Publisher of 'The Book of Tiki' on CBS Sunday Morning

The publisher of 'The Book of Tiki',Benedikt Taschen, was featured on CBS Sunday Morning today. A very interesting man and a very interesting company. Too bad they didn't interview Sven too. :wink:

http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/sunday/main3445.shtml

I watched it and it was very interesting and short. Said that his books caters to collectors. I didn't know that. As said he has some book more on fetishes- one about backsides.

And keeping with our tiki/Hawaiiana theme, note cover of "Curse of Lono," Hunter Thompson's Hawaiian adventure, in the photo. :)

Seems to me tiki IS a fetish for many. There's got to be some people who, ahem, 'bop their balony' fantasizing about some mug or carving. :P

They also meant that he publishes for collectors of books - like his giganto $700.- 1200.- books.

First and foremost, Taschen has, within a relatively short time, published the most complete catalog of visual arts and culture of the 20th Century: Art, architecture, film, photography, music, design, graphic design, fashion, history....you name it. And he has done this with high quality for affordable prices.

Nobody else could have done my books in that size and quality, yet within an affordable price range, and with that facilitated the re-entry of Tiki into pop culture.

Sven, was it a hard sell to get him to publish you? I'm sure your story is somewhere in T.C. already, but after seeing the quality of the books he puts out I'm even more impressed that you're in his stable. What was implied was that Taschen is the creme de la creme of publishers. Wow.

On 2011-03-21 08:58, Okolehao wrote:
'bop their balony'

That's a good book too!

On 2011-03-21 12:14, Okolehao wrote:
Sven, was it a hard sell to get him to publish you?.... What was implied was that Taschen is the creme de la creme of publishers.

Yup, he is the Creme de la visual arts publishers to me. The best thing and what I respect about him is that he is daring, in his subjects and formats, but not stupid. He has very edgy, eclectic taste on one hand, but he also has the commercial sense to brutally say no to any subject that will not bring its money back. He has no fear, unlike all the American publishers that turned down my book proposal for 7 Years (this is were I always whip out my Chronicle Books rejection letter) :

(funny thing is that when I sent them the proposal again in the late 90s, they rejected it saying "Ah, Tiki...well that trend has already come and gone." :) )

To hook up with Benedikt Taschen essentially was the old "right place at the right time" thing (after 7 years, finally!):

1.) In 1998, he was just beginning to expand his distribution from Europe to the American market.

2.) My friend Pete Moruzzi, being the L.A. Modcom chair at the time, knew the Swiss architect Frank Escher who Taschen had hired to renovate his Chemosphere, because Escher had written THE book on the Chemosphere's architect John Lautner http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1568981422/ref=s9_simh_bw_p14_d0_i1?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-3&pf_rd_r=12FKWDV2FPFCZP84Y499&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1287771322&pf_rd_i=283155

At the end of 1998 they were still working on the place, and Pete gave a copy of my proposal to Escher, who gave it to Taschen, who came by my place on January 1st 1999, and after viewing every slide and shred of paper in my archive, gave the project a thumbs up.

3.) What might have helped was that I had been best friends with painter Albert Oehlen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Oehlen in my Berlin/Hamburg years of the mid- to late 70s, and that now Taschen was a big collector and patron of Oehlen.

In any case, I am glad that I held out and did not go with small underground publishers that were interested. After years of writing for Tiki News I felt that for Tiki to emerge from a subculture and really come back, it needed a high gloss/ all color platform. All my knowledge and material would have gone only so far had Taschen not done it justice.

The other cool thing was that, as I was making the book, nobody at Taschen knew anything about Tiki, so they couldn't meddle with it and I got to do it the way I wanted. :) All in all an ideal deal!

[ Edited by: bigbrotiki 2011-03-21 15:28 ]

and the book changed our lives forever....thank you Sven, Wendy and Dan

Aloha,

Fascinating story, Sven. I kept all my rejection letters too...

On 2011-03-21 13:55, danlovestikis wrote:
and the book changed our lives forever....thank you Sven, Wendy and Dan

It made my life even better....

I bet those younger members of the staff "get it" now, the Book of Tiki as become larger than they. Interesting, I'm finding in the world of cocktails and mixology everyday that the "younger" more and more are willing to put aside their Whiskey shots and Cape Cod's for something more interesting, even if it's short lived, they have learned something and have had a wonderful experience along the way making life a bit richer and fun, as it should be.

Now that is music to my ears, Kelly! Will mixology become the bridge between the old Tiki revivalists and a new generation of Tiki lovers? Less virtual reality, more ritual virility!