Post #65525 by TikiSteve on Thu, Dec 18, 2003 7:13 PM

Aloha,

I truly enjoy TikiCentral and all the great conversations out there. I’m pretty new to the whole tiki scene and I’m trying to learn as much as possible about the culture. I’ve got the books, I play the exotica, and I make a fair Mai Tai. I’ve even started my own tiki alter on my back patio with a carving of Ku. Also, I have been a beach bum all my life. I grew up in So Cal and have traveled to Florida and Hawaii several times. I remember the tiki backyards as a child of family friends and I have owned Aloha shirts all my life. I feel that I have a strong appreciation of the aspects of tropical fantasies.

During my late teens and early twenties in the 1980’s I had a strong need to live the tropical fantasy, but Tiki just wasn’t there. This was the low point of the tiki culture, as you know, and there seemed to be only one ray of tropical sunlight shining in pop culture at that time. It was Jimmy Buffet (Oh, gasp!).

I have enjoyed his music for over 20 years. I have been to several of his concerts (but none in the past dozen years or so) and I own most of his works. While he has a few stinkers out there, I enjoy nearly all of his songs. I even conceder myself a “parrot head”; but not the obnoxious, loud-mouthed, frat boy, parrot-wearing junkie that seems to turn others off to J.B.

Now, since joining TC I have read many a negative comment about Mr. Buffet. This is o.k. with me. I’m a big boy and I don’t need someone else’s approval to listen to what I like. However, I am a newbie to the whole tiki scene and was curious as to the root of all the Jimmy Buffet dislike out there. Is it his recent “tiki time” tour? Is it his apparent commercialization that has come with his success (this one does piss me off a bit!)? Is it something else? I would love to have as much feed back on this as possible, if anything it will educate this new tikiphile!

Mahalo