We (meaning my partner-in-crime and I) arrived via Greyhound into Philadelphia by 1 PM on Friday. After dropping our things off at the Comfort Inn, we made our way up through Chinatown to go museum hopping. It was quite a haul, but the museum district in Philadelphia has a lot to offer. Two favourites that come to mind are The Philadelphia Museum of Art, which has a fantastic Duchamp collection and The Franklin Institute, a fun science museum that I remember frequenting on class trips as a kid. Our destination on this hot day was The Rodin Museum on 22nd right off the Benjamin Franklin Parkway and The Mutter Museum, across town from the Rodin on 22nd.

The Rodin Museum is a small segment of The Philadelphia Museum of Art and contains more works of Auguste Rodin than any museum outside Paris. The museum is surrounded by a picturesque garden; the entrance greets its visitors with the massive Gates of Hell, one of Rodin’s real works (as opposed to the replica of The Thinker in the garden).

It’s remarkable to see a variety of drafts of Rodin’s work as well as a few of the final pieces. In art school, the process of design is always stressed; seeing Rodin’s process is a real eye-opener in considering how art is created, how art and design happens.

The Mutter Museum was our second museum destination across town. Unfortunately, there is no photography or video recording allowed there. Nonetheless, many of the images from this macabre collection will be clearly etched into my memory. The Mutter Museum is a small segment of The College of Physicians and houses a collection of medical mishaps and oddities. If you are fascinated with Siamese twins, this place is a must-visit. The current exhibit also displays information about past and present viruses and diseases which will make your skin crawl. Fascinating, and very morbid!

After trekking through the museums, we headed back through Chinatown for dinner. Philadelphia’s Chinatown has an amazing array of vegetarian restaurants, which made us very happy. We chose Kingdom of Vegetarians, where we were served enormous portions of food – mock beef and mock chicken with cashews. Speaking of food, not to be missed while in Philly is the Reading Terminal Market. Anything and everything from freshly squeezed orange juice to homemade fudge can be found there. Mmmmm!

After getting back to the hotel, we napped before getting changed for the Projekt Festival at the Trocadero. Friday evening’s line-up included Johnny Indovina of Human Drama, Mors Syphilitica, Mira, and Lovespirals. Opening up the night was DJ TheOneBob of The Shape of Things to Come. (I DJed between acts later that evening.)

It was a fantastic night for socializing and hearing some great music. We met up with the talented and sweet Kim Traub, who has been illustrating for Morbid Outlook for many years, and Bryan of The Witching Hour, a radio show broadcast from Rutgers University. We also said our hellos to Sam and Lisa, the folks behind Projekt.

The music was fantastic all evening. The bands all exuded pleasant energy. Johnny Indovina was the first in the line-up; every time I’ve seen him and/or Human Drama perform, they always put on a wonderful performance. Beautiful music, powerful lyrics. New York’s very own Mors Syphilitica followed, with no-nonsense guitars enveloping Lisa Hammer’s soaring voice. They are always a treat to see live, whether accoustic or while “rockin-out”.

Mira, the band that hails from Florida, looked like they had the most fun performing that evening with their brand of dreamy, bliss pop. “Cayman” brought a shower of applause upon the opening notes.

The headlining act was Lovespirals, Ryan Lum’s latest incarnation of the band formerly known as Love Spirals Downwards. Their latest album is very different from the 4AD-like, ethereal pop of albums like Idylls or Ardor. Lovespirals is sensous, loungey jazz, which was fantastic live, but did not work with the goth crowd that evening. I recommend giving the album a listen, and picture the saucy yet sweet Anji Bee, draped in a long, slinky dress over a piano.

During the acts, there was a bar up in the balcony where the drinking and socializing could be separated from the stage area (although there were a few moments where the bar music was overpowering the bands). The crowd was very low energy this evening. If it had been in New York, I would chalk it up to the jaded New York scene, however, Philadelphians are just plain mellow. It was also a smaller turnout than I expected, but perhaps this could have been due to Convergence 8 being the following weekend in Montreal.

The evening ended at 2 AM. Various folks headed out for food or back to the hotel to party. We grabbed some junk food from the Wawa across the way and got a ride back to the Comfort Inn, where we passed out shortly after.

The next morning, after checking out of the hotel, we wandered back up towards Chinatown for breakfast and met up with Kim at the Reading Terminal Market and to the Hampton, the “official Projekt hotel”. The merchants’ bazaar was held there, including a variety of vendors from Raven Eve to Kambriel (formerly Atrocities), comic books like Writhe and Shine and Angst Boy, to music from Projekt and Middle Pillar. I drooled a bit over the pretty jewelry and a cute pair of shimmery green horns, but walked away empty-handed. Accoustic sets began around 1 PM, serving as a nice backdrop to the shopping and chit-chatting. We caught Chris from Judith playing, but after making the rounds and saying our hellos, we ended up heading out to South Street for more browsing.

South Street has changed quite a bit since I last visited Philly four years ago. Some shops may have disappeared, but there is plenty to see. The punk scene is very much alive and well on South Street, and we saw our fair share of bondage pants, chains and mohawks. Zipperhead (as mentioned in the Dead Milkmen’s song!) is smaller than I remember; Mineralistic still has gorgeous fairy jewelry, and Digital Ferret is the coolest cd shop ever. We wandered down one side of the street, as the street numbers grew smaller, and back up the other side to Harry’s Occult Shop, where we found some delicious Rain incense.

We were unable to stay all weekend, but before heading back to the bus terminal, we grabbed some yummy Jamaican food. Getting out of New York City for a little trip like this was very refreshing. Philadelphia is a nice little city to visit and was a good place to host the Projekt Festival.