That's just wrong! The un-Tiki thread: - General Tiki

T TofuJoe Member Oakland, CA. Joined: Nov 23, 2005 Posts: 148	T TofuJoe Posted posted on Thu, Aug 10, 2006 3:41 PM I'm not sure if I'm allowed a soapbox moment, but I'll take one anyway. Sucking the fun out of Tiki?!? I totally disagree. If you read your way through this thread with all of its twists and subplots, and came away with that as your only conclusion, then maybe you missed the point and purpose. This thread is not telling you to stop having fun. This thread is not even telling you that you can't enjoy a colorful plastic party city tiki. This thread is asking you to remember what Tiki Central is all about Tiki Central has an amazing wealth of information tucked away in all kinds of wonderful cubby holes. It invites you to explore, read, immerse and discuss with the hope that you will come to understand and love the style that so many people have spent so many hours, days and years of their lives researching and preserving. If the floors and hallways of Tiki Central become buried under a landslide of "UnTiki", then the resource that is Tiki Central becomes, for the lack of a better term, cheapened. This thread should be remain prominently placed at the top of the General Tiki forum to serve as a reminder of this. I'd like to pop a few quotes up from this TC posting from October 2004...interestingly right around the time I discovered Tiki, but not yet Tiki Central. I haven't posted a lot because I've been reading, learning and absorbing. http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=11162&forum=1 From the article: "Let's get one thing straight first," Otto von Stroheim says, lunging across the table. "Tiki is not tacky. Tiki is not campy. Tiki is not kitsch." and further down Von Stroheim concurred, although he made distinctions in the motivations behind the escapist tendencies. "After WWII, it was a good time financially, a good time for leisure. It was an extreme escapist vision, when you could go to a bar in your gray flannel and be in the islands. I don't think the appeal now is the same sort of appeal. I see this more as an apolitical thing, a sort of base human desire to be marooned on an island and toss politics and class out the window. When everything feels out of control and frustrating, people just want to have a good time. I agree completely. Tiki is not tacky, campy or even kitsch, and people just want to have a good time. And the two are definitely not mutually exclusive. And finally...if you think that Party City Tiki is Tiki Style, and you can bring in sound reasoning and want to discuss it, by all means start up a thread, put on your fireproof pants and have fun. If you just want to say Party City Tiki is Fun...and let me have my fun! Well, you are entitled to that, but maybe this isn't the place to fight that fight. mahalo for the use of the soapbox.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed a soapbox moment, but I'll take one anyway.

Sucking the fun out of Tiki?!?

I totally disagree. If you read your way through this thread with all of its twists and subplots, and came away with that as your only conclusion, then maybe you missed the point and purpose.

This thread is not telling you to stop having fun.
This thread is not even telling you that you can't enjoy a colorful plastic party city tiki.

This thread is asking you to remember what Tiki Central is all about

Tiki Central has an amazing wealth of information tucked away in all kinds of wonderful cubby holes. It invites you to explore, read, immerse and discuss with the hope that you will come to understand and love the style that so many people have spent so many hours, days and years of their lives researching and preserving. If the floors and hallways of Tiki Central become buried under a landslide of "UnTiki", then the resource that is Tiki Central becomes, for the lack of a better term, cheapened.

This thread should be remain prominently placed at the top of the General Tiki forum to serve as a reminder of this.

I'd like to pop a few quotes up from this TC posting from October 2004...interestingly right around the time I discovered Tiki, but not yet Tiki Central. I haven't posted a lot because I've been reading, learning and absorbing.

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=11162&forum=1

From the article:
"Let's get one thing straight first," Otto von Stroheim says, lunging across the table. "Tiki is not tacky. Tiki is not campy. Tiki is not kitsch."

and further down

Von Stroheim concurred, although he made distinctions in the motivations behind the escapist tendencies. "After WWII, it was a good time financially, a good time for leisure. It was an extreme escapist vision, when you could go to a bar in your gray flannel and be in the islands. I don't think the appeal now is the same sort of appeal. I see this more as an apolitical thing, a sort of base human desire to be marooned on an island and toss politics and class out the window. When everything feels out of control and frustrating, people just want to have a good time.

I agree completely. Tiki is not tacky, campy or even kitsch, and people just want to have a good time. And the two are definitely not mutually exclusive.

And finally...if you think that Party City Tiki is Tiki Style, and you can bring in sound reasoning and want to discuss it, by all means start up a thread, put on your fireproof pants and have fun. If you just want to say Party City Tiki is Fun...and let me have my fun! Well, you are entitled to that, but maybe this isn't the place to fight that fight.

mahalo for the use of the soapbox.

Post #248148 by TofuJoe on Thu, Aug 10, 2006 3:41 PM