Intro and Question:

K Kono Member Orlando Joined: Oct 08, 2003 Posts: 1266	K Kono Posted posted on Wed, Nov 10, 2004 5:54 PM "A song of yearning for the exotic. Love of the weird." - from the liner notes of The Scientists' Weird Love I like the dark side of tiki best. Volcanos, dark forboding jungle, headhunters, fierce angry gods, human sacrifice, menacing savages. I also like Hawaii and the South Seas and all the lore and history. I don't consider them the same but they co-exist in my world quite nicely. I think my fascination with tiki would start with my love of National Geographic as a kid. I had a huge collection and the pastor of my church had an entire library full of NG and he'd let me take home stacks at a time to read cover to cover and dream of these exotic foreign places. And what could more exotic and sensual than the South Seas? As a young teen I got into the pulp novels like Doc Savage, Tarzan, Conan and similar, with the pulp hero fighting monsters and demons and evil despicable geniuses to save one lusty barely dressed wench after another. Then as a young man I started drinking, a lot, and at some point got fascinated with the old Bachelor Lifestyle from the 60s. Whether it was from movies, TV shows, old Argosy and True magazines, old Playboys, I don't know where I started getting into it. Maybe I was just amazed that not so long ago (this was in the 80s) it was cool to have martinis at lunch, smoke at work, and pretty much drink all the time. Somehow all that probably led me to tiki. Plus I was a big record collector and went through the Incredibly Strange Music and then the Lounge thing. That contributed as well. Love of strange dark exotic places, fascination with Polynesia/the South Seas, the idea of the late 50s/early 60s carefee bachelor lifestyle (with all the cool furniture and decor) I guess all adds up to tiki for me. Plus, as a lifelong collector of things, what am I gonna collect if I don't collect tiki? Owls?

"A song of yearning for the exotic. Love of the weird." - from the liner notes of The Scientists' Weird Love

I like the dark side of tiki best. Volcanos, dark forboding jungle, headhunters, fierce angry gods, human sacrifice, menacing savages. I also like Hawaii and the South Seas and all the lore and history. I don't consider them the same but they co-exist in my world quite nicely.

I think my fascination with tiki would start with my love of National Geographic as a kid. I had a huge collection and the pastor of my church had an entire library full of NG and he'd let me take home stacks at a time to read cover to cover and dream of these exotic foreign places. And what could more exotic and sensual than the South Seas? As a young teen I got into the pulp novels like Doc Savage, Tarzan, Conan and similar, with the pulp hero fighting monsters and demons and evil despicable geniuses to save one lusty barely dressed wench after another. Then as a young man I started drinking, a lot, and at some point got fascinated with the old Bachelor Lifestyle from the 60s. Whether it was from movies, TV shows, old Argosy and True magazines, old Playboys, I don't know where I started getting into it. Maybe I was just amazed that not so long ago (this was in the 80s) it was cool to have martinis at lunch, smoke at work, and pretty much drink all the time.

Somehow all that probably led me to tiki. Plus I was a big record collector and went through the Incredibly Strange Music and then the Lounge thing. That contributed as well. Love of strange dark exotic places, fascination with Polynesia/the South Seas, the idea of the late 50s/early 60s carefee bachelor lifestyle (with all the cool furniture and decor) I guess all adds up to tiki for me.

Plus, as a lifelong collector of things, what am I gonna collect if I don't collect tiki? Owls?

Post #124819 by Kono on Wed, Nov 10, 2004 5:54 PM