Blasphemy of blasphemies! Rather than using this almost anniversary of Stonewall to celebrate the West Village, QueerSighted set its peepers on New York’s other village, The East Village!
Long the nabe of the gays, EV’s more than just The Cock. As QS points out, Andy Warhol, Keith Haring and Basquiat all cut their teeth in the grimy ‘hood. Meanwhile,The St. Marks Baths hosted many a bacherous night – and helped homo-journo Richard Rothstein face his faggotry:
Perhaps none of the East Village gay landmarks holds more personal meaning for me than the Club Baths. Closed by the city along with all the other gay bath houses during the 1980s AIDS panic, the Club Baths was converted into a trendy restaurant, Cave Canem. My ex-wife surprised me with a 40th Birthday party at this restaurant and it was on this night, in the former bath house, that I resolved to come out–which I did just a few months later. Gay porn star Arpad Miklos, wearing nothing but a Turkish towel, longs for the bad old days.
And we’re long-ing for Miklos. Hubba-hubba!
hisurfer
I followed the link to see more Arpad Mikols. I was tricked. What I got instead was an awesome history tour of the Lower East Side. I usually hate nostalgia, and get tired of hearing how fabulous you all were back then at the Saint and St Marks &c, but this was a great photo essay. Thanks for linking it!
(and there is more shirtless Arpad, for those who need spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down).
nycstudman
It’s now Lucky chang’s. As for hisurfer’s comment that he gets “tired of hearing how fabulous you all were back then”: sad. It’s called “history.” And those who don’t know it are condemned to repeat it.
dizzyspins
ah yes, the wonderful years–when people like Rothstein were trapped in empty marriages and only found solace with faceless encounters in dank, disease-ridden bathhouses. Im sooooo jealous.
hisurfer
I think you misread my post, nyc. I said the essay was a great read. I liked it. I thought that was clear. What I don’t like is boomer nostalgia, the “everything was so groovy in 1967” fantasy that a number of people seem stuck in, or the even more putrid “I love the 80’s” flashbacks that my generation seems to jack off to. I wouldn’t call these history. I was worried that this essay would go that route, as so many seem to do.
nycstudman
hisurfer: point taken. As someone who lived through that epoch can testify, through all the constantly available hot mansex (good), there was way more attitude and snap judgements than today (bad).
Em
Arpad is such a hottie. He’s in a video on DominicFord.com and I absolutely adore him. Membership was only $2.95, so well worth it to see Arpad Miklos in action.
Em