Quantcast

Kim's Video Closure: St. Mark's Loss Is Sicily's Gain

123008kims.jpg The vast video and DVD collection at the multi-level Mondo Kim's on St. Mark's Place has found a new home in the old country! The eagle-eyed Vanishing New York reports that the entire catalog of 55,000 films has been acquired by the town of Salemi in South Western Sicily. Tomorrow is the last day for rentals at the lovably seedy megastore; according to a detailed sign on the door, the town plans to use the titles to launch the "Neverending Festival," a non-stop public projection of Kim's Video Collection DVDs. As a sweetener, traveling Kim's members in good standing have been guaranteed access to the collection free of charge, and the town promises to provide cheap accommodations to visitors interested in watching old Sinatra movies in the company of knife-wielding garlic eaters.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

Comments [rss]

  • Max

    First of all Sicilians aren't crazy garlic eaters, in fact I feel there is more garlic eating in the US considering there is garlic bread and at the beginning of meals you dip your bread in oil and garlic. No such thing exists in Sicily, trust me I'm from there.



    Second, don't start thinking everything is mafia or mob related. A very well known politician in Italy who in the past headed the Ministry of Arts and Cultures now has moved down to Sicily and decided to run for mayor of a small town, yes, Salemi.



    Please if there is one lesson we humans haven't learned is that generalizations NEVER are good.

  • zodak

    this was the only place to get obscure & unreleased genre stuff. love saves the day & now kim's, so sad. at least midtown comics still carries bootleg dvds.

  • babyhitler

    man, I remember I rented my first porn there. Then I moved to TLA, then I stopped once the internet and torrents made porn free. All I ever rented at kim's was porn, kubrick, fellini, godard, and wong kar-wai. those were good times. so TLA and Tower are gone, Kim's and Virgin in the near future. There will be no place to physically get art and smut at the same time.

  • Outter Burrougher

    the only pornos i've ever watched came from kim's... a sad day

  • snoopydog

    Glad to see you're back from your birthday celebration BH. We missed you.

  • babyhitler

    thanks. I was actually on vacation in Hawaii.

  • SP

    oh man this is great news, hopefully we'll get a new chipotle or maybe if we're extra lucky a forever 21!!!one !

  • Neil Epstein

    There actually already is a Chipolte across the street!

  • kims is pretty good, but they never had a strong site, which they should have up and running, instead of under construction: http://www.mondokims.com

  • insideoutside

    they have a new location on 1st ave, just opened.

  • benedetto

    "knife-wielding garlic eaters" ?? That's offensive..I'm siciliano and I hate garlic.

  • ANGRYGOD11

    I didn't see any denials about knife-wielding.

  • Spirit of 76

    Way to kill a joke there.

  • NYRefugee

    WTF? I've bought so many albulms and VHS cassetes and later DVD's from there!!!! This is sad news. :( What will NY be like the next visit back home? I shudder to think!

  • peanut100

    another relic of old nyc dead and buried.

  • Lautaro

    This is the worst 2008 ever.

  • longacre

    So basically this guy owed the mob a lot of money. There's no other remotely coherent explanation for this.

  • Neil Epstein

    oh wow, I remember going there back when it was one of the few places that sold LaserDiscs. Farewell friend.

blog comments powered by Disqus

send a tip

tips@gothamist.com