The Tiki Resort, Lake George, NY (motel) - Locating Tiki

B bigbrotiki Tiki Socialite Tiki Island, above the Silverlake Joined: Mar 25, 2002 Posts: 11621	B bigbrotiki Posted posted on Tue, Apr 8, 2008 8:13 PM On 2008-04-08 17:58, Big Kahuna wrote: Not much Tiki left ...??! That's odd, I counted about 16 different Tikis and Tiki masks in and around the property in the photographs on the previous page... that is a staggering number by today's standard! Plus a main building with an A-frame, and two smaller structures that are A-frames...plus a bar clad in Bamboo and rattan, with supercool mid-century modern diamond shaped colored glass windows...plus a waterfall...and murals...and FAKE palm trees. The urban archaeologist is grateful for any and all traces of Tiki style nowadays, and re-inserts any missing elements into the mental picture of what a Tiki temple once looked like. Here we have an extraordinary amount of Polynesian pop remnants, most Tiki Hotel lobbies and grounds (if they are still standing) share white plaster walls and easy-maintenance generic landscaping. That there are so many Tikis standing and that so much other stuff has survived must mean that some people there care for it. Going over the pictures again, I noticed two things: Stylistically, the stone/concrete Tikis sometimes remind me of some of the gods at Tiki Gardens in Florida. Were they perhaps done by the same sculptor? And that "Waikiki" typeface looks so damn familiar to me, but I just can't place it. I think Jack's notion about the Polynesian dance group being involved is actually a good suggestion. Just like Tikis, mainland Polynesian performers are part of an almost extinct species, and they do have a reason to protect their habitat. At the Hawaiian Inn in Daytona Beach, the boss of the resident dance troupe, Wayne, is an integral part of preserving the style of the place.

On 2008-04-08 17:58, Big Kahuna wrote:
Not much Tiki left

...??! That's odd, I counted about 16 different Tikis and Tiki masks in and around the property in the photographs on the previous page... that is a staggering number by today's standard! Plus a main building with an A-frame, and two smaller structures that are A-frames...plus a bar clad in Bamboo and rattan, with supercool mid-century modern diamond shaped colored glass windows...plus a waterfall...and murals...and FAKE palm trees.

The urban archaeologist is grateful for any and all traces of Tiki style nowadays, and re-inserts any missing elements into the mental picture of what a Tiki temple once looked like. Here we have an extraordinary amount of Polynesian pop remnants, most Tiki Hotel lobbies and grounds (if they are still standing) share white plaster walls and easy-maintenance generic landscaping. That there are so many Tikis standing and that so much other stuff has survived must mean that some people there care for it.

Going over the pictures again, I noticed two things: Stylistically, the stone/concrete Tikis sometimes remind me of some of the gods at Tiki Gardens in Florida. Were they perhaps done by the same sculptor? And that "Waikiki" typeface looks so damn familiar to me, but I just can't place it.

I think Jack's notion about the Polynesian dance group being involved is actually a good suggestion. Just like Tikis, mainland Polynesian performers are part of an almost extinct species, and they do have a reason to protect their habitat. At the Hawaiian Inn in Daytona Beach, the boss of the resident dance troupe, Wayne, is an integral part of preserving the style of the place.

Post #372554 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Apr 8, 2008 8:13 PM