Post #394490 by Kon-Tiki Viking on Wed, Jul 16, 2008 3:05 PM

Hi, I'm the aforementioned Jay Strongman and would just like to add a few comments to this discussion. First, I'd like to say thanks to Sven and Holden for their kind words and then I'd like to try and put people's minds at rest about the book.

Neither I nor the publishers are trying to jump onto any bandwagon...Korero Books are seriously into the whole low brow scene and have already done a couple of amazing books on Pin Striping and Kustom Graphics. For myself, I visited my first Tiki Bar, the Beachcomber in London, in 1980 (as a young neo-rockabilly) and the memories of that enchanted place have never left me. I bought my first Tiki Mug at the PCC swap meet in Pasadena in 1996 (a very badly glazed Trader Dicks Moai but at the time I thought it was the bomb) and got my first copy of Tiki News the same year. I wrote a piece for TN in '99 and have DJ'd for Otto a couple of times since. It was hard living a Tiki lifestyle in London (which is why I moved to California last year) but constant trips to the States and hours on the internet meant I could indulge my passion for Tiki and Hawaiiana under cloudy English skies. I admire and respect the Tiki scene and community and would never dream of working on something that would cheapen Tiki .

Finally, the book is still being worked on and I have more people to talk to and interview before we go to print. The book will not be a "definitive" book on Tiki Mugs - it can't be when there are thousands of mug designs out there with new ones being produced all the time. But I hope it will be an interesting, entertaining and beautifully illustrated book that will appeal to both the Tiki community and the general public .