TIKI CULTURE

Memories from Hukilau 2010, Fort Lauderdale

There’s nothing like getting a bunch of swingin’ kats and kittens together with island music, vintage threads and lots of rum. Well kids, let me tell you, his year’s Hukilau didn’t disappoint. From tattooed chicks in short skirts and flower leis to guys wearing palm tree shirts and short-brimmed fedoras, the eclectic crowd that swamped Fort Lauderdale was more fun than a barrel of fez-wearing monkeys.

That's me, Tiki Chris with three of my best girls - Colleen, Shannon & Molly

If you’ve been to an event like this (or to this one) you know how much fun can be packed into a couple of rum-drenched days. If you haven’t then you should definitely plan to. Our presence at the event was truncated due to a busy work schedule, but we still had a fantastic time on Friday night, Saturday and Saturday night. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking forward to the Hukilau!

The Hukilau in Fort Lauderdale is this weekend, and I must say that us kats and kittens at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar have been looking forward to this since we left last year’s shindig. This year, we’ll be hitting the Mai Kai for dinner and show with a couple of friends who’ve never seen it…in fact, even though they’ve lived down here in the land of palm trees and Mojitos for years, they’ve never been to the Mai Kai at all. Krazy, huh?

Bahia Cabana, site of the Hukilau

That brings up a point. It amazes me just how little most people know about our little Tiki and Retro culture, even though if you look hard enough, it’s everywhere. The Hukilau is one of the largest Tiki events in the galaxy, and brings in a lot of business to Fort Lauderdale. Yet most of the people I’ve yapped about it to have never even heard of it. Hell, I didn’t find out about it until just a few years ago, and I love this stuff! Maybe it’s best kept as a best kept secret, huh?

As for this  weekend, we’ll be attending the Friday night party and we’ll be at Bahia Cabana during the day on Saturday; we’ll be watching the premier of the Tikimentary ‘In Search of the Lost Paradise’; we’re going to the Wreck Bar for the Mermaid Show and will hit the Mai Kai in the evening. (Note to burglars: We have a very large dog, an cop-wired alarm and a next door neighbor with a shotgun and a coke habbit).

So as far as Tiki Lounge Talk posts go, not sure how things are going to play out in the next couple of days, so you might not hear from me until Sunday. That of course depends on the level of intoxication achieved at The Hukilau, catch my drift? Groovy. And for those swingers going to the big party - see you there kids…just like last year, I’ll be the guy in the Hawaiian shirt!

-Tiki Chris Pinto, reporting from the lanai next to the pool.

Mod Movie Monday: Batman, The Movie from 1966

With krazy stuff like shark repellent, a jet-powered Bat Speed Boat, big round bombs and the Batmobile, there’s no way

Batman, The Movie

was going to slip through Mod Movie Monday! For those of you who think Micheal Keaton made the first Batman movie, take a little history lesson from the Tiki Lounge. Back in 1966 Adam West, the 60’s TV series’ Batman donned the first modern Batsuit and dropped the hammer on the first mod Batmobile for the silver screen. Just like the TV show, Batman, The Movie was filmed in that kookie comic-book style with vivid colors, wild angles and all sorts of mod 60s toys. They pretty much crammed as much stuff into this movie as they could, giving us not one, not two but FOUR villains, The Penguin’s Submarine, The Batmobile, The Batcycle, The Batcopter, The Batboat, and lots of shots of the Batcave.

And talk about stars…get a load of this line-up:
Adam West … Batman / Bruce Wayne
Burt Ward … Robin / Dick Grayson
Lee Meriwether … The Catwoman / Kitka
Cesar Romero … The Joker
Burgess Meredith … The Penguin
Frank Gorshin … The Riddler
Alan Napier … Alfred

There are so many groovy scenes in this movie I couldn’t possibly mention them all. Just get it and watch it, I guarantee you’ll dig it. It’s silly, it’s funny, it’s action-packed and has great special effects (like the rubber shark). Hell, it’s worth it to ogle Lee Meriwether!

Plus there are lots of shots of the infamous Chuck Barris Batmobile (see Barris’ video on building the original car below).

Dinner & Drinks: Well, believe it or not there actually is a BATMAN COCKTAIL. But since the TV show Batman was something of teetotaler (only the bad guys drank or smoked) it’s just orange juice and grenadine. So what the hell, here’s a little ’spin’ on the Batman Cocktail (get it? spin, like the Bat logo in the show…nevermind)

Batman Cocktail, Tiki-ized

2 oz Dark (Knight) Rum
Orange Juice
1 tsp. Grenadine
Bitters
Orange Slice
2 Pineapple wedges

In a tall glass filled with ice add rum, grenadine, three drops bitters, and fill with OJ. With long picks arrange the pineapple wedges onto the orange slice so they look like bat ears, and use for garnish. To make a Batmobile Cocktail, float 151 on top and set the whole thing on fire.

For dinner, since you can’t really eat a bat, or a robin, I’d suggest some other winged creature. Perhaps penguin. No, I guess you can’t really do that. Besides, they don’t have wings anyway. How about Pheasant Under Glass, like Bruce Wayne? Forgetaboutit. Just make chicken. Serve it on some really colorful plates and napkins (you can get wild colors at the party store) and don’t skimp on the gravy.

Here’s the video of Barris on how he came to build the Batmobile, from http://www.bat-mania.co.uk:

Peter Gunn, The Series 1958-1961 - A New Twist on Mod Movie Monday

Peter Gunn is available on DVD, ya dig?

(Cue mid-tempo jazz bassline)
Lay back kats, and knock your swingin’ lobes to the riffs I’m layin’ down before thee; as this week we dance to the tune of a different bongo-ist, take a beat off the beaten path and give Mod Movie Monday a little twist - a foray into the land of the groove tube, the noise box, the all-mighty television. This week I present to you for your hippest approval, that hippest of hip private dicks,

Peter Gunn

Starring Lola Albright, Hershel Bernardi, and the inimitable Craig Stevens as the swingin’ gumshoe Gunn.

There has never been, nor shall there ever be an equally jazzy, kool and quintessentially hip cop show on the airwaves. From the opening, pre-credit crime scene with swingin’ background bass and eerie horns, to the slick late ’50s ragtop that Gunn motorvated around in, to the sultriest if sultry atomic blonde bombshells Edie Hart as the jazz joint’s singer, Peter Gunn just oozes with dark kool.

Craig Stevens and Lola Albright

Imagine a cop show where the PI is a tough, good-looking Rat-Pack-era swinger who’s always in total control, even when he pushes the line between legit and vigilante. Instead of driving a cop sedan, he drives a sleek convertible. He dresses sharp and hangs out at a jazz club with the musicians and has a thing going with the smokin’ girl singer, a swingin’ chick if ever there was one. Throw on top of that the fact that he’s a damned good detective, and his notoriety helps him gain the potatoes he needs to lead his swingin’ lifestyle, and you’ve got the makings of one hell of a TV series - good enough to last 114 episodes.

Thanks to our pal Blake Edwards, the style of the show holds up 50 years later. A Noir undertone driven by a jazz beat and purposely subtle acting, Peter Gunn is considered one of the best stylistic TV dramas of the time.

The Jazz, man, it’s all about that swingin’ background jazz, the musical soundtrack that very often came out of the background and coolly slid into the spotlight whenever Gunn entered Mother’s Jazz Club on the waterfront. Several scenes featured the hipster musicians getting in the groove with their sexy singer, Edie, riffing out tunes by Henry Mancini, played in the style of The Modern Jazz Quintet and Dave Brubeck. Peter Gunn is credited as being

Peter Gunn Album, 1958

the first TV show to have a custom designed soundtrack (all others used stock music up until then), and the resulting Peter Gunn album stayed at #1 on the charts for 10 weeks (and is still a best seller today). That unforgettable theme has been used so many times since then that even kids who never heard of the show know that krazy piano intro and those blaring horns. Oh, and by the by…that piano intro…was originally played by another kat you may have heard of, a young pup by the name of John Williams.

Style aside, the series was ahead of its time in the ’50s, and still holds up as great to watch today. The crimes were never sugar-coated…murder, drugs, all of it right out there lightened only by an occasionally funny hipster character who was so way out there you had to chuckle. In my opinion, the only thing that would have made this show better was if they didn’t have to squeeze it into a half hour. An hour would have done it much more justice.

Splash Screen before and after commericals, Peter Gunn

And what beat-era libations and repast doth thou deal out during said performance? ’50s hipsters were all about trying new things…which of course, are now old things. Maybe some cucumber sandwiches, with sour cream/dill dipping sauce. Maybe some mini spinach quiches wrapped in bacon. Pretzel rods with mustard. Finger sandwiches of smoked oysters or salmon spread. Kooky stuff like that. Serve Port, or Sambucca, or Galliano over the rocks. Or if you can get your hands on it, Absinth. Top it off with fresh pineapple, mango and coconut over vanilla ice cream for dessert. And don’t forget to smoke a pack of Camels before the show ends, dig?

Happy Anniversary to Tiki Lounge Talk!

April marks the One Year Anniversary of Conversations at the Tiki Bar! Notice the shiny new header and the kool glowing background graphics? They’re just part of a month-long celebration of Tiki, Retro & Vintage fun.

In the coming weeks I’ll post lots of fun-stuff, from some of the first few posts to new and exciting concoctions. I’m also planning on adding a drink recipe page and an events page to give a little more usable info in addition to the general silliness that usually swings around here.

So sit back, take a sip of your Rusty Nail and enjoy Tiki Lounge Talk, the Tiki Blog for Tiki Culture & Tiki Lifestyle (whew that’s a load of Tikis, but I guess it will help with SEO!) in our second fantabulous year!

-Tiki Chris, reporting from Sunny South Florida