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

T Thomas Member Lake Mojave Joined: Mar 15, 2005 Posts: 372	T Thomas Posted posted on Fri, Aug 27, 2010 2:19 PM Yeah, perhaps the one figure -- and album -- that brings so many of these strands together, you're definitely right. It caused a lot of thoughts to swirl around in my mind (starting, perhaps, with my dislike of the word "hippie"!), but then I realized that going into it all here would be hijacking this thread, a no-no. In this thread I was just presenting a contrary point regarding surf music (which I know many here hold dear) and wondering aloud why, "...if surf, why not also things like soft-psych, sunshine pop, and the like?..." I'd still like to see what people who disagree with my viewpoint have to say on this. (In addition, I had the secondary motivation of wanting people to see The Strawberry Alarm Clock in their splendid, exotic outfits!) Oh heck, I'll lay down a few thoughts here anyway... I think the dislike of many here for things "hippie" has to do with something Hanford once wrote about Parrotheads: "The FOM (Fraternal Order of Moai) dresses up to have a good time. Parrotheads dress down." Right on! He distilled book-length rants into two sentences with that! Sure, there might be some residual affection for the beatnik type, even though he has a hole in his shirt and a slightly ripe smell, due to a sense of his cultural-historical significance, but the extended cultural reign of the jeans-and-T-shirt-clad rock star and his shabbily dressed fans is something most TCers are just plain tired of -- and I'm certainly one of them. But what about that other, earlier, more fancy-pants style, as exemplified by Strawberry A. C. in the video link provided earlier? They weren't dressing down -- they were dressing up, and most exotically to boot! Very soon that mode of self-presentation, with the "eastern" garb and necklaces and what have you, was seen as laughable, but I think something we here at TC tend to do is reclaim discarded styles without irony or mockery and celebrate them, especially when they constitute an earnest reach for otherness, also known as "exotica." All of which leads to, among other things, the conclusion that more tikiphiles should don paisley Nehru jackets.

Yeah, perhaps the one figure -- and album -- that brings so many of these strands together, you're definitely right. It caused a lot of thoughts to swirl around in my mind (starting, perhaps, with my dislike of the word "hippie"!), but then I realized that going into it all here would be hijacking this thread, a no-no. In this thread I was just presenting a contrary point regarding surf music (which I know many here hold dear) and wondering aloud why, "...if surf, why not also things like soft-psych, sunshine pop, and the like?..." I'd still like to see what people who disagree with my viewpoint have to say on this. (In addition, I had the secondary motivation of wanting people to see The Strawberry Alarm Clock in their splendid, exotic outfits!)

Oh heck, I'll lay down a few thoughts here anyway...
I think the dislike of many here for things "hippie" has to do with something Hanford once wrote about Parrotheads:
"The FOM (Fraternal Order of Moai) dresses up to have a good time. Parrotheads dress down."
Right on! He distilled book-length rants into two sentences with that! Sure, there might be some residual affection for the beatnik type, even though he has a hole in his shirt and a slightly ripe smell, due to a sense of his cultural-historical significance, but the extended cultural reign of the jeans-and-T-shirt-clad rock star and his shabbily dressed fans is something most TCers are just plain tired of -- and I'm certainly one of them. But what about that other, earlier, more fancy-pants style, as exemplified by Strawberry A. C. in the video link provided earlier? They weren't dressing down -- they were dressing up, and most exotically to boot! Very soon that mode of self-presentation, with the "eastern" garb and necklaces and what have you, was seen as laughable, but I think something we here at TC tend to do is reclaim discarded styles without irony or mockery and celebrate them, especially when they constitute an earnest reach for otherness, also known as "exotica."

All of which leads to, among other things, the conclusion that more tikiphiles should don paisley Nehru jackets.

Post #550594 by Thomas on Fri, Aug 27, 2010 2:19 PM