Post #440919 by Tiki Matt on Wed, Mar 18, 2009 1:04 PM

Wow, what a thread. Let me preface this by stating that I have been collecting mugs for the better part of 20 years. When Tiki Farm and Munktiki hit the scene, I frowned on the “New” Mugs. How dare they bastardize what I covet - the vintage Tiki Mug! Slowly, I was turned to the dark side – New Kine Tiki Mugs started creeping into my collection 6 or 7 years ago. Largely in part due to the amazing designs of Squid and the family Nielsen.
Having said that, looking at this situation through uninvolved eyes (though I do consider myself a friend of Holden), Dave’s open letter seems to have a lot of anger behind it. I’m just wondering if the situation was brought up to the authors prior to this post? In other words, did Holden and/ or Jay get a chance to reconcile this misunderstanding? Wouldn’t it have been more diplomatic to settle these differences offline and then do a post more in the vein of: “I feel there have been inaccuracies and misstatements in ‘Tiki Mugs: Cult Artifacts of Polynesian Pop’. I have contacted Jay and Holden to discuss and they will be making the following changes in the 2nd printing based on our discussion……etc.” - or something along those lines. I’ve known Holden for awhile now and have never gotten the idea that Squid was an employee of Tiki Farm. In fact, to the contrary. It’s a shame we won’t be seeing any more Squid / Tiki Farm collaborations, but perhaps when all the dust settles things will change.