– photo by Mitch Waxman

Wandering in Pittsburgh’s Oakland section continues in today’s post, which presents shots from an interesting walk along Neville Street.

As described yesterday, Oakland is a truly urban section of this Appalachian municipality, and is home base for several institutions of higher learning – including the University of Pittsburgh (PITT) and Carnegie Mellon University amongst others. Additionally, clustered around Oakland are a series of massive hospitals and other healthcare oriented buildings.

Pittsburgh’s Fifth Avenue, in this section, seems to ride along a ridge line, and Neville Street ‘drops off’ in altitude as it heads southwards towards the Monongahela River’s shoreline. Neville doesn’t make it all the way there, as it feeds into either a park or a cul de sac area along the way.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Lots of investment going on in Oakland.

It seems like there’s always new construction happening here as the universities and the local healthcare overlords continue to expand their operations. As alluded to above, this very urban section of the city is located centrally on its peninsular ‘golden triangle,’ and serves as a de facto ‘second downtown’ for Pittsburgh.

This is where you’ll see street level shops selling ‘stuff.’ Sandwiches, coffee, all sorts of ‘to go’ food. There’s also capital T ‘Traffic.’

A city, in other words.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My plan had been to follow Neville Street all the way to its theoretical terminus by walking through that park to the Monongahela River, and then head west to eventually meet up with the T light rail, but a road construction project had obliterated the sparse pedestrian infrastructure along this path and I’ve gotten pretty sick of dealing with the terror of walking alongside de facto high speed roads.

As a note, it’s a local road, but that ain’t gonna stop the locals from speeding. Things are only illegal if there’s a cop around. Guarantee you that there wasn’t a cop laying in wait down there.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One was hoping to get lucky and see a train coming through, down here.

It seems that there’s a locomotive tunnel set down under Oakland, one which portals back to the surface world hereabouts. I’ve seen the train moving through here, in the past, but didn’t get a shot of it. Another one for ‘my list.’

That list keeps on growing. Good thing.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This is where my turnaround point was, in a parking lot on Neville Street.

The plan from here was to alter course, partially by walking back up a hill I had just scuttled down, and then pick my way along to get to one of the fairly distant T light stations. Maybe… 4-5 miles away? Maybe a bit less?

Could always take a bus, but that’s not why I left HQ.

Exercise day, yo.

The whole point of all this movement is to not stop or rest for more than five minutes at a pop, while otherwise maintaining a singular pace and posture as the earth spins beneath my feet in a measured fashion. 2.6 to 2.8 mph is the goal speed for these walks. The underlying idea is to get my heart rate up to a certain point and then maintain that pace for hours and hours. I usually have at least fifteen pounds of crap in my camera bag, more often closer to thirty, so elevating the heart rate isn’t all that hard. Walking for three to four hours at a pop… different story.

I often like to fantasize that I remain in a static position during a walk, and that the planet just spins around beneath me.

To pull that one off, unfortunately, I’d need to walk at the speed of a jet plane. My shoes would melt. I’ve worked it out, the math of this fantasy, and it looks like I’d have a lot of trouble breathing, too, as my lungs would be flattened down within the chest by air pressure..

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One last shot from this spot before I started back up the hill.

It has been a struggle, self discipline wise, to adhere to my ‘two short walks and one long one’ schedule of late. Summer weather’s extremes got in my way, all through the hot season of 2026.

Autumn is the right time of year, however, as it’s ‘sweater weather.’

Back next week with more wonders – at this – your Newtown Pentacle.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

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– photo by Mitch Waxman

One of the sections of Pittsburgh which I’ve remained fairly ignorant about is found in the ‘Oakland’ section. This area is defined by the presence of the two big universities – Pitt and Carnegie Mellon – which are housed within its confines (there are other institutions of higher learning in Oakland, such as Carlow University, but PITT and CMU are the giants).

Oakland is one of the few sections of Pittsburgh where you’ll encounter truly ‘urban’ population densities and problems, with large apartment houses acting as de facto dormitories for both faculty and students of the schools. The streets here are fairly traffic choked, and there’s lots and lots of frustrating stop and go action for local drivers who are more used to navigating their pickup trucks along highways and stroads.

For this scuttle, I had myself dropped off by a rideshare, at the foot of the Neville Street ramp to the MLK Jr. Busway.

Yes, my ‘Operation Busway’ project is currently being sketched out, which will be a set of explorations to accomplish in the late autumn and early winter months, when I’ll be looking closely at this far flung pile of infrastructure in some detail.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Both CMU and Pitt have – historically speaking – academically created quite a few urbanists and architects, and as such the Oakland area is a bit of a history book as far as those particular occupations go.

It feels like a series of ‘Senior Theses’ were erected here in past eras, and when walking southerly down Neville from the bus ramp, a bunch of interesting and variegated residential structures are encountered. You can see all the historic fashions along this route; Modernism, Brutalism, you name it. A hundred years worth of ‘I know better than you, old man.’

Pictured above is the 1910 vintage, 12 unit, D’Arlington Apartment building, designed by Dr. Edward Keen (Kern). It’s a landmark.

It’s also pretty typical of an older style of apartment living that I’ve often observed here in always humid Pittsburgh, which includes those private terraces which are an artifact of an era prior to the ubiquity of ‘Air Conditioning,’ or HVAC, in residential spaces.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One kept on breaking stride along South Neville Street, as everytime I turned that hideous sensory stalk which protrudes from the collar of my t-shirt (said turning creates a sickly cracking and popping sound, along with a final detonation at the base of the skull that sounds a lot like sea soaked maritime ropes being stretched out by the tide), something new and interesting popped up and caused me to say ‘Wow.’

Over just a couple of blocks, about 125 years worth of architectural stylings and fashions were on display. A parsonage dwelling along the path was actually in Tudor Revival, and found directly across the street from this Brutalist beauty.

One was carrying his ‘bag of prime lenses’ camera kit on this particular day, and I was sort of ‘feeling’ that wide angle 16mm one.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Check out that exposed steel foundation!

There’s a pretty significant population of medical and educational professionals who live in this area, alongside the ever changing population of matriculated students. Nearby can be found several hospitals, and in fact – one of them even houses the laboratory where Jonas Salk discovered the vaccine for Polio.

I got to meet Salk’s son one day, who followed in his father’s footsteps and is now one of the showrunners at that same lab.

Great guy, inspirational too. Told him about how my depression era parents thought about his dad as being a kind of saint.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This structure had some sort of ceramic/terrazo emerald colored facing on it. Really grabbed my eye, as the tiles glittered in the sun.

I’m planning on walking several of the streets around this ‘zone’ during the winter, going north/south from river to river.

Remember that urbanist concept of ‘corridors,’ which I often offer and promulgate?

Most of these ‘corridor’ assemblages of buildings and institutions in Pittsburgh are set up in an east/west orientation, but the really interesting ‘corridors’ in this area seem to be the north/south ones. They are, of course, the paths with the steepest hills and amongst the most challenging pedestrian spaces but there we are.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Ok… define what a corridor is, Mr. Smarty Pants…

As always, let’s go back to the greatest city that the world has ever known, which happens to be a certain tidal backwater anchored into a series of sand bars found at the outflow of the Hudson River into the ocean. If you need to look anywhere on earth for definitions of what something ‘city related’ is, and want to look through the prism via which I ‘see’ the world, there has to be a bagel shop found around every three blocks with Bodegas on every corner and a Subway running below.

Third Avenue in Manhattan from 14th street to around 57th is a corridor. Everything that happens on the side streets it adjoins is consequential of the corridor offered by third. When you walk a couple of blocks west, to Fifth Avenue, you’ve entered a different corridor.

Back in Queens – Northern Blvd. And Queens Blvd. represent different ‘corridors.’ In Astoria, 30th avenue, Ditmars, and Broadway are the ‘corridors.’ So are Steinway, 21st street, 31st street, and Crescent.

Back tomorrow with more.

“follow” me on Twitter- @newtownpentacle

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– photo by Mitch Waxman

One of my ‘day in the life’ style of postings greets you today, wherein a humble narrator was going about his own domestic and quite mundane business, on a Saturday, when he decided to fruitlessly wave the camera around a bit.

Pictured above; a memento of yet another annoying interval spent along a certain set of Wheeling & Lake Erie RR tracks, in the Bridgeville section of Pittsburgh, that is commemorated photographically.

I’ll get this shot, eventually.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The Newtown Pentacle time warp continues to flux, as a note, with these photos having been gathered on the 5th of September, and the post itself was written during the third week of the same month. If my scheduling is correct, you’re seeing this in late October.

One has been keeping busy, despite this chronal fog.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

As you’ll see in subsequent posts, I’ve finally surpassed the ten mile walking barrier, a limitation which the broken ankle had introduced into my life. It’s been a deal, I tell you…

Starting with the penguin style walking, when I could barely manage two or three miles of scuttle without agony, I kept on pushing until the five mile barrier was surpassed via weeks and weeks of walking downhill courses, which helped regenerate the atrophied musculature in my legs.

All summer long, I was working on endurance and distance, while capturing thousands of fetching photos along the way. It’s been a shvitz.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After handling the various household errands which Our Lady and I were obliged towards the performance of, with said tasks having brought me out to Bridgeville, after heading back to HQ we met up with a few neighbors for a beer back in Dormont, and then galavanted over to a local restaurant for some comfort food.

Gyros, before ‘George the Atheist’ asks. Gyros.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Shlepping back home, and towards Moe the Dog, we spotted the T Light Rail, arriving at the Potomac Avenue stop here in Dormont. As is my habit, the camera was deployed and a few shots captured.

The next day was going to be an ‘exercise day,’ wherein I’d earn the calories from the beer and that gyro, and in spades.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’ve spent the last four years here in Pittsburgh observing, learning, and reading. Keeping my mouth shut. For those who know me in real life, the not talking thing must be surprising. It surprises me.

‘Shut up and listen’ is what I’m trying to achieve these days.

One has developed a decidedly surface level understanding of this place, and its mores. I can see under Pittsburgh’s skin here and there, now, as well. I’m still developing ‘intimacy’ with this place.

I also can’t seem to figure out a good time of day to get that shot at the railroad tracks in Bridgeville, so there’s still a distance to surmount.

Back tomorrow with something 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.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Hey Now! CSX #6926 was approaching!

These shots are from the end of a shortish walk on the 24th of August of this year, which began up in the South Side Slopes neighborhood of Pittsburgh, and then continued on to the South Side Flats section, a path which eventually carried me here – to a pinch point along CSX Transportation’s Pittsburgh Subdivision tracks.

Said tracks are what remain of the once gigantic P&LE RR (Pittsburgh & Lake Erie RR) rail yard.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Given how often I gather shots from this spot, you know that I dig it.

The concrete factory in the background, with its web of conveyor belts and other cool gear, and the Liberty Bridge too. The Panhandle Bridge is back there too, and when all the stars align there’s a T light Rail unit in the frame too.

Existentially, there’s shade and public seating here, in a park like environment, with a nearby brewery which offers not just food and drink but toilets too.

The park area is also set along one of the waterfront trails.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I headed up to the upper level of the location.

There’s another park like public space up there, and since I had already gotten #6926 from below, I figured that I’d head up there for a different POV should another train appear.

I cooled my heels for around twenty minutes before the signal arms began to chime and descend.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Hey Now! That’s CSX #801.

Both trains were heading ‘away’ from Pittsburgh to the south east. In that direction lies the three big USS Steel plants, and ultimately Maryland and West Virginia. The highly industrialized shorelines of the Monongahela River, and the communities that the mills and factories exist in, are referred to locally as the ‘Mon Valley.’

Normally, I do a ‘one and done’ for these CSX shots, but on this day I decided to follow #801 through the pass.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After the train rolled through, your humble narrator had to get himself all encased in the web of bag and camera straps again. I was traveling with the ‘full pack’ on this one, which weighs around thirty pounds all told.

Ended up using the one zoom lens – which was on the camera when I left HQ – all day, so I carried all that heavy gear for nothing.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’ve had to rethink my pack a bunch since moving out to Pittsburgh from NYC. Here, I have to carry a water bottle as there aren’t any bodegas.

Right now, I’ve got three different camera bag setups which I switch back and forth between, depending on what the day’s plan is. It’s all very confusing.

Back tomorrow with something 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.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

While descending a set of dissolving city steps, found beneath Pittsburgh’s Mission Street Bridge, one observed Norfolk Southern #9898 hurtling past on an elevated trestle. Hey Now!

This scuttle began on Sterling Street, as you may recall from Thursday of last week, and my plan for the day mainly involved kicking my feet about and moving at a good clip while walking.

Ultimately, I’d be looping back to the Light Rail station here on Pittsburgh’s ‘South Side’ on my way back to HQ in nearby Dormont.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Places like this are unusually welcoming to me.

As a reminder, the Newtown Pentacle time warp continues to flux.

These photos are from the last week of August, and the post itself is being written on the 7th of September. If my scheduling is correct, right now you’re fairly close to overdosing on Pumpkin spiced latte.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The path I was walking must be a familiar one to regular readers by this point. The transit service I utilize – a light rail outfit called ‘The T’ – leads me back towards a nearby station.

The South Side Flats section is built up on the flood plain of the Monongahela River, nearby an area along its waterfront which was once highly industrialized with rail yards, and steel mills, and iron furnaces. The packed together housing here in the ‘flats,’ and up in the ‘slopes,’ were where the workers of those businesses dwelt.

Lots of churches hereabouts, too.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Along with not having any desire to visit a casino or gamble in general, one of the bits of emotional software which many of you possess and which I do not involves religiosity.

Not putting it down, faith, for those of you who indulge in the worship of some allegorical sky father that counts up all the times you’ve masturbated and then holds that number against you, but here we are.

To use the word ‘atheism’ would indicate a certainty of belief in a null state rather than a supreme being, which means to me you enjoy an irrational ‘belief’ which I would describe as being somewhat religious in nature. There’s a lot to be said for not thinking about the supranatural at all, and embracing the ‘ultramundane,’ instead – as I do. The ultramundane is what your sky father or mother installed you into, so appreciate the setting.

Non-secular humanism, anyone? Hey now?

Gotta love all the religions – though – as after all, I’m a fan of ‘man.’

As I often say: Whatever… you do you, boo… I’m just passing through.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

One seems to actually pass through here a lot, due to two reasons.

First is that aforementioned light rail station, the other is a set of CSX tracks nearby a brewery I frequent.

As a note: ‘Drinks’ offers a much smaller ‘lure’ to me than the ‘sure thing’ shots of railroads, at arms length, which this location offers.

One fears that I’ve introduced a narrative here over the last couple of years which suggests I’m drinking a lot more than I actually do. These days, in my dotage, two beers are plenty for me and a third is sleep inducing. Additionally, weeks often go by without a drop of the stuff passing into my mouth hole. Just saying…

Nearby pedestrian bridges over the Norfolk Southern tracks are also a ‘sure thing’ location for me- RR spotting wise.

At both locations, however, you need to ‘hurry up and wait’ for those trains to come to you, and the location (by the brewery/CSX) that I was heading for is a hell of a lot more comfortable to wait around in.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Saying that, this wasn’t a ‘have a drink day,’ as it was something like 11 in the morning when I started my ‘out and about.’ It couldn’t have been much later than one in the afternoon by this particular point in the day.

Couldn’t help but get a shot of those two painting over graffiti.

Back tomorrow with Choo-Choo’s.

“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.

– 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.

– 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.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

At the Pittsburgh Mills Galleria, a fairly empty shopping mall nearby Pittsburgh in Fraser Township, your humble narrator just kept on shooting photos. Our Lady and myself were struck by the surreal neature of the experience in this ‘liminal space.’

As mentioned yesterday, one kept on noticing how ‘maintained’ everything was. Dusted, vacuumed, mopped.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

We had to cancel an outdoor activity – due to high waters on areal waterways, caused by unusual precipitant volumes recently fallen – which promulgated ‘flash flood’ warnings from the authorities. Our initial ‘out of doors’ destination was thereby scrapped, so we visited this place instead.

As often mentioned, I’ve got ‘a list,’ and much of it is already pinpointed on a Google map. Whenever I find myself somewhere unexpectedly with time to kill, I’ll check that map, and see what’s nearby.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I didn’t see any part of Pennsylvania’s anti-vampire systems nearby – no giant white steel crosses on the hillsides, for instance – and wondered if perhaps this place gets real busy at night? Maybe the invasive vampire issue they’re vouchsafing against to the south is related to Maryland, or West Virginia, as you see more of those hillside crosses in that ‘border zone’ than in the northern parts of the region.

Go figure. Meshuggeneh Goyem, huh?

Churches, too, could make great use of the cavernous interior spaces here in this mall. Supposedly, there used to be a Baptist denomination which met up in here somewhere for services, and for some reason I seem to think that it was set up in the former movie theater.

One reads a lot of background stuff before writing one of these posts, some of it gets linked to, and some of it is just absorbed for texture.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Concern began to grow that I had led Our Lady into a hellish maze.

It’s impossible to maintain a sense of ‘where’ you are in relation to the outside world in here. I kept on thinking that we’d make the next turn and see Judas being chewed up in Satan’s mouth, at the deepest levels of Gehenna. I was also worried about a series of Dungeons and Dragons monsters lurking about. Beholders… brr.

What an odd experience.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

We began to near the entrance which brought us into this place, which would provide an exit back to the parking lot where we had stored the Mobile Oppression Platform, a Toyota. Getting here definitely requires a vehicle, although I’m sure that there’s an arcane and kind of weird multi hour route you could use Pittsburgh’s bus system to execute.

All told, this is just under an hour’s drive from HQ in the South Hills region where Newtown Pentacle HQ is found in Dormont.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Regarding the Newtown Pentacle time warp – these shots, and the ones from the Tour-Ed Mine, were gathered on the 14th of August and the text in these posts entered on the 23rd of the same month. As you’re receiving this in middle October, I’ve got a problem emerging.

Not publishing Halloween oriented posts at Christmas.

I’ll figure it out.

Back tomorrow with something 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.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

After descending into a coal mine (and museum) in nearby Tarentum, and then having a lovely lunch – as described in prior posts – Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself drove over to the Pittsburgh Mills Galleria, a 2005 vintage shopping mall with quite a tumultuous history.

It was all very, very odd – this visit.

I don’t like or advocate use of the term ‘dead mall,’ as a note. If you were to search on YouTube for this location, you will hear that one a lot in the videos you see. Saying that, I don’t have an alternative terminology to offer, so…

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This mall has a long and convoluted history, but it was the dream and life’s work of an entrepreneur named George Damias, and his quite controversial project began in the 1980’s, opening in 2005.

Rather than summarize the Wikipedia entry for you – go get it all right from the horse’s wikimouth here.

It was so odd in there.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

The only camera option for this place was to use the widest lens I had in the bag, which was a 16mm prime. The ISO sensitivity was set high, 6400 I think, and the lens’s aperture was set at f4.

There were a few other people present in the mall, but not so many, as there’s just a few smaller shops and office spaces occupied within. We saw maybe twenty or thirty others, all seemingly human.

Allegheny Health Network uses one of the large storefronts here as a school for nursing. There was also an open comic book store and also a snack shop, the kind that sells cotton candy and chocolate coated nuts.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Despite the mall being de facto ‘kaput,’ and mostly unoccupied, one thing that just kept on jumping out at me was that this place was being ‘kept’ in a fairly immaculate manner. Somebody is dusting, and mopping those floors, polishing the glass.

That’s the food court pictured, incidentally.

The air conditioning was on, but was set high by shopping mall standard, around 78-80 degrees.

Haven’t spent much time in malls since the late 1980’s, but part of the ‘draw’ for those places always involved the air conditioning. Central and residential AC didn’t become ubiquitous until the last 25 years or so, and ‘back in the day,’ your best bet for staying cool – for free – during the high summer was heading over to a mall (Kings Plaza, in the case of my old neighborhood in Brooklyn) and literally ‘chill out.’

Big deal during the summer, that mall AC was.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I had to inspect the porcelain. There were some plumbing issues going on in there, but again – it’s some random bathroom, in a largely unoccupied shopping mall, and there were paper towels and soap, filled to spec, in their dispensers. It was clean in there.

As mentioned, we did see a few other people while walking this liminal space, whose excess in certain areas lent a sense of bizarre profanity to the experience. Elderly mall walkers were observed, seemingly walking endless circuits through an empty space.

I thought about Dante.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

My head is full of ideas for saving these sorts of spaces. I’ve got a scheme in mind that could do it, but that would require some out of the box thinking and a budget, and that’s not something which people out here – or anywhere – are terribly enthusiastic about embracing these days.

Simply, tying these spaces to local agricultural businesses (Pittsburgh is surrounded by rural counties, and smallish family farms) for direct to consumer sales would be a bit difficult to handle, as far as setting things up, but would be a win/win for everyone concerned. Cut the national level AG distributors like Cysco out of the economic loop, so the profit stays with the farmer and the tax money remains local.

The citizenry gains access to local grown food, Wall Street is cut out of the loop, and the Pittsburgh Mills Galleria would have a reason to turn the air conditioning down around 70 degrees again.

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.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

A simple fact, known by most photographers, is that the people and particularly the Coal Miners of Appalachia make for absolutely fantastic subjects, when the question of portraiture comes up. As the saying goes – the map of the world is written upon that face.

That’s Bob, a retired coal miner who was our tour guide at the Tour-Ed Mine and Museum, in Allegheny County’s Borough of Tarentum, which can be found after about 40 minute’s worth of highway driving east of Pittsburgh.

Bob was demonstrating how you’d keep the roof from collapsing in on yourself, were you to find yourself working in a coal mine.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I’m afraid I just have to get used to the presence of LED lighting everywhere, despite the fact that its garish coloration makes everything resemble the 1990 Warren Beatty movie production of ‘Dick Tracy.’

It’d been a while since I executed any low light photography, as a note. Real pleasure to slip back into the groove down here.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Bob demonstrated several of the mechanical tools used in his trade. A sort of rock drill, various systems that moved coal particles along a conveyor belt, a kind of vehicle that replaced the Donkeys which once hauled the mined coal back up to the portal. It was all pretty neat.

And loud, super loud, especially so in the confined spaces when he activated the equipment. Once again, and the third time I’m saying this, I would not have lasted a half hour at this job.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

This gizmo was set into the floor, and there was a conveyor belt which moved towards those two lobster claw looking appendages, designed to sweep coal towards the belt, and fall into a chute that went to god knows where.

Wow.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

Bob described life on the job to us. He filled us in on how miners communicate in the dusty dark environment, via head motions that move the lanterns on their hats in patterns.

Bob also said this manner of communication got so incorporated into his thoughts that he’d be at home and if his wife asked if he wanted dinner, his answer would often involve him just rotating his head around in a circle so as to say yes.

Bob was very, very good at presenting this material, and it was obvious he’s conducted this tour hundreds of times.

From one guide of unconventional places to another, good show, Bob.

– photo by Mitch Waxman

I pulled my usual ‘blind shot’ gambit on the way back to the surface.

Shooting with the camera’s autofocus locked in the dead center of the frame, and hoping for the best. Lots of pictures of motion blurred rocks, but that link will take to iterations of the shots at Flickr if you’re curious.

Our Lady of the Pentacle and myself had a great time here, which we followed up with a pretty nice luncheon at a nearby establishment called ‘JG’s Tarentum Station Grille,’ which is housed in Tarentum’s 1913 vintage former train station.

Good stuff, and Our Lady in particular was pleased indeed.

After lunch, well…

Back tomorrow with all that…

“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.