Post #516791 by Swanky on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 9:26 AM

Looks like Ahu is really working hard for his "Sven-Bashing" FOM Merit badge today.

If I may intereject, being a non-Californian who also did not know Bosko, Otto, Sven, Jeff or Josh before 2002 at a minimum, I do not project disdain for me into Sven's words.

I also completely understand what Sven has been saying clearly for about 8 years now. Before the BOT, the average person did not have a clear idea of what Tiki was as an American-born creation of the mid-century. It was not respected just as Googie architecture was being destroyed all over the country because it was not respected until people began publishing books and talking about how great it was. What Sven did, and what each and every one of us knows from our own lives is, define "Tiki". What you say? Well, a very clear example. Someone asks you what it is you are talking about with this "Tiki" thing and what do you end up doing time and again? You hand them the Book of Tiki. And then they understand. And were there no BOT, what would you do? ANd for the person in Australia or Alabama with no Kahiki to wander over to, how else will they get a grasp of all that was the Tiki movement in the US? Of the Kon-Tiki and Trader Vic's and Don Beach chains and apartment buildings and hotels and drive ins? Grasp the great wealth of imagery and art and design that all came from that little place in Hollywood called Don the Beachcomber's?

Sven and the Book of Tiki. period. No argument. And Sven has never said anything but that for as long as this non-Californian has been reading TC.