Fans and Friends Descend on Portland for Northwest Tiki Kon 2010
Photos by Jennifer Ragan-Fore
This article appeared this week in the summer issue of Tiki Magazine. I've really enjoyed my acquaintance with Portland's Team Tiki, and was really pleased I had a chance to document their summer 2010 adventures... even if the vagaries of a quarterly publishing schedule did mean that the article about the 2010 Kon came out after the 2011 Kon was completed. Whoops.
I have to admit I absolutely love writing for Tiki Magazine. It's not my best-paying gig (seriously, how could it be?), but there's just something about wiritng about one's passions, and about people one finds fascinating (and who seem genuinely grateful for the coverage), that makes it worthwhile. Getting to attend these events gratis ain't too shabby, neither. Mahalo, Tiki Magazine! Mahalo, TikiKon ohana!
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The lights, like the music, are low. The food is greasy and filling. And the company can’t be beat. It’s the perfect environment to nurse a Sunday morning hangover.
Scott McGerik looks up from the kalua pork, macaroni salad, and other assorted Hawaiian delicacies sharing room on his brunch plate with mainland fare like scrambled eggs and fruit. “It’s a shame how few people appreciate something like this,” he pronounces, gesturing with his knife at a glowing red lantern.
McGerik, a computer programmer visiting the northwest from Minnesota, is clad in an aloha shirt and a turquoise lei. He’s seated next to his similarly-attired wife Kat, a nurse and massage therapist, in a comfortable curving booth at the back of The Alibi Bar and Restaurant, a Portland, Oregon tiki bar dating back to the 1940s. The McGeriks have traveled to the Northwest to celebrate with like-minded tiki fanatics at Northwest Tiki Kon VIII, with the incredible theme of “Atomic Tiki.”
You and Me and the Bottle Makes Three
The 2010 Kon officially kicked off the night before, with an evening of food, follies, and friends at Tony Starlight's Supper Club. With handcrafted items for sale by tropikitschy vendors, the Kon offered a sort of tropical-themed Etsy in the club’s entryway.
Heather Gregg, who along with her husband Craig Hermann comprises a tiki power couple (if there is such a thing), calls the evening at Tony’s “our reach out to a bigger tiki population” amidst a smaller core event jointly hosted by a committee, all of whom count themselves as Gregg’s and Hermann’s friends.
“We will never be a big event like Hukilau or Tiki Oasis, but we like it that way!” Gregg enthuses. “We also like to keep the event focused on what makes tiki culture unique: the handcrafted drinks, the art, the decor, the ohana, the clothes.”
Neither those priorities nor the intimate feel to the event are lost on the attendees, who seem to be having a fabulous time helping to recreate a bygone era. And with mid-century melodies like “Aloha ’Oe” and the Pink Panther theme, Sneaky Tiki kept the cats and kittens purring all night long.
Taking the Luau Way Home
After all the grog the night before, it’s no wonder the tiki faithful looks a little groggy themselves the next morning at brunch. But after fortifying with coffee and vittles at the Alibi, the whole floral print-bedecked troop piles onto a charter bus for TikiKon’s central (and signature) event, the home bar tour.
Gregg cites “a desire to keep it small, as the 'Original Tiki Home Bar Tour' is integral to the formula of Tiki Kon,” as the driving force of the Kon’s family feel. “Taking 50+ people into a private home necessitates that we stay a friendly, smaller group.”
Justin DuPré, president of Portland’s Mid-Century Modern League (and blessed to hold jobs in two tiki bars simultaneously), says that he and his partner, web coder Greg Clapp, had very few friends when they first moved to Portland. In volunteering their mid-century ranch house and its basement lounge for the home bar tour, DuPré says they “quickly found a great group of people who appreciate tiki and vintage stuff.”
And DuPré and Clapp are about to welcome a few dozen new friends into their home: the charter bus is rolling closer. “Since we live in the northwest and have many gray days, we wanted to create a place where friends can get together and pretend we are someplace tropical at any time of year,” says DuPré.
Another notable stop on the bus tour is Elroy Artspace, a snug gallery of modern art with an obvious warm spot for Poly-pop and lowbrow works. Today’s show is predictably tiki-themed, with works including an atomically-themed vinyl wall decal by Jonathon Hill-Jacquard (a framed print of which currently adorns the wall of your humble author).
In direct opposition to the permissive and friendly atmosphere of this intimate annual gathering, the eyebrow-raising theme of Tiki Kon 2011, scheduled for July 15-17, is “¡Tabu!”. Gregg promises that this year’s event will feature “New sponsors, new venues, new outreach, new friends!”
The Kon planners have some fun stuff in store this year, including the return of Elroy Artspace with a “Scootiki” art show featuring works by Bosko and Bamboo Ben, as well as a tiki fashion show co-hosted by AlexSandra’s Vintage Emporium.
As incredible as the 2010 Kon was, it seems there’s no rest for the tiki!
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