blogvine

2011-11-07T19:01:00.005-06:00

2011-10-05T00:33:00.004-05:00

2011-09-13T13:02:00.002-05:00

It's moving day...

2011-09-08T23:33:00.000-05:00

I'm not pulling the plug on this blog just yet... but as of today, mikeprovine.com will now re-route to my Tumblr blog (here) ...The blog you are reading right now, provine.blogspot.com ...will be here tomorrow. It'll only see an occasional post every now and then, when & if I need to post something a little more detailed. After SIX 1/2 YEARS, I'm relocating to a different site. Eventually something may happen to this site, whether it goes away, or sees a revival - but all attention is moving to Tumblr for now. So update your bookmarks.

mikeprovine.com still works! just a new host.

aka blogvine.tumblr.com

and don't forget Twitter @meprovine

My Fantasy Football Draft Room

2011-09-07T18:43:00.002-05:00

About to dig with with my fantasy draft... Which of the following pictures best depicts my draft war room?

If you guessed E, you were right.

2011-08-31T22:00:00.000-05:00

The very day I think about bailing out on Blogger for Tumblr, Blogger updates their internal workings. Clever move, Blogger. Stay of execution granted... for now.

meanwhile...blogvine.tumblr.com/ Go check it out.

Movie Spots! Z is for Zack and Miri Make a Porno

2011-08-31T00:00:00.051-05:00

Z
Zack and Miri Make a Porno.
Bean-N-Gone.
2525 Monroeville Boulevard.
Monroeville, Pennsylvania.

When I started looking at these movie spots I teased Zombieland and Zoolander. I looked at Bill Murray's house from Zombieland, it's actually a mansion in Atlanta that belongs with one of the husbands, or ex-husbands of one of "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" and I checked out the movie spot where the gas fight from Zoolander took place, only to find it's an empty lot in lower Manhattan. I ended up going with the coffee shop from Kevin Smith's Zack and Miri Make a Porno. The place was abandoned when the Google Maps car rolled by, but I've read it's now a Chinese restaurant. What's more interesting about this particular movie spot, and the real reason I picked this is because behind this mini-mall, is a great big mall. Just next door, beyond the trees, is the Monroeville Mall - setting for George Romero's zombie classic Dawn of the Dead.

Movie Spots! Y is for Young Frankenstein

2011-08-30T00:00:00.068-05:00

Y
Young Frankenstein.
Mayfair Theatre.
214 Santa Monica Blvd.
Santa Monica, CA.

Most of the scenes in Mel Brooks' 1974 were filmed on soundstages at the 20th Century Fox Studios. One movie spots "off-campus" was actually on the campus of UCLA - that's where the classroom scenes were shot. One of the most famous scenes in Young Frankenstein is the little musical number where Dr. Frankenstein unveiled his creation to the public. That scene was filmed at the Mayfair Hotel in Santa Monica. It opened in 1911, but closed after the it was damaged by the Northridge Earthquake of 1994.

Movie Spots! X is for X-Men

2011-08-29T00:00:00.032-05:00

X.
X-Men.
Parkwood Estate.
Oshawa, Ontario.

"No Mr. Madison, there are no penguins here!"

Seriously, there must be some sort of mansion shortage in the world, because lots of mansions are used, and re-used over and over again. A good example is Parkwood Estate in Oshawa, Ontario - just up the road from Toronto. Dozens of films have shot there, including the first big screen version of the X-Men in 2000. The next two sequels used a mansion in Victoria, British Columbia. When I see this mansion however, I don't think of an academy for mutants, I think of a drunken Billy Madison tracking down giant penguins and nudie magazines.

Movie Spots! W is for Wayne's World

2011-08-28T00:00:00.034-05:00

Wayne's World.
7139 Texhoma Avenue.
Van Nuys, California.

Wayne Campbell's house isn't even in Aurora, Illinois. My world is shattered. That's like finding out Ferris Bueller's house is in southern California too. (...crap) Since Wayne's place is in Van Nuys, that means Garth's house is there to, just across the street. If you pan around on Google Earth, you can see it... Also, just over 2 1/2 miles away, is where The Karate Kid lives.

View Larger Map

BONUS!!!

W is also for The Wicker Man, the 2006 remake of the the 1973 British thriller. The Wicker Man's movie spot is Bowen Island in British Columbia. A ton of other movies were filmed there too, but I only bring up The Wicker Man for one reason. The pinnacle of Nicholas Cage's epic acting career:

Movie Spots! V is for Vacation

2011-08-27T00:00:00.055-05:00

V.
Vacation.
2310 N. Vermont Avenue.
Los Angeles, California.

The Griswold Family might have been from Chicago, but the house is actually far, far away in Los Angeles. It's in the Los Feliz neighborhood that lies below the hills of Griffith Park and the Observatory. If this house is where the Griswolds actually lived in National Lampoon's Vacation, the movie would have had to been presented in real time. Wally World is about 40 miles north, and you can visit it now, just get your GPS for Six Flags Magic Mountain.

The Griswold House from Christmas Vacation is few miles north on a Warner Brothers set, on the same street as Sergeant Murtaugh's house from Lethal Weapon. Other movies and shows that filmed on what is called "Blondie Street" are American Beauty, Pleasantville, Gidget, Bewitched, The Partridge Family, and Eight is Enough.

Movie Spots! U is for Unbreakable

2011-08-26T00:00:00.054-05:00

U.
Unbreakable.
Franklin Field.
South 33rd and Spruce.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Bruce Willis's character in the movie Unbreakable was a job as a security guard at Franklin Field in Philadelphia. I think this is one of the more realistic movie depictions of what an actual superhero might be like. The 2006 football movie Invincible was shot here too, standing in for Veterans Stadium. (with special effects added later)...

Right now it's home to the Penn Quakers, but it was home of the Philadelphia Eagles from 1958 to 1970.

This is the place where Eagles fans booed Santa Claus in 1968. In 1959 the NFL Commissioner died of a heart attack during the last two minutes of the game, and in 1960 Vince Lombardi suffered his only playoff loss here. The first Canadian Football League game was also played here in 1958 between Hamilton and Ottawa.

Movie Spots! T is for There Will Be Blood

2011-08-25T00:00:00.001-05:00

T.
There Will be Blood.

8601 North Thorne Lane SW.
Tacoma, Washington.

The finale of the Coen Borthers epic There Will Be Blood takes place at Thornewood Castle. In the movie, the location is not specifically mentioned, but it is assumed and hinted to be in southern California. The main character Daniel Plainview's life as an oil man has ultimately led him to his dream home, where he leads a lonely, angry, crazy life, literally shooting up the joint.

Located in Tacoma, Thornewood Castle is an example of what an actual American castle looks like, even though this is the only Gothic Tudor style castle on the west coast. It is an historic home that serves as a vacation spot, a B&B, a place for weddings & other gatherings.

Movie Spots! S is for Scream

2011-08-24T00:00:00.072-05:00

Scream.
Sonoma Community Center.
276 East Napa Street.
Sonoma, California.

Santa Rosa High School was supposed to have been used for the filming of Scream. Once word of the film’s gruesome nature got out, the school pulled out and production had to be moved. It was a big damn ugly mess and Wes Craven flipped the bird to the school board with a "No thanks whatsoever” in the movie credits.

Nearby Sonoma's Community Center was transformed into the fictional Woodsboro High School. My Air Force roommate was from nearby Healdsburg where a lot filming took place. He said they shot the high school scenes at his high school.

Movie Spots! R is for The Royal Tenenbaums

2011-08-23T00:00:00.029-05:00

R.
The Royal Tenenbaums.
339 Convent Avenue.
Manhattan, NYC.

"Royal Tenenbaum bought the house on Archer Avenue in the winter of his 33rd year"

111 Archer Avenue exists in the alternate reality of the Royal Tennenbaums. In reality, the home is at 339 Convent Avenue, in the far upper west side of Manahttan - about a mile and a half east of Yankee Stadium. This movie was actually written around this movie spot. It is, for all intents and purposes, a character itself in the film.

This is another movie spot featured by The AV Club's Pop Pilgrims.

Movie Spots! Q is for Quantum of Solace

2011-08-22T00:00:00.027-05:00

Quantum of Solace.

The Residencia.

Atacama Desert, Chile.

All these Southern California, Hollywood-area movie homes are starting to get boring. I wanted to get far, far away so I went to a different hemisphere for this movie location... The explosive finale of the 22nd James Bond film Quantum of Solace takes place at an eco-hotel in Bolivia. Bond does battle with the bad guys, and the hotel gets completely blown to hell.

Alright, so this is in fact a hotel way out in the middle of absolute nowhere. It's actually in the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. The nearest attraction is the hole on the ground where those 33 miners where stuck last year. It is called The Residencia, home for employees of the Paranal Observatory's Very Large Telescope (VLT). The complex is built into the ground specifically to cut down on light pollution that may effect the nearby astronomical observatory located on Cerro Paranal.

Movie Spots! P is for Poltergeist

2011-08-21T00:00:00.000-05:00

P.
Poltergiest.
4267 Roxbury Street.
Simi Valley, California.

Yawwwwn... Another house near Hollywood, I know. But it's hard to pass on the Poltergiest house. It's still there. It didn't get sucked into a vortex like in the end of the movie. But I'd like to think it's still built on top of an old burial ground. If you look at the Google Map - and if you didn't notice by now, I've been linking every movie spot's address to Google - but you'll notice they finished the pool in the back yard. It's nice too - no corpses.

Movie Spots! O is for Old School

2011-08-20T00:00:00.055-05:00

O.
Old School.
1803 Bushnell Avenue.
South Pasadena, California.

Luke Wilson's house in Old School was the site of Mitch-A-Palooza and serves as the home base for the fake Lamdba Epsilon Omega fraterity...

Here's the crazy part... Mitch's Old School house is next door (literally next door, as in, adjoining driveways) to Lorraine's house in Back To The Future. Marty McFly's mom. That same house was Michael J, Fox's house in Teen Wolf. Teen Wolf was released a month after BTTF, but was actually filmed before.

George McFly's house is just 2 doors down from Lorraine's. Only one house separates them. On the other side of the Old School house, also separated by only one house, is Biff Tannen's place. In fact, the house from Old School is featured in BTTF2, when Biff throws the neighbor kid's ball up onto it's roof. They all live on the same block, all on the same side of the street, all in a 6 home stretch. Bullies, nerds, future in-laws, werewolves, and frat boys.

Movie Spots! N is for A Nightmare on Elm Street

2011-08-19T00:00:00.085-05:00

N.
A Nightmare on Elm Street.
1428 N. Genessee Ave..
Los Angeles, CA

The house at 1428 North Genesee Avenue in West Hollywood & it's familiar red door served as the home of Freddy Krueger's primary tormentee, Nancy. It was primarily used for exterior shots, with a few point-of-view shots taken from within the house that looked out onto the street. The interiors of the house where filmed on sets built at the old Desilu Studios, where they used to shoot I Love Lucy. The house was gutted and completely remodeled in 2007. A nearby house on the same street was also used in the movie as the boyfriend's house, played by Johnny Depp in his first movie role.

Movie Spots! M is for The Mist

2011-08-18T00:00:00.147-05:00

M.
The Mist.
Tom's Market.
212 North Pine.
Vivian, Louisiana.

Another movie location I've been to, Tom's Market, the store from Steven King's The Mist.

This movie spot is a supermarket north of Shreveport, in the small town of Vivian, Louisiana. This is Frank Darabont's third movie adaptation of a King story after The Shawshank Redemption and The Green Mile.

The exteriors of this sci-fi monster flick where shot at Tom's Market, but the interiors where shot on a soundstage in downtown Shreveport. You can't tell much of a difference between the real-life supermaket and the built-from-scratch remake, which is about a half-hour down the road.

Movie Spots! L is for Lost in Translation

2011-08-17T00:00:00.052-05:00

L.
Lost in Translation.
Park Hyatt Tokyo Hotel .
Shinjuku Park Tower .
Tokyo, Japan.

The Park Hyatt Tokyo Hotel occupies the 39rd through 52nd floors of the Shinjuku Park Tower, the 6th tallest building in Tokyo. A 5 night stay, like in the movie, will run you about $5,000. The building, located in the central part of the city, serves as the central hub of the film. The film's other locations are tied to the hotel too; they offer guests a Lost in Translation-themed package including a map of sites featured in the film (karaoke bar, arcade, nightclub, shrine, etc.)...

Movie Spots! K is for The Karate Kid

2011-08-16T00:00:00.037-05:00

The Karate Kid
South Seas Apartments.
19223 Saticoy Street .
Los Angeles, California .

"It's a long day livin' in Reseda. There's a freeway runnin' through the yard."

When Daniel LaRusso's mom dragged him from New Jersey to sunny Southern California, they landed in lovely Reseda. Here Daniel-san could claim other famous movie neighbors. Dirk Diggler ruled Reseda in the 70's, and John Conner was on the run from The Terminator in the L.A. River channel down the street.

Not the best neighborhood, but Daniel got to date Elisabeth Shue. In the movie, she lives 6 miles due south in Encino, which of course, is the home of Encino Man.

Movie Spots! J is for Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back

2011-08-15T00:00:00.045-05:00

Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back
58 Leonard Ave.
Leonardo, New Jersey.

Yes, it is the Quick Stop from Clerks, and Clerks II, but we're past C and all the way up to J. Luckily Jay & Silent Bob stuck back, and now we can take a look at Quick Stop Groceries and RST Video.

This movie spot is located in Leonardo, on the north shore of New Jersey. It's about bout 6 blocks south of the beach, and 6 miles north of Kevin Smith's HQ down in Red Bank.

Randal's video store isn't there anymore, doomed by lazy employees & bad management. It actually closed in the summer of 2006, another mom & pop video store done in by the digital age and the monopoly of national chain video stores. The Quick Stop is still there, and still serving the customers. An apartment building was recently built right across the street, and a new coat of paint now covers the familiar gray. Other than that, it's very much in tact. Stop by for smokes and milk any time.

Movie Spots! I is for It Might Get Loud

2011-08-14T00:00:00.108-05:00

It Might Get Loud.
Headley Grange.

Liphook Road.
Headley,. Hampshire, UK.

It's a documentary, but it's a movie, and this is a movie location I'd love to visit. "It Might Get Loud" explores the history of the electric guitar, focusing on the careers and playing styles of Jimmy Page, The Edge, and Jack White. Headley Grange serves as the backdrop for Page, which is an estate in the English countryside where Led Zeppelin composed & recorded Led Zeppelin III, Led Zeppelin IV, Houses of the Holy and Physical Graffiti. Black Dog was named after a black Lab that was hanging around Headley Grange during the Led Zeppelin IV recording sessions. Other bands like Bad Company, Fleetwood Mac, Genesis, and Peter Frampton recorded there as well. In November of '73 Bad Company recorded their self-titled debut album at there, because Zeppelin was already set up with the mobile studio. BadCo was the first band to sign with Zeppelin's Swan Song label.

This is the stairwell under which much of the recording took place for many legendary albums. If you listen to Led Zeppelin IV, you can hear the results by the way the drums echo off the walls. The would hang microphones from the rafters and run cables out the windows to the mobile recording studio parked just outside.

Headley Grange holds a lot of great rock history, but it's a private residence - so you can't go checking it out. Watch "It Might get Louis" instead. Awesome movie.

Movie Spots! H is for High Fidelity

2011-08-13T00:00:00.049-05:00

High Fidelity.

Championship Vinyl.

1500 North Milwaukee Avenue.

Chicago, Illinois.

So many Chicago movies to choose from, and it turns out all the ones I wanted to highlight up to this point, well, it's too late. We're already up to the letter H... Adventures in Babysitting, Batman Begins, The Blues Brothers, The Dark Knight, Ferris Bueller's Day Off - all start with letters that are taken up already. Then, just in the nick of time I remembered High Fidelity. Love that movie, so the day is saved. It has 4 things I love. Rock N Roll. Chicago. John Cusack. Lists. I actually tracked down the location of the record store, Championship Vinyl on North Milwaukee Avenue. There's nothing there I'm sad to report... Just an empty, boarded-up corner. Reckless Records is on the same block though, just a few doors away.