Forbes magazine has an article on the tiki revival that is pretty good - if it wasn't for this horrendous lead-off paragraph.

Better dust off that long-neglected bottle of grenadine lurking in the back of your liquor cabinet. The red syrup is an essential ingredient for the Mai-Tai, the Zombie, and other mainstays of tiki-bar mixology. And make no mistake: The stars are aligning for a major tiki revival.

Other than that, the article is pretty good.

They do get bonus points for pointing out the influence of Bing Crosby (who made the song Sweet leilani popular in 1937), and for having some good photos to accompany the article, including this one ....

(courtesy of the L.A. Public Library)

The full article can be read here ....
http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/2008/07/01/tiki-bar-revival-forbeslife-drink08-cx_ml_0701tiki.html

...but that lead in is further proof of what I have observed recently:

The Tiki revival seems to get a second boost nowadays thru the backdoor of the cocktail, largely thanks to the work of Jeff Berry, who landed several NY Times articles since Sippin' Safari was published. My "Tiki Modern" in turn has had no significant American reviews or notices worth mentioning (..yet 23 write ups throughout Europe!). I appears that a Zombie is much easier digested by the journalists then the bulky, rough esthetic of WITCO ! :D

ANd I bet an editor added that first paragraph rather than the actual writer. The writer would have researched it better and not said such a stupid thing...

On 2008-07-02 12:12, bigbrotiki wrote:
My "Tiki Modern" in turn has had no significant American reviews or notices worth mentioning. It appears that a Zombie is much easier digested by the journalists then the bulky, rough esthetic of WITCO ! :D

That's because only you and a handful of people like Witco. The rest of us tolerate it because it was part of Poly-pop.
You had to piggyback Witco with Tiki historyjust to get anybody to buy a Witco book.

P.S. GROG just bustin' your balls because you left GROG an opening and GROG an opportunistic cruel sonuvabitch. :)

Love ya Sven!!!!!!!

They do get bonus points for pointing out the influence of Bing Crosby (who made the song Sweet leilani popular in 1937

Here is a copy of the Sweet Leilani sheet music featuring Bing Crosby from 1937...dubbee dubbee du!

For the phonetically challenged it is LAY-LAH-NEE!

PTD

On 2008-07-02 12:29, GROG wrote:
That's because only you and a handful of people like Witco. The rest of us tolerate it because it was part of Poly-pop.
You had to piggyback Witco with Tiki historyjust to get anybody to buy a Witco book.

...weeell if you consider the first half of Tiki Modern a mere tool to piggyback Witco, so be it. And after thus dismissing the first half, you clearly won't "get" the second half. --Right back atcha! :D

I actually think it is because the general public (and their serving journalists) care more about what gets them snockered in a pleasant way than about art.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-07-02 13:05 ]

"To alcohol. The cause of and answer to all of life's problems."---Homer Simpson

On 2008-07-02 13:02, bigbrotiki wrote:

On 2008-07-02 12:29, GROG wrote:
That's because only you and a handful of people like Witco. The rest of us tolerate it because it was part of Poly-pop.
You had to piggyback Witco with Tiki historyjust to get anybody to buy a Witco book.

...weeell if you consider the first half of Tiki Modern a mere tool to piggyback Witco, so be it. And after thus dismissing the first half, you clearly won't "get" the second half. --Right back atcha! :D

I actually think it is because the general public (and their serving journalists) care more about what gets them snockered in a pleasant way than about art.

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2008-07-02 13:05 ]

Consumables. It's all about consumables... ANd, it is that season again when writers gotta come up with something in the Martha vein to write about.

On 2008-07-02 12:12, bigbrotiki wrote:
...but that lead in is further proof of what I have observed recently:

The Tiki revival seems to get a second boost nowadays thru the backdoor of the cocktail, largely thanks to the work of Jeff Berry, who landed several NY Times articles since Sippin' Safari was published. My "Tiki Modern" in turn has had no significant American reviews or notices worth mentioning (..yet 23 write ups throughout Europe!). I appears that a Zombie is much easier digested by the journalists then the bulky, rough esthetic of WITCO ! :D

Zombie : "Tastes good!" :: Witco : "Bad taste!"

Just kidding. I love all three of your books, some parts ("Sexy Tiki") more than others (the voluminous ode to clunky, chunky Witco).

On 2008-07-02 14:28, BrickHorn wrote:
I love all three of your books, some parts ("Sexy Tiki") more than others...

How could I ferget that as the other item of major interest to the populace: Liquor and BROADS! Who needs art !!? :D

Tiki Modern is a gorgeous book, no doubt about it, and I share it with house guests (who generally look at it with a puzzled look). I'm not a Witco owner or really a Witco lover, but I do appreciate it and its place in history. The general public though? No way. It's not digestible at all. We tikiphiles are an obscure cult. Witco devotees are the cult within the cult. Sven, I think that leaves you and Kim. :D

On 2008-07-02 12:31, Psycho Tiki D wrote:

They do get bonus points for pointing out the influence of Bing Crosby (who made the song Sweet leilani popular in 1937

Here is a copy of the Sweet Leilani sheet music featuring Bing Crosby from 1937...dubbee dubbee du!

For the phonetically challenged it is LAY-LAH-NEE!

PTD

Anybody have a link to the actual music?

On 2008-07-03 16:11, GatorRob wrote:
The general public though? No way. It's not digestible at all. We tikiphiles are an obscure cult. Witco devotees are the cult within the cult.

Generally, that's fine with me (though I believe there is a whole group of non-Tiki people out there that appreciate Witco for its shock value...and that not only in America). The BOT succeeded in bringing Tiki back to the public. With Tiki Modern I wanted to dig deeper, and further out, and (just like the BOT), have it be something that I MYSELF can leaf through again and again and get a charge from.

I really am not seeking approval by the frat boy crowd that cheers Tiki Bar TV (which IS a good show!), my kind of fun is a different kind. Tiki is too complex a thing, too arty. Many different people understand it on so many different levels, but few people truly understand it in its entirety, or care to try. That way it can again be said that "the secret protects itself".

I am just glad I could stay true to myself with Tiki Modern, and to all my friends who love Tiki and modernism. :) And, by the way, I like liquor and sex, too. :D