Post #502322 by Paisleyumbrella on Mon, Jan 4, 2010 6:57 PM

Hi,

At the encouragement of a great acquaintence, Formicahini, I've joined the forum. Last Summer, I suddenly found myself single, got my first own place in 5 years, and found a tiki bar on Austin craigslist for $80. I'm a bachelor, after all, so a bar is better in the dining room anyway, right? The bar turned out to have been made by Modern HQ years ago and was sold with two stools from tiki farm. I was already into mid century design, so mid century bark cloth with geometric shapes in light blue, orange, and salmon was a natural extension of my decor style anyway. Then it hit. Tiki Bar means Tiki Mugs!

I can't even begin to explain where that's taken me, but it's definitely an obsession. Luckily, I worked a lot of overtime during the summer to feed the obsession. I learned early on in this addiction to stick to something particular, like mugs made for bars only that were open during the 50s and 60s, but eventually learned that it really comes down to what you like. I noticed early on the out of production Tiki Farm mugs were selling for more than the vintage restaurant ones.

Another interesting aspect is that I have a Masters in anthropology and the first tiki craze was an ideal of the exotic and savage, kind of a cultural obsession with an image of what "native" people are like but in reality, are mostly not. Somehow, this all comes together as something that fitted me in so many ways: the mid century enthusiast, the anthropologist, the creative side that likes to make drinks (more than drink them), and a collector who sees these mugs as art. Not lowbrow art, not kitsch, but real art. I have a friend in Houston who's a well known Tiki-ite and have some acquaintances that have an interest, but I'd like to meet more people and go to events at some point.

I'm also an avid photographer and reviewer for my own garage rock/psych rock blog The Paisley Umbrella.

Mahalo,

Michael

[ Edited by: Paisleyumbrella 2010-01-04 19:56 ]