Post #258554 by donhonyc on Mon, Oct 2, 2006 7:48 PM

It's good to see the Mai Kai get a mention. While I'm not a major fan or subscriber to it, New York Magazine does posess a certain level of sophistication that so many other national (and in some cases regional) magazines do not. I would rather see the Mai Kai on a list in New York Magazine than I would in say People or Star Magazine. That said, I also cringe at the 'tacky-tiki' description. All that says to me is "I don't know what to make of this place so I'll just resort to the garden variety dumb-ass way of describing what Kitsch is to the average Joe and Jane Blow by calling it 'tacky' ". Annoying? Totally. This is the same mentality that is used in alot of those 'I Love the 70s' and 'I Love the 80s' shows. It's just alot of snickering and sarcasm over the way things used to be in previous generations and it kinda pisses me off. The message always seems to be 'look how dumb that was'. Perhaps this is true in some ways, but all I have to say about that is 'you think all of the socio-cultural things that surround us now are cool because...???" Let's face it: measure by measure, drop by drop, pound for pound things WERE cooler at other times in US pop-cultural history than they are now. I think alot of people have a hard time recognizing that and would rather criticize it, turn on their TVs and watch American Idol. That's fine with me. They can stay home, watch 'Wife Swap' and I'll be at the Mai Kai drinking their Mai Tai.

*special thanks to Echo & the Bunnymen for letting me borrow their lyrics.

[ Edited by: donhonyc 2006-10-02 19:50 ]