Heard Through the Gay Bar Grapevine 2

As mentioned yesterday, this week, I will feature a series of posts, as I heard from the gay bar grapevine along Roxas and Pasay. All these are based on hearsay, gossip, chismis, not about macho dancers, hostos or managers, but about the gay bars in this part of town.

Enjoy!

Bar on the Rise

Long-time gay bar along Libertad, “Answer for The Emotionally Needy” (ATEN), is booming more than ever.

It has two floors for entertainment – the ground floor being the entrance, then the second floor for the macho dancers and the third floor disco for the models/hostos. That floor’s biggest draw? Cheap drinks, unlike the P400+ per drink of other macho bars. That’s why most of the clientele of ATEN are supposedly GROs from the nearby girlie bars in Manila. Ooh! Cheap drinks for cheap… skates.

Before, when macho dancers were forced to leave Home Base as they couldn't reach the monthly quota, they would always consider applying to ATEN. If we ask where certain ex-Home Base MD was working, the usual reply was "sa ATEN." So, my friends and I had an impression that ATEN was a run-down bar filled with "unsellable" MDs. In short, bagsakan ng mga MDs na laos o walang customer.

Quite the contrary now, apparently. Sources said the hostos here (the non-strippers) are frequently tabled, with around three girlalu customers per night. Never vacant; never bangkay. Each girlalu may afford to buy them just 2-3 drinks, but with more customers a night, an MD can easily reach 10 drinks daily. "Kahit na wala raw customer na mayaman na magbabagsak ng 20 drinks," as one MD said, "at least may kita naman araw-araw para maabot ang quota (Even if there's no rich customer to give 20 drinks, at least, there's income everyday to reach the quota)."

But lately, the bar's second floor, the macho dancing one, is also gaining ground. Apparently, more “big time” customers are going to the bar for its macho dancers. MDs of competitor bars are also wondering why. Parking is supposedly difficult (fine, they can take a taxi), the place a bit run-down, and the vicinity dimly lit and unsafe at night.

When asked if they are interested to transfer, an MD responded in the negative, reasoning "maraming awayan, siraan. Tapos ang pangit ng lugar. Feeling mo pwede ka masaksak kahit kailan. (there are lots of fights, backbiting. Then the place is unsightly. You get the feeling of being stabbed anytime)."

Maybe his mind may change about working for that bar, once he becomes unsellable in the bar he's working in now and fail to meet his monthly quota.

Apparently, it was the first gay bar to open in Pasay. This was according to an MD friend who rode a taxi to work one night, and requested to be dropped off at another gay bar. Nearing the gay bar, the taxi driver asked if he was working there, and the MD responded truthfully. That taxi driver who was in his mid-to-late 30s said he used to work at ATEN years ago. My MD friend wasn't surprised; that driver had an aged pretty face.

But if ATEN was really the first gay bar in Pasay, I wouldn't know. I was still too young when it opened. When I asked my more mature vecky friends, they also haven't heard of the bar before in the 90s or early 2000s.

Well, now ATEN is really making its mark. Just Google "gay bar manila", and at the top of the page, that is the only bar that appears on Google Maps.



Last: When two bars close, another two bars open

GB Goer
Learn more: Lessons from Gay Bars in Manila
http://machosandhostos.blogspot.com/
email: char.affairs@gmail.com; Follow at twitter: @gbgoer

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Photocredit: http://www.edupics.com/

Heard Through the Gay Bar Grapevine 1

This week, I will feature a series of posts, as I heard from the gay bar grapevine along Roxas and Pasay. Been talking to too many gay managers, tranny impersonators, and macho dancers (current and former) the past few days.

For this set, no macho dancers, no hostos, no customers first. Only news (or rumors) about some establishments in the gay bar industry, this side of town.

Enjoy! Let's start with...

The New Player in Town

Recently opened gay bar along Roxas Blvd, “Mexican Knife” (MK), is starting to generate buzz in the gay bar industry in the area. It’s an oft-mentioned name during conversations with gay managers and their macho dancers: “May bagong bukas na bar dyan sa Roxas ah”, “Napuntahan niyo na ba yung MK?”, “Sa MK na raw nagtatrabaho si…”

But, the buzz has nothing good to say about the bar -- dimly-lit area, questionable location filled with tambays, no parking, difficult to locate, old macho dancers, etc. I heard all these from the gay managers of Kingdom Come and Home Base. Threatened? Or demolition job?

The bar generates their own buzz as well -- MK's new managers inviting their former customers from other bars. Even a former macho dancer I tabled, who at 23 has been employed in 2-3 bars already, texted me to visit him at their new bar.

They’re buzzing on the internet too. Their website featured pictures of their male entertainers, the first time I saw a gay bar’s website do that. There were a few recognizable faces (former dancers of various bars) and a lot of “who-the-f-is-this” guys I’d rather not know.

Demolition job explained that the macho dancers in MK were the least tabled where they worked before. That's why they left the more popular and established gay bars in the area, and joined this up-and-coming bar (sounds a lot like ABS-GMA-TV5 feuds nowadays). But I think the MDs in MK are just jobless former dancers looking for any source of income.

There's still a possibility for the bar to be raided, as it just recently opened (no payolas yet). But according to an MD, the city or police will wait around 3-4 months for the bar to become more popular, before raiding it. Higher payola for them, perhaps, rather than doing it now when the bar is barely a month old.  

Where is it? Thanks to Anonymous who put a comment on this post, it's at the interesection of Roxas Blvd and a street parallel to one of Makati's major avenues. Some MDs say it's difficult to find the bar; like one would need to pass through an eskinita just to get inside. I wouldn't know; I haven't been there. But what I know is, a not-so-popular yet visible 3-star hotel and girlie bar nearby serves as an important landmark to locate the bar.

Still don’t know which bar this is? You can ask Aljur Abrenica for the bar’s name. Then Google it. Make sure to spell it with the gay boy's favorite body part: two t's please.

Next: The Answer for The Emotionally Needy Bar

GB Goer
Learn more: Lessons from Gay Bars in Manila
http://machosandhostos.blogspot.com/
email: char.affairs@gmail.com; Follow at twitter: @gbgoer

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Photocredit: http://www.edupics.com/

...Where The Boys Are!

(a personal Valentine's Day post)

"Saan ka pupunta? (Where are you going?)" asked by one beautician to his bride-to-be client in a scene in one of the gayest local films in 2010, Here Comes the Bride.

"Eh di sa beach (To the beach)... Where the boys are!" exclaimed by his gay co-beautician, who was magically trapped inside the body of the bride-to-be, played by Angelica Panganiban.

In the last 7 days, I've been hopping around the gay bars AND gay clubs of Metro Manila. Kingdom Come and Bed Club Malate in one night. Returned to Kingdom Come on another night. Home Base and O Bar Ortigas two nights after. Then returned to O Bar Ortigas last night.

These places were packed on those nights. Lonely gays, both old and young, in either the gay bar or the gay club. Some mature women in the macho bars. They may be looking for their last minute Valentine's date. Just how malls are packed a few days before Christmas.

As for me, my real reason to spend four nights inside gay-oriented bars: all in the search of boys.

My realization from all these. After the jump:

The Scent of a (Macho) Man

Studies have shown that there's a link between memory and scent. A certain smell can remind us of a particular memory or specific feeling. That can also be true when you go to gay bars.

This past week, I visited "Kingdom Come"* alone, and got "Russell". He's 23, 5'10, with a shaved head and the face of a baby in a body of a veteran macho dancer. Apparently, he was, as he started four years ago in the same bar, but stopped to search for work in Dubai. Less than a year there, fate cost him almost the P300K from his earnings in the gay bar, with an expiring visa, and without a job. So he returned to Manila last year, and started again in this bar just this past December.

In the middle of our conversation that night, he excused himself as he was next in line to dance on stage. After his routine, he came back, slightly perspiring but now with a scent that I commended as "smelling good." I told him I'd guess what his scent was. It was too familiar. It was Clinique Happy for Men. I was right.

His choice is so different from the typical perfumes or colognes used by macho dancers or hostos in the industry. Of course, smelling good is important in their work, as they wouldn't want to be smelling of perspiration or body odor while seated beside a customer. So the use of fragrances is in order, also as an agent of strong but subtle attraction. The most commonly-used perfumes in almost all gay bars are the cheap ones which fit the daily allowance of a macho dancer, namely Afficionado, Bench, Penshoppe, Axe. These have a common sugary-sweet, slightly musky smell that one can easily recognize, not only in the gay bar, but also while seated inside public transportation, lining up in the grocery, or eating in a fastfood outlet. 

Then, there are the name-brand ones. Banana Republic. Bulgari. CK. Giorgio Armani. These are usually given as gifts by their guests. As the boys know how expensive these perfumes are, most would scrimp on using these, as they never know if they'd still ever receive such a pricey gift. Of course, their friends in the bar would always borrow their fragrances, and the branded bottle of perfume ends up half-empty by the following month. Because of this, macho dancers always say, "hindi ko na iiwan yung pabango sa locker ko. Nauubos lang kasi maraming humihingi. (I won't leave the perfume in my locker anymore. It gets consumed quickly because of too many borrowing it)."  But they never do, as they would never know when they'd be tabled with another customer. 

Russell of course was using a branded cologne. It's his favorite, and has about 8 to 10 empty orange-colored bottles lined up at a table in his room.  

However, what's so unusual for me about Russell's Clinique Happy for Men was that I never remembered anyone else in the bar using the same brand I use. I have around five perfumes, but the one I keep inside my car is that same fresh citrusy-scented orange-bottled brand Russell is using. It's kept there in case I go to a gimmick after a long day's work. But usually that gimmick turns out to be a skemper-going night out to a gay bar.

So I smell of Clinique Happy every time I am in Home Base, Neighborhood, or Kingdom Come. (That doesnt mean if you see a gay guy in his mid-20s in a gay bar smelling of this specific citrus scent, that the guy's me).

And now I might connect that light, fresh citrusy smell to Russell.

According to Russell, he remembered that his first bottle was given to him by a former gay customer years ago. That same customer made him one of the top macho dancers in Kingdom Come for months, before Russell left and went to Dubai. He also fondly recalled his memories on being at the top -- how he had a title from an event in Kingdom Come, how he earned his 1st runner-up trophy in an inter-gay-bar competition, how earning P3,500 a night was so easy. Then he proceeded to share how cheap the real branded fragrances are in Dubai, because of the low tax. But then he couldn't afford to spend too much, as he was quite desperate to look for work because of the global recession. He came back to the Philippines after some time, without any work, any phone (as he lost his phone and all his contacts in Dubai), any cash. He returned to the gay bar, back to zero customers, back to square one. And I assumed the half-empty Clinique Happy in his locker right now is one of his remaining hopes for a better life this year. 

With our brains linking scents with memories, I am now afraid to think that I will forever link Clinique Happy as my "official gay bar scent." Ten years from now, I may be in the duty-free shop in an international airport in a far away land, and sample the classic Clinique Happy on the shelves. Smelling the scent may bring me back to 2010 with all the memories of my night outs, my endless spendings, my highs and lows, my kilig moments and my heartaches in the gay bars of Manila. I may even be reminded of that specific night of Feb 2011 when I tabled a guy whose name I might not recall anymore but whose favorite scent I might remember as the same one I was using back then.  

I still have an unfinished bottle of Clinique Happy in my car. Maybe I'll just give it to Russell as a gift. Or to another gay bar macho dancer I will really fancy in the future.

GB Goer
Learn more: Lessons from Gay Bars in Manila
http://machosandhostos.blogspot.com/
email: char.affairs@gmail.com; Follow at twitter: @gbgoer

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Photocredit: http://www.corbisimages.com/Enlargement/42-21541431.html

Derek: An Update

So "Derek", whom I thought was the McDreamy of Macho Dancers (wtf!), may think he's a hotshot already. Fair point. He's constantly tabled by various types of customers. Earlier, he was requested three times by different customers - one was with a group of young Koreans, then with a lonely mature gay guy, and lastly, with a group of matronix women. All in one night. Good for him.

But stories about him are starting to spread. Mostly negative ones.

One such story was shared by our tranny impersonator friend. According to her, a long-time gay customer of Home Base tabled him for the first time a few weeks back. When the gay guy returned the following night, he refused to table Derek and got another one. This might not sound unusual in the gay bar scene, but the "talent" manager asked him why.

Apparently, Derek asked the long-time gay customer to buy him a motorcycle the previous night. No surprises if the customer was Derek's regular guest or gay/matrona benefactor. But what Derek did seemed like he was asking for P70,000 (minimum for a second-hand bike) on their first meeting. The gall of this boy!

Sounds all too familiar. Remember my last post about his possible downfall? He asked me for a P5000 TF just to go out for dinner, and asked my friend Ringo whether he could match (tapatan) the P15000 that Derek's Korean or Taiwanese customer tipped him while dancing on-stage. I shared these to our tranny impersonator friend, and she realized that stories about Derek's former gay customers' dismay about his current behavior were just too similar. She knew something was just not right.

I guess for current it-boys, their worlds just revolve around money and getting the most at their peak. That may be one of the reasons why I don't like to get top macho dancers to table with me. Sa sobrang experienced na nila, baka perahan lang ako.

I wonder if the bar will be aware of Derek's under-the-table dealings with the customers. Maybe. But I bet, they wouldn't really care especially if they are still making money out of him.

Derek is still the current it-boy, with a special solo performance with him just dancing in jeans. That performance made me hot when I first saw it. But since the incident, I've been too turned off with him to even watch him dance.

I just hope he will realize his mistakes and turn things around. I feel, deep inside him, he's still the McDreamy I thought him to be.

GB Goer
Learn more: Lessons from Gay Bars in Manila
http://machosandhostos.blogspot.com/
email: char.affairs@gmail.com; Follow at twitter: @gbgoer