Date: Fri 26-Apr-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

Internet-Frank-Davis-Vik-Trola

Full Text:

W/GRAPHIC: Lounging Around The Web With Vik

Lounging Around

The Web With Vik

B Y A NDREA Z IMMERMANN

Each night when Frank Davis returns to Newtown after a long day in Manhattan,

he makes a point of stopping at his favorite bar, Vik Trola's Lounge of Self

Indulgence. There he meets people of all ages from Japan, Belgium, Canada, and

the US who either enjoy the featured music or are just plain curious to see

what the place is like inside.

Those who met maitre d' Henri, when the lounge opened in January, thought he

had a really bad attitude so they complained and his character was changed

(somewhat). That was possible because Vik's Lounge and its employees are

fictional entities created by Mr Davis on the Internet's World Wide Web.

A self-proclaimed computer geek, Mr Davis dreams about someday opening a

lounge in Manhattan called The Bamboo Club - the tangible equivilant to Vik's.

But until that time, he is satisfied to host a 1940/50s nightclub lounge on

the Web that has quirky polls (Which goes better with a grilled cheese

sandwich - tomato or chicken noodle soup?), music trivia give-aways, and

offbeat recipes for food and drink. Most of the site, however, is devoted to

information on some of the experimental music that came out of the 1950s and

60s, and to modern bands which have a similar sound or feel.

But if you think the site is designed to promote "cheesy nightclub lounge

acts," think again.

A lot of experimentation that came out in the 50s and 60s, said Mr Davis, is

due to the advent of stereo when musicians could play around with speaker

placement, something we now take for granted. For 12 years Mr Davis has been

hunting through thrift shops and collecting some of the music from that era -

"pretty much overlooked pop music that didn't have any massive impact at the

time." Included in this would be some Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, the

"Cary-Grant-movie" kind of music or the soundtrack to Breakfast At Tiffany's.

One of the modern groups that in some ways harken back to this style is

Combustible Edison.

"My personal favorite is Martin Denny who plays what can be described as

Hawaiian small-combo jazz," said Mr Davis who, as testament, has created a

Temple Of Denny page on his Website. "He blends a lot of exotic instruments

with a jazz sensibility, so you get a strange mixture of American jazz with

American type standards and gongs and bamboo zylophones and bird calls." You

envision people who listen to this music sitting around and drinking mai tais,

said Mr Davis. "Exotic music with tribal, jungle rhythm sounds appealed to the

repressed housewifes and husbands who wanted to go home and put on something

taboo. It was part romance, part repressed sexual tension of the 50s and 60s.

We'd just come out of World War II and everyone was feeling a lot better, very

happy. You rarely found depressing lounge songs."

During that period, "there was Sammy Davis, Jr, the rat-pack thing with hats,

ladies in velvet gowns and long gloves drinking martinis/cocktails in a

velvet-lined lounges," he said.

Sidle Up To The Bar

Mr Davis, who designs computer applications for Caroline Records label and

distribution management and purchasing, was smitten when he first peeked into

the Web a year ago. He decided to establish a page for fellow music

afficionados, which he did in January.

"I thought it was a really cool and fun thing to do," said Mr Davis. It's like

publishing a magazine without going to the expense and distribution of

publication. This way, I don't have to take it to stores - I just put it out

there for anyone in the world to see."

When designing a Web site, Mr Davis considered that "there are eight million

sites out there - everything from family pictures to high tech information,"

he said. "There was stuff out there [on this type of music] but most of it

read like books. Here, people can come to and return to the site as if they

were going to a lounge."

So far 2020 visitors have stopped into Vik's Lounge. Mr Davis - who is not Vik

but "Vik's manager, let's say" - receives as many as 40 e-mail messages a day

from people around the world. "When you get e-mail from Vik Trola, you get

e-mail from Vik Trola," said Mr Davis. "If I had something that

said...`Copyright Frank Davis' [on the site] it would break the illusion that

you've stepped into a lounge. That's why I like to keep the mystique of Vik

Trola going on the Web. Frank Davis is nowhere as hip as Vik Trola. Frank

Davis is a schlepp who has to take the train to New York every day.

"That's the cool part about the whole Web thing - you can really shake off

what you do day after day, and spend a few hours doing something different,"

said Mr Davis, who adds something new to the site each week. "When I'm working

on the lounge, I don't picture it as a flat piece of paper - it's actually a

room. When I send e-mail, I picture myself standing at the end of the bar.

It's imagination - like reading a book in real time."

The opening page on the Web site is the Lobby; from there you can be

transported to another part of the lounge, such as the Coat Check. This page

has images and descriptions of Mr Davis' "real live personal collection of

twisted oddities" that are lounge-related. A Howard Johnson's glass ( not

stolen - his father worked there), an Annette Funicello watch, and a CD

covered in leopard skin ("Gaze upon it and know what it means to swing") are

among those items exhibited. Then there's a link to maitre d' Henri, who will

kick you out of the site if you don't tip him. The Bar gives recipes for

drinks with foreboding names like Brother Cleve's Undead Mary, Vik's Dragon

Cider, and Combustible Edison's Saturnian Sling. And CyberMom wouldn't want

you to drink on an empty stomach so the Kitchen offers recipes for Cranberry

Cream Cheese Frosties, Broiler Been-er Wiener Loaf, and Lady Polly's Hangover

Cure. Or you can be carried to related Web sites that have historical

archives.

And if you're into heavy graphics, you might want to check out Enrico Caruso's

haircutting record and instructional booklet. "I realized this is something

that needed to be on the Internet," said Mr Davis. "I envision some doctorate

student doing a thesis on opera and wanting to locate this information."

Most of it is about music, however. And everything music-related at the site

(except the homage to Martin Denny) is currently available, said Mr Davis.

"Before, it was pretty much an underground thing - my friends and I have been

collecting this stuff in quarter bins and at the Salvation Army. Then it

became a trend for record companies to reissue this stuff," he said. "The

major labels are suddenly seizing on this... and the press pigeon-holes us as

kitchy kids off with that whacky music. But there's a lot of suaveness to it

that nobody's making anymore. When this stuff was being made, it was

`miraculous.'"

The age range of those involved in the musical revival are 15 to 50, but the

"core group" is comprised of those in their mid-20s to early 30s, said Mr

Davis, who is 33. "I look like I should be in a heavy metal band," he said.

"That shocks people when they see me buy five Martin Denny records. They say,

`Hey, what are you doing buying this?'"

Mr Davis does not feel the interest in this music is something new, a trend.

But through the Internet, he has discovered there are more than the ten people

he knew out there who enjoy the same kind of music. "There's a whole Japanese

movement," he said. "And Lounge magazine in California - they approached me

[to include them at my site]. They said, 'We love Vik's Lounge.' I would never

have known they existed."

The "swank generation" is getting a better network through the Internet, said

Mr Davis.

Vik's Future

In designing his Web site, Mr Davis said he deliberately avoided the new

"gimmicks and toys" that are out because he didn't want to be in a situation

where the entire site relied on Netscape. Some visitors might use a different

browser and, although the site may not be as "pretty," the news information,

reviews, and all the other text on the pages can still be accessed.

"I set the challenge for myself that it be simple but look great. At the same

time, it runs relatively fast," said Mr Davis. "I'm always thinking about how

I can make it look better and better, how I can be ahead of other Web sites

and scoop them by being the first to get the information out there."

Mr Davis is considering adding a Lounge Primer for the curious who are now in

the dark. And eventually he would like to enable people to talk with each

other at the lounge and find a good way to do sound on the site. "Right now I

don't think the technology is there to do it and make it worthwhile. I think

it would be wonderful if you came into the lounge and a radio station was

playing."

Four months after putting up his Web site, Mr Davis admits his biggest fear is

burn out. "I didn't get into it to make money," he said, adding that there is

no charge for the information available on his site. "Just to have a lot of

fun and spread information. I want to keep it going, keep it fresh. Otherwise

there's no point in doing it."

His heart holds fast to the dream of opening a real lounge. So if anyone has

half a million dollars to invest, just leave word for the "Vik Trola Lounge

Master Supreme" at http://www.chaoskitty.com/t_chaos.

Lounging Around

The Web With Vik