mai tai
—newsletter
—©1998-2005, edited by John Trivisonno
—ISSN 1492-6407
—14 issues
—website
—©1998-2023, edited by John Trivisonno
•what is mai tai?
Mai Tai began as the official newsletter of the Montreal Tiki Appreciation Society. Over the course of 7 years and 14 issues, the urban archaeologists of the MTAS helped preserve and increase awareness of vintage Polynesian Pop Culture in Montreal, its surrounding regions, and, in a more limited way, throughout Canada and abroad. Issues of Mai Tai were distributed in Montreal and in select Tiki bars and Polynesian-themed motels in Canada, the U.S., and Europe. Readership was also increased by making Mai Tai available by mail order. Mai Tai benefited from press coverage in the Montreal Mirror and Montreal Gazette newspapers, in magazines including Broken Pencil, Fish Piss, and Tiki News, on Montreal’s CJAD and MIX96 radio, on The Tiki Bar Review Pages website, and were referenced in the book Tiki Road Trip.
Today, Mai Tai continues to exist on-line. Most of the articles featured in the print issues can now be read on the pages of the Mai Tai website, which is also occasionally updated with new articles about vintage Tiki culture, general mid-20th century pop culture, cocktail culture, and travel/motel/roadside culture.