Post #416209 by aquarj on Wed, Oct 29, 2008 6:38 PM

The way I see it is that the original Luau had a certain magic. As suggested in Sven's timeline, it was the paradigm of tiki establishments, thanks to the totally unrestrained vision of Steven Crane.

It's fair to say that the revived Luau doesn't have the same wild abandon and density as the original, from the perspective of one vision of what tiki and polynesian pop look like. It's worth pointing out that this one particular vision is not held exclusively by just one individual evangelistic teutonic documentarian, but is in fact shared by many who cherish that same esthetic.

In a discussion where we offer opinions, we still have to acknowledge that there are objective facts when it comes to esthetics. The original Luau and places like it used color palettes and placement choices that had very little relationship to any so-called Circus Circus style. Combining any number of decorative themes together (tiki + buddha + turkish = ?) does not amount to extending or updating them, it amounts to split personality.

HOWEVER, refusing to equivocate the decor of the revived Luau with that of the original should not be confused as disparagement of the creative work involved, especially by well respected locals here on TC. We've all seen the magic that Bamboo Ben in particular has created, and it looks to me that the Luau has benefited from that.

Simply put - if it's specifically billed as an update to the Luau, then it's inescapable to compare it to the original Luau. I think the new one looks nice, but just with a different palette, style, density, and identity from the original Luau that many people still celebrate.

This topic reminds me of Ocean's Eleven. I'm a big fan of the original - the cast, the music, the locations, the story, everything. When the remake came out, I saw an interview with Julia Roberts where she laughed about not wanting to sit through the original as any kind of prep for the remake. I was disgusted, but confess that eventually I saw the remake. It's kind of a fun movie, in the usual current Hollywood way. But it has VERY LITTLE in common with the original. I know they want to make money, I know audiences are different, I know the movie would have to be different. That's all perfectly fine with me. And I even enjoyed it - not in a way that I'd celebrate like the original - but it was pretty good. But I just don't understand what value they got from calling it Ocean's Eleven.

-Randy