Official Plastic Paradise Documentary Thread

well you can't buy a DVD of Plastic Paradise but you will be able to buy the DVD of the French documentary that is currently shooting with Sven in LA and will premiere at his art show in Paris this summer!

Details will be posted on TC as soon as they are available.

But first I need to ask if anyone has any family home movies or found footage that is copyright free that they would like to share with the French film crew.

If you do please email me here:

[email protected]

thanks, Otto

Tonight in So Cal.
Ch 28 PBS KCET
9 pm

[ Edited by: bigtikidude 2014-03-05 07:53 ]

Beautiful yet coincidingly embarrassingly wrong. Great features on some great friends. Yeah, not enough of the protagonists presented in this. Small research. Being a fan of the Big Lebowski at least like that they put that in there. What does that have to do with Tiki? I don't know. But I love the big Lebowski. Who the heck are a lot of those people in the video? It was okay. Better than most.

I mean I'm happy to have my mugs shown in this video. But where the heck was Bosko??

On 2014-03-04 22:19, MakeDaMug wrote:
Beautiful yet coincidingly embarrassingly wrong.

What was so wrong? I only got through half of it last night because I had to put the kid and myself to sleep. I'll finish tonight.

On 2014-03-04 22:19, MakeDaMug wrote:
Beautiful yet coincidingly embarrassingly wrong. Great features on some great friends. Yeah, not enough of the protagonists presented in this. Small research. Being a fan of the Big Lebowski at least like that they put that in there. What does that have to do with Tiki? I don't know. But I love the big Lebowski. Who the heck are a lot of those people in the video? It was okay. Better than most.

Did not see the Big Lebowski thing?

"Who the heck are a lot of those people in the video?"
Ha! Tikifarm mug buyers, different coast.
Bosko would be good.

Big Lebowski reference - using Dylan's "The man in me" during the bowling sequence.

Oh ok,
I think there may have been some people from that other tiki group.

Saw it this morning, after my dvr faithfully recorded it for me...looks like KCET will be showing it again this month, March 10, 12 and 14. I never knew that King Kukulele used to play down at the senior center down by my work, I mostly remember him playing at The Hub coffee shop in Fullerton back in the 90s...

Any critique of this, yet?

Have not had a chance to watch yet, but my big mouth
will make an appearance afterwards.....

It was alright - as I've thought and others have also said, it sorta seemed like a lot of focus was on the Mai Kai. I believe it was filmed more on the east coast than anywhere, so that might explain it. It would have been nice to see more locations in SoCal (some bias there I'll admit) given that they mention how SoCal has all the good joints, but it also depends on when this was filmed as well.

I liked it overall because its more exposure to tiki and upholds the quality of it, not the cheapness it was reduced to by the 90's.

It was okay.... A little history, and a lot of about the Revival...spent a little too much time on burlesque dancers...

I guess my main beef was it portrayed the comeback or revival of tiki was based solely on tiki news, tiki central, and the book. No mention of the rockabilly scene at all.

In SoCal in the early 90's rockabilly and Swing had a huge comeback, and following on its heels was the midcentury and "Tiki".

I remember in early 90's being able to get any vintage 50's stuff and tiki stuff I wanted from thrift stores, after the rockabilly revival the stuff was gone. Rockabilly people bought old houses, decorated them vintage, and made tiki bars. They searched for old 50's hotels, diners and bowling alleys...and many of found were tiki ones....

Look at many of the first events and hot rod cars shows were attached. Corpro Nason used tons of guys like Pizz and Von Franco for their early tiki prints. In 1999 Taboo: the art of Tiki book used tons of kustom kulture and greasers artists.
I remember seeing shag and his art at a Mooneyes event before he was insanely popular. Same thing years later with Tiki Diablo.
I used to carry around my early tiki revival art to the car shows for the artists to sign because I knew they'd be there.

If you wanted new tiki stuff you had to go to 8 Ball or the other crazy little stores in burbank that otherwise carried 50's stuff for the greaser clientele.

By no means am I saying that Tiki news, tiki central, and a few others mentioned in the Movie weren't a big part of the revival, its obvious they were, and like it said in the movie, they brought people together that already had an interest.... but the huge growth in interest about Tiki without a doubt was fueled by the greasers. Growth enough to justify books, New mugs, tiki companies, and strictly tiki events that happen on a regular basis.

I personally would have cut the segment about tattoos and used the time for something else. Tattoos were certainly not part of mid-century tiki, and I really don’t consider them MORE a part of the tiki revival than they are of contemporary life in general.

Ditto for the burlesque dancer interview.

I don’t want to sound negative though. I enjoyed the show and it was certainly well made. I’m happy there are talented people desirous of making programs about tiki. Thank you and great job!

Before the Rockabilly scene you had the Punks in the 70s
which is where I started to appreciate and stop taking for granted Mid Century,Tiki
and vintage clothing, it was disappearing at an alarming rate and wasn't cool anymore
which appealed to the Punks.

Many of the founding members of the Tiki Revival came out of the early Punk scene
when the Rockabilly revival was still years away.

okay, and they discuss that....but punk scene didn't cause the "growth explosion" of tiki in the 90's..... rockabilly did.

On 2014-03-07 16:39, ErichTroudt wrote:
okay, and they discuss that....but punk scene didn't cause the "growth explosion" of tiki in the 90's..... rockabilly did.

That is an interesting note, I wonder if it was more regional though?
I didn't see the Rockabilly kids here in SoCal get into Tiki until the last 5 or 6 years

More so the Tiki crowd here, brought in the Car Culture influence before that, from my point of view anyway
what about the other areas of the States & the World, it sure seems that Rockabilly and Hotrod culture
in Australia is behind their Tiki Revival.

Been a Rockabilly my whole life. I've been into Mid-Century stuff, since my teens, but didn't "discover" Tiki until about 8 years ago.

Some of the Surf music bands in the 90s were incorporating
Tiki images/ themes in their music, song titles, album art, and stage wear.

2 of these bands that I saw around the same time I went to Hawaii and as I was getting
Into Tiki were The Tiki Tones, and the Huntington Cads.
Both of whom had of course, Shag In the line up.
But there are many others.

Jeff btd

[ Edited by: bigtikidude 2014-03-07 20:11 ]

On 2014-03-07 16:07, ErichTroudt wrote:
It was okay.... A little history, and a lot of about the Revival...spent a little too much time on burlesque dancers...

I guess my main beef was it portrayed the comeback or revival of tiki was based solely on tiki news, tiki central, and the book. No mention of the rockabilly scene at all.

In SoCal in the early 90's rockabilly and Swing had a huge comeback, and following on its heels was the midcentury and "Tiki".

I remember in early 90's being able to get any vintage 50's stuff and tiki stuff I wanted from thrift stores, after the rockabilly revival the stuff was gone. Rockabilly people bought old houses, decorated them vintage, and made tiki bars. They searched for old 50's hotels, diners and bowling alleys...and many of found were tiki ones....

Look at many of the first events and hot rod cars shows were attached. Corpro Nason used tons of guys like Pizz and Von Franco for their early tiki prints. In 1999 Taboo: the art of Tiki book used tons of kustom kulture and greasers artists.
I remember seeing shag and his art at a Mooneyes event before he was insanely popular. Same thing years later with Tiki Diablo.
I used to carry around my early tiki revival art to the car shows for the artists to sign because I knew they'd be there.

If you wanted new tiki stuff you had to go to 8 Ball or the other crazy little stores in burbank that otherwise carried 50's stuff for the greaser clientele.

By no means am I saying that Tiki news, tiki central, and a few others mentioned in the Movie weren't a big part of the revival, its obvious they were, and like it said in the movie, they brought people together that already had an interest.... but the huge growth in interest about Tiki without a doubt was fueled by the greasers. Growth enough to justify books, New mugs, tiki companies, and strictly tiki events that happen on a regular basis.

It was just a whole mid-century revival. There was rockabilly, lounge, swing. A generation that grew up on the heels of the 50-60s started appreciating it and re-discovering it. Their parents record collections, the diners, the Tiki joints.

I always felt Tiki was a sub-sub-culture of vintage revival and it was the common connector of all the other sub-cultures. Billys were into Tiki, as were Lounge and Big Band people.

Rockabilly didn't create Tiki culture, they were all part of the same wave. I do think Rockabilly culture was the biggest group.

I can tell you that in the very early days of Tiki Oasis (II, III, IV), there were very few rockabilly guys/ girls at the events. They might have appreciated tiki, but the rockabilly crowd en mass didn't really hit the the tiki event thing until fairly recently.
I remember being at those early events going, 'Why aren't more rockabillies at these things??'
I was always the youngest guy in the early days too… It's all changed (for the better in my opinion).

Watched the show this weekend. It was interesting.

Edited thought: That isn't to say that rockabillies weren't into collecting tikis and mugs and stuff during the revival, they just weren't really showing up at the events or finding their way to Tiki Central yet.

Spike
http://www.facebook.com/thehulagirls
http://www.thehulagirlsmusic.com

[ Edited by: Luckydesigns 2014-03-10 11:52 ]

[ Edited by: Luckydesigns 2014-03-10 11:53 ]

I would say the first stirrings of "tiki revival" might even date back to the 80's...

go to 1:08 (1983)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ESy-Z8vqMrE

starting at :12 (1988)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T6e3GJCjow

and even earlier, 1977

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEmnHq5BF-k

[ Edited by: lucas vigor 2014-03-10 12:40 ]

On 2014-03-10 12:34, lucas vigor wrote:
I would say the first stirrings of "tiki revival" might even date back to the 80's...

Here's an excellent summary of 80's Tiki
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=27168&forum=1

Before the Tiki Central Yahoo group there was the Exotica group and that is where I heard about the TC group. They shared some members. Heck, I think you'd have to say even Rockabilly culture started with the music and maybe getting into your parents records. And one of my earliest cocktail memories was asking the Millionaire for rum suggestions for a Mai Tai.

I certainly went to a lot of 'billy events before I knew of Oasis. Before we did Hukilau, we were talking about doing a rockabilly event at one of the vintage hotels in Pigeon Forge or old theaters around the area, then Hukilau just sort of fell in our laps. In Atlanta the 'billy community really turned out, but they were a lot of just mid-century fans and that was the predominate community/culture.

I finally had a chance to watch it, then had a discussion with Bosko about it on Saturday
I voiced my opinion why Bosko wasn't interviewed for it & thought he should have been
and though Bamboo Ben was mentioned he should have also been interviewed.

It did perpetuate some of the old myths, The inaccuracies others had voiced like
Returning WW2 service men being responsible for the advent of the Tiki craze.

Vietnam Vets not wanting to have anything to do with Tiki Bars etc. (A Vietnam Vet was standing
next to us and said it was quite the opposite)

When mentioning that many of the folks responsible for the Tiki revival came out of the Punk Rock scene
Crazy Al was brought up as one of them, but this is not true according to Crazy Al himself.

So it was a bit off on the facts, but I would still say it was a good introduction to the Tiki revival
and showed us in a good light, except for that Sven guy :lol:

On 2014-03-04 22:19, MakeDaMug wrote:
Beautiful yet coincidingly embarrassingly wrong. Great features on some great friends. Yeah, not enough of the protagonists presented in this. Small research. Being a fan of the Big Lebowski at least like that they put that in there. What does that have to do with Tiki? I don't know. But I love the big Lebowski. Who the heck are a lot of those people in the video? It was okay. Better than most.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbpqPkaoiB0

One has to keep in mind that the filmmakers started out as making this docu for the local PBS affiliate, and it was first going to concentrate on the Florida/Hukilau/MaiKai scene. Then they branched out to California, a lil' bit. I tried to get them to put as much history and actual TIKI (the figure) in there as possible: For my taste it could have been more about the actual Tiki image (after all it's Tiki-this and Tiki-that all the time) - but then it WAS called "Plastic Paradise", not "Plastic Tiki Paradise" :) They did a fine job showing us folks as being sympathetically crazy, not dumb crazy, kudos for that!
And I think Tiki Bob Brooks was the star of the show: He looked sharp, in a great shot, and his accent really made it authentic - like from back in the day :)

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2014-03-11 15:05 ]

Sven I would really like to see you do one of those "Ralph Story" segments
(Like "Things that are not there anymore") PBS style Documentary on the history of Tiki
with a real nostalgistic approach to it.

They should have had someone demonstrate how to make a few genuine tiki drinks.. They mentioned the classic drinks from Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic's but showing how to mix one would generate interest and make some people want to make a few themselves or hit the local tiki bars for a taste.. Good opportunity lost.. However, a good show though and most likely the best regarding tiki on a somewhat mainstream channel..

I take it a DVD release of this is never going to happen?

My PBS affiliate would rightfully never waste their money on this (for all five tiki fans in Nebraska), so I'm probably never going to see it.

Don't see it coming to Boston, anytime soon.

Hello Tiki Central,

We've gotten lots and lots of inquiries about when Plastic Paradise will be available on DVD. The short answer is probably not until early 2015. The slightly longer explanation has mostly (though not entirely) to do with the music in the film...

To wit:

We made this film on a shoe string budget (and that's an insult to shoe strings) for a small PBS affiliate. One of the great things about PBS is it has blanket agreements with BMI and ASCAP, the two major music licensing organizations, which enabled us to use lots of music that we never ever would have been able to afford on our wee budget. The hitch is, those agreements do not extend to DVD publishing. We can't rightly author and sell DVDs without paying for those music licenses.

So... the solution will be to re-score the entire film with music that we can get gratis. We've had many offers, and in fact, a portion of the film already has music from various artists who allowed us to use their music and who have expressed interest in allowing us to use more in order to make the DVD happen. But its a load of work.

We're pretty confident we can make that happen, but finding time in the schedule (we have four other films in various stages of production as well as all our corporate work) won't be easy. We should have some time late fall. So, hopefully we're looking at a Christmas/New Years date.

On a side note: we've been told someone has taken it upon themselves to press DVDs and was selling them at the recent Tiki marketplace. That's pretty shitty. I know the Tiki community is generally pretty tight knit -- I assume the perpetrator is known and probably hangs out here -- and self-policing so if someone knows who that person is and can tell them cut the shit out, that'd be great. A lot of people worked very, very hard on the film for over a year and a half, most of whom received little or no compensation. So for this person to be making a personal gain off stealing our work is pretty damn lousy.

Moving on ... We're really grateful and humbled for the way the film has been received in the Tiki community. It continues to get scheduled at PBS affiliates across the country, so if it hasn't aired yet, call your local affiliate and ask for it. We're happy to provide them a copy if they missed the original feed. We're also happy to facilitate screenings at your local art house theater. If you have a connection at a local theater, by all means send them my way and we'll see what we can make happen. Odds are we can make an event out of it.

And, of course, if you are on the West Coast, we'll be in attendance for this weekend's screening at the Egyptian Theater.
Here is the Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1438461513075886/

All the best,

Brett

Brett, great note, thanks for keeping us informed and for all the hard work which you continue to do.

I'm flying my girlfriend out to LA this Thursday, and she's looking to attend the screening this weekend.

Cheers and all the best to you and your crew!

Thanks, Ace. Come say hello after the screening if you get the chance.

Brett

I saw it at the mai kai for huki and thought it was great. :)

I had seen it on pbs, but seeing it last night in Hollywood with a room full of tiki
Enthusiasts was really a lot of fun.
Thanks for making it and bringing it to us to see in a theater.

Jeff btd

I just stumbled across 'Plastic Paradise' tonight (August 5th) on NorCal's KQED-Life PBS station ~Comcast channel 189, I think.

http://www.kqed.org/tv/programs/index.jsp?pgmid=21712

It's to be rebroadcast "tomorrow morning" at 2am... hopefully that won't be "last call" to see it ever again on the Tube.

To all that haven't seen it (like me)..I just discovered it on the common machine website. You can watch the whole thing......

Thanks for the heads up. I just watched it and found it fun to watch.

I watched it last week really enjoyed it. Thanks!

Someone posted this link on Facebook to the doc online:

https://vimeo.com/70910599

It was the first time I'd actually gotten to see it. I was delightfully surprised to see a recipe for Don's Swizzle at 34:39 -- a recipe that even Jeff Barry has never printed. Unfortunately, one of the ingredients listed is Don's Mix #7. I'm not sure if this has been figured out yet.

On 2015-06-29 13:59, arriano wrote:
Unfortunately, one of the ingredients listed is Don's Mix #7. I'm not sure if this has been figured out yet.

There's more information on "#7" here in this thread:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=22455&forum=10&start=30&hilite=kona

Hurricane Hayward wrote about Don's Mix #7:
"It seems to be more commonly referred to as simply "Don's Mix" so the reference to "#7" threw me for a loop. The Bum's research points toward a 2:1 ratio of grapefruit to cinnamon and this seems to work great in many classic recipes. Trader Tiki's product is a fine re-creation as well."

On 2015-06-30 07:26, AceExplorer wrote:

On 2015-06-29 13:59, arriano wrote:
Unfortunately, one of the ingredients listed is Don's Mix #7. I'm not sure if this has been figured out yet.

There's more information on "#7" here in this thread:
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=22455&forum=10&start=30&hilite=kona

Hurricane Hayward wrote about Don's Mix #7:
"It seems to be more commonly referred to as simply "Don's Mix" so the reference to "#7" threw me for a loop. The Bum's research points toward a 2:1 ratio of grapefruit to cinnamon and this seems to work great in many classic recipes. Trader Tiki's product is a fine re-creation as well."

I completely disagree on #7 being the grapefruit/cinnamon mix that The Bum gave us for the Zombie. That may be used for #4 in the Zombie, but #7 is different. Otherwise there would not be a #4 and a #7!

Thanks for the additional info, Swanky. Based on HH's post, the thought occurred to me that #7 may have been another intentional obfuscation by Donn Beach to make things seem more complex than they really were.

If you or anyone else has any additional info, I'm very curious to hear it. I don't have the time to dig into it further right now, but I definitely will.

On Atomic Grog's article about the Mai Kai's 151 Swizzle he writes:

"I always knew there was a rich sweetness that helped offset the 151 rum, and my first two versions used sugar and/or cinnamon syrup. But the reddish orange hue confirmed that something else was at play here. I remembered references to a mysterious Licudine syrup called g#7 that included falernum and grenadine."

http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2011/08/03/mai-kai-cocktail-review-robust-flavors-and-potency-are-hallmark-of-151-swizzle/

At first I thought: "Aha!" But then I realized that the Don's Swizzle recipe already calls for falernum, and I wouldn't think you'd add a mix of that contained more falernum. You'd simply increase the falernum and add grenadine.

[ Edited by: arriano 2015-06-30 16:00 ]

On 2015-06-30 16:00, arriano wrote:
On Atomic Grog's article about the Mai Kai's 151 Swizzle he writes:

"I always knew there was a rich sweetness that helped offset the 151 rum, and my first two versions used sugar and/or cinnamon syrup. But the reddish orange hue confirmed that something else was at play here. I remembered references to a mysterious Licudine syrup called g#7 that included falernum and grenadine."

http://www.slammie.com/atomicgrog/blog/2011/08/03/mai-kai-cocktail-review-robust-flavors-and-potency-are-hallmark-of-151-swizzle/

At first I thought: "Aha!" But then I realized that the Don's Swizzle recipe already calls for falernum, and I wouldn't think you'd add a mix of that contained more falernum. You'd simply increase the falernum and add grenadine.

[ Edited by: arriano 2015-06-30 16:00 ]

Same thing for the #7 being grapefruit juice and cinnamon syrup in the Black Magic, which has grapefruit juice in it already. It kills the drink actually.

I do not know what #7 is, but I use a sweet/spicy mix that works. And Hayward says he uses Don's Spices I think, which is vanilla and allspice. I use allspice/honey/cinnamon. It works.

What any of these really were we may never know. We have an educated guess for the #4 in the Zombie by someone who actually tasted it. I have Mariano Licudine's notes on them, and it's kind of a mess.

Just finished watching this today. Great piece; I'm sharing it with friends to show them what it is I'm into.

BTW, it also shows the recipe for Donga Punch and Don Beach as "Don's Beach", which I have not seen out there...