Post #776457 by kkocka on Tue, May 30, 2017 3:33 PM

My biggest gripe with "kitsch" is that the word tends to mean "anything goes if it's in the name of fun" Party City, Wal-Mart, and Oriental Trading Company thrive in 1980's idea of "island culture." So when I see so called tiki bars pop up, I'm very skeptical. Case in point, that all-white "modern tiki bar" or even Navy Grog in Santa Barbara. Yes it has the name of a drink rooted in history, but the interior is all navy and no tiki. In this case, why not just approach this by opening up a regular bar but calling out a respectable exotic drink portion of the menu? In the past, craft cocktail and tiki didn't mix, but now that the drinks are getting nailed down it's time to respect the setting, the stage if you will, to be an real tiki bar. That last point is often what's missing - either replaced with actual kitsch like surf,skirts and umbrellas, or completely devoid of correct elements altogether. "Clown tiki" isn't a suitable replacement and whether we're aware of it or not, these places are educating the uneducated...be it the wrong teachings or right ones.

On 2017-05-26 14:26, tikiskip wrote:
Star wars is not tiki, nor are Legos.

This is exactly my point, too. Lately the ThinkGeek mugs are on the top of my shit list. There's tiki-fying pop culture, and then there's slapping the word "tiki" on something to follow a trend and get trendy sales. Star Wars, Star Trek, Guardians of the Galaxy, Aliens...these things are just a quick money grab from those who often don't know the difference or know better. I understand a lot of people on this site probably buy those mugs too, but I'm also not much of a mug collector so I don't fully feel the desire to buy buy buy. If the mentioned mugs at least made an attempt thru their sculpts to look indigenous and totem-like, then that would be passable. But the end result is something that just looks angular and brightly colored and so far from what a tiki actually resembles. They've made mugs, but not tiki.