K
Joined: Oct 05, 2005
Posts: 1399
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K
i wasn't quite sure where to post this. tiki events didn't quite cover it. my trip was much more than just tiki oasis. i decided it belongs in collecting because this trip was about collecting tiki mugs, bowls and art. but it was even more about collecting great memories and amazing friends.
i'd never met travelingjones in person before i arrived at his hotel on tue. i had been planning to crash at little lost tiki's studio for 2 nights, but jonesey offered to share his hotel tue in diamond bar and wed in redondo beach. jonesey is the ideal tiki road trip traveling companion. tue afternoon we went to oceanic arts.
then we headed over to the bahooka to have dinner. i was surprised how many tcers showed up. that was awesome! thanks everybody for the great welcome.
l to r: trader tom, me, dibroc (john), tiki-tonga ( nels), jonesey, hiphipahula (kelly), kirby, polly, paula and ilene. sorry if i mis-spelled any names. john had a big ol tiki bash mug for me and kirby gave me a resin pendant and a carved wood pendant. mahalo guys!
rufus eating a carrot.
kirby called grog (ernie) and left a message that we wanted to meet him. the next morning, to my surprise, ernie invited us to the simpson's animation studio. he gave us a fantastic tour for about an hour. he showed us all the steps they take to make one of my favorite shows. several of ernie's co-workers also took time to explain their jobs. everybody was really cool and there was simpsons stuff everywhere. we'd never met ernie in person before that day, but he treated us like old friends. ernie, you are the best! mahalo, braddah!
afterwards, ernie took us to a local diner for some ono grinds. well finally ernie had to do some actual work so we left for redondo beach. after checking in, we went to kohalacharm's (frank) house. frank has an incredible vintage mug and bowl collection. the closet of bowls is the highlight. frank also has awesome collections of menus, matchbooks, coasters, swizzle sticks, etc. up the hill behind his house is his tiki room. knowing we were coming, frank had recently hung all his lamps. every one had a great history. stockton islander, don the beachcombers, trader vic's, kahiki. every one had hung in a legendary tiki bar or restaurant. frank also has a nice collection of modern mugs. i noticed he had 2 identical augie colon mugs with a glaze i hadn't seen gecko use. he explained they were gecko's attempt to do a spurlin style glaze. well, i talked frank into trading one of these test glazes to me for something to be named later. mahalo frank!
the next morning we headed off for the much anticipated meeting with kinny ruzic at his studio. llt's studio is mind blowing! there are 4 rooms chock full of incredible art. he's painted many religious themed pieces and also erotic pieces. all were beautiful. in kinny's lounge room there is nuttin' but tiki art. dozens and dozens of great pieces. tikitastic (mark) and his friends megan and kim showed up after a while and mark bought this beauty.
it would take about 20 pics to show all of kinny's art, but here's a small sample.
kinny took us to a mexican restaurant he likes. it was a very colorful place which inexplicably had several huge wooden colorful nutcrackers scattered around the booths. very strange! but the food was excellent. then we all went to bamboo ben's shop. here's my bamben impression: "arrgh, here's where we keep the other crapola! arrgh!". ben showed us photo albums with his work at restaurants, bars and really rich people's houses. we were the first to see the finished tiki oasis bar. it was cool seeing ben in work mode and a few days later seeing him in ultimate party mode. bamboo ben is a maniac! i love him!
next stop, tiki farm! kinny led us down pch to visit holden at tiki farm. it was kinny's first look at his finished mugs. holden is another one i got to see in work mode and full blown party mode.
when kinny called, holden told him he had given george a much deserved expenses paid vacation to s.f. last week, so he was very busy filling orders. he asked that we only stay about half an hour. well, holden was busy, but in between working managed to entertain us for about 2 hours. he also hooked me up with kinny's new kakaka mug and the test glaze drink bot in this photo.
there was cool tiki art everywhere, especially in mugoomba. holden is one cool dude, even when he's sweating. mahalo holden.
kinny told us we had to stop at clysdalle's (david) house on our way to s.d. i was hesitant cuz it was starting to get late and i had never even had a p.m. conversation with david. well david greeted us before we even got up to his house. he graciously showed us around the outside where many of his tikis reside and in his house which is filled with his art, tikis and sports memoribilia (mostly boston. he's a good guy in spite of that! :D ) we split after about half an hour, very impressed with david's hospitality and talent. i really like his headhunter and el bandito characters.
i cruised into the hanalei about 10 pm and decided i was too tired to hit bali hai. it had been an awesome 3 days and oasis hadn't even begun yet!
i didn't take a lot of pics at oasis. i didn't like lugging my camera around and figured there would be dozens if not hundreds of pics on tc. here are a few of my favorites.
me and jonesey with ernie menehune. ernie was hanging out early fri near notch's bar. he remembered jonesey from an interview at his home. he is a fascinating guy. it was great hearing his stories about wwII and the rat pack.
the view from my room on sat.
the always lovely tiki-kate.
what a great surprise! gecko made it to oasis. mike said he only decided thurs to come over. he told me he had a successul day vending, so hopefully it won't be so long til he's back in cali. this is maybe my favorite pic from the week. tikitastic had just scored the bursting lava bowl from gecko. mark and i had talked at forbidden island a couple of times before, but at oasis we became fast friends. i really enjoyed hanging with him and his friends megan and kim.
now a few more namedropper pics.
mr and mrs shagmeister, otto and me just before the best dressed contest. i think i came in second to "sean connery".
i just love tiki tony and alene. so cool, relaxed, talented and green.
no offense to otto, but if there's a mr tiki oasis, it's our friend crazy al. al is like a rock star, so much energy and passion for everything he does. his dancing and mugs are out of this world. i scored a custom kona club mug from al and it's definitely one of the finest pieces i own.
man, you couldn't have wiped that smile off squid's face with a bulldozer! talk about the beautiful peopo! dave just oozes coolness and friendliness, and bai is so beautiful it takes your breath away. it was really touching when bai had tears as they left oasis. i think she was going back to france on mon.
this was the first big tiki event i've attended, so i have nothing to compare it to, but it was an awesome week for me. couldn't have possibly been more fun. i expect to head south for more events, now that i know how much fun i've been missing. i'd like to give a special shout out to some really cool peopo i talked to at oasis: heather watts, terrill, mrs bamboo ben, finkniks matt reese and mike stobbe, sven, bosko, truus, mason, danny and stephanie, paul and deba-deba of munktiki, tiki ray, cammo, billybobaloo, dan and wendy, cass and kay of ocea otica, soccer and woohoo, mai tai and coco, the alohacurrents brad and melanie, maggie and mark of velvet glass, matt and mark of bartiki, the cult of the eye guys for great room decor, hospitality and gecko mugs, aloha john, buzzy, thor, max, trav, sawbones tiki mojo and eva, detroit nate, caren and fabio, bongofury, derek y, monkeyman derek, bodhi, thayer, tofu joe, notch, danno (everybody will be seeing his huge tiki mugs soon), and i'm forgetting a bunch! and an extra special mahalo to my buddy jonesEy. jonesey made most of the plans and contacts. it wouldn't have been possible or as fun without you, braddah!
you can see what i brought home in my (mostly) tiki centralite art thread in this forum.
 
[ Edited by: kingstiedye 2008-10-04 23:43 ]
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