tiki wonderland art show & bamboo ben mug launch! sat. dec.8th

Can't wait to see everyone tonight! Yay!

Art, Gifts, Music and Cocktails. . .who could ask for more??!!

(Well, I could. . . I still want a pony if Santa is listening. . .)

But besides that, it's gonna be a hot time in the old hut tonight!

Here's the latest:

The Tonga Hut will be officially opening @ 7pm for the TIKI WONDERLAND ART SHOW.
This is to give our artists and staff time to get all set up before the madness. So no early birds please. :)

All drinks on the Tonga Hut 'liquid exotica' drink list will be $1 off!
Also, we will have an amped up 'GROG NOG' to get you in a festive mood. :)

We will be enjoying the fabulous tunes of the TikiYaki Orchestra on the Jukebox from 7-9 while you shop. Pick up CD, they make great gifts!
The DJ Lee tower of reverb and auditory bliss starts at 9pm. Bring yer dancin' shoes!

Please bring cash-ola since most of our artists are not set up to take credit cards.

Please bring a smile and the holiday spirit of Aloha!

SEE YOU TONIGHT!

ALSO-Please remember NOT to park to the LEFT of the Tonga Hut in the back parking lot. Those neighbors are jerks and will tow.
Not cool dude. . . not cool. . .

MAHALO!

Hopefully I can make it there for a quick visit. I am going to a Birthday party in Hollywood with a few friends. We will all be in red, see you there.....

Thanks Chongo.

GROG wonder why the photo shows a right hand busted but Ben is left-handed?
GROG gonna have to call Ben and get the bottom of this. Maybe Ben pulling our legs.
He's becoming "the boy who cried wolf". It's getting hard to believe anything he
types on TC.

Detective GROG on the case. GROG let you know.

W're going to just paint B.Ben's hand and he should be good-to-go.

GROG off to start settin' up at the Tonga Hut. See ya'll tonight.

On 2007-12-08 12:53, GROG wrote:
Thanks Chongo.

GROG wonder why the photo shows a right hand busted but Ben is left-handed?
GROG gonna have to call Ben and get the bottom of this. Maybe Ben pulling our legs.
He's becoming "the boy who cried wolf". It's getting hard to believe anything he
types on TC.

Detective GROG on the case. GROG let you know.

1. Pull one's leg 24 up, 3 down

to lead someone on, to kid someone

Mike: I swear, last weekend I went fishing and caught a 25 pound bass!
James: Are you for real, or are you just pulling my leg?

When you told Harold that he won, you were just pulling his leg, right?

To pull one's leg you have to be clever.

tags yank one's chain kid pulling my leg pull my leg just playin'

Good detective work there Mr. Grog!

( also hence the little smiley face!)

See ya'll soon.

Just don't pull Ben's finger. You will be sorry!

Thank you to everybody who showed up at the Tonga Hut and all the
artists who participated and promoted the show on their websites and/or
myspaces. It was another great show with plenty of music, merriment,
and art.

Thanks Suze for all your work putting the show together and
promoting it, and thanks for the drinks and the tasty "GROG NOG". You
looked very lovely in that black and white dress. GROG's tongue is sore from
so many people stepping on GROG's tongue when it was dragging on the floor.

A big thanks to Kirby and Polly for ordering and picking up the delicious
Dr. Hogly Wogly Barbeque.

Thank you to the Tonga Hut and staff, and thanks
Bamboo Ben for coming and signing mugs. It's amazing how quickly your
busted paw healed up before the art show.

Thanks Gotiki for the awesome mug. GROG sorry we couldn't get you in this
show, but we'll definitely have you in another one. Check out his mugs for
some nice Christmas gifts: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=24342&forum=12&start=15&22

It was nice seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Thanks Big Toe and
Kinny for taking time out from painting for your art show on the 15th to
come out and support our art show. Tom, your name should be "Busted Toe",
not "Big Toe" because they looked pretty average-sized to GROG. Kinny,
you forgot to bring GROG' unbirthday cake, but thanks for the coloring book.
GROG was out of toilet paper this morning, so your coloring book has already
proven handy.

Thanks to everybody who bought the Bamboo Ben mug made covertly by
Holden, GROG and Squid. Enjoy.

Merry Christmas to all.

------GROG

here is the Ben Neck charm...
carved from a Bamboo Ben piece of Bamboo scrap...

only 25 cast so far... made to order
available in light natural, dark natural, light green and dark green.

if you would like one... let me know
[email protected]

I had such a blast last night, sorry I ditched early guys! I got home and just passed out!

But it was great! I managed to buy lotsa goodies..and this time I took sorta some pics..here is what i got!

Aww the loooove!

some of suzy's work! a shot of BadLand Beads and Kim's head! :lol:

HUGE line fer the Bamboo ben mug!

Grog ...I think BROKE it! OOOO!! I tellin on you!

Also Kinny and I had a 'suburbanpagan' sighting....or so we thought!

guy in the middle wiff glasses...sounded and acted dorky like Pagan, was it?

I don't know, but I never laffed so hard in my life!

overall, great event guys!

Great seeing everyone there! :D!!!

Thanks for posting FIRST. That Grog pic you took will come in handy down the road.

Naahh...That's not Pagan...it's me. I don't know who Pagan is.

Personally, and I know most of you will shoot me for this. It's OK, I have bled for various art forms before... GREAT &^*in turn out via tikiphiles. Piss poor turn out for artisans.(excuse my french) Yes I expected more. I expected someone to take my hard earned, "need to get my tiki on" before Xmas doe. Sorry gang. The brother hood ROCKED the house. The vendors who were there were awesome, but..but... and this is my big BUTT..so few for so many.... shame on those great tiki artist who didn't make the effort,and those of you who did not seek the need to rob us of our hard earned cash in exchange for prolonged Tiki orgasm.
Highlights besides the great BOOZE...; Ape, well fantastic. Nicky from Tikimag; just the best...Holden, come on... we all love Bamboo Ben, but that's it .. that's all? one *&^%in mug? Was I the only one with money to burn. Damn I left early went to Wacko, spent money I should have been able to liberate at the Tonga Hut, came back hoping for more...and well, Holden still made same cash via Wacko...I had heard so much about last year...Sadly I am probably more disappointed than most, but I set the bar high, only because others before my eyes set the bar even higher.

PS this is food for thought. Just my opinion. My rant. I don't care who likes it or not, as you will probably not care what I wrote.. That it is why it's my opinion and perhaps not yours. Don't need any one to agree, but as one big "lets get our tiki on" family. I appreciate that this community has an open forum like this.....Poof...gone........Damn I need a Mai tai.... :)

PPS. and I know you won't care cause no one cared that my wife stole my "pearls of wisdom" LOLOLO...Make up your own joke here____________________________

Just wanted to say A HUGE THANK YOU to Grog and Suzy for the opportunity to be amongst
you guys at the Tonga Hut on Saturday. My first experience with the Tonga Hut and its market place format was very fun indeed. I got to meet some fun tikiphiles who
stopped by my booth to chat, hang and buy!
Drinks were delish-(thanks Suzy), music was delightful, crowd was awesome!
I sold some framed prints and X-mas ornaments! I am soooo happy!
I just wish I had brought more "Ginger-Tiki" ornaments.
I had no clue they would be in demand!
So those of you who got one, they are rare indeed!

Mahalo & Happy Holidays to all!

[ Edited by: SleepyTiki 2007-12-10 02:05 ]

[ Edited by: Sleepytiki 2007-12-10 02:31 ]

YAY!
What a fun evening!
So many great friends and artists and vendors!
Great seeing Holden and Nick
Ben-you and your mug ROCKS! So happy the Mrs. Boo got to attend!
I'm still recovering from Crazy Al's pants...They were RED and too Cool for School!
looking forward to Tiki Wonderland 3!
And congrats Suzy on the TikiMagazine feature! 2 pages! You deserve 5!
You rock!
and thanks to you, the Tonga Hut,and GROG for makin it happen!

On 2007-12-09 11:41, GROG wrote:
Thank you to everybody who showed up at the Tonga Hut and all the
artists who participated and promoted the show on their websites and/or
myspaces. It was another great show with plenty of music, merriment,
and art.

Thanks Suze for all your work putting the show together and
promoting it, and thanks for the drinks and the tasty "GROG NOG". You
looked very lovely in that black and white dress. GROG's tongue is sore from
so many people stepping on GROG's tongue when it was dragging on the floor.

A big thanks to Kirby and Polly for ordering and picking up the delicious
Dr. Hogly Wogly Barbeque.

Thank you to the Tonga Hut and staff, and thanks
Bamboo Ben for coming and signing mugs. It's amazing how quickly your
busted paw healed up before the art show.

Thanks Gotiki for the awesome mug. GROG sorry we couldn't get you in this
show, but we'll definitely have you in another one. Check out his mugs for
some nice Christmas gifts: http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=24342&forum=12&start=15&22

It was nice seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Thanks Big Toe and
Kinny for taking time out from painting for your art show on the 15th to
come out and support our art show. Tom, your name should be "Busted Toe",
not "Big Toe" because they looked pretty average-sized to GROG. Kinny,
you forgot to bring GROG' unbirthday cake, but thanks for the coloring book.
GROG was out of toilet paper this morning, so your coloring book has already
proven handy.

Thanks to everybody who bought the Bamboo Ben mug made covertly by
Holden, GROG and Squid. Enjoy.

Merry Christmas to all.

------GROG

took the words right out of my mouth.

Muey MAhalos to all !!!!!

Good Times!

On 2007-12-09 23:13, TikiVegas wrote:
Personally, and I know most of you will shoot me for this. It's OK, I have bled for various art forms before... GREAT &^*in turn out via tikiphiles. Piss poor turn out for artisans.(excuse my french) Yes I expected more. I expected someone to take my hard earned, "need to get my tiki on" before Xmas doe. Sorry gang. The brother hood ROCKED the house. The vendors who were there were awesome, but..but... and this is my big BUTT..so few for so many.... shame on those great tiki artist who didn't make the effort,and those of you who did not seek the need to rob us of our hard earned cash in exchange for prolonged Tiki orgasm.
Highlights besides the great BOOZE...; Ape, well fantastic. Nicky from Tikimag; just the best...Holden, come on... we all love Bamboo Ben, but that's it .. that's all? one *&^%in mug? Was I the only one with money to burn. Damn I left early went to Wacko, spent money I should have been able to liberate at the Tonga Hut, came back hoping for more...and well, Holden still made same cash via Wacko...I had heard so much about last year...Sadly I am probably more disappointed than most, but I set the bar high, only because others before my eyes set the bar even higher.

PS this is food for thought. Just my opinion. My rant. I don't care who likes it or not, as you will probably not care what I wrote.. That it is why it's my opinion and perhaps not yours. Don't need any one to agree, but as one big "lets get our tiki on" family. I appreciate that this community has an open forum like this.....Poof...gone........Damn I need a Mai tai.... :)

PPS. and I know you won't care cause no one cared that my wife stole my "pearls of wisdom" LOLOLO...Make up your own joke here____________________________

Hey TV...is you still have money and want to spend it.....well I know a place you can go!!!

[spam]

[/spam]

My art and goodies...
http://www.davidlozeau.com

[ Edited by: Clysdalle 2007-12-10 09:23 ]

I had a Tiki Fabulous time at Tiki Wonderland!!!!!

Great Homage to Bamboo Ben!

Trader Tom & I discussed this & decided,

We will PROUDLY display our "Bamboo Ben" mug amongst the "Giant likes of Sven's Book of Tiki Mug & Don the Beachcombers Mugs"

A Great Event to Celebrate the Talents of one of the most important Craftsman's of our time.

P.S. ,

Now quit yer Bitching Ya'All... Have Happy Holiday's & see you at the Three Kings Show & I also will meet ya there at that thread to Chit Chat about it yay!

Kudo's to ALL the Great Talents that made it out to the Tonga, it was AMAZING ART!

SleepyTiki - How could GingerTiki not have sold? Clever, cute, and thematic! I bought a print and two ornaments.

Dani and I had a Great Time, There was a lot of cool art and artist, I bought some cool stuff for the "Go Tiki Hut" Ben's mug is cool, Great job all! Nice to meet ya! Suzy and Grog last pic. And The Owner and Bartender at The Tonga Hut, Mahalo all and Thanks for a Great time!

cv

On 2007-12-09 23:13, TikiVegas wrote:
Personally, and I know most of you will shoot me for this. It's OK, I have bled for various art forms before... GREAT &^*in turn out via tikiphiles. Piss poor turn out for artisans.(excuse my french) Yes I expected more. I expected someone to take my hard earned, "need to get my tiki on" before Xmas doe. Sorry gang. The brother hood ROCKED the house. The vendors who were there were awesome, but..but... and this is my big BUTT..so few for so many.... shame on those great tiki artist who didn't make the effort,and those of you who did not seek the need to rob us of our hard earned cash in exchange for prolonged Tiki orgasm.
Highlights besides the great BOOZE...; Ape, well fantastic. Nicky from Tikimag; just the best...Holden, come on... we all love Bamboo Ben, but that's it .. that's all? one *&^%in mug? Was I the only one with money to burn. Damn I left early went to Wacko, spent money I should have been able to liberate at the Tonga Hut, came back hoping for more...and well, Holden still made same cash via Wacko...I had heard so much about last year...Sadly I am probably more disappointed than most, but I set the bar high, only because others before my eyes set the bar even higher.

PS this is food for thought. Just my opinion. My rant. I don't care who likes it or not, as you will probably not care what I wrote.. That it is why it's my opinion and perhaps not yours. Don't need any one to agree, but as one big "lets get our tiki on" family. I appreciate that this community has an open forum like this.....Poof...gone........Damn I need a Mai tai.... :)

First of all, Atomikitty and Grog, bang-up job as usual! Please forgive me for responding to this but it has to be addressed.

With all due respect TikiVegas, did you actually SEE the physical limitations of the Tonga Hut? I would love to have a big band, a dunk tank and pony rides in there too but it ain't gonna happen. The scheduled artists were listed well in advance of the show so this should not have been a disappointment unless you didn't read the posts. The addition of the Bamboo Ben mug sale was a surprise extra as were pieces by Kirby and Big Toe. Tiki artists don't just "make the effort" to get into these things. It's not a friggin' neighborhood yard sale, but I'm sure that if it were, every artist would give it their all. If you want mass quantities of stuff, I would urge you to attend the next Tiki Farm parking lot sale, Hukilau or Tiki Oasis. I won't shoot you but please quit your whinin'.

Better now :) On with the pics.....Got any of that "APE" guy?

Gotta dig Squid

HERE HERE SQUID! :)

Thanks to ALL for making it out to the 2nd Annual TIKI WONDERLAND Art Show @ The Tonga Hut!

The show was a BLAST as usual, and full of that spirit of ALOHA. The Tonga Hut were gracious hosts, DJ Lee had the place dripping in exotica and swooning in the reverb!
The Artists in attendance, and variety of amazing work on display and for sale was FANTASTIC!
In fact, I encourage those of you who went to post some pics of the great stuff you got!
I hope you got some holiday shopping done, bought a little somethin' fer yourself, and enjoyed my special GROG NOG recipe. :wink:

TikiVegas, wish we could have met. Glad you had fun, thank you very much for coming, and I wish we could have separated you from more of your cash. :)

The truth is, great original tiki bars like the Tonga Hut (est. 1958) and Tiki Ti's are usually dark, cozy, hole-in-the-wall kinda places. That's why we love 'em.
We would LOVE to fill the place to BURSTING with all the amazing Tiki talent in the scene right now, but then there would simply be NO room for the PATRONS!
Believe me, our first shows we were a little over zealous with the line-up of artists, and it was literally ass-to-elbow and quite a few folks were turned off by that.
These events are just as much about mingling with tiki fans and toasting with friends as the art, drinks and music.
GROG and I are both full time working artists (I know, an oxymoron, right?) :) and we throw these shows as a labor of love to celebrate and show our support of the tiki community.

Okay, that's all I have to say about that!

Nothing but good feelings and joyful holiday wishes to all!

Here's some pics. . .

Thank you everyone for coming out and showing some love!
MANY THANKS to everyone for the kind words and congrats on my Tiki Magazine article-it means so much! :)

Hmm....lets see........The "Bamboo Ben" mug is actually a Vincent Price mug, right? Am I just some dumb old drunk fucking greaser, or what?

Yes. :)

[ Edited by: GROG 2007-12-11 10:15 ]

Congratulations Suzy on your magazine layout. It looks awesome!

Oops! GROG meant THIS one.

[ Edited by: GROG 2007-12-11 10:19 ]

The lady to the left is Dawna Hammond who is the featured carver
in the current issue of Tiki magazine. We were glad she came out
and signed magazines.

Grog becareful big guy, shes gonna smack you.
but you'd probably like that, :roll:

Jeff(bigtikidude)

On 2007-12-10 16:13, griffithpark wrote:
SleepyTiki - How could GingerTiki not have sold? Clever, cute, and thematic! I bought a print and two ornaments.

Yes you did , THANK YOU for buying , and for the compliments! It was nice meeting you!!
I meant that I should have brought MORE "Ginger Tiki" holiday ornaments with me to the show!
I have more... if anyone wants one!

On 2007-12-11 10:18, GROG wrote:
Congratulations Suzy on your magazine layout. It looks awesome!

Oops! GROG meant THIS one.

[ Edited by: GROG 2007-12-11 10:19 ]

Uh Oh....I think GROG will be soon be issued one genuine, old school ATOMIKITTY BEATDOWN for this one. :o

Hey look, there really was a Squirrel at the Tonga Hut! Nice ring Squirrel. GROG bet your beaux is probably drinking his patented "Squirrel of Paradise".

Here are some more pics of the fun that was Tiki Wonderland 2!
One of the artists walls.

Here's Frank showing off his cute shave ice logo

Here's Dave showin' off his cool Dia de los Muertos tats!

Paula, my lovely assistant

Holiday Grog

Booth mates

SleepyTiki munchkin sandwich

Made gingerbread cookies the next day. The baked & frosted version of Ginger Tiki didn't come out as planned!
Was it the frosting nib? Or the Hangover?? hmm...Its kinda scary...

I need the photoshop version that does frosting!

[ Edited by: SleepyTiki 2007-12-11 19:02 ]

[ Edited by: SleepyTiki 2007-12-12 03:51 ]

Wow, That cookie looks like how I felt on Sunday. . . . :)

Adriana (miss sleepy Tiki) you rock!

Thanks again and Happy holidays!

-Atomikitty

[ Edited by: atomikitty 2007-12-11 23:57 ]

WOW ADRIANA!
THAT GINGERBREAD TIKI HAS THREE BALLS! :lol:

Yeah but they were separated at birth!

E.T.
the Extra Testicle
or Extended Tiki

or oh never mind this event is over.
Jeff(bigtikidude)

Only if Crazy Al shaved his beard and aged his pretty face a bit..............................

You mean kinda like this?

A HUGE thank you to Suzy-Q and Grog for hosting this arrrrsome event. Thanks to Kirby and Polly for the bbq grub. And thanks to all the people that supported Kim and myself at Badland Beads. For those that didnt buy anything and or complained about the lack of stuff to buy... F you! Just kidding! It was great seeing everyone.

On 2007-12-19 10:52, Daves Not Home wrote:
A HUGE thank you to Suzy-Q and Grog for hosting this arrrrsome event. Thanks to Kirby and Polly for the bbq grub. And thanks to all the people that supported Kim and myself at Badland Beads. For those that didnt buy anything and or complained about the lack of stuff to buy... F you! Just kidding! It was great seeing everyone.

hahha... you kill me Dave! Merry Christmas!

Mele Kelikimaka to all of you! And I'm sending out a special aloha to Grog. I should have posted this weeks ago. What a lazy wahine I am. Anyway, Grog, thank you for all the fun and postings regarding the Tonga Hut's Winter Wonderland 2. I had a great time there, AGAIN. And was so thrilled that you posted that lovely photo of the very beautiful Dawna Hammond. I enjoyed writing that article about her so much! I hope this brings her many new commissions because her carvings are REALLY GOOD! Anyway, a super time was had that night. I will say, I WAS surprised that there were fewer vendors this year and wonder why that was? Last year I shelled out some serious clams, because the place was packed with merchandise. Not that I didn't dent my wallet fairly well this year, but I wonder if there had been some communication problem with other vendors or a competing event that kept some of last year's artists away. Whatever the case, I still think it was a fun time and it's always a GREAT way to get in the holiday mood... in a way that only we Tikiphiles can relate to and respond to with a raising of our Mai Tai's. Happy happy joy joy to all of you and I look forward to writing some more articles worthy of your intelligence and attention in the upcoming issues of "Tiki Magazine." -- Kari Hendler

Thanks Kari, glad to have you at the Tonga Hut and great to see you as always.

We always try to have right around 7 artists/vendors at the Tiki Hut because any more and it gets too crowded in there (it's a small space). We had 7 artists/vendors(A/Vs) this time plus we let Kirby hang a couple of prints since he and Polly picked up the food, and Big Toe hung a print as well, since he was there and we had wallspace. Maybe it seemed like less because most of the A/Vs don't have as many different items to pick from. Crazy Al has mugs, pendants, light switch covers, magnets, beer taps, tiki carvings, masks, etc. Whereas, Tikifarm was only selling Bamboo Ben mugs,and most artists just have paintings or prints of their paintings, so they don't have as much of a variety to pick from. Maybe next year we'll try to get more artists who have a wide inventory of different stuff like Crazy Al, Thors, Tiki Diablo, Bosko, Doug Horne, etc. so that we still have only 7 or so artists, but a bigger inventory of stuff to chose from.

Merry Christmas.

On 2007-12-24 11:36, Tangaroa-Ru wrote:
Mele Kelikimaka to all of you! And I'm sending out a special aloha to Grog. I should have posted this weeks ago. What a lazy wahine I am. Anyway, Grog, thank you for all the fun and postings regarding the Tonga Hut's Winter Wonderland 2. I had a great time there, AGAIN. And was so thrilled that you posted that lovely photo of the very beautiful Dawna Hammond. I enjoyed writing that article about her so much! I hope this brings her many new commissions because her carvings are REALLY GOOD! Anyway, a super time was had that night. I will say, I WAS surprised that there were fewer vendors this year and wonder why that was? Last year I shelled out some serious clams, because the place was packed with merchandise. Not that I didn't dent my wallet fairly well this year, but I wonder if there had been some communication problem with other vendors or a competing event that kept some of last year's artists away. Whatever the case, I still think it was a fun time and it's always a GREAT way to get in the holiday mood... in a way that only we Tikiphiles can relate to and respond to with a raising of our Mai Tai's. Happy happy joy joy to all of you and I look forward to writing some more articles worthy of your intelligence and attention in the upcoming issues of "Tiki Magazine." -- Kari Hendler

Hey Kari, In Grog's defense, I know Grog wanted more vendors! He had six spots filled and contacted four more artist to fill the last slot, First to respond, First in, He contacted me and I missed out by a Very Well Respected Magazine! :) Mahalo! Gogo