"A Moment of Tiki" returns for your viewing pleasure with two new episodes!
First up is episode 14: Kakamoras! In the Disney animated film Moana, there's a very fun sequence where the heroes of the film are attacked by pirates called Kakamoras. They're cute, tiny creatures that wear coconuts painted with fearsome visages as armor. Naturally, they're crazy cute, albeit a bit vicious. They differ significantly from the Kakamoras of Solomon Island mythology, which are small, hairy forest spirits who are generally peaceful but have been known to eat people on occasion. I suppose they're the Solomon Island equivalent of Hawaii's Menehune, but that's beside the point. The coconut Kakamoras are great additions to one's home tiki bar, but inexplicably this is one area the Disney marketing machine missed the proverbial boat on. Why Disney has chosen not to produce life-sized coconut warriors is beyond me, but that's easily remedied if you can get your hands on a coconut of two. Believe it or not, ordinary supermarket coconuts can be easily transformed into bloodthirsty Kakamora pirates, who also happen to be cute and cuddly. Let's make some Kakamoras!
In episode 15, I review the book The Statues That Walked by Terry Hunt and Carl Lipo. If you know anything about Rapa Nui, aka Easter Island, it's probably that the island is home to some 900 giant carved statues known as Moai. If you know anything beyond that, you've probably heard that the tiny island once had a great civilization that put all its effort into creating these giant statues, so much that the population cut down every tree which led to ecological collapse, famine and warfare that wiped out most of the population. It's a widely repeated cautionary tale about the folly of mankind and while it makes a great story, it's utterly and completely wrong. Archaeologists/anthropologists Hunt and Lipo lay out a convincing case backed up by copious amounts of evidence that the Rapanui people had a pretty good thing going until Europeans arrived, ruined everything, then blamed it all on the natives.
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Episode 14: Kakamoras!
There weren't many bands bigger than Journey in the 80s. Success breeds imitation, and I daresay there wasn't a bigger Journey-esque band than Survivor (which will certainly earn me hate from Survivor's fanbase, but honestly, their sound share 90% of the same DNA). I heard "High on You" yesterday in the grocery store for the first time in maybe 20 years, and although I knew the lyrics by heart it took me a minute to remember the band. My first thought was, naturally, Journey, but obviously the singer wasn't Steve Perry. My mental list reached as far as .38 Special before I remembered Survivor. The song really is a well-crafted three minutes of top 40 goodness, filled with multiple hooks and catchy lyrics. I still have several Survivor albums from that era, none of which are anywhere near as memorable as individual songs. Strange how some bands craft brilliant albums with no hits, and others record forgettable albums filled with hits. Go figure.
