You might find it surprising to note that there is still a lot of people that still have these shrines to tikiness in their backyards. My band plays a lot of luaus and you can always tell who just stuck a couple of torches in the ground and who is pulling out paraphenalia from 50 years ago.
The best ones aren't the rich young couples that cater everything. Those are usually boring. Rather, it is when we play for the older folks, those who have been enchanted with the islands all of their life. They go all out, I suppose in an attempt to relive their past. They have the tikis and traditional food that they cook themselves and leis and fire dancers and whatever else they can come up with. I've seen some backyards literally turned into tropical rainforests.
Those are the fun gigs because the people really know the music and are so surprised that we really know all of the old classics.
So yeah, it still goes on, more than you might imagine.
Now, as far as the playboys go, I think they use the internet for that now.
