Post #162165 by Sabina on Sun, May 29, 2005 1:36 AM

We're back at the hotel after our south seas adventure at the wonderous Lagoon Room! (Oh! Wow! Love at first sight!) I'm uploading pictures from this afternoon as we speak.

I know folks wanna see, so I'm going just as fast as my net connection with allow :) Tiki Diablo, Poly Pop, and our surprise guest (I don't feel it's quite for me to reveal who, Al? Shelly?) tore into some logs and knocked out some wonderful lines! We watched (and documented) as an utterly blank log became a forbidden idol!

Many other folks also tried their hands at the logs. Under a canopy, we watched others, including the 'Future Carvers of America' i.e. the kids work on a strip of wood imitating classic molding design out of photographs from the book of Tiki, along with other designs.

The pix we're going to get up tonight are just the few we took with still camera. I failed to get many crowd shots with the still camera, but you'll see plenty of carving soon.

We also had two digital video cameras running on and off, and we have a video tour of the Lagoon Room for Tiki centralites on tape that we'll edit and get up once we're back home in Maryland. (Which may be a month or two at this rate!)

On a more personal note, today was one of the high points of our Tiki Travels- and that includes Mondo Tiki, Hukilaus, Exotica, and Oasis and many many other get togethers! Seeing the artists carving away and TCers who had never picked up a chisel before in their lives was just one of the most 'everyday' and extraordinary events we've had the pleasure of enjoying! These are masters who carve all the time- but seeing many carvers all together going at these logs was really inspirational!

(Inspirational enough that Mike finally got inspired and found his TC Tiki name! "oaktiki" - so for that alone, Al and Shelly have done for us what no other Tiki anything ever has! Mahalo from both of us! We ALMOST found it at Hukilau last year, but it didn't stick.)

We met so many TCers and spouses, families, etc- it was great. So many facinating people! And an absolute wealth of information!

Personally, I think it felt a lot like being back in art school; a chisel sharpening demo, discussing how the hell you throw a volcano bowl (pottery- the physics of how such gets accomplished is amazing- small wonder your usual volcano bowl is cast), talking advertising art with Polypop! TC is an artist's colony on steriods! Tiki is indeed the god of inspiration for the artists. Pick a medium, any medium, TCers are all over it!

And Gecko's BLACK VELVET PAINTINGS!!! Oh, sweet Tiki Godz! Gecko's black Velvets! Gecko, you simply stun me speechless. I know I've it before, but words don't work. It's something that must be experienced, not described! And you were absolutely there today in spirit- you were missed!

So many San Diego area Tikiphiles! the mind boggles!

All this- and my new favourite word- MONKEYPOD!!! Wow, what a drink! Mmmmmmmmmmm! Monkeyman's a mixologist! Utterly unique! You must explain to the rest of TC! Every bar needs a signature drink, and the taste of this wonder just screamed exotic!

Alright, I'm raving! I'll ping this thread one the pix are up! Mahalo, everyone!

[ Edited by: Sabina on 2005-05-29 01:41 ]