I have no idea what this song is all about, but I really like it. I like that it’s hilarious, which it is. I like the stoopid nerdy self-confidence. I like the nifty appropriation of Prancercise lady Joanna Rohrback. I even approve of the triumphant use of Comic Sans. No one can touch Jerry’s “Tampa realness.”

I don’t know diddly squat about “alternative hip-hop” but to me it sounds a little like Das Racist, and that’s got to be a good thing.

Champagne Jerry did the lyrics, Ad-Rock did the music, so technically you might say it’s a Beastie Boys side project. Sell your friends on it that way, I don’t care. I just want to listen to it again:
 

 
via WXN&MLKN

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Beat This!: A hip hop history
H1N1 Flu rapper has new hip hop hit with ‘The Gap Rap’

A Clockwork Orange alternate poster
 
Choosing the right art for a movie poster is harder than you might think. When it comes to iconic movie posters of the last 40 or so years, some of them are so incredibly effective that’s it takes an effort to recall that it took a specific person’s creative impulse to concoct the poster from scratch, and several other people, most likely, to have the good sense to approve it. In other words, it could have gone any number of other directions.

If I say to you, “Clockwork Orange movie poster,” you can probably summon up an image of the thing I’m talking about—without me showing it to you. How interesting to find out that one of the early alternatives (above) bore zero resemblance to the end result, with its unforgettable image of nasty Alex leering out from behind that A shape. Bill Gold, one of the acknowledged masters of the movie poster, was responsible for both the great Clockwork Orange poster we know and admire and the overly detailed, ridiculously 1970s, sci-fi-novel-ish version at the top of this page. Much the same sort of thing is true of Pulp Fiction and Mystic River and plenty of others. 

Bill Gold was also responsible for the classic poster for the 1972 box office sensation The Exorcist. You might recall the spooky, ice-cold image of Max von Sydow’s reluctant, serious Father Merrin underneath a lamppost, approaching the MacNeils’ Georgetown dwelling in the dead of night. But it was almost not so! Below is a far more conventional take Gold cooked up for consideration.
 

The Exorcist alternate poster
 
The British events website Daybees has a fascinating gallery of movie-posters-that-almost-were, featuring the work of just a bare handful of designers while still managing to cover an impressive range of classic movies, from Cool Hand Luke and Dog Day Afternoon to Batman and Ocean’s Eleven.

“Alternate 2” for Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven is quite simply gorgeous, while “Alternate 2” for Mystic River looks like it took some underling about ten minutes. The alternate version of the poster for Tim Burton’s Batman isn’t horrible, but it’s very, very different from the Batman logo used in the final product.

In some ways, James Verdesoto and Vivek Mathur‘s Pulp Fiction offers the most interesting case. We seldom appreciate how bold and striking the Pulp Fiction poster is, but the alternate takes are almost painfully ‘90s and frankly show a lack of confidence in the movie—relying on blurry “slacker”-style imagery and the trendy lower-case lettering of the moment (remember sex lies and videotape?)—if you happened upon one of the alternate Pulp Fiction posters nowadays, you’d be forgiven for wondering if there wasn’t an Edward Burns retrospective happening or something. 
 

Pulp Fiction alternate poster
 
via Cinephilia and Beyond

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
‘Read More Movies’: Every word from ‘A Clockwork Orange’ printed on poster
‘Pulp Fiction’ reconstructed in chronological order
Turkish version of ‘The Exorcist’ in all of its glorious ineptitude

 
Last month the news broke that “at least five” new J.D. Salinger novels are on the way. The New York Times reported that, according to a new movie and book, both bearing the title Salinger, the new Salinger novels and/or short stories will start being published in 2015. Some of the new books will “extend past work,” which probably means we will find out more about those mopey, brilliant Glasses.

But forget about Buddy and Zooey and, um, Boo Boo. That’s all well and good, but this year has brought far more exciting news: We’re going to find out more about a character with a much more interesting inner life: Lowly Worm! That’s right—a new Richard Scarry book is on the way! In fact, it drops next week.
 

The great brooding antihero of twentieth-century children’s literature: Lowly Worm
 
Called Richard Scarry’s Best Lowly Worm Book Ever, the new book is based on unpublished “sketches and text,” according to The Guardian (UK). Scarry died in 1994—after publishing more than 300 delightful picture books for children populated with all manner of friendly cats and bears and foxes and so forth—and the new book has been completed by his son, Huck Scarry, who like his dad is also an illustrator.

I can remember poring over my surely dog-eared copy of Busy, Busy World like it was yesterday. Something about the playful, generous, gentle, jam-packed images rewarded my lengthy perusal like few other books did. I definitely appreciated the emphasis on all the different countries, too.
 

 
As you wait for The Best Lowly Worm Book Ever to hit your local bookstore, you can check out the always amusing Busytown Police Blotter or brush up on your counting skills by watching “Richard Scarry’s Best Counting Video Ever!”
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Bad Little Children’s Books
Dr. Seuss, radical environmentalist: ‘I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees’

 
The mysterious Clown who has been terrifying residents on the streets of Northampton has spoken to his local newspaper the Chronicle.

In a brief interview the Clown, who wanted to remain anonymous, said he had been “absolutely amazed” at the response to his spooky appearances in the town center since September 13th.

The Clown, who bears a resemblance to the monstrous Pennywise the Dancing Clown from, Stephen King’s novel It, said his actions had been intended all in good fun.

“I just wanted to amuse people. Most people enjoy being a bit freaked out and then they can laugh about it afterwards.

“It’s like watching a horror movie, when people get scared they usually start laughing.

“Naturally, some people would have been extremely frightened by what they saw, but I hope many are starting to see it as a bit of harmless fun.”

The Northampton Clown said he was a fan of Stephen King, and made reference to the film version of It during his conversation with the Chronicle. He also said he would continue to make appearances on the Northampton streets, and may even have a special “clown day” once a week.

Clowns doncha just love ‘em? Follow the Northampton Clown on Facebook.
 

 
Previously on Dangerous Minds

Pennywise Lives!: Stephen King’s evil Clown seen haunting Northampton’s streets

Via the ‘Northampton Chronicle’

 
The Mighty Boosh reunite for first UK dates in four years - NME

Scientists have identified the body language that ensures bartenders will serve you first in a busy bar - Telegraph

Medical marijuana users fight to keep infant daughter - WILX

Public masturbation declared legal in Sweden after landmark trial - Gawker

Apple launches iTunes Radio - iTunes Radio

How AMC almost lost Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul to Netflix - Hollywood Reporter

Scientists have developed a new material that can be painted onto surfaces to keep them wet or dry, and which never needs cleaning - ABC Science

Greece moves to ban far-right Golden Dawn party - The Guardian

Bl’ast From The Past: Dave Grohl & more talk hardcore innovators - The Quietus

Cross-dressing man with tattooed horns arrested for flashing - Arbroath

Thurston Moore and Doug Aitken talk art, music and “Station to Station” - NPR

Half the world’s richest women are Chinese - Zero Hedge

The rational choices of crack addicts - New York Times

Facebook apologized for featuring an ad for a dating website that used a picture of Rehtaeh Parsons, the 17-year-old Nova Scotia girl who died after attempting suicide in April - The Vancouver Sun

French lawmakers ban child beauty contests - The Local

Is this the most extraordinary human brain ever seen? - New Scientist

Bill to legalize, tax marijuana introduced in D.C. Council - WAMU

Study shows use of feces as building material by termites serves as antibiotic - Phys.org

Below, BBC News presenter Simon McCoy picks up a pack of photocopier paper mistaking it for his iPad:

 
Lemmy Kilmister makes an (amusing) appearance in this British TV advert for the chocolate-covered, wafer-biscuit bar Kit Kat from 2001.

The ad features a selection of (I guess what you’d call) UK celebrities, such as former Manchester United player Roy Keane (known for being a bit of a hardman—he once deliberate broke another player’s leg) who is seen practicing his needlepoint; the late comic actor Mel Smith exercises; model/actress Kelly Brook rejects an outfit for being too revealing; some long haired fop asks to have his locks shorn; sexist comedian Bernard Manning manages to go against type by being nice; and the Daleks bring peace and love. You’ll see what Lemmy gets up to—it’s just shame he’s advertising a Nestlé product.
 

 
I’ve never seen it, but from every indication the 1974 Japanese TV series Kamen Rider X was quite a doozy. Kamen Rider means “masked rider,” and the show was part of a popular “tokusatsu superhero” series created by one of the most prolific practitioners of the genre, Shotaro Ishinomori. The show revolved around the valiant efforts of the technology-fueled, motorcycle-riding, insect-themed hero to battle the malign machinations of the villainous organization G.O.D.

In “Underworld’s Dictator, Starfish Hitler!!”—the 26th episode of the series, which lasted a single season—Kamen Rider tangles with a superhero that terrifyingly combines the deadly powers of the starfish (??) with the legendary whup-ass martial arts prowess of the singular Führer of the Third Reich, Adolf Hitler.
 

Kamen Rider
 
Remarkably, Kamen Rider’s fight against Starfish Hitler was scarcely out of the ordinary on Kamen Rider X. According to “Niko” at the blog Sick Chirpse, Kamen Rider also confronted “Ant Capone,” “Spider Napoleon,” and “Rhinoceros Beetle Lupin,” the latter being a combination of a rhinoceros beetle and the fictional gentleman thief Arsène Lupin.

Among the episode titles from that season are “The Terrible Genius Human Project!” “Scary! It’s G.O.D.‘s Cat Disguise Operation!!” and “Scary! Humans are Being Made into Books!!” I really need to see this show!

The random weirdness of Starfish Hitler has generated a bit of a cult online—there’s even a heavy metal tribute to him.

In 2012’s FDR: American Badass!, DM pal Jesse Merlin portrayed “Werewolf Hitler.”

Previously on Dangerous MInds
Mongolian Nazis music video is off the WTF scale!
 

Previously on Dangerous Minds:
Karl Marx’s ‘Das Kapital’ in Manga!

 
Well this is something I can get behind. GWAR fans have started an online petition—it already has over 20,000 signatures, btw—to Greg Aiello, Senior Vice President of Communications for the NFL, to allow the band to perform at the 2015 Super Bowl Halftime Show.

It was started in retaliation against next year’s scheduled performer Bruno Mars because… “boring.”

NFL must listen to the people. GWAR is more American than apple pie.

You can sign it here.

Below, GWAR covers Kansas’ “Carry On Wayward Son”:

 
With thanks to Matty Granger!

 
According to the Guinness Book of Records, Dzhambulat “Dzhambik” Khatokhov became world’s heaviest child in 2003. “Dzhambik”  was 3-feet 11-inches in height and weighed 123lbs.

He was just four-years-old.

His mother, Nelya Kabardarkova, said Dzhambik’s ambition was to become a Sumo wrestler.

When he was five, Nelya took her son to Japan to appear on the TV show Impossible. It was the start of a brief media career that led to several documentaries, and a rash of news items on the child.

Dzhambik weighed 6-lbs 6-oz at birth. As he grew, Nelya said that he ate 3-4 meals a day. He was always hungry. She has denied that she deliberately overfed him.

By the age of seven, Dzhambik was 4-ft 3-inches, and weighed 224lbs..

By the age of nine, he weighed 406lbs.

In an interview with the Guardian in 2006, Neyla told Nick Paton Walsh:

“He does not eat that much.”

Then she adds:

“He is happy that size. It is not shameful. He likes showing people how strong he is.”

So, whatever happened to Dzhambik?

Anorak recently posted a blog asking the same question. It would appear, that Dzhambik continued to grow, continued to make money, and continued to have a form of celebrity. Yet, the videos they posted only take Dzhambik up-to the age of eleven.

Where is he now? What is he doing? And is he happy doing it?

On September 24th, Dzhambik will celebrate his fourteenth birthday. It is difficult not to think of Dzhambik in terms of statistics: weight, height, age. But that sadly is perhaps how Neyla wants him to be seen. For being the world’s heaviest child can still make money.
 

 
Bonus clip, plus 2006 documentary on Dzhambik, after the jump…
 
H/T Anorak
 

 
Via Travis Michael Keller at the always illuminating Buddyhead:

Henry Owings (of Chunklet Magazine fame + http://www.chunklet.com) posted this video on Facebook and wrote this along with it… “This bands just sounds like a David Yow fronted Girls Against Boys doing Joy Division”

Nailed it.

Yow is touring with the reconstituted Girls Against Boys (new album next week) to mark the release of his first solo album, Tonight You Look Like a Spider, which has already achieved a level of infamy for having a limited run of its initial pressing released encased in concrete. The notorious ex frontman for Scratch Acid, The Jesus Lizard, and Qui talks about how his album came to be on Joyful Noise Recordings’ blog:

[Faith No More vocalist Mike Patton] is an extremely industrious and good looking man. He grabbed me violently by my dry and flakey shoulders and screamed at the top of his carbon flavored lungs, “YOU’RE MAKING A SOLO RECORD AND I’M PUTTING IT OUT WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT!”

So yeah I’ll just shut my damn yap now so you can watch the thing.