Sunday, September 13, 2009

Back in action after a loooooong summer hiatus.

Wake-Up-Grrl started out as a school project, but as the semester progressed, I started receiving feedback outside of the classroom from all over the world, and I vowed to keep this blog going once the class came to an end. Unfortunately, I found myself in an unmotivated rut over the summer. I'm not sure if I was just pooped from school, busy with work, traveling and hanging out, or what, but my motivation to write here suffered quite a bit. Even my photo blog is currently not up to date (but I've been taking photos everyday, I promise!).

But, now that I'm back in school, my life is a bit more organized and structured once again, so I've decided that it's time for me to WAKE-UP and revitalize this blog! So for any of you loyal readers who have been wondering "what the hell happened to Cristina over the last four months?" I'm back! You can be expecting a new post either later tonight or early this week!

What exactly have I been up to, you ask? I got the amazing opportunity to study with the University of Windsor in New York City at NYU for three weeks in May and June. It was an amazing experience. There were some low points of the trip, and by the end of it, I was ready to come home, but besides that, the trip was a great learning experience. I also went to Calabria, Italy to visit family and friends for a couple of weeks in August. The photos are all up on my other blog, if you care to check them out.

I've been working like mad, which is good. Also, doing a lot of projects and activities with Broken City Lab. This summer we spent a lot of time creating planters out of recycled plastic bags. They will be featured in Fuse Magazine in 2010. We finally found some projectors, and are planning to get the Cross Border Communication project off the ground soon.
Tomorrow (Monday, September 14th, 2009) we're holding a psychogeography walk of the West End/University campus, entitled "Welcome To The Neighbourhood." If you're from Windsor, please come and check it out!

And I guess what's most exciting, is the project that we have lined up for this upcoming weekend in New York City! When I returned from NYC this Summer, Justin of BCL sent me a link to ConfluxCity2009 and suggested that we come up with some kind of proposal for their festival. After thinking it over one loooong day at work, I thought, "hmm...what if we proposed some kind of algorithmic psychogeography walk in the Subway system of New York?" Justin was all for it, so we wrote up a quick proposal and sent it in. Sure enough, we we're accepted into the festival, so Justin, Michelle, Danielle and I are heading down to The Big Apple this coming Friday. What's even more exciting is that we were also just chosen as one of the featured projects!

In terms of my radio life at CJAM. I've moved up from being an occasional host of Milk and Vodka (Part of the Women's Radio Collective), to the co-host of the roots/Americana show Steel Belted Radio with Jim Meloche (taking over for Dale Jacobs) and the co-host of indie rock/punk show The Washing Machine with Clara (taking over for Nicole Markham). Excitement!

So, there's my list of excuses as to why Wake-Up-Grrl has been neglected. At least I was keeping busy, right? Real posts to come! In the meantime, tell me what's been up with you!