Eagle eyed Dangerous Minds contributor Tara McGinley caught a brief glimpse of our pal Kembra Pfahler of The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black (that’s her in the picture frame) on last week’s Gossip Girl (Okay, I admit it, we’re total Gossip Girl addicts and nothing you can do or say will change that).

We think Gossip Girl’s team should give Kembra a real cameo on the show. Witness her performance here at the Villa della Petraia in Florence during the Proenza Schouler event, June 18, 2009. Now that’s production value!

Portland’s annual underground get together, EsoZone is back:

EsoZone a free ?

The Texas singer and songwriter Daniel Johnston has always poured at least as much of his wild energy into his artwork ?

It would be next to impossible to do one of these for Hedorah, (AKA “the Smog Monster”) as its made of pollution. For a real culture shock whiplash, here is a German version of the movie trailer:

Via Hunting Lodge

Thanks Wilson Smith!

Not that it necessarily lives up to its title, but this gallery, on the Web Designer Depot website does have some pretty good examples. Worth noting that the great Sixties Esquire covers designed by George Lois were done looooonng before Photoshop was invented.

The Most Controversial Magazine Covers of All Time

Via Vlad Nedelcu’s Twitter feed

Heroes returns to NBC tonight for its fourth series and I am ashamed to admit I’ll probably I’m going to watch it.

The first series was great but the second and third seasons really sucked. And the writing… wow was the writing shit last season. AND the one before it. None of it makes any fucking sense, it’s unashamedly repetitive and confused. Hell, Heroes even rips itself off!

The Heroes story bible probably doesn’t even exist. It often feels like the writers themselves have no idea what happened the week before or will happen the week after. Killed off the guy who could paint the future, when this would have come in handy to resolve something plot-wise? MAKE ANOTHER CHARACTER ABLE TO DO IT!

AND WHY DOESN’T ANYONE EVER DIE ON THIS SHOW?!?!? Claire’s powers are the ultimate “Get Out of Jail Free Card” for the writers, one they never seem to tire of whipping out…Even if you apply comic book logic—or simply go with it—they’ve pulled the “he’s dead, no he’s alive again” trick way, way too many times—like when Peter briefly had Claire’s regenerative powers, conveniently right before he blew up; when Nathan came back alive and when Ali Larter returns as the twin sister of her offed character—ENOUGH WITH THIS! Puh-leeze. It’s like they hired a new crop of writers who never even watched—or asked any questions about—the first season before they wrote series two and three. If they even had writers at all for the last two seasons. Maybe they fired them all. Now it all makes sense!

So why do I keep watching Heroes you ask? I’m not altogether sure I can answer this question. Not to you, not to my wife, not to myself. It’s like a friend of mine once said to me about a Yoo-Hoo soda. I’d never had one before and I asked “Are these any good?” He dryly replied “You won’t like it, but you will drink it all anyway.” I guess that’s why I watch Heroes, if that makes ANY sense whatsoever. I started watching it, then I just… um… kept watching it.

Is it loyalty? Am I expecting it to get any better?

Not really, no.

But it does have a great cast. I think that’s why it’s so watchable in the final analysis, it has a great ensemble cast. The chemistry, the charisma and all of the things the actors bring to the show haven’t changed since the first series, it’s the writers and show runner Tim Kring who have let the actors down.

So I plan to tune in tonight and even if it is bad—which I half expect—I will probably still watch it next week and the week after that to see if it gets any better. Before you know, I’ll have drunk the whole Yoo-Hoo.

PS Tara and I saw Heroes hottie Hayden Panettiere at the West Hollywood branch of the Pleasure Chest. She and her girlfriend were laughing their asses off at the “novelty items” for sale there. Sadly, we left before we saw what she bought. I kept expecting this to show up on Perez Hilton or TMZ but it never did.

Four different R. Crumb shoes are due to hit store shelves on Oct. 1; two in the Vans Classics collections—including the Mr. Natural deconstructed SK8-Hi pictured above ($60) and a classic slip-on featuring Fritz the Cat ($52)—will be available through regular Vans vendors.

Two additional higher-end styles (using suede and leather) will be sold through Vans Vault accounts; a “Modern America” Chukka boot ($95) and a “Keep on Truckin’ ” Authentic ($90).

Via The LA Times

I realize that I’m violating our strict NO LEGO policy here at Dangerous Minds, but this is awesome, a LEGO version of Fallingwater!

For sale on the Guggenheim Museum’s website:

LEGO?Ǭ

 
Japan Probe alerts us to a recent Moonwalking Championship, held, presumably, before the death of Michael Jackson himself.   To make more seamless the homage, some of the contestants opted to perform in blackface—a stylistic choice that still has the power to shock (witness the Mad Men “moment” of three weeks ago, here).

In another sign of our impending societal collapse, the Samsung corporation has cleverly come up with a way to target a new consumer, the person without any friends whatsoever! That’s right, with the Samsung TL220 DualView Camera, now YOU can frame shots of—who else—YOURSELF for your Facebook page without even having to have a friend to push a button for you!

But that’s not all, it also has a function called “Beauty Shot” that automatically improves your looks, or as this Amazon reviewer puts it “look like a Model!!!”:

My favorite feature that sent me over the top was the “Beauty Shot” mode and front LCD feature! I have scars on my face due to acne (pretty bad scaring), and I went into Best Buy looking greasy and very sweaty (just got off of work). The pictures I took of myself in Beauty Shot mode made me look like a Model!!! I am not kidding, my face went from greasy and nasty in regular pics I was taking of myself, to looking like I belonged on a runway for a photoshoot once in Beauty Mode!!! I was SHOCKED at how perfectly complected my face looked, you could not see one acne scar or blemish, it was amazing! I did not expect this feature to work so well!!!

No doubt they will make zillions of dollars off these innovations targeted at the self absorbed and those who prefer to deceive others with their model perfect profile pics. Bring the end on, I say, bring it the f**k on.