 |
Is you is or is you ain't a Tiki mug? |
Cool Manchu
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Aug 03, 2003
Posts: 560
From: San Jose, CA
|  Posted: 2004-02-27 8:29 pm Permalink
I was curious about starting a thread about what is a Tiki mug and what isn't Tiki mug.
The reason I bring this up is that I was down at the Salvation Army store by my work (and for some odd reason, results in at least a Tiki or two a month) today and came across four Benihana of Tokyo mugs.
They were the typical white ones that you see about all of the time (I am pretty sure you know what I am talking about).
Well, I decided to pick them up for 2 bones each because a couple of them had gold leaf and all of them had crazing, so I figured why not.
Well, what are your thoughts? Are these Benihana of Tokyo mugs Tiki? Or would you classify them in an entirely different category.
Another point to this thread is to maybe clear up for us newer folk what is truly defined as Tiki or is there even such a thing?
For instance, I know that those totem pole mugs from the North East aren't Tiki, but you can always find them labled as such in antique stores and eBay.
Well, I really look forward to your insight.
Aloha!
-CMC
|
martiki
Official Mixologist
Joined: Mar 29, 2002
Posts: 3056
From: http://www.smugglerscovesf.com
| Posted: 2004-02-28 10:48 am Permalink
I'd classify Benihana mugs as inspired by tiki mugs. The Benihana chain opened in 1964- not sure when the mugs came along, but serving tropical drinks in an "ethnic" mug that you can take home must have definitely been inspired by tiki restaurants and/or the chinese places that started doing it as well.
|
bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10566
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2004-02-28 11:09 am Permalink
Quote:
|
On 2004-02-27 20:29, Cool Manchu wrote:
....I know that those totem pole mugs from the North East aren't Tiki, but you can always find them labled as such in antique stores and eBay.
|
|
Aaaah, my pet peeve! My often repeated motto is:
IF IT SAYS TIKI ON IT, IT SHOULD HAVE TIKI IN IT!
Now where would we end up if we would go by e-bay naming standards!
The insidious naming of items that have no shred of Tiki about them is doubley reproachable because it is an example of not only ignorance, but ignorance mixed with the desire to gain a commercial advantage from invoking the name of the god.
As I said before, Benihana was never a Polynesian restaurant, and while I adore Japanese, it is in no way Tiki. Other theme mugs, like the Harevey's Fog Cutter and the Fu Manchu, are simply named by their cocktail or their look, but they are NOT Tiki mugs, just because they were used in Tiki bars.
Otherwise we would have Tiki forks and Tiki spoons.
If it depicts a Polynesian idol (or any Oceanic godhead) it's a Tiki mug, nothing else is.
The Book of Tiki defines Tiki style as the period from the mid 1950s to the late 60s when the Tiki figure became THE logo of Polynesian Pop. Everything else before or after is Polynesian Pop or Hawaiiana at best, or generic tropical pieces of hacked wood at worst.
The decline of Tiki style happened in large part because of the indifferent watering down of the iconography of the style with non-specific imagery and terminology.
[ This Message was edited by: bigbrotiki on 2004-02-28 11:33 ]
|
Swanky
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Apr 03, 2002
Posts: 4807
From: Hapa Haole Hideaway, TN
| Posted: 2004-02-28 11:40 am Permalink
Well, if a Fu Manchu mugs was used in a Tiki Bar to serve a Tiki cocktail, is it not a tiki mug? If it's depicted in the tiki menu along with the "tiki shaped" mug, it's "tiki."
Then there is the other side. The tiki mug in the antique store labeled "clown mug." Ignorance cuts both ways.
_________________
Mai-Kai Memories Series Custom ceramic mugs!
|
Sweet Daddy Tiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jul 20, 2003
Posts: 1026
From: Edmonton
| Posted: 2004-02-28 4:03 pm Permalink
Back when I started collecting mugs I used to be quite hard line about what was and wasn't tiki. Initially I was only interested in mugs that depicted somewhat "authentic" (troublesome word) tikis -- so no Mr. Bali Hai man, not even a Tiki Bob or Sneaky Tiki as they were too stylized for my taste.
But I've softened quite a bit over the years -- now I collect anything that may have been used to serve a tropical drink in a polynesian themed restaurant, be it in the shape of a coconut, pineapple, severed head, hula girl, chunk of bamboo or whatever, and use the term "tiki mug" as a convenient, if less than precise catch-all.
_________________
-Sweet Daddy T.
Because crap doesn't buy itself.
blog
|
RevBambooBen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 12, 2002
Posts: 7198
From: Huntikington Beach
| Posted: 2004-02-28 8:46 pm Permalink
Otherwise we would have Tiki forks and Tiki spoons.
------------------------------------------
We need these!
To eat our Tiki Food!!!
Pretty soon there will be Tiki Diapers!!!
Then Tiki Oil Filters for cars!
Then Tiki Computers!!!
Then Tiki Space Ships!!!
|
tikijackalope
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Oct 23, 2003
Posts: 814
From: KS/MO
| Posted: 2004-02-29 12:51 am Permalink
The Right Honorable RevBambooBen suggested:
Quote:
| Then Tiki Space Ships!!! |
|
Wow! wouldn't that be a cool Estes rocket!
|
bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10566
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2004-02-29 2:31 pm Permalink
Quote:
|
On 2004-02-28 16:03, Sweet Daddy Tiki wrote:
...anything that may have been used to serve a tropical drink in a polynesian themed restaurant, be it in the shape of a coconut, pineapple, severed head, hula girl, chunk of bamboo or whatever, and use the term "tiki mug" as a convenient, if less than precise catch-all.
|
|
Weeeell..you've said it right there:
COCONUT mug, PINEAPPLE mug, HULA GIRL mug...
that's what they are, not Tiki mugs. I would allow "Tiki Bar mug", or "Tiki-period mug"...
...but who am I kidding, that won't happen. I guess I should be content with having coined the term Polynesian Pop and having defined Tiki as a style that put it on the map.
But Swanky, I still have to ad this:
"Well, if a Fu Manchu mugs was used in a Tiki Bar to serve a Tiki cocktail, is it not a tiki mug? If it's depicted in the tiki menu along with the "tiki shaped" mug, it's "tiki."
So does that make all the regular glassware that many of the cocktails were served in and that appear in menus next to Tiki mugs "Tiki glasses"?
|
tikifish
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 2720
From: Toronto,Canada
| Posted: 2004-03-01 06:18 am Permalink
If any of you feel that your Fu Manchus and Pineapple mugs aren't really tiki mugs, feel free to send them to me. I'd be happy to take these 'non tiki mugs' off your hands. I'm sure they are just taking up space on your shelves....
|
Unga Bunga
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Jun 06, 2003
Posts: 5734
From: CaliTikifornia
| Posted: 2004-03-01 07:05 am Permalink
I think tiki mug. Therefore, I am?
|
RevBambooBen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 12, 2002
Posts: 7198
From: Huntikington Beach
| Posted: 2004-03-01 07:37 am Permalink
Where does the "Sven Tiki Mug" fit in?
|
freddiefreelance
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Feb 15, 2003
Posts: 2983
From: San Diego, Ca.
| Posted: 2004-03-01 10:18 am Permalink
Quote:
|
On 2004-02-28 20:46, RevBambooBen wrote:
Otherwise we would have Tiki forks and Tiki spoons.
------------------------------------------
We need these!
To eat our Tiki Food!!!
Pretty soon there will be Tiki Diapers!!!
Then Tiki Oil Filters for cars!
Then Tiki Computers!!!
Then Tiki Space Ships!!!
|
|
Google Image Search for "Tiki Rocket:"
_________________
Rev. Dr. Frederick J. Freelance, Ph.D., Th.D., D.F.S
|
RevBambooBen
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Nov 12, 2002
Posts: 7198
From: Huntikington Beach
| Posted: 2004-03-01 10:58 am Permalink
Guide Kathy Hamlin does a great job on Tiki history and culture, the modern subculture, and some great drinks and links! Tiki Food, too! Yum!
http://www.tikiwonder.com/
------------------------------------------
That's 2 out of 5.
|
bigbrotiki
Tiki Socialite
Joined: Mar 25, 2002
Posts: 10566
From: Tiki Island, above the Silverlake
| Posted: 2004-03-01 12:02 pm Permalink
Bah Humbug....
|
atomictonytiki
Grand Member (8 years) 
Joined: May 14, 2002
Posts: 1267
From: Bangkok
| Posted: 2004-03-01 12:25 pm Permalink
Perhaps the use of upper and lowercase "T" could be used differentiate between "Tiki mug" being those form the Tiki era and "tiki mug" being a poly-pop mug. Whats probably needed is a word to describe those mugs which are atributed to tiki culture but ain't Tiki mugs.
|
