Hot Lava (a.k.a "How Bowers") plays baritone ukulele and sings with America's best tiki music band, 
Pee Wee’s Playhouse full of tiki goodness
Friday, September 14th, 2007
I picked up a used DVD box set of Pee Wee’s Playhouse at a local used record store (Vinyl Fever in Tampa — Florida folks should check it out) on a lark and was blown away by how many tiki references there were on the show. Here, right smack dab in the tiki-hating 1980s, Paul Rubens brings out his love for mid-century pop culture and is perhaps responsible for planting a seed in a generation that would bring back the lounge scene a decade later.
Right off the bat, the show’s opening theme song pays homage to Martin Denny’s “Quiet Village” as the camera slowly pans through the jungle up to the playhouse. Once inside, we find not one, but two tikis among the retro-kitch decor. Then, in the episode “Luau for Two,” Pee Wee throws a luau for his friend Miss Yvonne.
The box sets of the show are selling for next to nothing ($24.99 new, around $19 used), so it’s affordable even for the mildly curious to check out.
Pick up Pee-Wee’s Playhouse Vol. 1
Walking through the local Target store I spotted these tiki-themed greeting cards in the greeting card aisle.
Shagmart, the merchandising arm of hipster artist Shag, has just released a salt and pepper set designed by the artist and produced by Tiki Farm.
These hula girl-style license plate frames from Hawaiian Days crack me up — the “skirts” are made out of material and sway in the wind.
The first edition of James Teitelbaum’s Tiki Road Trip had become an essential part of my library, consulted frequently before taking a trip to see if there were any tiki bars to visit at my destination. That first edition was printed in 2003, and since then a number of great new bars have opened up, while sadly some have closed; so James has come out with a revised and expanded 2nd edition to fill in the gaps. 
I got a pleasant surprise walking through the mall over the weekend — The Disney Store has kicked off a summer merchandise collection called “Tiki Kingdom” that mixes the tropics and tiki with classic Disney characters.
Fine artist Brad Parker, who we’ve featured on Tiki Talk previously, also creates tiki themed products for the surf apparel company Body Glove, including towels and beach matts. The year’s designs have been picked up by the sporting goods chain Big 5, which has locations in 10 states on the west coast.