The other day, I was out scouting in the middle of nowhere when I came something special.

I was making my way across unnamed dirt roads when, in the distance, I saw what looked like an abandoned stone house…

Of course I had to pull over and take a look. I love finding these places, desert homes that are miraculously still standing often a century after they were built…

Typically, they’re reclaimed by local kids as a place to hang out, drink, smoke, the usual. This one was particularly large…

And even had a second little home out back, with its own miniature fireplace:

Then I noticed something odd nearby: a block-like structure with stairs leading up to it. At first, I thought it was a cistern, but there was one higher up on the hill. What could it be?

I looked inside – and the rounded stairs in the corner gave it away: this was a pool! And there was more…

On the stairs leading up to the pool, I saw some writing and took a closer look. What I found amazed me…

“Started Oct 1944; Finished Oct 1945.” Absolutely incredible. At a time when this area could not have been more inaccessible and remote, someone took it upon themselves to build not only a home, but a pool…

Then I realized this wasn’t the only trace left by the family that lived here over eighty years ago. Lining the pool were several buttress-like steps…

And as I looked closer, I was amazed to see handprints and names from the family. Here we have “ELIZABETH” and her nickname, “BETTY”:

Others were so faded that it was impossible to read the writing…

And for others still, the writing was almost completely gone:

But one was still particularly legible, a special spot reserved at the head of the pool…

Pop and mom. The two who had somehow created a home in the middle of nowhere.

This is why I love what I do. You think you’ve seen it all. You stare out at a vast empty desert plain and think: there’s nothing out there. Then you start exploring – and it turns out, you couldn’t have been more wrong.

Never stop exploring.

I’ve been scouting this week in the desert, and I keep coming across abandoned boats, which I love because it’s such a surreal visual. And given how popular crazy conspiracy theories are these days, I’ve decided to create a “flat-Earther”-style explanation for their existence –

I don’t have all the details worked out yet, but in my burgeoning premise: this area was once home to a vast lake ala the Salton Sea that was used for recreational purposes by locals.

Then, one day about twenty years ago, THE EVENT occurred, in which the lake suddenly flashed out of existence, along with all collective human memory and written evidence of said lake. Exactly what happened is still fiercely debated –

Some say it was due to an controversial experiment gone awry at nearby Edwards AFB… Others claim it was a dimensional crossover, in which our water wound up in a mirror reality… Others say the government siphoned it off during an life-threatening drought…

Whatever happened, the only evidence remaining are the boats left stranded across the former lake bed never to sail again, all records erased, their owners having long forgotten about them.

Until: the prophesied return of the disappearing lake. Soon.

Obviously, this theory is incredibly stupid, which means a large number of people will likely believe it. So get in on the ground floor and add to the mythology! And be sure to follow for more of the crazy thoughts you have when you’ve been scouting in the desert for too long…

As a location scout, I love taking a closer look at older movie locations, so here’s the first part of a deep dive I’ve been working on for you Philly fans: Brian De Palma’s Blow Out, comparing 1981 Philadelphia to what it’s become 45 years later…

The movie opens with a scene that fills me with anxiety as a scout, because it would be extraordinarily difficult to pull off today. We see John Travolta out recording ambient sounds on a pedestrian bridge…

This was shot under the Henry Avenue bridge alongside Lincoln Drive, and the pedestrian bridge is still there to this day:

We then see a man next to a bench, apparently out for a stroll. Except look closely – there is BARELY enough room for the bench (it’s basically pressed against the wooden fence). That’s because it’s not really a sidewalk so much as a curb against traffic whizzing by on Lincoln.

My assumption is that the production closed all of Lincoln Drive, from Rittenhouse to Ridge, for the shoot over the course of several long nights, which allowed them to play it as more of a quiet park location with a transverse. We see a car smash through the fence…

And plunge into the Wissahickon Creek. Today, I can’t even imagine how many environmental studios alone would need to be conducted to get permission, let alone a laundry list of other concerns. Back in the 1980s? Chances are, that car is still down there.

Miss my day trips from NYC to Philly dearly since moving to LA. I’ll post more from Blow Out in the coming weeks.

Every time I scout this corporate office park in Irvine, I have to do this. As the architect intended, I’m sure.

I love when businesses near an airport tip their hat to aviation in some way. The all-timer is the Air Line Diner sign at the Jackson Hole a few minutes from LaGuardia (better known as the Goodfellas diner!)…

I also love Jet Stream Liquors near Burbank Airport in North Hollywood.

If you know of others, please share!

I recently posted about how Columbia University’s wood-paneled lecture hall is THE go-to lecture hall for filming locations; for libraries, it’s the Brooklyn Historical Society.

As a location scout, you walk in and just go: “OK. We’re done.”

I was scouting a liquor store once, and as I was leaving the owner said, “I hope you decide to film here,” and shook my hand with a sly wink – and slipped me one of those tiny bottles of Jack Daniels.

I sometimes wonder if this was smallest attempted bribe in Hollywood history.

“It’s Friday night and I’m driving down Alimony Road” sounds like the start to a bad country song…and is also what I’m literally doing right now.

I was scouting an old military fort once to get some creepy tunnel locations for a horror movie.

The first tunnel (one of the best in the NYC area imo) was well lit…

But after a point, the electricity didn’t work, and we were left in total darkness as we explored the maze of rooms.

I’d only brought a small flashlight, and did my best to overexpose. Then, my hand brushed something papery on the wall as we were passing through a small connecting tunnel, and I trained my light on it: just a foot from my head, the walls were crawling with thousands of insects.

My guide assured they were just crickets (“probably”). But sometimes, when the lights are off, it’s better to leave them that way.