I have a lot to catch up on! I was in NYC for 4 days the beginning of this month. The Christmas tree was still up in Rockefeller center, first time I got to see that. And the magical window displays at Anthropologie. I stayed with one of my cousins who lives near Columbus Circle, so the first day I was there, I went to see that exhibit Beth just wrote about, the exhibit at the new Museum of Art and Design in NYC:  “Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary” one of the coolest exhibits I’ve seen in a while. I can relate to these pieces and the idea of creating something new out of the ordinary! Earlier in the semester, Gloria sent me an article in the New York Times “The Genius of Little Things” about one of the artists in this exhibit, Tara Donovan. And there was one of her pieces made of stacked buttons, fragile and clear, and alive looking. I particularly loved peering inside shopping bags turned miniature tree worlds by Japanese born artist Yuken Teruya. And Stuart Haygarth’s chandelier reflecting beautiful light and shadow patterns and made entirely of spectacles is also fantastic. Butterflies made from records covered one wall. Several sculptures made from books and NYC telephone books made by Long Bin Chen. And that piece “After the Mona Lisa” made from spools of thread and viewed correctly through a sort of eye of a needle by Devorah Sperber. A mother taking turns holding her three children up to look through. A sofa made of high heeled shoes.