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Eric Bunnell's People: Living the Airstream lifestyle

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Airstream Life is the magazine for those who live the Airstream lifestyle embodied in the iconic brand of sleek, aluminum travel trailers.

And on the cover of the magazine’s current number, an Airstream pictured by St. Thomas artist Michael Lambert, who shares a mid-century styled life with spouse Tina – and the couple’s own Airstream.

The cover is his second for Airstream Life, now that Michael has returned to serious painting after there just weren’t enough hours in the day for art, his career as an art educator (retired last year after 29 years at Parkside Collegiate Institute) and his longtime love for rock ‘n’ roll (currently gigging in Frankie and the Fairlanes).

“I got the itch to paint again,” Michael says.

“I thought about Greg Curnoe ... What I admired about him is he didn’t separate art and life, he just painted his life.”

Hence, for the avid wheelman, Curnoe’s signature subject, bicycles.

For Michael, guitars. His first, a ‘61 Stratocaster, sonic blue. Interestingly, oil on aluminum.

And now, Airstreams.

He believes he may be the only artist whose prints are sold by the trailermaker. (Yes, Michael answers the often-asked question. They still make them).

The images are matted for framing by Minerva in east Elgin.

Already owners of a ‘56 Ford Fairlane, Michael and Tina bought their first Airstream to trailer to car shows as a complement to the sedan.

Seated in the couple’s vintage living room, he laughs.

“We sort of had filled up the house, now we had a new space to decorate.”

Their style arises out of admiration for the streamlined design of the time and its Jetson modernity and optimism for the space-aged future.

And Airstreams? Why, Michael smiles, wouldn’t you know but they were the vehicle in which NASA transported astronauts to the launch pad.

He and Tina have just returned from a three-month trip south in their current Airstream. Is it their second or third after that car-show first? Never mind. Another currently is undergoing a complete restoration in the workshop.

“I’ve always had a soft spot for them.”

And though he now has pictured iterations of the iconic vehicle in a dozen images, Michael says he is far from finished exploring his subject.

“I haven’t done enough of them to feel they have run their course.”

* * *

Talk about the weather! (And you know we’re going to...)

As of midweek, there still were Elgin residents without power from the weekend’s ice storm.

Well, didn’t Environment Canada warn of a “potentially historic” event? And didn’t we believe?

St. Thomas itself got off pretty lucky; major outage Saturday afternoon and affecting 6,500 residents lasted but two hours, though long enough to prematurely end a Met Opera Live in HD screening at Elgin Mall Cineplex just as the final act of Luisa Miller was about to begin.

But you knew things weren’t going to end well, anyway.

“They all die!” one audience member informed with a knowing laugh.

Pretty much. Believing Luisa has betrayed their love, Rodolfo poisons her and himself. Dying, she confesses her true feelings for him. With his last strength, he fatally stabs Wurm, the cad who forced her to falsely foreswear him. Witnessing all, Miller and Count Walter, the ill-fated lovers’ fathers who could have acted, are left to live out their lives grieving the loss of their children.

That’s Verdi for you!

Audience members got a coupon for Massenet’s Cendrillon next Saturday.

Power outages Saturday and Sunday throughout the county, including whole swaths of Aylmer and Port Stanley, plunged several hundreds into the chilly dark. In nearby Thames Centre, thousands!

The last weren’t reconnected until Wednesday.

Several elementary schools were closed Monday in and around St. Thomas.

And the weekend’s ice storm was part of a “perfect storm” for local radio MyFM 94.1.

Ironically for the community’s “official” emergency information source, a power surge Saturday afternoon knocked the station off the air and then a series of technical woes defied efforts at restoration.

“It was a crummy coincidence ... but it was all caused by the power, in the end,” news director Andrew Buttigieg agrees.

Fortunately, they still were able to get information out to listeners via Facebook and Twitter and the station’s online stream, until technicians could effect repairs Monday morning.

But here we are in the second half of April. Never mind last winter, I am so over this spring!

* * *

Anyway, there’s now summer and mayhem and murder to look forward to.

If you’re still lugging War and Peace to the cottage as death takes a holiday, reviewer Margaret Cannon suggests other.

Picking top Canadian crime fiction for a good vacation read, she includes the latest from prolific east Elgin author Kelley Armstrong:

“Kelley Armstrong’s solid Casey Duncan series, set in Yukon, is turning into one of the best new finds of the decade,” Cannon enthuses in last weekend’s Globe and Mail.

“Armstrong has always been a particular talent, but Duncan and the Yukon are definitely her inspiration.”

Title of the tome is This Fallen Prey, published by Minotaur.

* * *

An email from STEGH Foundation to e-inform the fundraiser’s redesigned ItsOURHospital.ca website is up and running, thanks to the creative folks of Tapa Creative (offices in St. Thomas and Winnipeg, and corporate clients throughout Canada and the U.S. – and brothers Brandon and Nicholas Olsen and brother-in-law Patrick Touchette, the trio who are leading transformation of the former Old Gardens Flower Shop into a new hub for entrepreneurs).

“Tapa Creative designed an intuitive layout, with easy navigation options,” the foundation says.

“Visitors to the site can make a donation easily, see the generosity of the foundation’s partners, or catch up on the latest news.”

That includes reading HeartBeat Newsletter and details regarding the foundation’s sixth annual Black Tie signature gala, themed Midnight in Paris – and where, new this year at the swish event, purchase of one of 400 $20 keys could be the key to unlocking one of five locked doors, behind which are promised five fab prizes. Save the date Oct, 18 at St. Anne’s Centre but don’t wait, the foundation advises, because the fun fundraiser is a regular sell-out.

* * *

As faithful reader will recall, young men who called St. Thomas and Elgin their peacetime home, were among the Canadians who carved their thoughts into the soft chalk walls of their underground bunker as they waited to go into action at Vimy Ridge.

Grant Phelps, St. Thomas, carved the crest of his 91st Battalion before he was killed in the first hour of the battle. Earl Laroy Lacey, Phelps’ comrade-at-arms in the 91st, drew pictures of farm animals back home in Dunwich Township. He was killed in 1918 in action.

The images were documented by London-based Canadigm, and an exhibition of 20 including those carved by Phelps and Lacey, were exhibited in April 2015 at Museum London.

Now, a much larger exhibition of the cave carvings has opened in London at St. John House, 741 King St., continuing for several months.

The exhibition has been mounted to commemorate the battlefield role played by St. John Ambulance members.

There you have it!

ericbunnellspeople@gmail.com

 

 

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