1980's
I guess my Tiki story begins in Adventureland in Disneyland in the 1980's. On a trip to the parks in the mid 1980's with my 2 best friends we all got different Tiki necklaces as part of our trip that day.
(The Great Tiki) as I call him from Adventureland 1980's
Several years later on a trip with one of those friends to Maui during high school, we came up with the idea about a guy called the Pineappleman while Touring the Dole Pineapple factories on the island.
Early 1990's -- In Jr. College we co-wrote this song before the band WASH was even formed. Below is a classic pre-WASH recording that can be heard in this video we made back in the day when the only way to edit videos were to record from one VCR to another (how primitive). We based the story concept of the video on Apocalyspe Now.
Shortly after this WASH happened and this song was often performed as a part of those shows. The Pineappleman highlight was a show at Bogart's in Long Beach that was themed around the Pineappleman character and included a volcano on stage and paper machete Tiki/Pineapple heads.
Mid 2000's
Post Wash ...My Tiki was forgotten for awhile, until in the Mid-2000's when I found that old Disneyland Tiki necklace that I used as a guide for some Myspace blogs, I started doing about Disneyland which the first of was The Great Tiki's journey back to Adventureland and the Tiki Room.
I guess this lead to adding Tiki Friends on Myspace and starting to love and appreciate Tiki art online.
After an impromptu performance of our old song at a party at my house, I also brought the character of the Pineappleman back with short stories of his adventures. I had been kicking around a movie idea for years and never got past the story outline, so as a writing exercise I basically wrote little short stories about his adventures in blog form on his on Myspace page. The character was basically a machete wielding adventure mix between Indiana Jones and Conan the Barbarian in a mythical environment based loosely on the character from the song.
From these myspace connections I found out about a San Diego Surf Band show w/live Tiki Carving from a myspace friend and Tiki Carver Billy the Crud.
Billy the Crud carving away
It was a great show that just got me more into Tiki music and Tiki art and lead me to find Tiki Central in order to find out about more Surf bands and Tiki Events.
That blog from myspace is one of the first posted I reposted on my Pineappleman blog
This event lead to my discovering Tiki Oasis for the first time the year of Voodoo Island...
The Zombie Flange ...My first room crawl
Surf Bands doing covers of Haunted Mansion theme and Tikis......It brought everything I was interested in at the time together to one place.....We saw the Ghastly Ones and the Creepy Creeps and came across the Thee Swank Bastards...I was hooked.
Along the way my uncle that moved out of state left my 5 Tikis that now live in my backyard that has slowly become my Tiki hangout.
Since then I have gone to Tiki Oasis every year, I fell in love with SHAG artwork (again by the Disney connection), I built a beach in backyard briefly for a beach party where I met my wife, got married in Maui and have a Sea Turtle wedding ring. I started the Pineappleman's Tiki blog (to save my previous blogs from Myspace). We love slowly adding new Tiki Mugs, Tiki Glasses and Tiki Art to our collection. Trader Sam's at Disneyland resort is one of my favorite places in the world bringing my love of Disney and Tiki together in one location. If I had Bill Gates money I would build a version of this bar at my dream house near the beach right next to my Tiki Themed Dream pool. We love hanging out in the Dagger Bar at Don the Beachcomber's watching the Hula Girls. So that is how it happened for me.
What got you into Tiki????
