Two words: hot, and cool.

I'd never been to Palm Springs before, but felt seduced by the allure of its modern architecture, partly preseved by an insurgent gay population who love the space age style of Jayne Mansfield-era aesthetics. In fact, PS has received a lot of press for this recently, since it is now more "Vegas" than Vegas, sans the swagger. It's not a theme park tht re-invents itself every 10 years, it's an adult playground with firm roots in and respect for its own hedonistic history. There are dozens of motels, restaurants and resorts down there that are beautiful time capsules of the postwar era. A number of the streets are named after celebrities (I had my picture taken at the corner of Frank Sinatra and Bob Hope roads) who used to live there. I paid tribute to the Chairman at his gravesite in Cathedral City on Ramon drive (a few miles perpindicular to PS's main drag, Palm Canyon Drive), and had my picture taken with Frank Sinatra, six feet under (as close as I can get now, sigh.) The grave is one marked by a plaque buried in the ground, surrounded by deceased family members and friends, right near the entrance of the cemetary. There were a few flowers but no one else around. It was sweetly surreal to realize I was standing on top of Frank's remains, in the middle of the desert, far from Hoboken.

Anyway, the tiki weekend itself was a lot of fun and well worth the trek. It was hipster central - lots of pasty forty year old punkers with tattoos and babies. Monica and I are childless but we felt right at home amid all the aloha shirts and tiki god statues. DJ Otto kept a running turntable soundtrack of exotica music going (Martin Denny, Les Baxter, Arthur Lyman, etc), there were lots of tiki carvings and paintings and whatnot for sale, plus Shag (www.shag-art.com), THE artist of the "lounge generation" was there signing his new aloha shirts and swim trunks. Monica bought me these plus a Shag  T-shirt and dress for herself, and tiki jewelry. We were in the pool in the mornings - 90 degrees by 9AM, up to 110 by 3PM! - and the evenings to avoid too much sun exposure. The highlight for me was when they showed a 16mm print of "Hawaiian Eye" by the pool on Saturday night. We watched while in the pool, sipping Mai Tais from plastic tiki cups. The closest thing to heaven for me outside of Hawaii. And another important distinction from Vegas: ALL the drinks are potent. Everywhere. No trouble getting a buzz, unlike the watered down horsepiss you get served in most Vegas spots.

I finally met Atomic chief Leslie by the pool Saturday afternoon, with her handsome male companion, Soren. She is taller than I thought (or I'm shorter than I thought), and looks like a '40s fashion model! Very slender and attractive. And of course, very pleasant company, though we didn't have much time to chat, I had a lot of friends down there pulling on me every which way, and we were all pretty blitzed the heat, the only drawback. Palm Springs is a great swinger's town, plenty of reasons to visit even when there isn't a tiki weekend (there was a film noir festival two weeks prior with my pal Eddie Muller, plus Mickey Spillane, Rhonda Fleming, Ann Savage and other noir icons in attendance!). But why did they build it in the middle of the desert? Too late and too bad - it's there and well worth the sunscreen. Tip: try going in winter, when it only gets up to the 70s. I plan to return in the Spring and stay at a place called the Orbit In, a space age nook that looks like George Jetson's getaway spot.

And the tiki weekend is an annual event (this was the second, and its major success certainly dictates a third). Go to www.tikinews.com and sign up for Otto's newsletter so you'll be kept posted on this and many other tiki events around the world.

Aloha!                   

                     Aw, Will, you are such a sweetheart! Thank you for the wonderful compliment. My ego just expanded two notches. :wink:

I, too, was thrilled to meet The Thrill in Palm Springs, along with his lovely bride Monica. What a great couple. And the event was everything he described. One of my favorite parts was watching C.C. Rider "carve" a tiki godhead out of a giant piece of palm trunk using a small chainsaw. He was amazingly precise. If my pictures turn out okay, you'll see the process in an article on the site soon!

Sadly, the dry heat was a little more than this East Coast girl and her Chicago companion were used to, and we konked out early. We opted to miss the poolside showing of "Hawaiian Eye" and drive back to LA, guzzling fluids and cranking the a/c all the way home. But it was awesome to see so many retro lovers gathered in one place, and to meet tiki luminaries Otto von Stroheim and Shag. I highly recommend you mark your calendars now for next year's event!