Now, I’m not much of a Phils fan. When I root for the National League – and I always root for the National League – I cheer on my hometown Brav-os. I do have an untold appreciation, however, for Phillie Phanatic. He’s adorable, a fuzzy, green, frenetic dancing creature, all flailing arms and donut waist. And this performance just took the cake. The Nats, though, seem less than pleased.
Below is a photographic comparison of both Phanatic Gaga and regular ol’ crazy Gaga.
It’s nice to see the enthusiasm and the spectacle returning to America’s favorite sport!
Both Sides of the Mouth BSOTM may be the most comprehensive music blog site I have ever seen – ever. The site is run by two college students, one in Austin and one in Baltimore, who study nursing and biomedical engineering respectively. The blog, with posts dating back to June 2006, profiled now-popular artists years before their songs premiered on mainstream charts. They took on Tender Trap and indie darlings Matt & Kim in July 2006, and the fun has lasted well into recent posts, as the bloggers explore bands to watch at SXSW while constantly loving on wee indie newbies with awesome conceptual graphics and strange-themed playlists.
The blog is really cool, with pithy writing, under-the-radar acts, downloadable tracks and interesting features. Check it out, scour the archives and, as is their parting tagline, be their friends!
The Dunce Cap, Vol. 3: Maybe you try to be pretty instead of kind.
(mix via 8tracks)
“Summer Shakedown” – Slow Club
“Whatever You Like” – Anya Marina
“Heartbeat Radio” – Sondre Lerche
“D.A.N.C.E.” – Get Cape. Wear Cape. Fly.
“Let Your Love Grow Tall” – Passion Pit
“Back and Forth” – The Bright Light Social Hour
“Styrofoam Boots/It’s All Nice on Ice, Alright” – Modest Mouse
“Artificial Light” – Rainer Maria
“The Summer” – Josh Pyke
“That Time” – Regina Spektor
Hey there, kids! Get ready for a lesson in musikal edukation! In this week’s mix, The Girl with the Dunce Cap presents new artists! B-sides! songs from the back catalog! and the much-loved genre-crossing cover song. These songs make me want to smile and dance and throw my hands in the air and yell “WOOOO” at the top of my lungs.
Hey kids, next week is my birthday (Tuesday, if you’re thinking gifts or cupcakes), and I’ll be entering my third decade of life! I like gifts, clearly, and I like goofy schmatas, so I present a digest of cool gift ideas! and fun things to look at.
Click on all of the photos for hyperlinks and other goodies.
Yummy yummy in my tummy!
Four tiers, more schmear! - A TMNT Groom's Cake
Smell like a foodie! Or a bakery!
Marc Jacobs Splash Scents: Biscotti
(editor’s note: Marc Jacobs introduced his Splash Scents nearly two years ago. These scents range from pomegranate to grapefruit to ivy and are for everyday wear.)
Gummi Bears cast no shadows.
Jellio Gummi Bear Candelier
(editor’s note: Check jellio’s Web site for a whole assortment of interesting home decor pieces!)
I like to think I’m an interesting individual, and, in an effort to introduce me a bit more, I present five kind observations on the girl.
Observations 1-5:
I use too much toilet paper.
This ought to be self-explanatory, and any explanation further may be a bit too … graphic for publication on this site. But, seriously – I am a teepee sheet waster. I’m single-handedly destroying the environment. Whoops.
(editor’s note – this has nothing to do with any of my bathroom habits. it’s just a statement that I am a non-essential toilet paper consumer.)
I have a visceral reaction to art.
Particularly, it seems, television (and music, but television provides more concrete examples). “Bones” is perhaps the best example of this. I love and adore this T.V. series and each of its characters, and I appreciate the use of scientific evidence to solve crimes. More importantly, though, I am a ‘shipper. I watch, week in and week out, for the will-they-won’t-they romantic tension between primary characters Booth and Brennan. The most recent episode of the series, “The Parts in the Sum of the Whole,” aired April 8 and featured an earth shattering (and heartwrenching) conclusion that left ‘shippers, like me, distressed.
I respond to the criminal aspect of the show in a normal manner, I expect, for the show’s audience. I, in fact, often find myself repulsed by the physicality of the program, but I respond in an intense but simplistic emotional manner. I want to give Booth and Bones their happily ever after more than I want them, even, to solve these homicide cases. Sure, it’s a lame and infantile way to approach the viewing of good primetime television, but I’m affected by “Bones” (and similar programs) viscerally.
I love commercials with dogs.
I become unnervingly giddy when a dog appears in a television commercial, or even in the 30 second ads before and during Hulu viewings. I’m sure it’s quite the sight for anyone located in the vicinity – I become like a small child, skirmish and highly excitable. Check out these neat videos of dogs being all adorable on the small screen!
“The Simpsons” is consistently funny to me, and there were two episodes in seasons 20 and 21 which I I highly recommend. “Waverly Hills 9-0-2-1-D’oh” and “The Greatest Story Ever D’ohed” are two remarkably hilarious episodes. “The Simpsons” may not fulfill the fantasies of the real-life culture arbiters (see: Comic Book Guy in reality), but the series still brings me untold laughter.
For examples of humorous skits, watch “The Mellow Show” with host Joseph Gordon-Levitt and musical guest Dave Matthews (35.7), or check out this gem of script from boytoy musical guest Justin Bieber (35.18) in a sketch called “Teacher.”
Vodpod videos no longer available.
“Let us go, jump on my skateboard, eat some cake, oh… we’ll check out Filene’s and get chunky jewelry at Chico’s, I’ll buy you a panini and some Spanx to make you teeny…”
I am quite pleased with this week’s mix. It’s got eight solid artists, a couple of covers and a delicious new track from one of my favorite artists, The Morning Benders. So, without further ado, The Dunce Cap, Vol. 2, presented as a playlist by 8tracks:
Natalie Dee comics
The Dunce Cap, Vol. 2: Slow it down, make it stop, or else my heart is going to pop. Just enjoy the show.
(mix via 8tracks)
“You Can Make Him Like You” – The Hold Steady
“Gravity Rides Everything” – Lenka
“ONE” – Yeasayer
“Let Forever Be” – The Chemical Brothers
“The Past and Pending” – The Shins
“You Wear It Well” – Rod Stewart
“Excuses” – The Morning Benders
“Gold Digger” – Glee Cast (OST)
“The Show” – Lenka
“You Gotta Dance (With Who You Came to the Dance With)” – The Hold Steady
This mix is a little bit different from the last. It’s chocked full of bizarre-o tracks that make me jive&dance&shake, some from television shows I’m excited about (“Gold Digger” from “Glee”) or movies I love (“The Past and Pending,” from “Garden State”), and even artists whose albums I’m highly anticipating (The Hold Steady). I hope you enjoy it.
I’m not linking each of the tracks to YouTube or the ilk because I hope to send some traffic to 8tracks. Check it out – it’s a fun playlist-making and listening site!
Happy listening.
(editor’s note – you can also link to the mix by clicking on the photo/album art!)
For the fourth and final portion of April’s Book Club, I am featuring an awesome new Web series updated weekly.
Click-click-click-click-click:
Ted Leo and the Pharmacists
A.V. Undercover
I love The Onion’s AV Club, and I stumbled upon this neat little series they premiered in mid-March. The AV Club, in association with Starbucks, presents a new video each Tuesday featuring a prominent band covering a popular track. AV Club execs compiled a list of 25 tracks, and a new band heads into the Chicago office each week to cover a song of their choice from the list. Songs are chosen on a first-come, first-serve basis for the artists, so, in week 25, the band will play the remaining single song. Check out the first video in the series, Ted Leo & the Pharmacists covering “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears, here – (editor’s note: this video would not embed!) -, and be sure to check the AV Club Web site each Tuesday for a brand new video!
Presenting the third installment of April’s Book Club: grandiose emotion on the small screen!
Channel surfing:
The cast of NBC's "Parenthood"
The return of “Glee“! (April 13)
The cultural phenomenon is back, and I cannot be more excited. I sat in rapt attention, captivated by the singing and pretty colors and glowing faces, and the season left off with such a bang. I am eager to find out about Finn & Rachel, what’s-her-face‘s baby and, of course, Emma and Mr. Schuester!
“Parenthood”
Despite poor critical reception, “Parenthood” captured my heart with its various plotlines all intertwining with the Braverman family. I’m optimistic about the future of the series, and I am hopeful that the characterization will further as the season progresses.
Even the characterization in “Parenthood” is flexible – the immature Crosby (Dax Shepard) grows, matures and constantly morphs into a man more like his brother. It’s an emotional show I adore, an interesting family series similar to but entirely divergent from ABC’s “Modern Family.”
The second installment of April’s Book Club features upcoming films coming to your local cinema!
At the movies:
"The Runaways" promotional poster
The Runaways (out April 9)
You know, the awesome girrrrrl-rock portrayal of Cherie Currie and Joan Jett probably won’t even come close to comparing to what will surely be the excellence of MacGruber!, but I guess I’ll probably go see it. On opening night.
I Love You Phillip Morris (out April 30)
Not to be confused with the total suckfest “I Love You, Beth Cooper,” “I Love You Phillip Morris” (sans comma) is based on the real life events of a police-officer-cum-con-man who comes out, is sent to prison for fraud and falls in love with his cellmate. Jim Carrey stars in it, which is usually a dealbreaker, but I’m excited about this one.
This blog has me all a-twitter with the giddiness of spring and newness and possibility. With that in mind, I’m launching all kinds of new features for my blog (see The Dunce Cap, Vol. 1), including Book Club. In Book Club, I plan to spotlight particular literary works, films, albums, television shows, magazine issues, Web sites, tracks, etc., that I’m either enjoying or hoping to enjoy during the month.
April, my favorite month of the year, just came rushing through the gates, so, without further ado, I launch the first edition of The Dunce Cap’s Book Club!
In print:
Author Julie Klausner
Julie Klausner: I Don’t Care About Your Band “Scarsdale-bred actress and entertainer Klausner fashions a breathy, vernacular-veering-into-vulgar, spastically woe-filled account of her youthful heartaches falling for guys who were just not that into her. Chronologically arranged, the brief, zippy anecdotes move from her preadolescent sexual awakenings, poring over Stallions magazine during sleepovers with her girlfriends, through the unsavory details of sleeping with a gallery of losers throughout her 20s” (from Publisher’s Weekly).
Read a great article about Klausner from The New Yorker here.
Frank Portman: King Dork “In Frank Portman’s dazzling debut novel, frustrated song-writer and high school student Tom Henderson finds his dead father’s copy of The Catcher in the Rye, and his life changes forever. Part social satire, part mystery, with a healthy dose of rock music (and angst), King Dork is one of our must-read favorites of the year” (from Amazon.com).
coco keevan 
