New Guinea buying trip for Hale Tiki

Brad, Dave and I took a trip up north yesterday to buy more decor for Hale Tiki. The trip was a blurr. We stopped at a few antique malls and I found a Luau postcard. We stopped at a few liquor store and found Lemon Hart 151 Demerara and Marichino Liqueur. That was great. But the stuff that was acquired for Hale Tiki was incredible.

This is a view looking into the storage unit. You can see an Oratory Table up front, some shields.

Here's a second image to give you a better idea. The tall pieces on the left are cross memebers for the house.

Mo' stuff. Masks, a drum, finials, stools.

On the left is a crocdile head on a drum. Masks, etc.

Here is the mysterious goof modeling the woven ceremonial piece.

Several woven decorative items and a smaller Oratory table

Nice carving.

Early on, these were some items set aside for Hale Tiki.

Another set of items in the sellers home.

More makings of a men's house on the porch.

I did not get enough pictures. None of us. It was a pretty exhausting trip. We packed the van from floor to ceiling, literally, and filled every space with stuff. We all had to climb over things and deal with stuff in our way home, but we managed to get it all in the van. A huge amount of stuff. It's going to really set Hale TIki into orbit!

And the seller once again confirmed they would come to Hukilau.

The Swank Pad Broadcast - If it's Swank...

[ Edited by: Swanky on 2004-03-30 13:29 ]

Wow, that's amazing. How did the seller accumulate all that stuff?

Holy......freakin'.....moley.....

I am STUNNED. It's f***ing El Dorado! It's Tut's Tomb! It's Hitler's bunker! I have never SEEN so much enviable stuff, uh, stuffed in so small a space!! ('cept maybe in photos of Sven's shrine)

This place is gonna ROCK!!

This seller has been collecting since about 1970. 2 trips a year. This batch just arrived in a container last week. Last time I was there he had 3 times this much...

HOMANA HOMANA HOMANA!!!!!!!!!
OH MY GODS!!!
I am so amazed!!! That is some of the coolest stuff I've ever seen!!!
Good God
Thats an amazing stash that that guy has...

Wow......better than Capone's vault!

Here is the thread of my first visit to this seller: HERE

Well here's the question I'm sure everyone has been meaning to ask...how could one go about obtaining one of those treasures, if one was not able to attend Hukilau?

JohnTiki

Aloha from the enchanted Pi Yi Grotto in exotic Bel Air Maryland!

[ Edited by: johntiki on 2004-03-30 21:50 ]

Once these guys are confirmed as vendors, their info will be on the Hukilau site for you all to latch onto. Right now, it's our little secret...

Swanky --

Whatcha gonna do for me to keep from blabbing? :)

Wow, what a stash! Gonna git me one when at the Hukilau.
Allow me to raise a cautioning voice here. Though Melanesian carvings definetely played an important part in Tiki style, to keep it TIKI, one should watch out to hold the balance of decor towards POLYNESIAN items. In this way I actually found the book "Night of the Tiki" a little miss-informative, not meeting my "If it says Tiki on it, it should have Tiki in it" standard.

It all still is "Oceania." And PNG is one of the few places you can get artifacts made for use, not for tourists. Try to find a ritual object in Tahiti, Samoa, Marquesas, etc. Everything in this collection was used, and part of a Haus Tamburan or other ceremony. These are the real deal. That makes everything else a pale cousin. Which would be better, an actual Oratory Table from a Men's House in Iatmul, used in that house by the natives, or, a palm wood tiki carved by a guy in Florida with a chainsaw to look similar to something last made in a Polynesian isle 300 years ago?

Makes me think of that song by David Allen Coe "If That Ain't Country." Need to write the new version: "If That Ain't Tiki"

"I've seen the Grand Ole Opry, and I've met Johhny Cash,
If that ain't country, I'll kiss your ass"

becomes

"I wore a phalocrypt in Iatmul and I met Donald Ho,
If that ain't tiki..."

The Swank Pad Broadcast - If it's Swank...

[ Edited by: Swanky on 2004-03-31 07:18 ]

I definitely consider PNG artifacts TIKI...

Many of our fine old and new Polynesian/Tiki establishments have many PNG elements as part of their decor. Oceanic Arts keeps well stocked with PNG influenced work. Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room shows plenty of PNG influence. The the cantilever A frame style that defines Polynesian Pop architecture is based on PNG design.
And the Book of Tiki itself has a pretty good amount of PNG influence in it!

And I do agree with Swanky that I prefer authentic Pacific Island pieces decorating my lounge, though I do love all of our contemporary carvers works.

A little correction for my friend Bigbro...Paupua New Guinea artifacts are absolutely, positively, 100% correct for a tiki temple, period. Fully a third of the artifacts in the Mai Kai and our nearby Trader Vic's are from Paupua New Guinea. Not only is it one of the largest, darkest, and most mysterious islands in the Oceana sphere, (furthering their adventurous tiki mana) but it's art forms are some of the most interesting and varied in the entire world. Doubtless Donn Beach, Vic Bergeron, Steve Crane, and Bob Thornton recognized this as they each had innumerable amounts of PNG artifacts on their walls. Absolutely, positively, 100% correctomundo.

nice artifacts! any update pics on da "Hale"?

It's an interesting argument, and in a way both sides are right. PNG items ARE an integral part of a good Tiki bar, just like glass floats, netting and the like. However, if you had a bar stocked purely with PNG items, it would be an incredible-looking bar, but not really a Tiki bar. If you stocked your bar with purely Polynesian decor, it would most definitely be considered a Tiki bar.

Personally, my ideal Tiki bar would have stuff from all over Oceana, both new and old - Maori, PNG, most certainly Polynesian, as well as mugs and decor from Tiki bars around the world. Add the usual floats, nautical crap, and other weird junk that fits and you've got a bar of interest and depth.

Trader Woody

Well, that's all I said, not in the least belittling this amazing find, and not denying Melanesian carvings are an integral part of Tiki. I was just talking about balance.

I am happy to hear that the artifacts are authentic, 99% of New Guinea carvings ar airport art now, complete with an expertly dirtyied "aged" look.

What's interesting about this topic is that it is really only caried on by a few extreme junkies like us. 99% of the people who come into Hale Tiki will simply not know or care. What they will see is an exotic place, far removed from anything else they have in Augusta.

The bottom line is really a certain look and feel that is somewhat intangible or quantifyable.

Myself, I like my bar to have a bit or dark savage mystery. The "I survived a meeting with the savages and brought back this ____" So it also gets to be somewhat eclectic too. The nautical stuff is apart of it as it requires a good deal of time onboard a vessel to get to these remote places.

What's interesting about this topic is that it is really only caried on by a few extreme junkies like us. 99% of the people who come into Hale Tiki will simply not know or care.

I don't consider myself an expert on all things tiki (yet), so I find it extremely interesting when those of you who are have these debates. It's made greater still that you are all considerate and gracious to each other. I can learn much from a spirited debate, but very little from a hostile argument.

On 2004-04-01 10:52, Swanky wrote: The nautical stuff is apart of it as it requires a good deal of time onboard a vessel to get to these remote places.
Cr*p. Does that mean that to be sufficiently tiki, I also have to get a lot of tattoos of naked girls, plus swear a lot and get scurvy?

I thought all I had to do was collect mugs and drink a lot of rum. D*mn.

Cr*p. Does that mean that to be sufficiently tiki, I also have to get a lot of tattoos of naked girls, plus swear a lot and get scurvy?

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

(Man- Hale' Tiki is going to go off!!! You guy's are out of your minds!!)

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

i agree with bk,png defintely reeks tiki. i am a florida native. the mai kai definitely has an ass load of png all over the restaurant as well the enchanted tiki room in orlando, i was just there last wknd.