Kim's In NYC Appreciation

cascarrabias · Post by **cascarrabias** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:20 pm

Every city has an indie movie rental / sales store. But I highly highly doubt it's even close to as good as this place.

If you think you know your shit just go to the rental floor and realize how much you don't know. It's very humbling and very fantastic. They organize a lot of it by country so to find any Fritz Lang movies you have to go to the German section, or if you want Luis Bunuel you go to Spain. Etc. There's also blacksploitation, sexploitation, out of print, blah blah.

Trademark · Post by **Trademark** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:21 pm

don't have nothing like that round here.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:36 pm

obviously you know how i feel about the place

Piff Tannen · Post by **Piff Tannen** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:36 pm

the closest we got is this video store in old town alexandria. i forgot the name, but its dope. its just like an old big ass row house, and each room is a different genre, and the house is like 4 levels, shit was insane. my prof in college put me onto it.

Reggie · Post by **Reggie** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:47 pm

The video-only store they used to have on 3rd and, like, Sullivan or some shit was much iller. I copped so many crazy movies from there, stuff I have never seen since.

cascarrabias · Post by **cascarrabias** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:53 pm

drizzle wrote:obviously you know how i feel about the place

When drizzle walks in they sit him down, bring him a pipe and his smoking robe, and indie chicks in horn rim glasses parade down the aisle holding the newest Criterions and Larry Cohen DVDs.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 4:54 pm

Reggie wrote:

The video-only store they used to have on 3rd and, like, Sullivan or some shit was much iller. I copped so many crazy movies from there, stuff I have never seen since.

nah, it wasn't

i've been to all of them, the one on st marks was by far the best. a lot of the stuff from the ones that closed down is now in that one anyway.

Masked Terror #1 · Post by **Masked Terror #1** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:16 pm

I worked at the one on Bleecker and Laguardia in 93.

So many crazy ass customers, including a freakishly authentic Jim Morrison impersonator who never broke character and a real deal pimp who wouldn't open an account so he left a $200 deposit for every pregnant chick porno he rented. And he'd rent them by the stack.

Employees would post hilarious notes on people's accounts to try and get other clerks to crack up while renting shit to them. Personal fave on one particularly imperious Euro's screen was "Hitler's fashion consultant."

That location was home to a legendary porn selection (housed in Pee Wee's Room) that included the infamous Let My Puppets Come and some truly fucked up Japanese bondage.

The music department was also housed in that branch and was run by the guys who went on to start Other Music. Back then, major label A&R guys would send their interns down to Kim's every Tuesday to pick up all the new releases, searching for the next Nirvana. When the music guys left to start their own shit, there was considerable fear that Mr. Kim, a scary and rarely seen Korean gangster type, would seek some sort of reprisal.

Downtown. It was fun while it lasted.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:39 pm

Mr Kim still wields quite an influence apparently. He recently produced some straight to dvd low budget horror flick, and the week of its release it replaced every single other dvd on display in the store window including a dozen or so big name hotly anticipated titles.

I got to give them a lot of credit for making the best of a shitty situation after the bootleg raid a few years ago. I can't speak for the music section, but every single rare bootleg and grey market dvd that used to be on sale on the 2nd floor (there used to be hundreds) was promptly moved to the 3rd floor for rental and buried in the stacks. I've found a dozen or so things up there which are considered holy grails by collectors and are impossible to find anywhere else

The Ivy League Nigga · Mon Mar 03, 2008 5:53 pm

Kim's is the truth.

b0mbs_of_death · Post by **b0mbs_of_death** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:11 pm

Big ups to the store where you can by the promo at least a month before it hits the streets. The one in Jersey City is on some yuppie scum faggot shit though.

battlecatmeowstab212 · Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:14 pm

Place has some dope selection and some real

finds in the used bins (I've found almost the entire Wild Pitch catalog used for only $7.99 each) but the store would be SO much better if the staff weren't such total pseudo-intellectual unwashed pricks.

So yes, I appreciate Kim's, but I miss Tower Records that much more.

Piff Tannen · Post by **Piff Tannen** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:37 pm

damn, i wanna check this place out, next time im up in the area, hopefully next month or may ill hit you guys up for directionz or something

The Drunken Poet · Post by **The Drunken Poet** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:15 pm

I live literally blocks away from the uptown Kim's and I frequent there. It's definitely one of the best video stores I've seen, BUT it has some problems, their often missing videos and DVDs they claim to have, and frankly, the employees come off as pretentious assholes that aren't all that knowledgeable. Anyway, most people who live around here aren't as fond as Kim's as you may think, but sure, I'd hurting if it wasn't here.

Now, if you'll excuse me I have a copy of Lenny to return...

cascarrabias · Post by **cascarrabias** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 11:23 pm

The Drunken Poet wrote:and frankly, the employees come off ass pretentious assholes that aren't all that knowledgeable.

I can deal with pretension if the douche knows what they're talking about.

The Drunken Poet wrote:Now, if you'll excuse me I have a copy of Lenny to return...

Good movie.

Gregg Popabitch1 · Post by **Gregg Popabitch1** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:04 am

The Ivy League Nigga wrote:Kim's is the truth.

Jennie C · Post by **Jennie C** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:09 am

Reggie wrote:

The video-only store they used to have on 3rd and, like, Sullivan or some shit was much iller. I copped so many crazy movies from there, stuff I have never seen since.

drizzle · Post by **drizzle** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 12:17 pm

some of the guys downtown actually know their shit really really well, I've been surprised me a couple of times when i came looking for something relatively obscure and they knew exactly what I was talking about in detail.

Masked Terror #1 · Post by **Masked Terror #1** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:18 pm

I was not one of those guys.

When it was my turn to pick the in-store movie, I had a fairly limited rotation- Death Race 2000, Midnight Madness, KISS vs The Phantom of the Park and H.O.T.S.

The Ivy League Nigga · Tue Mar 04, 2008 1:25 pm

The Drunken Poet wrote:the employees come off as pretentious assholes that aren't all that knowledgeable.

Seriously, I don't mind you being a pretentious asshole if you know more than me, but please don't talk down to me when you don't know Fassbinder from Fellini.

b0mbs_of_death · Post by **b0mbs_of_death** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:01 pm

The Drunken Poet wrote:the employees come off as pretentious assholes that aren't all that knowledgeable.

Hey they are makin $9 an hour and need to look sour bout somethin'. I had a friend from Florida move up and get all gaga when he told me about his new job at Kim's. I asked what it was paying, he said $9 an hour and I told him to get a new fuckin job.

Masked Terror #1 · Post by **Masked Terror #1** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 2:13 pm

b0mbs_of_death wrote:$9 an hour

An 80% increase over the last 15 years.

FAZER · Post by **FAZER** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:09 pm

Le Video in San Francisco.

boogie shoes · Post by **boogie shoes** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 8:18 am

The alarm system in there was halfway in the middle of the store

blabberingbullshit · Post by **blabberingbullshit** » Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:17 pm

FAZER wrote:Le Video in San Francisco.

+ karagarga on the internet