(ignore April 30, 2017 publish date – this was published on July 20, 2023)

 

Click to enlarge:

 

As usual, I’m all over the place photographically – just the way I like it.

In the above picture – and against a backdrop of the Orange Mess that is Hackensack (thanks to Canadian wildfire smoke/haze) – are random pictures I just grabbed that you’ll see later, including a photographically-shredded guy on a scooter, a river bird, colorful flowers that happen to belong to the orange church that they’re shown right next to and what look like military boots – just as I found them. They look like they may still be filled with human legs and feet and covered with either concrete or mud. I wasn’t gonna touch them to find out……………I just liked the image.

Past biannual pix summations were presented in a daily calendar manner. These posts are SO much work to put together (3 weeks on this one) that I decided to slightly lighten the load by now making it monthly.

One other change is that I’m placing any construction photography at the end of each month’s presentation. I shoot those images mostly for local historical reasons (I moderate the site of the city historian, who’s also the director of redevelopment for the many projects being built around town), but I think some of the images stand on their own photographically.

Feel free to comment on the inclusion of the construction photography (and anything else).

 

By the way………..some of these “click to enlarge” panoramic shots (PANOs) will take a second click to fully-enlarge.

 

Let’s get started……….

 

JANUARY

Patriotic gull stands guard near the WWII submarine, USS Ling (which you’ll see later on):

 

Somewhere I won’t be visiting anytime soon:

 

Hydration/Sore Shoulder Day:

 

Cones’ tribute to traffic light colors:

 

A gaggle of geese fly by the Modern I and II in Fort Lee (right by the George Washington Bridge):

Pic

 

Pikachu jacket:

 

Not the first thing I would think of as an oasis, but my father – who worked for Chevy – would have loved it:

 

(Looking up NJ child-labor laws………):

 

Huge mural off Main St in Hackensack (click to enlarge):

My only problem with it is that the powers that be insist that people now refer to the city as “The Sack” (not their best idea).

 

So I’m taking a picture of this mirrored storefront as this GIANT, block-long, red truck drives by behind me…….ho-hum (click to enlarge):

 

The foliage can’t come in too soon for this ugly quartet:

 

I’m standing on the straight-as-an-arrow railroad tracks as I take a 180º panoramic photo looking south near the intersection of Main and Mercer, while exercising caution (as per the traffic light……….and click to enlarge):

 

We hardly got any snow last winter, so this is a rare shot from my living room:

 

In this panoramic shot from the Court St bridge, you can see (l-r) Hackensack, the USS Ling, the Midtown Bridge and the town of Bogota (click to enlarge):

At the far end of that river structure jutting out from my location, you can see that patriotic gull in front of the Ling’s flag that you saw above in the first January pic. This structure is also where I photographed the bird that you saw inserted into the opening Orange Mess shot.

 

This panoramic shot shows a strangely-interesting sunset, as I look south from my back room (click to enlarge):

 

 

JANUARY CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS

 

The MBSC Project

Shown below are images from 3 different sites. The first one is bordered by Main St, Berry St, State St and Camden St. For simplicity’s sake, when I mention the MBSC project, that’s this one.

This project is about 4 blocks from home, but I can see a lot of it from my living room (and I can also visit the site), so it’s my most-photographed project so far this year.

In the very beginning, all I could see was this crane. In the distance, you can see the World Trade Center (I hope THAT doesn’t get blocked!). In the bottom left, you can see some cars on Route 80, which runs from Teaneck, NJ to San Francisco (that view will definitely get blocked):

 

I took a walk over to the site and took a shot from Berry Street that juxtaposed all the straight construction with the curved ones atop the former bank building (now residential) a couple of blocks away:

 

Back home, I started seeing all these very long (and colorful) cement-pumping apparatuses that were attached to cement trucks on the street. In most cases, they were laying the concrete for each floor. Here are 3 photos of them from different days:

That last one enclosed the green cupola (and weather vane) of the Johnson Public Library – something else whose view will be blocked (but we’ll see closeups of it in February).

 

This metal maze was photographed on the corner of Main and Berry. I think it will be the main entrance to the building:

It looks like it was built so quickly that that blue motorized vehicle within will never find its way out.

 

One day while I was on Berry St taking panoramic pictures of the whole side of that building from Main to State, I noticed a bicyclist to my left coming up the street. I quickly knew EXACTLY what to do.

A year prior, I was heavily into taking moving panoramic “stills” where I would follow something moving as it went past me, keeping it in the center of the frame as it moved. If done right, it resulted in VERY strange (and VERY elongated pictures – kinda like that long red vehicle you saw earlier behind me.

I took this PANO shot as the bicyclist rode past me and kept the construction framed as well. Here’s the result (click to enlarge):

I have to say that it’s pretty evenly-balanced. If you look closely at his multiple “heads” on the left, you can see 3 ears. If you look at the heads on the right, you can see………….3 ears! If you look below them, you can see a weirdly-flattening tire.

In this picture, the building was being constructed while the passing bicyclist was being deconstructed.

 

 

THE RIVER ST – BRIDGE ST PROJECT

 

Keep in mind that these are NOT official project names – they’re just MY way of differentiating one from another.

There are only 2 shots here that are loosely-related to this project. There’ll be more in March.

I like this one (actually, 2) because I’ve never seen traffic cones used in this manner:

 

You really need to be local for this to make any sense. There was a beloved eatery on the River St side called The Heritage Diner. It was demolished for this project:

The sign that you see belonged to The Heritage. Though the Heritage’s “H” was kept, the top two-thirds of the sign was converted to advertise the project, but for some reason, they kept the Heritage’s “Cocktails/Salad Bar” at the bottom.

The casual observer from out-of-town sees a sign that’s next to all sorts of garbage and advertises a residential building that hasn’t been built yet, but it’s open 24 hours and is serving cocktails and salad!

Now do you see why I took this picture? It’s absurdly stupid.

 

 

THE 76 MAIN PROJECT

The building burned down 8 years ago. Go here if you want that story: www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,3121.msg10335.html

For years, nothing was done. Nice to see they’ve finally started to do something (click to enlarge):

We’ll see a bit more later on.

 

FEBRUARY

Here is the cupola and weather vane of the Johnson Public Library on Main St. After 35 years – I won’t be able to see that library topping from home anymore:

We tackled the “what is it?” question 12 years ago here: http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,1927.msg5905.html#msg5905

 

Maybe if I had shot it from this angle back then, I might have started the conversation with a better question:

It’s certainly unique.

 

Just found another cupola shot that includes the former bank’s rooftop sculpture:

 

From the Court St Bridge, I photographed these gentlemen working on the Midtown Bridge:

 

From home, I took this shot of New Jersey wildfires heading toward Canada winter steam – some of which was generated by the two PSE&G power plants (black cylinders toward the bottom right) toward nearby Manhattan. This PSE&G installation is right next to the New Jersey Turnpike in Ridgefield, NJ:

 

Speaking of PSE&G…………3 days later, multiple crews were busy on River St replacing and rewiring standard telephone poles (green) with much taller ones (red):

In the first pic, you can see the Hackensack River with Teaneck on the other side of it.

The second image is a 3-pic sequence as the pole becomes straight up-and-down (I didn’t feel like typing “perpendicular to the ground”).   😉

 

I love these shots where no one else is around to explain how things work:

 

Standing on the Cedar Lane/Anderson St bridge (the name depends on whether you’re from the Teaneck side or the Hackensack side), I saw this very old-looking “Cable Crossing” sign on the Teaneck side, but I’m not sure what kind of cable it refers to (it looks too old for it to be Cable TV):

 

Coming off the bridge on the Teaneck side, I immediately entered the Teaneck Greenway and took this panoramic shot looking back at the bridge and Hackensack on the other side (click to enlarge):

 

I couldn’t shoot any hoops in this Teaneck facility because the Teaneck Geese had reserved it ahead of time:

 

The previous pic was actually the second one I took while on the Teaneck Greenway on the other side of the river. The next one was of the northeastern corner of Foschini Park in Hackensack:

 

(ONE WEEK LATER INTERJECTION) I went to Foschini Park and reversed the shot, looking at Teaneck (click to enlarge):

 

Back to the Greenway, a week prior…….I’ve been on this path many times, but I never saw anything like this before (click to enlarge):

Who would purposely trudge along this path just to dump all these aluminum cans – especially when they could probably get some money for them at a recycler?

 

This is a sight I don’t see very often on the Hackensack River:

 

A nice view towards Hackensack:

 

Back in Hackensack and looking under the Anderson St bridge, I’ve got to wonder who placed that chair in that spot and in that position:

Also in that shot is a tiny corner of Teaneck jutting out in the upper left (the Greenway would be 10′ or 20’ further to the left). There’s a big bend in the northbound river that had already made a westerly left turn at Foschini Park and then a sharp right around that Teaneck tip to resume the river’s path to the north. By the way, that area is known as Kipp’s Bend, which I used to have a great view of from home (speedboats seemingly heading straight into my east-facing living room until another lovely project completely blocked it.

In the distance in this pic, you can see what appears to a construction site on the Hackensack side that we’ll visit later.

 

It’s very difficult to get a shot of that sparkling sun reflection off the tip of the World Trade Center (this is the only one I’ve ever captured in 35 years) and since this is one of my last full shots of the WTC from home (it’s currently at least half-blocked and getting worse every day), it’s especially treasured:

 

Time for a stroll up the Hackensack River Walkway.

Like mother, like daughter?

 

I don’t know who placed it by the river, but the chair looks so right there:

 

I’m not sure what these fakes are protecting the field from, but it appears to be working:

 

Most of the Walkway that I’m on goes through Fairleigh Dickinson University, which has facing campuses on each side of the river. I’m on the Hackensack campus taking a picture of this swinging student on the Teaneck campus:

 

The Hackensack River with the Teaneck campus of FDU on the left and an inlet of the river on the right (click to enlarge):

 

Later that afternoon on the way back, the sun begins to set across that inlet from one section of the Hackensack campus to another:

 

The sun sets on the Pathway as it enters Hackensack’s Johnson Park and exits FDU’s southern property line:

 

I noticed that one of Johnson Park’s ballfield light structures was occupied by a bunch of birds who were too cheap to pay for seats (top pic). I also noticed that airplanes were flying above them (bottom left ) and below them (bottom right):

Observant little buzzard, aren’t I?

 

Change of pace: ridiculously-long vehicles………….

 

It DID snow (once?) in February and involuntary artists (cars) and voluntary ones (lovelorn humans with less-than-superb language skills) went right to work.

Cars:

 

Humans (apparently, just one):

“Who want a BF?”, indeed!

 

Speaking of human artwork, how you like dis?

 

Down at the end of my street, there are two very large walls that are perpendicular to each other along the north and west borders of Union St Park. I mention their placement because in this panoramic shot (click to enlarge), they look like they’re side by side:

The whole thing changes a couple of times a year……………which reminds me – I need to get back down there soon. There’s always a lot of great art there and as long as the walls’ owners are cool with it, City Hall is too.

 

Two consecutive shots of the same thing a block from home (click to enlarge a bit):

 

This is actually the third shot in a row after the above one(s), which are views to the south and to the north. I’m now standing on the street at that location facing west towards my one-block-away apartment building (PANO – click to enlarge):

From left to right: The First Presbyterian Church of Hackensack and its gorgeous steeple, the back of my building (my apartment is right under my watermark and the largest of the 3 windows is the living room window where I shoot a LOT of my images), the Second Reformed Church of Hackensack, and – way over on the right and two blocks away – the Romanesque Byzantine Holy Trinity Catholic Church, whose red-topped steeple was seen by me and my sibs every Sunday morning of our childhoods (and every weekday in their school).

 

How about a couple of shots from that LR window, taken 14 minutes apart? (Click to enlarge)

The top half was taken at 5:43pm and the sun is illuminating most of the buildings, but it had fully set by 5:57pm.

 

Can you stand one more church? This is the United Methodist Church of Hackensack on the corner of Summit Ave and Passaic St. I was stopped at a traffic light at that corner when I took this picture:

 

Need a book to read (hopefully not when you’re visiting any of these churches)? Click to enlarge:

I saw this just inside the car exit of an apartment building on Main St., but have no idea why this collection was there.

 

A few odds and ends that have no cute story or caption:

 

Actually, there’s one more photo – a panoramic one and you know what that means (Click!). It was taken from the roof of the parking garage at Hackensack Hospital (you can see the Manhattan skyline in the distance):

 

I had a medical appointment there. The garage was jammed, but I managed to find a space on the last-resort roof. After the appointment, I was approaching my car, when I heard a familiar (and controversial) sound: a low-flying private jet coming in for a landing at nearby Teterboro Airport.

In the below images, DON’T click on the arrow. Instead, click on where it says, “Watch on YouTube” so you can read the story under the video (you can’t do that if you click the arrow). BTW – “EyeShotThis” is my YouTube handle.

 

How about some gorgeous flag flapping to end this segment? Turn the volume up!

 

FEBRUARY CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS

MBSC Project

Every month, the majority of my construction images will be the MBSC project (Main, Berry, State, Camden). I always try to get a panoramic shot on Berry Street because I can get an unobstructed, block-long image. Maybe when it’s finished, I’ll have a start-to-finish, floor-by-floor look at the project. As usual, click to enlarge:

 

Cement pumper to nowhere:

 

Large craneloads, but with a twist:

 

Even in the snow:

 

If I recall correctly, that was a bird perched there:

 

Two versions of coming in for a landing:

In the first one, the cement pumper is framing the library cupola while pouring the second-story floor.

The second one was very fortunate framing/timing.

 

 

76 Main Project (click to enlarge both)

 

1. Cement pumping on the Main St side:

 

2. Getting crowded on the Bridge St side – the cement truck is partially in the one-way street (and facing the wrong way), while a bus tries to squeeze by and not hit the photographer who’s standing in the middle of it all and waving his phone about, trying to capture it all in a single panoramic image:

 

 

River St/Bridge St Project

We’ve seen this before from a different angle and with a lot less sun (but I love the golden pile!). The USS Ling would be over to the right in a wider shot:

 

Nameless Project

It’s just something I happened to see that was more colorful than the others:

 

 

MARCH

 

Two classy avian hi-rises in a very good neighborhood:

 

Section 8 avian hi-rise down by the railroad tracks:

 

A bunch of hoes/hose:

 

I have no idea what the purpose of these lights is, but since I’ve never seen this before……………..

 

From my LR:

 

Cellphone/driving and shoelace violations:

 

Poor kid…………which is worse – the vehicle or the driver?

 

Local art show……..”And the Best in Show award goes to………….Number 11!”

 

This shows the sun reflecting off The Modern I and II in Fort Lee, the hi-rises in Cliffside Park and the roof of 389 Main in Hackensack:

 

The church is St. Joseph’s in Bogota, but the fire was somewhere in nearby Teaneck:

 

Well, good for him:

 

Here’s that gull you saw in the opening Orange Mess. I shot this from the Court St bridge as it guarded the USS Ling (he looks like he just visited that vape store):

 

Here’s an interesting-looking gentleman who’s carrying the flags of two nations and a bunch of other stuff. I don’t know what his deal is, but we’ll get a much-better look at him in May:

 

With all that camouflage on, all I see is a wheel rolling down the street:

 

This is not a black-and-white bench. The sun is directly facing the black metal vertical section and the words are cut out (see the tree behind the “K”):

 

Awww! Such a cute child!

 

I hope this place gets mobbed, but the sign says it already is………..

 

This might be the car of the guy on the unicycle (nice football-shaped tires!):

Actually, this is what happens when you take a panoramic picture with your phone and your hand motion is moving from right to left. The vehicle that’s going in the same direction – in this case, an ambulance (I think) – get weirdly long, while the vehicle moving in the opposite direction gets compacted.

 

Perfect example of the elongation effect (he’s heading toward my apartment!) (Click to enlarge):

If you have a PANO setting on your phone and you’ve never used it, you’re missing out on some hilarious fun that’s not restricted to vehicles.

 

Another PANO as the train comes into the station:

Somehow, I elongated the section between railroad cars to be some accordion-like thing that’s the length of a railcar. And if you look really quickly (and not too hard), the silver rail car appears to have little baby wheels.

 

Closet for cardboard?

I hadn’t seen this before and found it behind a small supermarket. It looks like hanging animal skins out to dry (Coming soon: cardboard coats).

 

Palm Sunday outside the Second Reformed Church:

 

About a half-mile up the street:

The Calvary Baptist Church – 13 years ago I featured a postcard with a 1906 postmark of this church here:

http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,1373.msg4344.html#msg4344

That’s the city historian’s site that I moderate and he added a second PC of the church to that post.

 

10 years with one hat? I’m almost ready to break in the next one………..almost:

And if you’re wondering what’s on the hat, it’s this:

(I’m the king of my hat.)

 

I took this picture (click to enlarge) because there is NOTHING in the picture that can be bought with food stamps (though this IS a legitimate food store):

 

Can you stand one more picture with a church in it (and lots of other stuff)? As usual, click to enlarge:

On the left is the historic First Reformed Church of Hackensack (Church on the Green) and on the right is the Bergen County Courthouse. Across the street from the courthouse (and facing it) is a monument to one of George Washington’s favorite generals, General Enoch Poor.

In the lower middle of the picture is the church’s cemetery, where General Poor is buried. The funeral took place in this church and Washington attended the service.

Across the street from the front of the courthouse (and out of the picture to the right) is The Green – a small park where Washington’s troops rested on their way south to Valley Forge and Trenton and then on to eventual Revolutionary War victory.

Needless to say, this is VERY hallowed ground around here – a mile from where I live. And if that’s not enough history for you, one short block behind my shooting position, there used to be a small club called George’s Club 20, located at 20 Bridge St (a block away from the 76 Main project).

In late 1965, the King Curtis (Curtis Knight) Revue played at George’s – a stop on the Chitlin Circuit (look it up). George had a young guitar player named Jimmy James, from a band called “Jimmy James and the Blue Flames”.

The show was recorded and pictures from the show have surfaced. When you hear Curtis talking to his guitar player on the recording and then see the pictures, you become astounded to find out that “Jimmy James” was actually: JIMI HENDRIX!

HE PLAYED IN HACKENSACK BEFORE ANYONE EVER HEARD OF HIM!

And that was when we all used cruise up and down Main St in our hot cars – ONE BLOCK AWAY! So close…………….who knew?

If you’d like to read about that discovery, go here: http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php?topic=593.0

And here’s the album you never heard of:

BTW – this album has nothing to do with that Hackensack show. Supposedly, it was given that name because of Jimi’s friendship with club owner George. I have two of these albums: one sealed and one for other humans to inspect.

 

 

MARCH CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS

 

I visited 5 projects in March……………quantity first.

 

95 Anderson St

 

I shot this from my kitchen. You can see a commuter train going by and a Walgreens “W” sign on the other side of the tracks:

BTW – that Walgreens isn’t long for this world – yet another large residential building will be built there. Both buildings will be THISCLOSE to the tracks………….yikes!).

 

As I stand in front of my building looking west, this is the view of what’s going on two blocks away:

The apartment building with the red bricks that you see between the two houses is a short block beyond the railroad tracks, so TWO large projects will be built between the houses and the red-bricked apartment building (whose construction I covered almost 15 years ago: http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,1226.0.html).

 

When I reach 95 Anderson, I’m totally blocked on the east side and partially blocked on the south and west sides. I’m able to go behind a supermarket on the south side to get shots like this:

But there’s not much to see when construction gets to the second floor.

 

Same with the west side, but I’m able to stick my nose in the open gate where all the large vehicles and deliveries come in, like this:

 

The north side is Anderson St, which was good for ground level stuff like these 2 PANOs (click’em):

Now it’s mostly good for whole views from across the street of the front of the building as it goes up.

 

Early on, I found this apparatus interesting:

It seemed to be feeding stones into the ground, but I didn’t know why, so I asked a worker. He explained that some of the former site buildings had basements and the new ground there wasn’t solid enough to support construction, so piles of stones – visible in the pic – were scattered about.

 

When they were needed, they were scooped up into the receptacle…….

And pounded into the ground – instant stability.

 

Some actions didn’t need explanation, as this pair of photos shows:

 

Further down from that gate (and closer to Anderson St), there was some fencing that I was able to shoot over/through to capture more of the ground activity:

Notice the white steeple on the right of both pix. That’s the steeple of the First Presbyterian Church on my block that’s now 3 blocks away since I’m shooting on the far (west) side of the project.

 

And lastly, we come to those weird boots you saw in the opening Orange Mess pix:

I still don’t know anything about them – only that they hadn’t moved the next time I was there. I’m sure they’re gone by now.

 

 

 

MBSC PROJECT

 

Of course, we have to have at LEAST one concrete pumper shot from home, as they pour a new floor:

 

But after they pour the concrete, how do they smooth it out? They use these:

But what’re they called? I found two answers: Power Trowel and Ride-on Trowel (my guess was Concrete Zamboni). How do they work?

A power trowel consists of one or multiple rotating blades enclosed by a safety cage. This type of concrete finishing equipment is used to create a polished, level finish on a variety of concrete surfaces. Floating, finishing, and combination blades are used to create the desired end result.

 

I walked over to Berry St and got a nice PANO of two cement mixers and a fancy concrete pumper truck:

Of course, I HAD to get a closeup of the pumper’s artwork:

 

 

 

RIVERBANK STORMWATER CULVERT PROJECT

 

You may recall a February photo that showed a chair in the river under the Anderson St bridge and I mentioned some sort of construction project visible in the distance that we’d see later.

 

Welcome to later (and click to enlarge all 3).

 

I haven’t been there in a couple of months, but I found out that the purpose of the project was to keep more stormwater out of flood-prone areas.

BTW – In the third shot, I’ve placed a red “X” above the Anderson St Bridge so you can see where I noticed this project from.

 

 

RIVER TO RIVER ST PROJECT

 

This is the project I first shot from the Court St bridge a couple of months ago. In Hackensack, the bridge lane going TO Bogota is Court St and the bridge lane coming into Hackensack is called Bridge St, so this project is bordered by the Hackensack River, Bridge St and River St (as far north as the next project).

 

In this PANO shot, I’m just off Bridge St, looking north towards yet another project. You can see the USS Ling submarine at the river’s edge

 

This is a much wider PANO shot showing (right to left): the Court St bridge, the river, almost nothing of the Ling, the concrete pipe I just shot through, whatever this project is (who am I kidding? It’s GOT to be another residential building), Bridge St, a car stopped at Bridge and River streets:

BTW, the blue building beyond that car is NOT residential. It’s called Goat Climbing Gym (so if you ever wanted to climb a goat…………).

These are some examples of what this place is about (copyright belongs to the facility – I’d be happy to take them down if you don’t want the publicity):

 

 

76 MAIN

 

One PANO shot progress report while on my way to Bridge St:

 

 

APRIL

 

Righty and lefty stuff-luggers:

 

Middle School foliage (and greenage):

 

Oooo! I know what this is!

“Our Lady of the Cloud” is an Ecuadorian religious belief. I’ve photographed their January 1 processions right past my building for many years. You HAVE to read the story and watch this video!

http://www.hackensacknow.org/index.php/topic,3474.msg11694.html#msg11694

 

Look at this license plate……….that can’t possibly be legal!

Only one license plate and/or one license plate tab shall be issued for each motorcycle or autocycle, to be displayed horizontally, and clearly visible, on the rear of the motorcycle or autocycle. However, if a motorcycle or autocycle is equipped by the manufacturer solely to accommodate a vertically mounted license plate, the license plate may be mounted vertically and must be clearly visible on the rear of the motorcycle or autocycle, with its top fastened along the right vertical edge. In all cases, the license plate must be maintained free from foreign materials and in a clearly legible condition.

N.J. Admin. Code § 13:20-24.21

 

Rosie the Recycler:

 

Teaneck brush fire:

 

Scooting and texting………tsk! tsk!

 

“Bratz”?

 

Same day, same time, same place (click to enlarge):

Is this one of the Bratz?

 

I’m still amazed that someone on Earth with a small Canon pocket camera can get a clear picture of craters that are a quarter of a million miles away:

 

Wow! A strong, gifted and black backpack!

 

Ewww! This guy is eating kitty-litter crackers!

 

And this guy just wolfed down a 50lb bag of white rice!

 

Two more luggers – one carrying laundry detergent and the other, a whole lotta ink!

 

Behold – the mighty cormorant!

 

From my LR – a rare, quiet moment with pre-K kids who are usually running around the playground SCREAMING!

 

Good catch on both our parts:

 

For the last 6 years, I’ve visited an excellent cardiologist in his suite at Hackensack Hospital. He decided to have his own place nearby and has converted this house at Prospect and Berry into a cardiology facility:

Try as I may, I am not able to confirm or deny that this was the house’s previous owner:

 

On to cheerier things:

 

These are the flowers you saw in the opening Orange Mess shot:

 

A bike at the Anderson St train station:

 

Some interesting-looking pieces being thrown out at my building:

 

More oddities found in the lobby:

 

The fountain across the street in Anderson Park – just add water (the upward water looks a little wimpy compared to previous years):

 

And lastly, a bus I squashed with my phone:

 

 

 

APRIL CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS

 

95 Anderson St Project

 

This is a much more symmetrical and uncluttered version of the two houses on the east side of the project – this time with just that one HUGE crane separating them:

 

And here’s the top of that crane:

 

Two versions of the hilltop apparatus that looks like it would tumble down the side if it tried to move:

Yep – that’s the church on my block.

 

They had to open up Anderson St. to connect the building to the sewer system (click to enlarge):

 

 

MBSC Project

From my apartment, I could see that all the cement pumpers that day were on the far side of the project (Camden St), so I took a walk over there. BONUS! FOUR cement mixer trucks!

 

I’m not on the Camden St side much, so when I’m over there, I get questioned a lot more than on the Berry St side, but these guys were really nice this day. This guy even wanted to get in a shot!

That’s a first! I hope I run into this bunch more often.

 

 

 

MAY

 

These are early AM pix of Hudson Yards in Manhattan taken 12 minutes apart. I caught the sunrise reflection at 6:04am and the calmer version at 6:16am:

 

This is the man I photographed in March and said we’d see him later, Now he’s got TWO Israeli flags and one U.S. flag………he’s wearing them, probably because he’s got his hands full.

His hoodie says “Comets” on it. For you out-of-towners, that’s the name of Hackensack schools’ sports teams, so he’s a homie. He’s got some other stuff I can’t identify, but I’m told he’s a nice guy:

 

Two motorized guyz:

 

Some more interesting-looking people:

I was hoping I could time the guy so I could catch his reflection in the window. I did OK, but it’s kinda grainy (but he IS a block away and there’s no sun on him).

 

I saw this guy (assuming maleness) near a City trash receptacle. As I got closer, he hopped up to one of its openings to hide. He froze when he saw me aiming from the other opening. Click!

 

Is there anything more brazen than stealing a cop car’s emergency lights? Relax, it’s a prop on a TV show’s makeshift set on a church parking lot that I was able to shoot from my living room:

 

And here’s the crew setting up a shot:

 

Actors shown during a run-through of a scene where a bad guy shoots a cop with his fingers:

To see and read all about it – including a video of this scene – go here: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=18645

 

Twins? Maybe (if you ignore my watermark):

 

Early AM sunrise shot of the World Trade Center – or what’s left of my view of it (it may disappear soon………..stay tuned):

 

My first bird book cover! I took this shot on my roof a dozen years ago, a poet found it online and thought it was a perfect fit for his book and contacted me. I received my copy of the book this year.

Too bad my heartless landlord took away my roof access 4 years ago for no reason – even though I have my own roof door from a bedroom. I really miss taking these shots from home.

 

Dunno what he’s doing………….trying to sell it?

 

From one Canon user to another (though I took this with my iPhone):

 

If you’re interested, the previous shot is a tiny part of this panoramic photo I took of the Hackensack River while standing on the Anderson St bridge:

 

Yeah – I DO leave my apartment once in a while to photograph something (the previous shot!), but the best such adventure this month happened on May 6 when I drove to Paterson, NJ (about 10 miles away) to shoot two favorite subjects of mine: Paterson’s Great Falls and its next-door neighbor – the renovated Hinchliffe Stadium.

Hinchliffe is semi-legendary in these parts. It’s one of only TWO still-standing stadiums from the Negro Leagues way back when. It fell into disrepair decades ago and really hasn’t been used for the last 30 years.

I’ve taken pictures of it over the last few years – even snuck in once or twice and – like everyone else – said, “Oh, what a shame!”

But Paterson finally did the right thing and renovated it. They even signed up a minor league baseball team – the New Jersey Jackals – to leave their stadium and move here.

They were supposed to open the stadium on May 7, so I decided to shoot the place on May 6 – hopefully, when no one was around. Surprisingly, absolutely NO ONE was around!

 

I wanted to get in somehow and shoot the new and unused insides. Luckily, their attached parking garage was wide open……….again, without a soul around!

I walked up to the top deck and got this AMAZING panoramic shot of the entire place (click it)!

I later found out that one possible reason no one was there was that the May 7 game had to be postponed because the stadium wasn’t ready, due to excessive rains over the previous week or two, Unfortunate luck for them, but a godsend for me (he says, selfishly).

 

Exiting the stadium, I found something very unusual and rare: a hand-painted pole……….literally!

 

Usually, my visits are to the Falls and oh-by-the-way, maybe a shot or two of the stadium. For the first time, the falls were secondary, but always a treat, nonetheless.

Here’s one shot that shows all the mist that’s kicked up toward the path I’m on:

 

How wet did I get” Ask my old hat:

 

Here’s a panoramic overview of that area (the falls are below the rainbow):

Notice the wooden bridge with the red sign on it. That’s the pedestrian walkway for the best view of the falls. It’s been closed the last 2 years for safety reasons. The City isn’t helping itself by not getting this fixed immediately, not only to view the falls properly, but it’s also the direct link to the Stadium from the falls parking area.

You have to walk around the whole park’s street perimeter to get to Hinchliffe without that bridge.

 

So I’ll end this with a shot that’s usually the first one that anybody takes after they park their car:

 

If you’d like to see the post about the May 6 Falls/Stadium shoot, go here:

https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=18225

 

Carnivals are great for doing time exposures of moving lights and Holy Trinity Church – two blocks away – has a carnival every year. Here are a couple from this year (click the first two to enlarge):

 

MAY CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS

Lots of aerial deliveries this month. Here are seven of them:

That last one is a PANO (click to enlarge).

 

Already delivered (wood):

 

Waiting on more concrete blocks:

 

This may be the last full view I ever have of the library cupola from home:

 

And here’s where I begin to lose my view of the World Trade Center:

 

I almost fell over backwards on Berry St trying to take this panoramic shot. It may not look like it, but the crane stretched WAY over the street. I did my best to bend back that far and make it look good, but there’s a slight bend in the crane that tells me I was off a bit (maybe I shouldn’t have said anything):

 

OK – you’ve seen all the close(-ish) shots I’ve taken from my living room and maybe you’re thinking that maybe I’m not that far away, so here’s what I did:

As I walked home from the site, I found a spot near the mid-point where I could see my apartment AND the crane and took an extremely-wide panoramic shot that shows both.

They’re both labeled and my LR window is circled in red:

Whaddaya think?

 

Here’s a video of the giant crane in action – delivering goods and returning to its loading position. Throughout, you can hear kids’ voices coming from the Middle School as they play outside. You can even hear a train coming into the Anderson St. Station. At about the 1:25 mark, you can hear the sound cutting in and out. This is a function of compressing the video to a much-smaller file size. And again – click “Watch On YouTube” – NOT the arrow!:

 

95 Anderson

 

A load of wood comes in, guided by the workers’ pick hammers:

 

Full crane extension and better shot of the flag on top (as seen from my kitchen):

 

They had to open up Anderson St again, though I’m not sure why:

 

The northwest corner of the building:

 

The Anderson St view:

 

 

The Railroad Tracks near Passaic St

 

Close enough for you?

 

A little further south along the tracks, sewer pipes were being replaced (click to enlarge):

 

 

 

JUNE

 

Orange Mess Redux……………since it happened in June, here it is by itself (click to enlarge):

 

This was the sunset that evening:

 

You like weather shots? I gotcha weather shots right here: 5 big bolts in and around Manhattan (the second one appears to be bouncing off a building):

 

Actually, those lightning shots were taken from this video that shows the problems on both sides of the Hudson River (We got the hail, they got the lightning):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPOwcL55FVw

 

I’ll bet SHE doesn’t like weather shots – especially this one!

 

A dog for everybody:

 

What good is taking an electric scooter to McDonald’s if you have to walk it back with one hand while the other hand has to hold 4 drinks and food?

 

Uh-oh…………..have I been spotted?

 

Tired and Confused…………

 

It only took my brand new Chrysler Sebring Coupe 25 years to finally reach 28,000 miles!

 

I don’t know the whole route of this procession by the Ecuadorian community in Hackensack, but it ended up at Holy Trinity Church, This one was dedicated to St. Anthony of Padua and it’s shown here coming down Pangborn Place – about to enter the church:

I’ve photographed other Ecuadorian religious processions and they use a lot of symbolism that I don’t understand, so I’m not going to make believe that I do.

Example:

If you know, clue me  in.

 

Silly selfies:

 

It must be “Lean-On-Your-Bike-Sideways” Day

 

Who will win the upcoming collision? (Bet on the guy in the red shirt):

 

Sun-Setting Sequence:

 

Colorful outfits:

 

Made it! (for about 3 feet……..):

 

Here’s something you never saw before…………..it’s a deflated bounce house (go here if you don’t believe me: https://iaintjustmusic.bobleafe.com/?p=18677):

 

I’m married to music (I guess I could do a lot worse):

 

How to get to Daddy:

 

This is kinda cool. The clock is made from an actual album. This LP’s from Germany, as you can see on the right, where you can also see the clock’s dusty battery mechanism on the back:

This fits perfectly in my bathroom.

 

I can see the Middle School soccer pitch from my apartment. Here, it’s being set up for graduation:

 

Some graduates? (I’m guessing):

 

Soft and fluffy:

 

If this was ANY other vehicle, that circled sign would be an issue, but not for an emergency vehicle:

 

As you’ll see below, these two are friends who play football in the parking lot. I don’t know if the one in red is glum or just resting, but it’s fun to watch them play offense and defense against each other in the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWbd6guCbpg

 

Lunchtime:

 

A train’s coming. The lights are flashing. But only the gates on the left side are down.

What the hell good is that? (Railroad Ave and Berry St, for all you locals)

 

Friends (again – I’m guessing, but it looks like a good guess):

 

Would you believe I only came here to take this picture?

Yeah – me neither.

 

A little overstocked on bikes? (click to enlarge)

 

Not exactly a bike, but this kid’s ATV looked kinda cool sitting outside an apartment. “Boy, is THAT kid gonna be happy when he sees it!”, I thought:

Eight days later, I saw it tossed out back with the other garbage.

WTF?

 

Remember that shredded bicyclist in January outside of the MBSC project? Same principle (and weirder results) with this guy on a scooter:

 

Not every town shoots their 4th of July fireworks on the 4th. This was taken on June 29 of Fair Lawn, NJ’s fireworks. It’s nothing special, but considering that Fair Lawn is 6 miles away, it’ll have to do:

Of course, the best ones (from my perspective) are Hackensack’s which are very close by and are practically in my lap, but I can’t show you those now because they’re in the second half of the year and you’ll have to wait until next January.

 

 

JUNE CONSTRUCTION PHOTOS

 

MBSC Project

 

As usual, this project continues to dominate any others because I can shoot it from my 7th-floor apartment, which means I can show activity above the first floor. I can do that to a very limited degree at 95 Anderson, but my visits there have diminished because there’s not much new activity to see from ground level.

 

Site visits:

 

Berry St and crane:

 

The panoramic Berry St block view:

 

The panoramic corner view with Main St on the left and Berry St on the right:

 

Another panoramic Berry St view from Main St to State St, but this one shows an opening that leads to the base of the massive crane:

 

There are actually TWO projects in MBSC. There’s a smaller residential unit on the corner of State and Camden, but I’ve included shots from both projects under the MBSC umbrella.

 

This is a shot I took near the Camden/State corner that looked like a brown python from a distance:

I’m still not sure what it is, but it’s interesting-looking and IS part of the overall project, so it gets included.

 

All the rest were taken from home.

 

Four cement pumper shots:

 

Two shots of the quickly-disappearing library cupola…………how quickly is it disappearing? These two photos were taken the same day!

 

But this one wasn’t taken until nearly 3 weeks later:

 

Aerial deliveries:

 

Fishing for private jets (got one!):

 

A night shot that’s kinda rare: first of all, I can see Manhattan (not a ton of Canadian wildfires haze in the air), this may be my last clear shot of most of the World Trade Center (still not sure how high this project will go) and – least importantly – there’s a plane in the sky (the dots on the right):

 

 

95 Anderson St

 

The northwest corner of the project

 

View to the east:

 

Railroad Ave vicinity

 

I’ve never seen multiple augers lined up in a street before:

 

All signs that were in the way of work were collected in one spot (and Railroad Pl is a separate street from Railroad Ave):

 

 

UNDATED AND HACKENSACK-RELATED

 

This happened in either January or February. It’s not here for its photographic quality, but locals may find it interesting.

I found this t-shirt online that mentioned various global hotspots, ending with “Hackensack, New Jersey”:

It was rather absurd, so naturally, I was interested in it. When I received it, the colors were very dull, compared with the ad, so I complained. They said, “Send a picture” (the wrong thing to ask a photographer who can control color density), so I did (middle pic).

They were very nice about it: “OK – keep the shirt and pick out another one for free.” (!)

Sticking with the Hackensack motif, I picked one with a guitar-playing bear. The selling point? It was an electric guitar. Had the bear been an acoustic-playing folkie, I would have looked elsewhere.

I recommend https://www.teepublic.com/ 

Try the seach function – lotsa stuff I never saw before (like a guitar-playing bear in Hackensack).

 

 

DONE!

 

I DO hope you managed to slog through this endless collection of photos and stories and found some of them interesting – especially since another one will be coming in January.

 

And please post any thoughts you may have in the comments section below. Do you enjoy these monstrous posts? Have any questions or suggestions that can be shared in a family atmosphere?

 

Fire away!