Wayne White, a Chattanooga-born artist living and working in Los Angeles, buys mass-produced thrift-store/garage-sale lithographs and paints amazing 3D word-art onto them. His use of typography is stunning, reminiscent of Chris Ware’s Acme Novelty Library covers.

The Clementine Gallery in New York has two high-quality photo galleries of his work, from 2002 and 2004. My personal favorites: I Love the Whole Fucking World, Take Your Forms Wrestled form the Void and Get the Hell Out, Painting that Came to Life Only to be Mocked-Forgotten, and Luv Hurtz.

In his professional life, he’s an acclaimed commercial artist, famously known as the art director for Peter Gabriel’s “Big Time,” the Smashing Pumpkins’ “Tonight Tonight,” and the Snapple bottle puppet commercials. He was also the voice of Mr. Kite and Randy on Pee Wee’s Playhouse, where he was a set designer and puppet maker. ArtForum reviewed his artwork in late 2002. More information, including more images and a bio, is available at the Western Project.

Cameron Marlow posted Audience, Structure and Authority in the Weblog Community, an excellent research paper discussing methods of determining the influence and importance of weblogs. Basically, he shows that the number of permalinks to a weblog may be a better indicator of authority than blogroll frequency. Many newer weblogs — including mine — appear to have more influence than older, more established weblogs. This theory goes against Clay Shirky’s widely-accepted conclusions about power laws and inequality in the blogosphere.

Cameron expects debate, so go read the PDF and give him your feedback.

Shrek 2 debuted in wide release yesterday, though probably a bit wider than Dreamworks wanted… Shortly after the first matinees had ended on the East coast, the entire movie was released into private file-sharing networks and then onto Usenet.

The NFO file bundled with the release explains that it’s a new releasing group called MPT, or “Movie Premier Team.” The file claims the movie was released in theaters on Tuesday and on the Internet today, but I saw this posted no later than 4:30PM PST yesterday, which indicates their timezone may be at least eight hours ahead of the U.S.

The video is a Telesync (“TS”), a camcorder video with a direct audio source, usually recorded from in-seat headphone jacks provided for the hearing-impaired. (Without sourced audio, a video is usually called a “Cam” instead.)

The quality of camcorder videos is surprisingly good. This one-minute 10MB sample file was uploaded separately to demonstrate the quality of the complete video. (If you have trouble playing it with Windows Media Player, try the excellent Media Player Classic.)

It’s a testament to the efficiency of the bootlegging community, that a feature film can be captured, encoded, released and distributed on the Internet within hours of its commercial release. For what? As far as I can tell, “MPT” doesn’t get anything more than bragging rights, though their release will inevitably be downloaded and commercially released on the DVD black market overseas, and possibly domestically. Who’s to blame, the non-profit teen playing the releasing game or the big-time bootleggers getting rich off of piracy? Eh, probably both.

Me? I paid a ridiculous $20 to see it on the big screen last night with my wife, but it was worth it… The baby’s due in around three weeks, so it’s the last time we’ll be going to the movies for a while.

There were plenty of exciting high-profile games at E3 this year, dominated by sequels. Paper Mario 2, Half-Life 2, Doom 3, and Prince of Persia 2 were among my favorites, but they’ve been heavily covered on 1UP, Gamespot, Gamespy, IGN, and everywhere else. Instead, I’d like to mention some of the obscure and bizarre titles that might fall under the radar of the mainstream gaming press, including my favorite game of the show.

Best of Show: Katamaridamacy (PS2)

I found the Japanese commercial for this game back in February, and was intrigued. Playing it at Namco’s booth yesterday, I was stunned by the originality and addictive gameplay. (It also has the best game cover art I’ve ever seen.)

Namco says the game will come out in the US, but they’re not sure when. Gameplay video (MPEG, 10 MB), desktop wallpapers. 1UP loved it, and I love 1UP.

Other Highlights:

• Chulip (PS2). A “kissing simulator” with the goal of kissing underground-dwelling people to make them feel better. Read the 1UP preview, with screenshots. Punchline, the game’s developer, has a Chulip homepage, with videos and wallpaper.
• XTango: Shuffling Roses (Xbox). Multiplayer ballroom dancing, with a control scheme similar to fighting games like Virtua Fighter.
• Under the Skin (PS2). An alien comes to Earth, scanning and assuming the identity of people around town. When the citizens figure you out, they attack you with special moves and you lose your clothes. 1UP preview.
• Odama (Gamecube). Military pinball, a bizarre mix of the Japanese battlefield with a giant pinball and bumpers. Original concept, but didn’t seem particularly fun. From the developers of the very odd Seaman for the Dreamcast. 1UP preview.
• Rumble Roses (PS2). All-female wrestling game, pairing big-breasted characters against each other. The gameplay wasn’t very good, and the uninterruptible cut scenes were unbelievably long. But considering the game advertises a “hands-free” mud wrestling mode, I’m not sure the gameplay matters much. 1UP preview.
• Ribbit King (Gamecube). Like Frog Baseball, but played with golf clubs instead. Adorable, and approved by the ASPCA. Trailer.

Anyone find any other unusual and exciting games this year?

If anyone out there can get me a guest pass into E3 or wants to loan me their own badge for the third day, please let me know. I’ll happily take you out to lunch.

May 12, 2004: I’m all set for Friday! Thank you so much (you know who you are).