TIKI CULTURE

Key West, Retro Style

Key West Brochure, c. 1960s. Click for hi-res version.

Time to hop in the convertible and motorvate down along the Overseas Highway Kids!

Just imagine dropping the top on your ’64 Cadillac deVille, tuning in the AM radio to some groovin’ Rock ’n’ Roll station and swingin’ down along A-1-A from Miami to US 1, all the way down to the southernmost point of the continental United States. You stop for a burger and Mojito at a roadside Tiki stand, buy a couple of stuffed baby alligators and cruise over the Seven Mile Bridge into the land of palm trees and sailfish.

And you got the idea from this fantabulous piece of promotional advertising, ‘Your Treasure Map to ‘Sea’ Florida Keys and Key West, for the vacation thrill of your life. Now, I’ve never heard of old-days Keys as being referred to as ‘thrilling’ before…sleepy, laid back, relaxing maybe…but then again I’ve seen some crazy stuff at Rick’s so…

Click on the pix to enlarge them enough to read the copy. It’s pretty neat. I especially dig the hand-painted artwork of the Keys map. We just don’t build stuff like this anymore. Sure, CGI is fantastic…but it doesn’t have the feel of the old, hand-produced stuff. Just imagine..an artist had to paint this, then a team of graphic artists had to do mechanicals, color separations, cut rubies, hand-set the type…oof, I’m gettin’ a headache just thinking about it! Something like this would have taken weeks to produce in the 60s. My my my how times have changed, huh kids?

Here’s the map on the back of the brochure.

Below is the copy on the inside.

Florida Keys and Key West Treasure Map

Florida Keys Brochure

-Tiki Chris, reporting from somewhere lost in the Keys, near a Tiki Bar with a giant lobster out front.

“Murder on Tiki Island” - A New Novel in the Works!

I’m officially announcing that I’m working on a new murder mystery/ghost story, aptly entitled “Murder on Tiki Island.”

Since getting a great response and nice reviews on “Murder Behind the Closet Door,” I’ve decided to go on with another story idea I’ve had. This one takes place in 1956, and features Detective Bill Riggins from MBTCD, back when he was a young detective on the NYC vice squad. It also swings back to 1935, the action taking place on a little private island off the Florida Keys, Tiki Island. I don’t want to give too much away, but I can tell you it will have that Noir feel of the old 50s murder mysteries, and will include some kool era stuff, from the Overseas Railway to the music of time, slinky dames, seedy bars, Tiki torches and Mai Tais. Tiki lovers, you’re going to dig how I weave original early and mid-century Tiki Culture into the plot. Retro lovers, you’ll dig the Mike Hammer-style action, cars, women and grit.

“Murder on Tiki Island” is in the baby stages right now. With any luck, it’ll be ready in about a year. But just for fun I’ll give you kats and kittens updates as it goes, and will even post a few paragraphs now and then to get your opinions!

Thanks for stopping by the Tiki Bar and digging the kool stuff we talk about. Catch a copy of Murder Behind the Closet Door online at www.createspace.com or on Amazon.com.

-Tiki Chris Pinto, aka Mack, from the Tiki Bar

Tiki Bar Talk on a Thursday Night

Converstaions at the Tiki Bar

First, Welcome Captain Steve to TikiLoungeTalk.com! The Captain will be writing about his adventures in Jacksonville Florida and abroad. Which broad he’ll be writing about, I don’t know.

Talking at the Tiki Bar

What a rough, stupid and annoying day I had. Broken computer, co-workers whining, yucky lunch. I suppose it could have been worse, but it was still pretty bad. At least I’m not in New Jersey.

Then I came home, and everything was better. My wife, Colleen, showed off a pretty new top she got (cheap!). Then we had drinks outside on the Lanai, at the Tiki Bar, and things got better from there. We talked about books mostly ( I just finished reading Duma Key by Stephen King, and she’s just begun to read it), plus a few other subjects as they lilted on. I enjoyed a Chivas Regal low-ball, I believe she had some wine. It was nice to relax in our little surreal getaway. Our Tiki Bar looks like something crossed between the Pirates of the Caribbean ride in Disney World and old town Key West. No matter how rough things get, we have our place to forget. Looking forward to the rest of the evening now!

BTW: I’m not sure if this is true everywhere, but in Florida, you can buy hard liquor at Sam’s Club, BJ’s, and Costco without a membership card. Their prices are about 15% to 30% cheaper than any liquor store around, and when you’re drinking 12 year old Glenlivet, that means a lot!

Everything I Love About Key West

It’s been too long, I can’t even remember the last time I got down to Key West. I only live 4 Hours away (Which is a lot closer than 99% of the rest of the world) and yet we hardly get down there anymore…mainly due to the economic situation these GOP morons have gotten us into. (Used to go down 8-9 times a year in 2000, 7-8 in 2001, 4-5 in 2003, you see the trend…)

I love Key West. There’s something about…no, lots of things about it…that draws me there. Maybe it’s the history, hundreds of years of pirates’ and wenches’ souls haunting it, or maybe it’s because it’s so incredibly different from everywhere else in the world. If you haven’t been there, there’s no way to know what it feels to walk down the narrow streets, seeing some of the oldest standing homes in Florida, knowing you’re on a sandbar a mile wide by about 4 miles long.

I don’t know if I could actually live there full time; once you get past the drinking, beach and boating, there’s not a whole lot to do there. But for an extended weekend, it’s perfect.

One of the things I love most about Cayo Hueso is the way everything indoor is outdoor, at least in the older sections of town.  Trees grow up through living rooms. Houses and cafes open up entire walls onto wood decks or sandy patios, and it becomes unclear where the inside of the building ends and the lanai begins. Tropical plants and palm trees are everywhere. You can walk up to a bar that serves drinks inside a restaurant on one side, and on the beach on the other. It gets pretty hot down there, but nobody seems to mind. It’s not uncommon to have ceiling fans outside.

One of my (and my wife’s, she found it first) favorite restaurants, Mangia Mangia, ( http://www.mangia-mangia.com/ ) is down there. Italian food with a Key West twist. We always eat outside on the patio, under the palm trees. The bars on Duval Street are the best I’ve ever been too, even the touristy ones like Sloppy Joe’s. (Of course anyone who knows Key West will immediately start thinking of Captain Tony’s www.capttonyssaloon.com). We’ve done the touristy stuff too, like the Haunted Ghost Tours( http://www.hauntedtours.com , http://www.keywestghosts.com ), the Pirate Soul Museum (https://www.piratesoul.com) and the Mel Fisher Museum/Wreck of the Atocha ( http://www.melfisher.com ). But the best part is just being there, breathing the air, watching the strange people, hearing the sounds of the ocean, and applauding the sunset at Mallory Square.

I’ve got to get down there soon.

www.keywest.com , http://fla-keys.com/keywest, http://www.kwflausa.com/