Urban Archeology

Hey there fellow TCers
I have posted many scans as well as photographs mostly from southern California locations for TC since this past summer. Since reading about urban archeology on Big Bro's website,(as it took 6 months to get a copy of BOT),I got inspired and have photographed a number of places and I have become an amatuer urban archeologist.

Its a big world and I'd like to see more places than I could ever hope of traveling to. Thats where many of you with your pictures posted of places we will never travel to are one of the best things about TC nd Critiki. With over 5300 TC members, I'm sure we can cover most of the world. I would like to see more photos on TC & Critiki of memorbilia and locations. Come on everyone, cut loose with those pictures.
Just recently I found out about this Tiki Bar that is 200 miles south of the north pole and north of Fairbanks. (As this is my ex wifes bar, I'm not sure if I can get a picture or not but I'm trying!)I could make a joke about her being frigid but I won't because then I wouldn't get the picture for sure. VThis should be the most northern tiki bar but perhaps I'm wrong.

Most of you have a digital camera, even cell phone cameras and I would really like to see more posts with photographs such as the Korean DMZ thread. Several of you had those great shots you added to an already great post. Many of the rest of you could take pictures and post them on TC if you realized how simple it can be especially with Windows XP. Please PM me if you need help and I will be happy to guide you through it.
Thank you all for a great TC experience!
Happy Holidays and New Year everyone

Ojaitimo Tim

Added on February 22, 2007, Someone recently said this to me after reading this thread,
"Urban archeology?, you can't even spell archaeology" Well Big Al, if you read this let me know!

Archel´ogy

ar•che•ol•o•gy
är k - l -j )

The science of, or a treatise on, first principles

n.
Variant of archaeology ,The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition.

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-02-22 21:30 ]

Here for example, Urban Archeology at the risk of getting shot. Not that I'm asking any of you to do this. (Don't try this at home) The owner let me roam around while I took pictures but wouldn't come out or show him self. It's at the Hole in the Wall welding yard 10 miles outside of Palm Springs.

You can't miss it as it is the only place with a 20 foot high spider out front with the tiki and other stuff. Is it tiki? I'll let you be the judge. I want to see how this place progresses so I plan to return this spring and hope to meet the artist without getting shot.

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2006-12-30 01:18 ]

While this is not fully Tiki, but more "outsider art" or "roadside art", often these kind of environments have Tiki-like elements. There could also be a thread on "Tikis in strange places"

But I want to support Tim's call to urban archeology. I often regret not having photographed some Tiki sites because I felt they had been compromised too much by renovation. But it is those kind of images that tell an important part of the story of Tiki's rise and fall. And without the "fall" part, Tiki's history would only be half as interesting.

The challenge to find angles and perspectives on "devolved" Tiki locales that give you an image that is symbolic of the downfall is much more difficult to meet, of course, than photographing still existent Tiki palaces.
One way is to concentrate on showing the remnants, like lava rock landscaping, outrigger beams, and rotted Tiki stumps. And the most effective is to find a place that one has a photo/postcard from in its Tiki heyday, and shoot the place that is there now from the same angle, to get a "Before" and "After" effect.

I am very self-critical, and fear that too often I have not photographed at all, using the "not good enough to be published" criterium, but once a place is going down, it's going-gone! real fast and won't come back.

Ojaitimo thanks for the great pictures. It almost looks like a place out of a David Lynch movie. The carved tiki heads almost look decomposed. I agree with Bigbrotiki as this being Roadside art, and many times I find myself not taking pictures of sights and buildings and etc. thinking it is not tiki enough or I think I will do it next time.. I pass by the same places all the time and then it is gone. For example the Aku Aku Motel on Ventura Blvd, in Woodland Hills. So many times I wanted to take pictures of the place to show what it looks like now. Last time I passed by a month ago all the tiki aspects were taken down and it is being reconstructed into a regular looking Motel. No more Aku Aku Motel, it is a shame.

Ojaitimo, great work!

I have had welding done by that guy in the '70s that's been there forever (as you can tell by some of plants)

That place needed to be chronicled...fine work!

On 2006-12-30 01:08, Ojaitimo wrote:
at the risk of getting shot. Not that I'm asking any of you to do this. (Don't try this at home) The owner let me roam around while I took pictures but wouldn't come out or show him self.

Great job Tim, I too enjoy good old fashioned roadside eccentric art! These pics have alot of "Von Dutchism" to them, as he was a recluse and eccentric man who always kept a gun "at arms length", but his artwork was and still is incredible. It also reminds of Simon Rodia's Watts Towers in South Central Los Angeles, which coincedently, Von Dutch used to bring old,broken plates and cups along with old worn silverware from the local restaurants and trashbins to Simon Rodia when he was building the towers. Ken Howard a.k.a. "Von Dutch" was "touched" by art at an early age.

"Bud" Martin V Smith operated the Colonial House in Oxnard for years before building the Trade Winds and other projects. It has been long since torn down but this fireplace remains on the lot.

The tiki in front of the Trade Winds 1964

The tiki today at a tool rental yard. 2007

I think this is the right forum for this. %-)

I'm posting this for a friend. Though I don't have any photos and couldn't find anything further on the internet, I thought you would enjoy this story.

~ ~ ~
When I was a young lad at the Jersey Shore, one night at Pt. Plaeasant
Beach boardwalk I saw a new amusement that was quite curious. It was
called the Tiki Shack. You turned in the requisite amusement park
tickets. You were ushered inside the Tiki Shack to the strains of the
Hawaiian War Chant. Inside was a dimly lit interior of the shack with
a wooden bench. You sat down and "hula boys or girls" did a little
"authentic' un-authentic dance and made quite a ritual of strapping
you into the bench. The lights began to flicker and frozen co2 smoke
wafted in on the floor. The bench began to rise off the floor as the
"Big Kahuna" danced in the control room. Then the bench gave a
creeling lurch and tilted violently back. The next thing we knew we
were upside down! Amazingly my sister's long hair did not follow
gravity! The bench lurched this way and that, we did dizzying 360
degree loops. Then it was over and the "hula boys or girls" handed us
disposable hot luau towels and we were dizzyingly on our way.

It took me another ride to figure out that the bench other than rising
off the floor remained stationary. It was the room that had spun
around. The Tiki Shack lasted as an amusement for just that one
Summer. But it came back, years later as Martell's Tiki Bar. At
that point any spinning of the room was entirely up to the patrons.
They did it with no assist from the bar other than spirits. :wink:

~ ~ ~

Has anyone ever heard of this tiki ride?

GreenWoman, who promised to tell my friend if anyone replied. %-)

This sounds like a cool ride. There was a tiki island off the Santa Monica pier in California that may have had something like it. Does anyone else know? The boardwalk you mentioned is still going since 1927. I would like to see a picture myself. Thanks for your friends story Green Woman.

The new thread about Trader Vic's in general yesterday points out how important urban archeology is for all of us and our childrens children.
So many places are already gone forever.
This throw away society we live in seems to want it that way. If we don't fight it we are doomed to repeat it and I am doing what little I can to fight aganst it.
Wasn't the interior of Don the Beachcombers in Marina Del Rey great?
I have heard it was, but other than Premex posting the one picture that was taken inside, I wouldn't know. There must be other picrures collected in albums somewhere but I have yet to see them.
I have photographed the interior of Trader Vic's twice now and plan to do so again.
Please TCers, use your cameras, any pictures are better than no pictures. Premex used his cell phone camera for his post on Dons and if he hadn't, I would not have taken the photographs that I added to his thread without Premex's initial post as I assumed Don the Beachcomber's was already torn down.
Please get involved where ever you are and especially in Southern California where it all began and where it seems "They" are trying to end it.
For Trader Vic's not to be preserved so these money grubbing developers can build there is insane.

All the world is a stage and all men and women merely players, they have their entrances and exits and one man in his life plays many parts. William Shakespere

Life is a state of mind

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-01-20 10:55 ]

On 2007-01-20 10:29, Ojaitimo wrote:
Please TCers, use your cameras, any pictures are better than no pictures.

I'll second that. Once a place is gone, it's gone forever. Pictures cannot make up for that, but it can help to document these places we love so they are not forgotten. Also, please put the pictures you take in the Locating Tiki forum under the appropriate thread. This makes it MUCH easier to find the pictures in the years to come. I applaud Ojaitimo and Swanky for their recent efforts to boost the photo content in that forum. I recently posted a number of pictures from TV Atlanta in there and will do my part to continue adding to it as I visit other places.

This top photograph was taken in Santa Barbara in 1901 of Geneva Caldwell. A young woman who was probably into tiki. She moved to the Phillipines with her fellow teacher husband.
The Palm Canyon post card from Palm Springs, Ca was with these photographs.
"Gene" was evidently a much beloved teacher for many of her students accordng to Ema's writing. Ema is the other woman pictured in the bottom photo and I'm guessing she lived in LA as the photographers studio address is on the folder.
The note on the back of the photograph gave me alot of clues about these woman's lives.
Who,what,where,when.why and how. Here's a toast to Ema's teacher Geneva " Gene" and to Ema for these pictures she kept long ago. Post more photos, for our childrens children.
I found these photographs at a estate sale last week.

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-02-20 15:19 ]

I love looking at old photos like that of women. I want to just yell at them "let your hair down, cut the sleeves/neck/length off that dress, burn your corsette, and sport those lace-up boots...get wild woman and go to the local bar for a rally with the rest of us girls"!!!

Vampiress,
Here is another picture of Ema (or is it Edna) taken the day before her wedding.
Her husband didn't approve of her hair either it seems. " He wouldn't look at it, I wonder why?}
She kept the picture , good for her. We take pictures for granted now and they cost almost nothng, especially digital. I wonder how much this one cost her to have made?

Here is a close up showing her name as Edna or Edma Sibley.
She might have eaten at Clifton's in downtown LA. Wasn't this around the same period that many American's were into Hawaiian music? I'd like to thnk she was into tiki and I can imagine how her place looked and what kind of music she played.

This post is another appeal to all of you with your images. I'm not sure why but getting pictures is like hens teeth.
My own brother has been saying he would find some tiki photos of hs art. He did a banner called Typhoon Tiki for the Santa Monica Pier and another photo of his miniature of the Zanzibar Tiki Room. (Come on Bro! Cut loose with the pictures you lurker)
Thanks to the TCer's who have been posting more and making the effort. Locating Tiki is really growing lately. The rest of you, please start using your camera, pull out those albums and use your scanner. If you don't have a scanner, I am going to propose someone bringng a scanner to future TC events.You can bring your photos, postcards,etc. and they will be scanned while you wait.

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-02-22 09:22 ]

I ended up getting filthy while exploring this place on my way to Trader Vic's for the TC to Save TV 90210 gathering on Saint Patty's day. I spotted this property on Topanga Canyon and the Pacific Coast Highway that is being reclaimed by state for the Santa Monica park. The property is currently abandoned and waiting to be torn down. I entered the area and explored the old houses you see here that have not been lived in for some time.
There is a 25 foot rubber tree and a huge palm tree around the front house and while inside I found this bamboo serving tray in a dark corner that looks like it hadn’t seen the light of day in fifty years.
I think that the previous resident might have been into tiki judging from the rubber tree, palm tree and this tray that I found. Does anyone know the age of these trees?

[

[ Edited by: Ojaitimo 2007-03-26 19:00 ]

I believe in that last post on the first page the woman's name is "Edna". In "proper" cursive, the letter "M" is written down with 3 humps, not 2. The letter "N" is the one with 2 humps. Don't take my word on it though, I hate writing in cursive...it's very confining.

“I think that the previous resident might have been into tiki judging from the rubber tree, palm tree and this tray that I found. Does anyone know the age of these trees?”

Canary Islands date palms are one of the few palms that can self propagate in Southern California so that isn’t an indicator of Tiki and it looks to be 15 or so years old, unless the trunk goes way out of the frame where I can't see. As well as the ficus elastica a very common house plant, mature trees get huge around here and there are some giants in San Diego county the one pictured doesn’t look too old?

Better luck next time.

Bosko

The concept of "Urban Archeology" makes me wonder what my great grandchildren will mourn the loss of from the dim past of their great-grandfather? Tiki and Space Age give me a sense of nostalgia because I was in and around it so much when I was a young child and never paid attention to it, but once I was grown up and noticed that it was going away I started to miss it. My youngest grandkid is five, and the high point of his week is to come over to Papa's house (that's me!) for Tiki Lounge every Sunday afternoon. What is there in this world now that we oldsters consider mundane and artificial that will make him nostalgic in the Sundown days of his life?

I can't think of much of anything modern that I wouldn't give up to have Harbor Boulevard all lit up in neon Googie again.