Posts Tagged ‘south side slopes’
Dragon Spittle
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everybody, and everything, hates me instinctively and innately on sight.
One has mentioned that cats hiss, dogs squeal, old ladies start to clutch at their purses, and flower blossoms close up as if it’s nighttime as I’m approaching. The human’s eyes grow wide, they scan my hands for possible weaponry, and my intent is often questioned.
I haven’t been chased by a mob of torch bearing commoners to an old mill yet, but I did once get chased by a group of old Greek ladies coming out of St. Irene’s in Astoria who became convinced that the presence of a camera in my hand indicated I was a member of Al Qaeda. True story.
This presumption of ‘stranger danger’ is nothing new to me, as I even used to catch ‘shade’ and suspicion when I was a little kid.
One has never understood this reaction that I engender in the gentry.
I don’t even litter, let alone paint graffiti, or do much more else than just simply walk around with a camera.
One of my little aphorisms demands that I leave behind nothing in my wake but footprints, wherever I go. I famously carry any trash I might generate along my path with me until a proper receptacle is found. I pay my tax, play music at low volumes, drive sanely and more or less within the posted speed restrictions. I’m the guy who’ll call 911 for strangers and wait with them until the ambulance arrives.
Sheesh!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Everybody hates me, on sight, basically.
One thing I’ve learned over the years is that most of the people who’ve known me will believe and embrace almost anything negative that’s said, no matter how crazy it sounds. I often have to explain this situation to new people who are entering my sphere, lest they believe me to be a paranoid, or become influenced by the ‘chorus.’
Your humble narrator thereby has to behave in a stiff and curiously upright manner while moving through the world, given that if someone might have said:
‘I saw Mitch – he was wearing a bright yellow bikini while shaving kittens down to skin, and then throwing them into Newtown Creek, after tattooing his ‘effin blog’s logo on them.’ The answer coming back from the receiver of that news would likely be ‘Yeah, I could see him doing that, what a jerk.’
(as a note: there’s no logo for this blog, I’ve never shaved a kitten, wouldn’t know which end of a tattoo machine to use, and the only thing I’ve ever ‘thrown’ into Newtown Creek was the time that I accidentally dropped an air blower from my camera kit on the Grand Street Bridge, and the thing bounced away from me and landed in the drink)
Literally – my whole life. Pariah.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Yeah, I know. If something is coming at you from everywhere and everyone, it’s not ‘them,’ it’s you. You’re the commonality.
Bah! Best to retreat to the lonely places, that’s where I belong and where the human infestation is less likely to reach out to touch or hurt me.
I don’t belong in the company of men, the jungle is my home…
A recent walk through one of Pittsburgh’s parks, which is spanned by the Mission Street Bridge, revealed a set of city steps which fall off of it and since I was passing by the very top of that set of steps on this day…
Rooty, rooty, zoot.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Something peculiar was occurring to the steel or iron bannister along these steps. It looked like something was dissolving the metal.
An engineer buddy of mine saw these shots and immediately came back with ‘concrete efflorescence,’ and continued that ‘lime was leaching out of the concrete drips’ and dissolving the metal.
How long has this been going on, and how much longer will it be before somebody decides to blame me for it?
‘Didja hear about Mitch? He’s dissolving metal bannisters in Pittsburgh now, what an icehole… Yeah, I could see him doing that…’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The lower bannister has been severed by this process – wow. Check out that splash on the step – here’s a close up of the splash pile.
My engineer buddy continued on, telling me that this is the same process by which stalagmites and stalactites are formed in caves.
The engineer doesn’t seem to hate me yet, but I’ll just give that one some time. Everyone comes around eventually, to hating me. Apparently, if you haven’t burnt me in effigy yet, you’re missing out.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
By the way – I’m not being paranoid or weird here – it’s lived experience.
I’m sort of ok with somebody hating me after they’ve gotten to know me, but the whole hissing cat and ‘shade’ thing from passing strangers just freaks me out.
Back next week with more paranoia – 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.
Hey Now! and then Sterling
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Same old, huh? This shot of CSX #917 was captured at my ‘usual’ spot, nearby that brewery on Pittsburgh’s South Side which I hang around.
Wasn’t out for a walk on this particular evening, rather Our Lady and myself were on our way to a fantastic sushi dinner and had decided to stop off for a quick pint as we were early for the reservation. Birthday.
Saying that, a desire has been building of late in my mind, for the novel.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Nevertheless – exercise day arrived again, and despite my desire to experience something which I hadn’t seen before – one nevertheless returned to Sterling Street’s City Steps – in Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes section.
This is a particularly long set of City Steps, and as I keep reminding myself – every scuttle doesn’t have to the Odyssey, or be about ‘art.’
Sometimes a walk is just a walk.
I was dropped off by a rideshare car, thereupon my ghastly physical realities oozed from the thing and one puddled up on the street, where I belong. Your humble narrator got organized, straightening out all my bag straps and dangling camera gear, whereupon my feet got down to kicking dirt again.
An infinity of time was not on my menu, as I’d had a fairly busy early morning and there was ‘stuff’ to do in the evening, so only a three to four hour window to wander about was available to me.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Stage one of this outing involved Sterling Street’s installation of one of the Pittsburgh’s City Step infrastructure. To the left in the shot above is the extant property of a city park, and within there were a group of people from its ‘friends of’ group planting and caring for trees.
From this POV, it looks like a ‘straight shot’ to the Birmingham Bridge spanning the Monongahela River below, but the relationship between appearances and deception is an old trope.
Especially so in Pittsburgh.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That’s the span – mentioned above – pictured, and it’s dubbed as being the Birmingham Bridge, which is often featured here at Newtown Pentacle as I cross it on foot and also by car frequently.
It was a fairly warm day, but the humidity and breeze were both at comfortable levels, as far a day in late August goes.
The Newtown Pentacle time warp has alleviated slightly as I secretly took a bit of time off at the end of the summer, from all of the writing and photography. Didn’t go anywhere or do anything worth mentioning, but I’m still maintaining my ‘advance padding’ of scheduled posts. These shots were gathered on the 24th of August, and the words were mostly written on the 6th of September. If the scheduling works out as anticipated, you’re seeing this on the 15th of October.
Yes, I’m now six weeks out from publication date. This is not a bad thing, for me at least, but I’ve got to spend some time getting Halloween posts together for spooky season.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back at where I’d just scuttled…
These long downward courses have absolutely been what the doctor ordered, as far as getting my legs back into shape and reversing the muscular atrophy experienced during the broken ankle interval.
I’m still dealing with muscular and tendon related after effects from that injury, as a note. They said it would take two years or more, for full recovery, at my orthopedist’s office…
Sigh…
As described in the past, the benefit of walking these long downward step courses involves development in the front meat of the thighs and calves, which are otherwise hard muscles to ‘hit.’
The act of walking down these steps, despite the background PTSD I experience (the injury occurred on a set of steps in my house) while scuttling down long courses of rises and runs, also causes the actuation of a bunch of those hidden ‘rubber bands’ found in the foot and ankle which are otherwise calcified, and still stiff from the injury.
I’m all ‘effed up.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As you descend, the steps take the form of several homes sidewalks.
I always muse to myself about how difficult it must be to handle the ‘business of life’ here in the South Side Slopes. Food shopping, parking the car, getting a delivery – all must be informed and constrained by this crazy terrain.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
Quarry Scuttle
Tuesday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Another day, another scuttle.
Back to Pittsburgh’s South Side Slopes for this one, and another walk that I’ve been ‘saving up’ for myself. I’ve wanted to, but… Y’know… the broken ankle. Now that your humble narrator is more or less ‘back,’ one decided that it was time – at last – to check out the South Side Quarry park.
This pathway spends a bit of distance in an area designated as parkland, and then spits you back out onto South 21st street in the South Side Flats.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It took a bit of bobbing and weaving to get there, but it wasn’t a difficult walk at all. I had myself dropped off by a rideshare, at a convenient spot, and then off I went.
Scuttle, scuttle, scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
From the other/street facing side of these homes, all you’d see is a single story and a set of steps leading downwards. There’s a path here which leads directly into the park itself.
South Side Park was ‘established’ in 1965. Here’s the wikipedia page about it, and I’m led to believe that the pathway/park that I was walking through used to be used for the combination of an incline funicular, and there was also a brick manufacturing outfit.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The place was deserted, but to be fair – it was a weekday afternoon.
My plan for the day started here, but there were also other things I wanted to do and see around this ‘zone.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
That 1939 vintage metal bridge, pictured above, carries a local street over the ravine and it’s called the Mission Street Bridge.
I ran into, and joked around with, some dude walking his dog right around here. I’m garrulous, so I made him laugh. My work was done. The dog was nice too, but wanted to get on with his sniffing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Surprisingly there’s another set of City Steps here, which fall off of the Mission Street Bridge, and that’s something which I’ll have to inspect on my next walk through this area.
Back tomorrow with more.
“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.
South Side Hollow? and Hey Now!
Thursday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
One has been working his way along the Monongahela River facing ridge line of Pittsburgh’s Mount Washington for quite a bit now. City Steps, weird undulating roadways, all that are on offer to the curious in this ‘zone.’ I’ve been boxing off and trying to experience all the pathways up here. I’m told there’s lots of unofficial pathways too, which are known to kids from the neighborhood and dearly held.
Basically, my usual plan is to get to a high point and then find a path from the ‘South Side Slopes,’ or Mount Washington, which leads down to the ‘South Side Flats.’ This particular scuttle did begin in the South Side Slopes section, but a bit further east from where I normally walk.
I got started at the intersection of Arlington Avenue and Josephine Street.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As is my habit, a fairly thorough bit of virtual ‘routing and scouting’ had occurred the night before, in the Google Maps app. My compass would be fairly useless in this area, so I had to rely on a list of ‘make a left’ and ‘turn right at’ directions for this leg of things.
There was a particular set of City Steps which I didn’t want to miss. I made it a point of recording the address of a home right next door to them so as not to walk right past them without noticing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The South 30th street steps!
What drew me out in this direction was a video which my failing memory originally thought was from the excellent ‘Time Travel with Tim’ channel on YouTube, but instead it’s a similarly great ‘Cruising Pittsburgh’ production. Check out their video here. I was intrigued by the author’s introduced concept of a ‘South Side Hollow.’
One set his toes firmly in the direction of the steps.
Y’know what happened? I didn’t experience the stairs based PTSD this time around when walking down them. Progress!
– photo by Mitch Waxman
At the bottom of those steps you find yourself on a patch of solid ground, which the kids might call ‘Jane Street.’ There’s a lot of electrical infrastructure at the far end of Jane Street, which I imagine was once used to power up the nearby J&L steel mill, located along the riverfront.
Guessing, there.
This is more or less where the elevation of the Norfolk Southern trackage on this side of the river becomes ‘flush’ with the ground level.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Pure serendipity here, as I had just planned on scouting this area for future photo exploration, and then along comes Norfolk Southern #1225.
Hey Now!
This shot was dramatically overexposed, incidentally, but I ‘needed it’ to tell my story. Luckily, I shoot in RAW format, so there’s always a stop or two of ‘wiggle room’ for an exposure. Weird color in the sky, though.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Got this one right. Hey Now!
Back tomorrow with something different.
“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.
Sinking feelings
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Mountain Avenue to Yard Way part three.
Not gonna lie, your humble narrator has been ‘bumming out’ of late. The news isn’t a subject which I like to dwell upon these days, as whether it’s National or Global – it’s all bad. I’ve made it a point of not talking about world events here, in an attempt to provide some bit of diversion that isn’t apocalyptic or horrible.
The future has ended up to just kind of suck.
Somehow, I’m not surprised, but then again – I am – after all, a member of Generation X. We always figured that the Baby Boomers would figure out a way to screw everyone else, during their dotage and on their way out. It’s how they lived, it’s how they’ll die.
One likes to ruminate while out, and scuttling about, which your humble narrator was involved with on this particular day.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Dribbling down the Yard Way steps, in the manner of a greasy liquid one associates with that which might ooze forth from an abattoir, me. My countenance is horrific, with dogs and children shrieking as I pass by. Cats hiss. Blossoms fold as if it was night as I scuttle past. A bird once saw me from above, and dropped out of the air dead, right in front of me. Pestilential.
I’ve been called that, as a point of fact. Pestilential.
Yard Way’s City Steps terminate at Pius Street, where the steps transmogrify into a series of sidewalk ramps. A block or two away from this spot are the Church Route City Steps, upon which I’d continue this scuttle.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Looking back at where I’d been, above.
As far as the bad mood goes, mental health complaints don’t necessarily refer to me slipping into or feeling ‘batshit crazy,’ but at the time of this writing I would describe myself as suffering from a bit of a ‘psychic cold.’
Low grade, no fever, just your run of the mill stuffy nose, headache, and sore throat kind of thing – that’s the analogy. It’s annoying, being bummed out, but just like when you’ve got a cold – you just have to wait it out, and then go for a walk in the sun when you’re feeling better.
Normally, I’m an ‘effin beacon of positivity, yo.
That’s me, just ask anyone who knows me in real life. I’m all sunshine and lollipops if you meet me in person.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Times like these are when all of those little guiding aphorisms of mine, which I pass off as wisdom, come into play.
‘It’s all downhill from here, and wherever that goes, there you are. Take a picture, it’ll last longer. One foot after the other, other, and soon you’ll be walking out the door. You’ll never win a fight with a woman you love, find a better way. Be early, at least they can’t hold that against you. Nothing matters, and nobody cares.’
The songbook from the musical ‘Annie’ suggests that the sun will indeed come out tomorrow. The Gorilla Biscuits also chide one to ‘Start Today.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My plan had been was to try and catch some Norfolk Southern train traffic along the way, but that neighborhood cleanup mentioned in earlier posts extended down to their tracks, and there were people with hi-viz vests and NS hats on who were talking on walkie talkies while the neighborhood people did their thing on and along the rails.
No bueno.
One decided to ‘try’ for CSX instead, an ideation which would involve a bit more scuttling. There would a possibility of a beer, too.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As far as cheering up, it’s a fairly difficult, intractable, and closed system. Me. Whatever happens behind the eyes and between the ears is sort of tidal in nature. When a storm comes, you just ride it out.
Only thing to do – really – is get out and shoot a bunch of photos, scuttling about, and turning the earth beneath my feet.
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.
