Rockabilly.
Hot rods.
Burlesque.
And Tiki.
All these subcultures go hand-in-hand and sometimes overlap. Is the connection a love of the Mid-Century culture? Maybe, but I dig it all because I love eye candy and it’s just so damn cool!
Duke and Lola feel the same way! To show the “squares” what they’re missing, Duke and Lola created their own Vlog called “BossaNova Life.” I’ll let them tell you what it’s all about…
You’re located in Eugene, OR. What are the rockabilly, hot rod, burlesque, and Tiki scenes like in your neck of the woods?
Duke: That is an interesting question. One of the primary reasons we started doing what we do is we had no idea anything went on in Oregon at all! So many events and groups do not advertise well. As we started to dig for these things online, we started to discover that there is indeed a large vintage scene in Oregon, but it is in small pockets around the state that do not work together. We wanted to start making videos that showed off the cool events we went to so that others could join us on the adventures and hopefully attend the next year. Every year we have received hundreds of messages about how we helped someone discover a new event!
The first large event we went to in Oregon was Rust-O-Rama. It was the first time we saw actual Rockabilly kids gathered together in our home state. Prior to that, Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend was it! Rust-O-Rama in Salem OR, has been going for some time, but 60 miles away down in Eugene, most of my friends had never even heard of it! So now when we do videos about Rust-O-Rama, those videos are our second most popular. We also do videos on everything from the Annual NW VW Bug Run, to the NW Mini Micro Car Extravaganza, to Jake the Alligator Man’s Birthday in Long Beach, WA, to Tiki Con this year, to the Rose City Round Up, etc. If it’s a gathering of vintage kids doing cool things, we want to be there! Live bands are a HUGE plus!
Eugene used to be rather dead, but now we have three separate burlesque groups with events nearly every week. Everything from the classy and swanky, to the “nerd girl,” and the LGBTQ community.
As for Tiki, the only thing we can boast is that the McMennimans brothers remodeled one of their locations to try out the Tiki idea. The Kapu Hut is the very first Tiki they ever did— what I would call “Tiki lite”—but it is all authentic and the drinks and food are normally spot-on. They also have regular rum tastings, etc.
When and what made you decide to start your own vlog?
Duke: Well, that is more of YouTube driving us than the other way around. We started by simply posting slide shows of pictures from Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend each year. We had friends who couldn’t make it and it was the easiest way to share. We posted under the name Cigar Lounger as I had that channel name already. Those videos started hitting 10k views each. We have since removed them all, as they were rather cheesy, but it was a fun experiment. Then we started bringing better equipment and making videos. Eventually, I decided it might be fun to add us talking at the beginning and end of these silly videos. That is when we started getting messages that people wanted to see more of Lola, (laugh) mostly Lola, but also Lola and I messing around and goofing off. As it grew into far more, we both felt that “BossaNova Life” really describes us better.
Lola: The other reason we chose YouTube as our medium is that we spend a lot of time on YouTube for our own entertainment. We find YouTubers who are creative and inventive and entertaining to watch. We love the idea that it is an easily accessible venue that anyone with a camera can perform on. We support other YouTubers and celebrate the creativity it fosters.
Can you give a little history of how your show came together?
Lola: I will add that Duke was the driving force behind getting this thing started. While at Viva, he discovered that he loved capturing the events, not just the cars at the car show, but the people and all of the oddities that come together to make an event something that people want to come back to. Duke is great at talking to people and drawing them out and getting them to open up. My favorite part of making these videos is all the fantastic people we get to meet. Whether it is a little snippet of time in a quick interview, or the amazing people we have met and become friends with.
What has been your favorite event that you have covered?
Duke: Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend. It is three days of Tiki bars (Frankie’s and Golden Tiki), burlesque shows, car shows, Tiki pool parties, 80+ surf and rockabilly bands, and normally well over 25k people all dressed to kill for three amazing days. Tom Ingram and Audrey Deluxe, the two who put on that event, are super sweet people as well, and very welcoming.
Lola: Definitely Viva Las Vegas. Everything about the event: from walking off the plane into the dry Las Vegas heat (because it is always in spring and us Pacific Northwesterns have had nothing but cold, wet weather for months), to checking into our room at the Orleans in a line full of people already dressed to the nines, to the last day at the pool party, sipping boozy drinks, listening to surf rock, and checking out all of the amazing vintage swim suits. In fact, the Sunday Viva Pool Party is my favorite part of my favorite event.
Your main focus is the hot rod and rockabilly scene. In your opinion, how does Tiki culture fit into the mix?
Duke: Our main focus has been those events as they were the initial events we went to. Also, they get the most views. However, this year we will be adding in many more videos and ideas, all around late ’50s/early ’60s culture that we love so much. Everything around the “Atomic Era” is really something we love.
Lola: Tiki has always been our own special love, but until recently, we haven’t tried to capture it for YouTube. I feel it fits in quite well as a rockabilly sub-scene. It involves an appreciation for a time period and a style that was happening around the time in history that much of the rockabilly scene hearkens back to.
What is your favorite Tiki drink?
Duke: Jungle Bird. No question.
Lola: I love anything with pineapple and coconut in it. But if I have to pick my go-to drink, it is always a Hemingway daiquiri. I don’t know if it is traditional Tiki, but any rum drink originating in Havana in the 1930s is all right in my book.
What is your favorite Tiki bar?
Duke: Forbidden Island in Alameda, CA. But Golden Tiki in Las Vegas, NV is close behind.
Lola: I always love Frankie’s in Vegas. Of course, whenever we go it is chock-full of beautiful people from all over the globe decked out in vintage Tiki and rockabilly garb, so I could be judging it based on that fabulous vibe.
What does the future hold for “BossaNova Life?”
Duke: It will always have the big events, as that is what we love to do. In fact, this year we may kill ourselves as we lined it all up on our calendar. For eight weeks straight in June through August we will be on the road every weekend. It will be either our health or our wallets that may get in the way.
In addition, Lola will be doing bi-weekly blogs on her day-to-day lifestyle, events, trips, Tiki bars we visit, etc.
We are also restoring a 1966 Travel Trailer, so hopefully we can start releasing those videos soon as well.
Lastly, we will be doing more interviews and visiting Tiki bars. Essentially, we are wanting to have four separate video categories.
Oh, and we both work high-energy day jobs that take up our weeks fully.
Anything else you would like to add?
Duke: Tiki is something we have virtually always been into, but once again, no one else we knew really was. We have a close circle of friends and several times we traveled to Portland to hang out at the Alibi, but we thought we were the only weird ones. We rock fedoras or fezzes when we go out together and love to make a scene. We love Tiki so much, we honestly took a trip to San Francisco with two friends who we had just met at Viva Las Vegas the year before, just to see the Tonga Room and Forbidden Island! That was four years ago.
We even discussed recently making another driving trip down to LA, stopping in Sacramento, San Fran, and the Orange County scene Tiki bars.
Check out “BossaNova Life’s” videos here.
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