Exploring medical history at the Mütter Museum, visiting Poe’s house, spending time in the first true penitentiary, and indulging in the biting humor of the Dead Milkmen

Sometime in late 2023, I invited my partner Heidi to visit some Philadelphia tourist destinations we have been hoping to get to for many years. The Mütter Museum is at the top of the list, but as enticing as exploring a historical medical museum is, the trip was contingent on getting tickets to see The Dead Milkmen, Flag of Democracy, and YDI at Underground Arts on February 17.

It’s been a few years since we were on a road trip to the United States. That was thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, not because we don’t enjoy the company of Americans. Heidi took her time deciding whether she wanted to make the trip, and by the time she chose, the concert was sold out. I felt ultra bummed out. I wished she had never told me she had decided to go. We put our names on the waitlist, and I resigned that we would not go.

I was elated when the second show was added, and we scooped up tickets without hesitation. Perhaps it was meant to be because friends from Ohio, Matt and Melissa from the Cleveland area band Kill the Hippies, were also attending the second night.

We hit the road on Friday afternoon after Heidi finished work, drove through the evening, and stopped to sleep at the Candlewood Suites in Elmira, NY. That was an enormous room – a studio apartment with a kitchen and all the amenities. It even had a dishwasher and one of those garbage disposals in the sink. I was fascinated. I’ve never seen one of those things outside of a horror film.

I could see this being great if you were staying for an extended period, but we were up and on the road early after twisting together a makeshift vegan breakfast from the Candlewood Cupboard, a small nook in the lobby with quick snacks – oatmeal, granola bars, juice, and things like that. Thanks to the Happy Cow app, which has proven to be a lifesaver for road-weary vegans, we found vegan meals, even in rural areas. So, even in a small town like Clarks Summit, PA, we could find vegan options at the Silver Spoon Diner. It’s appreciated when small-town diners have a separate menu page dedicated to vegetarian and vegan meals, so it’s not a matter of trying to get people who don’t understand your dietary choices or restrictions to omit ingredients they believe are essential. The food and service at the Silver Spoon were great.

After arriving in Philly and getting the car stowed away for the duration of the visit, we walked to the first of our destinations we wanted to see, Monster Vegan on Spruce Street, between South Camac and 13th. We highly recommend a visit if you are in Philly. It is a restaurant worth driving 1000 km to feed yourself at, both for the horror-themed atmosphere and the delicious food. I stuffed myself with an Argento sandwich, and we both treated ourselves to Dead by Dawn Mocktails.

On Sunday morning, we continued our exploration of the streets of Philadelphia. 

First, we fueled up with a hearty breakfast because we knew that even though we would use SEPTA three-day passes to travel around Center City and surrounding neighbourhoods, there would be a lot of walking. We were correct. According to my phone, on a usual day with a lot of walking, I travel around 6 kilometres. That Sunday, we walked almost four times my usual number of steps. We found the sections of Philadelphia we were in to be welcoming and walkable.

Like most North American communities, there was a visible unhoused population. It’s an issue many towns and cities struggle to deal with, and sadly, the increased visibility has yet to lead to tangible solutions to this crisis.

We found a fantastic restaurant, 3J’s café, within a 5-minute walk from our hotel. I had a tasty and filling tofu scramble and a coffee. The service was fast and friendly. They even set us up with coffee to go when we were leaving, which was nice because Philadelphia felt drafty that morning, with the wind blowing down Market Street chilling our bones.

At Market and 5th, we descended into the subway station, where a helpful SEPTA employee showed us hicks from out of town how to purchase our transit passes, and off we went eastbound to Spring Garden Station.

Once we hit the street again, I spied Dobler watching over us. Although Dobler makes appearances in other cities, as I understand it, Praise Dobler is a Philly thing.

In an interview with Streets Dept, the origin of the Transcendent True-Faith Church of Dobler was explained by its anonymous founder. Although the real Dobler was a football player, he was chosen “for his divinity, not his sport ball prowess.”

“I literally chose Him arbitrarily. He appeared to me on a box of cookies in the county jail outside of Atlanta, Georgia. He was a “Snack Legend”—[Keefe] Snack Legend™-brand oatmeal cream pie cookies. I saw His face looking at me from the box, and I was like, alright, He’s my higher power. And I got Him tattooed on my arm. The rest is history.”

After we walked away from the street art introducing us to the divine Dobler, we were off to the corner of Spring Garden and 7th for a highly anticipated, especially by Heidi, visit to the last standing house that Edgar Allan Poe lived in during his six years in Philadelphia, 1838 to 1944.

His Philadelphia period is said to be some of his most prolific years, publishing some of his most well-known works, including “The Tell-Tale Heart,” “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” and “The Gold-Bug.” Overall, Poe published 31 stories and several literary criticism pieces during his time in Philadelphia.

He may be renowned for his talent now, but he struggled to make ends meet like many talented artists. According to Jeffrey Meyers’ Poe biography Edgar Allan Poe: His Life and Legacy, “Poe occasionally had difficulty paying rent, though the landlord, a plumber, was tolerant of this.”

After leaving the Edgar Allan Poe Historic Site, we took a bus further down Spring Garden to 22nd Street. We got off and walked north to Fairmount Avenue, where we saw the imposing walls of the Eastern State Penitentiary.

“Eastern State Penitentiary was once the most famous and expensive prison in the world but stands today in ruin, a haunting world of crumbling cellblocks and empty guard towers. Known for its grand architecture and strict discipline, this was the world’s first true “penitentiary,” a prison designed to inspire penitence, or true regret, in the hearts of prisoners. Its vaulted, sky-lit cells held nearly 85,000 people over its long history, including bank robber “Slick Willie” Sutton and “Scarface” Al Capone.”

One of the most striking aspects of the prison was the claustrophobic narrowness of the cells and corridors. The doorways were low, and the cell entrances were at least a foot long. I repeatedly smashed my head off the doorways because I thought I had cleared the distance of the opening.

We ventured into the prison because I was on a Dead Milkmen odyssey, and they had shot the videos for both Punk Rock Girl and Methodist Coloring Book in the belly of that terrifying concrete beast. However, we also spent hours in the grim complex of confinement, learning about the problem of mass incarceration the United States is leading the world in. However, they are not alone, and Canada is guilty of many of the same judicial errors and systematic racism.

The tour of the decaying corpse of the failed penitence touched on the issues that scholars like Professor Michelle Alexander address in her book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.

According to information gathered by the American Civil Liberties Union, “Since 1970, [the United States] incarcerated population has increased by 500% – 2 million people in jail and prison today, far outpacing population growth and crime. One out of every three Black boys born today can expect to go to prison in his lifetime, as can one of every six Latino boys—compared to one of every 17 white boys.”

In The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander shows that, by targeting black men through the War on Drugs and decimating communities of colour, the U.S. criminal justice system functions as a contemporary system of racial control, even as it formally adheres to the principle of colorblindness.

After our tour through the penitentiary, the Happy Cow app guided us to Vegansh, where we grabbed a late lunch, and I had a yummy plant-based strawberry shake.

Then it was back to the hotel for a rest and to prepare for the concert.

We only found out after we returned to Canada when watching Rodney Anonymous’s video about the neighbourhood the Underground Arts is in that it is the Eraserhood. The neighbourhood that inspired David Lynch’s cult classic Eraser Head and the research rabbit hole I went down after discovering this revealed that we had taken a route that probably brought us right by the Philadelphia home of Lynch at the corner of 13^th and Wood. Twice in one day, we likely walked where artistic genius once strode.

For me, the linchpin of the trip to Philadelphia was the opportunity to see the Dead Milkmen, FOD, and YDI in their hometown, and all three bands delivered spectacular performances. To top it off, the Underground Arts is a hell of a venue. The sound was brilliant. You can judge that just by going to YouTube and watching any video captured that night, whether it’s phone footage or a DSLR camera; there is minimal distortion, no matter if the video was shot. It could be right in front of the stage or at the back of the room. That says a lot about the sound person and the sound system in the venue. This is especially true when they had to channel the scorching hardcore sound of YDI and FOD. In-fucking-credible work!

As much as I love discovering new bands, it is great to see older musicians still delivering passionate concerts and all three bands delivered with gusto. FOD and YDI brought the power of 80s hardcore punk, perhaps with more heart than they would have 40 years ago.

The Dead Milkmen jingled, jangled, joked, and poked fun at the world just as they have for 40 years, and they are fucking great at it. Rodney Anonymous controlled the room in his over-the-top but loveable way, and Joe Jack Talcum strummed, sang, and entertained in his more subdued but equally hilarious way. The rhythm section of Dandrew and Dean Clean not only delivered a powerful backbeat but somehow, through their facial expressions and giddy enjoyment of the onstage antics, they suavely supported the energetic antics that make a Dead Milkmen show unique.

The audience walloped the energy the bands doled out right back at the stage. It was a give-give, win-win affair for the bands and the crowd that will be lodged in my memory until old age steals this show from me and not a day sooner.

Heidi and I weren’t the only fans to travel significant distances to see the concerts, and it was great to see Cleveland area friends Matt and Melissa of Kill The Hippies. The underbelly of Philly was squirming with visitors in for the concert. The next day, as we continued our tourist jaunt, my new shirt from the concert got me into a conversation with fans who flew in from Tulsa, but that’s another story.

By now, you may have noticed that I’m vegan, and Matt and Melissa brought me a bag full of their tasty Pleather Vegan Jerky. They make some of the most authentic vegan jerky, and I suggest you search it out. It is one of the best vegan snacks I have ever tasted. I don’t recall being a big fan of jerky as a meat eater, but I love Pleather.

So, when we picked up this bag of Seitanic Snackrifices at their hotel at the corner of Arch and 11th, we sat and chatted, then snapped a few pics on our phones before heading off. When the photos hit social media, comments were made that they looked like an album cover. It sounds like it may not be out of the realm of possibilities, and I’m looking forward to making it happen.

I mean on September 27, 2023, the U.S. Department of State launched the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, which builds on existing music diplomacy efforts and delivers upon the bipartisan Promoting Peace, Education, and Cultural Exchange (PEACE) Through Music Diplomacy Act that President Biden signed into law last year.

If Biden recalls signing that into law, perhaps we can launch our project of international music diplomacy.

Monday was our final full day to explore Philadelphia, at least on this trip. It’s a city we want to probe deeper. It’s a historic city, an artistic city, and a city with a dark underbelly. Wherever politics take root, you can be guaranteed to find a lot of blood in the soil.

We relied on the Happy Cow app again for food, and it set me up with scrumptious berry overnight oats and coffee at Café Square One near Market and 4th. Afterwards, we walked to the subway station at 5th Street and hopped on a train heading west. At City Hall, a riveting work of architecture that splits William Penn’s main artery, Market Street, we switched from the subway to a trolley. The trolley system in this area surprised me, and we had to ask some friendly SEPTA employees where to find the trolleys. We were standing above it. The trolleys were also subterranean.  I had expected them to be like the street cars I have ridden in other cities, but these were like buses on a subway line.

We got off the trolley at 22nd Street and emerged to see our destination in sight. The Mütter Museum was everything we had anticipated and more, but my photos may not reflect that. Photography is restricted in the museum.

The Mütter Museum of The College of Physicians of Philadelphia began with a donation of 1,700 objects and $30k from American surgeon Thomas Dent Mütter, MD, who was determined to improve and reform medical education. Dr. Mütter stipulated that the college must hire a curator, maintain & expand the collection, fund annual lectures, & erect a fireproof building to house the collection. The collection has grown to include more than 25,000 objects.

The Unhoused: Personal Stories and Public Health exhibit dove into the housing crisis, which is an international issue. The pillars of the exhibit were the work of Ontario photographer Leah Den Bok and a collection of signs purchased by unhoused people across America by Willie Baronet. The exhibit features the expertise of Dr. Rosie Frasso and Dr. René Najera, exploring the problematic truth that simply being without a home is a dangerous health condition.

The Spit Spreads Death exhibit explores how the Spanish flu impacted Philadelphia, how the disease spread, and what could happen in future pandemics. The exhibition and artist project explores this devastating historical event and its connections to contemporary health issues such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

You don’t have to be a medical professional to enjoy the awe-striking experience of the permanent exhibits at the Mutter Museum. People curious about the history of health care will find engaging displays of the frailties of these bodies we are blessed and perhaps cursed with.

One of the many highlights I saw while wandering through the museum’s main rooms was the Hyrtl Skull Collection, a collection of 139 human skulls acquired from Viennese anatomist Josef Hyrtl in 1874. Hyrtl’s work countered the claims of phrenologists, who held that cranial features were evidence of intelligence and personality and that racial differences caused anatomical differences. His aim in studying the skulls was to show that cranial anatomy varied widely in the Caucasian population of Europe.

Many other exhibits showed how our bodies are affected by innumerable maladies that can afflict us, whether acquired or passed on through genetics or environmental factors affecting birth. For me, the most disturbing display was a collection of wax models of diseased eyes. Nosebleeds and eye diseases are my personal paranoias.

I realize it can now be treated, and if caught early enough your body can make a full recovery, but if you look at the physical damage caused by Syphilis to flesh and bone, you should be terrified.  There are skulls on display that are a deteriorated mess. Brains are important. Don’t let yours go to waste. Get tested for Syphilis today!

The museum collection features an array of other growths removed from, or in some cases, still connected to, body parts.  Some of these are cancerous, while rare afflictions caused others.

In the gift shop, we had one of those “it’s a small world after all” encounters that connect music fans. Those chance encounters warm my heart.

I was wearing my new Dead Milkmen shirt, and some fans who had also commuted for one of the two shows noticed it and started a conversation. They had flown in from Tulsa, and although their travels did not cross an international border, they beat us for distance travelled. When I told them I was from Ontario, one said her cousin was in a psych-folk band in Toronto called Beams and I should check them out. When I got home from my travels, I looked them up, and I recommend you do the same.

The Happy Cow app led us to HipCityVeg on 18th for lunch. The food was good, but it was also proof that vegans are as capable of becoming fast food addicts as any meat eater.  Fast food franchises are the scourge of the earth, but if they must exist, I suppose I wouldn’t scoff at a HipCityVeg opening in my hometown. I dwell in the heart of meat-producer-propaganda-land in Ontario, and any vegan option would be appreciated.

In anticipation of the long drive home the following day, we decided that instead of rushing around wasting energy, we would head back to our hotel in the Old City area, where we would explore a few shops and some of the historic sites like the Liberty Bell.

We found the Book Trader on 2nd Street minutes before it closed. It is a treasure trove bulging full of used books, and I wish I had more time to explore. I apologize and thank the owner or employee I asked to dig out a copy of Philadelphia Noir from a window display just as they closed. It was a bit of a struggle for them, but I greatly appreciate it. I bought it, figuring a collection of dark stories from Philly writers would be a perfect souvenir.  It was an ideal choice.

When we returned to the hotel, we ordered supper and chilled out. Tuesday would bring 12 hours on the road, including rest stops and meals.

Top Tomato Bar has a section catering to rabbit food eaters like me. After scanning the Vegan Pizza and Things menu, I ordered a Buffalo chicken pizza, and damn was that plant-based feast delicious. I recommend eating it when it’s fresh and hot for most vegan pizzas.

I offset my income delivering pizza, and it’s brilliant that Robert, the delivery driver who showed up with our food, was on a bike. I wish we had that option where I work, especially as climate change leaves us with winters that seem more like spring.

We relaxed Monday night and prepared ourselves for the long road home.

Before checkout, we returned to the 3J’s Cafe for breakfast and coffee.  They treat you well, ensure you are loaded with coffee for the road, and the food tastes great. I had avocado toast, and Heidi thoughtfully got me a fruit cup for the road. Good thinking, even if I was the navigator and not the driver, it’s always essential to ensure quick, healthy carbohydrate sources are on hand for the person with diabetes if an emergency low blood sugar situation happens.

After checkout, I noticed the back of the street sign in front of the hotel was covered with stickers. Sticker campaigns are intriguing street art, at least when they are more than the names of bands, but those are usually found near toilets. It’s not a Philly thing, but the Where’s Corky Lee sticker caught my attention. I wasn’t sure where he was because I didn’t even know who he was.  

Once again, this road trip inspired me to learn. Lee was born in Queens in 1947 and spent a half-century documenting New York City’s Asian American community.  

His photos show the little-known struggle of Asians in America, including civil rights protests, racist immigration legislation, and violence towards Sikhs and Muslims of Asian descent since 9/11.

He died in 2021 doing what he loved: taking photographs of the Asian community in New York City, where the pandemic felled him. He had been documenting the uptick in violence directed at the Asian community in the wake of the pandemic. I hope to see a screening of Photographic Justice: The Corky Lee Story soon.

Back on the road, our trusty Happy Cow found us some food at the Lost Dog Café in Binghamton, New York, and their peanut butter pie is to die for. The vegan harvest bowl hit the spot as well. It’s a meat eaters’ place with clearly marked vegan options on the menu.

On the way out, we noticed a local band had a poster up seeking a drummer. We thought it must be a sign because of our trip’s Edgar Allan Poe theme, but when we tried to scan the poster for more information about The Ravens, we were met with failure. Perhaps becoming part of one international band is enough for one trip.

The rest of the trip was uneventful, except for a few arguments with Google Maps because it was stubbornly trying to make us cross the Peace Bridge again, but we fought for the Lewiston crossing. Who wants to travel to Fort Erie twice in one week?

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