Otto's Forbidden Island at the Conga Lounge

New Oakland resident and International man of Tiki, Otto von Stroheim will be hosting the first of many mega events at Oakland's only Tiki bar, the Conga Lounge - Saturday 8/30 at 9pm.

Otto will be spinning his unique mix of exotica and kick-back rhythms. Live hula dancers will be on hand to entertain the revelers at 10pm and again at 11.
In addition, there will be complimentary snacks, fabulous cocktails, Tiki TV videos and Kiki the Fashion Tiki 25 cent raffle. It is rumoured that Caliente Tropics will be raffling off a gift certificate to their fabulous resort.

You never know what may happen once you've entered Otto's Forbidden Island...

The Conga Lounge is located at 5422 College Ave (above Cafe Rustica) in Oakland's Rockridge district.
(510) 463-2681
http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/profile/1025821

On 2003-08-27 10:42, Conga Mike wrote:
You never know what may happen once you've entered Otto's Forbidden Island...

No disrespect Conga Mike (The Jab,and other TCrers in Oakland),
But I never know what may happen when I enter the Forbidden City of Oakland at night.
I use to drive an ambulance there.
I'm sure it's a lot safer now(?).

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2003-08-27 13:38 ]

Oakland has been on the road to recovery for many years now and is fast becoming one of the hippest places around.
After all, Oakland is regarded as the birthplace of the Mai Tai and was, for a while at least, a "hula hotbed" - home to at least three tiki meccas : Trader Vic's, Zombie Village and the Bali Hai

The part of Oakland the CL is in is pretty decent compared to some areas further south. It's more of an off-shoot of the collegiate Berkeley area than the gritty & dangerous parts of Oakland you hear about on the news.
I briefly looked at buying a house in Oakland, but decided I didn't want to drive through hellish war zones every day just to get to my (relatively) nice 'hood. Turned out to be a good decision as there was a double murder a couple days ago just down the street from a house I looked at.

On 2003-08-27 14:48, Conga Mike wrote:
Oakland has been on the road to recovery for many years now and is fast becoming one of the hippest places around.
After all, Oakland is regarded as the birthplace of the Mai Tai and was, for a while at least, a "hula hotbed" - home to at least three tiki meccas : Trader Vic's, Zombie Village and the Bali Hai

Interesting, I didn't know that.

My favorite bar is in Oakland (non tiki.) I have spent many nights in Oakland with no problems. It appears that most of this stuff going on there is gang related, which means that if you are not in a gang your chances are pretty good.

I think you're all forgetting (or failing to mention) a key fact: OAKLAND IS ONE OF THE BIRTHPLACES OF TIKI CULTURE! Sure, now it's better known as the Home of the Drive-By, but it's also the Home of the Mai Tai (courtesy of Vic Berguron, who opened the first Trader Vic's, as Hinky Dink's, here on San Pablo Ave in 1934 - cattcorner from ANOTHER tiki bar, the Zombie Village)! It's true, the Conga Lounge is in a terrific, safe and clean neighborhood (Rockridge, easily accessible by BART) that the Cleavers could happily reside in, but that describes not some but MOST Oakland 'hoods, including Piedmont, the Grand Lake/Lakeshore area (where Otto lives now), the Montclair District, etc., contrary to biased and warped media coverage of our soaring crime rate. True, we have more than our share of gang-related violence, in certain areas, but it's not like bullets are whizzing by your head as soon as you cross the Bay Bridge! I'm sick of the media erroneously perpetuating this myth.

Dig it: OAKLAND SWINGS, BABY!

And now we have Otto and the Conga Lounge, too!

AND The Parkway, where my FIFTH film noir fest begins Sept 5, AND ex-Roxie programmer Elliot Lavine, now an Oakland resident, booking his own noir series at the Grand Lake, AND the sumptuous Paramount Theater, AND Children's Fairy Land by Lake Merritt, Walt's inspiration for Disneyland! ALL the Bay Area hipsters are moving to Oakland and its environs, as the surging presence of so many great new venues and swingin' events proves! Take THAT, Frisco - you just priced yourself out of the "cool" market, baby!

But hey - if anyone out there continues to dis Oakland, GOOD! Stay the f*** out! We're running out of room already!

Aloha from Oakland, Home of the Mai Tai and don't you forget it.

Man, I sure unwittingly helped drag this SPAM post along, didn’t I.

I think Oakland needs a new ad campaign:

"VISIT OAKLAND, LAND OF THE DRIVE-BY MAI TAI!!!"

Whoops. Forgot about the drinking/driving laws. Oh well. It would have gone over magnificently around 1960!

In any case, I lived in Oakland for years and have an abiding fondness for the place. (Perhaps ironically, the only city I've ever been mugged in is Berkeley. Go figure.)

As far as Oakland crime goes, well, the average Tiki Centralite is not the sort of individual who gets shot in Oakland, statistically speaking. Gang members kill each other (and each others' friends and family members, along with innocent bystanders) within just a couple of quite tightly circumscribed areas. You don't go there, you're fine. And Oakland is so big, geographically speaking, that it hardly matters; you can spend your life there and never once enter a nasty zone.

I lived in the same Broadway--Piedmont--Grand Lake--Lakeshore--Park Blvd. continuum currently haunted by AquaZombie and his ilk, and I loved it there. Exquisite architecture, interesting people, cool culture.

My one real gripe with Oakland is that, as a whole, she allows herself to be dragged down in the eyes of the world by a few pathetic low-lifes. Years of crappy, corrupt government didn't help (a city of this location, size and diversity should NEVER be in such financial low spirits as she was for years.)

I'd love to see Oakland have a HUGE renaissance, and with folks like AZ and his Tiki Goddess, Otto, the Conga Lounge fellows, et al (to name but a few!) doing their best for the cause, I'd say she's well on her way.

--tikivixen, writing from vallejo (another underrated burg)

Not quite sure if that's meant to be an insult, but since I don't know you, I'll assume it isn't.

SPAM, as I understand it, is unwanted and unwarranted advertising of a particular product. You requested the inside and updated scoop on Oaktown Present, you got it, from a true believer and longtime citizen (originally from New Jersey, so I know about Second Banana Syndrome) who is simply tired of Oakland's "Hoboken by the Bay" rep.

Also, I plugged Oakland in a tiki-related fashion - hardly an extraneous promo in this context.

You were an ambulance driver here, I used to drive blood around to all the hospitals. We were on the same (down)beat. All I did was point out the attributes of this city outside of that route.

Next time, if you don't want a solid rundown, don't ask for one. I didn't bring the subject up, I was just responding in my usual impassioned manner. Sincerely sorry if my unbridled enthusiasm offended you in some way.

Hello Tikivixen! (BTW, I called you back last week and your machine was full, you popular gal you, so give me another blast, maybe we can hook up this Saturday for Otto's gig - that was the original point of this post, right?)

Anyway, before we start a new thread called "Tiki? In Oakland?" (I'm already worn out on the subject, I guess that left-field SPAM crack took the wind out of my sails, at least in this pond), I agree that Oakland's worst enemy is Itself. I get equally fed up with the low self-esteem and lazy resignation of much of its citizenry. SF will ALWAYS attract more tourists, and will always be a world class city, so we need to get over it and just concentrate on our attributes, as I tried to do (nothing against Carmel, I love it down there, too). I don't particularly care for SF myself, it's too crowded and I lived there during a depressing period in my life, which may shade my opinion somewhat, but I totally see its many charms for others (and I certainly prefer it to LA, but it's no Manhattan, in my humble book.) I guess after all these years of SF shining in the spotlight at the expense of its kid sister across the Bay, I'm a bit too gleeful about Oakland's recent upswing. But to be honest, I'd rather live in Honolulu. My transplanted civic pride only runs so deep. The Tiki Goddess (my wife) is Oaktown's biggest cheerleader, though. Not sure why, since she's from Union City, maybe it has something to do the fact she's such a rabid devotee of the A's (I'm a baseball widower), but I think she also appreciates another unsung virture of Oakland: its cultural diversity.

Me, I dig the tiki stuff.

Wham bam, thank you, SPAM. I'm outta here.

Pfft! You think you have crime in Oakland - you should visit Baltimore, a real city with an impressive array of killings on a daily basis - drug related or otherwise. In Baltimore our criminals don't discriminate - they don't care if you're in a gang or not! We're on our way to 300 killings this year and hopefully we can regain the title of Murder Capital of the U.S.A.! I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Besides, there are no tiki bars in Baltimore and there isn't one damn place to get a Mai Tai that isn't made with grenadine and pineapple juice!

On 2003-08-27 21:50, AquaZombie wrote:
Not quite sure if that's meant to be an insult, but since I don't know you, I'll assume it isn't.

SPAM, as I understand it, is unwanted and unwarranted advertising of a particular product. You requested the inside and updated scoop on Oaktown Present, you got it, from a true believer and longtime citizen (originally from New Jersey, so I know about Second Banana Syndrome) who is simply tired of Oakland's "Hoboken by the Bay" rep.

You were an ambulance driver here, I used to drive blood around to all the hospitals. We were on the same (down)beat. All I did was point out the attributes of this city outside of that route.

Next time, if you don't want a solid rundown, don't ask for one. I didn't bring the subject up, I was just responding in my usual impassioned manner. Sincerely sorry if my unbridled enthusiasm offended you in some way.

No dude chill, it's not you, the Conga Lounge plug. It should have been posted under the "Events" category. If the solitary subject is to try to sell something to TCers in the “Main Category Area” , then you have SPAM . Everybody’s cool here, I’m just glad to hear Oakland is back.
I use to drive around and cover the whole county for a company called “Emergency “ ambulance, in the early 80’s. They’re defunct now, because nobody would or could pay their bills back then.

[ Edited by: Unga Bunga on 2003-08-27 23:00 ]

Dude, the discussion area is full of "plugs" - just see a posting entiltled "big weekend coming up" a little further down. (no offence Grip, but I need to use this example to prove my point) As a member, I don't see anything wrong with that.
Besides, this posting was not meant to be merely a "plug" as you call it, but also an information piece about Otto, who has been out of the public eye for a minute, now back in action, DJIng and hosting events such as "Forbidden Island".
I posted it to show that the Conga Lounge is going to do it's damnest to keep the Tiki torch burning in this "birthplace of the Mai Tai" I don't only want to keep all TCers up to date about what we do, but also encourage feedback and discussion - you can't really get that from the events page.

Hanford has been clear about this before:

Events and activities go in the Tiki Events forum. Simple. It's an event.

It's more than acceptable to plug the event in the main forum, but discussion on the thread should continue in Tiki Events.

So post in Tiki Events, and then post a notice about it in the Main forum, where the subject line is the same and the message is simply a link to that thread. Nothing wrong in trying to get a few more eyes on an event, just talk about it over there.

Just two more cents on this thread before I boogie:

In Mike's defense, and I know him personally, I don't believe he was trying to brazenly break any rules here, and I also don't think any mention of any tiki event is "spam" in this context (sorry if I misconstrued your post, Unga, though it was right after mine, so you can see the reason for confusion.) I understand the rules of the forum must be adhered to for the sake of coherence and organization, but again, Mike was simply trying to spread the word on some major tiki news - Otto is not only in Oakland, he's DJIng at Oakland's new tiki bar! This is cause for celebration, not contention.

The fact is, Mike and his brother Mano don't just talk tiki, they are actively and agressively providing an exotic outpost for East Bay hipsters (whatever those are anymore) amid all this Hip Hop noise by putting their money, rep, effort, enthusiasm and dedication on the line. I am extremely proud of them and grateful as well. As tiki lovers, we should all throw our unmitigated, impassioned support behind EVERY remaining tiki bar (old and new) on this increasingly bland, corporate, and depressing planet, especially in the apparently Anti-Cool 21st Century where dull loud soundalike music, dull loud lookalike movies, fake balloon boobs, lame reality TV shows and robot politicians rule our culture. Tiki is our common refuge from this abrasive assault on our senses and sensibilities.

Okay, let's all ease the tension with a Mai Tai and move on already. We're all on the same team here, remember.

I agree with you. I love The Conga Lounge. Those guys do a great job and I'll be there for this shindig

Aloha!

We're working on a CTR giveaway for Saturday! Otto will have something for a lucky winner, in hand!

Mahalo!

Aloha Casey,

Mahalo for the prize giveaway - you guys are awesome. We can't wait to check out your resort come Tiki Oasis time.

Limptiki--what is your favorite bar in Oakland, I'm intrigued.

Ps-to you and others with vague "from" info. Why be so vauge--for example, there are a few places in the United States that are called "the bay area" by the locals. It would be nice to know if you are a fellow Oaklander for example. Everyone, don't be afraid to post your city name-if anyone gives you gruff about it I will personally water down their Mai-Tai--you can count on me!!! :)