Post #683040 by bigbrotiki on Fri, Jun 21, 2013 12:48 AM

A valiant effort, a little rambling at times. At that length, I wonder how many non-Tiki people are gonna read thru it all. A slimmed down list the way it was assembled for "What is NOT Tiki" might be more practical.

What I am mainly missing is the emphasis on the Tiki image making all these elements you mention "Tiki". The appearance of the Tiki as a logo, as integral part on and inside buildings, in cocktail and housewares - that is what makes the style unique, funny, and artistically amazing, and what makes things "Tiki". As I mentioned before, the misunderstanding that frequently occurs is that now Tiki is used for the whole LIFE STYLE, while it really was and is an ART FORM. All the stuff that surrounds it is important too, but without the Tiki image, it's South Seas, Polynesian pop, or Hawaiiana. In everybody's day-to-day use, this is not so important, but when a DEFINITION is crafted, it should be described more accurate.

Also, I would make more clear that the appeal of Tiki lies in that fact that it is fake, an IMAGINED, American projection of Polynesia. Tiki has not been recognized as its own art form for half a century because it was ashamed of being that, it now should be proud of it.

I am not going to nitpick the text, I appreciate any and all efforts to make Tiki more understandable to the public, and this is not a bad one. Just a correction: I wrote the Book of Tiki in the 90s, and it was published in September 2000, not 2003. And it's Kirsten, not Kirstin, please. :)

And Skip, what in the world makes you think IZ iz Tiki !? You can be a great fan of his, and play his music in your home bar til dawn, please - but where is he "Tiki"? IZ is real, Tiki is not.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2013-06-21 01:02 ]