L-to-R: Treasure Craft mug with jewelled eyes, OMC Fu Manchu mug, OMC Pointed Headdress mug, Hawaiian tiki shot glass with leather neck thong
L-to_R: a pair of fired-clay Ku statuettes, Hawaiian monkeypod Ku, Coco Joe's Ku, Trader Vic's S&P shakers
Mrs. BH and I have the week off from work, so we undertook a 400-mile antiquing marathon roadtrip yesterday and scored a whole bunch of cool Tiki schwag...dirt-cheap. We found most of it at a huge antique mall in
Colombus, WI. Mugs and carvings at antique stores are usually marked up to ridiculous prices, so it was nice not to have to fork over a ton of moolah for a change. I was especially happy to finally get my hands on the vintage Fu Manchu and pointed-headdress mugs. The weird little monkeypod Ku was pretty unique as well, it looks almost Cubist in its design. As big as the mall was, I was a bit surprised that this was all I could scrounge up, but that's the Midwest for you. I've always said that I shoulda built a Bavarian Bierstube downstairs, because then I would've been able to stock it from floor-to-ceiling with old beersteins, which are a dime-a-dozen 'round here.
To celebrate our scores, we stopped at a old-school downtown diner in Colombus and lunched upon excellent Reuben sammiches with sauerkraut made from scratch, and corned beef. Delish!
The only sour note of our tiki deathmarch was played by our new car, a Honda Insight hybrid. It's a great city car, but it does poorly on the highway. Its suspension is stiffer than a truck, the engine is seriously underpowered, and it's very squirrely in a strong crosswind. By the time we arrived back home, my arms were aching from trying to keep it from being blown off the road. Fortunately, the 45 mpg we were getting helped eased the pain somewhat.
I've been taking cocktail photographs for a couple of years now, and my first efforts were not very impressive, if I do say so myself. Apparently, I've improved significantly, because a couple of weeks ago, Christie (Tiki Kiliki) White asked me to shoot some photos of her signature drink, the Kiliki Cooler, to use with the materials she's sending out to promote The Hukilau in Fort Lauderdale this year. Needless to say, I was honored, and more than happy to do it.
