Although no longer at this location, the empty parking (next to the Thai restaurant) is where Cheapo Records used to be, on the edge of the Macalester College campus. Bob Mould (guitar/vocals) was a student at Macalester, and he would frequent the record store where Grant Hart (drums) worked as a clerk. Mould and Hart bonded over a shared love of The Ramones.

Grant Hart and Greg Norton (bass) had met while applying for the record store job that Hart would eventually get. Although they started the band as a four-piece (with a keyboardist) called Buddy and the Returnables, by the end of March 1979 the band had morphed into a three-piece called Hüsker Dü. The name is drawn from a board game in the 70s that translates to "Do You Remember?"

To see a picture of Grant Hart pointing to the former location of the cash register at Cheapo, click here.

Cheapo Records is still around, only now it's up the road on Snelling.

view full location details...

In 1966, Robert Pirsig moved to this address in St. Paul with this wife, Nancy, and son, Ted. A year later, Pirsig began a series of lighthearted essays that would transform into his best-selling book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Pirsig lived at this home as he wrote the book at his office during the early hours of the morning.

In a 1974 interview, Nancy Pirsig talked of how the entire family was practicing Zen Buddhism. Every morning, rising early, they would start the day together in their dining room, moving the furniture and meditating on cushions in silence. Afterward, they would have tea, talk, and go for a long walk along the river near their home.

view full location details...

After the scene where Chinaski (Matt Dillon) demands his paycheck for cleaning a statue for one day, he is sent to the office of the boss. The set is the St. Paul mayor's office. So if you are looking for a place to shoot, you might wanna keep that in mind.

view full location details...

The St. Paul City Hall was used as a location for the film Factotum. Chinaski's (Matt Dillon) job is to clean the large marble statue in the main hall.

The interior of city hall is incredibly designed According to the City of St. Paul website, the interior of the building "was designed in the more jazzy, ornate Zigzag Moderne, an art deco style derived from a 1925 Paris art exhibition."

view full location details...

This location was used in the film Factotum. An old school drug store on west 7th st in St. Paul, the scene featured has Chinaski (Matt Dillon) getting crabs medication.

view full location details...