bringing you joy bringing you Cleveland bringing you New York

I took a stroll down Euclid last week, so I could revel in the glory that is Hollywood, on location. As I mentioned earlier the crew of Spider-Man 3 was in Cleveland in order to shoot some "precision driving scenes." "Precision driving" is Hollywood-speak for "cars smashing into each other."

There were a whole lot of cars parked on Euclid. Most of them were Ohio cars with paper New York license plates covering the Ohio plates. Then I came upon this armored truck:

(If you look closely in the reflection of most of the pictures, you can see me lurking, photoing, chronicling the deception. I can not be silenced Columbia Pictures! You were not really in New York.)

The armored truck apparently plays a big part in the action. That was of some interest to me because - golly gee - it said "Manhattan," but every time I went by, the truck was sitting on the road, engine running. In fact, most of the cars were always running with stunt drivers at the ready. Every once in a while someone would be told to turn one of the cars around. And then I'd get all excited, "Oh, look at it turn around!" Hey, it was a lot of action when you weren't used to seeing anything happen at all.

Then I saw a "NYC" cab:

The cab wasn't interesting per se, but the people standing behind it were. I was trying to determine who was an important player on the set. But trying to judge it on hearing these guys talk was futile. They all made themselves sound VERY important. Why no director spewing venom at everyone? I have no idea. It would have made it more interesting for us passers-by.

There were innumerable little touches that made me appreciate all the work that must go into making one place look like another. Including the Purple Lilac:
I'm not familiar with 276 W. 38th in New York, but apparently, it looks a lot like Cleveland's Euclid Avenue.

In fact, there were a number of fake store facades:

Here's a real Subway:
Just to prove that not all the storefronts were fake. Hey we might not have any businesses on Euclid, but we can get a Chicken Teriyaki sub whenever we want.

Here's Tobey stopping to chat with fans:
Looks like Tobes isn't hitting the weights as hard for this Spider-Man.

Here's my shoe. Notice it's brash, New York attitude:

Here's one of a levitating car:
Later on they spun the car 10,000 times. The kid in the foreground spent a week and a half keeping people from crossing the street at certain times. There were about 10 other guys with the same job.

And of course, the ubiquitous stuffed animal stands of NYC:
I could have easily stolen one of these bad boys, but my conscience foiled me again. My quest for stuffed animal supremecy may never be attained.

That's about it. If there's one thing I've learned from this whole experience, it's that investigative journalism is hard.

(Here are some pictures from the set when something was actually going on. And here's a whole blog about it.)