Epic Journey Log Entry #8--- Long Beach/Alex’s Bar

Epic Journey Log Entry #8
Long Beach/Alex’s Bar


From there we picked up a friend of Suzie’s (Michelle) who we happened to drive by at the same time. Michelle has an internet radio show and it was obvious that she was well-suited for that job – she was bubbly, talkative, and kinda crazy (in a good way).

Then the 3 of us headed to Alex’s Bar aka Fangtasia.

*swoon*

We spent 2 hours there talking to Matt, this bartender who’s originally from Michigan, and the manager of the bar, who is also the mother of the owner.

So.Much.Fun.

We were the only ones there, since we got there at 5pm, and it was like we owned the joint. They let me go behind the bar and take pictures, Matt turned on the stage lights so I got to take pictures up there (aka the location of Eric’s Sherriff throne in the show), and I took pictures of *everything* in the place.

During those 2 hours I learned a lot about Long Beach, Hollywood, and True Blood. Instead of a narrative format, I’ll just list everything:

***True Blood shot both the interior and exterior of Seasons 1 and 2 @ Alex’s Bar, plus the exterior scenes in Season 3.

***TB recreated the interior on a set for Season 3, which is actually sucky for Alex’s Bar because the bar gets *nothing* for them designing their set like that. If you think about it, if you use a person’s face for an ad or something, they get money for you using their likeness – not the case for locations (and the bar even told them where they got all their art, all the way down to the paint shade/numbers!

***The manager yelled at Lafayette once because he was in the back room flicking the light switches (bored??) while they were trying to work on tax stuff…Apparently he looked very sheepish at that.

***This is nasty…So the stars all have their own trailers but for some reason Anna Paquin decided to use the office bathroom…which is always dirty and the previous occupant left a horrible smell…she came out looking disgusted and gave one of the bartenders an incredulous look, and he was like “It wasn’t me, I swear!” haha

***The woman who plays Nan Flanagan is even more emaciated in real life than on TV – she really does look like a corpse, which is probably how she got a vampire role! The manager also mentioned to someone that the actress was from a soap opera, and the woman heard and gave her a dirty look; supposedly not wanting to be associated with that soap opera anymore.

***Matt the bartender said that Aleksander Skarsgard aka Eric the vampire is a bad actor – or at least in one of the scenes that he was watching the guy kept flubbing his line and apparently Matt heckled him.

***That same actor who plays Eric is also the nicest cast member. Anna Paquin and Stephen Moyer aka Sookie and Bill kinda kept to themselves.

***Alex’s Bar got chosen because there is this internet database where houses/businesses can post pictures and descriptions so TV/movie people can scroll through and find locations.

***Now that Alex’s has such a well-known interior, Alex the owner wants to change the interior and create more of a classic 50s look – because no other shows/movies will want to shoot in a bar that looks like another show.

***The Tenacious D movie also got filmed there and the manager said that group was a lot warmer than the TB group and they were super friendly.

***Green Day did a secret show (aka no one knows until the day of) here 2 years ago. Matt said that Tre Cool was very cool and when the bartenders threw empty beer cardboard boxes into the back, Tre stacked them up and then would just jump onto them! Haha.

***Matt knows somebody who knows the woman who plays Flo, the Progressive spokeswoman, and apparently she’s crazy rich from all of those commercials!

***Long Beach has a large gay population and apparently Alex now wishes he had started a gay bar instead, because all the officials back off of the gay bars/events because they don’t ever want anyone to say they are discriminating against them,

***Long Beach has a biking community, unlike LA where people don’t do a lot of walking or anything, because parking is so scarce.

***Long Beach is apparently really welcoming of anyone regarding sexual orientation, race, etc, and overall is pretty chill.