Pics of Frank Black's Yellow House in Vancouver!

[Guest tempusfugit]

LOL, I was just teasing, but now I will have to ask someone what a uber-nerd is Wow, you really hit all the hot spots. Was this a tour type thing where someone was available to guide you to these places, or was your group just extremely resourceful in locating all this stuff. I guess if they filmed mainly in Vancouver, most of the sets would be within a finite area. I don't want to grill you for too much information, but do places like "Hill Top Cafe" advertise that they were used in filming, or could someone stop in for a bite to eat and never know they were on hallowed ground?

Speaking of X-files, I don't know if they have the same programing every night, but TNT seems to be pretty dominated by X-files after Midnight. I just woke up from a weird dream and turned it on and whata ya know, Soft Light with Tony Shalhoub is on. I watched a couple of episodes before going to bed and then left it on while I fell asleep with my sleep timer on. I guess it's no wonder I had some weird dreams. I'll have to be on the lookout for favorites like "Deep Throat". That one was my first and still an all time favorite episode.

There are X-Files tours that you can take, but seeing as how we had two cars at our disposal, we just did our research before hand and saw all the locations we wanted to see. There's a book available on Amazon called X Marks the Spot (about $15 and well worth the money) which was written by Vancouver's location managers on TXF for the first 5 seasons. It lists a lot of locations used per episode and includes a lot of cool trivia and anecdotes about the filming. With that, and a map of Vancouver, and the help of mapquest.com ;) my friend and I planned out the trip. The MM house wasn't in the book so that's why I had asked about it here. And it's on the corner of 4th avenue and 4th street in New Westminister... the 'Ezekiel' road sign was just put up as a prop in the show. And you're right about the filming locations being within a defined area... if they filmed outside that set area, it would have been more costly. I think the farthest we drove was about an hour and a half to get to the bridge that was used in the XF episode Patient X/The red and the Black, and the mining musuem that was the "lots and lots of files" building in Paper Clip.

Unless you had a really good photographic memory or you were specifically looking for it, a lot of the small locations like restaurants and stuff could easily be overlooked-- also since a lot of things have been remodeled since the mid 90s. And the camera makes everything look so much bigger than it really is. One of the most common phrases we uttered on the trip was "it looks so much smaller than in the episode!!". I probably wouldn't have recognized the Hill Top Cafe. Like I said though, the motel we were staying at had pictures of Lance and Terry and of TXF filming up in the main office but I'd say that's one of the only "advertisements" I saw for the shows. You're lucky to have TNT. The Canadian sci-fi channel 'Space' canned TXF a couple of years back. hmph. I always fall asleep to MM or XF dvds... maybe that's why I don't sleep so well either. haha.

And Vancouver is just north of the US border above Washington. One of the gals on the trip drove up from Cali and she said it took her about 3 hours from Seattle to Vancouver. She had no trouble getting into Canada... it's the U.S. that's a pain in the rear to get into. Canadians are far too trusting.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

There are X-Files tours that you can take, but seeing as how we had two cars at our disposal, we just did our research before hand and saw all the locations we wanted to see. There's a book available on Amazon called X Marks the Spot (about $15 and well worth the money) which was written by Vancouver's location managers on TXF for the first 5 seasons. It lists a lot of locations used per episode and includes a lot of cool trivia and anecdotes about the filming. With that, and a map of Vancouver, and the help of mapquest.com ;) my friend and I planned out the trip. The MM house wasn't in the book so that's why I had asked about it here. And it's on the corner of 4th avenue and 4th street in New Westminister... the 'Ezekiel' road sign was just put up as a prop in the show. And you're right about the filming locations being within a defined area... if they filmed outside that set area, it would have been more costly. I think the farthest we drove was about an hour and a half to get to the bridge that was used in the XF episode Patient X/The red and the Black, and the mining musuem that was the "lots and lots of files" building in Paper Clip.

Unless you had a really good photographic memory or you were specifically looking for it, a lot of the small locations like restaurants and stuff could easily be overlooked-- also since a lot of things have been remodeled since the mid 90s. And the camera makes everything look so much bigger than it really is. One of the most common phrases we uttered on the trip was "it looks so much smaller than in the episode!!". I probably wouldn't have recognized the Hill Top Cafe. Like I said though, the motel we were staying at had pictures of Lance and Terry and of TXF filming up in the main office but I'd say that's one of the only "advertisements" I saw for the shows. You're lucky to have TNT. The Canadian sci-fi channel 'Space' canned TXF a couple of years back. hmph. I always fall asleep to MM or XF dvds... maybe that's why I don't sleep so well either. haha.

And Vancouver is just north of the US border above Washington. One of the gals on the trip drove up from Cali and she said it took her about 3 hours from Seattle to Vancouver. She had no trouble getting into Canada... it's the U.S. that's a pain in the rear to get into. Canadians are far too trusting.

Thank you again for the wealth of information!! First off, I will tell you this, maybe it's a coincidence, time of day, rush hour traffic, etc., but now that I think about it, going TO Canada always seems pretty smooth, and I have always hit the long waits coming back into the U.S. It's funny, the bridges were pretty much back to normal a couple of weeks after 9-11. During that time, I had been avoiding trips to Canada. However, I was a little creeped out by my next trip back. It took about 1 and 1/2 hours to get from the toll booth in Canada through customs on the U.S. side, and when I got to customs, there were a few national guard people with automatic weapons at their sides and the people inspecting the cars were wearing sidearms. Between the excessive wait and feeling like I was going into the Soviet Union during the cold war, I decided I had enough of trips to Canada for a while. I have sense gone a couple of times, but the last 1 and 1/2 hour wait, about a year ago, kind of put the last nail in the coffin. It's a shame, I always enjoyed my trips there.

It's kind of funny, if you were to mention any of the Millennium episodes, I would know immediately which one you were referring to, but with many of the X-files episodes I have to look them up, although I do recognize "Paper Clip" for sure. If I win the Lotto, this trip will be first on my list. It kind of sucks sometimes, being here in Michigan, because we don't seem to ever get any of the good stuff, such as the Monsterfest where Lance appeared recently. Everything seems to either be on the East Coast or the West Coast. I guess there are some attractions that bring tourists to this area, but I kind of take them for granted because they are in my own back yard. After you mentioned where Vancouver was I looked at my Atlas, and sure enough, it's waaaay over by Washington. By the way, Mapquest is a life saver isn't it? I don't leave the house without a mapquest printout if I am taking a trip. It's easy to take stuff like that for granted, but when you think about it, it's amazing that all you have to do it give it point A and point B, and it takes you right to the doorstep of your destination in seconds. It's incredible how fast stuff like that is. When I do a Google search for something and it returns and sorts thousands of results in about two seconds.

Anyways, thanks again for the info. Like I have said about 100 times now, I would love to go there, but for now I will live vicariously through yourself and other posters and your fabulous pictures. By the way, sorry to hear about your predicament with the X-files on TV, but it sounds like you have the DVDs to turn to. I thought the show was popular enough that just about every area would have reruns. Do you have cable? I am lucky enough to have a couple of different channels here that carry it. I really overdosed on it when it was on FX here. I probably saw every episodes a half a dozen times minimum, but it's been a while, so they are starting to feel fresh again. Heck, it's probably been a good five years sense I have seen some of them.

[Guest tempusfugit]

Thank you again for the wealth of information!! First off, I will tell you this, maybe it's a coincidence, time of day, rush hour traffic, etc., but now that I think about it, going TO Canada always seems pretty smooth, and I have always hit the long waits coming back into the U.S. It's funny, the bridges were pretty much back to normal a couple of weeks after 9-11. During that time, I had been avoiding trips to Canada. However, I was a little creeped out by my next trip back. It took about 1 and 1/2 hours to get from the toll booth in Canada through customs on the U.S. side, and when I got to customs, there were a few national guard people with automatic weapons at their sides and the people inspecting the cars were wearing sidearms. Between the excessive wait and feeling like I was going into the Soviet Union during the cold war, I decided I had enough of trips to Canada for a while. I have sense gone a couple of times, but the last 1 and 1/2 hour wait, about a year ago, kind of put the last nail in the coffin. It's a shame, I always enjoyed my trips there.

It's kind of funny, if you were to mention any of the Millennium episodes, I would know immediately which one you were referring to, but with many of the X-files episodes I have to look them up, although I do recognize "Paper Clip" for sure. If I win the Lotto, this trip will be first on my list. It kind of sucks sometimes, being here in Michigan, because we don't seem to ever get any of the good stuff, such as the Monsterfest where Lance appeared recently. Everything seems to either be on the East Coast or the West Coast. I guess there are some attractions that bring tourists to this area, but I kind of take them for granted because they are in my own back yard. After you mentioned where Vancouver was I looked at my Atlas, and sure enough, it's waaaay over by Washington. By the way, Mapquest is a life saver isn't it? I don't leave the house without a mapquest printout if I am taking a trip. It's easy to take stuff like that for granted, but when you think about it, it's amazing that all you have to do it give it point A and point B, and it takes you right to the doorstep of your destination in seconds. It's incredible how fast stuff like that is. When I do a Google search for something and it returns and sorts thousands of results in about two seconds.

Anyways, thanks again for the info. Like I have said about 100 times now, I would love to go there, but for now I will live vicariously through yourself and other posters and your fabulous pictures. By the way, sorry to hear about your predicament with the X-files on TV, but it sounds like you have the DVDs to turn to. I thought the show was popular enough that just about every area would have reruns. Do you have cable? I am lucky enough to have a couple of different channels here that carry it. I really overdosed on it when it was on FX here. I probably saw every episodes a half a dozen times minimum, but it's been a while, so they are starting to feel fresh again. Heck, it's probably been a good five years sense I have seen some of them.

Yeah it sounds like border hopping isn't going to be as easy as it used to be. I used to drive down to Vermont and New York almost every other weekend with my family when I was young without a hassle. Back when the dollar was at a better rate. But it's out of the question now when we have to spend a couple of hours staring at the border and watching as the officers spend hours rading through travellers' picnic baskets and whatnot.

I have cable and satellite at home and there's only one channel on the satellite that airs TXF in syndication on weeknights. I usually just resort to the dvds but I still love that feeling of having commercials seeing as how they give me a chance to breathe if the episode is really stressful. And after 9 seasons, there are some X-Files episodes that just blur together in my mind and I can't tell them apart--- probably the really bad ones. I actually hadn't watched any episodes for about 2 months before going on the trip (work work, study study), but now that I'm back I can't wait to watch them and MM eps again seeing as how i have a new perspective on them and little things to look out for.

And mapquest is truly amazing... although their directions never fail to give me a chuckle. Especially when they give you directions on how to merge onto the highway and give you an estimated travel time assuming that you're dring 20mph below the speed limit lol. I hope you get to make a trip out ot Vancouver one day. MM/XF locations aside, it's an amazing and stunning city. And when the time comes, if you need any help planning it out give me a shout!

Edited June 14, 2006 by tempusfugit

[Guest Janset]

It's kind of funny, if you were to mention any of the Millennium episodes, I would know immediately which one you were referring to, but with many of the X-files episodes I have to look them up, although I do recognize "Paper Clip" for sure.

Did someone else recognize the "Paper clip" location in the episode "Beware of the dog" ?

[Guest A Stranger]

My guess is that the property owner thought it would be a nice touch and fun for visitors and bought it. From the sound of it, they enjoy the novelty of it and occasional visitors. They certainly seem very hospitable.

Droppingn $1,500 or whatever on a car based on the show would be even more strange.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

Droppingn $1,500 or whatever on a car based on the show would be even more strange.

True, but then again, if he happened to need a truck, you can't do much better than a Grand Cherokee.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

Yeah it sounds like border hopping isn't going to be as easy as it used to be. I used to drive down to Vermont and New York almost every other weekend with my family when I was young without a hassle. Back when the dollar was at a better rate. But it's out of the question now when we have to spend a couple of hours staring at the border and watching as the officers spend hours rading through travellers' picnic baskets and whatnot.

I have cable and satellite at home and there's only one channel on the satellite that airs TXF in syndication on weeknights. I usually just resort to the dvds but I still love that feeling of having commercials seeing as how they give me a chance to breathe if the episode is really stressful. And after 9 seasons, there are some X-Files episodes that just blur together in my mind and I can't tell them apart--- probably the really bad ones. I actually hadn't watched any episodes for about 2 months before going on the trip (work work, study study), but now that I'm back I can't wait to watch them and MM eps again seeing as how i have a new perspective on them and little things to look out for.

And mapquest is truly amazing... although their directions never fail to give me a chuckle. Especially when they give you directions on how to merge onto the highway and give you an estimated travel time assuming that you're dring 20mph below the speed limit lol. I hope you get to make a trip out ot Vancouver one day. MM/XF locations aside, it's an amazing and stunning city. And when the time comes, if you need any help planning it out give me a shout!

Hilarious how you put that "raiding peoples picnic baskets", but that is really what it amounts to. It is a total charade, and while they look through picnic baskets and pop coolers, the people who are up to no good are sneaking across the border undetected or finding ingenious ways of concealing stuff in their cars. They are certainly not leaving stuff in their trunk at the very top or in a brown paper bag, and you can tell by watching the border guards that this is the extent of their searches. Meanwhile, my entire day is ruined, and I wish I had never even decided to go. And this is not to mention the $10 worth of gas I burned up sitting on the bridge.

It's nice that, like me, you are an avid X-files fan, and yet you are willing to freely admit that there were some episodes that were pretty bad. It would be interesting to through the episode list and pick out all the stinkers, but all in all, there were a lot more good ones.... OK, did a quick Google search, and here are some episodes I didn't like: Jersey Devil, Firewalker, Red museum, Herrenvolk, "Home" was too disgusting, was bored with "Musings of a CSM", "Never Again" wasn't so hot, "Tempus Fugit" just kidding, I liked that one, "Travelers", "The Pine Bluff Variant" was subpar, The Unnatural, & Fight Club. Just a few from the first 7 seasons off the top of my head. Seasons 8 and 9 started to lose me a little. I still watched all of them at least a couple of times, but I don't recognize many of the titles off hand.

Oh, and yes, Mapquest can be funny at times. There have been a few occasions where it has come up with some pretty strange routes. If I ever do get a chance to get out to Vancouver, which probably means that I also came across an unexpected windfall of money, I will get in touch and get some ideas from you. It sounds like you researched it extensively and maximized your trip.

[Bardo Thodol]

OMG!!!!!!

This has to be the ultimate (besides meeting Lance) MillenniuM fan experience!!!! I got chills of excitement as I read your post about going to the Big Yellow House, and then being invited in!

And, I can't believe it was an accident that there was a Red Jeep Cherokee parted near by!!! LOL! Did the current owners of the house own it? Of some mad MLM fan neighbor?

I am speechless! Good for you! Thank you so much for sharing your experience and picies!

Magic! Fantastic!

[Libby]

I'd just like to announce that I am green with envy, tempus fugit, but also incredibly impressed with the degree of research and organisation involved in your trip.

I'm also beating myself up at the moment - my dear hubby has had to relinquish his golf holidays because his wrist is too painful to play every day on a golf holiday, so he's taken to globe-trotting. He'll be in Vancouver next month. Why am I not accompanying him? Because I can't yet get on a damn plane!!! I've been working on my travel-phobia for several months now, and have actually made some train journeys on my own, but I need to do some more work before I can get on a plane - after all, once the plane has left the ground (no, no, no, don't want to think about that!) I can't change my mind.

But, when the time comes, and I can think about getting on that plane (with probably every square inch of my body covered in nicotine patches) perhaps you would kindly give me some pointers as where I should visit. One of the ways of beating phobias like this is to have an objective that is more than just overcoming the fear, and the thought of someday standing in front of the yellow house, just like you, is a very definite motivating factor.

[Guest MillenniumIsBliss]

L

Speaking of X-files, I don't know if they have the same programing every night, but TNT seems to be pretty dominated by X-files after Midnight.

Hey, all the sudden X-files isn't on TNT at all after midnight. I wonder if it was a marathon or something the day I was watching it. Does anyone know what cable chanels are showing it and when?