Post #249428 by Rattiki on Thu, Aug 17, 2006 6:45 AM

Some excellent posts with great 'on topic' points (Kudos to Swanky, BK & Sven) and some hilarious posts (ESPECIALLY from Grog, I laugh har so I crry).

Hard for me not to chime in even if this all but exhausted. Having moved to Key West in '77 at the tender (yeah right!) age of 15 I certainly can understand the disdain that some have for the bastardization of the Tiki "cultural" genre even if it was and is a bastard unto itself. KW was a VERY different place then and and it still isn't half of what folks conjure up in their (Marg'vil hazed, JB influenced) minds before they get here either! It seems there is more KW style neon color painted objects outside of KW than there are here (and hence the reason I didn't even know what some poster was talking about when THAT style was first brought to my attention here on TC). You see Key West was always in my mind that white wash and Navy (stolen from the base when it was still open) gray that it was in the 70's....but I degress......:lol:

Basically as far as I can see this all comes down to a debate about two things: style/genre and class/quality (and maybe integrity). It maybe only two things, but they are VERY important things! Now I understand Bamboo Ben's, rodeotiki's and others desire of artistic freedom, "no rules", accept all, mentality. And maybe that is part of that 60's-70's youthful, baby boomers, left coast mentality that may have had it's merit at one time.....BUT sorry as I approach 45 rapidly I no longer can agree! Classic STYLE and stylish CLASS have for far too long been degraded and devalued in our 'do as you -and dress as you- please' American postmodern society, and though this lack of value has far from rotted through the fabric of all the cultures/societies of this planet, it certainly has bled a lot out of it! :x

So to keep this short and to give an example; Tiki is a (IRONED!) Hawaiian made, quality Aloha shirt, that you picked out of hundreds and maybe even is a well loved vintage. Untiki is a wrinkled, flowery poly-rayon blend Thai made piece of crap ($9.99) from Walgreens (you know the guys that leveled the Kahiki and gutted our beautiful Strand Theater) that you grabbed while buying a pack of smokes ($4.99) that you can dribble your syrupy, slurpy machine made Rum Runner (that you bought at Fat Tuesdays for $8.75) on as you waddle down to sunset to see the trained cats jump through hoops of fire. (priceless) :P

[ Edited by: Rattiki 2006-08-17 10:05 ]