Recommend me a bricks-and mortar NYC video store...

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cuz the only one I've ever belonged to, TLA on 8th Street, has closed.

No, I'm not joining Netflix.

I have to be able to get stuff like new foreign releases and the Kenneth Anger shorts. A quick perusal of Citysearch points toward Alan's Alley in Chelsea (near work, too):

http://newyork.citysearch.com/review/7106700

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 15:33 (seventeen years ago) link

karagarga

― jhoshea (jhoshea), Monday, 12 February 2007 16:32 (seventeen years ago) link

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 16:48 (seventeen years ago) link

http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=70058516&trkid=134852

― Nu-Edward III (edward iii), Monday, 12 February 2007 16:59 (seventeen years ago) link

u have beef with Evergreen, morbs?

― Ruud Haarvest (KenL), Monday, 12 February 2007 17:03 (seventeen years ago) link

Never been inside the place, ken!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 17:05 (seventeen years ago) link

well then, you should definitely check it out.

― Ruud Haarvest (KenL), Monday, 12 February 2007 17:10 (seventeen years ago) link

I never go to Kim's, on principle, but they do have a pretty good selection.

― Euai Kapaui (tracerhand), Monday, 12 February 2007 17:11 (seventeen years ago) link

yes, I hv similar principles.

how much stuff can Evergreen fit in that space? unless it's counterintuitively big inside, like Lionel Stander's bar in Once Upon a Time in the West.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 17:38 (seventeen years ago) link

TLA closed?!?! when??

evergreen looks pretty cool. not nearly as big as TLA or kim's tho.

― jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:13 (seventeen years ago) link

there's also videology and reel life, if yr looking to brooklyn as well

― jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:15 (seventeen years ago) link

i don't think kim's is that bad. the three main flaws:

1) customers paw through and rearrange/disturb the hell out of the display boxes but staff are slow to reorganize things
2) it is next to impossible get a refund for a defective disc/tape (they play about 2.3 seconds of it on their tv and declare it to be fine)
3) you don't always know when you're getting a bootleg (making previous point somewhat of an issue)

but really, it's a good store.

― Lauren (lauren), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:15 (seventeen years ago) link

What's that place in Chelsea? Ah, yes, Alan's Alley. I used to love that place.

― g000blar (g00blar), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link

4) accidentally financing Mr Kim's film career / alleged topless auditions

― nabisco (nabisco), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:17 (seventeen years ago) link

xpost to joe

well, I don't wanna to go outta my way in Brooklyn unless a store is right on the F line.

I went to TLA to rent on Saturday night and there was a sign on the door. They're open a few hours (thru Wed, I think) just to take returns (and maybe sell some stuff).

g000blar, do you not love Alan's anymore just cuz you moved? I will scout it tomorrow.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:18 (seventeen years ago) link

Exactly, Morbs. Now in Chelsea. It (still, I hope) rules.

― g000blar (g00blar), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:20 (seventeen years ago) link

yes - how could i forget point 4??

― Lauren (lauren), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:22 (seventeen years ago) link

there IS one off the 7th ave F stop but i can't remember it's name offhand, it's on 7th avenue though and it's across from the two little red hens bakery

― jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:29 (seventeen years ago) link

hah, it must not hv impressed me as that was my stop for 11 years...

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:30 (seventeen years ago) link

ITS name offhand. nor do i know what the selection's like there either (kind of smallish but likely some good stuff)

xpost nm then!

― jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:31 (seventeen years ago) link

Evergreen has lots of stuff! Very good foreign section. They've pretty much never let me down anyway. I guess they fit it in by just putting out one piece of cardboard in a plastic sheath for each movie, instead of the whole box. I can't remember whether this practice was also employed at TLA or if it is commonplace nowadays.

― Ruud Haarvest (KenL), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:40 (seventeen years ago) link

there IS one off the 7th ave F stop but i can't remember it's name offhand, it's on 7th avenue though and it's across from the two little red hens bakery

he's referring to the south brooklyn outpost of Reel Life, which when I lived in Williamsburg (in the VHS age), was the only good rental place. actually, it might have been the only rental place, but it had the cinema snob type stuff you would like. i haven't rented from them in Park Slope, but it's worth a look.

― the kwisatz bacharach (sanskrit), Monday, 12 February 2007 18:52 (seventeen years ago) link

"snob" ha, that's why I'm steering kleer of Kim's klerks!

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 19:00 (seventeen years ago) link

ok i had a feeling it was a reel life. the one on bedford is very good (clerk dude was playing the passenger when i walked in there)

― jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Monday, 12 February 2007 19:14 (seventeen years ago) link

OK, I just called Evergreen. They said they did have the new Kenneth Anger and two out of three of The Magic Lantern Cycle (somebody absconded with the other one).

― Ruud Haarvest (KenL), Monday, 12 February 2007 19:23 (seventeen years ago) link

well thx all. btw, I just got back from TLA and they're selling most of their DVD stock for $8. I got the Criterion Wages of Fear for $9.99 then stopped for my own good.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 20:12 (seventeen years ago) link

whoa. i might have to stop by after work. is there a decent amt of stuff left?

― Lauren (lauren), Monday, 12 February 2007 20:13 (seventeen years ago) link

yes. tho I brought the Rear Window box to the counter and it was gone :(

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 20:14 (seventeen years ago) link

like all the Cassavetes is gone except Gloria and maybe A Child Is Waiting, but the more rarefied yr interests, the better you'll do.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 20:16 (seventeen years ago) link

oh SNAP

― jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Monday, 12 February 2007 20:17 (seventeen years ago) link

actually I saw Killing of a Chinese Bookie too

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Monday, 12 February 2007 20:23 (seventeen years ago) link

caught the tail-end of today's DVD blowout. a lot of stuff is gone already but i managed to snag queen christina and the criterion trouble in paradise for something like 17 dollars! (they're open until 5 tomorrow and closed for good after that)

― jo ga11ucci electrix (joseph), Tuesday, 13 February 2007 00:04 (seventeen years ago) link

good work, dude. They were saying they might be open Wednesday if there isn't an ice storm.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 February 2007 14:34 (seventeen years ago) link

btw, Reel Life South is on 8th Ave in Slope (other end of station)

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Tuesday, 13 February 2007 17:18 (seventeen years ago) link

I stood in line for a while at TLA yesterday and when I got to the register all three movies I wanted were nowhere to be found. Sadness! Touchez Pas Le Grisbi , indeed.

― Jay Vee (Jay Vee), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 02:31 (seventeen years ago) link

I can't believe TLA closed! I haven't been in there for a few weeks, but this seems totally out of the blue (or as out of the blue as a videostore closing can be at this point).

― C0L1N B... (C0L1N B...), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 08:48 (seventeen years ago) link

yeah, if NYC can't support such a store...?

Colin: Kim's or Evergreen? TLA had a free year's membership flyer for World of Video on Greenwich.

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 14 February 2007 14:15 (seventeen years ago) link

hey, TLA is still selling off shit! open Saturday (tomw) noon-6! Dunno if that's last day.

Went into Evergreen and World of Video, kinda whelmed. :(

― Dr Morbius (Dr Morbius), Friday, 23 February 2007 17:22 (seventeen years ago) link

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