Post #431094 by bigbrotiki on Tue, Jan 27, 2009 3:12 PM

Thanks Randy. The only reason to lock this thread I see would be the (intentionally written so or not) incendiary, negativity provoking title of it, which will always attract folks that want to think they are being censored. Add the repeated postings of Cammo's inconsistent, erratic lists mainly intended as provocation, and you have a volatile mixture for the "don't think-just react" posting crowd. So Tiki newbies will flock to this thread like moths to the flame to "give their 2 cent" (NOT a specific, but entirely generic quote!) ....which is slightly overvaluing some of these posts. :)

All this despite the fact that, in my very first post, (which also was the first reply to the initial question), I said THIS right off the bat, in the first two sentences:

" ...the way you pose the question sounds way to extreme. There is no ban, dogma or censorship here, just a FOCUS. Hawaiiana and Hawaii have a link to, and were in many ways the inspiration for Tiki style."

...and after that, mayhem ensued.

I think it is a question of terminology, or semantics, as Sabu noted. Like Ken said, Tiki is many things to many people:

To ME it is an ART FORM. That is how I defined it, and that is what I talk about here on TC. And my works that HAVE defined it have made it popular again.
To come to the art historian that defined the style of Art Deco and say "Art Nouveau is the same than Art Deco" one would have to have a reeeally good argument...the like of which I have not seen here, so far.

To many OTHER FOLKS, here and out there, Tiki is a LIFE STYLE. It incorporates all sorts of Island fun stuff, like drink umbrellas and parrots and coconut monkeys and Aloha shirts and so on. Now since a couple of years, the term "Tiki" has become the buzzword of the sellers of these type of wares (including music), and people are buying it. So if the fun seekers are being told that not all they thought is actual "Tiki style", they feel like some party pooper wants to take their toys away. Nothing is farther from my mind. Many of these things are part and parcel of Tiki style --which is different than BEING Tiki style.

I also think it is a question of personality, of some folks here being irked by claims of expertise and specialist authority. That just rubs some guys wrong. I am sorry, I cannot UNDO having written two thick books, numerous articles and essays, and over 5000 posts on the subject --should I deny it? If I cannot state what defines Tiki, WHO can (anyone of those under 100 posts newbies, perhaps?). If you feel these last sentences are not just stating fact, but are self- aggrandizing --read this paragraph from the beginning, please.

Here's a copy of the flyer that announced my first lecture on Tiki in 1992 --when nobody knew what it meant. That was even two years before Otto and I started Tiki News:

I had no idea how much my ironically dramatizing phrasing of "a controversial theory" would become fact in the future! :D

And about that Jimmy Buffet T-shirt question, this was one of the designs, no?: