The Newtown Pentacle

Thursday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Looking back at the pathway I’d just scuttled, along Pittsburgh’s St. Nicholas Church trail, which is set into the landscape along Route 28. There’s a small monument with some historic signage recognizing the importance of the former church, no doubt a political nod to the Croatian community who used to populate this area and belonged to the church.

Route 28 is also called ‘East Ohio Street’ and the ‘Pittsburgh-Buffalo Highway,’ by the way. Onward and upwards.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Liminal spaces are spots which people move through but aren’t occupied full time by anyone. Airports, train stations, long corridors. That sort of thing.

There’s a devastating loneliness inherent to these transitory spaces which I just feed on in the manner of a vampire. Pictured above is the monument to the demolished church.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Historically minded morons promulgate stories of ‘elites’ hiding things away from history for ‘reasons,’ as it doesn’t fit their modern political narratives. If you want to indulge yourself in a bit of pure pseudo scientific fiction, that is most likely a Russian disinformation project, google the terms ‘mud floods’ and Tartaria. Graham Hancock’s face is hanging in my mind’s eye right now.

The Incels are really into this sort of thing at the moment, as it pulls the rug out from under a bunch of the things that they hate.

In reality, historic ruins often take the form of that cornerstone from the church in the shot above. In a a hundred years, when the signs and the people who remember the church are all gone, this corner stone will likely be hidden away and buried in the soil, waiting for someone in the future to dig it out and try to put a story together about it.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Nothing is true anymore, is it? The great unraveling is upon us, with institutional decay caused by tumult from the endless sea of politics.

Knowledge isn’t what it used to be, and people will state that they ‘do their own research.’ They don’t parse that not all sources are good, even if they agree with what the source says.

I do my own research, but never pass on juicy information that agrees with my particular world view unless I can confirm it by a secondary source that also bears some provenance but has no relationship with the first. A lot of historic stories end up getting warped by retelling, and it’s like the child’s game of ‘Telephone’ watching facts get mangled. I’ve always liked fire insurance maps and court testimony, for instance, since money and freedom are on the line respectively.

You can’t take anything for granted, except for greed and crime.

Has American civilization become a liminal space?

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The trail ended directly across the street from what is purported to be the oldest beer brewery in Pittsburgh, currently operated under the nomen ‘Penn Brewery.’ They weren’t open, as this was a Monday.

Shame, could have used a beer at this point, strictly in the name of replenishment of course. I got to quaff a pint or two at the end of this walk, but that’s several posts away from this one.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My path still had a few wonders in store, and the plan was to scuttle at the Heinz Factory and then cross the Allegheny River, nearby the 16th street Bridge. The ankle was holding up just fine, in case you’re curious.

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.

Wednesday

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Firstly, the official speed limit on Route 28 is 45mph. Given a nearly total abandonment of the enforcement of traffic laws regarding vehicle speed on the part of the Pittsburgh Police Department, the actual speed limit here is delimited by how fast you feel comfortable driving. It’s common for a pickup to hurtle past you at 80mph on this stretch. That’s fast enough for the slipstream of a passing F-250 to jostle your car, and enough to pop the baseball cap off a humble narrator’s cabeza.

The St. Nicholas Trail is an artifact of a road widening project which is said to have wrapped up around 2011. Route 28 offers some spectacular views of the city from a less common POV, so I decided to roll the dice and see where this trail went to. I tightened the band on my ball cap.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This was actually quite a horrible experience. It reminded me of the foot path to St. Michael’s Cemetery in Astoria, which runs along the Grand Central Parkway. Cars whipping by on your left, a wooded highway side on the right. Lots of car exhaust, noise, and heavy trucking shooting past at high speeds. Horrible, really.

I was so happy.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Looking back at the oncoming horde of engines, metal, and glass. I’m not kidding about this road being a difficult drive. Pittsburgh drivers love to tailgate, and compound accidents are pretty common here. A four car compound crash incident happened just a few days after shooting these photos.

As a former New Yorker – yes, we are aggressive drivers too. Saying that, we New Yorkers all learned how to drive in a constrained space with hard speed limits in a dense urban core, limits which are enforced by a de facto paramilitary army of 38,000 highly motivated cops that are expected to hand out a certain quota of traffic tickets every day.

There’s less than 900 Pittsburgh PD officers on staff currently, and no Chief.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Norfolk Southern has a set of tracks which parallel Route 28, and they had a series of train cars sitting alongside the road which made for a nice framing device – compositionally speaking. The rail cars had black stone within them, a mineral which was probably coal.

Luckily, the St. Nicholas trail is fairly short, and it leaves the immediate vicinity of Route 28 after a short interval of what seemed like a mile and change. This ‘totally stupid fun’ scuttle was just what I needed, but I can’t recommend the path for its insalubriousness, due to the arms length nearness of hurtling highway traffic.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The trail’s path begins to veer away from Route 28 at one point, and you get to leave the highway noise, exhaust fumes, and constant wake driven blasts of air pressure you experience.

As described, St. Nicholas Church was an RC outpost here that was colloquially referred to as the ‘Croatian Cathedral,’ and that was the ethnic population here which called the surrounding neighborhood ’Mala Jaska.’

I lived in a Croatian section back in Astoria, and learned that it’s just best to go along with whatever they want to call something, bro.

My upstairs neighbors in Astoria for a bunch of years were a Croatian family. Mom and Dad, and an adult son. Dad’s name was Dario, the son Mario. My landlord used to employ them to do repairs on our building.

Our Lady and myself would just refer to them as the ‘Arios.’ Mario used to insert ‘Bro’ into every statement he uttered, but to fair he was a Union laborer and that’s the culture he lived in. He would call his Mom ‘Bro.’

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Thankfully, the totally stupid fun section of my day was coming to an end. I still had miles and miles in front of me. It was beautiful day in Pittsburgh, with temperatures in the high 60’s and a steady breeze.

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.