Hot Lava (a.k.a "How Bowers") plays baritone ukulele and sings with America's best tiki music band, 
Ernie Menehune, “Hawaii’s Suntanned Irishman”
Tuesday, October 31st, 2006
Ernie Menehune, “Hawaii’s Suntanned Irishman” has been a fixture of the tiki scene in the southwestern United States since the 1950s. Moving from Kauai to the mainland when he was 16, Menehune pumped gas in L.A. before moving to Phoenix, Arizona, where he got his first gig after singing with a local band at a Polynesian-themed club. As the years went by he toured extensively and played extended performances in Las Vegas and California.
Ernie is retired now, but plays occasional gigs and sometimes hosts luaus at his polynesian-themed home, which includes tikis that he carved himself.
Galpin Motors, of MTV’s “Pimp My Ride,” has produced a tiki-themed Ford F-250. They describe it as “a portable island paradise, complete with a giant working Tiki head waterfall flowing into a custom-crafted hot tub, large enough to accommodate four people, surrounded by a teakwood deck,” but from the looks of the badly-Photoshopped photo, I can’t tell if it’s real or a titanic joke (Is that David Hasselhoff pasted in the hot tub?).
Two lucky tiki fans have scored the ultimate souvenir: two enormous moai and the fireplace from the legendary Kahiki restaurant in Ohio. The new owners only had three days to arrange transport for the massive concrete and rebar sculptures, which await restoration after their removal and subsequent storage when the restaurant closed in 2000.