Tiki Cocktail

Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Okay, this time for my rum drink I used 1 part dark rum (Myers's Original Dark Rum), 1 part light rum (Bacardi Superior), fruit juice (Dole mixture of orange, peach, and mango), topped off with club soda, and sprinkled with nutmeg. Not bad, if I do say so myself.

Gene Rains

Recently I picked up a copy of this Gene Rains CD.

The following is from Wikipedia: " Gene Rains is a vibraphonist and leader of the Gene Rains Group, a jazz quartet from Hawaii that played a musical style know as Exotica.  Rains' short career spanned the early to the mid-1960s and consisted of 4 LP recordings released on Decca Records and the Vocation label. These LPs were released during the golden era of Hawaiian and Exotica music and the Tiki culture in the United States.  The Gene Rains Group repertoire featured popular Hawaiian and Polynesian Island melodies as well as popular American tunes of the era."

"Gene Rains was 'discovered; by the enormously popular Hawaiian crooner of the era, Alfred Apaka. At the time, Apaka was the talent director for the Hawaiian Village Hotel in Waikiki, Hawaii. Apace recruited the Gene Rains Group to perform in the Shell Bar at the Hawaiian Village, which was the hot spot for the Island's top performers, including Martin Denny and Arthure Lyman. It was also Alfred Apaka who introduced Rains to Decca Records."

"Today Rains is considered the third man of Exotica, behind Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman. Although he did not achieve the level of renown of Denny or Lyman, Rains' albums nonetheless are textbook examples of the style of Exotica. With the resurgence of the Tiki culture in the late 1990s and into the early 2000s, Gene Rains' albums have become much sought after by collectors of the genre."

"In July 2014, Real Gone Music released a compilation CD featuring 19 tracks and containing [a] large portion of each of Rain's three LPs. During the production of the CD, Universal music, the holding company for deck's catalog, stated that the Gene Rains master tapes had been destroyed in a fire years earlier. As a result, the Real Gone Music team called upon Mark Riddle a/k/a Digitize to supply the cleanest possible LP transfers. Riddle is the host of a popular Exotica-themed podcast 'Quiet Village Podcast.' Even though the compilation was LP sourced, the audio is exceptionally clean."

Yes, I will agree. The compilation CD mentioned in the previous paragraph is the one I have obtained. I've already listened to it frequently. I agree that the sound is great considering it was sourced from LPs and not the original master tapes. And, yep, they are pretty textbook, especially considering all the bird calls! 

Cigar Time

Sunday, September 18, 2016

It was a gorgeous day to sit in the back yard so, jus 'cuz.

Rum and Pinneapple

Saturday, September 17, 2016

Pineapple juice with rum was the drink of the day in the Mermaid Lounge this evening. I wanted an easy tiki drink so I googled rum and pineapple juice. I found one recipe that suggested adding grated nutmeg to the mix which I did. It worked well although for the second cocktail of the night I didn't add quite as much. I also topped the drink off with club soda. Good enough to make again although I think next week I'll add some dark rum to the light rum and maybe add a little lime juice.

Aloha Shirt

Saturday, September 17, 2016

I got my first Hawaiian or aloha shirt way back in high school. It was for some kind of school spirit week something or other where one day you had to wear a Hawaiian shirt and so I picked one up at Ragstock. I believe I had a chance to wear it on another occasion or two. 

Long after that shirt disappeared I found myself wanting another one for a luau in Hawaii. My brother was getting married there back in 2001 and he had invited us all to a very large ticketed luau to attend while visiting. It was great fun. Dale, my brothers, and I believe even my dad picked up aloha shirts in the hotel gift store for the event. I've looked for that shirt lately but it seems to have disappeared.

In the absence of finding that one I decided to get a new one just for the heck of it. I ordered it through a company that sells through Amazon and it just arrived the other day. I think it looks pretty good. Dale even complimented me on it (see top photo). I might just have to get another one...

Smuggler's Cove - Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki

I recently finished the book Smuggler's Cove - Exotic Cocktails, Rum, and the Cult of Tiki by Martin with Rebecca Cate. It was a blast and a half. I found it this past August at a bookstore knowing nothing about it and grabbed it up immediately. Once in a while I think you actually can judge a book by it's cover.  The Cates do an excellent job of not only covering tiki drinks but tiki culture/Polynesian Pop in general. The book is not only well written but beautifully photographed. It's all here in 5 main parts: the birth, death, and rebirth of tiki; an overview of Cate's involvement in the tiki revival and his creation of Smuggler's Cove, a modern tiki bar; a rum primer; tiki cocktails; and finally, an introduction to creating your own tiki paradise.

All that said, I'll point out that, personally, I feel the drinks look tricky to make. They require a lot of different ingredients and bar tools. Many of the drinks require more than one type of rum which, if you want to be a purist as Cate is, could end up being quite spendy. For myself, I'm more comfortable starting with one type of decent rum and adding some pineapple juice and a bit of nutmeg (I searched easy rum drinks online). However, I will say that Cate has made me much more curious about rum than I ever was before (my experience is limited to rum and Cokes) and he has planted a seed in my brain to to find out more about different types and maybe at some point try mixing up some of his recipes myself. For now though, I think I'll stick to making easier mixes myself and save the harder stuff for a trip to my local tiki bar and restaurant Psycho Suzi's in Minneapolis.

Shag Tiki Pendant Necklace

Recently during one of my google searches for "tiki" I came across this most awesome tiki pendant being sold by the online Shag store.

I simply had to have it so an order was placed. Not too long after I received a package in the mail with this sticker affixed to it.

It now appears quite frequently on my person.

Tiki At the Fair

Dale and I ventured over to Falcon Heights this weekend to attend the Minnesota State Fair. Every year I make a point to check out the crop art. This year a tiki was prominently displayed. Fun to see a little Polynesian Pop at the fair this year.

Martinis In the Mermaid Lounge

Wasn't in the mood for rum last night so I went ahead and drank a couple martinis in the Mermaid Lounge. I know gin isn't the most tropical sounding libation but I think the drink at least photographed well with the tiki mugs and mermaids. 

I listened to Arthur Lyman while sipping away. After doing a google search on him I learned a number of facts:

1) He was born in the then U.S. territory of Hawaii on the island of Oahu in 1932.

2) He was born to a Hawaiian mother and a father of mixed Hawaiian, European, and Chinese descent.

3) His father was very strict and locked him in a closet every day after school with the task of playing along to Benny Goodman 78 rpm records to learn good music and become a better musician.

4) He was known as the king of lounge music.

5) In the 1950s and 1960s his group was instrumental in mainstreaming the pseudo-Polynesian style of music that would later come to be known as exotica.

6) He played the vibes and marimba.

I've had a few of his recordings that I've listened to frequently over the past 10 years and am particularly fond of The Very Best of Arthur Lyman - The Sensual Sounds of Exotica. One of my most favorite tracks is Yellow Bird which was one of the selections of a music series I taught back in the day at a public school. I remember the kids liking it quite a bit as well. When I discovered exotica music and specifically Arthur Lyman, Yellow Bird felt like a familiar friend in a style of music I was unfamiliar with. Yellow Bird was actually Lyman's highest charting single. The song originally came from Haiti and it reached the #4 position on the Billboard music charts in July of 1961.