rusty_halo | Projekt Revolution, The Dark Knight, Due South, and Doctor Who

I had the most awesome Saturday. jaydk and I went to Philadelphia for Projekt Revolution.

We caught Amtrak in the early afternoon; it only takes about an hour and a half from New York to Philly. Then we got iced coffee at 30th Street Station and took a taxi to Singapore Vegetarian Restaurant in Chinatown, which was my first vegetarian restaurant ever. My mom used to take me there once or twice a year, when the whole concept of an ACTUAL VEGETARIAN RESTAURANT still blew my mind. (I went vegan at thirteen; we had nothing in the small town in NJ where I lived.) It's still as delicious and reasonably-priced as ever; we shared the dim sum sampler, which was an absurdly huge amount of incredibly delicious food for under $25 total. And you know when

jaydk likes it, it's got to be good, because she's very skeptical of the whole vegan thing.

Then we caught a taxi outside of the Greyhound station around the corner and took it to Penn's Landing, where we bought tickets for the ferry to Camden and then wandered around Penn's Landing until the ferry came. They were having some kind of street fair--booths selling water ice and trinkets, kids splashing in the fountains, music coming from everywhere. It was a sweltering day, but beautiful and bright, and people seemed to be having a lot of fun.

We bought water ice and ate it on the ferry, enjoying the view while the wind kept us cool. Traveling by ferry is a really lovely way to get to a concert! Then we walked through another festival--this one Caribbean-themed, with an outdoor band on a big stage--to the concert venue, which has recently been renamed the Susquehanna Bank Center. It used to be the E-Center, a dozen ridiculous names ago, and is the place where I attended my first concert ever: Lollapalooza '97. Korn and Tool and James and... I forget who else. My best friend Danielle and I had seats near the back, and the boys we had crushes on were sitting up front. And my friend Chris was with them, before we became friends. And Danielle and I bought a hundred sticks of cheap incense and split them; I had that stale incense in my bedroom until I went to college and finally dumped it.

ANYWAY.

jaydk and I got there at just the right time. We bought beer (they had good Belgian beer! with no line! while dozens of people lined up for Budweiser! I do not understand Americans!) and found our seats just in time for Chris Cornell.

Our seats were amazing. They were in the far right section, but only eight rows back (behind the small pit) and on the center aisle. The aisle was wide, so we basically had an unobstructed view over it to the stage. And I just got the tickets through regular Ticketmaster, after trying every day for a week or so and getting crap until these suddenly came up. :)

Chris Cornell was wonderful. It makes me so happy to see him; I had a whole wall dedicated to Soundgarden in my teenage bedroom, and Cornell looks exactly the same. His hair's getting longer now, so you can see the curl, like in the really olden days. And his voice is as wonderful as ever; he's got such amazing range and intense emotion. He's a very charismatic performer; the audience was riveted, and sang along to all the songs they knew. This was really one of the best crowds I've seen; everyone was so into it. I almost think the heat helped; it made everything surreal and more intense and brought everyone together somehow.

I don't remember the exact setlist, but it had at least four Soundgarden songs ("Outshined," "Rusty Cage," "Spoonman," and "Black Hole Sun") and a ton of Audioslave songs (which I knew this time, because I've been listening to Audioslave--I think I like their stuff live better than on record, though). And Temple of the Dog's "Hunger Strike"! Which was amazing to hear. And the Linkin Park guy came out and sang Eddie Vedder's part, which is not a sentence I thought I'd ever write.

Cornell played "Black Hole Sun" by climbing into the mosh pit and singing while the crowd carried him, and then got out and sang while walking through the aisle, sang a whole part while standing in the middle of the arena, and then walked back to the stage down the other aisle. You know, the aisle that my seat was on? I GOT TO TOUCH CHRIS CORNELL! I mean, he walked right past and everyone on the aisles was reaching out and touching him as he went by, so I put out my hand and brushed Chris Cornell's shoulder. I'M NEVER WASHING MY HAND AGAIN. Well, except I took a long cold shower as soon as I got home because that arena was sweltering. But you know what I mean. :)

That performance was so amazing that it made the entire trip worthwhile. Even

jaydk thought he was great, and she didn't even know who he was beforehand. And then Linkin Park came on and played a pretty good show. I mean, they're good performers.

jaydk really likes them, which is cool because it meant there was something at the concert for each of us. And I think it's awesome that she likes a band whose fanbase is dominated by thirteen-year-olds, because it's important to embrace what you like no matter what anyone else thinks. So I did my best to keep my mouth shut about what a horridly derivative, juvenile, utterly-lacking-in-talent band Linkin Park is. Look, their live show was good! And their singer has charisma even if he does sound twelve years old! (*tries to be nice*) (*shuts up now*)

Anyway, but I was nice and drunk so I enjoyed their show. It's amazing what great sound and a big budget and an enthralled crowd and two pints of Hoegaarden can do for even a mediocre band. ;)

They finished by 11pm, which gave us time to find a taxi outside the venue (always a bit nerve-wracking; there aren't many) and get to 30th Street Station in time for the 12:13 train (the last one back to NY until 5am). So I was home in Brooklyn by 3am; not bad at all for such an entertaining day.

What else I've been up to:

* Saw The Dark Knight at midnight on opening night. I liked it a lot, but I didn't love it the way I'd expected. It was quite well-written and nuanced in its exploration of its characters, the city of Gotham, human nature, and moral choices. And Heath Ledger's Joker was amazing. Just absolutely unbelievable, one of the most riveting performances I've ever seen. Which surprises me because I'd never even liked Heath Ledger before. And of course Gary Oldman is wonderful, and Christian Bale's Bruce Wayne is amazing (I wish we'd gotten more). I can't wait to see it again in IMAX.

But. It failed the Bechdel test so badly. I was seriously pissed off at how they dealt with Rachel. In the first movie, she represented and advocated for a moral stance that truly challenged Bruce Wayne's. In The Dark Knight, this role shifted to Harvey Dent (and onto the expectations everyone placed on Harvey) and Rachel's role became... choosing between two guys. GEE, WHAT A SURPRISE. And then dying to further the male characters' moral journeys. YEAH THAT'S NEW.

And I was extra annoyed because the biggest flaw in Batman Begins was having to sit through an eternity of lifeless speechifying from the execrable Katie Holmes. But casting Maggie Gyllenhaal was a brilliant choice--she's absolutely wonderful in the part, and gives it more life in a few seconds of screentime than Holmes managed in an entire film. Which makes it such a shame that Gyllenhaal gets almost nothing to do! I wanted to see her getting into a passionate argument with Bruce about the best way to fight for Gotham's soul. Instead she barely had a single line that wasn't about which man to choose. What a waste of a talented actress.

And the other women were barely there. Gordon's wife was a walking cliche; his daughter barely had a face; the judge, okay, cool, but not enough; and that one corrupt cop, again, not enough.

What I would have done is switch the Rachel and Harvey Dent parts. Yes, I know they've got a gazillion years of canon saying Harvey Dent is Two Face, but fuck it. Tell it to Battlestar Galactica fandom. It would've been a hell of a lot more gut-wrenching if Rachel Dawes had been the hope of the city, and the hope that Bruce invested in, because it would've carried on perfectly from the first movie. That's the moral perspective that she represented, fighting for the city on the right side of the law, and instead of fobbing off the part on some guy we haven't met before, it should have gone to her. Why's she always in the position of assisting men instead of being a leader herself? Plus her fall would've been way more gut-wrenching, since we knew how good she'd been, whereas I was always kind of second-guessing Harvey.

I don't know. Just. In an time when most of our pop culture mythology comes from an even more sexist era, you've got to shake these things up a bit. They did a brilliant job of reinventing the Batman mythology; couldn't they try reinventing the outdated gender roles too?

* I'm almost finished watching the first season of Due South. I get a weird sense of deja vu from watching it; I saw most of the series as it originally aired when I was a kid, what, fourteen years ago? So it's kind of new to me, but kind of not. I love Fraser--brilliant and socially awkward is definitely a "type" I relate to. And I love the Fraser/Ray relationship in the same way I love Duncan/Methos or Sam/Gene; the characters represent two different moral perspectives and struggle with it, but also grow together and develop an incredibly deep friendship. And I love the exploration of Canadian/US cultural differences, and the hopeful perspective it takes toward urban America, and the way the writing acknowledges moral ambiguity and is interested in the theme of redemption. I'm less fond of the generic cop-show plots and the lack of interesting female characters; I'm especially irritated at how every woman becomes a slobbering moron in Fraser's presence. When I was a kid, I thought it was an amusing recurring gag; now I'm just annoyed.

* The latest chapter of Praxis made me squee like a ... squeeing thing. The Doctor and the Master have a sword fight! In Pre-Revolutionary France! And it ends with a kiss!

*

dwseason5 ended, and was quite good. I am very much in favor of Doctor/Master-centric fanfic epics.

* And I watched "The Mind of Evil." I'll try to write up a proper review later. It's got more phonesex! I love Three/Delgado!Master. :)

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