Starbucks presents

The 36th Annual Ukulele Festival
Kapiolani Park Bandstand (Waikiki)
Sunday, July 30, 2006
10:00 am - 1:30 pm
Admission: Free

Come and Join Us at the Ukulele Festival!

Since 1970, Roy Sakuma and his sponsors have been keeping the ukulele alive and well by presenting the Annual Ukulele Festival.

Presented every July at the Kapiolani Park Bandstand in Waikiki, it is by far the largest of it’s kind in the world, attracting an audience of thousands to a free two-hour concert that showcases the finest ukulele players, along with national celebrities, Hawaii’s top entertainers, and an ukulele orchestra of more than 800 students, mostly children.

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The Point Break Surfin’ Tiki Club in Redondo Beach, California celebrates its grand opening with a four day weekend of fun.

The festivities kick off with the Grand Opening Luau on at 9 p.m. June 30th — they’ll be a live band, buffet, and drink specials.

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The Kon Tiki Restaurant and Lounge has been an Arizona destination since 1961. It received a much-needed sprucing up in April of 2006, and the reviews have been positively glowing. People love the atmosphere and remark about how friendly the staff is.

They’ve got an incredibly crappy website (it must only work in Internet Explorer), but wandering through the food and drink menu, it looks like a definite must visit if you’re passing through the southwest.

Link | Discuss on Tiki Central

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Charles Kaufman is an American artist with studios the U.S. and Germany. His fine art is exhibited in galleries and other venues in the United States and in Europe and he’s done illustration for clients like McDonald’s, Hewlett Packard, Nissan, Toyota, and American Express.

Charles has created a number great of tiki-themed paintings in his career, one of which is currently for sale in his online store.

Link | Thanks Rob!

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Artist Charles Kaufman pointed me to this great cartoon about tiki collectors, which unfortunately hits a little too close to home for me. Click on the image or link below for the full strip.

Charles also has great fine art work which I’ll showcase Wednesday.

Link | Thanks Charles!

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Today is the 41st 43rd anniversary of the opening of the Enchanted Tiki Room at Disneyland and the attraction is still as popular as ever. The first show to make extensive use Audioanimatronics®, it has been many a wide-eyed child’s initial introduction to tiki culture and spawned sister versions at Disney’s Florida and Tokyo parks as well. I grew up on The Tropical Serenade, as the first show at Orlando’s Magic Kingdom was called, but the California original holds a special place in my heart.

The attraction has a fascinating history: financed and operated by Walt himself, it was supposed to be a sit-down restaurant up until a week before opening day—the chairs inside are still were the originals, purchased in 1963 to sit around tables and bolted together into rows as a last minute kludge (they were finally replaced by benches during the renovation of 2006). Imagineer Rolly Crump, who had never sculpted before, had to sculpt many of the tiki garden gods, the fountain, and the birdmobile as lead-Disney sculptor Blaine Gibson was busy with other projects.

As a birthday tribute, here’s a couple of interesting tidbits from the attraction’s history:

Download mp3 of Tiki Tiki Tiki Room song from Toyko Disneyland | Link to classic Disneyland postcards | Link to great photos on Tiki Central

UPDATE: Tiki Talk reader Jackson pointed out that the attraction is actually 43 years old today. Doh! I visited Disneyland for the attraction’s 40th Anniversary—I can’t believe it was that long ago.

UPDATE 2: Since Tiki Talk got BoingBoing’d, here’s a little bonus: computer wallpaper based on the art from the 1963 Disneyland front gate booklet. Enjoy!

800 x 600 | 1024 x 768 | 1680 x 1050

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Tiki-Kon spans three days and roams all over Portland from St. Johns to downtown, including visits to tiki bars The Jasmine Tree and Tiki-Kon sponsor The Alibi. Tiki-Kon also includes the Original NW Tiki Home Bar Tour—visit the most exclusive tiki bars in Portland!

June 23-25, 2006

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