Don't quit your acting job

I was reading a short story by a well-known actor last night. This sentence slowed me down:

"The building is beige, but the shadows make it shadow color."

I figured anyone could slip up a little, or maybe it was a stylistic thing involving echoes of images. But this next one almost stopped me cold:

"His window is all the way down, and he breathes his smoke out the black gaping gap."

The gaping gap? I can't think of any way a phrase like that could make it into print. Maybe this is irony or so...