Aloha Ed's great blogs!

I just met Ed and his wife Lisa last night...fellow Athenian...fellow Tikiphile! I think these blogs are good enough to post a second time away from "introductions". Aloha!

Very pleased to be here among you good people! I just found about this little island of tiki the other day when I met Basement Kahuna, who knocked on my door almost at random to ask if I could identify a lost dog. Life is funny...

So my earliest tiki experience dates from around age 7 or 8. We lived in Columbus, Ohio, during the late 70's, where my dad was executive chef at the Wine Cellar, Lee Henry's medieval themed steakhouse that was right up the street from the Kahiki. I only got inside the Kahiki a couple of times, but each trip across the bridge and through the waterfall hallway was like a trip into a kind of dark and mysterious Disneyland at that age. I loved the simulated lightning and rain!

The move to rural Georgia in 5th grade pretty much took tiki off my map until I bumped into a copy of The Book of Tiki a few years ago, the photos in the book bringing it all back. Since then a cross-reference of Tiki Road Trip has been a part
of vacation planning, and we've been able to visit some really cool neo and vintage tiki bars and restaurants.

Basement Kahuna thought some of you might get a kick out of my impressions on some of these, mostly written for the non-tikiphiles in my life:

Mai Kai (Fort Lauderdale, FL):
http://www.brainrock.com/gallery/maikai

Kowloon (Saugus, Mass):
http://www.brainrock.com/tripblog/archives/000039.html

Headhunters (Austin, TX):
http://www.brainrock.com/tripblog/archives/000132.html

Kon Tiki (Tucson, AZ):
http://www.brainrock.com/tripblog/archives/000157.html

Bahi Hut (Tampa, FL):
http://www.brainrock.com/tripblog/archives/000069.html

Authentic tiki in Tampa Jungle Gardens. Was not there when we went back in 2005!
http://www.brainrock.com/gallery/album19/DSCN4150

Minnies (Modesto, CA):
http://www.brainrock.com/tripblog/archives/000198.html

More Modesto Tiki (bottom half of page):
http://www.brainrock.com/gallery/album36

The Tiki Lounge (Pittsburgh, PA):
http://www.brainrock.com/tripblog/archives/000030.html

So I really dig being in the immersive tiki environment, the illusion of paradise, the powerful designs of the tikis and their world. I'm not as much into the collecting side, as far as minding if a cool mug is vintage or anything like that. Likewise, with my mixocology I like my drinks sweet and powerful, less concerned if whether or not a specific recipe is being followed perfectly.

Check out this phenomenal punch bowl my sister made for me for my birthday a few years ago!

http://www.brainrock.com/gallery/album42?page=3

Here's a couple of pics of the hot tubbing environ out back, just the most bare-bones sort of a tiki grotto but not without a small measure of charm. We have since found another place for the trash can and recycling bins, so that's an improvement.

http://www.brainrock.com/gallery/album42/DSCN0170
http://www.brainrock.com/gallery/album42/DSCN0172

Anyhow, looking forward to lurking about in Tiki Central to get the lay of the island, chatting with you good people.

Cheers!

Aloha Ed

Aloha Ed,

I feel sorry for you living near BK.

Now, you're going to have to learn a lot of things you may not even want to know just so you can understand what the heck he's talking about.

And watch out when he gets all juiced up on Kava and starts swinging the weapons around. He caught me in the Achilles tendon one drunken night and I haven't been the same.

And, he's got chickens.

There's a BK intervention page somewhere on the site, but I'm so loaded from the drink recipes he's given me I can't remember where it is.

Ask him for a Concubine. Sublime indeed.

BK is indeed a man who loves his art, AND who loves his mixology! Displaced in the boonies, he can use all the Tiki-fellowship he can get, even if it means collecting competition, a worry which he has transcended long ago, I believe.

And BK has great friends...incomparable company. I've always considered myself very blessed for that.

Hey Everyone, thanks for the warm welcome!

Finding BK right around the corner was like a thunderbolt out of the blue. When my wife and I found ourselves under the deep hypnotic spell of his potent mixocology a few days later amongst the sinister carvings I thought it was too good to be true. And when Andy Williams' "House of Bamboo" emerged from his speakers, the first time I'd heard the song in nearly 30 years since I'd lost the 45 rpm vinyl... then I knew it was destiny. Besides that, me missus and I have enjoyed the pastoral crowing of his rooster for some months now!

No danger of a collecting competition. The warm tiki tide lifts all boats equally, and besides I'm equally charmed by the repo mugs from Tiki Farm, happy to leave the cool vintage originals to those most deserving. The carvings, now... that is a different story! BK stopped by this evening with a pair of unbelievable poles, hot oceanic mojo that swept us immediately away with the hot smell of bamboo and rotting vegetation, a dark river of island mystery poured forth from his foundry of chisel and flame.

Mmmmmm.... someone fetch me a Zombie.

Aloha Ed

I smell "true believer"! A lot of us scattered around the deep south in pockets...You have to build your own in these parts, unless you can take Florida (100 percent humidity, 100-plus degree summers) or Atlanta (Island of Trader Vic's plus gridlock. period). Now where's that bottle of fake tan...D*mmit..