Post #699931 by mike and marie on Tue, Nov 19, 2013 11:08 PM

Matt, thanks, we've been thinking about sound effects so that CD will come in handy for us!

We've learned some things since first undertaking this project. Firstly, that having one of these home tiki bars is almost like having to take care of a small bar or restaurant---there is always maintenance, cleaning, planning, and tweaking and these four things will never end. If something doesn't need to be repaired, polished or dusted, you just aren't looking close enough!

The other thing is the concept of replication. When we began, we were very intent on recreating, as perfectly as we could in our own small way, certain pieces or aspects of these places of the past. But we learned that an exact replication is not always desirable. As we continued to build various parts of the project, and tweak others to suit the vision, something Bamboo Ben had said kept coming to mind---to paraphrase, "there's nothing perfect about tiki." In other words, you don't have to be clinically precise in your construction (to a certain degree, of course). And in the same way, these old establishments did not seek to perfectly replicate primitive South Seas civilization---that would not be the happy idealized places that we know. Instead, they took the best aspects and used them to create an atmosphere. It felt authentic, but this was a different kind of authenticity---the horror of cannibalism was reduced to a potent "headhunter" cocktail served in a scary mug.