Post #736740 by Jungle John on Thu, Feb 5, 2015 7:38 PM

I feel a bit like I'm breaking the rules here on Tiki Central by posting my nonsense about plastic tikis and making faux bamboo and crafting styrofoam tikis since Tiki Central's statement says it focuses on a mid-century American invention that is Polynesia-inspired and the rules say this forum is "not modern plastic, brightly-colored tiki party decorations", and "it's not about simply anything that has a tiki on it or in it." So by those rules I probably don't belong here.

I guess this is a place for those antique collector types (and don't give me that look). My mom ran a successful antique business for several years and I admit I never understood the attraction some people had to certain material things. The books, oh, the silly damned obsessive collector's bibles and books about every facet of detritus left by human activity, "Salt and Pepper Shakers of the MidWest," "Depression Glass" weird esoteric shit about calling cards of famous 19th century internationals, and finally polynesian pop of mid century U.S. of A. Yeah, you're all great intellectuals tracking down all that shit. But whoa daddy-o, I'm hip, I'm cool. Whatever floats your boat. More power to you.

I do like the tiki vibe thing. Believe me, I would shell out my money in a heartbeat if I found some old tiki junk in a thrift store, but I never have (and, also, I go thrift shopping once every few years it seems). But I dig it, Tiki Central is for Hawaiian shirted guys and gals looking for "authentic" (there's a loaded word) Polynesian pop from bygone days. Cool. Retro.

I'm in the, as the rules here say, "generic, watered down, or misguided" class of users here at Tiki Central I guess. There's a lot of breaking the rules looking around the forums, so I guess I'm in good company. Shag and Derek and et al are all contemporary interpreter's of that old tiki vision. Feel free to toss me out on my ear if I am unbearably "un-tiki-ish" or not polynesian-poppy enough. I've been thrown out of better places than this . . . I'll celebrate my own version of the imitation of authentic-fantasy-to-begin-with tiki elsewhere if necessary.

So, here's my contribution to the garish non-authentic tiki junk that, by the rules, does not belong here.

It's a sign for my work-in-progress tiki fantasy backyard. First off, I'm not real happy with this myself. It's ordinary, dumb, uninspired and lacks originality. It even glows in the dark. It was my very first foray into the exciting world of styrofoam carving. I got a nifty hot tool cutter at Michael's craft store and boy-golly, I went to town. But it looks like every other party decoration "Tiki Bar" sign on the internet. Blah. Fail. Awful. I'll chuck it out and chock it up to a learning experience. Yes, Tiki Central, you have inspired me to look beyond the ordinary and really dig into that tiki culture and find something to make my own. Far out.

Chainsaws and chisels are no match for the space age wonder material that is styrofoam!

Wrong, wrong, wrong. it's just not saying "tiki" to me.

But I do think the glow in the dark look is kind of cool.