Update from Chris

OK here goes: after camp closed :( I was lucky enough to get into an innovative, alternative high-school which allowed me to study art and photography in-depth. The schedule was like a college in that we didn't have the same classes every day. The totally revolutionary thing was that attendance was OPTIONAL! for real! that was both good and bad for me as you might imagine, it was for many. I managed to graduate with multiple piercings and a punk rock attitude.

After High School I slacked around DC working in a video store, renting regular and adult videos to many of Washington's powerful elite. (If you want names you have to meet me in person and buy me a beer). I had the privilege of removing Traci Lords's best renting adult videos from the shelves when it was discovered that she was underaged when she made many of her most popular films. I also watched the challenger disaster live, on 10 TVs at once and shook Stevie Wonder's hand.

After about three years of contemplating life in retail, I decided to go to college, art school to be exact. Like Dr Mintz, I needed to get far away from my overprotective mother so I opted for a small school in Atlanta, where I got serious about art and life. I got a dog, a little poodle named katy. I never gave Katy a stupid poodle haircut so most of the time people didn't realize she was a poodle at all. (No, this was not good for my physical health.) During my third year in college, I was diagnosed with Keratoconus, a thinning of the corneas that causes distortions (great for my painting) and possibly leading blindness. Just my luck to be developing a commitment to a career in visual arts while my eyes were going bad. Luckily, Emory Univ. has a good hospital. There I got both my corneas transplanted, each one, one year apart in '09 and '91. It wasn't easy taking notes in class with a sharpie and getting people to read my reading assignments to me, but painting was great fun!. My vision changed rapidly for years. I credit this experience with changing my approach to making art. I began making art as most do, by representing what I could see through fairly traditional figure painting, but because of my eye situation, I decided to take a more conceptual approach to making art, just to see if I could indeed make art more with my "brain" than my "eyes."

Sorry if I get a bit pointy headed now and then, but that is who I am now :)

After undergrad, I worked as a teaching assistant in a private, pre-school program and drove for take out taxi. It was about all I was qualified to do with my BFA in painting. The experience at the pre-school solidified my commitment to remaining childless. Sorry to be so blunt about it but pre-schoolers are just like any other group of people, only smaller and louder. Some of them I liked, but many I didn't. I decided to go to grad school for art. In hindsight, it was definitely the right thing to do, but I'm sure you can imagine that to invest so much money into an art education seemed like a crazy bet. I applied to many good schools but chose Carnegie Mellon because it gave me the best deal and they had an innovative curriculum with an emphasis on the arts in society.

I went into CMU a painter and came out an electronic artist. CMU does that to people. Along the way I met the love of my life, John Sturgeon. It was the classic love at first sight thing. The moment I saw him I kicked my friend under the table and said "that's him! that's the guy!" It took us a few years to get it together but we did. While at CMU, I went to Vietnam with my Dad and visited family sites in the north and south. Needless to say it was a life altering experience. It was also almost a life ending experience as well since I experience anaphylactic shock several times during the month I was there. The thing is, I didn't know what was happening to me. I only figured it out much later after reporting the incidents to my allergist.

Also while at CMU, my feminist consciousness was awakened and I helped found subRosa, an artist collective that critiques the effects of new bio and information technologies on the lives and bodies of women. We were very successful and though I left the collective in 2003, they live and work on.

In 2000 John and I moved to Baltimore so he could take a position as Chair of the Art Department at UMBC. I took a job as project manager at the Imaging Research Center at UMBC. There I taught myself project management and a little grant writing on the job, along with various technical and administrative skills. In 2001 I quit smoking (yep, "Drum" and I rolled my own) and we bought a 100 year-old row house near John's Hopkins. It was a fixer upper then, and is still a fixer-upper today. I managed not to fall off the smoking wagon after 9/11. I'm proud of that since I was quite sure, the world was ending at the time.

In 2004 John Sturgeon, the love of my life and I were married in a unique ceremony in the Palm House at the Baltimore conservatory and botanic gardens. A month later I moved to Charlottesville, VA for my first full-time teaching job as a Visiting Assistant Professor in the art department at UVA. I loved c'ville but the best part of that was meeting my friend, Artist Dragana Crnjak who was also a visiting Asst. Prof. She had just graduated with her MFA and was newly pregnant for the first time. Dragana is an incredible woman for many, many reasons but the thing that impressed me the most was that during the last week of the spring semester she told me she was ready to give birth. Then she finished her classes, turned in her grades and her water broke. I went to the hospital with her and ended up staying with her through the entire birth of her son Sava. We didn't plan that--maybe the birthing team thought I was a doula or something. By now you know I have no kids and that it is by choice. I will say that though I think not everyone needs to have children, everyone SHOULD be required to witness a birth. The world would be a different place if we could all appreciate the sheer labor, bravery and risk involved in our own births. it is humbling to say the least.

Moving right along, from fall of 05 through the spring of 07, I was an Assistant Prof. at the Art Department at UWF. The day I arrived on campus I walked into the Chair's office and she said, "hi! nice to see you again!" then she handed me a giant wad of plastic and said "could you unplug and wrap up the computers in the lab? We're evacuating!" And with that the reality of Katrina entered my life. Pensacola was spared as you may know but my days on the gulf coast were numbered after that. I couldn't take the stress of knowing all I worked for could be washed away at any moment and there was only so much I could do to protect my self and stuff from hurricanes. (I guess I'll never live along the west coast either.) For Katy, as for so many old beings, Florida was good place to live out her last days. Taking care of that little dog during her last year of life took a lot out of me. My hair started graying and her death forever changed me.

Now I am an Assistant Professor here at Clemson University. I am a city person so learning living a rural part of the country has been a challenge. Last weekend, in an an effort to embrace my new home, I went to my first rodeo at the Clemson livestock arena. John and I bought a cheap little 10 year-old house here in SC and we can tell you it's true, "they don't build them like they used to." We are still in a commuting marriage, full of love but short on time together. It's not all bad, but we are looking forward to this stage of our marriage ending soon. I love my job and the people here. My artwork, which by any standard, is not conventional, is thriving here and the country is beautiful. I am teaching digital art in the Art Department and "Visual Rhetorics" in the Ph.D program in Rhetorics, Communication and Information Design. I'll be presenting my work at conferences in Richmond, VA and Singapore this year.

John has three artwork in a show which opens in March at the Getty Art Museum. We'll be in LA for the opening and visit his step-daughter, her husband and daughter, Coco. BTW, being a grandparent, even a step-grandparent, is GREAT!

Obviously I took some time to craft this post. I feel I should say that I blog like a meteor: it may be a rather substantial event, but it will happen rarely and erratically, with long stretches of mute silence in between sightings/postings. I just want to be up front about this so no one is offended or disappointed if I seem unresponsive. I eagerly look forward to receiving news from all of you and will do my best to check in as often as I can. i know I have pictures from camp but they're in Baltimore now, along with most things I love. On my next trip home I'll dig them up, scan and post them.

Christina
PS I was engaged to some other guy for 8 years from just after HS an on into grad school, and it gives me GREAT PLEASURE to relegate that entire relationship to a footnote here ;)

FW: Did we find you?

From: Tim Truemper [mailto:tim.truemper@ncmail.net]
Sent: Thursday, February 28, 2008 4:30 PM
To: Alex Horovitz
Subject: Re: Did we find you?

Yes you found me! I've been out with a back injury and just got back on
the computer. Will communicate much more later. Will hopefully have
pictures and all plus some ideas for a web site for BJ alumni. Has
anybody reached Betsy Birkhead. I think I have an e-mail for her. Take
care Alex! Tim ( the Head)

Alex Horovitz wrote:
>
> The Campers of Camp Broncho Junction want to know…
>
> How are you?
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Alex
>

Stacey's Update...

Hi Everybody,

Here is a time line and in a nutshell, what I have been up to since camp...

1980-1982: Attended Bronco Junction.

1982 - Present Day: Visited Geralyn (Geri) McDonough after camp, and never stopped!

1985: Graduated HS

1985-1987: Attended Community College in Md.
1988-1990: Graduated from college with a degree in Visual Communications

1990-1998: Worked for a variety of companies in the Md/DC area in printing, graphics, direct mail, publishing, etc.

1998: Transferred with my company to NYC

2001: 9/11 was the craziest day of my life.

2003: Moved to Boston

2004: Moved back to NYC

My Asthma is pretty much gone, thank God! I work hard and hang out with my friends and family. I am single and have no kids. I am definitely a summer person, and like to go boating or hang at the beach. I love going to concerts and sporting events. I have friends all over the country, and I travel to Green Bay, WI every year for an annual Packer game, which is a blast! I still have family in Md, and try to visit at least once a year. I get to the gym 3-5 days a week in spite of my busy work and social schedule. I also have done some extra work on shows like Law & Order and Cashmere Mafia. I got my start in this by being an extra in Forrest Gump. I also work with my dog, Reggie, as a trained Therapy Pet team and volunteer at a local hospital once a week as well as visit a local Veteran's hospital once a month.

Torri and the boys in time square

Zachary, Jason, Torri & Daniel Horovitz.

Catching Up

As Tonya suggests, it would be a great idea if everyone could let us all know what you have been up to for the last 26 years or so. If Alex's implementation of my suggestion worked (boy you act fast Alex!), then you should all receive this as an email.

To post to the blog, you simply need to go to http://bronchojunction.blogspot.com/
and sign in.

Earlier today, Alex sent the rest of you invitations to the blog. You will create your own password (your email is your log in). On the Dashboard, just click on New Post under the Camp Bronco Junction Alumni Blog, and type away!
For savy users, you are certainly welcome to add pictures, etc. (Below is a slide show of my family's winter trip to the Carribean.) However, just letting everyone know what you have been up to would be great.

My timeline.....
1982 Last summer at Bronco Junction (who knew it would be the last)
1986 Need to get away from overprotective parents who limit college choices to east of the Mississippi River. I attend the U. of Chicago
1990 Decide I want to be close to home (and that it's too freakin' cold in Chicago) so start medical school at The George Washington University
1994 Start my internal medicine and primary care residency at GW.
1997 Asked to stay an extra year as Chief Medical Resident
1998 Decide to stay at GW as full time faculty in the Department of Medicine, which is where I am now.
1999 Get married. My wife Julie is a teacher by training, though is currently staying at home with occaisional substitute work. Also, buy a house in Rockville, Maryland (10 minutes from my folks).
2001 Allison (now 6.5- though I suppose you can do the math) is born
2004 Natalie ( 4 next week) arrives

Currently, I split my time at GW between seeing patients and teaching the medical students. I direct several courses, including the primary care rotation for our 3rd year students. I have done some research/writing in several areas including asthma. (For those interested, I have two frequently cited articles on the diagnosis and treatment of asthma and have authored a book for priamry care physicians in treating respiratory disorders).

Recently, I started my own blog which is designed for my patients, friends and family; who are always asking me about the latest study or health item they heard about in the paper or on TV. The media can be confusing and scary, so hopeful people will find my blog helpful.

Matthew Mintz has a very good idea...

I think the idea of using the blog vs. facebook is good, since it may be less confusing for the less internet savy. One problem with blogs is that unless you set up an RSS feed, you don't know about new postings (without checking the blog).

Blogspot has the ability to email new posts to one email account. One idea I had would be to set up an online group (yahoo, google, etc. ) behind the scenes and then email updates to the blog to that group.

Do you know of any online groups that don't require creating a separate email account like Yahoo?

Even if there aren't any, as long as we had a member's email, we could create an account for them and forward email to their real account. Is this something you think you could set up?

So, having your own domain(s) has advantages and one of them is the ability to set up email aliases...

broncojunction AT insanelygreat DOT com

(You all can use that as well rather than type in each of our email addresses...)

If you got a notification about this blog post then everything worked as Matthew envisioned.

Cheers!

Alex

A Trip Down Memory Lane

I have had too much fun in the past week and a half since Alex found me. I found my pictures and my box of camp stuff which had all 5 of my yearbooks, a few newsletters, and even some end of camp awards. There was so much I had forgotten but all came rushing back when I started going through the box. For those of you I haven't had a chance to email here's what I've been up to. I was a Revenue Officer for the IRS for 12 1/2 years and finally got tired and quit this past July. I took a job in the county government where I live on the Eastern Shore of MD - no more commuting!!!! It gives me a lot more time for the things I like to do and most of that time is spent at church working with with a youth group. I actually hope to be going to seminary to get my masters in Divinity and going into the ministry. I am not married and have no children; well except my yellow lab Benjamin. I have a wonderful nephew who will be three tommorow and a new neice or nephew that should be here in a few weeks. Now - I want to know what all of you have been up to so I hope to be reading about you soon. (It was really easy to do this post so no excuses!)

Bronco or Broncho

David Malech writes:

Hey Alex, I just noticed you keep spelling it Broncho Junction. I think the correct spelling is Bronco Junction, not "Broncho". I see on the map that it's spelled "Broncho" on the road that leads to the camp, but everybody knows it as Bronco Junction, and if people are doing some sort of web search, they may not find your Facebook group or Blog as easily.

Now as far as Putnam County is concerned, the spelling is "Broncho" which makes sense to me as it was a camp for asthmatics. Especially in the face of the general clinical description of what happens during an asthma attack.

The changes that take place in the lungs of asthmatic persons makes the airways (the "breathing tubes," or bronchi and the smaller bronchioles) hyper-reactive to many different types of stimuli that don't affect healthy lungs. In an asthma attack, the muscle tissue in the walls of bronchi go into spasm, and the cells lining the airways swell and secrete mucus into the air spaces. Both these actions cause the bronchi to become narrowed (bronchoconstriction). As a result, an asthmatic person has to make a much greater effort to breathe in air and to expel it.

Yet, Stacey Moore has chastised me for the same thing when I complained that Putnam County has it as Broncho and likely the staff screwed up somewhere:

lol! I know! But that's how they spelled it..I know my t-shirt was spelled "Bronco"

So, I'm willing to go with "Bronco" - afterall, if you can't beat 'em...

Now, on to another important naming convention that is sure to come up. Stacey reminded me about a certain creek that ran near the camp:

Do you remember that the other part of that road was called "Buck/Lick" and we called it "Butt/Lick' ha ha!!! I forgot all about that.

So, henceforth, I'd like agreement that we call the creek "buttlick" and not fight about that...

:-)

Hello Folks!

I'm asking you to join me on an adventure in staying in touch. It seems not everyone can see the Facebook site. Would you believe that some companies block access to it?

So, my thought is that we could use a common blog to keep each other informed about the goings on in our lives. To do this, I am inviting each person who we find to be an author of this blog. In other words, you each have the ability to create content here and it will be automagically shared with each of us.

(That and I know each of you secretly want to be authors of content on the web...)

If you already have a blog, we can trade links back and forth. Also, because this thing is indexed by Google, it will make us easier to find for any Alumni who might be looking for us in the future.

Also, Google's Blogger makes posting pathetically easy, so no excuses there...

Keep well and breathe easy!

Alex