This is a pretty clever ad for Full Sail University Online.  It’s, like… the birdcage is a symbol, man.  However, it was a hell of a lot more clever in its original inception: as the subject of a Graham Kahler comic.

This is a page from Songbirds, one of Graham Kahler’s better known works.  I think I first read it in 2006.  Kahler isn’t a huge celebrity or anything, but he has a following, enough that people who are into comics and illustration know his stuff.  And he’s indie enough that he probably couldn’t do anything to defend himself in the event that someone did steal his work.  The resemblance here is uncanny.  I obviously can’t outright say that this is an appropriation of Kahler’s concept without knowing more, but if it were my intellectual property and I saw this… I’d be livid.

Last Friday was the opening of The Black Dog Runs At Night, a Twin Peaks themed gallery show at Piranha Betty’s Art Mart in Kensington. As you may know, faithful reader, I am a hardcore Twin Peaks fan… enough so that I was willing to travel to Kensington, which is not at all safe, just to check out this show. I took a few crappy cellphone pictures that I thought I’d share.

The main gallery area had been done up to resemble the Black Lodge, straight down to the zig-zag floor. There’s a log hidden somewhere in the above picture… try and find it!

In addition to art, there was a pie tasting, because all people ever seem to associate Twin Peaks with is pie and coffee. I did not try any pie, because it did not look at all appetizing by the time I got to the show.

The art itself was fairly average. Nothing jumped out at me as being amazing, save for a couple dioramas I didn’t get good pictures of. It was mostly fan art, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I did ended up buying a few smaller drawings that I liked. The above picture shows how they were marked as sold. The gallery manager just plastered my name and phone number next to the work for some reason. So far I’ve had half a dozen unsolicited text messages, mostly Twin Peaks quotes. Thanks, Piranha Betty’s!

Final Verdict: there is no reason to ever visit Kensington. Except I have to go back when the show closes to pick up the drawings that I bought. I will most likely just give my roommate five dollars to go pick them up. No one ever messes with him. He’s got crazy eyes.

I just ordered my copy of the Korg DS-10+ synthesizer from Amazon and a peculiar thing appeared on the recommended items page: Jam Sessions 2. This game apparently came out in October, but I haven’t seen it mentioned on any of the 527 game blogs that I follow in Google Reader. There’s not even a Wikipedia page for it! Honestly, the first game was rather boring, so I couldn’t justify purchasing the sequel… until I saw these amazing screenshots.

It’s like the interface was torn out of the back of an old Nickelodeon Magazine. Gorgeous! If anyone knows the illustrator responsible for this, please let me know.

I did a few sweeps of the show floor upon my arrival at SPX (maybe you heard the trumpets) and Neil Jam’s booth immediately grabbed me. He had all these cute pop art drawings, in frames, for twelve dollars each.

Every place I’ve ever worked at, I’ve gotten shit for not having family pictures on my desk. Probably because I work with old people who have family pictures on their desks. Sorry, dudes, I’m 26 years old, I’m single, and I spend most of my free time reading books. This guy isn’t having a family any time soon. So I’m hoping Wonder Woman and Tanooki Mario can pinch hit for a while. They’re now freaking out everyone who steps into my office.

Fun Fact: right after I bought these, some dude swooped in carrying a baby to get a closer look. The baby started crying. Guy holding him said “Yeah, I know… they all have black eyes. Dead black eyes. It’s a conspiracy!” Then he actually ran towards the nearest exit and left. I was in complete disbelief and just started laughing. I looked around and realized that no one else was laughing. Maybe this dude is a convention regular and everyone knows him?