fiftyone: newspaper + broken plate + necklaces

fifty: newspaper + white bowl + colored hoops

fortynine: it is not the power of the curse, it is the power you give the curse

i saw the movie penelope today for the second or third time. the few times i have seen it, i really enjoyed it. james mcavoy speaks with an american accent, which is a little irritating, but besides that the movie is a high quality fairytale/fantasy, beauty and beast-esque romance. a perfect movie for valentine's day.
on wednesday, i went to ira glass' book signing at a border's in town. ira glass is currently promoting the release of the second season of this american life on dvd. i have only seen part of an episode of the tv show, but i am a great fan of the radio program. i am always a little worried that i am setting myself up for disappoint when i go to see authors/musicians/artists that i love. luckily, ira glass was no disappointment. he was entertaining and down to earth. he spoke for a short time about what he learnt about television from his show and then took questions from the audience. i was interested to find out that a number of radio fans are unhappy with the very idea of the tv show. i must admit, i am not sure how i feel about the transition to tv, but after hearing him speak, i am eager to see the show. to those of you who have never listened to this american life, i highly recommend it. below is a list of some of my favorite episodes:
middle of nowhere
testosterone
break-up
what i learned from television
the audacity of government
the ghost of bobby dunbar
special ed

fortyeight: tangled

before.
after.

fortyseven: exploring

sometimes i like to explore the blogging world. today i found:
an italian blog called "football against the enemy". i am not sure what it is about, but i love the name
a blog called "not plain jane" written by a knitter who is also battling cancer
one blog that gave me a few travel pangs
amy stein's blog ( it was noted on the blogger dashboard today)
and this one which has a number of photos of spain, i believe. after looking at these photos, i am longing for my days there.

fortysix: collage

i used to collage a lot when i was younger. when i lived in spain, for my last two years of high school, i collaged a large wall in my room. and while in middle school, i essentially covered all the wall space in my room with photos, drawings, and other objects. i have now graduated from collaging walls to objects. in the summer of '07 i decorated this set of drawers from ikea. i keep the drawers on my desk and enjoy looking at them.
i made this last summer from a chinese newspaper i got at a local restaurant. i spray painted the corks in the middle to create greater contrast with the newspaper. this frame was a bit of an experiment. i have found that newpaper and liquid polyurathane do not mix well (the polyurathane causes the back image of the newspaper to come through the front). to avoid the back images bleeding through i sprayed several light layers of spray polyurathane over the frame first and voila the problem was fixed. i stilled used the liquid poly to get the nice yellow finish and gloss. when the weather gets warmer i think i may make a few more frames - i picked up some arabic newspapers that i am planning to use.