The police are trying to shut down the last XXX movie theater in Vancouver, B.C.—not because of the action on the screen, of course, but because of the action in the seats.
An undercover police officer says that casual sex, prostitution and drug use are making Vancouver’s last XXX film theatre a health risk…. During a series of visits by police in uniform in 2008, Jarvie says officers witnessed sex acts, an overwhelming unpleasant pungent odour, puddles of body fluids and excrement, and even patrons smoking.
In addition to casual sexing, using drugs, generating unpleasant odours, and creating those puddles of bodily fluids and excrement, patrons were smoking. Cigarettes, not only pole! Even! It’s strange that people who would have so little respect for themselves—people who would frequent a XXX theater filled with puddles of shit—would ignore smoking restrictions. What about the innocent non-smokers who are there to enjoy the films?
Here’s what some gay men and the majority of those lovable straight-identified men who have sex with men have in common: they lack a fully developed sense of cooties. Men who can drop their trousers in a place like that—unpleasant odours! puddles of excrement!—surely deserve an entry on Lindy’s list of the different kinds of people that there are. (Thanks to Slog tipper Amy for the tip.)
It’s in my old neighbourhood; a place that was originally the first “suburb” for workers a hundred years ago, over time became a centre of seedy and otherwise really fun activity (dive bars, porn theatres, late-night greasy spoon diners, art venues, y’know, good times), and over the last 15 years has been gentrifying like crazy. Fox Theatre is one of the last remnants of that middle age of Mount Pleasant, and while I’m surprised it’s lasted as long as it has, I somehow doubt it’ll avoid the neighbourhood forces for long.
My favourite part of one of these stories was the next door neighbour filing complaints–a woman who runs a small clothing boutique that moved in a few months ago. Um. The Fox Theatre has been there for 25 years, and you’ve been there 6 months? You knew what was going on when you moved in. (It’s like the crazy people who got CHAC shut down, and anything else fun on Capitol Hill.)
I’m now living in the old industrial part of downtown, which is mostly now 25-story condo towers. Density good, but…
Ick.
Hopefully, in place of the theater, they’ll build a little split-level house with a white picket fence and sell it to a middle-class, white, christian businessman and his housewife and 2.5 kids and their dog.
Canada has an uphill Battle now that they’ve opened the anything goes gates. But good for them, Lock them up and throw away the keys.
As nauseating as this is I find the cruising in bathrooms more repulsive. I
I’m all for harder fines and longer jail sentences for those creeps. I mean what the hell, can these idiots get a room? Seems the perverts get off on complete strangers and kids stumbling on their acts.
@4,
Kids? I’m fairly sure kids are kept out of there.
@4 Oh, button your sweater, Mary. You’re such a delicate thing.
Loveschild, please keep your puritanical American bullshit out of my city, thanks.
The Fox theater is more than just a disgusting porno dive. It is one of the last remnants of a city that used to have character, and now mostly has condos. What has happened to Vancouver over the last half a century has been truly tragic. Thank God I’m moving to Chicago, where all kinds of debauchery can still take place.
Yes, because Chicago is wall-to-wall gay porn theaters, right? Er, except it isn’t.
Jocelyn Vancouver still has lots of character. If you think stepping over a passed out drug addict in the lobby of your apartment is character.
@4 is a troll.
@7 reads like a wannabe Beat. I’m not saying that gentrification is good, but if there were puddles of excrement, I would want that place to be condemned as well. Coming in for a quick BJ on a business lunch and getting human shit all over your shoe. That’s not right.
puh-leeze, let’s not be pulling the holier than thou crap…being gay, or at the very least inclined to enjoy homosexual sex means you have to face the inevitable fact that if you like butt sex you’re going to have to have to put up with a little poo at some point…it doesn’t matter if you’re banging strangers in a back room or enjoying marital butt bliss with your hubby in Canada, Conn, or the Netherlands, shit happens.
And, not all people who enjoy sex in XXX theaters, bathhouses, and the balcony at the Eagle have bad self-esteem or a lack of respect for themselves…maybe they just get off on public sex with strangers in sleezy situations…just like some people get off on not using deoderant, or leather scenes or going on sex vacations with their husbands and swinging with other gay couples…different strokes for different folks.
Canadians are both more moralistic and more willing to tolerate other people having various different interpretations of what is reasonable/moral conduct than we are.
But I’m surprised they’re not cracking down even more strongly on smoking – filthy habit.
Fnarf, the Fox isn’t really a gay porn theatre. It’s just a porn theatre. I’m sure gay porn happens there, as Vancouver is approximately 97% gay, but technically I think it’s porn for everyone. Chicago has things like buildings that are both over 75 years old and not in complete disrepair. It has a fantastic opera company, an amazing symphony orchestra, and several great dance companies, all while having a thriving independent music scene. There are more than three places to go see a band play, and the bands you like are more likely to play there more than once every two years. There are more than two strip clubs. There is more than one good Greek restaurant. Instead of it being impossible to find good Mexican food, like it is in Vancouver, there is an over-abundance. In Chicago, people walk on the sidewalk instead of just standing on it. The majority of the population of Chicago does not define ‘spirituality’ as ‘doing lots of yoga’. Oh, and yeah, they have porn theatres.
Mike, I don’t.
8, Is the Fox Theatre a gay porn theater? The article doesn’t specify the genre of porn shown. Such establishments mostly pull in Larry Craig types, not self respecting out and proud of it gay men.
What is allegedly going on in this theater has more to do with politics in Vancouver. The politics of discrediting businesses by aligning then with the worst. This business has been around for 25 years just about the same time as the homeless situation and drug problems of Vancouver have become out of control. This is what the police in Vancouver do very well to gain public support from individuals that never see places that are in the sex business. Sure this place might be bad but it is not about this place it is about choosing the right strategy to create laws quickly to get many businesses closed just before the Olympics are about to happen. Shove the homeless into stacked contractor trailers close any business that even sounds similar to this “BAD” theater and make Vancouver “seem” like a great clean place.
It has been 25 years and the police have been gathering information and they choose now to expose the theater. Why not 15 years ago when everyone was talking about how bad things were getting? It is because the Olympics are coming and in Vancouver nothing would have gotten done for the average tax payer if the Olympics were not happening. No politician would have spent money on infrastructure that was needed all along it is only being done because of the 6 billion dollar party the government wants to throw for the Olympic people in 2010.
I feel the police are just choosing this sex theater to gain support to go after other other business that are not bad at all. These are the same Police that are involved in so much corruption and justifying tasering an individual 5 time in a row causing death. The same police that have let gang crime get out of control, which is another issue now being tackled only because of the Olympics.
We have had so much destruction of lives in this city which the police have knowing let happen for years (Pickton). The motivation to all of a sudden expose this 25 year old theaters problems are not sincere. This is just more bull from the government and police that are more concerned about the Olympics than actually doing something which should have happened years ago.
@15 – exactly
It astounds me that what most concerns some here is that there could be excrement and pee on the floor. Really, the insight into amoral thinking I get here is priceless.
What about the human waste and disease you can contract from those types of encounters?
Most importantly what about others seeing that type of stuff? And don’t tell me that type of filth is only restricted to the theater. You have to be pretty gullible to believe that they are not doing the same thing on the surrounding areas, cause the type of persons who engage in these sorts of acts are never satisfied, once they have broken a taboo they seek to brake another, and another till eventually they end up in more horrendous pathologies like pedophilia.
Misanthrope, keep honoring the handle you use here. I would add to it other more accurate descriptions but that’s not up to me.
17, Wow Loveschild, you sound like you are speaking from experience.
@1:
I just want to point out there were numerous reasons why CHAC went out of business; cranky next door neighbors complaining about the noise were pretty far down on that list.
Stangeways –
I would just like to point out that if you truly think gay sex without fecal matter is impossible you’re just doing it wrong.
We need one of those here!
@3 – Very little chance of that. East Van is very Asian – whites are a minority and generally on the ‘lower half’ of the class pyramid. Much of the ‘gentrification’ has been driven by extremely wealthy Asian immigrants
BTW – I have no issue with Asians or ‘white trash’ – it’s just a reality as Vancouver realigns itself with Langley as the new business core & ‘downtown’ becoming a ‘bedroom community’
@17 – What are you talking about?
@17, Loveschild, I live in vancouver. This thing with the theater has been going on a for a while, and this is the first time I’ve heard of excrement on the floor.
The majority of the other businesses in the area support the Fox. They say the new owners have really cleaned it up over the past few years.
I also used to live right near the FOX, and I never clued in to the fact that the theatre even existed, let alone saw people doin’it in the streets.
Now the real tragedy is that the Uranus lounge across the street there turned into a starbucks. A more poignant symbol of gentrification there could not be.
@23 Jocelyn, does Loveschild really EVER know what she is talking about? Its a constant spew of ignorance and hate that flows from her ass and ends up on our screens.
Talking about the right of families and children of not being disturbed by people engaging in sexual acts on public places, capice?
I, know it’s a tough concept for this crowd to understand.
The get your rocks off at no cost crowd always puts their sexual pursuits first than they do the welfare of others.
“@3 – Very little chance of that. East Van is very Asian – whites are a minority and generally on the ‘lower half’ of the class pyramid. Much of the ‘gentrification’ has been driven by extremely wealthy Asian immigrants”
I think you meant to say “PARTS of East Van are very Asian”. I’m sure people in the Italian and other neighborhoods would strongly disagree with your original statement.
@26 – true.
and @ 22 – parts of East Van are very Asian, but it’s been my experience that Mount Pleasant is filled with (mostly) white hipsters and yuppies.
As long as the Rio stays open, there is still hope for Vancouver. Maybe.
@20
Exactly.
Butt Sex and feces are not always seen together.
Because your leaky rectum will drop a dollop anywhere, anytime.
But don’t fret, or regret-
Everyone’s rectum will leak,
sooner or later.
“The get your rocks off at no cost crowd”
@27 – You should note that if a person has to read a phrase more than twice to figure out your weird sentence structure, you’re not doing a good job of communicating.
And the neighbourhood in question isn’t filled with families so much as pretentious, trendy singles. Many of whom, I’m sure, support the Fox, but are probably too lazy to do anything about it. What we really need is another protest gathering in front of the Art Gallery. That always accomplishes lots.
yes, but a fecal free experience is not guaranteed, no matter how clean or monogamous you are…lets not pretend it doesn’t happen; sex is messy. it doesn’t matter if it’s gay, straight or a little of both..
And as for porno theaters, they are ALL gay, to one degree or another, and always have been. There was a brief period, in the 70’s, when Porno Chic raged and straight couples went to porn theaters to check out “Deep Throat” and “Behind the Green Door” but that pretty quickly petered out and the average porn theater audience member was a straight guy wacking off or a gay guy wanting to wack off the straight guy…then VCR’s came along and killed porn theaters and the few remaining pretty much all show straight porn to a audience comprised of older men trying to have sex with each other…basically, this is the same fate of the American newspaper.
@32 – Oh.
During a series of visits by police in uniform in 2008, Jarvie says officers witnessed sex acts, an overwhelming unpleasant pungent odour, puddles of body fluids and excrement, and even patrons smoking.
Blood, shit and piss everywhere is bad, but SMOKING? Abomination!
For you, Loveschild:
AVE MARIA
Mothers of America
let your kids go to the movies!
get them out of the house so they won’t know what you’re up to
it’s true that fresh air is good for the body
but what about the soul
that grows in darkness, embossed by silvery images
and when you grow old as grow old you must
they won’t hate you
they won’t criticize you they won’t know
they’ll be in some glamorous country
they first saw on a Saturday afternoon or playing hookey
they may even be grateful to you
for their first sexual experience
which only cost you a quarter
and didn’t upset the peaceful home
they will know where candy bars come from
and gratuitous bags of popcorn
as gratuitous as leaving the movie before it’s over
with a pleasant stranger whose apartment is in the Heaven on Earth Bldg
near the Williamsburg Bridge
oh mothers you will have made the little tykes
so happy because if nobody does pick them up in the movies
they won’t know the difference
and if somebody does it’ll be sheer gravy
and they’ll have been truly entertained either way
instead of hanging around the yard
or up in their room
hating you
prematurely since you won’t have done anything horribly mean yet
except keeping them from the darker joys
it’s unforgivable the latter
so don’t blame me if you won’t take this advice
and the family breaks up
and your children grow old and blind in front of a TV set
seeing
movies you wouldn’t let them see when they were young
– Frank O’Hara
On my one and only visit to Capitol Hill’s Red Apple porno theatre, I witnessed nudity, oral sex, crack smoking, a fistfight/struggle, an irate/cracked out customer throwing water (?) in the face of the lone usher/concessions stand guy (yes… they actually made and sold popcorn there) and that same lone usher/concessions stand guy chasing the irate/cracked out customer down the street with a broom.
Added bonus: the film I watched included a sex scene involving an inflatable Mickey Mouse doll.
GOOD TIMES!
Yes, sometimes when doing some butt fucking you get a brown smudge on your condom. It’s gross but you get over it and have a good time.
BUT PUDDLES OF EXCREMENT ON THE FLOOR? WTF? Wtf kind of anal sex are you bastards having that this is seemingly ok? Why isn’t everyone as freaked out about this as they should be?
@37 – because it likely isn’t true.
Body fluids? Are people vomiting in there?
37
Sorry.
Sometimes I cough and it’s more than just a dollop.
Try not to slip in it.
You can say all you want about porno theatres, and their “right” to not be chased out of a neighborhood, but for me, it comes down to this:
Men having sex with other men in places like this (men’s rooms, too) is ALL about low self-esteem. It doesn’t matter whether a guy feels like they have no alternative but to have sex in scuzzy places, or if it’s actually a turn-on. Very often, I think it all comes out of the same sense that they’re such miserable, twisted creatures that this is all they deserve.
By tolerating this sort of behavior, the gay community (and society in general) is giving a thumbs-up to people hating themselves, and thus being less valuable members of society. How fucked up is that? But then, the Catholics would be out of business if people stopped hating themselves, wouldn’t they?