Prices on mugs dropping, what gives? - General Tiki

E EnchantedTikiGoth Member Calgary, Canada Joined: Dec 31, 2003 Posts: 355	E EnchantedTikiGoth Posted posted on Wed, May 24, 2017 9:43 PM On 2016-03-08 10:16, aquarj wrote: I guess there's one last observation in that sense too. The tiki scene has changed, maybe in a lot of ways, but I'm thinking in terms of familiarity and obtainability. 20 years ago, the world of tiki was like Bali Hai in South Pacific - kind of a magical technicolor fantasy paradise that was hard to get to. You had to hunt and dig to find experiences with environments, drinks, music, artifacts, and imagery. Today, that island has been thoroughly documented, you can find artifacts and imagery with a couple clicks, there are events all the time (especially in California, sorry), and many of the ancient mysterious cocktail ciphers have already been decoded and even improved. Bali Hai is turning into Waikiki. But I don't mean that as negatively as it might sound. I think some may find that an unconscious part of the allure in yesterday's tiki scene was the exotic unreachability, and that part is fading. But for lovers of the esthetic, the access to these experiences that we can have today is fantastic. It's just different. Sort of the hunter's paradox - when you find the paradise you seek, the reward of discovery is accompanied by the loss of the romance of the hunt. When I first went Goth, the Internet was new and I had no "in" to the local Goth scene, so I was pretty much flying by the seat of my pants for years trying to figure it out. Nowadays, the uber-Goth side has faded (it never truly goes away) and my great love is Victorian-Edwardian history, aesthetics, and Scientific Romances. The sudden rise of the Steampunk scene about 10 years ago was more of a hindrance than a help, because Steampunk is very not the same thing as Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romances, and overall I've been flying by the seat of my pants on that subject for 20-some years now. Tiki has actually been one of the more accessible things I've gotten into. I first got exposed to it at Disneyland! But even then, I can't be content and have to get all into pre-WWII "Pri-Tiki". Honestly, it sucks. I don't really feel the proverbial thrill of the hunt. I WISH I could just find what I liked easily, at the mall or wherever. I WISH Neo-Victorian aesthetics were more of a thing, so that I could more easily find more things that were Neo-Victorian in style. My life would have been immeasurably improved by just being able to go to the local chain music store and finding a section of Goth bands, or a bookstore and finding anthologies of Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romances. Part of my motivation behind my Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romance blog (http://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com/) is to lower that entry point and make it easier for people coming after me. I get the attraction that if only a relatively small group of people are into it then you are all sharing this intense mutual love for something that you might not share with hundreds or thousands of "casuals." But I also feel that if you genuinely like something, then you like it, regardless of who else does or doesn't. If lots and lots of people are also into it, even if they're just casuals who decide it's the new in thing or the entry point has gotten sufficiently low, then that just means there's potentially more of it for you to enjoy more easily. Some of it will be hit and miss... I don't know what is with the brass pineapple cups that seem to be "in" for department store patio collections right now... but that's kind of an embarrassment of riches. To be so lucky as to have your pick of it! Maybe I just don't want my unbridled affection for something to get tainted with the critique of mass society. I dunno'... Oh yeah... mugs... I do gear towards new mugs, mainly because I either just like them or have attachments from actually going to the place they're from (most of my mugs are Disney ones, for example). I've thought about replacing my "starter set" of Dynasty mugs for their vintage Orchids predecessors, but it's not an overriding passion right now. I've got a few vintage pieces, but my main accomplishment has been to get beyond simply buying any Tiki mug I see because it happens to be there. I'm past that starter stage and passed those mugs along to other people in their starter stage :) I suppose as I research I might start picking up more attachments to vintage things, but only time will tell. [ Edited by: EnchantedTikiGoth 2017-05-24 21:45 ]

On 2016-03-08 10:16, aquarj wrote:
I guess there's one last observation in that sense too. The tiki scene has changed, maybe in a lot of ways, but I'm thinking in terms of familiarity and obtainability. 20 years ago, the world of tiki was like Bali Hai in South Pacific - kind of a magical technicolor fantasy paradise that was hard to get to. You had to hunt and dig to find experiences with environments, drinks, music, artifacts, and imagery. Today, that island has been thoroughly documented, you can find artifacts and imagery with a couple clicks, there are events all the time (especially in California, sorry), and many of the ancient mysterious cocktail ciphers have already been decoded and even improved. Bali Hai is turning into Waikiki.

But I don't mean that as negatively as it might sound. I think some may find that an unconscious part of the allure in yesterday's tiki scene was the exotic unreachability, and that part is fading. But for lovers of the esthetic, the access to these experiences that we can have today is fantastic. It's just different. Sort of the hunter's paradox - when you find the paradise you seek, the reward of discovery is accompanied by the loss of the romance of the hunt.

When I first went Goth, the Internet was new and I had no "in" to the local Goth scene, so I was pretty much flying by the seat of my pants for years trying to figure it out. Nowadays, the uber-Goth side has faded (it never truly goes away) and my great love is Victorian-Edwardian history, aesthetics, and Scientific Romances. The sudden rise of the Steampunk scene about 10 years ago was more of a hindrance than a help, because Steampunk is very not the same thing as Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romances, and overall I've been flying by the seat of my pants on that subject for 20-some years now. Tiki has actually been one of the more accessible things I've gotten into. I first got exposed to it at Disneyland! But even then, I can't be content and have to get all into pre-WWII "Pri-Tiki".

Honestly, it sucks.

I don't really feel the proverbial thrill of the hunt. I WISH I could just find what I liked easily, at the mall or wherever. I WISH Neo-Victorian aesthetics were more of a thing, so that I could more easily find more things that were Neo-Victorian in style. My life would have been immeasurably improved by just being able to go to the local chain music store and finding a section of Goth bands, or a bookstore and finding anthologies of Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romances. Part of my motivation behind my Victorian-Edwardian Scientific Romance blog (http://voyagesextraordinaires.blogspot.com/) is to lower that entry point and make it easier for people coming after me.

I get the attraction that if only a relatively small group of people are into it then you are all sharing this intense mutual love for something that you might not share with hundreds or thousands of "casuals." But I also feel that if you genuinely like something, then you like it, regardless of who else does or doesn't. If lots and lots of people are also into it, even if they're just casuals who decide it's the new in thing or the entry point has gotten sufficiently low, then that just means there's potentially more of it for you to enjoy more easily. Some of it will be hit and miss... I don't know what is with the brass pineapple cups that seem to be "in" for department store patio collections right now... but that's kind of an embarrassment of riches. To be so lucky as to have your pick of it!

Maybe I just don't want my unbridled affection for something to get tainted with the critique of mass society. I dunno'...

Oh yeah... mugs...

I do gear towards new mugs, mainly because I either just like them or have attachments from actually going to the place they're from (most of my mugs are Disney ones, for example). I've thought about replacing my "starter set" of Dynasty mugs for their vintage Orchids predecessors, but it's not an overriding passion right now. I've got a few vintage pieces, but my main accomplishment has been to get beyond simply buying any Tiki mug I see because it happens to be there. I'm past that starter stage and passed those mugs along to other people in their starter stage :) I suppose as I research I might start picking up more attachments to vintage things, but only time will tell.

[ Edited by: EnchantedTikiGoth 2017-05-24 21:45 ]

Post #776246 by EnchantedTikiGoth on Wed, May 24, 2017 9:43 PM