Feb 28 2012

Modernism Week 2012 Vintage Trailer Show

Have I finally bitten off more than I can chew? I think so. The blog hasn’t been updated as frequently as it should be, emails are going unacknowledged for days or even weeks, and I’ve been shelving good & interesting projects simply because I don’t have time anymore. It’s an abundance of riches in a sense —too much work to do when other folks are still looking for some, and (briefly) too many friends overflowing the driveway into the street—but drowning is still a bad thing even if it’s in a vat of hot chocolate with marshmallows.

So I’m making some tough decisions. Brett and I went off to Palm Springs on Thursday with the decision that we would regretfully resign our volunteer positions as “Event Captains” once the weekend was over. We’ve enjoyed organizing the Vintage Trailer Show for the past two years, but it’s time to hand the reins over to someone else, and we are lucky that a friend in the vintage trailer community has already expressed tentative interest in managing the show for 2013.

The actual Vintage Trailer Show this weekend was fantastic. The final count of visitors was 1,935, which is a record for this event. I was asked a few times why an owner would want to display in this show (and pay for the privilege) rather than just going to a vintage trailer rally elsewhere. I think the volume of visitors explains why. Nowhere else will you see such a huge volume of people who are avidly interested in your trailer, and if that’s useful or important to you, Palm Springs is indisputably the place to be.

The photo above shows Randy and Jeannet Grubb in their one-of-a-kind “Decoliner,” which was one of the stars of the show. It has a full upper deck from which you can drive the rig. It’s for sale, and it would make an awesome promotion vehicle for those who can afford it.

My photos really don’t do justice to the event, and most of them were taken for very specific future uses, so if you want to get a better look, check out Alison Turner’s blog. That’s a picture of Alison coming down the steps of the Decoliner. It was great to see Alison, as well as Dan & Marlene of Malimish, blog readers Kristiano and Christy, Bert Gildart (see his pictures from the event here), and about 1,930 other people.

All in all, it was a fine road trip. We met a lot of great people, enjoyed some superb weather, and had a fantastic 800 mile speed run across the southwestern desert, which always makes me happy. We really couldn’t have hoped for a better weekend.

Next year, since we won’t be organizers, we’ll just attend the show like everyone else and that will be even nicer. I’ll be able to bring a “date” along (guess who) and actually enjoy Palm Springs like a tourist.

Being back home now, it’s time to plunge into the remaining list of tasks. I’m already behind the curve on the Summer 2012 issue at a time when I should have it mostly wrapped up and be planning out Fall 2012. That’s enough to make me nervous but then atop it I have lots of work to do on Alumafandango, Alumapalooza, and a third event that we hope to launch in 2013.

Speaking of Alumafandango (our Denver event), you might have gotten an email today that says if you register for it on Wednesday February 29, you can get a free Alumafandango t-shirt. Just enter the code “LEAPDAY” when you choose your shirt size. This code will only work on February 29.

I’ll post more soon about plans for all of the events. We’ve got quite a few interesting things in the works, and I want to tell you about them as soon as things start to jell. But for now, I’ve got to get back to the job …

Feb 02 2012

Modernism Week Vintage Trailer Show 2012

We launched Alumafandango last week and I was pleasantly surprised by the response. In the first week we signed up 11 trailers, which is impressive for a new event, especially since we have very little information up on the website yet. People seem to be signing up for it on the strength of the reputation of Alumapalooza, which is nice but it also makes me more acutely aware that we’ve got to put on something really exceptional.

And so I spent much of the week anxiously trying to organize the details of Alumafandango. We want everyone to be completely mesmerized by the experience, to the point that (like our other events) there’s never any desire to leave the grounds to find something else to do. That’s a tall order. I expect Brett & I will be busy programming the event for the next few months, even while we are finalizing details for Alumapalooza 2012 in Ohio.

Meanwhile we are nearly done recruiting for the Modernism Week “Vintage Trailer Show” in Palm Springs. We have 20 trailers signed up and they are all really cool. The leader of the show will likely be Randy Grubb’s “Decoliner,” which is technically neither trailer nor motorhome, but so exceptional that we felt it should be in the show anyway. We’ve also got a rare 1965 Dethleffs Bedouin, 1954 Hille Ranger Pop-Up, 1946 Curtis Wright, 1964 Traveleze, 1954 Silver Streak Clipper, and the following Airstreams:

1972 Airstream Ambassador
1957 Airstream Safari
1973 Airstream Safari
1965 Airstream Safari
1960 Airstream Caravel
1959 Airstream Globetrotter
1959 Airstream Traveler
1968 Airstream Ambassador
2008 Airstream Custom by Timeless Travel Trailers
1969 Airstream Caravel
2012 Airstream Sterling Concept
1967 Airstream Overlander
1963 Airstream Bambi

At this point we have just one space left in the show, which will probably get snapped up in the next week or so. We’re expecting some special guests to join us, including vintage trailer restoration specialists Mike Keenan of M.E.L. Trailers, David Winick, and Uwe Salwender of Area 63 Productions.

We really do like organizing these shows, but we’ve got to stick to the core business of running Airstream Life and our own events (AFD/APZ), so this will be the last year Brett & I are involved in curating the Modernism Week show. We’ll hand the reins over to someone else once this show is done, and hopefully it will continue growing as a special event. I’ll probably still come out to Palm Springs in future years just to attend and see what’s on display, as it is a unique chance to see some of the best vintage trailers in the west.

Jan 24 2012

Alumafandango

I’ve been down in the trenches lately, working hard to try to pull off a few long-term projects. The Spring 2012 issue of Airstream Life finally got off to the printer too, but neither of these things are responsible for the lack of blog posts lately. The real cause has been that I hate to say anything about the stuff I’m working on until I know it’s real.

But Friday night, after some intense negotiations and late-night conference calls, Brett and I finally resolved the last remaining issues for a major project. And that makes it possible to announce “Alumafandango,” our new event to be held in Denver CO this coming August, 2012.

We’ve been working on this for about a year. For a long time we’ve been hearing from people out west that they’d like something like Alumapalooza. We looked at potential sites in Palm Springs, northern Arizona, Texas, and Colorado, but we kept running into barriers that made it impossible to hold the kind of event we wanted. Finally, we found Lakeside Amusement Park in Denver, and started actively working on a deal with the park ownership so that we could camp right in the park next to the lake and the old-school rides.

This wasn’t easy at all. The area we wanted to camp in was overrun with bushes, littered with decades of debris, and overshadowed by an abandoned race stadium and a half dozen decrepit mobile homes. The park owners agreed to clean up the area, install water and power stands, and level & seed the ground so that it would be transformed into a nice place to camp for a few days. This work started last fall and has been ongoing through the winter. It probably won’t be done for a few months, but when it is, it will be a unique opportunity to camp where no one has camped before—and that’s one of the keys we were seeking.

Timeless Travel Trailers (Wheat Ridge, CO) has been instrumental in helping us put this deal together. They will be the key sponsor, and as part of the event they are planning to provide on-site service and tours of their workshop. They’re also supplying the fencing, water, and electrical infrastructure. Our plan is to make this an annual event if it turns out to be popular, so we are all looking to the long term. Obviously all of this investment in the site wouldn’t make sense for just one year.

Brad Cornelius designed the new logo, which you can see above. A version of this will appear on the t-shirts, too.

Our goal is to have something just as fun as Alumapalooza, but not the same. So we are looking for all new seminars and presenters, new entertainment, and different games. That way you can go to both “APZ” and “AFD” and have a great time at both without feeling deja vu.

We selected the headline entertainment with the intent of carrying over the “carnival” theme, and we’re very excited to have the Lucky Daredevil Thrillshow featuring Tyler Fyre and Thrill Kill Jill for two nights of performances. They’re Airstreamers, of course.

We’ve also secured a night of free unlimited rides for all participants. The classic rides at Lakeside are really fun. You’ll remember most of them, and want to ride them all. My favorite is the old-school wooden roller coaster. It’s just fantastic excitement packed in a 1-minute ride.

Registration for Alumafandango opened on Sunday and already the first three trailers are signed up, which is encouraging. We think we can accommodate 150 trailers on site, maybe more, but it won’t be clear until the site work is complete.

Of course, now that we’ve pulled the trigger I’m wondering nervously if we’ll be able to get 100+ trailers signed up in six months. Right now the website doesn’t have much detail about what we are planning, but hopefully the reputation of Alumapalooza will carry over, and people will know that we guarantee a great time. (We’ll get more detail up on the Alumafandango website as the plans begin to firm up.) We’re working on a “vintage showcase,” some interesting tours, lots of seminars, and a pretty radical trailer makeover demonstration that happens in five days while you watch, among many other things.

Jan 06 2012

Spreading out

We’re still not in the Airstream but life at home has been just fine. There’s snow up in the Santa Catalina mountains, which has afforded Emma the chance to use her Hammerhead sled with friends at 7,000 feet elevation, and down here in the valley we’re been having days warm enough to have the windows open every afternoon. I like the dichotomy of snow up above and palm trees swaying in the breeze down below this time of year.

The Airstream is slowly getting unpacked, as we pull out things that we would have used during our 10-day trip. Every day we go “shopping” in the Airstream for whatever we need: clothes, frozen food, a movie, some tools, etc. Mostly we’ve been taking out food since Eleanor had a program of meals planned for the entire trip.

The Dutch Oven has been fun for both of us, even though our second attempt at cooking was disastrous. We tried apple crisp, a favorite of mine (traditional up in Vermont, where I grew up), but naively followed the recipe in the “Dutch Oven Cooking 101” booklet. We should have followed our instincts instead. The recipe called for way too much nutmeg and not enough brown sugar. It smelled fantastic as it was cooking out in the back yard, and we were drooling with anticipation, but when we sampled it after dinner the taste was repulsive. Nobody could even finish their serving.

It was a complete loss, and things got worse the next morning. Disappointed with the outcome, I left that terrible apple crisp in the Dutch oven overnight rather than transferring it immediately to the compost bin. When I scooped it out in the morning the bottom of the crisp had an absolutely incredible skunk smell that nearly drove us out of the kitchen. Some sort of chemical reaction occurred, a final insult in the apple debacle. Fortunately, after cleaning the oven didn’t retain the smell.

Cooking-wise, the oven has done a good job. I stacked up some leftover flagstone to make a temporary windscreen, with an aluminum turkey pan for the coals, and it worked so well at retaining the heat from the oven that it may become a semi-permanent feature of our back yard. (Someday I’d like to build a permanent brick & stone oven that we can also use for pizzas, but that’s way down the home improvement plan.)

Even though the potato recipe we tried earlier did work fairly well, it was a bit on the greasy side and there was more bacon in it than we would have preferred. So based on that and the apple crisp we’ve learned that the booklet recipes are really just starting points. From now on, we are going to modify the recipes as we go, using Eleanor’s culinary experience and training as our guide. Tomorrow the plan is to make “Chisolm Trail Blueberry French Toast Cobbler” from a different recipe book as a special Saturday morning breakfast.

We’re also going to break out one of Eleanor’s Christmas gifts, a deep fryer. Now, some of you are probably thinking, “You got your wife a deep fryer as a gift? What’s next, a vacuum cleaner and a scrub mop?” But don’t worry, Eleanor loves cooking tools. I once bought her a second refrigerator as a Christmas gift and it was probably the best received thing I’ve ever given her. She’d rather have a new oven than a diamond ring (and the oven she wants costs about the same as a 1-carat diamond).

All of this cooking is a way of maximizing the value of our staycation. We would have used the Dutch oven once, maybe twice, and the deep fryer not at all if we were in the Airstream. The fryer is just too big for our style of travel, especially with the gallons of oil it requires. Dear old Vince Saltaformaggio would have brought it all—and more—but we don’t have a separate trailer just for the cooking gear, as he did. So we’re taking full advantage of being at home by spreading out and getting into messy projects.

Until Tuesday, things were nice and quiet. With the New Year everyone has come out of the woodwork. Suddenly I’m getting calls about Modernism Week and Alumapalooza again, I’m getting article pitches from PR agencies and freelance writers, advertisers with shiny new budgets are looking to spend money (yahoo!) and people I call are actually answering their phones again. This has impacted the vacation aspect of this week but I can’t complain because stuff is getting done.

Even Carlos called, wanting to shoot some neon this week. In the past two years we’ve documented just about every historic sign in Tucson, and certainly all of the “live” ones (those that are still operable). These days we are just picking up the remaining “dead” signs, like this one. The upholstery shop is moving and the long-dead neon sign will likely be torn down, so this photo shoot was slightly urgent. This particular sign doesn’t look like much because the neon is broken and the background was repainted. In its original form it looked like a ribbon and was undoubtedly considerably more attractive. We’re trying to locate a historic shot that shows the original design, for inclusion in the book.

The brake actuator problem is on its way to resolution. I have decided to get a Dexter replacement, which is currently on order and should arrive fairly soon. The replacement unit has a good reputation, takes up about the same space, and requires only four wires. I’m hoping to install it later this month with Eleanor’s assistance. As Jim & Debbie pointed out in a comment earlier, installing it ourselves means we’ll know that much more about our Airstream, which is very useful when you are on the road and something goes wrong.

@Alicia Miller: We hope to be more skilled with our Dutch Oven by Alumapalooza time, but in any case both Eleanor and I hope to attend the DO cooking class this year. I’m pleased to say that Lodge is going to be a sponsor and so we’ll have a few pieces of their cookware as door prizes too!

Dec 13 2011

’tis the season to get things going!

So for the past week I’ve been tap-tap-tapping at the keyboard and relentlessly thinking about the future. This is the winter and in the winter it always seems that I have too little to physically do but too much to think about. There are so many interesting plans to execute. “What’s next?” is the question on my mind when I wake up, because for me, ’tis the season to get things done in preparation for an even more interesting 2012.

It has always been this way for me during the winter. In the past it was easy to get bogged down in the minutiae and the winter doldrums, but since 2003 when we began Airstreaming I have not had that issue. Wally Byam was right when he outlined the Four Freedoms that result from Airstream ownership, one of which was “the freedom to relax and lose oneself mentally.” For me, the Airstream is a vital tool to regaining perspective that might otherwise be lost in the press of work and ideas. Every year since 2004 we’ve spent a week or more around New Year’s Eve to get lost somewhere sunny, and not think about the things that need to get done back in the office. I’m looking forward to that trip.

That’s a few weeks away still. In the meantime I’m energized by the prospect of all the interesting possibilities that life presents. My challenge is to push things and people along the path so that every idea can get closer to fruition. It’s a rather delicate process. I can’t just pick up the phone and yell at people to get their jobs done. There are always obstacles to every project, and there’s never enough money. So I spend a lot of time figuring out clever ways to circumvent barriers and financial limits (with the help of a few trusted advisers and partners), and then gently applying pressure in the right spot. This is actually fun. I do get a kick out of seeing ideas become reality, even if they’re not my ideas—and they often aren’t.

Of course, it’s important not to lose sight of the crown jewel that makes all the other projects possible: Airstream Life magazine. I still spend most of my time working on it. The magazine’s Spring 2012 edition is about 80% through the editorial process at this point, and going to layout as of today. We are going to have articles on the 1958 model year Airstreams (continuing the series by Fred Coldwell), a Buyer’s Guide on 30-foot slide-outs, a very interesting Airstream with a Victorian interior, a personal perspective on Chaco National Monument by Bert Gildart, the Shooting Star Drive-In (Airstream park), an Airstream barber shop, a soap opera star’s customized Airstream in Hawaii, another article in Andy Thomson’s towing series, and more. This issue will be in the mail in February. By the way, it’s going to have a really cool cover illustration.

While I was sick in Tampa last week, I had a lot of time to talk to Brett about our plans for Alumapalooza 2012. The event is coming together very nicely. We would have a much easier time if we simply replicated the event each year, but we like to change it up. That way it’s never predictable, so people who come two years in a row won’t be bored. And, we like to look for efficiencies that make the event better.

I already talked about the three grills we had built. We tested them at Brett’s place last week and they did spectacularly well, so you can expect hot grills for at least two hours a night during Alumapalooza. Bring lots of stuff to cook! We also have completely revised the seminars and entertainment so that more than half the program will be all new for 2012. For example, we’re working on a new event we’re calling “The Backup Derby.” I’ll leave the details to your imagination for now…

But in my opinion the best idea we’ve had is a new format for “the process formerly known as registration.” Last year people were waiting in a line to confirm their registrations on site, and it was kind of a drag in the hot sun. This year, we figured that since you’ve already registered online for the event, there’s no reason to make you wait in line when you get to Alumapalooza.

So when you’re there in 2012, either before or after you’ve parked (your choice), all you have to do is approach any orange-shirted staff member anywhere and tell them who you are. Most of the staff will be able to check you in, on the spot, using a wireless mobile device. The process will take about 30 seconds and you’ll be handed a plastic token for every paid member of your group. Ta-da! You’re checked in and ready to start having fun.

At your convenience, you can swing by the Vendor Tent or visit the daily 4 pm Wally Byam Happy Hour under the Main Tent and exchange your plastic token for your personal badge, which will get you into all the seminars, qualify you for door prizes, get you dinner on Saturday, etc. The primary registrant in each group will also get a goody bag full of coupons and freebies. No lines, no waiting, no hassle.

I love this sort of stuff. We didn’t have to make this change, and it will cost us some bucks for the added technology, but it’s going to make life easier for everyone and allow our attendees to get right to the job of having fun. I know when I get to a campground after a long day of driving, the last thing I want to do is wait in line at the front desk and go through some overly-complicated registration process. Getting geeky with our technology to eliminate that tedium is very satisfying.

OK, let’s talk about another project: This week I am pleased to announce the Airstream Life has published another book, “The Collected Adventures of Tin Hut.” It presently is available only in ebook format (Amazon Kindle right now, Apple iTunes bookstore for iPad & iPhone in a few days). The book is a complete set of every Tin Hut episode ever published in Airstream Life—a total of 22 episodes, complete with the original illustrations by Brad Cornelius. It’s pretty damn funny. The price is just $9.95. We’re working on a softcover print edition to follow next year, which will probably be more expensive because of the cost of color printing.

I have four other book projects waiting in line right now. They’re all going to be great (I say with as much modesty as I can muster) but each one has a set of barriers holding it back. With luck, I’ll be able to announce two of them next year. Even when I’m not writing the books, it’s a huge job just to get each one out the door. I love doing them despite the hassles. By the way, speaking as a print publisher, I think ebooks are the way to go. I can offer more titles at lower prices, especially books that would never see print because their audiences are too niche. Some titles must be in print for logistical reasons, but I’ll always offer an ebook edition at the same time.

Another announcement: the free Airstream Life Online Edition is now compatible with Apple iPad. I get emails almost monthly from people wondering when they’ll be able to read it on their iPad. Now you can. iPad users, try it here. The underlying software is still in beta, so it’s not quite perfect but we’ve been promised that the platform will get better in the next few months.

Events: There’s more in the pipeline that I can’t talk about yet, but trust me, it’s good stuff. Hopefully we will be able to announce a second major Alumapalooza-type event, out west, for next summer. We’re just waiting for confirmation that the venue is available, and then we’ll open up registration. And we are already at work on a third event for February 2013. Each event will have its own name and be completely different, so rather than Alumapalooza 1, 2, and 3 clones, they will be more like a set: collect ’em all. This is really fun work. I just wish we could make it all happen faster.

One last announcement. I’m once again working with Brett to curate the Modernism Week 2012 show in Palm Springs. The show will be February 25-26. For information on times and tickets, visit Modernism Week’s website. We have space for just 20 exceptional vintage trailers at the show, and already half the spaces are taken by some unbelievable restored and customized rigs, including Randy Grubb’s one-of-a-kind Decoliner. It’s going to be an awesome show.

Modernism Week is a different kind of display opportunity from vintage rallies. When you go to a rally you are showing off your trailer to other trailer enthusiasts. That’s nice, but you’re sort of preaching to the choir. At Mod Week, nearly 1,000 people who aren’t yet vintage trailer owners come from Los Angeles and southern CA specifically to see what’s cool. They don’t know trailers, but they know what they like and they love good design. That’s why lots of smart trailer customizers and vendors of trailer-related products are bringing their best rigs to Palm Springs for this show. Airstream will probably be there to show their new Sterling concept trailer too, and we are hoping Chris C Deam will put in an appearance at the same time.

To encourage the best of the best, we have put together a special owners-only program which includes a private reception before the show, tickets to an evening event/party at the new Saguaro Hotel, and a chance to win one of three coveted Airstream Life “Wally awards.” If you’ve got a sweet vintage trailer of any make (not just Airstream) and want to be considered for the show, just ping us at info (at) alumapalooza.com for the application form.

This is only about half of what’s on my plate. You can see why my head is swirling right now. There’s so much fun stuff out there to work on! I’ll keep pounding away at the keys and working the phone this winter so the Airstream and vintage-trailer lovers can have a great 2012—and I will too.