It seems that brain wallets have been mostly written off as unworkable - it's good to see you're still thinking about it. They have a lot of potential if they can be made more secure.
Agree. I think the problem is not with brainwallets themselves but in how people use them. My rules of thumb are;
* I cannot make a safe passphrase without rolling a dice or flipping a coin
* If I can remember the passphrase it is not safe
The latter seems to contradict the concept of brainwallets, but I don't think it does. My approach is to write down the phrase on paper with my own simple "encryption". It can be as simple as replace the third and fifth character (ok, should be a bit more complex - find your own way). It is safe because the attacker must first find your paper and then spend a considerable effort breaking the code.
It is still a brainwallet in the sense that the way of decrypting my notes is stored only in my brain.