Official Introductions Thread. New Members, Post your introduction here...

A warm welcome to all the new TCers. :tiki:

Dave....that is the most awesome cubicle I have ever seen, I'll bet you are the envy of the office.

hapa hawai 'i, keep an eye out for Sacramento-based gatherings, we do have parties every once in a while. :)

I have surfed the to the end of the earth to find the best web to call home, Tiki central is the best!

How could I have gone so long and not
run into this forum before? (Well, perhaps
it's 'cause I've spent enough time on other
sites and didn't need to find another.)

Anyway, I perform with a beach band around the
mid-west. I sing, play the ukulele (have a large
collection of ukes), play guitar, bongo and
congas. Oh, and I have a growing TIKI mug
collection.

In my day job I sometimes get to design bars
and usually they've a tropical theme, (but not
truly TIKI).

BB

Hey Now! My name is Mike "Elvis" Karnowski and I am the head distiller at Celebration Distillation in New Orleans. We make a clear rum and amber rum and a spiced rum plus we have tons of experimental batches. I am an obsessive type and lately it's all about the tiki....well that and the new David Lynch movie...but anyways, I am here to discover new and tasty ways to drink rum. I think a therapist would trace it back to the fact that my dad would play Martin Denny's Quiet Village every night when he got home and had a drink or two. Cheers! -m

Aloha Nolarummy and welcome!
You just may have run across some new friends here, what with your business and all...
Are any of your products available for sale online?

Aloha.
I'm Mr Exotica.
I grew up in the land of Barefoot Hawaiians, DesPlaines, IL.
My hut is not far from there.
The nickname was given to me - I didn't steal it from Mr Denny.
I don't drink alcohol. There are good virgin tiki drinks & I never have to worry about crashing my '56, as it's a handful to drive...
I drive a '56 Ford with a 2 foot tiki painted on the trunk, 'upholstered" in hawaiian fabric, with woven mat for the headliner & doorpanels.

I too have been lurking here for awhile. I've been working on my home Tiki Lounge and collecting a few mugs. But WOW, my husband and I went to some of the TIKI OASIS 7 activities and I'm in serious need of continual Tiki Therapy. We went to the Bali Hai kick off party, Sat night music and Sunday shopping and chopping (it was my birthday!) I've never met so many hip, cool cats at one time. And I didn't even know about crawling! Yikes! I hope there is crawling in my future. By day I'm Michelle, the mom of 2 and professional rose gardener. By night, a mixer of drinks and idol worshiper.

On 2007-08-21 15:34, nolarummy wrote:
Hey Now! My name is Mike "Elvis" Karnowski and I am the head distiller at Celebration Distillation in New Orleans. We make a clear rum and amber rum

hey Mike ~ any chance your rum will be distributed in Washington State? (we have crappy state run liquor stores)
thanks!

Greetings all, from the drinker of fine rum filled beverages everywhere... I, the RumMonkey!

• also answers to Colin :D

The RumMonkey is an artist and a carver, and of course, a collector of all things Tiki.

I've been looking around the forums for awhile now. But, finally decided to become official after attending my first Tiki Oasis (planning for next year already... I can't wait!).

Can't wait to meet some more fellow Tiki lovers on the boards here! It was great to see that everyone at Oasis seemed to know each other, and that Tiki really can bring people together and create a community.
What a time!

Hope to see many of you at Bahooka's 40th!!

• I will be there, flying solo, on Friday. And Bahooka'ing it up Sunday with the wifey.
  See you there!

Drink up friends! :drink:

[ Edited by: RumMonkey 2007-08-23 20:50 ]

call the distillery and we'll see if we can hook you up 504-945-9400 or [email protected]. Our rums are a great deal (around $20)and make great zombies and mai tais. cheers, -mike

Hi

We went to Tiki Oasis VII last weekend because Baby Doe's sister is married to my husband's cousin. Got that? Anyway, we had a great time and took lots of pictures so I came here to post some of them.

Hello Tiki Central, and thank you for good times. I have been lurking for awhile now and decided I just can t keep my mouth shut any longer so i registered and here i am. I am a coffee guy by trade but was pulled into the finer world of tiki culture and mixology in general by a good friend. Having been enjoying quality rum for straight sipping for awhile now (foremost ron zacapa centenario), it was a bit of a step to start adding ice, juice, syrups and straws but I have fallen for it whole heartedly. Trying to keep it alive in chicago
mike

Been lurkin' here for quite a while and thought it was time to join in. We had a fantastic time at Tiki Oasis this year and met lots of folks, many from the Bay Area (hope to see you again soon, and yes we hope to make it up to Forbidden Island once and a while).

The Tiki Bar we are building at our home in Los Gatos is the Golden Tiki (www.goldentiki.com).

Welcome Jonathan,

It was great meeting you in line at the Beachbum Berry seminar. Delighted to see your post. Hope all is well and look forward to visiting the Golden Tiki some day in the future. :)

On 2007-09-03 11:44, GoldenTiki wrote:
Been lurkin' here for quite a while and thought it was time to join in. We had a fantastic time at Tiki Oasis this year and met lots of folks, many from the Bay Area (hope to see you again soon, and yes we hope to make it up to Forbidden Island once and a while).

The Tiki Bar we are building at our home in Los Gatos is the Golden Tiki (www.goldentiki.com).

Aloha, All--

Just want to say hi to my like-minded fans of tiki and Polynesian life. I'm a writer living in Long Beach, CA (hmmm...interesting where I ended up!) and right now I'm in the midst of redoing my office bungalow into my own little tiki pad, after years of bamboo envy.

I pretty much listen to Hawaiian music daily, and enjoy getting to know many of the fantastic artists, esp. slack key (Ledward Kaapana no ka oi!). I've just gotten turned onto surf rock and love it. And Martin Denny--and Miles Corbin--Arthur Lyman...wow. BTW, the Puntamayo "South Pacific Islands" and the "Islands" CDs have some amazing tracks.

As a local to the LBC, I'm really glad that Sam's Seafood has reopened. I think they have done a wonderful job of giving it an updated look while preserving the tropical ambiance...the Sunday night "luau" with the ukulele and guitar players is fantastic, you can give the guys any request and they'll play it--like a living jukebox! My friends and I had a ball. Food is very creative and a real treat. Fish dishes are lush, man, that pineapple upside-down cake, oh baby! Watch out for the Zombies, they live up to their name...

Anyway, just wanted to say hi, and I'm glad to be here with all you cool cats.

Welcome...Welcome...everyone, glad to see so many new people made it to Oasis. Have fun posting and building your tiki havens. :)

I second that emotion: Welcome to the TC ohana.

Aloha!

RugbyMatt

Aloha all...

After a couple years of lurking hereabouts, I finally broke down and registered. :wink:

I'm Tim, I'm 39, and my partner, Steve, and I live in St. Paul, MN by way of St. Louis and San Francisco (me) and Saginaw, Evanston, San Francisco, and Sacramento (him).

I'm fairly new to Tiki. It's sort of odd because I feel nostalgic for a period in which I never lived. I try not to analyze it too much!

I do come by it naturally, though, because of my mother. My parents would go to a place called the Hukilau Lounge and tell me all about it later. It seemed like a magic place to my 7-year-old ears. (And while I'm on the subject: I'd be curious if anyone out there remembers this place. It would have been on the Illinois side of the St. Louis area, probably in or around Granite City.)

And so now I find myself in an area almost totally devoid of Tiki. sigh

At any rate, it is nice to be here. I hope all is well!

[ Edited by: TimboTiki 2007-09-14 17:22 ]

Aloha TimboTiki, and welcome!

Prepare for travel: now that we have you engaged, you're not going to be able to resist gathering with the rest of your 'ohana in person!
(it's a good thing!)

hello everyone,

my name is mariah aka ocdmusyk77....I'll be turning 30 twelve days. which feels weird since i don't feel my age. i live in Tracy California with my gf of a year and four months, i have just been recently been fired from my job and am taking this "time out" as a blessing and trying to concentrate on my site that i sell my designs on. i like to make new friends and trade things. i would really like it if someone could point me into the right direction on where i can download some awesome tiki clip art or where i could get some affordable clip art. if you wanna know anymore about me do not hesitate to ask.

peace...

I'm new here too. I signed up a few days ago but I haven't had time to post anything until now. I'm down in the San Diego area; I plan to attend the Tiki Island event at the Bali Hai in November.

I see in the post above me that member ocdmusyk77 lives in Tracy, CA., where coincidentally, I grew up. For those not familiar with Tracy, it lies about 20 miles south of Stockton, where Hop Louie's Islander restaurant used to reside. As a child I was fascinated by the building, the tikis and the exterior decor. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to go inside.

On 2007-09-15 15:45, LOL Tiki wrote:
I'm new here too. I signed up a few days ago but I haven't had time to post anything until now. I'm down in the San Diego area; I plan to attend the Tiki Island event at the Bali Hai in November.

I see in the post above me that member ocdmusyk77 lives in Tracy, CA., where coincidentally, I grew up. For those not familiar with Tracy, it lies about 20 miles south of Stockton, where Hop Louie's Islander restaurant used to reside. As a child I was fascinated by the building, the tikis and the exterior decor. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to go inside.

If you're interested in the Islander you should check out this thread!

On 2007-09-15 16:03, Paipo wrote:

On 2007-09-15 15:45, LOL Tiki wrote:
I'm new here too. I signed up a few days ago but I haven't had time to post anything until now. I'm down in the San Diego area; I plan to attend the Tiki Island event at the Bali Hai in November.

I see in the post above me that member ocdmusyk77 lives in Tracy, CA., where coincidentally, I grew up. For those not familiar with Tracy, it lies about 20 miles south of Stockton, where Hop Louie's Islander restaurant used to reside. As a child I was fascinated by the building, the tikis and the exterior decor. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to go inside.

If you're interested in the Islander you should check out this thread!

I ran across that thread on the day I signed up. I sat down and read through the entire thing. It's kind of odd to read those posts, written with such reverence, about a place that was so common to me when I was a kid. Growing up I used to see Islander mugs at many of our neighbors' houses and I thought they were so cool. Now I can begin to hunt them down and scoop them up.

a sudden tracy invasion, eh? glad to see it. welcome aboard!

just an update on the islander; the building is still in one piece, albeit closed off to the public. it was supposed to be torn down in july. i still cannot get a definitive answer as to when demo day will be. i was hoping to follow in the footsteps of the sad kahiki closing/demo video and film the destruction with depressing versions of quiet village piped in. guess i'll just have to settle for drive-by sightings until doomsday. but i digress, LOL tiki, glad to have you here.

tikicleen.....where can we see the footage of the kahiki coming down.....its no doubt depressing but id like to see it......and hey....welcome newbies.....tiki on

On 2007-09-15 18:58, tikicleen wrote:
a sudden tracy invasion, eh? glad to see it. welcome aboard!

just an update on the islander; the building is still in one piece, albeit closed off to the public. it was supposed to be torn down in july. i still cannot get a definitive answer as to when demo day will be. i was hoping to follow in the footsteps of the sad kahiki closing/demo video and film the destruction with depressing versions of quiet village piped in. guess i'll just have to settle for drive-by sightings until doomsday. but i digress, LOL tiki, glad to have you here.

Thanks for the welcome! Not quite a Tracy invasion; I left as soon as I finished high school. It's such a small, out of the way, middle of nowhere place that I'm still surprised when I run into others that live(d) there. I passed through Ripon many times in the back of the family station wagon on trips to Modesto, Riverbank and Turlock.

Incidently - is there a secret to posting pictures on Ooga Mooga? Whenever I try I get a server error.

On 2007-09-15 15:45, LOL Tiki wrote:
I'm new here too. I signed up a few days ago but I haven't had time to post anything until now. I'm down in the San Diego area; I plan to attend the Tiki Island event at the Bali Hai in November.

I see in the post above me that member ocdmusyk77 lives in Tracy, CA., where coincidentally, I grew up. For those not familiar with Tracy, it lies about 20 miles south of Stockton, where Hop Louie's Islander restaurant used to reside. As a child I was fascinated by the building, the tikis and the exterior decor. Sadly, I never had the opportunity to go inside.

I just moved back here from ATL, GA....and it's grown quiet a bit, but it's still one of those places that if you blink..you'd never know you were there lol.....

On 2007-09-16 00:28, ocdmusyk77 wrote:
I just moved back here from ATL, GA....and it's grown quiet a bit, but it's still one of those places that if you blink..you'd never know you were there lol.....

Atlanta to Tracy - that's a big change! I think the population is in the neighborhood of 75,000 now; when I left it was just over 15,000 and probably had less than a dozen traffic lights.

Aloha Tiki fans,
An introduction..

I've been into the Tiki thing for quite a few years now. I was always fascinated by the Tiki Room at Disneyland, and my favorite part of the Pirates of the Caribbean ride was actually waiting in line! Something about the atmosphere there put me in such a different state of mind..and I was far too young to drink!

Not sure what led to it, but about 5 years ago I set to building a Tiki-style bar for my living room. Maybe it was memories of the way I felt in those places in Disneyland, but for some reason the simple project of building a bar snowballed into a complete Tiki lounge in my living room, complete with moody lighting, fountains, funky relics and campy album covers on the walls.

I moved out of that house three years ago, and unfortunately had to leave everything with my roommates, as none of it would have fit in my new apartment.

But fast-forward to last weekend: I returned to my old house to reclaim my passion for Tiki. The house I just bought has a small backyard, just perfect for an outdoor Tiki lounge. The old roommates were still rather attached to the Tiki lounge as it was, but in spite of some kicking and screaming (literally!) I managed to bring home the bar I built and my vintage albums.

The backyard lounge already has a good start. The lava-rock fountain next to the mature Jade tree is complete, and I've got plans for a thatched awning to cover the seating area and the bar. Stay tuned for pictures!

Cheers,
Bamboo Stu

welcome....PICTURES...WE NEED PICTURES....

I feel a sudden twitch of motivation to redo my backyard... :D :sheckymug:

I am now to the Tiki, but I am running the sales and marketing for Trader Vic's in China. It is difficult to find some books here about the story for different Tikis we have in the restaurant.

If I take some of the photos, can any of you be kind enough to tell me what the status is? and the story inside. I am planning to translate that into Chinese, so we can introduce the Tiki Culture to more people in China.

Thanks in advance.

My name is Mike and I own a 3D themeing company in West Palm Beach, FL. I looking for a carver or two in the West Palm Beach area to work on an as needed basis to do all kinds of carving in foam which we then hardcoat so that our sculptures will last outdoors. Some samples of our work can be seen on our web site at http://www.pegasus-inc.com. Send me an email if you might be interested or know anyone who might be. Thanks, Mike

Hi, I'm a Tiki enthusiast about an hour outside of Chicago. I love going to Chef Shangri-La and drinking Dr. Fongs and eating their terriyaki beef appetizer.

Hi Friends,
I´m from Argentina and I live in Rosario. I´m a bone carver always learning and in this process I´ve found this wonderful place. My designs are part of the Maori universe and I found some incredible carvers here. I´m part of another carver forum, but the styles are different and the materials also very different from bone. I´m impressed with the quality and originality of the pieces and tutorials here at Tiki Central. I´ve been reading some posts (Paipo´s and Tama´s specially) looking for some instructions on how to work with Pounamu as a friend send me a piece from NZ. Here we don´t have this kind of stone, and I´m like a little baby with a new toy, so now I have to rearange my shop to work with this wonderful material. I´m thankful and amaze to see how generous the NZ´ers are.
Thanks for sharing all this knowledge as I live in the far side of the world.
Thanks to you all.
Hugs,
Sebas

Here are some pictures of my work

P.S.: Sorry for my lousy English, any correction will be happily received. :D

[ Edited by: Sebastian Urresti 2007-09-20 18:52 ]

Beautiful work Sebastian!

Hello,

I live in Portland Oregon and am originally from San Pedro, Ca. I am getting into Tiki culture pretty strong and am building a Tiki haven in my basement! Hello all and Holla back if in Portland or have something to say about San Pedro.

[ Edited by: mymotiki 2008-06-14 20:24 ]

My name is Chuck Nickerson, 53, living in Encino, a suburb of Los Angeles. My interest in tiki started with reading the obituary for Martin Denny. Now I casually collect tiki material. As a hobbiest woodworker I'm preparing to craft tiki as well. As a reader I'm also assembling a fair library. The level of skill demonstrated by the artisans here is inspiring and intimidating. I'm looking forward to having something to contribute.

Welcome to all the new posters. Great to hear about how you came here and also about your love of tikis.

That bone carving is incredible!!!! :)

Aloha tiki-holics !

I finally registered after finding so much information here.
I am a german dude, who's been in California for 3 years and is moving back soon.

In those 3 years I slowly started collecting tikis, hawaiiana, kitsch, etc. Most of it is factory made, but I have 4 hand carved tikis from Hawaii and this weekend I made my first attempts in carving. I am going to post some pictures in the carving thread.

Cheers,

Bobo

Hi all, Im a tiki drink enthusiast, tropical att heart living in Stockholm,Sweden. I love exotic drinks and food cooking and have done that for years. Im in a way new to tiki but at the same time not..

I have also studied the history and culture of Polynesia for many years and I`m interested in everything Polynesian as well.
I hope to learn a lot here and to make new good friends.

Its fun to be here!

Sebas..your bonecarving is fantastic!!!

[ Edited by: Little fragrant Tiare 2007-10-13 04:25 ]

[ Edited by: Little fragrant Tiare 2007-11-02 02:11 ]

Hey there. My name is Meghan, but I go by Frost online. I've gotten into Tiki purely as a potter. Its just so much fun to carve a tiki out of a mug. I'm half asleep right now, I just got back from a sucessful firing with a very cool tiki in it (no pictures yet, that comes on Tuesday.)

Anyhow, I have some of my tiki's up on Deviant art. This one is my current favorite: http://frost-indri.deviantart.com/art/Tounge-Tiki-60041917

I'll be poking around in various forums, I'm sure, but I just wanted to say "hi" tonight. ^_^

Frost,

Nice work on your link, but what is a "tounge"?

So, hello there everyone at TC.
I appreciate the work in this forum for a long time now, so I decided to join. The tiki-fever grapped me some years ago while reading the great "Book of tiki" and I got started carving tikis by myself instead of buying them(all).
But first things first: My name is Kay, 35yrs old, from North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. Please excuse my errors in formulations because of not being native English-speaker.
At the moment, I am a little handicapped after a tennis-elbow surgery because of carving. Soon I hope to open my own topic and try to show you all some of my work. But I am sorry, for now there are no "work in progress"-pics.
See you all at Tiki Central.
Tok-tok

Seasoned greetings, y'all. Looking forward (and checking over my shoulder) to getting to know tiki devotees. I grew up in an inland California town where every other apartment complex was called Bali Hai, Shangri-La, The Tropics, etc., and there were restaurants called The Leilani, the Luau, the Reef, etc. Now wed to a gent who never heard of tiki and is mystified by the allure. Yes, Ms. Carmine's got to get her tiki fix elsewhere...

Hi! I'm new here!
I'm very interested in Chinese tattoo...
Any advice?

Hi,

My name is A.R. McRae and I am a writer. I only have a limited collection of Tiki, but I'm expanding little by little all the time. I've lurked for a while, and have witnessed what a nice bunch of folks most of you all are, so I hope you'll welcome me with the same friendliness I greet you all in.

-A.R.