Digga Digga Doo, by Artist Brad Parker

For those of you unfamiliar with Tiki Farm - they are the world’s largest manufacturer of ceramic Tiki mugs, with estimates of over 1000 designs and 2 million mugs being produced. Yet with all that volume, they’re products remain unique, high quality, and a very kool. Chances are if you’ve been to a Tiki bar, you’ve drunk (drank? drinked?) from the Tiki Farm mug.

For Spring 2010 they’ve introduced some kookie new themes, including the Sunrise Tiki Mug, the first mug by Tiki Farm to feature a 4-color process art print fire-glazed in. (Art by Scott Scheidly). Can you say, “Instant Collectible”?

Modern Primitive Tiki Mug by Artist Philippe Tilikete

Personally, I am digging the Modern Primitive Tiki Mug by Philippe Tilikete, and the Frankie’s Tiki Room’s “Maile Kula” Tiki Mug with it’s Art Deco styling.

The BEST part about Tiki Farm mugs is that they don’t rip your wallet to shreds with prices. All these great, collectible pieces are priced between ten and twenty clams each, so unless you’re stocking a bar for 100 guests, these usable works of art can be yours for a song. They’re strong to, so you really can use them when you’re not displaying them. After all, what’s the fun of having a Tiki bar if you’re not drinking from the groovy mugs?

Make sure you poke around all of Tiki Farm’s website. It’s a fun site with lots of kool features, and they sell more than just mugs. Sometimes they feature stuff you can’t find anywhere else. And for a little rero-Tiki silliness visit the Tiki Theater. It’s all loads of laughs with some swingin’ tunes and a few surprises.

Sunset Tiki Mugs with 4-Color Imaging

In case you’re wondering, no I don’t get paid for pushing their stuff. The people at Tiki Farm probably never even heard of me, or Tiki Lounge Talk - I’m laying this down for you kats and kittens out of the kindness of my little ole’ heart because I want the world to know how much fun living the Tiki life can be. And, I got a really good deal on a Volcano Bowl from those guys at Tiki Farm, so I feel I sort of owe them.

So order a few mugs, and in a couple of days you’ll be sittin’ pretty in the spring sunshine, sipping a Zombie from one of these beauts. Or you’ll be sitting in your kitchen looking out the window at four feet of snow, drinking a Zombie from one of these beauts. Either way, you can’t lose, kiddo.

-Tiki Chris reporting from Sunny South Florida

Peter Sellers plays an Indian actor named Hrundi V. Bakshi who is trying desperately to get his big break in American films. As you might expect, he does more harm than good on the set and gets himself put on the black list, only to be accidentally put on the invitation list to the big Hollywood shindig instead. Add every 1960s mod movie gag in the book, hot women, pot smoking musicians and a baby elephant and you can’t miss. And I guarantee, for the rest of your days every time you see a parrot, you’ll want to call him Birdy Num Num.

You’ll have to put yourself in the era to enjoy this flick - it’s not exactly action-packed, and there’s no real story, just one funny scene after another. (According to IMDB: “This film was improvised from a 56-page outline. Each scene was shot in sequence, and built upon the previous scene. To aid in this experiment, the film’s producers had a video-camera tube attached to the Panavision camera and connected to an Ampex studio videotape machine, allowing the actors and crew to review what they had just filmed.”)

Since the movie is about a big swingin’ Hollywood party in 1968, suitable fare should include fondue, caviar, California salad and cucumber sandwiches. For drinks, Champagne would be grand, or Beefeater Martinis for the cocktail set.

-Tiki Chris for Tiki Lounge Talk

In the 1930s, the call would have been: “Tune in to WTLT Tiki Lounge Talk Radio, 1040 on your AM dial, for Topical News, Tropical Weather, and Exotic Cocktail Concoctions.”

In the 1950s it would have been: “Hey you kraaaaazy kats and kittens, dig in and set your peepers to WTLT-TV Channel 7, the swingin’ place to meet face to face with hep cats, hip kats, swingers, hipsters, flipsters and all-night tripsters. Can you dig it, baby? Then pull up a V.O. Manhattan and get fabulous.”

In the 70s it would have been “Breaker 1-9, got yer ears on good buddy? Dial in to the Tiki Lounge, get some suds and go-go juice and join the convoy all the way to Fort Lauderdale! Don’t worry about Smokey the Bear on yer backdoor, put the pedal to the metal and keep on truckin’! Over and out.”

And in the 90s it would have been 20 minutes of statticky beeps, bongs, whirs and whistles, followed by a busy signal, then another half hour of beeps and bongs, then “You’ve got mail!” Several minutes later your black and white screen would show jaggedy type saying something like “Does anyone remember what a Tiki Bar is?” with a little line drawing of a Tiki Bar, cockeyed from being scanned in quickly at work while no one was looking.

Ah, the old days. Not so easy to get a message out then. Now, if I want to tell people about Conversations at the Tiki Bar, all I have to do is broadcast it on Twitter, post it on Facebook, or run a cheap pay-per-click ad on Google.

So, in an attempt to spread the good word of living the retro & Tiki life, I thought I’d post a few links here to help you follow our antics. Tell your friends; pass the links along and tell them if they’re truly kool they will follow that swingin’ hipster Tiki Chris aka ChrisPFLorida aka Mack aka Zoot on Twitter, be a fan on Facebook, get email updates as a subscriber, Digg the posts, and bookmark TLT on delicious! (whew, so many ways for me to annoy you and your friends!)

So here goes:

Follow me on Twitter: @ChrisPFlorida

Be a fan of Tiki Lounge Talk on Facebook

Follow TLT Posts on Blogger

Subscribe to new  posts via email (100% spam free) –> enter your email in the field in the side bar!

Get RSS feeds for the Tiki Blog

See a funny video on YouTube

And always feel free to leave a comment, so the conversations aren’t too one-sided!

So there you go - in the ‘teens it will be: Follow me, fan me, friend me and feed me, Seymour!”

-Tiki Chris for Tiki Lounge Talk, the Retro Blog for kool kool kiddies.

Sky Captain

Direct from the Tiki Blog - When I started Mod Movie Mondays, I said they might not always be mod, and they might not always be old. Here’s a flick that will have anyone into Art Deco, retro-30’s style and the sci-fi future of yesteryear drooling.

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, 2004

Beautifully created Art Deco sets inspired by the work of Norman Bel Geddes (of 1930s World’s Fairs fame) transport you back to an alternative history, a 1930s New York where retro-futuristic technology co-exists with fat-fendered cars, where ray guns are real and Nazis are more interested in flying luxury airships than conquering the world. So if Nazis aren’t the nemises in this pre-WW2 adventure, who is? An evil scientist, of course, played by Sir Lawrence Olivier (yes, he was long dead at the time this movie was made - they made fantastic use of B&W archive footage!)

Sky Captain is an airplane pilot who flies a modified P-40 fighter (it not only flies, it’s a submarine). His mission is to protect the world, basically, from anyone who tries to crack things up. When a small army of giant iron robots lands in the Big Apple and start tearing things apart, Sky Captain swoops in. The story progresses from there in a 1930s comic book-style and takes him to exotic lands like Shangri La.

But enough about the story, time to talk about why this flick is being featured here. As I said, the sets are incredible - works of art in every scene. And almost none of it was real - this was one of the first full-length movies to be filmed almost entirely in front of a blue screen, with all of the sets digitally sequenced in. Some sets came from actual photographs, some from vintage art, and the rest were created electronically just for the film. What this translates into is a work of art on a moving canvas living behind the action of the actors. If you like the retro life, you will wish you lived in this movie.

Since the action takes place mainly in 1930s New York of the Future, I’d suggest a retro-futuristic dinner and drinks. Try a deli style sandwich platter of corned beef, roast beef, Swiss or Havarti cheese, and coleslaw on marble rye, served up on your favorite Jetsons-style dishes with a side of waffle fries. For dessert, Dove chocolate ice cream banana splits in Art Deco, blimp-shaped bowls. And for the drinks - Highballs, Slow Gin Fizzes, and of course, Manhattans, served in your finest futuristic stemware.

-Tiki Chris Pinto for Tiki Lounge Talk, South Florida’s Swingin’ Scene for Retro Hipsters and Tiki Lovers

A few weeks ago, I was following a thread on Twitter among some Tiki fans who were discussing a cool Tiki desktop fountain they found at Walgreens up North. My good friend Matt (twitter @k9radiotiki) posted a photo of it, and of course I had to have one. I motored the Caddy down to the nearest Walgreens, and nope! They didn’t have em.

I checked out two more in the area and they didn’t have em either. So I reported back on Twitter that couldn’t find one, and a week later I got one in the mail from Matt, no charge. Just goes to show there are still some very groovy people out there! Thanks again buddy, the little Tiki fountain has found a place of honor on the Tiki Bar!

http://twitter.com/FtLauderdaleSun

Who takes photos of the sunrise off Fort Lauderdale Beach daily, and uploads them to Twitter and

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ftlauderdale

I won’t post any of the photos here, (because that would be stealing) so you’ll have to click the links or follow them on Twitter to see these beautiful photos every day. Let me tell you, they really are great photos, and they’re taken using an iPhone. Amazing stuff.

Sure, I live a few miles from the beach and can see the sunrise myself whenever I want…but the only time I ever see a sunrise is when I stay up all night! So getting to see these great photos daily is very kool.

-Tiki Chris Pinto for Tiki Lounge Talk

You can vote for us here:

http://interactive.sun-sentinel.com/community/ssblogcontest/voting/?vote_for=79#79

Please vote! If you like what we’ve done here, give us a little smile by casting a vote. You can vote once in each category EVERY DAY, plus you can vote for us for Best Overall Blog.

We seem to be doing best in Pop Culture. I don’t know why we’re in Travel, and I think the other blogs in that category are better suited to that award…but We’d love to get that first place in Pop Culture, and hell, even defies category! So please log on daily (through March 5) and vote! It would be a real gas if we swiped the jackpot, baby!

The Groove Tube, 1974

Starring Ken Shapiro, Chevy Chase, Richard Beltzer and ensemble.

In the 60s and early 70s modern ’sketch’ comedy was still new, and Channel One Theater in New York was one of the groups pioneering this off-beat sort of comedy. From that was born The Groove Tube, written and directed by Ken Shapiro of Channel One.

As always I won’t give anything away, but I can give you a basic idea of what you’re going to see. The viewer is to believe they are not watching a movie, but TV in a world where nudity, adult themes, far-out trips, cursing and unbound comedy is uncensored. After the opening credits (which spoofs 2001-A Space Odyssey and features music by Curtis Mayfield) the viewer seems to be watching a TV that someone else is controlling…changing stations, watching commercials, etc. (much like Robot Chicken does today (except with real people instead of toys)). (wow, that’s a (lot of) brackets!) Each sketch is a full commercial or part of a TV show, and include such greats as Koko the Clown, Brown-25 from The Uranus Corporation,  a commercial for “Geritan”, Chevy Chase singing “I’m looking over a four leaf clover”, and “Channel One Evening News.”

Although Shapiro played the anchor on the Evening News, the skit and its tagline, ‘Good night and have a pleasant tomorrow,’ were taken along to Saturday Night Live with Chevy Chase, and live on today as Weekend Update.

This movie pulled out all the stops, using full-frontal nudity, drug use, prostitution, and silliness in a truly funny way. I also believe this was the first and only time a grown man in a suit, hat and brief case danced through the streets of New York singing “Just me, Just You” and lived to tell about it.

Seriously, this movie is funny as hell. I waited 25 years to see it and wasn’t disappointed. Back in 1975, when it was playing at the Towne-4 movie theater next to the Searstown Mall in Pleasantville, NJ, my family wanted to see it. The TV commercials made it look like a straight-up comedy (without the raunchiness), and the newspaper ad showed it as being rated “G” (it’s actually rated R). When we got to the movies, and I still remember this clearly, the pretty young girl at the ticket counter told my my parents “Aw, you don’t want to take him in there”, to which they said, “But it’s rated G”, to which she replied, “Oh no, sorry about that. The paste up guy at the newspaper didn’t do the ad right and the “R” slipped off the ad, if you look at the paper again you’ll see the “R” overlapping the ad under it.” How about that, huh? So I didn’t get to see it. Considering I was 7, it’s probably a good thing.

It wasn’t until the early 2000’s when I finally found the DVD available on the internet that I was able to see it. I gotta tell you, even after 35 years it still is funny, and has some shock value.

This is some pretty low-brow comedy so for a drink & snacks I’d say cheap beer and chips all the way. Miller High Life and Doritos would be very 70s. If you’re not a beer drinker, then Jack on the rocks, and Herrs potato chips. Some New Yawk style pizza too. Watch it by the glow of a Lava Lamp and a Spencer’s Gifts fiber-optic tree for full effect, man. Yeah.

-Tiki Chris for Tiki Lounge Talk

Converstaions at the Tiki Bar

A perspective, ala Beatsville

This riff is a little off topic for Tiki Lounge Talk, but it has been a conversation at the Tiki Bar between my old lady and I, so it gets laid down on the score, ya dig?

Who the hell gives a flip what scene Tiger made, except for maybe his old lady?

Oh sure, we all dig ripping on some cat who got caught with his paw in the cookie jar. And dig it, Tiger Man did bust up on one of the 10 Commandments: Thou shalt not swing with another hip chick while the hen is roosting in the coop, unless of course thy old lady riffs to that krazy scene.

So the flipsters and spinners that hit the airwaves are making big bones about this cat’s high-infidelity. Soakin’ up the green, that’s all they’re in it for, no matter that it splatters the cat’s rep like a frog in a blender.

As the Big Man once said, “let ye who has not blown a sour note or riffed a bad scale cast the first stone, baby.” I say, if the man wants to goof on golf balls and knock around with some chicks, that’s nobody’s jazz but his own. Leave the cat alone and let him swing, both with golf club and kittens.

Are you hip?

- Darrin C. M. Buckley, for the Tiki Lounge Tiki Blog

Hollywood was founded in 1925 by a visionary named Joseph Young who wanted to build his dream city in Florida. It quickly became a thriving city, with beachfront hotels, beautiful homes, and a busy downtown area. This downtown was first built up in the mid to late 20s, with some slowing during the depression and WW2. It found a resurgence in the 50s, as many vacation spots did, and had a building boom through the 60s. This history led to a unique combination of early Art Deco construction, Spanish-Floridian construction, and Mid-Century Modern.

It’s amazing that these buildings were able to survive through the architectual vacuum of the 70s and 80s, but some managed to hang on with their original look intact. The late 90s saw a re-popularization of the original styles, and luckily the popularization has remained through the present leading to numerous restorations, retro-refitting of more recent dull buildings, and dig this…brand new construction in the Art Deco and Mid-Century style. Seriously. (continued after the slide show)

I was able to get some very nice shots of the Art Deco and Mid-Century Modern buildings along the boulevard. One of my favorite buildings is the Great Southern Hotel, located on the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Young’s Circle. I believe Young himself had this hotel built as part of the city plan back in the mid 20’s. It has a sort of Florida-Spanish style combined with that 1920s pre-Deco look you see in a lot of shore towns. What the hell do I mean by that? Basically it means simplicity, symmetry, and terra cotta.

There are a good number of trendy nightclubs and cafés along the boulevard, and most of them have stuck with the retro look. It’s nice to see people taking these historic styles seriously, and appreciating them for the timeless beauty they portray.

***

Funny story about The Great Southern hotel. When we first moved to Florida in 2000, my wife and I took a drive to Hollywood to check it out. At that time it was in a state of change; a lot of stores were vacant, and still looked like they did in the 70s. I noticed the big white hotel on the corner, and thought to myself that it looked really familiar, but couldn’t place it. Mind you this is the first trip I ever took to Hollywood. Anyway, a few years later in 2005, I end up working in a building on Hollywood Boulevard a couple of blocks from downtown. While there I picked up a local paper, which happened to have a story about “The Great Southern Hotel” on the cover. The story was about how the owners wanted to tear it apart to put up a parking garage, how the city didn’t see anything wrong with that, and how the historical society was about ready to commit murder if necessary before letting that happen. The name rung a bell…but I still couldn’t catch it. Then one day it came to me…where I’d seen that name. It was in a movie, which I ran out and bought right away.

There it was, in one of the last scenes of Midnight Cowboy from 1967. Joe Buck and Ratzo Rizzo are headed down to Miami on a bus. The bus stops for a break, and Joe Buck ditches his cowboy outfit and boots for a Hawaiian shirt. As he shoves the boots into a trash can, you can clearly see a giant white building with the name “Great Southern Hotel” in giant letters in the background. That was it; a scene in a movie I had seen when I was about 13 had stuck in my head for years…and as fate would have it, I wind up working down the street from the place. But here’s what’s even more interesting: One of the themes of the movie is that the characters want to get out of the city, out of the cold, away from the freaks up north and down to sunny Florida where the palm trees sway and you can pick the oranges right off the trees. Well, my father and I used to joke around about it all the time, that we had the same dream. Finally, in 2000, he, my wife and I made it down here. “Everybody’s Talkin’ at Me” from the movie was going through my head as we crossed the Georgia border into Florida. The sun actually was shining through the pouring rain as we drove down I-95 into Fort Lauderdale. My father, who was very sick at the time, made it down right behind us, but unlike Ratzo lived a few years to enjoy it. Whenever I see the Great Southern I think of him, and how we both got our dream to come true.

(This is a repost from last year, but it was such a popular one I thought I’d give it another view)
-Tiki Chris Pinto, for the Tiki Blog