Is forum activity decreasing?

"Just because you like Jazz, does that mean you shoot Heroin? "

Well, duh!

I just read "Really the Blues" by Milton "Mezz" Mezzrow. Crazy great book. It's kind of like 1921 gangbanger jazz drug jail music to da wall. Probably started the whole Beatnik craze, the Beat poets are like watered down ginger ale to the hashish of the Mezz.

Back to Tiki Central.

Don't make me turn this Tiki Bus around! I will too.

Not to derail this thread anymore BUT....

On 2011-12-29 17:19, bigtikidude wrote:

funny,
to me nothing is more Hippy, or Buffet than smoking weed,
yet I know some tiki people that hate buffet heads and longhairs,
but smoke weed like there is no tomorrow.
oh the Irony.
Jeff(btd)

On 2011-12-29 17:44, JOHN-O wrote:
I agree, better to be drunk than stoned. Tiki is BAR CULTURE !!

While Tiki is BAR culture.....
I would rather (personally) be able to drive home safely a lil stoned with 1-2 drinks in me
than drive home drunk and loaded with 6-8 drinks in my system....
Plus... you ever been in a Tiki bar after a few puffs?
it's BEAUTIFUL! :) :) :)
All magical with colored lights and mysterious idols in corners
and the BEST part is we can remember it all...
While you girlie drink drunk folks slur and mumble incoherently
we stoners can remember details AND conversations from the night before

and please....don't stereotype stoners as Buffetheads and longhairs..

A few of us stoners have dayjobs that far outrank your paychecks....
and some of us produce art,music,and visual delights for the Tiki community
Which is more than i can say about a majority of the regular alcohol-infused Tiki crowd
who just attend and drink and (in my opinion) participate in pointless conversations
of no merit besides the fact that,in their stupors,they find themselves amusing...
One HAS to be stoned to be able to tolerate the drunken blather i hear at these events!
Half of you can't tell the difference between a Ku and a Lono....but we stoners can! :)
Have you ever tried to explain a Papua new Guinea Spirit Hook to a drunk?!?
it ain't easy and oft=times fruitless.... :)
There are more of us than you think in this Tiki Community,so play nice
and enjoy the fruits of our labors of love for this culture and its Ohana... :)
Mahalo for your time.... :)
signed,
an unsterotypical stoner who loves Tiki

Now back to our regular program....

Grog hit the highlights of what is happening in the world with regards to the "tiki" scene... I'll add a few...

From within this pages of this very website we have one band who has made this year's top 10 recordings from AllAboutJazz, we've got one tiki bar that is consistently rated in the top 10 in the nation from highly visible, national publications - other popular and lauded bars, artists and musicians who are taking their craft to new levels and doing it not for the money - but for the love of the vibe that it produces. The home bars are becoming more and more off the hook than ANYTHING that has come before them.

I think this website is filled with busy and engaged people who are creating real world content.

This website has helped begin something that is only now pushing forward.
Everyone here is a part of it and posting is merely an outlet for what is happening now as most everything mid-century out there has been unearthed already. As we create more content - then more posts will follow.

We could create some games and stuff but after reading this thread and others of late, it would probably lead to bloodshed. Or at least fecal missles.

RE: woofmutt:
woofmutt and I are engaged in a fierce battle of wits, with each of us possessing exactly one half of one wit. It has been ebbing and cresting over the last several years and may possibly last until the end of time... or until the falernum runs out.

I hate to bring bad news to you Lucas .... Hippies grow the pot you smoke. And you spelled fish wrong. I like fish, they look great in aquariums. And it's good eatin too. HA HA

For what it's worth, Activity seems to up on TC
may very well be this thread was a catalyst?

I think it is the dialog that is important, whether it's subject matter big or small
nothing wrong with a little mindless banter along the way if it gets people talking.

And ps, I agree with everything in Little Lost Tiki's post.

Personally, I simply can't find what the fascination is with Facebook or Twitter. I have a Facebook account but I only use it to keep track of former students. I rarely check it and I delete almost any email I get regarding activity before I even check it.

In the words of William Shatner to Star Trek fans, "Get a Life".

"woofmutt and I are engaged in a fierce battle of wits, with each of us possessing exactly one half of one wit. It has been ebbing and cresting over the last several years and may possibly last until the end of time..." -Pablus-

Ha. Ha. Ha.

By the way: Qxf6.

(Also: Look east at sunrise west.)

On 2011-12-30 05:32, little lost tiki wrote:

...Which is more than i can say about a majority of the regular alcohol-infused Tiki crowd
who just attend and drink and (in my opinion) participate in pointless conversations
of no merit besides the fact that,in their stupors, they find themselves amusing...

As a member of that "regular alcohol-infused Tiki crowd" I must say in our defense we provide what is arguably the most important contribution to Tiki culture...

OUR MONEY !!

Revenue is the the oxygen that allows places like the Tonga Hut, Tiki-Ti, and Don's to survive, which in turn are Tiki's physical anchor back to its historic roots.

The best way to support Tiki is to spend $$$ in a Tiki bar. :)

A joint in the parking lot is just one less cocktail that you're buying. :(

Sorry Kinny, but I got to agree with John-O

It's that old Idiom: What's good for the goose is good for the gander,
In this case its what's good for the Tiki Scene......

But I also agree with you, on the issue of "personal responsibility"

[ Edited by: Chuck Tatum is Tiki 2012-01-02 00:23 ]

"A few of us stoners have dayjobs that far outrank your paychecks....
and some of us produce art,music,and visual delights for the Tiki community
Which is more than i can say about a majority of the regular alcohol-infused Tiki crowd..." -little lost tiki-

I think this comment is pretty accurate. Liloti, a self described "stoner," apparently makes a lot of money and not only does he produce a hell of a lot of artwork it's some of the most creative "Tiki" work being made.

I, on the other hand, drink booze and have never even tried pot. I make less money a month than most folks spend on a getaway weekend in Palm Springs, I hardly create any art at all, and what art I have made has been described by one Tiki Central artist as "crummy art."

My online writing, another creative attempt on my part, has been described as "more annoying than funny" and "meaningless, boring, wanna be hep posts." Plus I never use smiley faces in my writing.

So, considering the facts, I'd say the pot smokers are the winners and the drinkers are losers.

(If my fellow drinkers can't handle that truth at least you know how to handle your bitterness and anger: Slowly drown them one drink at a time.)

What were we talking about?
:)

Supporting tiki bars and not drug cartels, at least that what it sound like.

Which means this thread WAY derailed, and has become more like a bilge post.

Stoners and alcoholics ruin everything. And damned artists are the worst of the bunch. Don't ya'll have some Face book you should be checking?

[ Edited by: GROG 2012-01-02 14:47 ]

I agree with everything GROG said before he edited it.

...me, I kind of like Kava!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alprazolam

"What were we talking about?" -little lost tiki-

Your awesomeness.

"...This thread WAY derailed, and has become more like a bilge post." -GROG-

I bet at times like this you wish you wielded a gavel instead of a club.

But getting back on the rails of this thread's topic...

"Is forum activity decreasing?"

No.

Alprazolam?!

I'm afraid of any drug I can't pronounce when I'm stoned.

"... you ever been in a Tiki bar after a few puffs?
it's BEAUTIFUL!
All magical with colored lights and mysterious idols in corners
and the BEST part is we can remember it all... "

This really gets me thinking, what would a Pot Tiki Palace look like?
What would it have in it?
How cool would it be?
This?

... or more like THIS?????

"...What would a Pot Tiki Palace look like? What would it have in it? How cool would it be?"

I seriously doubt it would look like this considering the very heated debate on here a few years back:

Are Naked White Mannequins Tiki?

and now.... back to our posted topic. Is activity drying up?....

Ah....

yes, way too many people gravitating to Facebook.

Drying up? Seriously? 10,732 views and 213 posts in 16 days, Flaming hemorrhoids of Buddha! This pathetic wankfest should be sent to bilge! It's devolved to a should we get drunk or smoke pot thread. I've a been a member for only a couple of years but I've lurked daily for nearly a decade and it seems that this question has been brought up between Thanksgiving and New Years more than once, really? Like most people aren't busy with other things that time of the year. It took me years to work up the courage to post anything that I thought was worthy of Tiki Central after seeing the the way that you folks can flame interested but ignorant newbs! Who says TC is losing out to facebook, this thread is the same spur of the moment chit chat that is facebook. Hanford could you create a place in beyond tiki for people to post their stream of consciousness posts? It could be fun to read but this is posturing not informative thus Bilge.

with a distinct lack of aloha, tikicoma

*and now.... back to our posted topic. *

Why?

(Yeah, breaker one-nine, this here's the Rubber Duck,
you got a copy on me Pigpen? C'mon.)
(Ah yeah, ten-four Pigpen, for sure, for sure.
By golly it's clean clear to Flagtown. C'mon.)
(Yeah, that's a big ten-four there Pigpen. Yeah, we definitely got the
front door good buddy. Mercy sakes alive, looks like we got us a convoy)

It was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June
In a Kenworth pullin logs
Cab over Pete with a reefer on
And a Jimmy haulin hogs
We's headed for bear on eye-one-oh
About a mile outta Shakeytown
I says Pigpen, this here's the Rubber Duck
And I'm about to put the hammer down

Coz we got a little convoy rockin' thru the night
Yeah we got a little convoy aint she a beautiful sight
Come on and join our convoy aint nothin' gonna get in our way
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy 'cross the USA
Convoy

(Ah, breaker,
Pigpen this here's the Duck and you wanna back off on them hogs?)
(Ah, ten-four, about five mile or so)
(Ten roger, them hogs is gettin' IN-tense up here)

By the time we got into Tulsa town we had 85 trucks in all
But they's a roadblock up on the cloverleaf
And them bears 's wall to wall
Yeah them smokeys 's thick as bugs on a bumper
They even had a bear in the air
I says Callin' all trucks, this here's the Duck
We about to go a-huntin' bear

Coz we got a great big convoy rockin' thru the night
Yeah we got a great big convoy aint she a beautiful sight
Come on and join our convoy aint nothin' gonna get in our way
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy across the USA
Convoy

(Ah, you want to give me a ten-nine on that Pigpen?)
(Ah, negatory Pigpen, you're still too close.
Yeah them hogs is startin' to close up my sinuses.
Mercy's sakes you better back off another ten)

Well we rolled up Interstate Forty-Four
Like a rocket sled on rails
We tore up all of our swindle sheets
And left 'em sittin' on the scales
By the time we hit that Shi town
Them bears was a-gettin' smart
They bought up some reinforcements
From the Illinois National Guard

There's armoured cars and tanks and jeeps
And rigs of every size
Yeah them chicken coops was full of bears
And choppers filled the skies
Well we shot the line
We went for broke
With a thousand screaming trucks
And eleven longhaired friends of Jesus
In a chartreuse microbus

(Ah, Rubber Duck, this is Sodbuster. C'mon here?)
(Yeah, ten-four Sodbuster.
Listen, ya wanna put that microbus in behind that suicide jockey?)
(Yeah he's haulin' dynamite and he needs all the help he can get)

Well we laid a strip for the Jersey shore
Prepared to cross the line
I could see the bridge was lined with bears
But I didn't have a doggone dime
I says Pigpen this here's the Rubber Duck
We just aint gonna pay no toll
So we crashed the gate doin' ninety-eight
I says Let them truckers roll, ten-four

Coz we got a mighty convoy rockin' thru the night
Yeah we got a mighty convoy aint she a beautiful sight
Come on and join our convoy aint nothin' gonna get in our way
We gonna roll this truckin' convoy across the USA
Convoy

(Ah, ten-four Pigpen. What's your twenty? OMAHA?
Well they oughta know what to do with them hogs out there, for sure.
Well mercy sakes good buddy, we gonna back on outta here,
So keep your thumbs off your glass and the bears off your ......tail.
We'll catch you on the flip-flop.
This here's the Rubber Duck on the side. We gone. bye bye

On 2012-01-04 22:51, tikicoma wrote:
Hanford could you create a place in beyond tiki for people to post their stream of consciousness posts? It could be fun to read but this is posturing not informative thus Bilge.

with a distinct lack of aloha, tikicoma

There is.... it's called "crap" eh... I mean Bilge.

But what does "Jack Burton" always say?

When this thread started is was sell your mugs, burn your rattan & head to the hills of Facebook! Too many Tikiphiles have put in too much effort just to trash everything!!!

PS were going to need all the Tiki drinks we can get to make it thru 2012!

Activity for the thread "Is forum activity decreasing?" is decreasing!

I think such as with other message boards I participate in, the collective energy must ebb and flow. So too with this awesome place. I don't think that there is anything to fear or worry about with respect to a perceived decrease in board participation. This is, after all, a living entity, a place to come and enjoy, depart from and return again. Yes the central core is always on board keeping the tiki torch burning bright. I peek in from time to time and there were times I was active a bit more (like when I was working 3rd shift with nothing to do but monitor computers and dials on a vacuum chamber).

As far as "letting" others in, that will come naturally whether they are rockabilly, greaser, ho daddy, parrot heads, tikiphiles, etc. If they want to come they will and likely will not impose other types of life style on us but rather assimilate Tiki into their styles as a splinter to what ever they do. Cheer up and enjoy those who are around and do respond. Beckon to those that may seem interested or who have wandered away. Then sit back and enjoy the company that is present.

Just my $0.02.

I love this place and will continue to escape to TC through the duration.

Tiki Slob

Part of this may be due to the titles of a decent thread as seen recently here....

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=41977&forum=1&0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DnNAEQNkUA

This one is for you Lucas!

I have been into tiki for a few years now. I just joined TC not to long ago. So I cannot say much about the activity increasing or decreasing on this site. What got me really into tiki was making tiki exotic cocktails. Buying Beachbum Berrys book and tasting how these drinks were meant to be made and the pure art of it. Tiki just exploded for me from there and I never looked back. Got my own tiki room now, making my own drinks and practicing mixology. So on this subject I will say this. There will be those that will just keep on being tiki and those that think tiki is neat. For some out there its just a trend. Like we all had trends growing up. I for one plan to keep on being tiki. Its my own little world which will never get old. Influences like Sven, Bamboo Ben, Beachbum Berry, and others are perfect examples of keeping on being tiki. There are alot Of great tiki influences out there. Those that have been on TC for awhile now and post alot of cool stuff such as tiki history, pictures, etc. I will continue to support TC and all my local tiki establishments. Mahaloz to everywone that is keeping tiki genuine.

Decreasing activity? Not for some of us who continue to appreciate the revival of tiki. It's just so dang fun and cool. I am definitely spending more time behind my bar than ever - and I won't admit how much I've spent on spirits and other stuff cuz I've never tallied it and I really don't know, but it's a lot of dough. And I'm not swayed by the in-the-momentness and non-archival nature of the Book of Face. Poke fun at me if later I'm wrong, but I see my enjoyment of TC continuing long into the future. Heck, my family will be asked to bury me with a cocktail shaker, a nice tiki mug like my Suffering Bastard mug maybe, and a facsimile of Mr. Tiki to share with St. Peter for a selfie!

I am confused for sure as there is a thread just below this one that says....
"Tiki Farm in San Clemente is riding the wave of tiki popularity"

Yet TC activity is down, if you look up tiki mug on eBay the prices for the most part are down.
Mostly it's the Disney mugs and other Disney tiki that sells high.
Early Tiki farm mugs can be bought for like $20.00 bucks.

I have been doing this for far too long but if this is a "wave of tiki popularity" the times before this was a damn tsunami compared to this.

Hope they are right and tiki is riding that wave, it just don't look that way in Columbus Ohio, or on TC.

It's Beanie Baby's THAT"S the hot new trend!
Cabbage Patch?

"Tiki Farm in San Clemente is riding the wave of tiki popularity"
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=52723&forum=1&1

I dunno. For some of us, Tiki never really happened. It was always somewhere else.

Scott, a good observation, we know there are tiki hot spots and tiki "cold spots" all over.

Skip, I often think that the whole thing is cyclical. The crowd which predates me has moved on. But what does that mean? It's hard to say, but it's not worth worrying about (to me) because this site is such a terrific repository of tiki information. Can't say that about social media. The good thing is that as long as Hanford continues to run this system the information remains accessible. And who can say that at any point in the future, near or far, this site won't become hyperactive again? All we need is another Bahooka-magnitude closing, a stolen collectible volcano bowl from a famous bar, or some other madness to motivate or inspire. The good news is that the rabble-rousing is gone, we haven't seen a real flame war in a long while, but even that can change on a moment's notice. I try to make meaningful and thoughtful (or at least a bit tongue-in-cheek) contributions every once in a while to add to the tiki goodness and camaraderie we have here. It sure beats having negative flame wars.

So whatever... Everyone DRINK!

I try to make meaningful and thoughtful (or at least a bit tongue-in-cheek) contributions every once in a while to add to the tiki goodness and camaraderie we have here

And I appreciate that Ace!

For the limited amount of time I've spent here, it seems to come in waves. There's a flurry of posts and updates, then a lull. Partly to blame, as others have said, is Facebook and Instagram and other platforms. I'm on them and interact daily, so yeah, when TC was the only game in town it would make sense there was more activity here. But have you ever tried to find old conversations on those other sites? Ugh! I can't even get a decent search of my own "wall" of FB. They're transient. TC, in spite of, or perhaps because of, its archaic message board infrastructure, is more of a permanent record. That's why I come back here daily and check all the updates and find old threads to wade through. It's interesting and allows me to connect with an earlier phase of the tiki revival. I'm getting that with older podcasts as well, but TC is the main source of tiki history for me.

I understand there was a period of fallings-out that disrupted TC some years ago. I expect that had an effect as well, but as there isn't a "great flamewars of TC" topic, I'll never know the extent.

As for the tiki revival, as I'm only a relative newcomer to tiki, I can speak with an outsider's perspective. I've heard folks here, along with others like Bosko and Sven talk about tiki now being "mainstream." That actually hasn't happened yet, although I can see it may look that way from inside. The Party City stuff doesn't really count. The resin statuary at Garden Ridge/At Home/Hobby Lobby/Home Depot/Lowes are ephemera. The folks picking those things up are getting them for the kitsch, or the Margaritaville influence. Yes, there are new tiki bars opening, but more are tiki lite, just giving lip service to the concept. The majority of the population still has no idea tiki bars exist--when I visited Portland, I ran into a woman originally from Dallas who'd lived there a decade and had no idea Hale Pele or the Alibi existed until that very day. The vast, vast, vast majority of the U.S. population still views tiki as something that existed only in the 1950s and maybe 60s. That was me up until 18 months ago. Tiki's no longer in danger of extinction, but it's still a way from being mainstream. Sven calls it the cult of tiki, and that's a good description. There are lots of cultural movements that are healthy and thriving, even growing, that are not mainstream.

I know Swanky has predicted that investors will soon put together a national chain of tiki bars of some sort. That's possible. But it hasn't happened yet. The closest thus far is Margaritaville, and while I like Buffett (1st Church of, Reformed) the crass commerciality of that place just makes my skin crawl.

Tiki bars are not as ubiquitous as they were in the 50s and 60s. We don't have small, hole-in-the-wall places popping up across the country. Austin's got nothing. San Antonio, nothing. Corpus Christi, Galveston, Fort Worth, nothing nothing nothing. Pull up Critiki, and there are more cities than not without even tiki lite. No, we're never going to get the great palaces to come back from the dead. Don the Beachcomber and Trader Vic aren't going to pop up in St. Louis and Memphis. Entrepreneurs aren't going to build Mai Kais and Kahikis in Albuquerque and Birmingham and Little Rock. But there's a tremendous untapped market out there, millions of people who have no idea this exists, no idea what they're missing.

I could be completely misreading the scenario. Tiki may have already crested and we're now riding the ebb tide out to sea. But I don't think so. I think it's got another solid decade of growth ahead, with more tiki bars (good and bad) opening and closing and expanding in the years to come. It may not foster a tight-knit, passionate community akin to what existed here on TC circa 2002-2010, but I think it's going to be vibrant and trail-blazing in its own way. Again, I may be completely wrong on my take, but all the same, I'm eager to see what comes next.

Was not trying to be all you missed the good ol tiki days.
Just saying the years after the 2000s even tiki was HOT.

I would say the most popular time for tiki was in the Late 1990s/ 2000s as you had all the mug makers and events, dam back in the day of the old tiki bars people just went to a restaurant, they did not collect and study tiki the way it's done today, or say was done a few years ago.

For sure we lost some great places but the tiki scene (I hate that word) was the biggest not that long ago.

I didn't really mean to say I thought this was a case of "good old days" syndrome. But I do think it was a different environment then. The rediscovery of tiki was new, and while passionate, it was still small enough so that everyone knew everyone else. Or at least new someone who knew whoever was doing whatever with new mugs or art or something. It seems like there's more of a diaspora now, where a lot is still happening, but in more scattered pockets where the communication with other, like-minded fans of tiki isn't what it once was. Where new tiki bars open, but they're unexpected, arriving unheralded and backed by someone who may be passionate about tiki but not of this community, either by choice or ignorance. That personable, intimate element may be the biggest loss, even though friendliness and welcoming attitude remains.

Maybe I do feel like I've missed out on those days of close connections, but that may well be more of a factor of physical location, rather than temporal. California, as always, remains the epicenter of tiki, and it's not realistic for me to be a Wednesday night regular at the Tiki Ti, or Mai Kai, or share memories of the Kahiki. That's be Johnny-Come-Lately syndrome, I guess. :)

On 2018-02-24 17:08, Scott McGerik wrote:
I dunno. For some of us, Tiki never really happened. It was always somewhere else.

No kidding... I live in a Tiki wasteland, which is actually really frustrating, though probably better on my pocketbook. I know both of the other Tiki fans in town, but we all have such active lives that we can hardly ever seem to connect. There's nowhere to buy mugs retail in this city, and the next closest city which does have a place that sells retail is about a 3 hour drive. The closest Tiki bar is a 5 hour drive down to Great Falls, Montana. I really WANT to participate more in Tiki, but I have no physical outlets. I just have my nose smushed up against the glass, as it were. You have no idea how excited I am that my wife and I are taking a road trip through British Columbia at the end of June, where I'll FINALLY get to check out the Shameful Tiki Room and Waldorf Hotel.

TC is my main outlet, and I check it about twice a day. I don't contribute too much because I don't really have anything to contribute. I've been kinda' too embarrassed to post photos of our Enchanted Tiki Kitchen because it's a fairly unspectacular making-do with our rental. I'm not on Twitter or Instagram or Pinterest to speak of, and while I'm in a couple Tiki groups on Facebook, those are either deader than here or just pictures of pretty mugs. But yeah, for me, Tiki is somewhere else. Specifically it's in Disneyland, but we don't have a trip planned for there anytime soon.

[

On 2018-02-24 20:24, Prikli Pear wrote:
Partly to blame, as others have said, is Facebook ... But have you ever tried to find old conversations on those other sites? Ugh! I can't even get a decent search of my own "wall" of FB. They're transient.

It is the lack of history that frustrates me the most about people using Facebook to discuss topics like Tiki. You simply cannot go back to old posts. There is no history or continuity. I've literally spent hundreds of hours reading old posts on TC because there is a wealth of information in them. Facebook has nothing comparable.

It happened! Tiki Central activity has decreased and smaller tiki events are fewer but Tiki Oasis tickets sell out the day they go on sale and lots of tiki news stories on local news.

TikiCentral: Would you prefer Tiki as 'mainstream' or 'underground'?

It looks like California has a larger interest in tiki and even tiki in the media.
Don't see tiki in the media here in Ohio.

Have always wondered if pit bulls stopped biting people or did the media stop reporting on it.
For a while the media made it look like pit bulls were going to eat all of us.

Would think that ebay may be the best indicator of the real deal as to what is hot, as what is hot sells and that change often.

Will be interesting to see what the next ten years brings.

Two reasons, according to me, why forum activity is possibly decreasing:

1. People find social media more convenient, especially Facebook. I particularly hate managing important shit like tiki discussions on Facebook because it's not easily backlogged as a forum. There's no convenient search function for all the great material that we tend to cover and share.
2. As I've stated many a time, this forum isn't exactly on the forefront of technology. The dedicated and loyal tend to come back no matter what, but as things slowly age then it becomes less convenient to return when login cookies don't work, old image posts are broken, etc.

I still love coming here and check in probably 3x a day.

I still com here on a regular basis to see new posts. A lot of the old names here are gone, but a least the days of heavy negative posts have passed. Tiki seems to be a media & commercial bar theme flavor of the moment. Which I would agree with others hasn't translated into posting traffic here at TC. (-: