Arnold Zwicky's Blog

From Wayne Curtis, “From Tiki to Tacky – and Back”, Atlantic of Nov. 2011, p. 28, about tiki drinks:

[about the Hukilau, an annual tiki gathering in Fort Lauderdale FL:] This year, the event attracted some 600 people who donned muumuus, fezzes, and Hawaiian shirts to listen to music from the Tikiyaki Orchestra and enjoy an aquatic performance by Marina the Fire Eating Mermaid.

Framed as free verse:

They donned muumuus, fezzes, and
Hawaiian shirts to listen to the
Tikiyaki Orchestra and enjoy an
aquatic performance by Marina the
Fire Eating Mermaid.

(“Donned muumuus, fezzes, and Hawaiian shirts” is hard to beat.)

On the Tikiyaki Orchestra site, we find a notice of

the triumphant return of the Tikiyaki Orchestra to Don The Beachcomber Restaurant

With Special guest: Marina, the Fire Eating Mermaid. She will dazzle you with her incendiary and scintillating show!; direct from her regular engagement at the Tikiyaki Polynesian Village Hotel’s Mermaid Moat where she beguiles visitors.

The orchestra on vinyl in an earlier day:

As for Marina, or MiruSena as she’s known professionally:

Specializing in unique retro-aquatic pool and underwater dance performances ~ Polynesian Pop, Middle Eastern, Asian flavored swim and stunt dances, with touches of vaudeville and stage theatre. MeduSirena performances are a unique and memorable experience.

Here she is underwater, without the fire:

All of this comes from Tiki kitsch culture,

a 20th-century theme used in Polynesian-style restaurants and clubs originally in the United States and then, to a lesser degree, around the world. Although inspired in part by Tiki carvings and mythology, the connection is loose and stylistic, being an American kitsch form and not a Polynesian fine art form.

… Tiki culture in the United States began in 1934 with the opening of Don the Beachcomber, a Polynesian-themed bar and restaurant in Hollywood. (link)

From there to  Trader Vic’s restaurants, “Polynesian” dishes, and of course tiki drinks (made with flavored syrups, fresh fruit juices, and rums) – notably the mai tai — served in tiki mugs.

This entry was posted on October 23, 2011 at 3:36 pm and is filed under Poetry, Pop culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.