Funny story about American Pie:
The entire movie was based on life in my home town and the surrounding area, as the guys who wrote it went to High School in the district next-door to mine. East Great Falls is actually East Grand Rapids, Michigan... A rival school to mine, depicted as the Lacrosse team in Green in the first movie (I forget the name they gave us), Forest Hills Central being the actual name... Yes, that would make us the "Central" folks from the opening of the movie. The restaurant where they eat hot dogs is refered to as "Dog Years" in the movie, but in real life it is a HUGE institution here in Grand Rapids called Yesterdog. Everybody eats there, awesome stuff.
In the second movie, most of it is supposed to take place in the real location of Grand Haven, Michigan... A rich, white, suburban getway located about 45 mins due-east of Grand Rapids. The opening aerial shots of the movie were shot there, but none of it was filmed there (boo-hiss!). The painting job they have is a pretty common thing for East and Central kids to get over the summer, as even I almost did it about two years ago. The band camp in the movie (I don't recall the name, again) is based on the Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Muskegon, Michigan... Yet another hangout for rich white kids, most of the attendees coming from white suburbanite schools with money, again mostly Central and East kids. Many of my friends went there, and it certainly has a reputation of strange events, but I've never heard anything like the flute story.
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...Wow, all that from just one picture! It is one of our cities biggest claims to fame, and we are damn-proud of it.
Other interesting things about my home-town:
- Home to 38th President Gerald R. Ford (also from East Grand Rapids)
- Anthony Kedis from the Red Hot Chili Peppers is from Lowell, just outside of GR
- Gillian Anderson (X-Files) is from GR
- That dude from ET on MTV graduated from my High School (Forest Hills Central)
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Maybe there should be a thread devoted to hometowns...?