TIKI CULTURE

Happy Veterans Day, Yankee Fighter Cocktail Recipe

On this Veterans Day, 11/11/11, I thought it would be kool to thank all the men and women who served with a kool new cocktail.

The Yankee Fighter Highball

This is a simple one but is tough as nails and tastes good too.

1 1/2 oz Wild Turkey

1/2 oz Southern Comfort

Club soda (not seals)

Beef Jerky (yes, you read right)

Fill a highball glass with ice, add the Turkey and the SoCo and stir. Top with club soda, give a quick stir, garnish with a piece of beef jerky. Don’t get much tougher than that!

Happy Veterans Day! Thank you Veterans!

-Tiki Chris reporting from the mess tent at Tiki Lounge Talk, the Tiki Culture Blog for swingin’ kittens and hep kats.

Monsters, Inc. 2001 For Mod Movie Monday

Monsters, Inc. I know this ad/poster is a taken from another movie poster...anyone guess which one?

Just one look at this flick and you know that the creatives at Pixar really did an homage to the old-school Disney films when they put together

Monsters, Inc. 2001

starring Billy Crystal, John Goodman, Steve Buscemi, James Coburn, Jennifer Tilly and Mary Gibbs.

I include this flick in the Mod Monday gig because there’s so much in it that screams of vintage while being made with technology way ahead of its time that the movie itself is a sci-fi wonder come true.

The opening credits alone will swing you back to Disney’s “first” golden era, with a clarinet-lead jazz instrumental that’s perfectly paired to a snaky monster and a plethora somewhat confusing and mod-looking doors, reminiscent of the Disney musicals of the 1940s and ’50s.

Then the story opens with a couple of very kool monsters, not particularly scary at all but kind of Muppet-like. They live in an apartment decorated with old-school furniture, one has a jalopy that looks like a ’60s sports car with teeth, they walk down a very 1940s-New York-looking street and report for work in a factory that’s sort of a mix of mid-century modern and minimalist industrial designs.

Doesn't this look like something from a retro-50s sci fi thriller?

The retro/vintage themes rack up from there. James Coburn’s voiceover sounds a lot like the bad guys in the old Hannah-Barbara cartoons from the ’60s and ’70s (or Burgermeister Meisterburger in Santa Claus is Comin’ To Town, voiced by Paul Frees). There are retro Disneyland posters on the walls, and a 1960s-style newscaster. There’s even a scene on a tropical beach with a couple of Tiki huts!

The story? Oh, yeah…sometimes I forget to tell you about the story, don’t I. Ok, it’s about a couple of Monsters who work on the scare floor of the corporation who provides electricity for Monstropolis by collecting the screams of human kids and bottling them. The corporation reminded me a lot of Office Depot’s corporate headquarters where I worked briefly at the time this movie was made. The whole thing they do with “I am Monsters, Inc!”…yeah, Office Depot did that with their employees for a training video. Oy.

Uh...yeah. Mid-century Retro-rama, baby!

Anyway, back to the subject…It’s a great flick and the added retro-isms will have kats and kittens like you digging it even more. For a sneak peak (and the numbero uno reason this flick fits the Mod Movie Monday category), check out the two videos below. The first is the opening credits to Monsters, Inc., the second is a clip from Make Mine Music (1947) featuring the Benny Goodman band and visuals by Disney. You’ll see immediately where the designers for Monsters, Inc. got their inspiration. Even the music is similar…not the same, not copied…but inspired. Great job, Pixar. Keep the faith, baby.

Here’s the Intro to Monsters, Inc. 2001

And “After You’ve Gone” from Make Mine Music, 1947

-Tiki Chris P. reporting from the Scare Floor at Tiki Lounge Talk. BTW…the bear in this photo look familiar? It should…he’s the original Winnie the Pooh

Halloween Decorating Has Begun At The Tiki Lounge!

Yes, these are skeleton flamingos. Just like the pink ones.

If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you know how kookie I am for Halloween. Every year I abandon sanity and turn my humble, tropical-themed home into a house of horrors, complete with animatronic monsters, creepy crawlies, and a facade over my front entrance that creates the perfect atmosphere for a hauntingly good time.

I’ve already started building props and organizing decor for this year’s shindig, and have in fact begun putting up decor in lesser-used rooms of Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar (my abode). The goal this year, as it is every year, is to have everything done a few weeks before Halloween so I can actually enjoy the season…including going to haunted-house walk-throughs, and being able for OPP - other people’s parties.

A hollographic image-changing photo, just like at the Haunted Mansion.

This year’s theme is VAMPIRES. A cliché, I know, but vamps are so hot this year that I couldn’t resist. The real trick is decorating a goth Vampire’s lair with Tiki undertones…hmmm…

This will be the official 25th anniversary of my kooky Monster Mash Bash, a party I started on a crisp October day in 1986 when a hot chick I knew came to me and said she wanted to have a Halloween party at her spooky house in the woods.

A skeleton in my closet

Turned out the chick was nutz, so my friends and I had the party at my place. I was only 18, and funds were low so we did the whole party on a budge of 12 bucks. Cheap, market-brand soda, no-frills chips, homemade onion dip and popcorn served as the fare while we watched old black and white horror movies made fun of each others’ costumes. I was Dracula for that first party…and I suppose I will be again this year.

Playwitch...my favortie magazine (Yes, I made that myself)

Of course, every party is done with a retro style theme. I mean, what holiday is more “retro-ee” than Halloween? (and don’t say Christmas. Nobody does old-fashioned Christmases anymore. Not when there’s an iPad under the tree). The whole point of Halloween is to celebrate a centuries-old tradition, with witches and goblins and vampires and zombies and all those groovy monsters that all go way back. We watch classic horror films, bob for apples and eat candy just like your grandparents did. Even the decor…at least anything store-bought…still looks like it did 30, 50, 80 years ago.

25 years ago the paper cut-out skeletons and pumpkins looked the same as they do now, the same as they did when I was a little kid. Hmmm 25 years. 25 years is a long stretch to do anything, especially a party. A third of the kittens showing up at the party won’t even be 25 years old! So I’m going to have to do something extra special for this year’s soiree. I dunno…maybe I’ll get some real monsters this year!

-Tiki “Drac” Chris, reporting from the dungeon at Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar

More Rum, More Noir - The Rum Noir, Your Weekend Tiki Cocktail

The Rum Noir, a Tiki Lounge Talk original. Kool Tiki mug by Tiki Diablo.

Since the other day was National Rum Day, I had to experiment with a few goodies to see if I could come up with something new. Well kids, I did. First I tried some of the Appleton Estate and El Dorado rums mixed with coke and lime. Now, I know some of you will say this is a big waste of such great rums. But the flavor was unique, dark and really very enjoyable. Equal parts of each rum in a tall glass with ice, add in coke and stir. Add fresh lime a little squeeze at a time.

But it didn’t stop there. I needed to make something my Tiki friends (that’s you) would consider worthy of the drink log. So, after a few experiments…

The Rum Noir

surfaced as the winner.

1 oz Appleton Estate Rum

1 oz El Dorado Demerara Rum

1/4 oz cinnamon schnapps (the hot stuff)

1 oz orange juice

1/2 oz fresh lime juice (adjust to taste)

2-4 drops bitters

Splash of Coke

Put everything into the shaker (except the soda) with ice and shake it up real nice. Pour into a tall Tiki mug with ice, add a splash of coke. Garnish with a lime wedge and orange slice. This recipe is pretty close to a planter’s punch, with a little kick. It’s called the Rum Noir because of the dark rum, and because I invented it while pulling the trigger on the print version of my latest swingin’ book, A Flash of Noir, which is now available in Print, for Kindle and for Nook. Check it out

-Tiki Chris P. reporting from Pirate’s Cove Tiki Bar at Tiki Lounge Talk, the web-lounge for swingin’ chicks and kool vintage hipsters.

Delovely, The Story of Cole Porter, 2004 for Noir Movie Monday

A little known and underrated movie for sure, Delovely is the almost fantasy-like tale of the flamboyant (and very private) life of one of the most beloved songwriters to ever grace us with his insurmountable talent, Cole Porter.

With an outstanding performance by Kevin Kline, you’ll believe your actually seeing and hearing Porter himself from first few seconds of the opening scene. An incredible supporting cast includes Ashley Judd, Johnathon Pryce, and a stage-full of cameos by some of the “Biggest Names in Showbiz” including Elvis Costello, Diana Krall, Sheryl Crow, Natalie Cole…the list goes on.

A portrait of Cole Porter’s life, the story is presented as a fantasy musical biographical stage-show being produced at the end of Porter’s life. He leads “the director” through flashbacks of his colorful life, and we learn about Porter’s previously very secret lifestyle through these scenes…filled, of course, with Porter’s songs woven into the story. The “Show” scenes are very noir, dark, often sad. The “Flashback” scenes are generally uplifting and jubilant. Great juxtaposition adds to the charm.

Diana Krall steals a scene with only a few seconds of on-camera time. She should have been given a LOT more.

I  don’t want to give anything away…it’s fun discovering things about this incredible man and his accomplishments and contributions, his marriage to the love of his life, and the hidden meaning behind some of his very risque lyrics (Let’s just say I’ll never think of “Your the top” and “Blow, Gabriel Blow” the same way again.)

The movie is a perfect little time capsule of 1920s-1950s America and Europe, with exquisite sets, costumes, and storyline that any vintage music lover will instantly love. Unfortunately the movie was not a hit; the box office was disappointing, critics and audiences are split down the middle on whether it’s a masterpiece or a long-winded semi-musical bomb. Who is right? Well, if you’re like me…and if you read this blog you are…then you’ll get it, and you’ll love Delovely.

My only complaint about this flick is that (probably for time constraints) some of the best songs are cut off, or just grace the background of a scene. But don’t worry, the soundtrack is available on Amazon.com.

Sit back with a bottle of champagne, a dinner of Chateaubriand, and if you’re the emotional type, a box of tissues, and enjoy this truly incredible movie.

Here’s the original trailer:

-Tiki Chris, reporting from the sound stage at Star Dust Studios, Florida