the East River’s Hells Gate section, which paid off for a humble narrator. For these shots, I was using the Ultrapod camera support that I’ve mentioned in the past. Said device is a metal plate with four feet under it, and a tripod ball head mounted right in its center on top. This gizmo allows me to place the camera into fairly odd places, including right down on the sidewalk or onto the ledge of the Shore Blvd. retaining wall. Don’t worry, the camera’s strap was still firmly attached to my person.
That’s the Hell Gate Bridge, as if you didn’t already know that.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
When an NYC Ferry boat, operating on the Soundview Route, came speeding by I quickly readjusted what the camera was pointed at and changed my lens. I was quick enough to catch the displacement wave of the ferry’s passing impacting the shoreline here in Astoria. It’s dark down there, so I set the exposure to about 30 seconds, which is why the wave water looks like smoke or mist in the shot above.
The fog helped me with this shot, as a note, since it allowed for the diffusion of illuminated light coming from Randall’s/Wards Island and the Triborough Bridge.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Speaking of mighty Triborough…
This is, of course, just a part of the bridge complex known as Triborough and it’s specifically the East River suspension bridge section.
Fog, baby, fog.
“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.
infinity eddied
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Temperature inversion with an extremely high atmospheric dew point? Yes, please. Seriously, this sort of statement from the TV weather people is electrifying. As soon as it’s uttered, one gathers up his old kit bag and smiles, smiles, smiles. Fog, and in particular – peas soup fog – is the order of the day. Given NYC’s relationship to the ocean, most of our foggy days are actually “precipitating mist” days, which are ruinous for photographic pursuit. You can’t keep the lens clean due to the precipitant part of that condition.
Proper fog is fairly rare in these parts, and when it comes, a narrator humble hits the streets and heads off in the direction of something both visually interesting and distant. On my way I couldn’t resist an exposure of this “Matthew’s Model Flat” rounded corner. I’m told that the street level shop was historically a candy store. Today, I believe it sells Santeria oriented potions and charms.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Hell’s Gate was my destination, which is one of the things I enjoy saying out loud as it makes me sound spooky and mysterious. A quick scuttling found me on Hoyt Avenue North, alongside mighty Triborough and heading towards the turgid waters of the East River.
The air was thick, and it smelled like a combination of sewer gas and petroleum exhaust, with a hint of cinnamon. There was also a nearly imperceptible hint of thyme as well, but somebody nearby was probably roasting a chicken. You smell a lot of things in Astoria, but mostly weed. Astoria smells like college most days.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My path carried me through Astoria Park’s parking lot, which definitely smelled like weed. Weed, and Tinder/Grindr hook ups. I kept my head on a swivel, as the saying goes. Lots of weird shit happens in Astoria Park at night, of the sort which you don’t want to be involved in. It’s dark, and there’s small groups of people everywhere. Some have malign intent, some are just looking for a place to sleep where they won’t be hassled, others are looking to fill their pockets with whatever you might have in your own.
Saying all that, made it through the park in fine fettle and nobody messed with me. Got myself down to Shore Road and made myself conspicuous by whipping out the camera and getting busy with it. Unfortunately for you, lords and ladies, you’ll have to wait till next week to see what I saw.
“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.
strange dolphins
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
A short walk found a humble narrator at one of his many holes. That’s a fence hole at the Sunnyside Yards, you pervert. Jeez.
I got there just as a LIRR train was rattling through the Harold Interlocking on its way to Manhattan, and since I had just updated the firmware on my camera to a new version that Canon claimed to have programmed vehicle based focus tracking into, I figured that this would be an ideal opportunity to test out the improvements to my technology.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned, this was a short walk. I scuttled up 39th street, past the hole mentioned above, then hung a right on Skillman Avenue and walked past a taxi depot which uses street parking spots to store their vehicles for free. The bike people use this term all the time – free car storage – to describe street parking. It’s an effective bit of political language, since it reframes something ubiquitous into an issue oriented phrase. For me, though, I see “free car storage” with a different lens.
Private businesses parking their commercial vehicles for free, and government agencies doing the same thing, eat up hundreds of parking spots which they’re not paying for. The vast amount of space eaten up by the NYC DOT’s vehicle fleets along Queens Blvd. just pisses me off, given that they’re the ones whose policies reflect a desire to eliminate as much citizen parking as is possible. Who watches the watchmen, huh? Me, that’s who.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I swung through Queens Plaza, then started scuttling along the diagonal lots along Northern Blvd. on my way back to Astoria. Along the way, this FDNY Ambulance caught my attention with its ribald strobing.
This is just about the day in middle December when the Covid Omicron spike was really getting started and ramping up. This time around, unlike March and April of 2020, you didn’t see all that many people getting carted off to Hospital. Hmm. It’s almost like the vaccines did their job and kept people from getting dangerously sick from the virus.
That can’t be true, though, because Jewish Space Lasers.
“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 