Miss March is Mireille, better known these days as Mrs. Thornton, owner of the Mai Kai. I love this image. Very fun, and I love to see the cannibal tiki trio over her shoulder!

Mai Kai, Fort Lauderdale, FL

Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

So you have a bottle of simple syrup, also called sugar syrup, and it has a bottom covered in crystalized sugar. It happens. But must it happen? Or at least, as fast? No.

I was reading through the ingredients in something or other and saw “inverted sugar.” Being a curious sort, I went Googling. What I found was the recipe for inverted sugar. It is very similar to simple syrup. Where sugar has a sweetness rating of 100, simple syrup and inverted sugar have a rating of 130. And the process of making it is very similar. Both break the sugar apart in an effort to keep it in a liquid state, rather than a solid and a liquid. But, inverted sugar should last longer as a liquid than sugar syrup. To read it all, go here. To know the short simple answer, just keep reading.

Your normal simple syrup recipe is one part sugar to one part water, boiled and cooled and bottled.

Inverted sugar is basically, one cup of sugar, one cup of water, a few drops of lemon juice, boiled and then simmered (barely boiling) for 20 minutes, cooled and bottled. The lemon juice acts as a catalyst and will not effect the taste. This process should make your simple syrup, ahem, inverted sugar, not crystalize as quickly, if ever. Same taste, etc.

Try it!

p.s. You can do the same thing with honey to make a honey syrup that is far, far easier to mix than normal honey. Two things to be careful of with this. A) Honey boils over very quickly. Do not step away from this process or it will boil over and be a big mess! and 2) Make this stuff in a 50/50 mix and when your recipe calls for 1/2 ouce of honey, add 1 ounce of your mix. The extra 1/2 ounce of water should not make much difference. This is the way they do it at the Mai Kai!

Ah the Mystery Girl, Dondi. Dig that bowl! Miss February 1963

Mai Kai, Fort Lauderdale, FL
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

I meant to share these in chronological order, but somehow I messed up. So, now we start the 1963 Mai Kai calendar.

Donna is Miss January 1963. That Old Black Magic has had me in its spell many times…

Mai Kai, Fort Lauderdale, FL

Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

A nice illustration of the Mai Kai in 1964

The legendary Mireille Thornton on the back cover.

This ends the 1964 calendar. These early 60s ones are very rare.
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

Barbara is Miss December 1964
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

Dee is Miss November 1964
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

Sizou is Miss October 1964
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

Joann is Miss September 1964

An illustration of the bar in 1964 with the portrait of Bob Thornton drawn in there.

Fixed the images on yesterday’s vintage hula cheesecake post.
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

I am proud that I was able to contribute images for the “Sexy Tiki” portion of Sven’s newest book, “Tiki Modern“. I just got a bit of new naughty hula stuff to share.

From the January 1963 we have a surprisingly long pictorial of a Hawaiian festival. We see the fantasy unfold. The images are NSFW: not safe for work.

      
We see the natives get restless, then our blonde “private secretary” cuts loose!

Note the tan line on her that is 6 inches above her belly button.

Idola is Miss August 1964
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

Sandi is Miss July 1964
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

 I picked up this record on my trip to Tiki Eyeball. I have been dying to hear it since May. The cover is just classic. I am not sure where this Sheraton is in Fort Lauderdale. I thought it was where the Hukilau is hosted, but, that’s definitely a different building. But she does mention the Yankee Clipper on the record. Is this the building across from the ocean?

I have uploaded a nice big image of the back for your reading pleasure. I especially like that it is signed and Chise adds “I’m made in Japan.”

This week, after moving in to the new house a few months ago, I finally got the stereo hooked up and connected to the computer. This record was the first to be ripped.

The record doesn’t blow me away, but I sure wish I could have seen these guys. It really makes me wish for such a show. Arnie plays a mean guitar and Chise squeals with delite all through the show.

I uploaded the file HERE. One side at a time, just as it should be.

p.s. I just noticed a strange hiccup in my rip. Whether its my sound card or a conflict in the computer or what, I have no idea. Gotta get a new computer some day…

Kawana is Miss june 1964. This is one of the large tikis that used to be in front of the restaurant.

Here it is in a postcard. This tiki was stolen in the night long ago…

Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

Sallye is Miss May 1964 - Shout out to Pablus and the Crazed Mugs who played the Molokai Lounge last night. I wish I could have been there. Can’t wait to see him in the round at the Aku Tiki Room in Kewaunee Illinois at next year’s Tiki Eyeball.

Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

Yvonne is Miss April 1964

Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

Ann is Miss March 1964

An illustration of the bar in 1964
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

Jean is Miss February 1964, keeping the torches burning.
Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

This is a filler image used throughout this 1964 calendar. I believe the man in the drawn portrait is Bob Thornton. The Okole Maluna sign is not just an exhortation to “drink up”, but was a “club” that guests could join and work their way through the menu to get special stuff.

Pat is Miss Jauary.

Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

As a proper build up to the new Tiki Daze calendar I am producing, I am going to be sharing my Mai Kai calendar collection over the next few months. The Mai Kai means a lot to me. It’s the greatest place on Earth as far as I am concerned. They are the anchor of Hukilau and it was the fantastic presence of the Mai Kai and the incredibly welcoming spirit of the owners and staff that keep Hukilau in Fort Lauderdale. I owe a lot to this place. It helped light and continually rekindles my tiki fire. The people who work there are great sources of information and are just the best.

Also, I spent a few hours at the Mai Kai, photographing the place for the calendar. It’s is far more dense with imagery than you realize.

So, it only seems fitting to share images of my Mai Kai calendars to celebrate the new Tiki Daze calendar. Over the coming months, you will see an mage a day. If you think the images should be bigger, let me know. When I can, I will add side information.

Enjoy!

Sponsored by Tiki Daze - The only damn calendar that matters!

I picked up this new card of the Sharp’s Motel at the Clinton Antiques Fair today. For the complete story on this Motel, click here. A big postcard dealer. She will be at the postcard show with her complete collection. It was great to see a stack of just Knoxville cards. Other than my own stack, I’d never seen that before. I’ve had this circled on my calendar for months. I can’t wait to flip through all the cards and see what gems I can find!

OCTOBER 19-20, 2007- East Tennessee Postcard Show, Days Inn Convention Center, Central Ave. Pike at Merchants Dr. Fri. 10 a.m.-6 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Milt Hinshilwood, 865-247-5767

After a long year of working on this, we are nearly done! The fantastic graphic design artists have taken my thousands of photographs of vintage tiki bar ephemera and turned them into dynamic works of art. These things you have seen in the Book of Tiki, Tiki Quest, The Bum’s books and now the wonderful Tiki Modern. So, to simply photograph some very rare mugs and drop them on a background would be, well, already done and semi-boring. The real tiki geeks would dig it if I had the uber-rare items, but most people would not. So, I challenged my artists to do something fun, and creative with these images, and I think they have. Plus, all calendar images were approved by Ms. Swanky who, though she fully understands the tiki aesthetic, is not enthralled with it like I am. She understands a more broad perception that will make this calendar appeal to us tiki freaks, and the general freaks too.

If you look at the calendars in thte kiosk at the mall, you will find they all fall into a few categories:

1. Images of things, i.e. Dogs, Cats, Babes, Hunks
2. Art, i.e. Ansel Adams photos, Picasso paintings
3. Cartoons, i.e. Dilbert, Farside
4. Still Lifes, i.e. staged kitchen cooking scenes, islands, etc.

What we have done with this calendar is combine several of these styles. We have photographs of things, as in postcards, swizzles, mugs and menus of classic tiki bars. Mixed with images of thatch, tapa, etc., blended with custom artwork, and put together into a new image, which is a sort of “still life” of tiki that is more than a sum of its parts.

Quite simply, it is unlike any calendar I have ever seen, both for its subject matter, and especially for its design.

So, head over to the new website and get the only 2008 calendar that matters!