We love these clever reimaginings of famous logos that Stock Logos created. The website looked at technology titans like Apple and Microsoft — and brand names like Starbucks and Gap — and put a humorous spin on their symbols with a minimalist twist. Did we mention the website imagines what the designs looked like in the past and future? Volkswagen was just starting to produce cars in 1939 when World War II broke out — which may explain the runic symbolism of Stock Logo’s earliest version. Nokia’s logo completely disappears by the time 2015 rolls around (sounds about right), Firefox’s future is a wash by 2050 — a sad end to its firebird beginnings, and IBM finally gets the “blue screen of death” in 2042. Check them all out past the break, and tell us which ones seem most accurate.

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Madonna and drag queens have had a symbiotic relationship since the “Like a Virgin” era, so it’s no surprise that a troupe of Brazilian cross-dressers have re-enacted Madge’s much-discussed Super Bowl halftime show. In fact, if we weren’t so impressed with all the choreography they’ve managed to learn, we’d wonder why it’s taken them so long. The 13-minute performance is nothing short of fantastic, although we do have one small gripe: Couldn’t the queens have done something a little bit more fun with M.I.A.’s middle-finger moment? Watch and relive, after the jump.

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It’s less than four short months until summer, and what better way to pass the last couple weeks of winter than by planning your dream vacation to Tatooine! While the Outer Rim is only a figment of the Bearded One’s imagination, Tatooine is actually much closer than you think – an adventure playground of sun-scorched mesas, eroded seas, barren canyons, sculptural standing stones, and extinguished geysers. Podrace down Beggar’s Canyon, hit the markets at Mos Espa (and haggle with the Jawa shop-owners), discover Mos Eisley’s nightlife, tour Jabba’s palace, ride the rugged terrain by Bantha, and explore the ruins at Anchorhead. Accommodations can be made at the Lars homestead, where you’ll enjoy the cozy ambiance, home-cooked meals (with fresh blue milk), and a complementary droid cleaning. Dig in and watch the twin suns dip down past the horizon.

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Despite some encouraging recent advances, gay and lesbian characters remain underrepresented in mainstream media, and the ones who do appear tend to have it pretty rough. Even in 2012, many still get assigned to the role of “Gay Best Friend Who Advises and Comforts the Straight Female Lead,” where they’re very clever and very supportive and don’t get to have personal lives of their own. The lesbians, meanwhile, always seem to be the characters that really terrible things happen to all the time. Here’s a list of some of queer best friends in pop culture who need to make some better friends. If you’ve got any you’d like to share, list them in the comments!

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Lego wizard Tyler AKA Legohaulic recently posted a commissioned set of Blade Runner figures on his gallery page, which should send you reeling back to the 1982 dystopian sci-fi epic. Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard is transformed into a blocky version of the retired cop. His new, inhuman shape probably won’t help the “Is he really a replicant?” argument, but we forgot all about that when we saw how awesome Rutger Hauer’s Roy Batty looked. (Tears in rain sold separately.) Daryl Hannah’s Pris doesn’t look like your average pleasure model here, and the rest of the Philip K. Dick-inspired characters are equally great. There’s even a miniature version of Deckard’s jet propulsion vehicle, the Spinner, which means someone totally geeked out while crafting this authentic set.

Hopefully looking at these pics will help cheer you up after news hit that Ridley Scott — who is working on the Blade Runner prequel/sequel/we don’t know what yet — is not currently in talks with Harrison Ford to reprise his role. We’ll have to wait and see if Scott thinks Deckard’s part will involve a big enough story point to invite the actor back, but since there’s no script yet let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Check out some Lego porn past the break.

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“I’ve been watching Seinfeld since I was a kid. It never gets old or stops being funny to me, and when you look back at the canon of Seinfeld, so many episodes center around food in a hilarious way,” says Rinee Shah, the artist/designer/animator behind Seinfood, a series of stylish illustrations inspired by the sitcom’s many food-related story lines. “I’ve done my best to cover as many as I could and I had a great time doing it.” For everyone who’s ever preached, “Look to the cookie!,” cracked up at the mere sight of a marble rye, or knows what Beefareeno is, Seinfood is sure to bring back some hilarious memories. Bay Area fans can check out the show in person at San Francisco’s Pot + Pantry, where it opens tomorrow and will run through March 10th. In the mean time, peruse a preview of the series after the jump, and consider purchasing a delightfully affordable print here.

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In today’s media-saturated market, who has time to invest in watching and reading everything out there? Not us — and we assume that we devote more time to pop-culture consumption than most. But you don’t have to feel left out of your friends’ conversations about Harry Potter, Doctor Who, or even The Bold and the Beautiful. Luckily, there’s a way to catch up the  television shows, movies, and other classics that everybody’s talking about — and it’s much more fun than reading the summaries on Wikipedia. We’ve put together some of our favorite video condensations of famous franchises to keep you up to date.

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Entertainment Weekly is so wild about The Vampire Diaries that this week’s issue features three separate covers, which find Nina Dobrev snuggling up with Ian Somerhalder, Paul Wesley, and both fang-wielding fictional brothers at the same time. As Pop Culture Brain has noticed, that final image — a scantily clad shot of two vampire dudes romancing the human lady the both love — is mighty reminiscent of Rolling Stone‘s 2010 True Blood cover (minus the Demoiselles d’Avignon-style stares and creepy blood splatters).

Although we admit to never having watched an entire episode of The Vampire Diaries, the cover got us thinking: What’s the deal with vampire love triangles? As we noted in our recent roundup of pop-culture love triangles where the girl should have stayed single, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Twilight (where the conflict is between a glamorous vamp and a studly werewolf) also fit this pattern. There have already been endless think pieces on why teen girls find vampires so attractive. Could it be that the fantasy isn’t just about dating (or marrying or sleeping with) the undead, but also has something to do with being so desirable that two supernatural creatures are willing to fight over you? Readers, what’s your theory?

If being a fan of Star Wars and comic books alone isn’t nerdy enough for you, then you’ll be happy to know that  Scottish illustrator Matt Cowan has put together a series of mathematical equations that explain the origins of some of your favorite pop-culture characters, from Darth Vader to Captain Jack Sparrow. Check them out after the jump, and be sure to take a look at Cowan’s T-shirt store  if you have a powerful urge to put one of these cool designs on your body.

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It’s another day, and yet another Now That’s What I Call Music! compilation album is available for consumption. Not to make anyone feel old or anything, but we’re at volume #41! (In the UK, where the series began in 1983, they’re at #80). Artists featured this time around include LMFAO, Katy Perry, Lady Gaga and, for those who prefer to rock, Nickelback.

If the past is any indicator of the future, this album is bound to be a hit. In a recent press release, the Now! team states that “every album in the numeric US series has reached Billboard’s Top 10, and 15 Now! releases have reached #1, second only to The Beatles in chart history.” Indeed, according to the Recording Industry Association of America, every Now! album has achieved either Gold or Platinum status, with only a few exceptions. In 2006, Slate music critic, Jody Rosen, wondered if Now! could save the music business, calling the franchise “one of the great success stories in the record business over the last decade.”

So, in our age of digital downloading and cloud computing, of Pandora and Sirius and Spotify and even YouTube, how are these records comprised of jams found everywhere still so successful?

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