Burlesque, Surf Culture, Hot Rods, Mexican Wrestling, etc. (pick one) in Tiki Culture - General Tiki

A aquarj Tiki Socialite SF bay area, CA Joined: Apr 02, 2002 Posts: 1125	A aquarj Posted posted on Thu, Aug 26, 2010 1:52 PM On 2010-08-26 09:01, JOHN-O wrote: Tiki Revival goes "South of the Border". YES !!! I know the purists might be cringing but I see this a positive step... At the risk of repetition ad nauseum, I just wanted to give my take on how this seems to be promoting a divide that doesn't really exist. So-called "tiki purists" aren't the censorial bunch that they're often made out to be. Maybe I'm one of them - not sure. Not to speak for others, but my impression is that purists would say something along these lines... Knock yourself out! South of the border themes are fun! Mix and blend all you want! Do what you enjoy, and whether that's being narrow or being broad, go ahead! But while you're mixing all those things together, please don't water down the concept of "tiki" by saying all these other things are now included in that concept. Speaking figuratively again, there's nothing wrong with tossing everything you want to play with into the same pool. But there's little to be gained by making the pool cloudy so you can't tell the tiki toys from the surf toys (or sombreros, or...). In fact, I bet it would be hard to find a "tiki purist" who's ONLY interested in tiki and who DOESN'T enjoy pastimes and pursuits in other related genres. Tiki purists have fun too! It's not inconsistent for Tiki Oasis or any other event to be primarily composed of tiki lovers while incorporating a theme from another genre. But interpreting any such juxtaposition as a redefinition of tiki itself is the part that some would find kinda sad. With all that said, I think there's an interesting phenomenon where the power of the TikiCentral community and some large tiki events have formed a magnet for many "scenes". Just from my own little tiny window on the world, the surf and garage scene of roughly 95-04 was highlighted by some big events like the Dionysus Demolition Derby's, Las Vegas Grinds, and Rockarounds. Then it kinda died off (leaving out the whole separate topic of what might be the "fourth wave" of surf music more recently). But in a weird way the tiki world has been a magnet reuniting many people from that scene. And even more amazingly it has had the same effect for NUMEROUS other scenes, including burlesque and other stuff on this thread. True, some of those other scenes like rockabilly have really stood on their own consistently for a long time, but they also seem to overlap with the ever growing tiki world. So while I'm probably one of the purist types who doesn't want to redefine "tiki" as an all-inclusive thing with less and less of its original identity, it's really interesting that there's something about it that seems to resonate with all these different scenes and revivals that started independently in parallel. -Randy

On 2010-08-26 09:01, JOHN-O wrote:
Tiki Revival goes "South of the Border". YES !!!

I know the purists might be cringing but I see this a positive step...

At the risk of repetition ad nauseum, I just wanted to give my take on how this seems to be promoting a divide that doesn't really exist. So-called "tiki purists" aren't the censorial bunch that they're often made out to be. Maybe I'm one of them - not sure. Not to speak for others, but my impression is that purists would say something along these lines...

Knock yourself out! South of the border themes are fun! Mix and blend all you want! Do what you enjoy, and whether that's being narrow or being broad, go ahead! But while you're mixing all those things together, please don't water down the concept of "tiki" by saying all these other things are now included in that concept.

Speaking figuratively again, there's nothing wrong with tossing everything you want to play with into the same pool. But there's little to be gained by making the pool cloudy so you can't tell the tiki toys from the surf toys (or sombreros, or...). In fact, I bet it would be hard to find a "tiki purist" who's ONLY interested in tiki and who DOESN'T enjoy pastimes and pursuits in other related genres.

Tiki purists have fun too! It's not inconsistent for Tiki Oasis or any other event to be primarily composed of tiki lovers while incorporating a theme from another genre. But interpreting any such juxtaposition as a redefinition of tiki itself is the part that some would find kinda sad.

With all that said, I think there's an interesting phenomenon where the power of the TikiCentral community and some large tiki events have formed a magnet for many "scenes". Just from my own little tiny window on the world, the surf and garage scene of roughly 95-04 was highlighted by some big events like the Dionysus Demolition Derby's, Las Vegas Grinds, and Rockarounds. Then it kinda died off (leaving out the whole separate topic of what might be the "fourth wave" of surf music more recently). But in a weird way the tiki world has been a magnet reuniting many people from that scene. And even more amazingly it has had the same effect for NUMEROUS other scenes, including burlesque and other stuff on this thread. True, some of those other scenes like rockabilly have really stood on their own consistently for a long time, but they also seem to overlap with the ever growing tiki world.

So while I'm probably one of the purist types who doesn't want to redefine "tiki" as an all-inclusive thing with less and less of its original identity, it's really interesting that there's something about it that seems to resonate with all these different scenes and revivals that started independently in parallel.

-Randy

Post #550341 by aquarj on Thu, Aug 26, 2010 1:52 PM