Post #626243 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Feb 24, 2012 12:16 AM

Look pal, you got the passion, I give you that, but you gotta cut out that paranoid macho B.S.!!! You just accused me of "stealing" on my main public forum! When I had that limited number of mugs produced by P.P. years ago, I knew nothin' of no other artist. And you know what? I still don't know much more, only some vague claims you have been making about you knowing the originator of it all. That is wonderful! Now go do something with it! I have no idea what TikiEurope says, it is not my website. I have never made any "innocent" claims that P.P. or Kon-Ids were originals, because: Who really cares? Until you have not written and outlined the whole history of Spanish Tiki, it does not exist - except in your head. You have to educate and inspire people first to make them care.

I feel your pain for not feeling empowered to do this, but I am not holding some magic key to your ability to do so. I have pledged my support for the project, but first there has to be a project. Second, you gotta drop that persecution complex about the great injustices committed to your friend and get a sense of humor about it all. Tiki culture was also a business, in business there was always competition, and competition also meant copying, which meant stealing. You wanna concentrate on the negative? Be my guest, you and the other miss-understood artists of the world can wallow self-pity, but I tell you what: No one wants to hear it. If I would have written the History of Tiki from that angle, it would have been one long bitch session about how Donn Beach was ripped off by everyone, and how everyone tried to chisel in on everyone else's business, yada yada yada - what a load of fun reading that would have made! A real laugh riot, I tell ya!

Look: I know it's frustrating to have no publisher and no distribution, and I know you feel like time is running out. But I have no magic spell that will make it happen, I only got lucky a couple of times myself. In this world economy, our passion is a luxury that no one wants to go out on limb for. You gotta do it yourself or it won't get done. And I am doing the things that I know I CAN do with my limited resources and that WILL happen. YOU make something happen, I will pitch in, but it's gotta be more than indignant proclamations of all the perceived wrongs perpetrated on you.