Post #811081 by donhonyc on Fri, Oct 27, 2023 12:49 PM

Unpopular Tiki Opinion(s):

I like vintage (and maybe cool reimaginings of) Hawaiian shirts and I own a few myself but I don’t wear them to tiki bars. Why? Because it seems to me that the people who were going to the original tiki bars back in the day did not wear them en masse. This could also apply to the current ladies’ retro tiki styles as well. Both get a little fetishy. For me if you want to keep it completely real, you’d want to dress like the original tiki people did or maybe just something cool and kinda flashy, or maybe even a black t-shirt and jeans! The escapist part of it should be the destination not the attire. Needless to say I’m not into captain’s hats or fezzes either. It’s just a little overdone.

I saw an earlier post here that was a thumbs down on the use of bird calls and the like in Martin Denny music. I’ve owned a lot of that stuff on vinyl for years but I have to agree it is kind of goofy and really unnecessary. It’s too bad because the music on its own is great but the birds…nah. Also previously mentioned, the Asian inspired instrumentation. Not my thing either and I agree, it doesn’t sound Tiki to me. In fact maybe I’ll put some of that stuff on eBay.

Finally, tiki mugs. Vintage tiki mugs are great and sometimes the reimagined ones are cool too. A good example would be the Smuggler’s Cove tiki idol mug (the one on the cover of the book), and in fact I just bought a Werewolves of London/Trader Vic mug (even though I’m not really a fan of the song), but the ones that are Star Wars inspired or Elvis inspired, or whatever…again, it’s just overdone.

[ Edited by donhonyc on 2023-10-27 13:28:27 ]