The real Shortbus

March 14, 2007 3:02 AM

The Shortbus club in the movie by the same name... is there actually something like that in NYC?

I understand the Shortbus could be a utopia: raw liberal sex all around, avantgarde movies, alternative music, and that warm fuzzy feeling of openness all around. Maybe it's something in the dreams of the movie writers. But, in your experience, are there places that approach that feeling in New York City? Also, are they closed, and do I have to know someone inside to get in? I'm a foreigner coming to the city next months and I want to seize the opportunity if it presents!

posted by Baldons to society & culture (8 comments total)

Email in profile.
posted by hermitosis at 6:37 AM on March 14, 2007

disclaimer, didn't see shortbus, and have never been to the place below

One Leg Up is maybe what you mean. If you google around a bit, you will find an article comparing One Leg Up to other such event organizers. However, I'm at work, so I can't really go finding it!

Note that a single male will have a very hard time getting into anything like this. You need a date!
posted by mkb at 7:06 AM on March 14, 2007

According to the Wikipedia, the club is loosely based on DUMBA, which seems to be closed now.
posted by AwkwardPause at 7:37 AM on March 14, 2007

This isn't that helpful to you since you're going to NY, and hopefully, hermitosis is hooking you up anyway, but the scene in Shortbus reminds me of the scene here in San Francisco, (I've heard others remark on this) in that there are overlapping arts, music, and sex communities and events here. This (sorry, PDF) is the kind of event I'm thinking of - literary (if erotic) reading, followed by all night sex party.

I'm pretty sure John Cameron Mitchell said that the club in the film is his idealized fantasy. I might be selling NY short, but ya, the shortbus club seems much more SF than NY to me.
posted by serazin at 12:33 PM on March 14, 2007

Ahhh.... There are many parties in the spirit of Shortbus in NYC. They are always forming, changing and dissolving. Some get fucked up by media attention (once you've been listed in Time Out NY, that's the end... IMHO :)). Some lose their spaces and can't find new ones that work. Some dissolve more because their organizers become more interested in focusing on all the other cool shit they do (DUMBA). Almost all of them start small and either lose their character as they grow, or stop happening. The one exception I've seen is Throb (now Submit) which is female (and fulltime-trans) only... that has pretty much kept its character for the better part of a decade, even through a change of venue and changes in leadership.
posted by sparrows at 1:20 PM on March 14, 2007

(One Leg Up is a mainstream, highly publicized event that has little to do with the events I'm talking about.)
posted by sparrows at 1:22 PM on March 14, 2007

The basic issue is that parties can only really have that kind of feeling if they're closed to some extent (closed might not be the best word, but the idea is having some way of knowing every person there will bring the same level of understanding re. safety, consent, non-homophobia and non-transphobia).

Openly advertised parties quickly get overrun by guys who don't know the meaning of "ask before touching" and/or who don't understand the mechanics of safer sex in a group context (think about how much more attention you have to pay to what fluids have been where, when you need a fresh condom, where your hands have been, etc.).

That is, sadly, what *initially* happened to the party I assume sparrow was alluding to with that Time Out NY comment. The first deluge of clueless, unsafe guys was enough to drive most of us early adopters away. However, I've been hearing from many sources that that party's organizers are really working hard to change its environment back to something great -- working to monitor safety and to make sure any new people really understand the consent rules.

It's a queer-only event with no street clothes allowed (you must be comfy stripping to your underwear or being naked). According to your profile you're bi, so if you want to check it out, my email's in my profile too!
posted by allterrainbrain at 5:31 PM on March 14, 2007

I realized I also have to say more about the late great DUMBA. It was both an event space and a home (five or six people lived there at any given time and were the primary concert/event organizers) and it was uniquely important culturally, musically, as a space (Queeruption conference, first Le Tigre show, Shortbus filming), and because it was rare as a majority-Black collective focused on queer/trans/sex-positive culture & events. It's tragic they finally lost their lease -- both for their ever-gentrifying neighborhood and for NYC culture as a whole.

Even if [when.] their building gets bulldozed and turned into million-dollar condos like the rest of DUMBO, I will always remember being there for a few of the best nights of my first year in NYC, seven years ago. I felt like DUMBA was everything I came to this city looking for. At least some part of it has been preserved in Shortbus.
posted by allterrainbrain at 7:31 PM on March 14, 2007 [1 favorite]