Tiki Evening

Monday, August 16, 2021 

Experimented with the Joey’s Orange Speedo, my signature tiki cocktail. I used a pineapple/orange juice blend which gave it much more of a yellowish tinge. 

Listened to some music including Arthur Lyman...

...a group called Hawaii Calls Orchestra & Chorus which I just discovered today...

...and also some Gene Rains in the car with Dale on the way to Kowalski’s in order to get dinner makings. 

Also had a chance to look at The Art of Tiki which has some wonderful low brow and tiki art. 

For dinner Dale made chicken thighs and vegetables accompanied by a pasta salad from Kowalski's. We watched Star Trek: The Next Generation on tv. 

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.

Mermaid Lounge

The Mermaid Lounge opened up AGAIN yesterday afternoon. It's my first week back at work so I was looking to indulge in a little escapist fun, just like many mid-century Americans did years ago. The word indulge may be a little strong as my drinks were rather weak rum and Cokes, but the tiki mugs in the lounge, music of Arthur Lyman playing, and the reading of Sven Kirsten's The Book of Tiki, all helped add to the recreational  atmosphere.