TIKI CULTURE

Too Hot To Tiki?

Just a short musing…

While the rest of the country is looking forward to cooler fall weather, we here in South Florida are smack dab in the middle of hottest time of year. Our “summer” lasts long after Halloween is over, and “fall” is just a concept in our minds. The end of August means hot, humid days and rainy evenings are promised for at least another month.

Now don’t you cats & kitties get me wrong…I ain’t complaining. I love the heat and the screwy weather. It’s just that when it’s 85° at 9:00 o’clock at night, it’s not so nice to sit out on the lanai and drink booze at the outdoor Tiki bar. Unless of course you can jump in the pool.

-Tiki Chris P.

Have Fun At Tiki Oasis 11, August 18-21!

Next weekend the largest and longest running Tiki party in the 48 states kicks off with a Latin twist…This year, the theme is South of the Boarder, A Retro-Tijuana Style Tiki Party!

Ok, many of you are saying, “huh? What the hell does Mexico have to do with Tiki?” Well, the swell kats and kittens at Tiki-O have figured out a way to make it work. After all, the event is held in San Diego…which was once part of Mexico. Throw in some tequila next to the rum, some Los Straitjackets next to King Kukulele and you’ve got a swingin’ Mexi-Tiki event.

There will be all the usual kool stuff: A Tiki marketplace, including the art of Doug Horne, Fez-o-Rama, and South Florida artist DeTiki, an art show, pin-up contest, kids events, live Tiki carvings and a costume contest…plus a kickin’ car show with vintage, customs & rods on Saturday.

Now, living 3000+ miles away and having blown all my bread on The Hukilau, yours truly won’t be attending Tiki-O this year. But if you’re in the are or you’ve got the lettuce, make sure you swing down to the Crowne Plaza in S.D. CA for Tiki Oasis!

Visit the official website for schedule and tickets at www.tikioasis.com/2011.

Here’s a video of the car show from last year:

Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail: My Blue Heaven

My Blue Heaven

Here’s a easy one to mix up quick at the Tiki bar. It looks pretty and the chicks really dig it.

My Blue Heaven

1 oz Silver Rum
1 oz Blue Curacao
1 oz Coconut Creme
2 oz Pineapple Juice

Easy method:
Put everything in a shaker and shake it up real nice with ice, until the shaker gets frosty. Pour it over the rocks in a Tiki mug and garnish with a piece of pineapple, and if you have it, a blueberry.

Difficult method:
Go to the music shop and buy a book on how to play saxophone. Learn to play the saxophone. Buy sheet music to My Blue Heaven, and record it with a couple of jazzing’ cats to a swing beat. Set up a record deal with a major jazz label and have the recording distributed. When it reaches the top of the charts, have it pressed in vinyl as a collector’s piece.

Buy a high end hi-fi turntable. Set it up at your Tiki Bar and put the record on. Follow directions above.

MMM, good stuff.

-Tiki Chris reporting from the bar at Tiki Lounge Talk

An old photo, me & my 1940 LaSalle

I came across this photo today. It’s a picture of me, pre-Tiki days, with my 1940 LaSalle. I was 13, the photo was taken in 1982.

How does a 13 year old kid get his hands on a then 40+ year old classic car? Well, my old man loved to buy and sell old cars. He’d get them cheap, fix them up, sometimes paint them, and sell them for a profit. Today this would be called being a “automotive enthusiast”. Back then we called it hustling cars for bread.

The short version of this story is that I had my own side business buying and selling go-karts, minibikes, even 1/4 midget racer and a Model T Ford midget car (like you see clowns drive in parades). In 1982, I traded the Model T for a real 1941 Dodge Luxury Liner sedan. Eventually I made my way into buying this 1940 LaSalle Sedan for $400…a barn find. My buddy Steve and I would pretend to drive it, actually dubbing it the “Air Car”, a car that could go from cruising the country highways of South Jersey to flying above the Pine Barrens. Well, this was before video games and internet so we had to be creative.

I traded this beauty for a 66 Olds Toronado, and eventually made my way up to the 1974 Caddy Eldorado Convertible I had a few years ago. I sold that and put the money into my 53 Chevy Hot Rod, which I’ve had since 1990.

The point of all this is that at 42 years old I still feel like the goofy kid in the photo, hanging out with vintage cars and never actually finishing any of them. And apparently I still pose the same way, too.

-Tiki Chris Reporting from the garage at Tiki Lounge Talk

53 Chevy in Primer

Happy 4th of July and your Weekend Cocktail from Tiki Lounge Talk!

Let freedom ring-a-ding-ding, baby!

Hope you kool kats & kittens are getting your kicks on this bangin’ 3-day weekend. Here’s a little something to help you get in the mood…

Fourth of July Cocktail

Invented by Thomas Jefferson and enjoyed by the founding fathers at the post-signing of the declaration party, this kookie concoction will have you singing I’m a Yankee Doodle Dandy by the third sip.

• 1 ounce watermelon schnapps (Good luck finding that)
• 1 big splash cranberry juice
• 1 very thin slice jalapeno or serrano pepper
• 1 slice lemon
• 1 slice lime
• 1 1/2 ounces tequila
• 1/4 ounce blue curacao
• 1/2 ounce simple syrup
• Watermelon wedge, for garnish (optional)

Shake up the schnapps and cranberry juice in a shaker; pour into an ice-filled glass.

Muddle the jalapeno pepper, lemon and lime slices, tequila, blue curacao and simple syrup in the shaker. Slowly strain into the glass over the red layer. Garnish with watermelon and a little American Flag and let’er rip!

A NOTE ON FIREWORKS

Here in south Florida, unlike that crumby state I used to live in, it’s perfectly legal to set off fireworks in your driveway. Now, I don’t mean just sparklers and cherry bombs, I mean honest-to-God, Chinese high-flying fireworks. As long as you have a Florida ID you can buy them at specialty stores down here, and set them off skyrocketing over your neighbors’ houses. Each year several people on our block do this, so by 10pm the streets are so full of smoke you can’t see. It’s great. The smell of sulfur and cordite lingers for days. But the best part is looking up at the sky from your front yard and seeing real fireworks bust over your head. Just wanted you kids in the states with stupid, unbearably infringing laws to see what you were missing

-Happy Independence Day from Tiki Chris, reporting from the launch deck at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar, Florida