Open Letter To All Tiki Centralites From Squid

Wow, what a thread. Let me preface this by stating that I have been collecting mugs for the better part of 20 years. When Tiki Farm and Munktiki hit the scene, I frowned on the “New” Mugs. How dare they bastardize what I covet - the vintage Tiki Mug! Slowly, I was turned to the dark side – New Kine Tiki Mugs started creeping into my collection 6 or 7 years ago. Largely in part due to the amazing designs of Squid and the family Nielsen.
Having said that, looking at this situation through uninvolved eyes (though I do consider myself a friend of Holden), Dave’s open letter seems to have a lot of anger behind it. I’m just wondering if the situation was brought up to the authors prior to this post? In other words, did Holden and/ or Jay get a chance to reconcile this misunderstanding? Wouldn’t it have been more diplomatic to settle these differences offline and then do a post more in the vein of: “I feel there have been inaccuracies and misstatements in ‘Tiki Mugs: Cult Artifacts of Polynesian Pop’. I have contacted Jay and Holden to discuss and they will be making the following changes in the 2nd printing based on our discussion……etc.” - or something along those lines. I’ve known Holden for awhile now and have never gotten the idea that Squid was an employee of Tiki Farm. In fact, to the contrary. It’s a shame we won’t be seeing any more Squid / Tiki Farm collaborations, but perhaps when all the dust settles things will change.

While certain individuals may have known the situation, many more have been under the wrong impression for years. It was necessary for me to do that in a public forum as this content (and lack thereof) was placed in an international public forum in print. I have merely stated the facts to clear the air. It affects my ability to earn a living, pay for my son's college, etc. Of course this is being dealt with directly with Jay and Korero and they were informed prior to the posting.

I have requested that Hanford lock this thread before it spirals into speculation and conjecture.

[ Edited by: squid 2009-03-18 13:38 ]

I'd be very interested in having some kind of file posted (either on Tiki Central, or on the publisher's site, or wherever the book is sold) so the folks that purchase the book can have a list of corrected artist credits. Sure, it will eventually make it into subsequent publications of the book, but a basic addendum to correct some errors would be great to have.

I find this an interesting tangent to the thread, Matt.

When you publish a book, it becomes part of the public domain and recognized, by default, as credible and a resource for information in the case of a work of non-fiction such as this book. As the author, editor and/or publisher of a book, you take on responsibility for providing the public with a resource that is as accurate as possible to the best of your ability.

Perhaps this book was edited to the best of Holden's ability. In fact, I'm sure it was based on the kind things you and others have said about him, and his obvious standing within the community.

Regardless of the reason or reasons, or simple human error, lack or knowledge or carelessness (none of us will ever really know what happened and truthfully it is irrelevant) that this happened, let us not lose sight of the fact that the errors and omissions are not solely related to Squid. As Grog pointed out, our friend Mr. Apaka was turned into a dromedary, there was a mug attributed to Derrek Horne (welcome to the scene, are you related to Doug?) and several other errors and omissions of which I am aware, but won't take the time to list here as it is neither professional or prudent.

Jay's heartfelt apology on his and Korero's behalf was gracious and professional, and clearly he is a man of integrity taking full responsibility for the errors and omissions in the book. Hats off to you sir.

Korero's apparent willingness to correct all of the errors and omissions in the book is also professional and earns them great respect in my mind. It's nice to see a corporation that cares about what it does.

So, I suppose in the end, it is the old adage, or maybe a couple of them...It's all water under the bridge at this point and all's well that ends well. So let's all just have it end here and look forward to the next edition.

Remember the one you own now will be a collector's item!

Mahalo to Jay, Holden and Korero for bringing this book to fruition. It is a bridge from our community to the community at large which will benefit all of our artist friends who are so talented and well-loved by all of us. As the eyes of a broader community begin to focus on us, visit TC, and pay attention, it is not the time for us to appear divided. Now more than ever we must live the aloha spirit and all be ohana.

i think now would be a good time to lock this up
and go grab a bite to eat!
:)

On 2009-03-18 14:28, little lost tiki wrote:
i think now would be a good time to lock this up
and go grab a bite to eat!
:)

I'm grabbin' my Flintstones lunch box Kinny come on, were leaving.....

Let's go to Canter's!
Dave, you comin?

On 2009-03-13 14:02, Digitiki wrote:
In case some of you were not able to attend the Squid Retrospective at Kona I have to say that I'm sure most of us, including me up until the show, didn't know just what a huge body of work that he has. The catalog that was handed out at the show listed more than 170 mugs, scuplts & illustrations (mostly mugs).

It was actually 270, Mark. I know that you knew that, but I just wanted to point it out in the spirit of error correction.

Dave - My apologies for contributing to the further derailment of your thread.

Canters! yes open 24 hrs.! Lets go, so better than House of Pies!(oops more derailment)

People should keep their clueless comments to themselves and squid, you rock !