TIKI OASIS 2008 Aug 14-17 Voodoo Zombie Island

We also had a great time. Brought a friend along for the festivities, too. Super time was had by all (of course!). Seeing, hearing and meeting Robert Drasnin was definitely a highlight, and Waitiki is awesome!
Thanks to Otto and everyone (artists, musicians, dancers, tech folk) for their hard work!

Great seeing all of you there this past weekend. Yet I do apologize that I rarely remember names. Come to think of it..... I'm not quite sure where I've been for the last 72 hours...... What a blast this was! The room crawls! The booze, The bands, The Venders whom I ignored (sorry)..... The girls, The Booze! Robert Drasnin, The Booze! Speacial thanks to Otto and the crew that put together a great time for all! In anycase Hope to see you guys next year.

Did I mention the Booze?!

anyone know if the stolen tiki-poles were returned?

i am still in favor of tar and feathering the kook(s) who took em.

These kind of vandals give us binge-drinkers a bad name!

[ Edited by: BigToe 2008-08-18 14:52 ]

Stealin' tikis is a hangin' offensive 'round these parts.

I have a better idea...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oP1NMB_I0s

...seriously...that was the only disappointment of the whole weekend. ESPECIALLY at THIS of all events.

Total Violation of the Tiki Manifesto.

Do you have your TIKIYAKI ORCHESTRA CD YET ?
http://www.tikiyakiorchestra.com

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2008-08-18 15:00 ]

So it would be our duty.... Then to retreive the tiki's if found? Whom ever took them has got to ge gloating. Gloating leads to doing stupid things like putting them up on ebay, or showing them to friends. Yeah I'll be lookin'. Whome ever took them..... The honorable thing to do, returning them to the hotel, that ship has sailed. The relics, as I know, have not been returned. So as far as I'm concerned police may not be needed......... at first. However they maybe called in to protect them from some very angry tikiphiles. I hope we practice restraint. Although.......

Mr Lucky was on the case and it reads like a Pulp novel that will go down in the books-Dames, bootleg rum, organized crime, and the skin trade. No-one brings anything small into a bar around here......

A stolen tiki? Is there a picture of it

I talked with hotel management this morning (forgot my cell phone charger and had to go get it) and I was told that someone found out who stole the tikis. The thieves were contacted by that someone and the thieves intended to return the tikis to the hotel. Good news there. At 3:00 this afternoon they had still not been returned but the day aint over yet.
Cheers

Had such a fantastic time...seems like it went by in a flash, some kind of crazy dream especially after looking down at the atrium at what seemed like an empty hotel around 5 pm in the afternoon on Sunday.

Thanks, appreciation and LOVE goes out to everyone I came in contact with (even if it was just a friendly "Hi!") for being a part of the hands-down best weekend of the year! This year it was especially wonderful meeting and hanging with all the tiki people from my hometown of Tucson. Another set of thanks to everyone who bought a record or CD and those of you who dug the DJ set on Saturday afternoon. And, of course, thanks to everyone who handed me a drink!!

I did manage to lose my camera case...it is a brown IKON case with a long strap...there is a memory card inside as well....if anyone finds it let me know. I also left my Goof mug in one of the rooms...

I hope to see all you Los Angeles tiki people at La Luz de Jesus/Wacko on Friday for the Robert Drasnin / Heather Watts signing...let's do something fun afterward....Tiki Ti is walking distance from the gallery!

Also, please send a friend request to my Myspace page.
xoxoxo
L

On 2008-08-18 17:41, Matt Reese wrote:
I talked with hotel management this morning (forgot my cell phone charger and had to go get it) and I was told that someone found out who stole the tikis. The thieves were contacted by that someone and the thieves intended to return the tikis to the hotel. Good news there. At 3:00 this afternoon they had still not been returned but the day aint over yet.
Cheers

That is good news. Let us know if there are any updates as to their safe return.

So then it really WAS one of our group? Shameful.

I only attended the Saturday event, so I had to pack four days of Tiki Oasis into about ten hours. Special thanks to Sven Kirsten for signing my book (the awesome Tiki Modern) and Billy the Crud, Forbidden Island and anybody Else's room party I might have stumbled into. The Creepy Creeps are my new fave band. Zombies rule. Long live(?) the walking dead.

[ Edited by: Shipwreckjoey 2008-08-18 19:18 ]

On 2008-08-18 18:05, DJLee wrote:
. . . . Thanks, appreciation and LOVE goes out to everyone I came in contact with (even if it was just a friendly "Hi!") for being a part of the hands-down best weekend of the year! . . . .

xoxoxo
L

Great comments Lee and I am with you 100%. Also thanks for the great tunes poolside - The Enchanted Farm got some great looks out of the first time Oasis-ers.

From my eyeballs, it was great seeing the SF Tiki Team working hand in hand with the SD Locals to make everything go as fun under the sun as possible.

Sharing laffs with Otto and the whole Forbidden Island regulars, while Buzzy was busy signing mostly naked photos of himself, and Billy the Crud was carting Tikis marked 'Sold" on 'em, and Tikiwinebear and those Fun Girls were mixing drinks and sneaking to the front of every line they could was as great a weekend as I could imagine, and I can imagine some pretty GREAT weekends!

Thanks to everybody, and thanks to TikiTony for the great pendant, Lee for the amazing fish, the Martini Kings for the vibes, and Buzzy again just for being so Buzzed.

Tiki Bob, wow, great photo of us...I'm going to snag it for the Myspace page hope you don't mind! Glad you enjoyed the set and reactions to "Enchanted Farm," will bring it again next year!

I have so many "thank you"s to give out, I can hardly see straight. I just got all of my photos downloaded and I'll have them up when I recover a little more. I had a GREAT time, but things feel like they're changing a little.
Next year, I'm actually looking forward to some campy "Back to the Beach" stuff......especially since I still have a bunch of surfboard blanks that Thomas and I are going to paint and/or carve. TV and vegging out are calling me!

On 2008-08-18 18:30, beadtiki wrote:
So then it really WAS one of our group? Shameful.

I heard the story and it wasn't "one of us"...

Just remembered a couple other thanks
Heath for all the help setting up those damn dancer stages (and tearing them down). I would've been in bad shape without your help.
Thanks to Doug Horne for the guitar signature.
There will probably be more as my feeble memory starts to return.
Cheers.

Well now that is good news regarding the Tiki's. I could really care less who tried to pull them. I'm really just happy that they maybe heading back home.
Still was pretty childish.

What a fun time, and HOW exhausted I (still) am. I got back home to Houston Sunday evening.

My bag: not so much.

At least (thank GAWD) it happened on the way home and not going out there! Of course, my sheet music for Drasnin and costume were in my carry-on, but it woulda gotten kinda old wearing my travel clothes and/or Leopard Woman for the whole weekend. I turned in a description of the exterior of the bag, but I was SO little disappointed that Continental Airlines didn't ask for a list of items it contained. They would have loved:

• a dozen-odd Hawaiian dresses
• a leopard outfit
• a full bottle of Montecristo rum (thanks, Martin!)
• 2 (gorgeous) tiki mugs
• a shrunken head

I really wanted to see her expression on that last one.

My bag did arrive tonight, and it was ransacked....but nothing was missing.

Then I saw the "The TSA searched your bag" notice and realized that my dream came true; better than my telling of a shrunken head in my bag, somebody got to discover it! :lol: :lol:

I can't begin to thank everyone sufficiently, but:

• thank you Otto & Doe - and wonderful Bob Drasnin - for having me there. What a privilege to get to sing those songs.
• Martin, thank you for another amazing seminar (and all of Team Zombie!). I love slinging dri-, er, tiny plastic cups for you.
• Mateo, great volunteer coordinating!
• My brethren in the FOM - how proud I am to be part of you :)
• Room crawl givers: I salute your creativity and I appreciate your booze, snacks, and decor. A lot!
• Mark R, thank you for the MANY hours you put in to make an incredibly hard show come off.
• Brit, Jeanne, Kat - thanks for being the best girlfriends evah.

I can't even begin to list all the people who made my time there wonderful, but I especially enjoyed getting to see so many people whom I've known for 7 or 8 years now. Jeff, Otto, Doe, PolyPop, Sabu, Judd, Tiki Bob, King K, Al, Ben, Sven, Shelley, (and probably a dozen others I'm forgetting). Wow! I am blessed with the best friends in the world. AND I enjoyed meeting (almost) all the people I met this time...except the goobs who ruined our illicit Saturday night hottubbing with their cannonballs. :roll:
Get a clue, guys.

Next: Northeast Tiki Tour, Sept. 19-21!
Maybe my liver will have rested by then........
F

"Zazz captivates felt."

[ Edited by: Formikahini 2008-08-18 21:36 ]

here's a nice photo of you and grog. i think it was saturday night in 1849.

On 2008-08-18 21:35, Formikahini wrote:
AND I enjoyed meeting (almost) all the people I met this time...except the goobs who ruined our illicit Saturday night hottubbing with their cannonballs. :roll:
Get a clue, guys.

Hear, hear! Man, what fun is sneaking around if you're going to announce your presence with the aquatic version of an air horn? Those people are totally un-invited from my next caper.

Glad to hear your bag made it... my bag gave me a scare, too, but it turned out it'd just hopped an earlier flight back. It was much more eager to get home than I was.

Great time for the short time I was there.
Martin, your seminar rocked!
Grog, you know I love ya, but I'm gonna have to Photochop you from this photo. D) (nice pic pdrake)

On 2008-08-18 21:42, pdrake wrote:
here's a nice photo of you and grog. i think it was saturday night in 1849.

Great shot from the FOM room - 1649 - on Saturday night! :wink:

On 2008-08-18 22:25, croe67 wrote:
Great shot from the FOM room - 1649 - on Saturday night! :wink:

I think this one is too ~

this oasis was a blast compared to last years, then i didnt know anyone and i quietly carved my log in the parking lot, but this year it was rad hanging out with everyone and crawlin. A ton of thanks many times over to billy and grace for letting me stash my tikis and art in their room, and everything else. it was nice meeting abunch of new people, tiki lee thanks for the help trying to sell my stuff. mieko thanks for the musubi! thanks to everyone that bought a tiki or some art, thanks to monsters from mars, zombie surf camp, the creepy creeps, and the ghastlyones for playing (some of my favprite surf/garage bands) thanks cammo for the oki doki mug, buzzy thanks for the chippin males pic, im still laughing at how you signed it. im uploading pics right now, ill post those and more thank yous when i think of em!

Between Hukilau, the Kona/ Hidden Village gig and this past weekend, I can honestly say that this has been one amazing Summer.

Why I've been sitting on the sidelines and not checking out Oasis all these years is beyond me, but I regret it now, after this weekend. Now, NO MORE missing Oasis for me!

Met lots of great peeps from TC....too many to mention, but big Mahalos to Jon Paul and Marie for introducing to everyone...man those 2 know EVERYBODY.

Music was great...especially touching was Robert Drasnin thanking everyone for making his later years exciting....He's one of the originals, and it was amazing to have an Exotica legend still around and willing to perform for us.
Waitiki and the other muzos did a great job bringing the Voodoo albums to life, even tho' the soundman missed alot of the cues. :(

Ghastly Ones - AWESOME !

King Kukulele was hilarious as usual.

Martini Kings...as always...awesome.

Bosko - symposium was great....Lots of info, and hearing the hostile tone in your voice when talking about today's lame-ass architecture really made your passion for the great design of the 50's and 60's even more apparent. Keep fighting the good fight Cuz !

Jeff Chenault - Really enjoyed the Exotica syposium...one question....Why NO mention of Esquivel ? I know he's more Space Age bachelor pad more than Exotica, but I think he warrants a mention.

I bought me some great stuff too....Gecko, Bosko, Buzzy, Hana Tiki...all good stuff.

Most memorable moment for me was getting into the elevator, seeing the doors close, and hearing the Mai Kai gents playing Blue Suede Shoes with a crowd of a dozen or so people singing along. If you would have told me 20 years ago that I would be in a lounge band, and Rock n' Roll would become elevator music I would've thought you were NUTS....oh the irony.

The room parties and all around drunken debauchery were a hoot to watch, and the Hanalei (I refuse to call it Crown Plaza) is a very nice place to spend a weekend of Tiki.

Great time, and I l can't wait to play next year's Oasis with the Orchestra.

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2008-08-18 22:41 ]

On 2008-08-18 22:30, Bora Boris wrote:

On 2008-08-18 22:25, croe67 wrote:
Great shot from the FOM room - 1649 - on Saturday night! :wink:

I think this one is too ~

:o GREAT shot :)

My first year ...and my first post!
Wow! Whatta party!

[ Edited by: Slingerland61 2008-08-18 23:37 ]

On 2008-08-18 22:35, tikithomas08 wrote:
this oasis was a blast compared to last years, then i didnt know anyone and i quietly carved my log in the parking lot, but this year it was rad hanging out with everyone and crawlin. A ton of thanks many times over to billy and grace for letting me stash my tikis and art in their room, and everything else. it was nice meeting abunch of new people, tiki lee thanks for the help trying to sell my stuff. mieko thanks for the musubi! thanks to everyone that bought a tiki or some art, thanks to monsters from mars, zombie surf camp, the creepy creeps, and the ghastlyones for playing (some of my favprite surf/garage bands) thanks cammo for the oki doki mug, buzzy thanks for the chippin males pic, im still laughing at how you signed it. im uploading pics right now, ill post those and more thank yous when i think of em!

Thomas, I can't even begin to tell you how proud I am of your work and attitude towards everything. It was an honor to have you with us at the booth and we look forward to more events with you. All the pics are up on the carving page:

400 and something Oasis pics are here http://www.myspace.com/sandiegotikicarvers and I
will post some here when I can see straight. I have a HUGE thank-you memo to type up.

what a bash!!!
I have had many great Tiki Oasis years.
but this one is by far the best one for me.
and I didn't over do it, and go to the bad place.
Like "some did"
there seemed to be many people that were on a mission to not just get drunk,
but to really become Zombies by drinking way too much Rum/booze, and they succeeded.

All the Music was killer, Cudos to Otto for pushing the Limits.
I know there was a few older tiki peeps that thought it was a big too much.
but I think over all the music was a good match for the theme.

thanks to the Nor. Cal. guys for letting me crash in the room,
and djing your pre and after party,Sat.
and The Rum tasting event was really cool idea..

Thanks to Ran for the Many "Undead" drinks, truely awesome man.
and thanks to JonPaul and Marie for letting him use your room to serve in.

Thanks to all that came up and gave Kristena(tiki tena) and I the kind words on our DJ set on Sun. by the pool.
Its always nice to get Props for doing what you love.

I seriously Can't wait for Next years Tiki Oasis. I think I might just blow a gasket, and die. :wink:

Cheers to Otto and all that put this great event together, you made my weekend.

Jeff(bigtikidude)

i knew i forgot a thank you. thanks jeff and tiki tena for dj'ing! from where i was i couldent hear too well from my booth, but for the most part i could hear your sets and they were killer. i forget who i was talking to at my booth but i stopped mid conversation, and said "hey this is the tiki tones! good song!"

Thomas,
great seeing you again man,
your a cool dude.

I hope to see ya at many more tiki events and surf shows.

shoot me a e-mail at [email protected] and I will keep ya filled in on whats doin surf show wise.

cheers
Jeff(bigtikidude)

dito, radd thanks dood!

and my oasis pictures are up on my myspace, you can check em out here

http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=76937253&albumId=2230430

[ Edited by: tikithomas08 2008-08-19 00:45 ]

Oh

My

GOD!

I just returned home from the Oasis tonite and it's 12:49 am and I can't sleep cause I've been up til like 3:00 am the past 4 nites! and I can't stop looking at all my pictures!

This was my first Oasis and I had THE best time.....my two girlfriends and I (who were also Oasis virgins) were a tad apprehensive cause we don't know a ton of tiki people (though we frequent FI fairly often) but everyone was super great and hospitable and we made several new friends. thank you to all the fabulous room hosts - that was definitely the highlight of the weekend for me (though I was never able to obtain a room card), especially stumbling into the afterparty in....16? with the Swank Bastards and Hula girl! the spontaneous elevator jam sessions.... the illicit pool hijinx on Friday.....

I took an assload of pics and will post the link to my Flickr page either tomorrow or Wednesday......

Back to reality.....(and no more rum for a LONG while....) :(

cheers everyone!

Dina :)

On 2008-08-18 17:07, Billy the Crud wrote:
Mr Lucky was on the case and it reads like a Pulp novel that will go down in the books-Dames, bootleg rum, organized crime, and the skin trade. No-one brings anything small into a bar around here......

HA! that's exactly what I told Mr. Lucky......"Mr Lucky and the Case of the Missing Tikis" (or CURSE of the Missing Tikis cause that's what I hope is bestowed on those bastards!)

What a weekend. This was my first trip to Oasis and I can not even come close to expressing what a good time I had. I took 3 pictures the whole weekend so I'm relying on everyone else to remind me of the memories that are a bit blurry. First thanks to Pdrake for sharing a room with me - what a view, right next to the stage. Mieko and the all of the guys at the carving hut - Saturday morning was a struggle but you all made it great. Shoutouts to: Babalu, Bob Ho, BTC, TikiThomas, Kirby, Grog, Traveling Jones, Bullet, 4WD, Bowana and everyone that made time to say hello. All of my tiki event experience comes from Hukilau, which is great, but Oasis picked it up a bit.

I made it home just in time to get hit by Tropical Storm Fay! So I'm off to the couch to nurse my Jet lag. Aloha

On 2008-08-18 22:39, tikiyaki wrote:

Jeff Chenault - Really enjoyed the Exotica syposium...one question....Why NO mention of Esquivel ? I know he's more Space Age bachelor pad more than Exotica, but I think he warrants a mention.

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2008-08-18 22:41 ]

You said it for me. Esquivel is definitely more Space Age bachelor pad music than Exotica. He did have a few tracks that border on Exotica though. I had to condense my seminar to one hour so I mentioned the Exotica biggies and other oddball items.

What I am bummed about is that I didn't mention the Tikiyaki orchestra. I will remedy this next time I promise. You guys are more Exotica than Esquivel IMHO. :)

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

On 2008-08-19 07:59, Jeff Central wrote:

On 2008-08-18 22:39, tikiyaki wrote:

Jeff Chenault - Really enjoyed the Exotica syposium...one question....Why NO mention of Esquivel ? I know he's more Space Age bachelor pad more than Exotica, but I think he warrants a mention.

[ Edited by: tikiyaki 2008-08-18 22:41 ]

You said it for me. Esquivel is definitely more Space Age bachelor pad music than Exotica. He did have a few tracks that border on Exotica though. I had to condense my seminar to one hour so I mentioned the Exotica biggies and other oddball items.

What I am bummed about is that I didn't mention the Tikiyaki orchestra. I will remedy this next time I promise. You guys are more Exotica than Esquivel IMHO. :)

Cheers and Mahalo,
Jeff

I suppose you could do an entire Sympoium on Esquivel himself, but only us geeks would be there. :)

Funny, but as I found out from your seminar, it seems that little or no classic Exotica uses Hawaiian Lap steel in it's instrumentation....so I feel good about doing something a little different to the genre.

Look forward to seeing the next one.

What the hell just happened to me? I think it's Tuesday morning after the event and my God..the memories of the weekend are just now bubbling to the surface of my rum soaked brain (brains!!)No need to explain, if you attended you understand - but if not - I did manage to not lose my cheapy camera so you may catch a glimpse of some of the festivities. In short I must say Thank You to everyone involved, and I will be back next year surf board in tow. Enjoy the pics. Aloha, TikiG

http://picasaweb.google.com/reynolds.ray/TO8

What a great weekend. Even though I'm home now I can't stop flashing back to the last few days.
Thanks to all who hosted and thanks to all that visited our Norcal Ohana room 1849. We had a blast and will start planning for next year soon.

Thank you to the honest person that got the camera I lost, in my drunken stupor, back to me. I don't remember too many of the room crawl parties, but I'm told I attended.

We did find a brown camera case in our room which no one claimed. We tried to find the owner but no one recognized it. Monday morning I turned it in to the hotel lost and found.

Want more Tiki Oasis photos?

These are all of our photos from the weekend including the Tiki Ti trip and visit to Al's home tiki bar.

We had a great time this year (although someone's memories of Saturday night are a bit hazy and/or missing). It was great seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Elevator music now has a new meaning to me. And next year, I'm following Mai Tai around because he always seemed to be in the best places at the best time.

On 2008-08-19 09:38, Tai Won On wrote:
What a great weekend. Even though I'm home now I can't stop flashing back to the last few days.
Thanks to all who hosted and thanks to all that visited our Norcal Ohana room 1849. We had a blast and will start planning for next year soon.

Thank you to the honest person that got the camera I lost, in my drunken stupor, back to me. I don't remember too many of the room crawl parties, but I'm told I attended.

We did find a brown camera case in our room which no one claimed. We tried to find the owner but no one recognized it. Monday morning I turned it in to the hotel lost and found.

That was DJLee's.

I'll email him.

Speaking of lost items, I have a long shot...anyone find a pair of black Spy (with the + logo on the temples) glasses? They're pretty well beat up, but they are prescription, so really no good to anyone else.

I guess if no one finds them it gives me an excuse to get a new pair! Thanks

Tia Won On - I think you camera was found by Jeana-Zach Zachery's wife. It was between our booths behind the stage.

Wife-hine Christine and I had a blast! This was our first Oasis since the last Palm Springs one in '05--somehow conflicts/schedules didn't work out for the first two at the Hanalei--so needless to say the increased growth/scale of the whole thing (plus having rooms at the hotel, which we didn't in '05) blew our minds (in a very good way)...we were shocked, shocked, to discover that gambling was going on in Casablanca, and we'd been missing out!

It was great seeing some old friends and acquaintances, making some new ones, and living the whole experience. Lee, thanks for your part in bringing Robert Drasnin the attention he has long deserved. All the music was great all weekend (both groups and dj's), but the Drasnin orchestra performance was a particularly amazing event, worth of the Hollywood Bowl--but even more worthy of Tiki Oasis! And thanks to all the artisans, vendors, room hosts and decorators, and -- well, everyone!

It seems to be reaching out to the local community as well, as far as curious non-Tiki subculture people checking things out serendipitously. On Saturday night, my pal Edwin and I both opted to accessorize with fezzes, haberdashery-wise, and a lady introduced herself at one point who said "I don't know much about this tiki stuff, so why does everyone have fezzes?" Truthfully not knowing a logical answer ourselves (and I hope there isn't one), we responded the only way we could: "Why not?"

Brent

That was a hell of a weekend!

Thanks again to all who attended the zombie seminar- I hope you enjoyed yourselves.

In addition to Team Zombie, we had some late members join in, so thanks to Kat and Jeanne for lending a hand, as well as Atomic & and Vintage Girl on the door.

Speaking of Atomic Cocktail- many thanks to him for the outstanding breakaway suit that he made for me! Everyone should have one. I'm already thinking about other chances to use it.

Thanks to Hanford Lemoore for the tapa background pattern that I used when designing my placemats- I love the Bobtapa!

Thanks to Patrick, Cammo, Mateo, and certainly Otto for all the help in coordinating the event.

And finally, let me say a very heartfelt thanks (and I know that I'm speaking here for Mike and Mano as well) to everyone I saw sporting Forbidden Island t-shirts and bowling shirts all over the place. It really means a lot to all of us that this community has shown us such love and support for the last two+ years. Thank you all very much!!!!!!

MAHALO!