Posts Tagged ‘The T’
Trolling on the Ides
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Whenever I’m under a bridge, one can’t help but go all Brooklyn in my thoughts – “Hey Ma, check me out, I’m a troll hanging out under da bridge.” The one pictured above is the Fort Pitt Bridge in Pittsburgh, spanning the Monongahela River. It’s a pretty city, I tell’s ya.
There’s a few weird cultural things here in Pittsburgh which I still haven’t gotten used to. This area was a frontline during the French and Indian War, and thereby there’s a bunch of town names which have French origins. Thing is – they pronounce “Versailles” as ‘Ver Sales,’ and “Dubois” as ‘Du Boys’ here in Western PA – which causes me headaches, and inflammation.
The Brooklyn way is to purposely mispronounce ‘fancy pants’ words and speak them as they’re spelled – hence ‘Whores Du Vores’ for ‘Hors D’oeuvres’ or ‘Antikways’ for ‘Antiques’ – but the locals aren’t being snarky like all Brooklyn people are obliged to be, and the Yinzers literally say ‘Ver Sales’ for ‘Versailles.’
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This was a short walk, as stated in Monday’s post, one which took place on a fairly cold and windy day. I was quite pleased to reach the final leg thereby, which carried me over to the Light Rail station for a ride back to HQ. The Three Rivers Heritage Trail was exited at Smithfield Street, where I found this charming arrangement of cautionary signage that had been tumbled about by the turbulent atmospherics.
I’m really trying to lean into my exercise schedule of ‘one day out, one day in,’ at the moment. Winter, although it was a fairly mild one, is not my favorite time of year. Luckily, the camera is hungry for sights to see and I have to oblige the thing.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It didn’t take long for my chariot to arrive, which carried my bloated pre-corpse back to HQ. Embarrassingly, just as I was about to sit down on the train, the T light car I was in lurched forward, which caused me to stumble and fall. Everybody onboard was concerned about the old fellow with the gray beard who just fell down.
I was worried about the camera. It was fine.
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia at this – your Newtown Pentacle.
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Scuttle on, my wayward son
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Climatologically speaking, it was in in the high 30’s with a stiff wind on this particular afternoon, but exercise day is exercise day and a humble narrator tries to stick to a schedule. One scuttled up the hill from HQ, and soon found himself at the Potomac ‘Red Line’ Station of Pittsburgh’s light rail system – The T – and ready to board a city bound train set and subsequently set out on a short walk.
As stated previously, a short walk for me is one of about 4-5 miles. This one was also a ‘photowalk,’ which means that whereas I intended to wave the camera around, no specific shot was being sought. Catch as catch can, for this sort of thing.
The T service carried me to its terminal stop on the north shore of Pittsburgh, dubbed Allegheny Station, which is where the line runs up and out of the ground and onto an elevated track, which is found nearby Acrisure Stadium wherein the Pittsburgh Steelers play sportsball.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Curiosity leads me about on this sort of endeavor. What’s over there, or there, or… you just kind of follow your nose, and try to see something off the beaten track. I was intrigued by the masonry shadow of a long gone building. Its shape suggests that a house used to kiss up against the larger commercial structure, which is itself hollowed out and largely windowless, as it is seemingly undergoing a stalled renovation.
A recently announced development project, whose footprint is nearby, promises a new effort at making use of a part of Pittsburgh’s waterfront to create a tourist, hospitality, nightlife, and shopping Mecca that would take advantage of sportsball tourism. The centerpiece of this project is a giant Ferris wheel.
That didn’t work out too good on Staten Island, I’d offer, but sportball stadiums actually cost NYC money, whereas the ones in Pittsburgh offer a surplus in economic activity and tourism (hotels, bars, restaurants, even the museums see higher revenue during weekend sports events here).
It’ll be interesting to see what happens, maybe ride that Ferris Wheel, and ultimately – I don’t really care. My gentrifiers are back in NYC. I guess that I’m one in Pittsburgh – howzaboutdat?
– photo by Mitch Waxman
My nose following found me walking towards the West End Bridge, to enact a now familiar plan of heading back towards the distant T station which would be the end of this short walk. Luckily, for once, I had picked the right time of day – as you’ll see in posts all week long.
Apparently, and I’m sure this is an absolute coincidence and has nothing to do with the development plans, the West End Bridge is about to start redesigning its approaches and interfaces with the neighborhoods that it connects to… one of which happens to be where that Ferris Wheel dealie is supposed to be. There’s an local outfit called Riverlife which seems to be driving the train on this one.
Lots to see coming up this week – here at Newtown Pentacle – towboats and railroads, oh my. Back tomorrow.
“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle
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Starts with T, ends with T, sounds like ‘tea’
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
After a short walk, described this past week, a quick bit of waiting at the light rail station saw my chariot arrive. I’ve got a car parked back in the driveway at HQ, but give me a choice between driving and mass transit… I’m always taking the train if I can.
Has nothing to do with any lofty ideals or anything like that. I feel a greater sense of freedom not having to worry about where I parked and how to get back there, and I can even stop off for a quick beer if I like when I’m on foot. I’m fairly ‘hardcore’ about not driving when ‘substances’ might be involved, these days. On this particular walk, no extracurricular activities occurred, but if the camaraderie of a tap room called, I could answer that clarion call.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Upon returning back to Dormont, which is where HQ is located, I hung around the station for a few minutes to capture the shot above, of a Pittsburgh bound T. I normally shoot this sort of thing from the inward bound platform, rather than from the outward bound one. What can I tell you, the light was nice.
By this part of the day, the chorus of cracking and popping sounds echoing up my skeleton had abided, as all of my internally lubricated parts had received a fairly nice amount of exercise. My plan thereby worked and I’m clearly the smartest one of all.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
This is the street which HQ is located on, and it’s found all the way down at the end of the block at bottom of the hill. The spot where the pavement changes is the legal border between Dormont and Pittsburgh, so I can report that I dwell on the edge. Green and white street signs are found in Dormont and Blue/White ones are Pittsburgh, and that’s how you can tell where you are.
Back next week 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.
T Time
Monday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
An internal staccato, as offered by a humble narrator’s bones and ligaments as they ground and popped against tendons and muscle groups deep within my roadway interface, hit a somewhat epic rhythm on a recent afternoon while staggering up a steep hill which leads from HQ to the nearby light rail station. ‘The T,’ as Pittsburgh’s light rail is called, was a part of my plan for an afternoon walk. I wasn’t planning on the musical accompaniment from the legs and feet, but you take what you can get during the cold weather months. The locale HQ exists in is lovely, but it’s a residential town and not chock full of the sort of visual stimuli one such as myself craves.
This wasn’t going to be one of my long walks, instead I was shooting for burning out a few miles in an area which is coincidentally photogenic. As mentioned in the past, Pittsburgh has this weird dealie going on, regarding the T. When you’re heading into the center city you pay the fare as you board, whereas as you’re heading away from the city you pay when you debark the train set.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
It’s a comfortable ride, most of the time, the T. Gets me the five or so miles from HQ to the City of Pittsburgh in about 20 minutes, unlike the R train back in Astoria wherein a journey of a similar distance (say… Astoria to Union Square) would consume the better part of an hour. While riding to my destination in the middle of ‘downtown,’ I decided to spend some of my afternoon with the newish 16mm wide angle lens which I added to my bag at the end of last year.
I’ve discovered a trick regarding Amazon, btw. Let’s say that there’s some frammistat or gizmo that you want, but don’t like the current pricing of it or the thing is from a brand which seldom discounts… if you put that item onto a ‘wishlist,’ the site will inform you when there’s a change in price to items on that list. That’s how I found out that two lenses (which I wanted rather than needed) were discounted by more than a third last year, during Christmas sale season, and that’s how they ended up in my camera bag.
Canon almost never offers that deep a cut in pricing, I’d add. You gotta jump quick when they do. Same rules as Apple.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
The T uses underground stations in the city center, having taken over an old freight tunnel that’s under the downtown area, when the service was conceptualized. The modern system replaced a far more extensive Trolley style service. I still haven’t taken a bus anywhere here (which was the other replacement for the trolleys), as it’s a lot simpler to just drive the Mobile Oppression Platform to vehicular sorts of destinations than deal with mass transit and the unknown, but that also means I’ve been missing out on seeing Pittsburgh’s ‘Busway’ system. Private roads these busways are, often elevated, and only municipal and transit vehicles can travel on them. How cool is that?
Pictured above is Steel Plaza Station, where I left the T system and got back to that rhythmic popping and creaking that my legs were offering. More on what the wide angle lens saw, later on this week.
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.
Walking here
Friday
– photo by Mitch Waxman
As mentioned yesterday, I’ve been having a devil of a time with the sort of aches and pains one associates with age, and particularly so in my legs and feet. To be fair, I’ve got a full resumes worth of injuries to the roadway interface that are the source of my troubles, but this has been a literal pain in the butt for the last few weeks. Best thing to do is exercise, get the gears spinning, and stretch out all of the meaty rubber bands contained within. Best thing to do, for me at least, is lean into it.
I headed over to the Monongahela River’s South Side frontage, here in Pittsburgh, and got moving. This was a much shorter walk than the one mentioned earlier this week, about four miles – I’d reckon.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
I seem to be the only person in Pittsburgh that focuses in on the T light rail. It ain’t the 7 train back in LIC, as far as cinematic good looks, but there’s something about the T service which I find visually interesting.
One really wasn’t ‘photowalking’ on this particular day but the camera is always ready to go, and so am I. You can happily wear your headphones on this trail, and I was revisiting an old favorite – Mike Duncan’s “History of Rome” podcast – as I scuttled along.
It reminded me of a forgotten opinion I hold that Lucius Tarquinius Superbus (the last and worst king of Rome before the Republic) is one of the dumbest sounding names in all of western history. I’m often surprised that Trump hasn’t added a ‘Superbus’ onto his name.
– photo by Mitch Waxman
Luckily, a CSX train came shooting along the tracks, hauling coal. That’s the Fort Pitt Bridge on the left, and the Smithfield Street Bridge on the right. There’s a fence between you and the tracks in this section, one which is about five feet high, I’d guess. Not hard to shoot over it.
Back next week with more from the Paris of Appalachia, 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.
The Newtown Pentacle 