Happy Tiki Halloween!

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It’s been hard to get in the Halloween spirit when it’s 80 degrees in LA every day, so I made a little trip out to Halloweentown in Burbank. It’s a year-round source for all things kooky, spooky and…tiki! They even opened a second location down the street just for costumes, so the original store wasn’t as crazy. And that’s where I found this tiki with glowing eyes among the creepy clowns and gravestones.

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Meanwhile, the display case up by the cash registers had some awesome Poster Pop stickers by BigToe. The ghoulish girls and tikis in his designs fit right in with the theme here.

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I’ve mentioned before that they have some Shag art books in stock (plus the necessary guide Tiki Road Trip) but this was the first time that I spotted Shag wrapping paper. I couldn’t decide between the two designs so I got both. There’s always something new to see (and buy) there!

For more tiki Halloween fun, check out my previous posts on the Halloween Art Show at the Tonga Hut and Enchanted Tiki Room pumpkins at Disneyland. Happy Halloween!

Tiki Farm Warehouse Sale – San Clemente, CA

Tiki mug producer and purveyor Tiki Farm is moving out of their San Clemente digs so this week they’re having a warehouse sale to help lighten the load. (This also happens to coincide with Tiki Oasis in nearby San Diego.)

They set up a few tables out front with all the mugs, scorpion bowls and shot glasses labeled with numbers, and handed out ordering forms for buyers to specify which ones they wanted and how many. This strategy kept things running in an orderly and polite fashion.

It was billed as the biggest sale ever in company history, so I’d honestly expected a bit more. There were definitely some good finds though. Many of their currently offered items were discounted, and I was excited to find some sold-out promotional mugs (like Fender’s Marcus Carcass, $15) and locale specific ones such as The Beachcomber Cafe‘s scorpion bowl ($20) and Big Kahuna mug ($10) which have been out of stock the last couple times I’ve visited the restaurant. Bigger spenders could nab the Vitua’s Vessel mug & Hot Wheels set by Shag for $150 or a United Airlines female menehune reproduction for $175.

A couple items were also making their debut for this event, including “The Happy Cannibals” mug and these cute little “Oi’ Pona” bottle toppers ($5) and salt and pepper shakers ($10). Mr. Baseball said the Marquesan tikis looked like Magneto… (He does have a point.)

Also available were SoCal Tiki dvds ($5), a few different styles of Tiki Farm t-shirts (above, $10), the new Tiki Farm quarterly magazine ($5), posters (see second photo) and a couple racks of sarongs and aloha shirts (below).

They’re also sweetening the deal with free Samoan War Club swizzle sticks with any purchase, plus a free Hot Lava Java volcano sugar and creamer set for folks spending more than $75. The sale continues today until 3 p.m., Sunday 11 a.m.-3 p.m. and Monday 9 a.m.-3 p.m.

Tiki Farm Warehouse Sale
1305 Calle Avanzado
San Clemente, CA 92673
949-940-1006

Hand Pulled: The Complete Shag Print Collection

I’ve been a fan of the artist Shag (Josh Agle) for a solid decade now, so I was excited to hear that the Grand Central Art Center in Santa Ana was hosting Hand Pulled: The Complete Shag Print Collection.

This retrospective features all the prints Shag has released from 1999-2011, including every serigraph, etching, giclée and off-set print—more than 250 in all.

So much Shag, as far as the eye could see! The bright colors really popped against the simple black frames and white walls.

For me it was a bit of a trip down memory lane as I got to see in person some of the images that first turned me on to Shag, like the Paul Frank partnership “Sylvie and Jules” which dates back to 2000.

The space off to the right housed Shag’s collaborations with Disney. In 2003, he was commissioned to do a series for The Enchanted Tiki Room‘s 40th anniversary and it proved so popular that he’s also produced designs for Disneyland’s 50th anniversary, Haunted Mansion’s 40th anniversary, the Disney Cruise Line and just recently, Disney World’s 40th anniversary.

Some highlights from the exhibit included this promotional poster for Madame Guignol’s Macabre Theatre on the left. So often there’s something sinister lurking in the tableau, but here it takes center stage (literally).

I also loved seeing the details in the Villain Suite, a series of four etchings from 2001. Here we have “Kitty Q” and her cohorts.

Special for this show’s opening, Shag and Harveys produced two styles of seatbelt bags that apparently sold out instantly.

Be sure to browse through the gift shop, because that’s where you’ll find this special piece. Besides being one of Shag’s earliest paintings (his 6th or 7th), “Ray’s Mistake” from 1996 pays tribute to Ray Buhen and his signature drink from the Tiki-Ti. Shag even touched up the originally gold frame to make it look more like bamboo. (You can even buy it if you have a spare sixteen grand.)

These are the last few weeks to catch the exhibit as it ends on August 14. Shag will be making an appearance and signing merchandise at the closing reception on Saturday, August 6 at 6 p.m. The gallery is located in a lovely courtyard in the Arts District, which has an Old Town feel and merits a visit on its own.