Slog
News & ArtsThursday, August 9, 2012
Sex Want to Look Inside Basic Plumbing?
Posted by Dominic Holden on Thu, Aug 9, 2012 at 1:04 PM
Now you can! It's got windows:
- DH
The previously windowless, perpetually terrifying gay bath house on 10th and Pike recently closed its clammy gay doors (after it had been renamed Tribe for a while). Lord knows the horrors that took place behind those walls—if they could talk, they'd say, "HELP ME!"—but we could never see inside. Until now: Workers are remodeling it into office or retail space. Seems like it should have been allowed to lie fallow for a few thousand years, just to clear the spirits. Hopefully the new tenants have a sequoia-sized sage smudge.
2
Is anything ever going to happen to the upper floors of that building? It seems like such a waste of prime real estate.
4
This sounds very Victorian-aged-Catholicismistic to me. Are you suggesting that every sperm is a spirit that must be exorcised? Or were there a lot of deaths there?
7
I think it's just general creepyness of being an extra dirty sex club. Orgasm's can hang in the air you know.
8
@7 then I would think that a space that housed a million orgasms would be a very happy, relaxing place to inhabit.
10
The whole puritan screed sounds very Victorian-aged-Catholicismistic to me. I suggest Domenic read Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's "Pulling Taffy" and revel in libertine. The pope won't know. Hey, gay life is a bit trashy, dive in, the water is GREAT
11
10
The whole puritan screed sounds very Victorian-aged-Catholicismistic to me. I suggest Domenic read Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's "Pulling Taffy" and revel in libertine sexuality. The pope won't know. Hey, gay life is a bit trashy, dive in, the water is GREAT
The whole puritan screed sounds very Victorian-aged-Catholicismistic to me. I suggest Domenic read Mattilda Bernstein Sycamore's "Pulling Taffy" and revel in libertine sexuality. The pope won't know. Hey, gay life is a bit trashy, dive in, the water is GREAT
12
To quote Maggie, Don't be such an ass-aching puritan Dominic. You're much too young for that.
I used to go there from time to time. Steamworks too. Had me some fun at both places.
There, I said it. Clutch your pearls all you want.
As for the upper floors, there used to be a lot of SRO residency hotels in Seattle. They were an affordable place for people who were down on their luck to stay. However, one of them - the Ozark Hotel - went up in flames in the early 70's, and the Fire Department cracked down on them. Rather than upgrade them, most landlords just closed the rooming part of them, and kept the ground floor retail open. That may be what happened in this case.
I used to go there from time to time. Steamworks too. Had me some fun at both places.
There, I said it. Clutch your pearls all you want.
As for the upper floors, there used to be a lot of SRO residency hotels in Seattle. They were an affordable place for people who were down on their luck to stay. However, one of them - the Ozark Hotel - went up in flames in the early 70's, and the Fire Department cracked down on them. Rather than upgrade them, most landlords just closed the rooming part of them, and kept the ground floor retail open. That may be what happened in this case.
14
The assumption of unsafe behavior is what upsets most people about bathhouses Catalina, I don't think it's so much the bathhouse per se.
Though I did go to the old BP off of Boren Avenue years and years ago and it was a little dark and creepy. Though, I could see how with the right mix of guys it could be quite hot.
Behavior is what can make sex ugly...not location. And location can make it hot depending on what one is into.
Besides, wasn't Club Z one of The Stranger's favorite/recommended bathhouses back in the mid 1990's?
Though I did go to the old BP off of Boren Avenue years and years ago and it was a little dark and creepy. Though, I could see how with the right mix of guys it could be quite hot.
Behavior is what can make sex ugly...not location. And location can make it hot depending on what one is into.
Besides, wasn't Club Z one of The Stranger's favorite/recommended bathhouses back in the mid 1990's?
15
Club Z - now that is a whole other scene. I was there once, approximately ten million years ago, and even I was appalled (and it takes a lot to appall me)
And let me assure everyone that my behavior, at all venues and at all times, was the epitome of safe. Sometimes, it's just fun to be in a place with a sort of sleazy, tawdry vibe.
And don't forget Dominic - you've been in my car. Did I act a lech, or do anything untoward? No. I was the perfect gentleman. Of course, your neighbor was there to chaperone. Lord only knows what indecencies I might have attempted if she hadn't been there ;-)
And let me assure everyone that my behavior, at all venues and at all times, was the epitome of safe. Sometimes, it's just fun to be in a place with a sort of sleazy, tawdry vibe.
And don't forget Dominic - you've been in my car. Did I act a lech, or do anything untoward? No. I was the perfect gentleman. Of course, your neighbor was there to chaperone. Lord only knows what indecencies I might have attempted if she hadn't been there ;-)
16
I will also admit to a few sleazy nights in bath houses years ago, although I'd never been in BP. Nothing wrong with a bit of sleaze once in a while, so long as you're extra careful with your safe sex practices.
17
Consider this:
Seattle-King County Public Health Department had a staff member perform testing and counseling at TRIBE. Volunteers from LifeLong AIDS Alliance handed out condoms and lube to the patrons as they walked through the lobby to their rooms.
Do you think you could do that on Grindr? Or Manhunt? Or Adam4Adam?
At a bathouse, everyone's in a single location. You can do HIV prevention outreach at a single venue.
How the hell would you do that with an online hookup site?
And it is the online hookup sites and phone apps that killed the bathouses.
Seattle-King County Public Health Department had a staff member perform testing and counseling at TRIBE. Volunteers from LifeLong AIDS Alliance handed out condoms and lube to the patrons as they walked through the lobby to their rooms.
Do you think you could do that on Grindr? Or Manhunt? Or Adam4Adam?
At a bathouse, everyone's in a single location. You can do HIV prevention outreach at a single venue.
How the hell would you do that with an online hookup site?
And it is the online hookup sites and phone apps that killed the bathouses.
19
sex without a condom=unsafe
somking pot at Hempfest and driving after=unsafe. Unsafe, not horrific. ps Jeffy is censored ;(
somking pot at Hempfest and driving after=unsafe. Unsafe, not horrific. ps Jeffy is censored ;(
21
People die in spaces all the time. People fuck in places all the time. It doesn't make them creepy one way or the other. I've been in scuzzy gay bathhouses and nice ones, and aside from getting crabs a few times, have come out unscathed and with my virtue intact!
Here in CA you have to disclose when you sell a house if someone died there, because of people's superstitions.
But seriously, I hope you're just being funny Dominic.
Here in CA you have to disclose when you sell a house if someone died there, because of people's superstitions.
But seriously, I hope you're just being funny Dominic.
23
Despite its former name "Basic Plumbing" had no wet area (unless you count the floor by the toilets and urinals.) It wasn't a "bath house" it was a sex club. And what's with people saying that they went to the "bathroom" to do their business in a club or business? It's a restroom, a washroom or a toilet. I know those big vitreous china things are scary, but jeez, get over it.
26
Does this site have any cultural heritage value? If it does, it is then appropriate for the new business to reference the site's history in some way... Perhaps a sculpture in the lobby, or a painting that references the goings on of the club.
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