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With the current Tiki Revival's emphasis on the mid-20th century, it's sometimes easy to forget that there was a much earlier age of Polynesian Pop. In a fascinating bit of musical detective work, Ukulelia reveals how a play that ripped off Madame Butterfly and "the worst song ever written" may have sparked America's first love affair with Hawaiian music. [Link]
Opening presents on Christmas Eve and telling strangers on the Internets about them is a tradition in the Bali Hai household. This year I received a particularly fine haul.
L-to-R: Tiki Farm Ono Lono mug, Extraordinarily Deluxe DVD Version of Monty Python and the Holy Grail, 2-volume set of Oceanic Art books, Tiki Farm "Lil' Lucky" Las Vegas shot mug, Trader Vic's Tiki Party book, Borders gift card, Tiki Farm Sufferin' Bastard decanter.
My east-coast drinkin' buddy, Vern, travels almost as much as I do. He visited Korea recently and posted some nifty photographs of Changseung, traditional Korean village guardian totems, in this Tiki Central thread. The fine-looking fellow in the picture above is located near a tunnel dug under the DMZ by the North Korean military.
Long-time readers of the Goof may recall that one of my earliest posts documented my own trip to Korea where I also took a shine to the many Changseung I encountered in my travels. You can see a couple of photos of them in my Flickr set, Travels With Mr. BaliHai.
If that's not enough for you, check out these fine galleries of Changseung (or Jangseung) at the Life In Korea website:
Tiki Chris mailed me a copy of his travelogue, The Law of the Island. It's full of great photographs and interesting tales about his trip to the Navel of the World, Rapa Nui. It's always been on my "must-visit" list, and this book is really whetting my appetite to go there. Chris also maintains a blog about the island called Rapa Nui News. Check it out.
[Link: The Law of the Island]
[Link: Rapa Nui News]
Today's tiki scores include these two fine Orchids of Hawaii mugs I picked up in Stillwater, MN. The mug on the left is a fairly common R-71 Ku figure, and was mislabeled as a "Hawaiian Vase". There was actual dirt still inside of it. Philistines! I paid far too much for the lovely R-73A hula girl mug, but I just couldn't bear to leave her dancing forlornly on that shelf, surrounded by dirty drinking glasses.
Dig this fantastically seamy 1959 conventioneer's guide to the Windy City; it's chockablock with exotic strippers hula dancers like Miss Sunny Daye (pictured above), and long-lost cocktail lounge/strip joints like the Tradewinds and Club Aloha. Blogger and former Chicagoan, Iowahawk, provides humorous and informative color commentary to accompany these scans.
[Link: Welcome Conventioneer's (slightly NSFW)]
Swanky just posted scans of an amazing fold-out menu and naughty embossed matchbooks from Harry "Sugie" Sugarman's Tropics, a restaurant and cocktail lounge that saw its heyday back in 1930s Hollywood. Check out the priceless list of celebrity cocktails like the Untamed, "One drink, and you're tighter -- than Lana Turner's sweater." [Link]
Meanwhile, Mimi over at Arkiva Tropika keeps posting gems like this promotional table card/brochure from the Hilton Hawaiian Village. I just can't get enough of that clean-lined, mid-century graphics design. [Link]
I paid a visit to a local junque shoppe over my lunch break today and picked up this small Maori mask and Hawaiian Lucky Tiki souvenir mug for a grand total of $4!
Life is good.
I took the day off to recover from jet lag, and decided to spend some time browsing through the vast piles of paper ephemera at our local antique mall. After only a few minutes of digging, I was thrilled to discover this gorgeous Art Deco illustration of a Tahitian princess and her retinue, done by French artiste Léon Carré for a 1927 issue of the weekly news magazine, L'Illustration.
The text at the bottom reads, Elle passait les beures de grand soleil à l'abri sur une plate-forme ombragée. My French is excremental, so if anyone would be so kind as to translate that into English for me, I'd be most grateful.
Update: my friend Jonathan informs me that the above translates: she spent the hottest hours of the day under a shelter on a shady platform.
I met up with The Cartoonist, Plep, and Tiki Chris at the Mahiki in Mayfair on Friday evening last weekend, and whiled away several pleasant hours chatting, eating puu-puus, and sampling the Mahiki's excellent (and pricey) cocktails. Quite a few of the drinks on the menu were unavailable that night, but we were able to try out the Mahiki Mai Tai, Zombie, and everyone's favorite, the Coconut Grenade, served in a real coconut perched atop a Trader Vic's skull mug. Here's a smallish, scan of the Mahiki's nicely illustrated drink menu [Link]
Here's what we looked like after drinking all of that. I'd show you the picture of us receiving the bill, but who wants to see 4 grown men weeping uncontrollably? Not me.
Speaking of gigantic bills, I went to the London Trader Vic's the following evening for a nosh and a cocktail before heading over the West End to see Spamalot. A Cosmo Tidbits platter, fried rice with duck, a Mai Tai, and a Navy Grog set me back 47 quid ($92!)
Check out Ace Jackalope's photo essay of the London Vic's [Link], and let your mind be boggled at the horrendous prices they're charging for mugs! London has never been what I would consider a travel bargain, especially Mayfair, but these days it's getting downright ridiculous! Looks like I'll be back again next year, and just in time for the "London Luau 2007", but I may have to take out a 3rd mortgage to afford it.