I’m off to the UK for 2 weeks on business. Due to limited and expensive connectivity, I won’t be posting anything in the interim.

Here’s an excellent Scotch-based cocktail created in 1965 to celebrate the opening of the London Trader Vic’s. I used 12-year Lagavulin scotch, a single-malt from the Isle of Islay, that imparted a nice, smoky flavor to the drink. It was smooth, but not overpowering. I’m probably going to Scotch Hell for using a single-malt instead of a blended Scotch in a mixed drink, but it tasted good, so bite me, Scotch snobs.

2 1/2 oz. Fresh-squeezed orange juice
3/4 oz. Fresh-squeezed lemon juice
1/4 oz. Simple syrup
1/4 oz. Orgeat syrup
2 oz. Scotch

Shake with 1 1/2 cups of crushed ice and pour into a double old-fashioned glass. Garnish with an orange wedge, a Union Jack, and Old Glory.

Cheerio and Toodle Pip and all that rot.

Speaking of Cool and Strange Music, my former editor, Dana Countryman, just sent me a link to the video from his latest collaboration with electropop pioneer, Jean Jacques Perrey, “Funky Little Spacegirl”, from their latest album, “Destination Space”. It’s a very catchy tune, and a fun little CGI romp. Jean Jacques (who just turned 80) looks like he’s having a blast.

[Link: Funky Little Spacegirl (YouTube clip)]
[Link: Funky Little Spacegirl Official Website (broadcast-quality clip)]

Thanks, J$…

My buddy Mike just clued me into these oh so tiki-riffic dog toys. They are the Squeeki Tiki Dog Toys by Pet Projekt. Your Polynesian pup can pay homage to the tiki gods by playing with these tiki shaped chew toys. They come in Tiki God or Moai shapes and are available in various colors. They are non-toxic and measure 10.8×2.8×2″.

$14.00 each Otomik.com

Ricardo Montalban: 1920-2009 R.I.P.

Also,

Ray Dennis Steckler and Patrick McGoohan….Goodnight, my celluloid friends, and Godspeed.

No, not what you are thinking, that’s in February, we’re talking about Wallpaper’s design Oscars. Our dear friends there have pulled out all the stops for this year’s awards, a formidable international judging panel, Kanye West as the host of the party, Paris as the city of choice (don’t want to give anything away here) [...]

Please “enjoy” these creepy photographs of waxwork human oddities from the collection of the St. Petersburg Museum of History in Florida.

[Link: Gallery of Bizarre People][via]

I’m loving these hilarious cartoon collages by artist J.R. Williams. I first became acquainted with his artwork when he created this excellent illustration of Screaming Lord Sutch for an article I wrote in Cool and Strange Music magazine.

[Link: J.R. Williams' Cartoons and Comics Set on Flickr]

From Beachbum Berry’s Grog Log:

“The height of the Polynesian restaurant craze dovetailed with the advent of the Space Age, and almost every tiki bar named at least one drink in honor of the Final Frontier…This is our humble addition to the Astro-Aku convergence…”

1 1/2 oz. Fresh lime juice
1 oz. Papaya nectar
1/2 oz. Apricot nectar
3/4 oz. Sugar syrup
1/2 oz. Falernum (Fee Bros.)
Dash of Angostura bitters
1 oz. Lemon Hart 151 Demerara rum
1 1/2 oz. Gold Puerto Rican rum (I used Appleton’s Gold)

Blend with 1/2 cup of crushed ice. Pour into Easter Island mug or large snifter filled with ice cubes.

A couple of readers might remember this ancient post I made about Tuscon’s Magic Carpet miniature-golf course, with it’s animated pooping monkey and 25-ton concrete Easter Island head with an observation deck on top. The course closed a year ago, and to their everlasting credit, the fine citizens of Tuscon chipped in to rescue the Moai rather than let it succumb to the developers’ bulldozers. Roadside America and Tiki Central were there to document the Moai’s move to its new habitat outside a nightclub called The Hut, where hopefully, it will be rediscovered someday in the far-flung future by archaeologists who will wonder how the natives managed to move it from it’s original location, using only their primitive technology.

[Link: New Home for Tuscon Tiki Head]
[Link: Giant Tiki in Tuscon Moving Next Week]