Gather round, my gay children - and Mama will tell you a tale of an ancient gathering place that is now almost extinct. It was called the gay "Video Bar", and these magical places existed in cities all over the United States of America back in the late 80's/early 90's.
The Video Bar was, ultimately, a place for cruising. What is "cruising", you ask?? It's what you anti-social little bastards now do on the internet. But back in ancient times we used to have to take a shower, shave, put on gallons of Drakkar Noir and go to the gay bar to do our cruising. We had it rough - kinda like the Pioneers but with sleeveless t-shirts.
The great thing about Video Bars was that the fact that if the cruising was not particularly good that evening, there was something to do/watch until Mr. Right Now arrived.
The other great thing about Video Bars was the fact that it was the only place to see videos by gay and/or dance artists. MTV certainly didn't/wouldn't play them. That's right, my gay children - MTV use to show music videos. Exclusively. I know, right?!? So, sadly, the gay Video Bar was probably the only place where you could see videos by tacky 90's dance artists like Army of Lovers (below), Saint Etienne or The Shamen.
Anybody remember this little ditty? I think I must have seen this video at Uncle Charlies (on Greenwich Avenue in the West Village) about 5,000 times...
