Some people just don't get it!

I have a so- called friend who just opened an exotic floral shop in one of the California beach cities. He has some retail space in the front of the shop and wanted to fill it with fun Hawaiiana things. He asked me to sell some of my collection. So I bring in a lot of tiki mugs and cocktail glasses with fun sayings like SUCK EM UP. For three hours he watches me unpack and says that he loves everything I have. I go back to the shop a few days later and I find my stuff thrown back in the boxes. Now he's telling me that all my goods are TACKY and not reflective of the real Hawaiiana feeling that the shop wants to project. He tells me that this TACKY stuff has nothing to do with exotic Hawaii and Polynesia. This made me really upset! He went on to lecture me that his shop now has certain STANDARDS of what true Hawaiiana should be. I guess that I should have known. He loves all that old Victorian koa wood stuff which I find quite nauseating. I have been collecting TIKI and HAWAIIANA for over ten years and I do have some so-called SERIOUS stuff as well. I am knowlegeable about antique koa, cruise line menus, tapa and many more historical things. I am especially aware of the positive southern Californian post world war II experience of Hawaii and the South Pacific. These people brought their fond memories back to California and created their own wonderful Bali Hai. My so-called friend just doesn't get that you have to have a mix of the FUN, TACKY and SO-CALLED SERIOUS STUFF to have a great TIKI experience!!!!!!!! What bothers me the most was his ARROGANCE! Maybe I'm too sensitive but when he bashed my TIKI-NESS he crossed the line!!!!!!!

" Ah, good taste! what a dreadful thing! taste is the enemy of creativeness" Pablo picasso/book of tiki

You must be referring to the Golden Hibiscus as mentioned here.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=17596&forum=12&1

Sounds like you and your friend have different visions of what makes the ideal tiki environment, but that's how it works -- everyone has a different vision. When it comes to your friend's space, hey, he gets to be the king of his domain & call the shots for what fits & what doesn't. Personally, for instance, I like the Don Ho "Suck 'Em Up" glasses, I think they're fun, but they don't fit well with the tiki look I shoot for at home. At the heart of Polynesian Pop is an idealization of paradise -- which is by its very nature is individual.

You'll find lots of kindred spirits here, and lots of folks to be at odds with, too. Welcome to TC.

Tiki is more Walt Disney than Hawaii i think.

"Hey, one man's trash is another man's treasure"

-a dumpster diver I ran into behind Ralphs last week

[ Edited by: ScottMcGerik 2007-03-08 06:51 ]

On 2005-12-11 13:21, ScottMcGerik wrote:
we had a limbo contest ... [to] ... a selection of exotica, surf, and hapa haole. I wonder what this person expected to limbo to?

Well, I'm no stickler for this stuff, but wouldn't the answer be some type of Caribbean music? I agree with your point that speaking up to a host in that manner was uncool. It would be much classier in my opinion to hold one's tongue and enjoy the festivities. You seem to be saying that he was dismissive of the music itself. That would irk me too. But doing the limbo to Exotica and Hawaiian? I have to say in all honesty, I'm not quite with you on that either. It seems a little discordant, like doing a hula dance to calypso, though as a guest I wouldn't speak up about it in the way he did.

I am operating on the assumption that the limbo is strongly associated with the Caribbean, not Polynesia and, by extension, Polynesian pop. If I'm wrong about this, someone please correct me.

[ Edited by: ScottMcGerik 2007-03-08 06:50 ]

Sounds like your friend needs to learn better business etiquette. He should have looked at your collection before you did all the work of setting it up for display. Also sounds like he is kind of confused, since he was all excited about your collection and then just changed his mind and took it all down. He also should have notified you that he was removing the merchandise, instead of you having to stumble onto it yourself. Try not to take it too seriously; it is obvious that you are the one with the true Tiki spirit.

There is a definite type of "classy Hawaiiana" that includes koa furniture, potted plants, and large Hawaiian women wearing Victorian mother hubbards fanning themselves that a tiki wouldn't be caught dead in. I also don't care for it, although I suppose it is a "truer" representation of "Hawaiiana."
For me, "Tiki" is the politically incorrect dreams of the many, of distant islands and peninsulas in geographically unclear areas...it isn't really "Hawaiiana" although some of "Tiki-ana" would fall within it's boundaries. Tiki is much broader than that...and a lot more fun and beautiful (Isn't a dream always more beautiful than the reality?)
AS for doing the limbo at at tiki party..sounds good to me. Truth of the matter is that most Native Hawaiians listen to Bob Marley anyway..tune into any popular so-called "Jawaiian" radio station in Honolulu...a little Hawaiian, ALOT of reggae cover tune garbage.
Let your friend keep his lovely, classy Halekulani-esqe shop with Pegge Hopper ladies...I'll take cannibal holiday anyday.

Well said, CrazyTiki. There is a possibility that the shopowner was gunho originally but got some so-so to negative commentary from someone (an investor, maybe?) resulting in a complete change of hard.

A very business way of changing one's mind but very un-aloha spirit. I see it all the time in the entertainment industry. Effort and bending over backwards to make an idea come true and its cut faster than you can say "What?" :x
I agree that the fellow could have foregone the lecture altogether. Entirely unnecessary. Perhaps even demonstrating insecurity?

Retrogroover, sorry to hear that you were the victim. Hope your collection was not damaged in any way.

[ Edited by: I dream of tiki 2005-12-11 18:27 ]

I know that I kept using the term Hawaiiana and in many people's eyes that's incorrect. When it comes to this whole area of interest that we have here, I could have easily said Tiki, Polynesian Pop, Mezo/ South Pacific Melange, Bali Hai Dreams, Psychobilly Tiki and so forth and so on. Call it whatever you like. I just wanted to inject a bit of levity and humor amidst the smelly koa calabashes, boring etched glass and brown tapa. After awhile the BISHOP MUSEUM scene gets to be a bit cloying!!!!!!
My "heart" resides in a world of "Polynesian Fantasy" where all worlds collide in a smile of amazement!!!!!!
I'm not going to stew over it any longer because for me it's already later than I think.......
Let's limbo, hula, polka and whatever gives you joy.
That's an affirmative, over and out!

On 2005-12-12 09:19, retrogroover wrote:
Let's limbo, hula, polka and whatever gives you joy.

Funny you should mention polka. Polka is so awesome. It's one of those things that is incalculably distant, culturally, from tiki, yet overflows with its own joy and exoticism. I'm tempted to say that polka rocks, but the truth is even better: polka polkas!

This past July, I visited a great polka bar in Milwaukee, called 'Art Altenburg's Bar - the Only Concertina Bar in the U.S.A. http://www.artsconcertinabar.com/

Amongst all the concertinas stacked and displayed behind the bar area, there was one element of Polynesia displayed - a hula doll, a gift from one of the patrons. I was very pleased to see this little bit of the South Seas in the middle of this northern Bohemia culture, and gave me hope that tiki and polka could mix without bad things happening.

Vern

Like Humuhumu said, everyone has a different vision. Personaly I favor blurred.

There was a Polka & Tiki Crawl in Portland in 2003. I actually skipped the Polka parts, as it was my first time hitting tiki spots in Portland and I wanted to have as much time as I could get at the Alibi, but those who hit both the tiki & the polka legs seemed to have a grand time. It was a fine surreal mixture of aloha wear & polka wear, bridged by the great uniter, the bowling shirt.

Major weekly polka fix currently avail. on satellite TV; see:
http://www.jimmysturr.com

(Sorry, couldn't resist even though this isn't really a polka thread! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming...)