Post #415696 by bigbrotiki on Mon, Oct 27, 2008 1:26 PM

On 2008-10-27 07:45, Rum Balls wrote:
LA Times story from yesterday: http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-tiki26-2008oct26,0,288708.story

Be sure to also click on the "Photos: Tiki goes high end". Be warned, the 4th image may cause cause permanent eye damage! http://www.latimes.com/features/lifestyle/la-ig-1026-tiki26-pg,0,7355092.photogallery

[ Edited by: Rum Balls 2008-10-27 07:45 ]

[ Edited by: Rum Balls 2008-10-27 07:49 ]

That link was previously posted here on page 9, days before the article got published in the paper, --but then it got deleted, I have no idea why...after I posted my opinion of the article, on page 10, here it is again (that is where I got that picture from in the first place!):

On 2008-10-24 09:49, bigbrotiki wrote:
Here we go, now THIS is being talked about and already accepted as an example of the NEW form of Tiki style:

...even as the owner disavows the title "Tiki", but calls it "Polynesian panache". Polynesian in name, "The Luau", but where else? It is these mixed messages that the place is sending out that make me classify it as a MISSED OPPORTUNITY.

After years of reading articles about the new Tiki wave just being around the corner, I am kind of pragmatic about articles such as this. So pragmatic (and ambivalent about the Luau) in fact, that I wasn't mentioned in the article, probably because in my phone interview with the writer I expressed doubts that did not fit in with his agenda of high end Tiki (I am surprised he didn't mention the Mahiki as a prime example of that theory--while I believe it actually might have been one of the main impulses for the Luau's Beverly Hills set).

This is not to say that this is not a well-written and balanced article, I think the writer does an admirable job at describing the place accurately and objectively, noting its lack of actual Tikis, and giving the Tiki traditionalists and Tiki Central their voice without being condescending, kudos for that.

And after all, as they saying goes, there is no such thing as bad press (meaning anything that is printed about a subject is good as it creates more public awareness).

I am really ready to put this to rest now, please. I said my piece, I am glad that there are so many elements that popped up in the place that make it less Cost Plus import store and more Tiki, but I will also continue to voice my opinion on what I believe to be a good NEW interpretation of Tiki style and what not. This is certainly better than the Vegas Vic's, but maybe not as good as it could have been considering it took its name from the place that was one of the initiators of that Tiki style --as I said above, a missed opportunity. Amen and out.