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

I was born the third son of a dysthymic electrical lineman and a naïve Catholic woman who lost her virginity to said man at age 34, unexpectedly becoming pregnant with his bastard child. Not that a bastard is a bad thing, after all if not for this first undesired pregnancy and the next one that followed, I never would have had my chance to be the third to blossom without intent in my mother’s womb and finally find my way to this earth.

My childhood was full of all the usual meaningless dribble which we all look back on with great fondness as though we each had something special that no one outside of out immediate circle of existence at the time could ever possibly understand. Put bug in a jar, poke holes in jar lid, discover bug dead the next day. Genius. Scribble a circle with a yellow crayon and a box with a black crayon and tell mom it’s your house and the sun. Stupendous.

But then 1972 arrived, and two miraculous things happen. First, in November, Bobby found this Tiki idol at a construction site and discovered the taboo curse associated with it, and he had to bring it to the ancient burial ground or bad luck would have followed him forever. Then a month later, I walk into the lobby of the Polynesian Resort at Walt Disney World for the first time. Angels sing, trumpets blow, and parrots . . . well they make that awful sound they make. Without a doubt I’ll find my own Tiki idol in this yet undiscovered magical place where Hawaiian steel guitars can be heard under water in the pool, and each night real Polynesian Hula dancers greet guests who come for the luau. The music, the flowers, the waterfalls – it’s everything I could ask for, even if most of it was just created out of concrete and plastic one year ago.

And that little spark of joy still strikes me each time I walk into faux-waii to this day. In fact the joy might be even a little greater now that I’m old enough to walk into the Mai Kai and suck down a Barrel O’ Rum or two. Sure, all this Tiki stuff started with WWII soldiers and sailors yada yada yada. But so what. This is MY Tiki fantasy now. And it involves Disney, and rum, and my Ukulele, and rum, and orchids, and rum, and pork cooked any way anyone cares to serve it to me. And rum.

So there’s my story, straight from my brain without edit just like Ginsberg would have wanted it. I would go back and proof read it all but I’ve already put this in an envelope and stamped it and sent it off to Tiki Central.

I’m looking forward to exploring here. And maybe I’ll find that Tiki idol some day.

I have been a long time reader of this site and though I thought I had made an official Moniker long ago, it appears I was mistaken! Soooo... Here is My official introduction.

I live in Milwaukee, WI and I have been collecting Tiki-wares for almost 14 years. I've had 2 different home bars (neither of them very well documented) both called Papa Tiki's and I own about 75 ceramic mugs and many other doodads. At some point I will post up pictures of my collection, but in the meantime... Aloha!

Hello,

New member here from Long Island NY and a fan of Tiki Bars!

We rebuilt our Tiki bar after hurricane Sandy destroyed it, this is what it looks like now....

Hello! I am excited to be part of this group!

My name is Sandra Fremgen and I am an artist and dancer living in Los Angeles. As a dancer, my first loves were swing and ballet. After my honeymoon in Hawaii, I discovered how much fun Tahitian dancing is, how graceful Hula is and how thrilling Knife dancing is. I love sewing the costumes together and bringing the joy of hawaii to the audiences at the LA county fairs (where our dance class performed).

As an artist, I LOVE the aesthetics of the retro cool mid century modern, the fun of polynesian and the cuteness of Hello Kitty. I have wondered how could I combine all of my loves to tell stories through my paintings? Hence, I came up with "Panda and Me," an ongoing art series about a Panda spy and the gorgeous women who keep him in line. It's a little bit Mad Men, Austin Powers and Disney's Enchanted Tiki Room.

I am including some photos of my art. If you want to see more, please visit http://www.PandaandMe.com
I love feedback! Please let me know what you think... what kinds of adventures can you see Panda getting into?

Sincerely,

Sandra Fremgen
http://www.PandaandMe.com
[email protected]

Such interesting people... I've been at this a while, but maybe I need to spice up my back story a little... or maybe my front story. (?) Anyway, welcome, welcome all!

Welcome to TC Sandra, checked out your site and love your art. You paint some stunning women! Wow...

I agree...lot's of interesting new people. Welcome to TC...we look forward to your contributions and and sharing of Tiki interests.

You aren't kidding....these new people are really putting it out there. It's like a contest or something.

Doc, your humor bowled me over. Very fun introduction. Papa & Bad Parrott, can't wait to see more of your tiki collection. Sandra, your art is great and your costumes is beautiful.

Welcome everyone.

• Dale
  (slinking off to update my introduction...something like "Hi, I like tikis and have some." just ain't cutting it anymore.)

Thank you everybody for a warm welcome!

I'm looking forward to getting to know you. Before joining this forum, I was only really aware of the art and dancing aspects of the Tiki World. I am blown away by how big the Tiki World actually is... and how enthusiastic people are here. :wink:

Very cool! Thanks again,

Sandra

On 2002-03-24 04:10, hanford_lemoore wrote:
Okay, so if you're new to Tiki Central, or if you're an old Club/Group member who changed their username when they moved over to this board, please, post who you are here~.
hi im new here and wanted to say hello. I grew up in california but every summer traveled to hawaii, as my dad had a travel agency and tours to hawaii.
I always loved polynesian culture etc. Recently, my dad passed away and I came into possesion of a large tiki staue that i had see since i was 5 years old. Im, 60 yo now. Any way Im trying to find outmore about the tiki. Love to hear from others who can tell me more about it. I found out it is from the marquesan islands. Its at leasst 60 plus years old and about 4-5 feet tall. heavy wood and about 200-300 pounds.

~Hanford

[ Edited by: Hakalugi - edited title for better search hits - 2013-07-22 10:31 ]

[ Edited by: yellowtail4264 2014-04-13 19:16 ]

[ Edited by: yellowtail4264 2014-04-13 19:17 ]

[ Edited by: yellowtail4264 2014-04-13 19:20 ]

Very cool Tiki, can you tell us where it was when you were 5? Also, what year that would that have been?

On 2014-04-08 14:44, SandraFremgen wrote:

I am including some photos of my art. If you want to see more, please visit http://www.PandaandMe.com
I love feedback! Please let me know what you think... what kinds of adventures can you see Panda getting into?

Sandra - LOVE your art work. One of my closest friends is a big burly Scottese (Scottish / Chinese) man we all lovingly refer to as "Panda". I do believe his Facebook wall is about to get SATURATED with your artwork (with links and credits, of course!). I'm hoping your panda character has a Facebook page of his own because I'd love to follow him. I'll be looking for him on the big blue F.

Hello,

My name is Jefferson. I have a tiki mask that my Great Uncle got in WWII. I don't know much about the origin of the mask or it's value. I have searched, but do not find any like it.

It was given to me as a gift several years ago and I am very proud to have it on my wall. Can anyone give me an idea of what I have? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you very much!

This does not look like it has the age or patina of an item from WWII era.
Don't really want to call it a Tiki, more of a Kitsch wall art thing.

Hope this helps, I can see you are really into tiki by the sign to the left of the wall thing.
Welcome to TC.

The patina is not right because the mask was in my Great Uncle's house when another room caught fire. When I inherited this piece, I cleaned off the smoke damage and put floor wax on the mask to protect the wood.

The mask was taken as a "war trophy" in WWII by my Great Uncle in the South Pacific...that's the family story. I have found similar masks from the Philippines, but none exactly like this one.

And...thank you for the welcome.

Jeffro
try posting it here.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?topic=43241&forum=5&start=285&289

Might get more eyes on it, welcome to TC.

Hello All, my name is Chris, but Im not even sure my parents know my birth name anymore, so Diggs or Diggler is easier to remember. Anyway, just wanted to say hello and glad I came across the site.. I am in the process of rebuilding my tiki bar on the Jersey Coast (real Jersey Shore, not that imported NY crap!) and thought I would get some inspiration. AMAZING artists and dedicated enthusiasts here, great to see!! Ill poke around a bit and Im sure I'll be reaching out to a few people. Thanks for making my day! Cheers!

Welcome to the group Diggler. Please remember to post pics of your rebuild because we love that kind of thing around here. :)

• Dale

Hey, My name is Susan I am a student studying at UC Berkeley. I am taking a archaeology course and our focus is discarded ceramics from TEPCO. My assemblage consists of tiki artifacts primarily manufactured for trader vic's.
I've been able to identify most of my artifacts but i'm having some trouble with one of them.
It's not the regal or imperial vase from page 59 of the TEPCO catalog so it really has me stumped.
Think Ya'll can help?

Thanks A Ton!
-Susan (:

Hellllllllloooooooooo sssuuusssaaannn!

Diggler,

Always nice to see another from NJ around these parts. Welcome!

I'm in Monroe Township, Middlesex County. Where are you at?

Aloha all! My name is Jerry (hence the handle) -- a new Tiki Central member. We recently moved to the Columbia, SC, area, and I'm trying to find if there's a local group of tikiphiles who gather occasionally at a restaurant or bar somewhere in the middle of the state. (There's a great group like this in the Washington, DC area, where we used to live.) Any tiki socializing happening in the midlands of SC?

On 2014-04-29 16:04, Atomic Tiki Punk wrote:
Hellllllllloooooooooo sssuuusssaaannn!

Hey (:

Jerry, welcome aboard. Welcome to South Carolina (land of no tiki) and Tiki Central (Tiki Nirvana). :) I honestly don't know of anyone or group that does a gathering in our state. There is not a lot of tiki to be found in these parts and if you do find something it is usually covered with parrots and tied to Jimmy Buffett or Kenny Chesney...at least that has been my luck. I had luck finding the occasional mug in a flea market, but almost everything I have in my collection has come from ebay or fellow collectors.

• Dale

[ Edited by: littlegiles 2014-04-30 05:26 ]

Thanks, Dale. On Critiki it looks like the interesting tiki places are several hours from us -- Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Greenville, and of course Trader Vic's in Atlanta. We are actually closer to Camden than to Columbia. I'd settle for a good Chinese restaurant with a good tropical drink menu. Or a restaurant that is EITHER a good Chinese restaurant or one with a good tropical drink menu!

Any other folks on this board in the Columbia-Rock Hill vicinity or adjoining rural areas?

On 2014-03-12 18:12, dktikidaddy wrote:
Hello all....I was a member here before but its been awhile since I logged in. Had to re-register...I guess my user name was booted out of the system. It's good to be back!

hey welcome back!!! I remember you!!!!

I'm new too. Welcome and hello!

My girlfriend and I will soon be embarking on our tiki mocktail adventure!

(Some of my bar supplies and ingredients are arriving today, woot!)

Welcome, Pablo!

Those first few drinks are a lot of fun. :) It can be challenging to get all the ingredients together to make a good selection. If you have an iOS device, check out Beachbum Berry's Total Tiki app, which will tell you which drinks you can make with the ingredients you have (and suggest additional ingredients to make more drinks!).

Great tip, thank you!

Yes, it's a lot to take in. : ) I just ordered the BG Reynolds Don's Mix, Falernum Syrup, Ginger and Passion Fruit to start, plus Coco Lopez and Coco Real (to compare).

It's going to be an adventure!

(And I can finally get some use out of my tiki mugs, ha!)

Aloha folks! Long-time visitor, new poster here.

Although I'd been known to kit out my cubical at work with tropical plants, garlands, tiki masks, mugs, and a dashboard hula girl over 13 years ago, I started my tiki adventure in earnest about eight years ago, shortly after I became involved in the broader cocktail revival. The music and the cocktails came first, then little by little the decor started creeping into the home.

I was greatly inspired by a visit to B.G. Reynolds' impressive home bar back in '08 or '09 and, after securing permission from the wahine, I started converting our downstairs spare room into a tiki bar. This was ostensibly in order to prevent the growing liquor collection from taking over the entire house.

I had moved 20 some-odd cases of booze downstairs, started putting up lauhala matting, and was well on the way to my hidden tropical paradise in the basement when the wife asks "So, why didn't you want to put the bar upstairs where it's more convenient and there's more room?" The honest answer was "It never occurred to me that you'd let me!" "Oh, no, I think it would be fun!" Who knew?

So now our former dining room is known as Kalákalá Tú and you can visit its FB page at facebook.com/KalakalaTu.

Hopefully by this summer we'll be ready to start hosting some parties! If you're in the Seattle area, drop me a line!

Mahalo!

~ K2

[ Edited by: Kalakala 2014-05-04 14:24 ]

awesome tiki pad, and welcome!

Kalakala...your place is great and those peacock chairs are fabulous. Welcome to TC.

Welcome! Great bar and cool FB page! And you're lucky to have a gal who's on board with your tiki-tastic project! : )

Love the framed portrait of Donn and the photo of his early bar. Nice touch. :)

Stumbled across this site when looking up information on some mugs I came across this weekend so I thought I would introduce myself and this seemed the spot to do it in!

Been collecting tiki stuff for a few years and have always loved a good cocktail so I look forward to exploring this site and seeing what else is out there that I can hunt for.

Amy :)

On 2014-05-05 08:05, TikiTacky wrote:
Love the framed portrait of Donn and the photo of his early bar. Nice touch. :)

Good catch. I couldn't not. The photos on the other side of the bar are pretty cool, too:

My great grandmother (right) and great aunt, 1934:

My mom, c. 1947:

My mom, 1962, tending bar. She became a lounge singer around this time.

Kalakala, thanks for all the awesome pics. Hope to meet you sometime either when I'm visiting my brother in Seattle or you visit us here in PDX!

And I love the idea of a Facebook page for the home bar...might have to do that myself!

Hi there!

I'm new to Tiki Central (well, I have often read it for information but I have never contributed before)

I have been a fan of tropical cocktails and Tiki pop culture for as long as I can remember and I've just opened an online shop selling Tiki Mugs and Clothing/Accessories in the UK. I thought it was about time I came here and let you guys know about it :)

You can join out Facebook page here to take a look at our efforts to bring these beautiful items to the UK: https://www.facebook.com/ohmaitai

I look forward to learning from you guys :D

Donna x

http://www.ohmaitai.co.uk

Welcome to Tiki Central, Donna! Keep spreading the good word of tiki in the UK!

I looked at your web site, so glad to see you showcase drink recipes for your customers. You may also consider recommending (or selling?) music to your customers. There is quite an interest in tiki/lounge music, and the world of exotica music would be a great addition to your site. You could help educate and inform your customers much in the same way that you have done with your cocktail recipes.

Keep up the good work, and cheers to you!

Thank you for your warm welcome!

I had not thought about music...I actually have some friends in a lounge/tiki/jazz band...I don't know why I had not thought of it. I would need to learn a little more myself before I could confidently start a section for that...feel free to point me in the right direction :D

x

EDIT: I decided just to get stuck in and make a music page. http://www.ohmaitai.co.uk/music.html

[ Edited by: Oh Mai Tai 2014-05-08 03:52 ]

Oh Mai Tai, it's tough to tell you where to start, but you can consider starting with three mainstays of exotica music -- Arthur Lyman, Martin Denny, Les Baxter. These are orchestral exotica guys, and there are more like Robert Drasnin. Then Sven Kirsten published a very good compilation album of tiki music, and that should be available from Amazon.uk. Then there are a diverse and eclectic bunch of other options -- more orchestral stuff from Juan Garcia Esquivel which is roughly from around that period. Then newer stuff from Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica which recreates a lot of Esquivel's stuff. And also music from Combustible Edison. Some surf music has been incorporated into the tiki scene more recently, but at this point, with the suggestions above to get you started, do some looking around with Google by searching for "exotica music" and I'm sure more recommendations will come to you. My personal collection is very diverse. I listen to the Cocktail Nation podcast where I get a lot of "new" material presented to me on a weekly basis. So much more could be said. I know you'll enjoy exploring the music of tiki. Cheers!

And, Oh Mai Tai, I forgot what is potentially the most helpful suggestion of all -- search the forums here on Tiki Central.

I need a drink... :)

On 2014-05-15 00:08, Outrigger_Island wrote:
Aloha! It's Outrigger Island here and I am more than an individual on the path to tiki heaven. I am also chief of THE Outrigger Island in Australia's new chapter of Blazing Swan. What's Blazing Swan..? It's Western Australia's adoption of the Burning Man theory and festival. We just had our first year and it was amazing! Can't wait for round two. I've always been a fan of Polynesian culture and while we don't have much of it here, except for Hula Bula and another new bar opening soon, we are slowly getting there. I'm also sketching out plans for an outside bar at my house as well. Looking forward to meeting and chatting to all you cool cats and kittens.

Brett

Welcome to Tiki Central Brett. If Outrigger Island's contribution to Burning Swan involved Tikis, be sure to start a thread and share some photos!

Cheers!

Hi all!

Been posting for a few days, now, but somehow missed this thread…

I'm a grad student in history from Miami… Also, I teach part time. Been collecting tiki for a few years, now, and got my interest in it from the Enchanted Tiki Room. I've been a Disney fan all of my life and have made many visits to the Polynesian and Walt Disney World. Also, went to Disneyland for the first time a few months ago and totally fell in love with Trader Sam's and the original iteration of the Tiki Room, which got me to go online with my interest and find you all! :)

Meanwhile, I have a blog with mostly Disney/EPCOT history and thematic theory on it, but more tiki is coming soon. http://www.epcotexplorer.tumblr.com

Anyway, happy to be here! Already have gotten a warm welcome from some of you, which is great to see. Mahalo!

Welcome! Cool blog! I'm from New Orleans and went to Disney / EPCOT when I was a kid and was obsessed with EPCOT, haha! Welcome!

And welcome to you as well, Brett + anyone I missed!

On 2014-05-15 15:41, PabTiki wrote:
Welcome! Cool blog! I'm from New Orleans and went to Disney / EPCOT when I was a kid and was obsessed with EPCOT, haha! Welcome!

Thanks! EPCOT's been a lifelong obsession… Especially the early stuff. I miss those days. When did you visit?