Sunday, February 5, 2012

The Great (film) Debates vol. 24

With the Super Bowl in sunny, beautify Indianapolis today, which oft appears on film, it brings to mind this question:

What if your favorite town to see on film? And was there any town that a film made you want to visit?

Panelist: ScottDS

I'm answering this in reverse. After watching films like Vertigo, Star Trek IV, and Basic Instinct, I'd like to visit San Francisco one day. Not only is there a thriving film industry there (most notably Francis Ford Coppola and Lucasfilm), it also appears to be quite scenic. I obviously don't know enough about the city in terms of local attractions (museums, theaters, etc.) but I regret not making it up there when I actually lived on the west coast. As far as a favorite town to see, I'm not entirely sure. I'm inclined to say New York City but we've seen it so many times - what is there left to shoot? I suppose I like seeing the suburbs in film, if only to compare it to the neighborhood I grew up (and currently reside) in. Think Spielberg in the 80s.

Panelist: AndrewPrice

Miami is a cool city to see on film, so is San Francisco, but I'm going with a surprise pick: Paris. And not just touristy Paris, but the old-part of Paris where films like Ronin took place.

Panelist: BevfromNYC

In true Commentarama-style, I will name the city I want least to see on film - New York City. It is pretty disturbing seeing the city in which you live blown up, flooded, pillaged, and flattened.

Panelist: T-Rav

After watching Home Alone, I always thought Chicago would be a nice place to visit, at least around Christmas. It may be a liberal craphole, and I'm sure it was nicer twenty years ago than it is now, but John Hughes made it seem like such a lovely bit of Americana. At the other end of the country, I like seeing New Orleans in the movies just because of how exotic and inviting they make the Creole culture out to be.

Panelist: Tennessee Jed

Philly. Not only does it bring back memories, but it is an incredibly interesting town in so many ways, particularly when you throw in the suburbs. Just think about M.Night Shyamalan's films from the standpoint of location shooting. Apart from Philly, anyplace that is not New York City, Washington, D.C., L.A. or San Francisco.

Comments? Thoughts?

80 comments:

Tennessee Jed said...

San Francisco is a beautiful city, but it is filled with San Franciscans. Miami was great on film until CSI Miami. Chicago was super in The Fugitive. But most of all, believe it or not, I completely agree with you, Bev. Anyplace but Gotham (or L.A.)

Anonymous said...

San Francisco is a beautiful city, but it is filled with San Franciscans.

Ha! Jed, re: CSI Miami, is your problem the city itself or is it simply a case of a bad show taking down everything associated with it? :-)

(Incidentally, I have a friend who lives in Miami and he hates it. And when Stephen Fry did his Stephen Fry in America series for the BBC, he referred to it as "a hole."


I think my "suburbia" answer is a bit of a cop-out but, having grown up on Spielberg movies and Joe Dante movies and the like, I was always interested to see what filmmakers did with everyday neighborhoods like mine (for better or worse). Like NY or LA, I imagine there's only so much you can do with those environments.

Tennessee Jed said...

The show Scott, the show. You have a knack of cutting thru the darker and more sarcastic parts of my mind. I've been in Miami, and would not want to live or be there. HD T.V. does make it look really nice, though. I wish that show with Jimmy Smits about the Rum Cuban mafia family had made it. :-)

Same with San Francisco. It is drop dead gorgeous, BUT . . ... well, you know.

tryanmax said...

The kind of cities I like rarely make it to film. I love living in the city, but I like being able to get out, so sprawling metropolises are not for me.

That said, I fell in love with Chicago on film long before I had the chance to visit. And my favorite cities to see on film are Shanghai and Tokyo, but that has more to do with the kind of movie I expect. (And Andrew Payne's atrocities notwithstanding, I like to see my home city on film.)

But, if there is one place that film makes me want to visit where I have not yet, it is New Orleans. But I'd probably want to avoid the Mardi Gras season. It looks so rich with history when it's not littered with beads.

Tennessee Jed said...

Marley & Me, The Village, Trading Places were all shot nearby. Blow Up has been running recently. The accident sequence at the beginning was shot off of Wissahickon Drive. When I moved out to Minnesota, Witness was released. The whole sequence involving the murder at 30th Street Station was amazing.

Tennessee Jed said...

Tryanmax - I was really disappointed with New Orleans, and I've been a couple times. Biggest plus: fantastic food. Biggest drawback 190% humidity brings out the cockroaches. Don't forget dirty and dangerous. I went down bourban street and it was 1) bars selling hurricanes 2) tee shirt shop, 3) female impersonators; repeat pattern.
Best movie about New Orleans: The Big Easy, and one of Clint's movies. A much better town to visit would be San Antonio. River walk, Alamo. Just a thought.

T-Rav said...

Miami is not a place I have had much interest in seeing. From what I gather, it's very dirty in places and filled with a lot of rude people (also known as transplanted New Yorkers). CSI: Miami doesn't help.

Jed, that's too bad about your reaction to New Orleans. I actually went twice in the months before Katrina, and I really loved it. I wouldn't want to live there, thanks to the high crime rate (and I just can't deal with mosquitos in January), but I did enjoy touring the city a great deal. Bourbon Street is pretty gross--note to tryanmax; don't go there from early evening on, especially if you have kids--but the rest of the French Quarter, as well as the Garden District and a few other neighborhoods, are really very lovely.

ScyFyterry said...

Toyko. Toyko on film is fascinating!

AndrewPrice said...

Nice choices everybody! Jed, I have the same thought about Philly. I've been there and really, really don't like it. But M. Night Sha... has done an excellent job of making the city seem like an intriguing place. He's really been the best advertisement for the city I can image.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott and Jed, I've been to Miami and wasn't overly impressed. Also, from everything I've seen about it, the "cool" parts are like one block long -- the part they always show. The rest of it is kind of a pit.

Nevertheless, I think Miami Vice did a heck of a job making Miami into "the coolest" city in America.

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, Speaking of suburbia, when people ask what Colorado looks like, I tell them "think Poltergeist" because that's what most of my city looks like.

DUQ said...

I'll go the other way. The ugliest city is easily Moscow. I've never seen Moscow shown in anything approaching a positive light on film.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, Chicago is a great town and I loved my visit there -- at least the downtown. The rest looked like a war zone. But the downtown was one of the neatest cities I've ever seen.

I don't know what to make of New Orleans. That's one of those places where they only ever show the one part so I'm not even sure what the rest would look like?

Has Nebraska ever been used on film outside of a western?

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, I particularly liked the opening to Devil which filmed Philly upside down. It gave a very interesting look at the city.

I've heard San Antonio is a great city, but I haven't been there. When I was young we visited Dallas to see Texas Stadium, but that's as close as I've gotten. I don't recall Dallas being all that impressive.

I have not been to New Orleans, though as I mention above, they never show you anything more than one little block. And what I've seen on shows like "City Confidential" did not make me want to see more.

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, That's interesting. I haven't seen any of the other good parts, at least not on film or television.

Transplanted New Yorkers rude? You're kidding! Why... I never heard such a thing... except from anyone who's ever met one.

Tennessee Jed said...

It seems like we have gotten into more of a discussion of what city we like or not rather than where a film should be done or whether a particular film has made us want to visit a city.

I will grant that the Garden District and Tulane area is beautiful and a good setting for a movie. Antoine's and Galatoire's are a delight.

D.C. is beautiful, but has now been overused.

Vienna is actually a setting where films shot there have increased my desire to go.

Dublin is a very cool city which I've enjoyed immensely, but can't think of any flms shot there off the top of my head.

Philly used to be dirty but downtown is more like Paris than any other city. Still, Philly is a great neighborhood town and a great suburbs town. I wouldn't shoot it down town.Andrew, didn't know your initials were W.C.

Vancouver always struck me as a beautiful town where you could shoot a film. Same with Melbourne.

Colorado towns are great for Westerns what with the mountains and all. I think you could do a good one in Salt Lake City if you brought in the Wasatch range and salt flats.

Charleston S.C. also a great town for a movie.

AndrewPrice said...

Terry, Toyko is a cool city and it looks great on film.

AndrewPrice said...

DUQ, I have to agree. I can't think of any time that I've ever thought Moscow looked good on film. It's mainly wide empty streets, block housing and snow.

Unknown said...

At long last, I can enjoy San Francisco, from afar. It is a beautiful city, and a great place for touring and dining. But after living there most of my life, I'd rather just see it on film.

I've been to New Orleans twice, right after I was married and then a few years later. We stayed at the Monteleone the first time. It was the hotel featured in the movie Hotel, but oddly enough, the lobby shots were taken at the Fairmont in San Francisco. Can't get away from that town. LOL It was called the St. Gregory in the book and the movie. I liked the French Quarter a lot, but the rest of the city just seemed like any seaport. We had dinner at Antoine's and breakfast at Brennan's and did the river boat tour to one of the restored plantations. Quite a visit and it was all very photogenic. The Big Easy was the best film about New Orleans.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, D.C. is beautiful and overused and at the same time oddly underused. Ironically, outside of the monuments it never appears on film except for the Georgetown mall. Instead, they substitute other cities that don't even look like D.C. I always laugh at True Lies which is NOTHING like DC at all in any way.

One city I thought was really great for filming was Savannah, Georgia, from Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

Colorado is a hard place to film anything other than westerns because the cities here lack character. Denver looks like St. Louis or Salt Lake or Indianapolis or Columbus... etc. The only distinction is the mountains in the background.

WC?

AndrewPrice said...

Lawhawk, San Francisco is well represented on film and is always well shot. I can think of dozens of films that really highlight the beauty of the city. Hitchcock in particular did a great job of showing the city's beauty.

Ed said...

Vegas baby!

AndrewPrice said...

Vegas rocks!

tryanmax said...

TJ - I've done the riverwalk, so that doesn't work for places I've never been. I would also like to see many of the important colonial cities such as Boston and Philadelphia, though I can't really say that it is movies which inspire that.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, I went to college in upstate New York at a school with a hockey team in the ECAC, which was basically the Ivy League plus a few others. We did the whole tour going to all the away games just to see all the other schools and cities. Thus, I've been almost everywhere in New England. Then I spent some time in Philly and Pittsburgh and I lived many years in DC. In all that time, no city rubbed me more wrong than Boston. There is nothing good I can say about that town.

Ed said...

Not just any Vegas either, but old school Vegas. The new one has glitz, but it's lost its cool.

Tennessee Jed said...

Andrew - Savannah is a beautiful town. It was also used in the film adaption of a Grisham story titled Ginger Bread Man. That film had a great cast and a nice look even if the plot was pretty lame. I remember one scene of an old ramshackle eatery was filmed at the GA. Pig, a great bbq spot.

Tryanmax - how about Corpus Christi or Austin?

Hawk - Been to S.F. so many times, and always enjoyed it. I always stayed at that hotel right accross from the Fairmount, and now the name flew right out of my head. One of the good/bad things associated with my career with a greedy Fortune 500 publically traded blood sucking corp. was I got to travel extensively all across the country and some abroad.

Tennessee Jed said...

Andrew - were you an R.P.I. guy?

Tennessee Jed said...

Tryanmax - you should do a Boston/Philly swing just for the history of it all.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, Yep, for two years, then I decided engineering wasn't for me so I switched schools to do business and then law. There's a lot of brainpower at RPI let me tell you. It was pretty amazing to meet some of these people who really were just on another planet when it came to how they understood the universe.

What I saw of Savannah was just beautiful -- though I've never been there in person.

Tennessee Jed said...

Hawk - it just popped back in; The Mark Hopkins

BevfromNYC said...

"The Streets of San Francisco" I loved that show!

Memphis is kind of cool. The was a very short lived tv show last season "Memphis Beat" with lots of police action and Blues...

Anyone been to Seattle? It's one of my favorite cities!

New Orleans is my least favorite. There is some kind of sinister pall that hung over the city. It was just palpable to me. It gave me the creeps. Of course that was pre-Katrina.

BevfromNYC said...

TennJ - If you want great Texas cities - San Antonio and Galveston. Austin of course for music.

AndrewPrice said...

Bev, It's the voodoo. :)

When I was young, we lived in Memphis for a year and you could see where it would have been a great city except that it was stunningly dirty. I understand they've cleaned it up a lot since then. The city I want to see in Tennessee is Nashville.

tryanmax said...

TJ - Nope, just San Antonio. I wasn't there on vacation, exactly, but I made a vacation out of it.

Did you know that Vancouver was used for exteriors of Caprica City in BSG and Caprica? Of course, they CGI'd the snot out of it for the latter, but the BSG exteriors were pretty untouched, save removing logos and stuff like that.

Andrew - I don't think Nebraska gets used too much for westerns. The Sandhills don't look like anything you've probably ever seen in a movie. If anything, the landscape lends itself to post-apocalyptic setting. You know, I'd like to see that. I'm sick of those being set in flat, rocky deserts. The Sandhills actually LOOK like something catastrophic happened to them.

Other than that, Alexander Payne films virtually all of his stuff in Omaha, and for some reason Sean Penn likes to shoot here when he directs. (I think they're buddies.) And just about any film set in Nebraska gets shot in Nebraska because apparently "there is no place like Nebraska!" ;)

AndrewPrice said...

Nice, that's very apocalyptic.

I always thought of Nebraska pretty much like eastern Kansas, which is actual very different from Western Kansas (which defines flat), which is again very different from eastern Colorado.

And while we're on the topic, Illinois has some of the prettiest farm country, unless you count Vermont.

Tennessee Jed said...

Bev - I love sitting in one of those restaurants in Galveston looking out at the bay. Austin is awesome for music. A lot of great Austin based musicians play Knoxville. Memphis Beat was a great show with great music. Wish it had lasted longer.

Been to Seattle a bunch as well. Loved the Viet vet with his pencil selling pooch. From what I hear Vancouver has that wonderful Victorian thing going on.

Tennessee Jed said...

Andrew - if you want to come to Tennessee, let me know. Nashville is a great town. The physically coolest looking town in Tennessee is Chattanooga. The beauty of Lookout Mountain just dominates. It's a pretty cool town as well.

Floyd R. Turbo said...

I'd have to go with New York City -- specifically Christmas time. Hollywood has made so many great Christmas postcards from that city. Even middling movies like Serendipity can still sell NYC at Christmas time

Anonymous said...

Andrew -

Hopefully, that's where the similarity between Colorado and Poltergeist ends! :-)

And as tryanmax said above, Vancouver was used for Caprica and Battlestar Galactica. It's obviously no secret that many shows shoot in Canada, including Fringe which does a good job with it. They shot in NYC in their first season but had to leave due to the lack of financial incentives at the time. Thankfully, the show features some pleasant sunlight - when The X-Files shot in Canada, it seemed to be rain/drizzle/fog all the time!

It all goes back to art direction but some productions also do a terrible job making Canada look like the US. There's a bizarre artificiality sometimes. I think Roger Ebert pointed out that the Bob's Country Kitchen scene in Blues Brothers 2000 was obviously shot in Canada since restaurants in the US don't display "Fully Licensed" on their signs.

I totally forgot about Chicago until I read T-Rav's answer. The Blues Brothers, The Fugitive, John Hughes' films... the list is endless. I think Showtime's series Shameless shoots there.

tryanmax said...

I concur that Illinois has some very pretty farmland. I'll even say Iowa does, too. The common conception of Nebraska as rolling cornfields just isn't true.

I've never been west of Wichita in Kansas, but the stretch along I-35 is flatter than anything else I've seen, so I can only imagine...

Also, there is some very pretty country in Wisconsin. Seeing as how they are turning their politics around in that state, I could even consider relocating there someday.

AndrewPrice said...

Jed, When I get ready for my next great tour of the country, I'll definitely give you a call! :)

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, Nope, the rest is pretty much true too -- lots of angry clowns haunting bedrooms. (insert Focus on the Family joke here)

Actually, one of the things I don't like about Colorado has been that all the growth in the past 20 years has been generic. It doesn't try to match the character of the place and it results in generic, ugly cities.

A lot of shows are filmed in Vancouver and I think they do a pretty good job of it. I thought The X-Files was much better when it was in Vancouver. I know Toronto often doubles for NYC, but that's not done nearly as well.

Unknown said...

Tennessee: There are three other hotels at the top of Nob Hill. The Mark Hopkins (famous for the Top of the Mark bar), the Stanford Court (formerly a posh apartment building) and the Huntington. Those three are all named for the famous railroad "robber barons." The Masonic Temple is the other big spot at the top of the hill, and used to be a Union 76 gas station where I filled up when gas was 69 cents a gallon.

AndrewPrice said...

Floyd, Hollywood has done well by NYC. It actually makes it a very appealing destination, though I have not liked it nearly as much in person.

AndrewPrice said...

tryanmax, Western Kansas is stunningly flat. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else on the planet.

I've spent a couple weeks in Iowa and I don't recall much from it... just corn as far as the eye could see. I haven't been to Wisconsin.

T-Rav said...

To be honest, the one time I have been to NYC, I actually liked it a great deal. I didn't care much for New Yorkers themselves--they were quite as rude as they're made out to be. (Sorry, Bev.) But the city itself was very nice and had a lot of scenic parts, and was much cleaner than I was expecting. I would be up for a return visit (assuming I ever get the dough for it).

Personally, I'm very partial to St. Louis, mainly because of proximity and sentimental reasons, but also, I think the city is laid out well and has some pretty downtown and midtown sections. And the Soulard district has the biggest Mardi Gras celebration outside New Orleans. That said, if you get a chance to visit the North Side, don't.

T-Rav said...

Also, Andrew, since you brought up Memphis (which I spent a little time in last summer and was surprised to find it has some really pretty neighborhoods); have you heard about how the crime rates have been dropping the past few years? Well, you won't now. Turns out someone in the PD "misplaced" a bunch of police reports and its true crime rates are still way up there. Go figure.

AndrewPrice said...

T-Rav, In the 1980s, Memphis was so bad the military would send military doctors there to learn how to deal with bullet wounds.

I haven't been downtown St. Louis in decades. I just keep using whatever the latest outer ring is. I think they're up to 14 or 15 of those by now. In fact the most recent is so far out that I think you can see Chicago from it.

Koshcat said...

I really like it when a director shows off his favorite city, but like with most movies there is a lot of editing going on. You really notice it when a movie is shot near your town. I love going to San Fransisco, if it just wasn't so psycho...I was in Boston about a year ago. Movies make it seem so much bigger. Overall had a good time. Chicago in the downtown area is wonderful, same with Manhatten. I wish Denver was more like these cities, but they have time on their side. Due to films, I would love to see Paris and Prague. City I have no desire to ever see again: Orlando followed closely by Atlanta. New Orleans looks cool on film but a city filled by very poor and uneducated people. I have never found Vegas that interesting on film/tv or in real life. I prefer Reno.

Back to filming familiar place. In the movie "A River Runs Through It" the story takes place near Missoula, but it was filmed in a valley south of Livingston, MT where I spent many summers on by Uncle's Ranch. Because I recognized many of the places, I found myself being distracted and couldn't enjoy the film itself (or maybe it was the film itself). Anybody else run into that problem?

AndrewPrice said...

Koshcat, I run into that with DC. In particular, No Way Out had me distracted because I owned a condo and later a house right where they fly over for the final scene. Also, I was very familiar with all the other locations they used.

Floyd R. Turbo said...

It's not a city but the LOTR films have made me want to get to New Zealand.

I'd also add a 1950s David Lean directed film called "Summertime" with Katherine Hepburn set in Venice. Lean made Venice look perfect -- and coming 10 years after WW2 that must have been no mean feat.

Is it wrong if Monty Python & the HG made me want to visit the Castle Anthrax?

Anonymous said...

There was a short-lived show on Fox (no kidding!) a few years ago called Drive. It starred Nathan Fillion and was an ensemble drama about a group of people involved in a mysterious cross-country race. It had potential but it was cancelled.

They start the race in Florida and, as much as they tried to hide them, when Fillion pulls over on "I-95," you can see mountains in the distance. South Florida obviously has no mountains and our highway signs have rounded edges - most states' highway signs have sharp corners.

T-Rav said...

I never saw that show, but in my humble opinion, any show that is dumb or sloppy enough to put mountains in the South Florida background deserves to be canceled. Just a thought.

AndrewPrice said...

I thought Space Mountain was in Florida? (That's an old-school Disney joke in case Space Mountain is no more.)

AndrewPrice said...

Floyd, I feel he same way -- wow was that beautiful scenery! I can't imagine a better ad for New Zealand than those films.

Anonymous said...

Andrew -

Yeah, I believe it's still there. I haven't been to Disney World in more than 10 years but I do have fond memories of the ride.


T-Rav -

I'd like to assume they simply couldn't get a better angle, or perhaps it was too expensive to digitally paint out.

The show was co-created by the talented Tim Minnear, who worked on Firefly, Angel, and the much-missed barely-seen Fox series Wonderfalls. The man deserves a hit show! :-)

AndrewPrice said...

Scott, Well, if it's still there, then Florida does indeed have mountains. :)

If he wants a hit series, he should write a show about a cool film-site blogger who solves crimes in his spare time.

AndrewPrice said...

Oh dear God. I just tuned in to the game to see what the score is and I've come across Madonna... uh.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! This is a joke right?

Outlaw13 said...

New Orleans is the nastiest city I have ever visited, if you don't count Baghdad.

I always wanted to visit Australia, not any city necessarially.

In Texas, I recommend Fredricksberg, just west of Austin in between Austin and San Antonio...but I'm not really into big cities which is unfortunate since I currently live in the DFW area,

AndrewPrice said...

Outlaw, I've flown through DFW, but I haven't been in the city since the 1970s. I've heard great things about both Austin and San Antonio. I'm not sure I know Fredricksberg.

Ed said...

Andrew, You must be happy the Patriots lost, right?!

I am.

AndrewPrice said...

Ed, The Patriot's loss brings me much joy. It's just too bad the other team couldn't be somebody I care about at all.

Outlaw13 said...

Andrew, to see what Fredricksberg looks like, watch Lonesome Dove or Seven Days in Utopia. It's a small Texas town founded by German immigrants in the 1800s located in what is called the Hill Country. Lots of BBQ and the National Museum of the Pacific War...it's a pretty cool place.

The Dallas area is just plain big, it's not bad for a big city it's pretty clean but I don't want to live here for the rest of my days.

AndrewPrice said...

Outlaw, I'm not a fan of big cities either. They have their place and they are fun for a while, but the hassles outweigh to positives after a while.

Fredricksberg sounds interesting, like some of the mountain towns in Colorado.

rlaWTX said...

Other than "downtown" there isn't a scenic part of Dallas. It's just city-city-city all the way to FW, Plano, Grand Prairie, etc...

New Orleans is not very impressive in the city, French Quarter. smelly, weird place (went in 1988, and a week before Katrina), but TV/movies always makes it look much better.

TV/movies make me want to go to NYC - until I remember how MANY people live there - I have gotten way too used to my open spaces and low-density population! Same with San Fran...
I live in LA in 77-81 (I was a wee tad) and I wouldn't go back for money, and TV/movies have reinforced that prejudice.

I was in DC 8/2001-6/2003 and didn't get to see everything. Still want to go back and visit more.

I want to go to London regardless of how it's shown. And I want to go to Perth, W Australia - which is never shown... ;)

rlaWTX said...

and Fredericksburg is beautiful - Nimitz Museum became the WWII Pacific Museum - I have a cousin that helped convert/revamp all of that! Adm. Nimitz was from there...

TX Hill Country is very pretty. More trees, but not overwhelming. Pedernales State Park near Johnson City, Marble Falls (go MFHS Mustangs!), Lake LBJ... Enchanted Rock (look it up)... but those aren't cities!

AndrewPrice said...

rlaWTX, I can imagine with Dallas. I see the same thing with Denver. The downtown has been cleaned up a bit and is nice in spots, but the rest is just city after city after city -- all the same, no character, nothing interesting.

I haven't been the New Orleans, but what I have to wonder about is that they literally never show more than one city block. That makes me suspicious of the rest.

I haven't been to LA, but I would like to see it at some point -- though I have no desire to live there. Like you, I prefer the lower population density areas.

AndrewPrice said...

rlaWTX, I just looked up Enchanted Rock, it looks like Colorado. That's actually how I expect most of Texas to look.

EricP said...

With western PA bias completely on the table, really like how versatile the Pittsburgh area's been on-screen, notably in the pilot episode of Justified (non-film, I know). It somehow made even Striking Distance better, and can't wait to see how it holds up in Dark Knight Rises.

AndrewPrice said...

Eric, Pittsburgh is a heck of a nice city to see on film. It's very impressive looking and can look both beautiful and terrifying.

rlaWTX said...

I only saw the airport and CompUSA in Pittsburgh (went in 2002 for work - at CompUSA)... looked like just another city, but with catsup labels all over it (Heinz) lol

AndrewPrice said...

rlaWTX, I actually know the CompUSA you mean... how funny is that?

The airport and that part of town are just generic suburbs. Downtown is where Pittsburgh pays off. It has a very interesting downtown -- very Gothic.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

rlaWTX: I got the opportunity to visit Perth/Freemantle when I was on the USS Camden back in '84..

Beautiful city that seemed more like a big small town. Also clean.
But the most memorable thing about that port o'call was the people.

They love the US Navy and America!
Plus, none of us could buy a beer (the kind folks there wouldn't let us). :^)

They encouraged us to tell our sea stories and wanted to know everything about the US.
I felt like a celebrity, LOL. Not a bad feeling, actually and made better knowing those folks really were interested in us and treated us like best friends.

Like South Korea (at that time anyhow) many of the people were still gratefull about how we helped them during WW2 (nd the Korean War).

Overall, Perth/Freemantle was my favorite port.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Iwas already living there at time, but I liked how the tv show, Simon and Simon depicted San Diego.

Overall, one of the best little big cities I have been to.
There are some bad parts though (National City, parts of Chula Vista, parts of North Park that had gangs. I know, I lived in those places because the rent was cheap...and there was a reason why, lol).

However, there's lots to see there (one of the largest and best zoo's) and a lot of the businesses there had military discounts. Unlike San Fran they actually like the Navy there.

Seattle is a nice place to visit but us rural Washatonians call it San Francisco lite because of all the damn moonbats in that city (it wasn't always like that but it got inundated with the crazies in the 90's and is a leftist stronghold now (although, interestingly, not many of them like higher taxes, lol).

I would like to see Vancouver, BC someday. They also shoot Supernatural there (excellent show, BTW).

I like all the fascinating comments and this post. Especially the descriptions of places and cities I haven't seen.

Andrew: I love City Confidential (especially the ones narrated by Paul Winfeld).
Particularly how they describe the cities and there history.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Tryanmax: Nice pic! Brings to mind the Painted Hills and Badlands of North Dakota (the geographic terrain).

Good place for apocalypse films or a survival flick but probably a big headache logisticswise, lol.

USS Ben USN (Ret) said...

Oh, and I'm happy The Giants stomped the Pats.
I had hoped it would be the Packers doing the stomping but Ely and crew seem pretty classy to me.

I bet Brady is thinking it was a bad idea to diss the Giants defense, lol.

AndrewPrice said...

Ben, I was a big fan of "City Confidential" back before Winfield died. What a cool show!

I've heard good things about San Diego and I too thought "Simon and Simon" did a great job of showing the city. I remember in the 1980s when the apes tossing poop at the zoo made the national news! LOL!

I haven't been to Australia, but I heard great things about it. I know what you mean about being a rock star. When I visited Japan, I was in some of the smaller places and people would come up to me to get their pictures taken with me. It was pretty wild.

I hear Seattle is nice, but it does sound moonbatty.

I'm happy the Pats lost too. I'm sick of the arrogance.

rlaWTX said...

I have friends in Perth and Port Hedland (up north). It's been a goal for nearly 20 years to get there. Someday...

I loved Simon & Simon!!! Saw it several years ago and realized it was kinda corny...

My blonde, very pale mom visited some family friends who are missionaries in the Yaqui Valley (Yaqui Indian) and got a lot of attention for being "rubia".

AndrewPrice said...

rlaWTX, I had the same reaction to Simon and Simon. In fact, a lot of the shows I grew up with seemed kind of silly when I got a chance to watch them again in the past few years.

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