Official Introductions Thread. New Members, Post your introduction here...

Aloha and welcome aboard new members!
Keep hunting Man from T.I.K.I.... There are still treasures to be found out there.
Aloha,
:tiki:

It was a dark and stormy night ... I hit some turbulence out over the Farallons and had to ditch the plane ... Some time later - was it hours? days? - I washed up on the sandy shores of Alameda. I was tired, thirsty ... I needed a drink! It took a couple months but I finally found one, at a shady, cool oasis known to the local savages as ... FORBIDDEN ISLAND! Cheers!

Aloha and Shaka to all! I'm one of those for whom Kelbo's (both on Pico Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in L.A.) were the highlights of my after-work hours for over 20 years. I still yearn; nothing comes close. I remember the "Grand Re-opening" of the Pico location when all the gorgeous decs (made in their own shop) had been newly installed, and the place was one of enchantment. What a night! What a line out! What an absolutely gorgeous place and delicious ribs! What incredible drinks!

It's long gone now, but there's still the Tiki-Ti (I can't go in because I can't take all the smoke). God how I wish we'd had digital cameras then! Anyway, that's me in short, and I hope to meet many more of you!

AB (ArchiesBoy)

Hey all,

You might recognize me as MR. AMBASSADOR from the podcast Tiki Bar TV but when I am not playing a Russian, I am actually just a huge tiki fan and proud owner of many tiki mugs. Hopefully, I'll get to know some of you through the forums, perhaps I already know some of you from Tiki Bar, anyway, talk soon!

Mr. Ambassador!

Hi All,My Name is Billy Velvet I live in Asheville N.C. up in the mountains of western N.C. I play in a rock band called crank countydaredevils as well as blow glass.I just recently bought a building in the main Downtown area here and We're opening a Tiki Lounge.I've been a big fan of tiki all my life and this has been a lifelong dream it will be a family run business with my wife and my partner J.T. I'm origionally from San Mateo Cali. my parents moved to South Beach Miami when I was 4 yrs old and I saw that place go crazy and had to escape.I miss the ocean so much I decided to bring the ocean to me.If theres anybody out there that would like to help with there art,I would love to see and hear your pricing we're looking for aspects of tiki lifestyle, including some really big tikis as well as poles.I've contacted a couple of people and we're always looking for more.So please dont hesatate to contact me.
Alwayz chillin cuz everydayz friday,

Billy Velvet

[email protected]

Hey all, Caveman here. Its good to be here, and I look forward to posting quite a bit.

A few years ago my family and I were on a reality TV show called Monster House. Our house is "Jurassic House" and we enjoy a life-sized T-Rex skeleton in the living room, a strata wall, and a volcano hot tub. Recently I've been considering re-doing the backyard (the landscaping needs work), and since I already have the volcano I've decided to go tiki, baby! I've really caught the bug, and now my house is filled with the sounds of Martin Denny, and my fledgling collection of tiki mugs are filled with iced Kona coffee, dressed up with Malibu rum, Kahana Royale and a dash of cream!

Here's a couple pics from the spa press kit:

The pic in the middle is of me, the host of the show, and my wife the Volcano Goddess. Below that are a bunch of my kids.

Look forward to showing you guys more pics as I get my tiki on.

Hey everyone,

After checking in occasionally the last couple years, we decided that we could attend Tiki Oasis this year, so I've been reading Tiki Central more often for all the latest news, and figured I should finally introduce myself, as well as support this great resource.

I, of course, love all things tiki, and when I'm not slaving away at work writing technical manuals, I like to relax at home with my wife and young son, sipping a zombie.

Looking forward to meeting some of you at Tiki Oasis!

Welcome cult...I look forward to meeting you. I manage a training department and we write all our own technical, workflow, and clinical curriculum....so we might have a mind-meld to enhance our intelligence/skills. :lol:

That is so cool(well,hot!) I love the idea. Please post more pics. of your other tiki!!

Just wanted to say whats up! My name is kyle and i'm from Phoenix,AZ, grew up in honolulu and relocated out here for school. decided to finally sign up after lurking for so long! nice to meet everyone and all things tiki! I make tiki shift knobs for my hot rods and pomade for my hair!

sip a mai tai for me!

hey new here but been looking around for some time now great stuff!

Hey all. I hail from Northern Virginia but have been obsessed with tiki culture for 30 years now. I'll be attempting my first carving in the next week or so, unfortunately on cherry. I can't seem to find some good soft wood in my area... any ideas? Anyway, I really enjoy the forums and look forward to meeting new people and learning from them.

You guys, I joined for two reasons, this is the most ... MOST ... delightful site I've seen. Just makes me smile!!!!!!!!!!

And, I want you to look at my solar installation because I'm all excited about it... only it's not Tiki...

Maybe I should cover the pole with bamboo...
http://www.health-boundaries-bite.com/Solar.html

Well, thank you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO much for this smile making site.

It reminds me of decades ago when we used to dance with the Packers in Green Bay at The Tropics. Great days!!!!!!!!!!

http://www.health-boundaries-bite.com/Fingernails.html
Your fingernails reflect your health --
Learn some warning signs --
Karen Kline

As I know there has a factory in China can produce any type of Palm leaf products such as Tropical Palm Leaf Thatch Roofing Tile, Tropical Palm Leaf Thatch Umbrella etc. The name of this company is Vred Products. You can seach from Google or yahoo. Hope this can help.

The place

The Man

The Mission

'Enter the Tiki'

This fall on ABC

On 2007-06-14 19:34, Rumshaker wrote:
Aloha fellow tiki lovers! I live in Vegas, but am from the Los Angeles area originally. I've been a bartender for 9 years and my husband for 20(wow!).

Hey there! Mr. Smiley and I are in Vegas!
Where do you "Shake It"? We are always looking for a new place with yummy drinks!

Inky

Aloha!

OotWoods (actually, my sideline business, "out of the woods turned goods").

I am a wood turner, and all around wood-worker, primarily concerned with having fun and learning new skills as I go. I have a fascination with medieval recreation (and belong to a large group that does so) as well as a burgeoning love of Tiki and the late 50s/60's counterculture involving rockabilly, poly-pop, and leopard skin.

Good thing my neighbors already think I'm a bit nuts.. my chainsawing and hammering don't bother them much so as it is!

North Eastern PA here. Not many palm trees to be found!

Hello Tiki folk.
My Name is Seth.
My Girlfriend and I visited the Hukilau this year completely on a lark and found quite an intriguing group of people.We also found a new favorite restaurant, The Mai Kai.What a great place.
I've been reading the forums for a while and decided it was time to register.
Hope to get to know all of you a bit better.

Seth

Aloha!! - I've been lurking on the fringes of tiki culture for many years. I've been hosting a radio show at Portland's community radio, kboo.fm for the last 11 years. You're invited to catch our stream every Monday nite at midnite west coast. The name of the show is "The Tiki Cha Cha Club," and celebrates the music of the mid-20th century, especially the early "Exotica" of Martin Denny, Les Baxter, George Paige, et al. My e.mail is [email protected]. Please contact me with requests.

MC dj AKA Chintzy Schmaltz - Hear "The Tiki Cha Cha Club" every Monday Nite Midnight (West Coast) - streaming live at kboo.fm Visit us on Facebook at Tiki Cha Cha Club

[ Edited by: tikichacha 2009-10-06 15:54 ]

Greetings All,

After lurking off and on for a couple years I've decided to wade into the fray. I'm male, I'm 42 yo, recently divorced (after 21 years of marriage) and in a place where for the first time I'm on my own. Since I am on my own I've decided to freshen up my surroundings and redecorate in a style that suits me. So guess my theme, LOL. Anyway I'll be spending some serious time reviewing the board looking for ideas and asking the occasional question. My screen name is not very Polynesian but I've used for years and it helps maintain a sense of continuity in my online life. Ciao for now.

On 2007-07-16 15:03, ootwoods wrote:
Aloha!

North Eastern PA here. Not many palm trees to be found!

Hey there ootwoods, where are you in NE PA? I hail from Scranton and live outside of Philly now.

Hi,
Julie here. I've been glued to this website for awhile now, and went to my first Hukilau this year. What an awesome and fun group! Very inspirational. I even converted Robin, my pal and former non-tiki fellow Hukilau traveler, into a tikiphile. Looking forward to sharing my future tiki projects when they come to fruition.

Aloha!

I've been lurking for awhile; thought I should go legit.

I went to the Big Ol' Tiki Bash last Saturday and had a good time, but I felt out of place. I showed up alone and it seemed like everyone at the party already knew each other. I thought I could make a few acquaintances here at TC so I'd have some people to hang out with at the next So Cal tiki event.

Hey everyone,
I'm new here, and this is my first splash in online tikiness. Actually, I've been interested in tiki culture for longer than I'm even aware of, yet I haven't done much to immerse myself in it, so it looks like this is a good place to start.

Hi everyone, This is my first time to tiki central. I can't believe how much tiki info there is. I live in NJ and there is not much in tikis. There is this one restaurant that just opened in Seaside Heights NJ called Tiki Island Cafe. The add has all tikis in the restaurant. I am going to check it out next week. I'll keep you posted.

[ Edited by: beachgirl 2007-07-29 13:14 ]

On 2007-07-25 20:31, culturevirus wrote:
Greetings All,

After lurking off and on for a couple years I've decided to wade into the fray. I'm male, I'm 42 yo, recently divorced (after 21 years of marriage) and in a place where for the first time I'm on my own. Since I am on my own I've decided to freshen up my surroundings and redecorate in a style that suits me. So guess my theme, LOL. Anyway I'll be spending some serious time reviewing the board looking for ideas and asking the occasional question. My screen name is not very Polynesian but I've used for years and it helps maintain a sense of continuity in my online life. Ciao for now.

Culturevirus ,

Your screen name sounds like a combo word William Burrroughs might have come up with . No disrespect intended whatsoever mind you ...Welcome !

Hi,

I've been lurking here for a couple years. I've taken a lot of ideas from here and have used Tiki Central for several of our locating tiki trips. I started building our own tiki bar a couple of months ago.

Keith

Hey everybody! My name is Ken. My partner Tim and I have been into tikis for quite a while. We have gone to the Seattle home bar tours the last two years and met a lot of great people. We love tiki art and tiki mugs and tiki drinks, etc. I don't know why it has taken so long for me to join tiki central, but I am glad to finally be here.

Hello All, I've been checking this site for sometime now, and wanted to know if anyone out there has any suggestions for things to do in Kailua, Oahu. We'll be heading over in a couple weeks and can't wait! Thanks to all!!

Aloha from the Tropicanada!!!
About to embark on a vacation and begin my tiki-quest as I set up the erie tiki bar which will be located on the sandy shores of lake erie (of course)in Souther Ontario. (hence tropicanada)
Been compulsively attracted to this topic/site for about two months now and once I acquired "The Book of Tiki" I went overboard.
Started with a warehouse sale which was liquidating a ton of genuine palappa thatch and tropical stuff. Soon I will have a Witco tiki fountain that found me last week.
So much fun... can't wait until I start drinking these frozen concoctions that help me hang on.

BTW Midwest tiki is not dead!! Was in Chicago 2 weeks ago for Jimmy Buffett and the tiki vibes were toxic. Visited the Hal Kahiki on the outskirts and give it 5 stars.

Thanks to all of you for sharing my affliction and giving me the courage to publicly display it.

Hi there, BHCF here. Just found this site through a recommendation of a friend. I love Hawaii and all things that remind me of it. Looking forward to contributing to the community!

Aloha from the French tiki girl! I'm so happy to join all your group. And guess what ! I've been introduced by the marvellous and kindest guy I ever met in my all life : Squid! He makes my dream come true so if U want to see THE MOST HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WOOOOOOOORLD I'll be to Sam's sea food on saturday and tiki Farm om sunday with the Tiki Angel (Squid)! Tiki Baï

Greetings everybody, My name is Rocky Jr, I've been aware of this site for a while but never took the time to come over and check things out. Looks like this is a hopin joint. Looking forward to cruisin around and checking things out.

I guess I introduced myself in the wrong place. I have been looking at this site since I first started to want to carve. Still took me a while to sign up after my first. Here's the link to the pics:

http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=25089&forum=15&7

I'm just happy to be able to share with you guys. I need to take some pics of the stuffs around my house. You might be interested in some of the items.

Hi Everyone! Wow, am I ever so glad to find tikicentral! Been a closet tiki-phile for a few years but now letting it all hang out. Went to TO last year and had a blast, will be returning this year. Looking forward to seeing other tiki lovers in sunny SD.

Hi, My name is Mike. I lived in Hawaii, on Oahu, for almost 50 years. For economic reasons I have moved to the Mainland. I stumbled upon this site while looking for info on Marquesan artifacts. In 1960 my parents and I ( and several other people) sailed through the South Seas. We sailed to Tahiti, Bora Bora, the Tuamotus and the Marquesas. This was before Tahiti had an airport, so the only way to get there was by boat. The life expectancy for the people there at that time was about 35. Most died from TB. Needless to say it was much more primative then than now. While on our trip we picked up many interesting objects. My fathers wife has most of the really good stuff, like adzes and poi pounders and such, but I got a few pieces which I will share. For now I only have photos of two pieces. A stone tiki and a wooden tray from the Marquesas. These were supposedly carved by Manu on Nuku Hiva. He claimed to be the chief of the village. He may well been, but I don't think he carved htese while we were there. Manu was in the advanced stages of leprosy and was missing most of his fingers down to the middle knuckles. The tray is beautifully carved out of, I belive, native rosewood. The stone tiki has the appearance of being much older. There's really no way of knowing. Anyway, thought I would share. If anyone else has been there or knows more about these objects, lets hear from you. Mahalo Mike

Aloha!

Scott from Magick Films

Howdy! Been reading for awhile, searching for all the swank and retro horror in Atlanta and beyond.
Finally decided to try and become a little more of a team player and join the forums.

I am a graphic designer and a big fan of Shag, Ryden, Coop, Williams, and all the lowbrow guys. I'm also a huge fan of cheesecake and retro pinups (but then, who isn't). I currently have an apartment tiki bar and a tiki-Polynesian wedding reception in production, so I would expect a lot of questions and comments relating to that.

Thanks cats and kittens! Be getting to know you soon.

Jonathan Chaffin

OK, I'm doing this all backwards (nothing new there):
Allow me to introduce myself: Tiki Lion.

From a very early age I remember parents' humored take on Pacific Island and nautical themes, mixed with a bit of embarrassment at being "caught" in fondly remembering and longing for something that never was "legitimately" a part of their lives (a flavor of nostalgia?).

Me, I simply loved the stuff!

One treasured set of memories are of a trip to Hawaii with grandparents the summer of my 8th birthday.

One of the happiest times of my life!

Many decades followed, filled with the usual other life stuff, but I kept searching for something lost, a style, an attitude, a perspective, occasionally seeing bits of art, or architecture, or kitch, but never having a framework for understanding my hunger or perceptions...

Then a couple of months ago, the word Tiki popped up in an article, and I realized I couldn't really define the term all that precisely, but thought I knew what it meant.
Sort of.

So I did what I often do these days with such words, and looked first at Wikipedia, which clarified a few things for me, and then more broadly at Google, which returned more that sixteen million citations of "tiki," one of which was this delightful Answers.com page:

http://www.answers.com/tiki

I never knew there was a name for this thing, yet suddenly, now I am home, and finally it all makes sense.

My birthday's next Friday folks, see you at the Oasis!

Welcome Lion!

I grew up in Manhattan Bch in the 60's and totally related to your story.

You are home now.

Happy B-Day

Mahalo

McTiki

Mahalo McTiki, I really appreciate your kind words of greeting.

My posting was so long I left out the part about growing up in San Francisco and New England (pair of parents each coast), traveling the world during late teens and twenties, grueling experiences squeezing multiple academic degrees from various institutions (I'm not much of an academic, just reallllly persistent)...

Point is, I just moved here last year from Sacramento, back in a real city for the first time in years.

What floors me (OK, well, the Mai Tai's and their ilk do that, but I mean other than that) is that in this new-for-me city, it is the previously unknown and unnamed Tiki (that has always been a subliminal core of my life) that makes me feel as though I have lived here for ever.

I am delighted you had a similar experience in Manhattan Beach as I had in my geographically displaced early life, especially since you have also found your 'ohana.

Aloha!

Hi Groucho Tiki here saying Aloha from the southseas of England. In too all things Tiki, big pal of Trader Jim and keen supporter of Britiki, also proud owner of ,Wee Drunken Tiki' by Atomic Tiki Tony and over 80 mugs.
Im wisking the family off to Tampa, Florida end of August (23-8th Sept) with a 3 day stop in Las Vegas too - any pointers to places to go would be cool, also interested in all things lowbrow and Hot rods.

All Thee Best

Groucho

Hi, I'm Kamoenani from France (which isn't the best place to be for tiki, but thanks to the World Wide Web...).
I've always been interested in all things Hawaiian (polynesian in general, but especially Hawaii). I've started to learn Hawaiian (well, a bit) and one of my dreams (when I have the money) is to tour the Pacific (Rapa Nui, the Marquesas, the Tuamotus, the Society Islands, Aotearoa, Samoa, etc. and of course Hawaii).
I became interested in Tiki a few months ago when I stumbled upon a Tiki Hut sign in a surf shop and decided to look that up. I've always been fascinated by the Moai on Rapa Nui and always liked what people sometimes call "primitive arts" (which is a little pejorative).
Tiki Central came up a few times during my search (either through Google or via links on other pages), so after a while, I decided to sign up, since someone may have an answer to my questions I'll post in other topics later.

Aloha to you all.

Greetings,
All denizens of "Tiki Central"!
I have just joined your charming community and this is my "Virgin Transmission", as it were.
Maki

Aloha! Thought it would be fun to join and post my work cubicle in the forum. Hope you like.

[ Edited by: Dave 2007-08-13 19:46 ]

Hey Guys, just found the forum, so hola, or aloha. I just started carving tikis as a pass time. I will try to get some pictures up soon.

Aloha Tiki Centralites,
After years (2) of lurking on your forums I've decided to turn in my badge and become a legit member. I just got back from Tiki Oasis 7 and met so many wonderful, friendly and talented people I feel honored to join such an incredible community. Now that I've met many of the TC'ers, lurking felt kinda "Peeping Tomish" and wrong. So here I am in all my underwhelming glory.

I am hoping your brilliant writing skills and creativity are contagious.

Aloha TC!

I am new to Tiki Central and just thought I'd get out there. I've surfed your forums and it's great to see others as passionate about the Polynesian culture as I am. From news to art, there is a lot (I think) this site has to offer.

Professionally, I'm a nursing home administrator and I take care of the elderly all day every day. I enjoy what I do. It's the most challenging job I've ever done yet it's the most rewarding. Sometimes stress levels run high and that's where Tiki Central comes in. TC seems like a great reason to think about something else and have fun!

Mahalo,

hapa hawai 'i