Post #606023 by ErkNoLikeFire on Thu, Sep 8, 2011 10:12 PM

Broadly generalizing that all burning man has is dirty hippies and drum circles is like saying all that tiki culture has is fez wearing drunks knocking back fruity umbrella drinks. Having not been there in a few years, I can't speak to the current state of Burning Man, nor what the tiki related content may be but I am curious.
What there is of it may differ from what is generally considered tiki by us here, but I'm not going to look down on it.
I see it this way; Party City stuff is garish and will never have a place in my bar, but a person has to start somewhere.So maybe the tiki bars there are a tad on the Spenser's Gift side of things, but the people involved in building it (and those they may wander in) are gaining some exposure to tiki culture. As horrid as those camps may look and as limited the exposure is to perceived real tiki, it's a starting point that with some luck, and some real interest could grow into a true appreciation.It's like jazz in a way. For some, Kenny G. was their first exposure and they never went past that. For some others, Kenny G. lead to Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker, and Sun Ra and they grew to realizes how far from jazz Kenny G. is. Sorry if my point is wandering (I'm typing fast on my lunch break), but there is tiki at burning man? Great, nice to see it. Am I going to besmirch it because it doesn't fit my ideal of tiki? No, everybody has to begin somewhere. If you don't have some exposure to a culture you know little of, you will always have that frame of mind that Burning man is filled with hippies,horror movies only involve power tools and that tiki is full of dayglo and booze.