True story: years ago I was camping with friends and we were drinking around the campfire. I started playing with a stick, lighting it on fire then waving it around and watching the trail of the glowing orange end. No, it wasn't a blazing fire like depicted here, but artistic license makes it more amusing.

Anyway, since I'm a nerd and had a background in image processing at the time, I was entertained by the persistance of vision and the orange streaky trail it was leaving in the darkness of the night. I was curious if the effect was amplified by being drunk, with it slowing down my visual perceptions, creating a filter effect.

I attempted to ask my friends this, but since I was rather drunk, I couldn't get the point across, and just kept on asking "IS IT SWIRLY?!" in a loud voice.

Ah, fun times.

This was a fun commission drawn by  louvelex some time ago. She threw in some of my favorite liquors, even though that's not what we were drinking at the time.