Post #306244 by PiPhiRho on Mon, May 14, 2007 11:37 AM

On 2007-05-14 09:24, bigtikidude wrote:

On 2007-05-13 00:45, PiPhiRho wrote:
neo-tiki atmosphere including a DJ playing some nice jazz tunes out of iTunes on his mac notebook.

Now can you see why I said what I did?
Paul mentioned a DJ / or music being played on a iTunes player, before anybody else said there was a DJ playing Vinyl.

I still say that if your going to have a DJ its gotta be Vinyl or CDs.
if your gonna have a ipod, hide it somewhere and let it go by itself.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

[ Edited by: bigtikidude 2007-05-14 09:25 ]

Mac Notebook, ie laptop, with iTunes. NOT ipod. He had turntables, but at the time I saw him spinning no vinyl. A CD is a source of digital music just at itunes is. Why is a CD an acceptable music source but a computer with stored digital fines is not? It is still going through a sound system and I think it sounded really good. But what the DJ was using to play music is ultimately irrelevant to this discussion anyway. Yeah, it wasn't DJ Lee playing from his extensive collection of 45s. It wasn't "retro" and it wasn't authentic old school Tiki. The TV Lounge really isn't either. It is a very modern simulation of retro tiki. I claim that is IS Neo-Tiki. It's just new-tiki with a few vintage items.

Look, if you judge the lounge on it's own merits without comparing it to the old restaurant (just yards away) then you would say the the Trader Vic's lounge is one of the best examples of a neo-tiki bar. If you compare it to the old restaurant, the it is going to compare unfavorably on all the attributes that apply to old-school Polynesian Pop.

What it is is an excellent modern tiki lounge with great drinks and a great atmosphere.

What it is not is the old Trader Vic's.

Accept the change or not. Patronize the new place or not. The change has happened anyway and there is nothing that can be done about it at this point. When the Waldorf comes in to replace the Hilton likely Trader Vic's will be gone altogether. We can only hope then that Trader Vic's will choose to reopen the restaurant elsewhere in the area. The new restaurant, if there ever is one, will not be the old one either. Sven is very much correct when he talks about "Devolution." Tiki will change or it will die completely.