Post #101709 by Humuhumu on Wed, Jul 14, 2004 4:58 PM

Thanks for the photos, TNTiki! I sent you an email about them--can you upload the original files? The ones you uploaded are a bit too small for me.

Tikiyaki -- I'm often torn about what to include in Critiki and what to leave out. My aim with Critiki is to catalog locations relevant to midcentury Polynesian Pop, but not necessarily every location that has a Polynesian feel.

It's a hard line to walk. In remote places like, say, Iowa, I'm more willing to enter a location that has a tiki, or just the potential to maybe have a tiki--even if the place turns out to be a dud, I can provide a service by getting that info in the database and warning people not to waste their time.

However, in a tiki-heavy area like Los Angeles & Orange County, I'm much more likely to draw a distinction between the two, and not include something that is Polynesian, but is not midcentury Polynesian Pop. I've been imperfect in my application of it, to be sure, but I just don't feel comfortable adding every single plate lunch restaurant, Hawaiiana shop, or surf shop in the area: the poly pop stuff would get overwhelmed.

I've similarly opted to not include every single bamboo & thatch 20s-30s jazz joint: while an important predecessor to Poly Pop and thus an interesting part of the history, there are just waaaaaaay too many of them and not enough information about every single one of them to make them interesting enough to track (but I have tried to include the biggies).

Perhaps someone should start a database of plate lunch restaurants to fit that need. :) But that's not my passion.

Next time I'm in the HB area, though, I'll pop in and check it out.