Tiki and Caribbean. Can they be mixed? - General Tiki

B bigbrotiki Tiki Socialite Tiki Island, above the Silverlake Joined: Mar 25, 2002 Posts: 11621	B bigbrotiki Posted posted on Tue, Feb 8, 2005 7:42 PM Aaah, yaah! Not Tiki being ursurped by other styles, but let Tiki be the ursurper! Tiki world domination! ....We can begin with Tiki mugs that look like regular drink containers, and only after repeated dishwasher runs loose the first layer of cold glaze to let the grimacing idol come out! Unwittingly, the world's remaining community of tropical sunseekers will fall prey to the call of TIKI! ACTUALLY, there is an example of this: On the back cover of my previously mentioned THE BIG BAMBOO Calypso album (yes, I DO listen to -gulp- Carribean music in my Tiki home, without covering my Tikis' ears), recorded at the Big Bamboo Club, Nassau, Bahamas in 1961, there is a great color photo, rivaling any Tiki bar postcard: Happy white tourists on the tables, with tropical drinks in front of them, black waitstaff and band in the b.g., and WHAT do we see under the palmfrond roofing along the wall as wall paper?: TAPA cloth! I admit I am not well versed in Carribean folk art tradition, but... Yet...looking at that photo again, pondering it, it is lovely, but something is missing. It just doesn't have the "bite", the "edge" that makes Tiki bar interiors so unique... Hmmm, could it be...? TIKIS!? Are these folks sitting on furniture carved in the shape of Voodooo dolls? Do the fiery eyes of a giant reproduction of Macumba gaze over the clientel? Nope, nada, nix. Carribean style is just not the same than Tiki, sorry.

Aaah, yaah! Not Tiki being ursurped by other styles, but let Tiki be the ursurper! Tiki world domination!
....We can begin with Tiki mugs that look like regular drink containers, and only after repeated dishwasher runs loose the first layer of cold glaze to let the grimacing idol come out! Unwittingly, the world's remaining community of tropical sunseekers will fall prey to the call of TIKI!

ACTUALLY, there is an example of this: On the back cover of my previously mentioned THE BIG BAMBOO Calypso album (yes, I DO listen to -gulp- Carribean music in my Tiki home, without covering my Tikis' ears), recorded at the Big Bamboo Club, Nassau, Bahamas in 1961, there is a great color photo, rivaling any Tiki bar postcard:
Happy white tourists on the tables, with tropical drinks in front of them, black waitstaff and band in the b.g., and WHAT do we see under the palmfrond roofing along the wall as wall paper?: TAPA cloth!

I admit I am not well versed in Carribean folk art tradition, but...

Yet...looking at that photo again, pondering it, it is lovely, but something is missing. It just doesn't have the "bite", the "edge" that makes Tiki bar interiors so unique...

Hmmm, could it be...? TIKIS!? Are these folks sitting on furniture carved in the shape of Voodooo dolls? Do the fiery eyes of a giant reproduction of Macumba gaze over the clientel? Nope, nada, nix. Carribean style is just not the same than Tiki, sorry.

Post #140198 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Feb 8, 2005 7:42 PM