Post #237151 by twitch on Sat, Jun 10, 2006 12:12 PM

I'd have to agree with some of the above members in saying that you gotta be careful what you wish for!
Tiki is a way of escape from the McDonalds/Gap/Winners/Subway/etc shopping-mall sameness a lot of us are forced to see/work with every day. Having a Maori in every window or front lawn would seem to be the antithesis of joining in a community like TC and others.

I remember back in the early punk days wishing the same thing for that scene, then shortly after having the shows loused up by "normal" people starting fights and mocking those of us there in the first place for looking different. (And it just dawned on me that this thread mirrors a great hunk of discourse that went on in punk fanzine letters pages in the 1980's!) They were there because of a greater exposure of a subculture with "outsider" (tho' I'd say elevated) tastes, and soon after you get a homogenized version of the original vibrant scene. Just imagine everyone in town wearing the same mass-produced K-Mart Hawaiian-style button-ups! Yuk!
I say let the lowest common denominator ramble about in their hummers and Hilfeger's and never know the true joy of Tikidom...