Post #295883 by Thomas on Sat, Mar 31, 2007 5:36 AM

I'm not approaching this from any sense of "historical accuracy" whatsoever. Absolutely, rum is of the Caribbean (and is also, historically, THE American drink, the (often only) tipple of our nation's founding generation (thus in a sense about as exotic as apple pie)).

So it's not about historical arguments for me, it's about fantasy, and using creativity and aesthetic sensitivity to further this. To me, tiki style represents an openness to alternate reference points, and the classic way to achieve this openness is by traveling out and about in the world. Any number of ways: as jet-setter (cue Brazil 66 soundtrack); as beatnik/backpacker and/or surfer (cue Endless Summer soundtrack); or as cosmopolitan hipster who travels vicariously by exploring the foods, music, style, etc. of the world without necessarily leaving his/her city.

A classic way of signaling this ethos is via a touch of nautical imagery. "Nautical" to me is the brown rice upon which the stir-fry of "tiki" rests. "Nautical" points in all directions without explicitly identifying with any one. Cape Cod. Coast of Africa. Tahiti. St. Somewhere, West Indies. "Nautical" is neutral. Love that brown rice. Gotta have some of it.

Trouble is, "nautical" leads down some very tiresome roads. Look at the section of this stuff in your local lowbrow dept. store (we have a Beales here with lots of it). Yes, it's worth looking over now and again but almost always it's pirates this, parrots that, faux-life preservers with something like, "No shirt, no shoes, no problem" written on them, seagulls drinking beer with "gone fishing" written below them, etc. etc. This stuff draws attention to itself but leads your imagination nowhere. It stupefies, stay away from it.

To me, pirates and parrots and what have you are from that world. They aren't original. They are trite and cliche`. This isn't a historical argument, it's a value judgement. I don't get uptight and act superior when I see them. I just don't care for them as design elements in an environment that is otherwise intended to be "tiki." I think it's a carryover from our Puritan heritage to associate the sensual pleasures signaled by tiki music, drinks, and aesthetic style with barbarism (the pirates) and/or dissolute slacking. Tiki is beyond all that.