Gnarls Barkley, the curious name for the team of Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo, already has the coolest song of the summer, "Crazy," to their credit. Now upping the coolness quotient is the video for the group’s new song, "Smiley Faces." Check out the unedited version on You Tube, which features "Blue Velvet" castmates Dennis Hopper as "Milton Pawley," a supposed music historian, and Dean Stockwell as "Sven Rimwinkle," a record exec, discussing the mysterious Gnarls Barkley. The video deftly inserts Danger Mouse and Cee-Lo into performances by Duke Ellington and his orchestra, the Woodstock and Altamont festivals, Andy Warhol and the Velvet Underground, Grandmaster Flash, and the Clash, to name just a few. My fave: a "Yellow Submarine"-style animated clip, supposedly from the "Baron Von Counterculture" film, "Groovy Purple Dirigible." Find the "Smiley Faces" video at www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdsDwVxmjZA

Those jackrabbits at Fox Television are jumping out of the gate early with their fall shows. Which means this Wednesday gives us a chance to get re-acquainted with the likably offbeat cast of "Bones." An underappreciated show about a forensic anthropologist (Emily Deschanel), her lab full of genius nerds and a hunky FBI agent (David Boreanaz), "Bones" has a touch of "X-Files" appeal. Following it is a newbie, "Justice," the one-millionth TV courtroom drama. But this one’s produced by hotshot Jerry Bruckheimer ("Pirates of the Caribbean," "CSI"), and stars Victor Garber, our beloved SpyDaddy from the late, lamented "Alias."

The deets: "Bones," 8 p.m.; "Justice," 9 p.m. Both Wednesday, both KPTV (12).

MUSIC/So glitzy!

You never know what you’re going to get at the MTV Video Music Awards. Will there be Madonna/Britney kisses, or Eminem vs. Triumph the Insult Comic Dog battles? This year’s bash, at 8 p.m., Thursday, on MTV, sounds more promising than most. Jack Black hosts, and nominees include Shakira and her truth-telling hips; Red Hot Chili Peppers and their muscled torsos; and Christina Aguilera and her cosmetic team. Performers include Beyonce, Justin Timberlake and the Killers hyping — er, I mean, treating us to — their new stuff. As long as Jennifer Lopez and Ashlee Simpson don’t try to sing, I’m happy.

BOOKS/So . . . odd!

Here at the glittering, glamorous offices of The Oregonian, books show up on our desks all the time. So we were more than happy to receive a tome called "How to Live Longer and Feel Better" (Oregon State University Press, $19.95, 338 pages). Hey, who doesn’t want to live longer and feel better? But there was something slightly startling about the smiling photo on the cover of the author . . . Linus Pauling. As brilliant as the Oregon native and scientist was, Pauling is, of course, no longer with us. The two-time winner of the Nobel Prize died in 1994. Pauling has not returned from the beyond — turns out this is an updated edition of his 1986 best-seller, with new information and resources from the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University. Pauling’s central points about increasing your longevity by avoiding sugar, stress, smoking, taking vitamins and finding happiness at work and in your family are, come to think of it, pretty darn timeless.