Post #362673 by Tom Slick on Thu, Feb 21, 2008 9:41 AM

First off, I must say Welcome back and thank you to BigBro for his continued endeavors here at TC and everywhere Polynesian Pop is. Some people appreciate it, and some do not(Can NEVER satisfy EVERYONE). In my opinion, Swanky, LakeSurfer and Jungle Trader made very valid points, and Zulu pointed out a good example. I can appreciate both newer "fun" hawaiiana/tropical AND traditional classic polypop. I can appreciate a carving Barney West did, or the efforts of Danny Balsz to create a "Tropical Disneyland" or a Disneyland mug designed by Kevin Kidney. In fact I beleive my first post as a newb was the passing of Mr. Balsz, and if anyone had heard anything. I was a lurker for close to 2 years before I actually signed up here on TC. I wanted to see what others had to say, and get a feel for what TC was about, 2 years was a long time, i know..But I felt I had nothing to contribute until that time.

(Tiki God forbid I dare say the below statement, but)
I think that Tiki can be "fun" with disposable plastic leis/tiki cups done in that cheap setting. YES, I said it..I also do not think I'd be pulling out my shag mugs or westpaks to serve some of my more rowdy friends. Cheap parties like that, where everyone can get smashed, and nobody has to worry about broken collectibles. It just makes sense that they make these watered down neon attrocities more as a throw away version versus dust collectors sitting on a shelf waiting for it to appreciate any collectible value. And if in case someone had that notion to collect party city Luau/Tiki, they would probably get on the internet to investigate and see what "tiki" is worth what, and probably stumble in on this site... so the education proccess continues...

Agreed there seems to be a line dividing members here, but coining liberals, purists, traditionalists, Elitist just makes the whole thing stink more. I seem to have a little of all in me, so does that make me an Elibpuronalist? If so, we have a new party to acknowledge.

Lastly, I would really hate to think people are here just to waste time and others time. There is AIM, AOL, Myspace, Match.com etc..etc,
So I believe everyone here that contributes WANTS to learn and know about the best of both worlds. Will Tiki Central be overrun with parrotheads and toga parties?...I'm guessing not.

edited a line so noconfusion was made in first paragraph! :lol:

[ Edited by: Tom Slick 2008-02-21 09:48 ]