“True Blood” Goes Hawaiian

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Tiki on TV and tagged with , , ,

True Blood

I love when two of my favorite things come together, like Shag and Disneyland, and Mai Tais and baseball, for example. And now, it’s tiki and “True Blood.”

I’m very much a tiki newbie when it comes to the music of this subculture. Acceptable genres include Exotica, Surf and Hapa Haole (Hawaiian music with mostly English lyrics). I may not know too many artists, but I can recognize it when I hear it, so I was excited when I heard some Hawaiian music on the fourth episode of “True Blood” season one—“Escape from Dragon House.” Bill and Sookie (Sookie!) were driving and it seemed like the vampire was trying to impress upon her how worldly one can be from living 150 years by playing exotic tunes like Tuvan throat singing and this little Hawaiian number.

A little googling easily uncovered a list of all the music from season one, and revealed that the song was “Hoi Mai, Ku’u Ipo” (“Come Back, My Sweetheart”) by Kalani Kinimaka and his Kanakas. You can hear a sample of the song here, it’s track 10 on a collection called “Happy Hulas for Your Luau.” (And apparently, you can still catch this 72-year-old artist performing on Maui.)

Shag Haunted Mansion 40th Anniversary Product Release

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Events, Shag and tagged with , ,

Shag Haunted Mansion Merchandise Event at Disneyland

I’m interrupting my sizable backlog of summer’s tiki vacation posts to write about the Shag Haunted Mansion Merchandise Event at Disneyland a few weeks ago. I’ve been a fan of Josh Agle‘s for years and you can pretty much trace my love for tiki and retro style back to his art.

Rather than spend the two Benjamins or so to attend the VIP cocktail party the night before, I decided to take my chances with the masses the next morning at The Happiest Place on Earth. I’d read horror stories  about the anniversary product releases for The Enchanted Tiki Room—folks standing in three hour lines to find out that most things were sold out—but I was hoping that The Mouse & Co. would get their act together, and indeed they did.

Lining up outside the Disneyana store

We got there a few minutes after the park opened at 8 a.m. and there was already a large line of people waiting to get in to the Disneyana store. (This was likely due to the fact that on most days of the week, guests of the Disneyland Hotel can get into the park an hour before it officially opens.)

Last stop in the assembly line

There were tons of “cast members” keeping the line organized and passing out print-outs with photos and prices of all the merch so you could figure out what you wanted ahead of time. You then marked off what you wanted, they rang it up and then shuffled you off to another table to collect it.

Shag's Haunted Mansion cookie jar urn, Aloha shirt, tee shirt and lunch bag

We got the lunch bag (shown), postcard set, art matte of the hallway portraits, Shag-inspired Mickey ears hat and the cookie jar urn (shown), which was sold out when I checked back later that day. I thought all the items were designed quite nicely and that everything looked better in person than it did online.

Knowing I would certainly be waiting in at least one long line that day, I hadn’t really intended to get any of the stuff signed as it would involve waiting in another line! However, that queue was significantly shorter than the previous one, so we decided to give it a go.

Shag and I

And I’m glad I did because Shag said he liked my shirt! (A tiki-fied number I’d just gotten from the BouTiki at Disney’s Polynesian Resort.)  🙂

You can see the rest of the Shag-designed stuff for the Haunted Mansion’s 40th Anniversary here—you should definitely check out the paintings at the bottom—plus I have a few more photos after the jump!

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Tiki & Baseball at Wrigley Field

Posted by The Tiki Chick in Tiki Sites and Stores and tagged with , ,

Wrigley Field marquee

One of the big things Mr. Baseball and I planned for our Chicago trip was a Cubs home game—my first! Much to my Southside-born-and-raised family’s chagrin, I had a wonderful time. I know most people love the brick and the ivy, but I was enamored with the marquee…

Dixieland band in front of Wrigley

And the brass band playing Dixieland music. There was even a banjo player!

The manual scoreboard

Mr. Baseball took me around Wrigleyville for a bit beforehand. We went to the batting cages above Sluggers and drank some Goose Island’s 312. I figured that and Bud/Old Style at the park would be the extent of the day’s beverage selection.

Wha?!

I went to the concession stand to pick up some classic snacks like Cracker Jack (it was invented in this town!) and a hot dog, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I scanned the board. They serve Mai Tais here?!

Mai Tai at Wrigley Field

So, of course, how could I not get one, right? And there’s a baseball embossed on the souvenir cup, to boot. (It’s laughable that it’s billed as “The Original World Famous Mai Tai.” I think Trader Vic would have something to say about that…) The Mai Tai was made with Fresh Island mix—pretty tart and not that great, but I suppose it was worth it for the sheer novelty.

Outside Wrigley Field

I was so tickled to find another serendipitous convergence of baseball and tiki. Even better, the Cubs beat the Brewers so we got to sing the “Go, Cubs, Go” victory song by Steve Goodman. Good times.