Post #96768 by Hanalei_Pirate on Wed, Jun 16, 2004 8:57 PM

On 2004-06-16 15:57, mriddle wrote:
Iuka,
I like your idea! Why the heck don't we all ban together and do a real honest to goodnes "tiki culture" exhibit in LA complete with vintage and new tiki art, mugs, home bars, photos of extinct tiki watering holes, carved art from the islands and mainland, as well as carving demonstrations...and an occasional cocktail thrown in for good measure!!!

[ Edited by: mriddle on 2004-06-16 15:58 ]

Actually a long time ago Sven participated as a speaker in such an exhibition on Tiki Culture that appeared at the Anaheim California Museum. It was the first real tiki event i attended and where I first met Sven (who turned out to be a our neighbor, living up the street from us). anyway it was a very well done exhibit. Also many years back (perhaps Floratina who is also a Cacophony Society enthusiast will remember) there was a Cacophony event that was well publicized that was basically a tiki event; they took over a trendy L.A. coffee house called the Onyx, and totally converted it into a 1940s WWII era - Hawaii-based Tiki Bar and the event included then lounge performer Joe Sehee (Wonderful World of Joey) and Agent Orange's surf band and some others... been too long for me to remember the names; anyway there were lines around the block to get into this as it was a pick of the week in the L.A. Weekly. No one could get in unless they were appropriately attired because they didn't want the ambiance ruined. If you didn't have a tiki shirt - one was provided at the door. I think it opened alot of unknowing eyes to tiki, even though the event was not specifically a celebration of tiki but was more about creating the ambience of a WWII era tiki bar.... Anyway, with the amount of tiki people we have now in this Tiki Central community I don't see why not something like this couldn't be planned again, done right, and celebrate the cultural history of tiki. Then again, yearly events like Tiki Oasis already do that so.... Still an exhibit at a museum would be pretty cool. LACMA should put their efforts into an serios exhibit of the influence of tiki on culture. Sven could be curator....