Post #603510 by heylownine on Mon, Aug 22, 2011 9:20 PM

I'm still processing the weekend but that was my favorite Tiki Oasis yet. Mahalo to everyone involved in making Tiki Oasis happen every year. Hosts, volunteers, hotel staff, vendors, guests...everyone. Another stellar weekender.

In lazy internet bullet point fashion, some personal highlights:

• Converting 8 friends into repeat Tiki Oasis offenders. Maybe they humored me last year, but they willingly planned around this year's event. I couldn't be happier.
• Mai Tais & music at the Bali Hai on Thursday. Surfer Joe and His Boss Combo were an unexpected revelation. Seeing Tiki Joe's Ocean come to life was nifty too.
• Bosko's symposium on San Diego Poly Pop. He has such a wealth of knowledge, an eye for detail, and a passion for the subject.
• The Agave Seminar. I'm not a tequila fan at all, but figured I'd better know the enemy. I was so surprised to hear Jacques felt the same until 8 years ago. Rum is king, but I gained an appreciation for tequila.
• Whatever Forbidden Island was serving during Sip 'n Shop. Thank you! The Barritt's cocktail was pretty tasty too.
• The Flowing Barrel of Rum and punch from Martin Cate and the Smuggler's Cove room crawl. You helped convert my friends into the more "spiced" style of rum cocktails they didn't realize yet they liked.
• The Forbidden Island room was so energetic...we saw Chum and the Insect Surfers on 2 separate visits. Between the drinks and the bands, 1704 was killing it Friday. Bummed that we missed their Saturday Hula Girls party, but we did see them 3 other times.
• Thee Swank Bastards...found their room on Friday around 2 am after others in our party hit the sack. Hot, packed with people, and loud!
• The amazing art in Burros & Black Velvets.
• CSI cocktail. I'm not sure how Martin Cate keeps raising the bar on each year with his symposiums. I can't believe I couldn't figure out a cocktail I've made several times by reading the ingredient list.
• The Saturday night line-up was full of great musicians. I liked each performer more than I expected to.
• Meeting Charles Phoenix Saturday night. Fun, funny, nice, warm, engaging guy. His Sunday slideshow was top-notch as usual.
• Swanky did a hell of a job on the Mai Kai symposium. You could really hear his knowledge and love of the Mai Kai in his descriptions and words of the history dripping from the restaurant's walls.
• The Hula Girls, playing everywhere. We saw them at both car show sets, and opening for Don Tiki. You could tell Spike's voice was shot but damn if they didn't give it everything they had left. Total pros, loved that raw set, and that standing O at the end was 100% well-deserved. Closing the set with some Peter Gunn and then into Surfin' with Von Franco? Bring them back to Tiki Oasis 0012 please.
• Don Tiki is not at all what I expected based on their records. That's a show with some production. Oh and they're pretty good musicians too. :D

Ok that went way long and I touched on maybe 10% of the weekend. Van Tiki live sculpting, Tiki Tony getting a well-deserved "best booth" award (and mahalo for the bird mug), dropping money at the Dionysus booth...

There are so many great Tiki Oasis experiences to be had every year...just grab a cocktail, walk, and talk to someone. You never know what you'll learn and experience.

Happily exhausted. Thanks, Ohana!

kevin