Post #567881 by bigbrotiki on Mon, Dec 6, 2010 7:42 PM

On 2010-12-06 18:20, hewey wrote:
Personally I love the Taschen books because they cover stuff other people just dont, and they've got good distribution in Australia :D

And that is KEY to being able to sell them at such a low price: Their international distribution. That is what they are trilingual. Folks have found the BOT in Argentina, Norway and Romania! That is just amazing to me.

On 2010-12-06 18:28, naugatiki wrote:
And while we're (vaguely) on the subject, are there any plans on updated the Book of Tiki website? It has become a bit of a period piece and I don't think its been touched since 2003. And is there a story behind the "Bad Luck Tiki" in the Tiki Portraits section?

OUCH! ...yes, you can say that again! Really quite inexcusable. My excuse to myself has been that any personal website/blog time or content spent would detract from TC time. That's also why I am not on Oooga Mooga/Crytiki/FOM/ etc. Tiki Central is the original, and I am loyalty oriented.

But that state of things is no longer sustainable. I have a sponsor who keeps bugging me to get going with a new site, and dammit yes I will!

The bad Luck Tiki is a Barney West Tiki that was found in a ditch in Northern California left by a failed venture and re-used by Helen Yue for her Lahani Haloa restaurant at the Redondo Beach pier:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=18159&forum=2&20

Well that restaurant failed too, and the pier burned, so it's the Tiki's fault, of course. :D One might hold the end of the Polynesian trend and other factors responsible, but that's less romantic. This is at least how I remember the story having been related to me by the elders at Oceanic Arts.

This Tiki has been located in storage somewhere since, lying in a snow white's slumber in a secret location, to be resurrected one day by anyone willing to deal with its bad reputation. I personally have no doubt that true Tiki love and positive intentions are superior to any supposed bad spells. :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2010-12-06 19:43 ]