Epitome’s last week at Leon Guinto

tarus top, one of the managers of Epitome, has posted the following comment in several of my blog posts about their bathhouse announcing the final week of their operations at their Leon Guinto location:

Important Advisory: Epitome Club Malate will have its FINAL Week of Operations at Leon Guinto St from March 18 to March 25 before we pack up and move for a better home. A Big Finale Show will be on March 24 Saturday. Thanks for all the love, loyalty, bonding and memories we shared since 2004. Until we meet again.

I think that this would be a good move for Epitome. Compared to the other bathhouses in Metro Manila, Epitome’s is the one needing quite a bit of maintenance and some updating in its facilities. I hope that when they reopen, it would be with better facilities (such as beds) and better air-conditioning.

I also hope that they would still have a discreet location like in Leon Guinto. Their entrance is so unassuming that people have been leaving comments here on Discreet Manila saying they’re having trouble finding it!

Here’s to Epitome’s new chapter! Epitome was the first local bathhouse I’ve visited and I’ve had some good memories inside it.

If you’ve been to Epitome, what do you want the management to do better next time? Come on, let’s collect all the suggestions here!

Catch The Pink Experience at the UP Film Center

If you’re tired of seeing the same crappy local gay indie films, you might want to check out The Pink Experience which is a small film event showing some foreign gay films (and one local film), some of which have won awards in various LGBT film festivals abroad. The Pink Experience will happen next week on March 19 and 20 at the Cine Adarna of the UP Film Center. Six films will be screened on each day and tickets for each film are priced at 100 pesos each. Check out the schedule on Lex Bonife’s blog, and which I’ve reproduced here (with links to each film’s IMDb page):

March 19, Monday

• 2:30 pm — Rock Haven

• 5:00 pm — Huling Halik

• 7:30 pm — Jitters

March 20, Tuesday

• 2:30 pm — This is What Love In Action Looks Like

• 5:00 pm — Dog Tags

• 7:30 pm — The Love Patient

Among these films, I’m most interested in seeing This is What Love in Action Looks Like, a documentary about Zach Stark, a young gay teen who was forced by his parents, upon learning of his sexual orientation, into Love In Action (LIA). LIA is an ex-gay fundamentalist Christian program that aims to “straighten up” gay people through the controversial conversion therapy. This is what Zach posted on his blog of his predicament:

Somewhat recently, as many of you know, I told my parents I was gay... Well today, my mother, father, and I had a very long "talk" in my room where they let me know I am to apply for a fundamentalist christian program for gays. They tell me that there is something psychologically wrong with me, and they "raised me wrong." I'm a big screw up to them, who isn't on the path God wants me to be on. So I'm sitting here in tears, joing (sic) the rest of those kids who complain about their parents on blogs - and I can't help it.

His story ended up kicking a lot of dust and was even covered in The New York Times. The documentary attempts to chronicle all of that.

Going back to The Pink Experience, if you want an all-access pass so that you can watch the films for free, Lex is currently running a promo on his blog. Check it out if you’re interested.