TIKI MODERN: Apologies, Comments, Critique and ...questions

Bestseller list on Amazon right now.

Great. Garden, what type of book is this? :) Has anyone actually received their book from Amazon yet. I didn't pre-order the first week that you could but I think it was the second.

Teakey,
I pre-ordered mine from Amazon as well. It was supposed to come sometime this past week, but I got an email from Amazon saying that shipping was delayed and that it won't be here until Sept. 26-28. So I haven't gotten mine yet either. Hopefully it won't get delayed again. I'm really anxious to see the new book in all its glory.

On 2007-09-23 02:43, bigbrotiki wrote:
It seems that I am in 2nd and 3rd place on the style/ home & garden bestseller list on Amazon right now (or at least was, last night). :D

Way to go!!! And rightfully so...you deserve to be on the top. The pictures alone are worth a million$$$$. Hope we can bump ya up to number 1....I got Xmas shopping to do. :lol:

I got mine a few days back, the same day I got my Kahiki mug so Christmas came early. It has a similar look to The Book Of Tiki with the trilingual translations.. Part of me was hoping that at this point it could stand alone in one language and it could be published in international formats like the “German edition.” or even in Samoan but this does make it look even more exotic so I can live with it. I enjoy the thick coffee table size and am glad it’s in 2 parts where The Evolution of Tiki Modern and Witco: Tiki Modern Exemplified could easily warrant their own books.

A few of the articles ever evocative of The Exotica Erotica issue of The Tiki News #14 and they were welcome. I hope more of Sven’s early articles come to light one day. I’m glad that aspect was touched on. When I was a child I use to wander in the ABC stores of Oahu and part of the fun of looking at the Polynesian kitsch section which the nude hula dancer cards and those pens with the girl in the bikini that you turn upside down and it would quickly disappear back then it had a forbidden quality to it and that chapter brought the memory back like a scene in Mondo Cane.that ended up on the cutting room floor.

I was hopping for a chapter that was more concentrated on music (And even a companion “Music to Read Tiki Modern By CD.) but I suppose that has been done to death in most places. Other than that it nice to see all this history in one place, well done. I hope it’s made into a major motion picture.

Awesome book! Thanks for the effort Sven.

I got my copy from Amazon last week. It showed up unexpectedly -- their last email had said October delivery.

Now, where is all the cool Witco hiding???

I wrote something about the Berlin event on my blog.

http://kawentzmann.de/cgi-bin/weblog_basic/index.php

[ Edited by: Kawentzmann 2007-09-24 04:04 ]

The event was really great. Thanks a lot to Lurker, Sven, Jochen...
It was also nice to meet you Kahuna K, and see the brits as well.

I couldn't leave my eyes of the book during the flight and train back to home yesterday. Incredible job Sven.
I just have one critic to say so far : the french translation is not that good. I'm sure the guy who made it didn't really get what he was talking about, and there are some mistakes. But it's not your fault, and it's better to read the original text in english anyway.

Recieved my book over the weekend and it is freakin' AWESOME!!!!!

This size is incredible!!! Thanks for the nice inscription Sven. Much appreciated.

You should be very proud of this book. It is simply amazing!!! So much knowledge. So many beautiful pictures!!! Unbelievable!!!

Takes Polynesian Pop to a new level!!!

Congratulations Sven!!! :)

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

P.S. naugatiki, you will have to wait for the "Book of Exotica" for the music stuff!! :wink:

On 2007-09-24 05:17, virani wrote:
The event was really great. Thanks a lot to Lurker, Sven, Jochen...
It was also nice to meet you Kahuna K, and see the brits as well.

Thank you so much Lurker, Sven, Jochen, Sebastian and the bar tender!
We had a fantastic time... The book is amazing and I'm sure James and Sian (Pocketiki) will echo my sentiments...

Until next time we meet!
Liz & Chris

Thanks everyone, it is really good to feel like I came thru with numba 2! It was a tall order to match my first effort, The Book of Tiki, but it seems I have succeeded :) .

This, I must say, is due to a large degree to the Tiki Central community and some of its exceptional hunters and collectors, like Mimi Payne (puamana/arkiva tropika) and Sabu the Coconut Boy, and many others, who strengthened my work with their findings. I tried to name as many as I could in my acknowledgments and apologize to all that recognize their finds in the book and are not mentioned.

I assembled most of the "Book of Tiki" out of my own collection and research, plus the archives of a tight knit group of urban archeologists like Jeff Berry, Dug Miller, Pete Moruzzi, and other friends in the Tiki subculture. We all worked in pre-Internet times, when there was no google or e-bay, and even the word Tiki was unknown. Thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets and used book shops were our hunting grounds. When the BOT got done, it seemed that that most of the best material was used, and the story was told.

But, thankfully, the BOT educated and inspired a whole new generation of Tiki seekers and collectors, whose burgeoning interests were aided by the speedy development of the Internet and e-bay and such sites as Tiki Central, and who appreciated my work and thus allowed me to pick and choose from their findings.

To the novice, the sheer mass of imagery in both, the Book of Tiki and TIKI MODERN, might make it seem that these materials are easy to come by, and that Tiki culture was always around, But anybody who ever looked for original, vintage Tiki material knows how rarified these discoveries really are.

It is very rewarding to not only have raised Tiki awareness, but also to now return the favor of giving to many of my supporters, and seeing them and those who are in the know to be thrilled with the results.

Mahalo, and long live Tiki, Your Sven Kirsten

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2007-09-25 00:06 ]

Aloha Sven,

Do you have any more info on that pic on page 68?

Also the pic on pg. 70, bottom left.

Ben, I am "mitout MODERN" right now, (working in Cologne on the color correction of a TV movie I shot this summer), the books are boxed up, on the way to the next event in Munich...you will have to wait til Wednesday for the answer. This damn book is just too heavy to travel around with! :)

Wahoo! Just bought my copy by phone from Taschen, Beverly Hills. I'll be flying in from the Midwest on Sunday to pick it up. (Sure, I've a restaurant conference to attend as well, but that's just an excuse to go to Calif. and get Sven's book!

On 2007-09-24 06:13, 54 house of bamboo wrote:

On 2007-09-24 05:17, virani wrote:
The event was really great. Thanks a lot to Lurker, Sven, Jochen...
It was also nice to meet you Kahuna K, and see the brits as well.

Thank you so much Lurker, Sven, Jochen, Sebastian and the bar tender!
We had a fantastic time... The book is amazing and I'm sure James and Sian (Pocketiki) will echo my sentiments...

Until next time we meet!
Liz & Chris

Echoing Virani, Liz & Chris' sentiments is about all I can muster right now, due to the lack of sleep I've had over the weekend, but I gotta just say before I hit the sack...That was one hell of a night out guys! Thanks for the hug Sven and sorry if the drool stained your shirt, but that book is just too damn much! Absolutely loved the slide show in Deutsch! Tiki works in any language of course...even German, ha, ha!! Hopefully I didn't embarrass you too much with my emotional outpourings, but hey, if they are in you, they have to come out! Great to see Jochen's movie, what a big tease! I just gotta see the other 40 minutes!!! Great to see and hear HulaPunk again! These guys are so much fun!!

We must say a big Mahalo to Liz & Chris for making our flyin' visit to Berlin so enjoyable in their company and to Andy & Corola, our hosts (our perfect hosts!), for putting up with my jacket in their beautiful home! Sorry about that guys!

I really have to sleep now, but I'll post some pics tomorrow. Good night one and all!!

Trader Jim (Make mine a Horlicks!).

Oooh! One last thing..did you get to the SUDSEE Exhibition Sven? Hope so, it was absolutely awesome, especially their permanant oceanic displays!!! They even had TIKI MODERN in the bookshop...we suspect you snuck them in there earlier though, ha, ha! Nice one!

Jim, I sure did go to that sudsy exhibit, how come we missed each other, I must have been there for half a day! Perhaps we were blending too well with the exhibits...

I posted pics about it in the CORRECT thread in "Other events"/"Tiki Mod Euro Tour" (cuz I am so German), but what the heck, I am half Californian now, so let's continue the tour coverage here:

(Also, TCers, please don't miss reading my last Thank You post here, on the bottom of the previous page)

bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite

Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 3272
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
Posted: Today; 2:01 pm

Here are some impressions from the Tiki Modern Tour. First two photos are from Harry's Harbor Bazaar in Hamburg, which is just around the corner of the Hasenschaukel where the event took place.

This amazing store resembles the European ethnology museums at the turn of the century, a non-didactic jumble of primitive idols and fetishes that inspired moderns like Picasso and Giacometti to redefine what "art" was:

These are just TWO of many rooms and corridors filled to the hilt with vintage tourist art.

(note the vacuum cleaner on the floor)

Jochen and Tanja view TIKI MODERN for the first time...

Jochen's movie is turning out really really good! (He will announce its release here soon)

Berlin at night:

Typical Berlin "art performance"

At the Eiszeit Kino: Demonstrating it IS possible to hold Tiki Modern AND a Mai Tai at the same time!

Hula Punk Live

True Tiki Trooper Trader Jim and lovely Sian the Beachcomber

The Brits show the gray clad Germans how to wear the proper Polynesian patterns!

Sunday trip to the Berlin Ethnology Museum in Dahlem, which has been splendidly re-organized since I visited it last.

Their South Seas collection is spectacular, some of its pieces inspired artists like the Surrealists and the Moderns.

Three Tikis: BOT cover artist Moritz R., urban archeologist (and Tiki Tour promoter) Lurker Grand, and authentic Marquesan carving

The boys providing human scale for one of the Men's club houses

Me with the Marquesan stone head collected by Karl von den Steinen

For Naomi: Beautiful large Nukuoro statue!

This Ethnology museum was once called "The mother of all Museums" because of its collection's influence.

The greatest, most pleasant surprise greeted me at the end, in the Museum's bookstore, where I found TIKI MODERN displayed among all the latest academic art books on Oceanic art! Things truly have come full circle for me

Tausend Dank, Sven!

Wow...marvelous pictures. How thrilling it must be to know your years of research and documentation of tiki will be helping people all over the world understand and appreciate an art culture. :)

Very cool Sven, great pictures as always.

My copy arrived today and it's one of those books I don't want to start reading because I'm afraid I'll finish it too soon.

My copy of TM shipped from Amazon today!

I'm just getting around to checking out the photos. what an amazing museum collection and group of exhibits. are there more pics? I'm definatly inspired!

Sven, we didn't get to the museum until around 4ish(?), due to a bit of a lie in, sleeping of those Mai-Tais! That was one hell of an exhibition my friend, I would like to have toured it in your company. For those wondering the exhibition was...Actually I guess I should be doing this on the CORRECT thread in "Other events"/"Tiki Mod Euro Tour", but becuz I am NOT German, I'm tempted to just carry on Gung Ho! Ha, ha! I was going to post some pics but as the uploading is not available right now, I'll save them for later. It'll give me time to check out the other thread to see which one I'm going to use. Any advice welcome...except "Keep your stinkin' pictures, we're not interested Limey!".

Forgot (shame on me and my ancestors!) to say in the last post...A HUGE MAHALO to LURKER for all the hard work put into this great European tiki event! It is very much appreciated, we wouldn't have missed it for the world (of WITCO!). Lookin' forward to working with you to promote 'eurotiki' website.

All the Best from Tiki Towers - Trader Jim (Make mine a Mai-Tai).

Keep it coming here, Jim, pics and all....

I just got this e-mail this morning (I am staying at Jochen's), and I must still be feeling a little weak from the 23 year old Ron Zacapa and the Partagas we had last night, because it made me cry a little....:

Dear Sven,
My brother, sister and I received copies of your Tiki Modern book from Taschen last week and must say it is magnificent. You did a great job collecting and beautifully presenting the wide variety of of Tiki representations. And thank you for the prominence you gave to Stanley's art. But your book did much more than splendidly capture a period in time. We gave a copy to our mother, and you should have seen the tears of joy that came over her as she flipped through the pages. It was if the years had melted away, and she was back in the Waikiki of the 1950's in her 20's. I also passed a copy to the best man at my father and mother's wedding. And he too was just thrilled to relive his youth all over. My older cousin who also grew up in Hawaii saw the book and could not be pulled away for almost an hour, lost apparently in happy memories. Bringing people this kind of overwhelming happiness is a rare gift indeed, Sven, and we are all very grateful to you.
Aloha and Mahalo Nui Nui,
Ben

Amazon is still working their way through shipping the pre-orders: My email notice came today.

Hi Sven: I got my book from 8 ball yesterday. I have gotten about halfway through it and all I can say is wow. You did an amazing job again. I am sure my parents will get a kick out of seeing the furniture they loved represented in the book. No time to sit here at the computer I want to get back to the book. Thanks for all of your hard work. Scott

Amazon finally got around to shipping me my book. DAMN! So worth the wait. A beautiful, heavy cornerstone to my library and would also come in handy if I need to crush any would be burglars' skulls.

Sven congrats on another amazing book!!! Bill the Westenhaver family and I are thrilled too to see a lot of his work published and documented. Heather and I received our 10 copies from amazon today (I know why only ten copies?) and finally got to really look and read through the book. It is spectacular. I am honored to be a part of your book and in the Westenhaver's lives. After seeing so many great pictures of Bills work I thought I would add a picture of a water color we have, done by Bill during art school or shortly thereafter in 1951. This was a present to my Wife Heather from Bill on her 16th birthday

Wizard of Oz water color

Cool, Ken!

Folks, there is a major picture post update on the rest of the TIKI MODERN book tour here:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=25353&forum=4&start=last&29

I was just at my local borders and they now have Tiki Modern in stock and on the shelf. I think I helped that along because the last few months every book store I go in that has those computer book finders, I have been doing a search for Tiki Modern. I figured maybe they use those searches to figure on what to stock. So for those of you who havn't got it yet check your local store. Scott

It was said that there is one mistake in T.M. and after I read the whole book, I hope to find it cause in would be a indicator of knowing the whole body of this knowledge.

I saw that the page towards the back had various new mugs from TC artist. The mug "Tiki Quest" was shown and named being produced by Munktiki which isn't the shocker but it had both the names of Duke and Squid associated with it. Did Squid have a hand sculpting this mug?

That IS a genuine mistake, and I did apologize to the Munks...Squid just seemed to have a hand in every mug out there...but no Munktiki. Hope Holden did not jump on him. :)
But there is a real embarrassing Haole misspelling in the book, too.

Hi Sven: Is the spelling mistake on page 89? Wahini, Everywhere else it is spelled Wahine. My Hawaiian is not very good so there could be more than one spelling?? You are the writer I just turn wrenches for a living. Scott

Sweet! What an astonishing book. Just grabbed a copy from Funhauser today (at least $5 cheaper than big-block store Chapters has it) - I was worried about distribution up here & not getting a copy, but now I'm just going to settle into a nice comfy chair and get immersed...

On 2007-09-26 22:12, bigbrotiki wrote:
Keep it coming here, Jim, pics and all....

I just got this e-mail this morning (I am staying at Jochen's), and I must still be feeling a little weak from the 23 year old Ron Zacapa and the Partagas we had last night, because it made me cry a little...

I'm not surprised the email brought tears to your eyes Sven, they must have been tears of pride! I'm still looking forward to sitting down in my lounge with Augie Colon's 'Sophisticated Savage' playing on my record player, a trusty Mai-Tai at my side and slowly wading out into the deep blue waters of TIKI MODERN! Right now, I'm still teasing myself with it, like some horny teenager discovering that he likes the girl across he road, but hasn't found the bottle to make the move! When I do I know the timing will be right and I'll enjoy it all the more, it'll have to be soon though, before I come over all unnecessary!!

We knew Berlin was a bonafide tiki town (city!) when we discovered one of the locals hiding behind a drainpipe!

Here's a few pics of the 'Berlin Bash'.

Here are our friends and travelling companions Chris (far left) & Liz (far right) and our new found German friends Andy & Carola (in the middle).

Great hooking up with 'Our Man in Paris!' Virani again!

My god is that a suede jacket you're wearing mon ami?!! Very 1970s!

HULAPUNK played a great set of old punk favo(u)rites, which I know Sven would have enjoyed, being he is as old as dirt like me and, do you know, we remember punk first time round! It really was GREAT seeing them again!!

They also had them laughing in the isles. Damn!...I wish I knew what they were laughing about? Not Virani's jacket I hope!

Then of course Sven used both Sian and I, jumping on the success of POCKETIKI Magazine, to get a bit of FREE publicity for his new book...Oh, is there no shame left in the world?

The evening was a great success what with seeing Jochen's amazing movie, albeit the 60 minute version. To be honest, if that was all there was it'd get an Oscar from us anyway! The full length version will blow you away for sure! Congratulations on an epic adventure Jochen! I'm already looking forward to 'Part Two'!

I must apologise to the barman of the evening, whose Aloha-Luau bar we retired to after the show, for not remembering his name. Shame on me! I'm sure someone can enlighten me, especially as I enjoyed many of his Mai-Tais!! When in Berlin, check out his bar, it is going to be famous one day!

Also a HUGE MAHALO to Lurker the man behind the tour and all round 'nice guy'! We'll be in touch for sure.

The following day we headed out to the Berlin Ethnologisches Museum in the western part of Berlin.

The reason we missed you Sven, was that we didn't get up til gone mid-day on Sunday! Boy those 'Saturday Night Special' cocktails were good! Hic!

What we saw in the exhibition, and the museums own collection, will fuel my passion for tiki to the day I die! AWESOME is just so inadequate. The SUDSEE Exhibition - 'World of Shadows - Art of the South Pacific' displayed mortuary rituals and ancestor figures from New Ireland. Below are a couple of pics (not too great in quality!). The rest I'll be putting in POCKETIKI (also not too great in quality!).

This is 'Malagan fish with a human figure in its mouth'. A Rockcod carrying the deceased into the after world.

The next is a close up of the head of a Uli figure from the Madak region.

Lastly we have some genuine human skulls! hand painted (definately limited edition!)and 'over modelled' on the right.

Scary or what?!!

Sorry for the delay in putting these pictures up and thanks for hanging in with this, probably too long, post. Hope you enjoyed the pictures at least.

All the Best from Tiki Towers - Trader Jim (Make mine a Mai-Tai at the Aloha-Luau Bar!).

Pocket, you kinda look like a mini Sven. Its the hair I guess.

On 2007-10-01 17:07, teaKEY wrote:
Pocket, you kinda look like a mini Sven. Its the hair I guess.

Actually teaKey, I really have a shock of curly ginger hair, but it clashed badly with my beautiful jacket so I went for the 'Sven look' as a tribute to TIKI MODERN! Damn near pulled it off too!!

Goodnight (1.41am) teaKey! - Trader Jim (Make mine Sven & Tonic...hair tonic that is!).

Just got mine from Amazon yesterday , it blew my socks off ! It was great to see the image of the first Tiki I ever saw , The Barney West at the Tiki Kai in Albuquerque New Mexico . Great job!

Thanks for posting the pics, looks like great events, shame we couldn't make it over.

Good news, my pre-order shipped from amazon today [or so the email pixie says]!

Should be here before the weekend...

I just got mine and my wahine and I think it's fabulous. I haven't started reading yet, just took in the pictures. I like the fact that it looks like Sven parallels the influence of the exotic and primitive in other areas of art and society. One of the things I loved about history and art history is seeing parallels in fine art (all branches), pop culture, politics, sociology, economics, religion, etc. It's all really intertwined- developments in each, will be influenced by, and have influence on, developments in the other area, they're all part of the human experience.

I've read it and it is truly excellent. TM is a great experience and contribution. TM and BOT have their own shrine in our Tiki room.

Gosh! My copy finally arrived yesterday! And what a BEAUTIFUL book it is, thank you SO much! After leafing through and looking carefully at all the luscious pictures last night, it is currently sitting on top of our dansette record player awaiting a thorough and proper read.

Definitely worth the wait, a beautiful and exhaustive piece of work, well done Sven, thanks for making a young lady in Northern England very happy just when i needed it!

xxx

Hey, I thought we were here to rip this thinga new one and find all its faults!

Page 110, at the bottom. That image is hosed. Look slike it was cut in two and glued back together. And then I noticed, the author had Photoshopped himself into the action!

Tim, buddy, I still have a book for you, as thanks for your contribution! Wasn't able to send it off before the Europe tour. Please pm me your address.

I wish I could send all and everyone that helped free copies, but I only got a few extra ones from the publisher, I would go broke if I would BUY one for each person I would like to GIVE one to.

Yeah, the printer had a digital hick-up on that Kalua Room interior, too bad. Though the gray geezer on the left ain't me, it brings up the question "Where IS Svenno" in the book? If you find me, you will find my son Diego nearby, too. And where is Naomi's store? :)

And the fact that nobody has seen the typo yet shows how me and my editors could overlook that damn thing so easily, too

On 2007-09-24 10:14, RevBambooBen wrote:
Aloha Sven,
Do you have any more info on that pic on page 68?
Also the pic on pg. 70, bottom left.

Hmm, that is the cover of a LA Herald Examiner Sunday supplement from the late 50s. There is an article about backyard Luaus in it, but I don't have it. I borrowed it from Bosko for the image and gave it back to him. I always wondered how Denny (King KuKu) got into the picture (on the left)...Time travel?

And the b&w on the next page is from a 1956 photo book from Tahiti entitled "Tahiti-L'enchanteresse", the same source that brought me the photo on page 58.

It must be my eyes that are off-kilter, but I could swear that the typeface takes an unexpected drop in size a couple times in the middle of a paragraph. Like the second paragraph on p.13 and the top paragraph on p.17. (Acknowledging that this is a ridiculously picayune piece of feedback on a book of such visual, textual, and physical heft.)

On another note, the book is truly jawdropping. For anyone who thought they'd seen it all after the BOT, TC, and the other fine books and websites from the last few years, cracking the cover of Tiki Modern knocks your socks off. Not only does it show how much more is still undiscovered from the poly-pop era, but it also provides a historical context tying it all in with modernism and other esthetic movements. That's one thing that no "Book of Owl" will ever be able to do. Or who knows, maybe that's the next project after the aloha shirt book, eh Sven?

Also, some of the layout choices are really beautiful, especially the sexy Witco grain effect. Definitely one of the highlights of the year. Get copies for friends and family!

-Randy

[ Edited by: filslash 2008-09-20 15:52 ]

Thanks, fils, I really like to see that I could deliver for people in the know.

On 2007-10-03 20:18, filslash wrote:

Page 35. I would have liked to see the whole plate. The staffs, clubs, and Fisherman gods on either side of the drawing are cool. 1829?

--I had to concentrate it to the A'A statue so that the visual connection to the overleaf photo of it in Picasso's studio was clear.

Page 110. The Kaula room postcard? Is it just my copy or did that happen with them all?

---Unfortunately a printer hick-up for the whole print run (15 000- 20 000)

On some pages, like 147, the caption is easy for a english speaking person like me to read, but captions like on page 184-5 cause me eye strain.

---Man, and aren't those page numbers a bitch! I don't think House Industries ever intended their type to be used that smalI! I always have to put on a second pair of reading glasses to make sure which number it really is! You sure you mean 184-5? 184 is the gun rack room...

Got my copy at Taschen in Beverly Hills three days ago. I am reading it s-l-o-w-l-y and enjoying each page spread.

BTW, while there I purchased Jim Heimann's book "HULA, Vintage Hawaiian Graphics", a fine little book.