katy perry

Dunce Flash: Week of 11/08/10

in: the press, in: viewing room

This has been quite the week. It’s been chocked full of disappointments and total excitements, to be sure, and it’s been a rather hectic and disappointing week on my end, but I am eager for the weekend. And, certainly, I’m thrilled to share with you five big pieces of news for the week.

Cee-Lo drops “The Lady Killer”

Can you say finally? I’ve been looking forward to this album from Cee-Lo for months, what with the tease of such a killer (no pun intended) lead track. I haven’t given the full thing a spin yet, but I’m hoping to do it this weekend, with (hopefully) a review to follow. In the meantime, PopMatters has a pretty thorough review praising “Fuck You,” noting the album’s sheer brilliance in nostalgic hooks and failure to maintain the musical throwback. [PopMatters]

Check out the video for “Fuck You” above.

Warner Bros. attempts to redirect obnoxious VM movie pleas (like mine!)

The cast of "Veronica Mars," Image courtesy of CW

Five months after “Veronica Mars” producer Joel Silver confirmed that the feature film project was dead, Warner Bros. created an official e-mail address where fans can send requests and open letters (cough) for a VM movie. New York Mag (unfortunately) (and rightly) believes this is simply a ploy to clean out the inboxes, but the move must say something – maybe the fans are really demanding some sort of conclusion. I say give it a shot. If you want it as much as I do, the effort certainly couldn’t hurt. [New York Mag via Playlist]

Daria Morgendorffer directs you through traffic

Good news! Now you can customize your GPS to have MTV’s most apathetic teen guide you to your destination. Daria Morgendorffer (of the eponymous ’90s cartoon) will be your guide! And remember: “There is no aspect, no facet, no moment of life that can’t be improved with pizza.” [Frisky via MTV]

Below, Daria on popular culture.

more exciting news after the jump

The Dunce Cap: August 30, 2010

in: heavy rotation

The Dunce Cap, Vol. 22: I guess he’s an X-box and I’m more Atari. (click on link to listen to mix via 8tracks)

1. “Fuck You” – Cee-Lo Green
2. “Teenage Dream” – Katy Perry
3. “Walking the Dog” – fun.
4. “All Hail Dracula!” – Someone Still Loves You, Boris Yeltsin
5. “House of Cards” – Butch Walker
6. “Cold War” – Janelle Monae
7. “I Want To” – Best Coast
8. “Shutterbugg” – Big Boi
9. “Magic” – B.o.B.
10. “Love the Way You Lie” – Eminem

Happy 9/02/10! That’s right: Today is 90210 day! That’s right. It’s September 2, 2010, and it’s time to celebrate those crazy kids in California’s wealthiest zip code. Dylan McKay? Brandon Walsh? Yum-my. I won’t speak too much to the original teen primetime soap, as People does it best. Also, New York Mag. Win.

Regardless, last week I missed a Dunce Cap. I’m sorry, y’all. It was a week without wifi, and it was a week without music. Or, at least, chronicled and playlisted music.

But, alas, I’ve returned! It’s Labor Day weekend and the unofficial end of summer, so The Dunce Cap is back in full force with the ten best tracks of the summer. From Big Boi to B.o.B, these are ten tracks which have truly captivated my attention this summer. There’s the recently released Cee-Lo track, the ’60s girl group sweet sing-along kiss-off “Fuck You,” which is making me unceremoniously giddy. There’s the Someone Still Loves You vampire track from Let It Sway. There’s that infectious and delightfully irritating Katy Perry title track, “Teenage Dream.” There’s Butch Walker! There’s fun.! There’s Best Coast!

Hell, I’m feeling the heat in stereo.

Arguably, the last track on this mix, Eminem’s collaboration with Rihanna, “Love the Way You Lie,” doesn’t quite fit with the rest of this happy-go-lucky (if you can count Cee-Lo’s own “Since U Been Gone” anthem as such), but it’s been quite a force this summer and aligns the mix with my current state of emotion. By bookending this Dunce Cap with the aforementioned Cee-Lo and this Eminem track, it makes for a great summer sayonara to all of the boogie oogie feelings of a breakup.

What are your favorite tracks from summer 2010? Post ’em in the comments.

Happy listening.

P.S. I owe you a fair number of Third Year Thirties. Coming soon, hopefully.

Dunce Flash: An Open Letter to Katy Perry (from Jessie Spano!)

in: the press

Jessie Spano has heard her “California gurl” anthem – and she is none too happy.

Jezebel posted this open letter from Slater’s girl to candy queen Katy Perry, in which Spano (of the NBC sitcom “Saved by the Bell“) lambastes Perry’s track “California Gurls” for its generalization of girls from the Golden State.


Teaser from Katy Perry ftr. Snoop Dogg, “California Gurls”
watch full video at youtube

“My boyfriend is a macho pig and therefore enjoys your song and video very much, as it fits his limited view of femininity and sexuality,” writes Spano (played by Elizabeth Berkley in the series) in a hilarious characterization of her boyfriend, the brawny and Jheri-curled Slater, “namely, that I, a California girl (your intentional misspelling may be an homage of sorts, but that doesn’t make it any less offensive to those of us who enjoy proper English), should exist solely to provide sexual excitement whilst wearing a bra made out of whipped cream cans.”

The writer, Hortense, perfectly captures Spano’s burgeoning feminism while mocking the flimsy and superficial characterizations of my generation’s beloved “Saved by the Bell.” Spano tackles Perry’s frivolous sexism while lauding the tacky imagery of Perry’s music video. Pure hilarity. I can only imagine the fangirl letter Kelly Kapowski must have sent Perry – and the Farrah Fawcett-esque bikini poster of Perry clad in whipped cream brassiere that must don Zack Morris’s wall.

Check out Spano’s caffeine-induced (and much satirized) breakdown – mentioned in the letter – below.


Jessie’s Breakdown from “Jessie’s Song”
Season 2, Episode 9 (1990)

And from the Daily What via the Huffington Post, a graph by Tumblr user Nathaniel James capturing the spread of Spano’s caffeine intake in that very same episode.

“California Gurls,” which just reached number one in the U.K., is the electropop lead single from Perry’s upcoming third studio album Teenage Dream. The album is slated to hit U.S. record stores August 24. Dennis Wilson must be rolling in his grave.