I’m now an uncle six times over. (I’m including Justin’s kids, here — Justin sometimes calls me Uncle Eric around them . . .) Check ‘im out — Noah Aiten McDonald. And another one with my little sis Michelle. I’m heading to see them for nine days in mid-June. Yay!

As long as I’m posting photos here, here are a few (1,2,3) from my cousin Jake’s aforementioned art show. He also sent the link to a brief review of the show:

Enjoy art Saturday: On Saturday night, Grant Park’s Young Blood Gallery threw a party to celebrate the opening of a show of work by painter and illustrator Jacob Escobedo. Escobedo’s work on display offers a dark comic take on cutesy Japanese cartoons. Think Hello Kitty meets Ren & Stimpy. Many of the pieces include stilted English phrases like: “These are not airplanes. They’re logs,” “Today I Will Not Die,” “Enjoy Today Only.” Artful, cute and ironic, they sold like iPod minis (or, for the less gadget-minded, hotcakes).

And on a related subject, I just came across this appreciation of Adult Swim over at Ain’t it Cool News:

Somehow, by trusting a bunch of divinely-inspired loonies in Atlanta, the Cartoon Network went from being just another cable outlet for recycled programming to being one of the premier showcases of modern surrealism. I am amazed that there is a home for something as gloriously fucked up as AQUA TEEN HUNGER FORCE on TV, and for however long it lasts, we should cherish the notion that the crazies are running that particular asylum.

Amen.