Thankfully, JC Penney took down this disturbing screen-printing choice down today after The Hairpin brought attention to it, but really, if you thought this was a good idea, maybe you shouldn't be designing clothes for girls. I hear they're hiring over where they make Malibu Stacy dolls, however.

So we have a mayoral race in the city of Tucson: Democrat Jonathan Rothschild will face Republican Rick Grinnell, who was able to get 5,773 write-in votes, far exceeding the 1,060 write-in votes he needed to get on the ballot after the two GOP candidates who filed to run were kicked off the ballot.

In the Green Party mayoral primary, Mary DeCamp crushed her pal, Dave Croteau, with 70 percent of the vote. That’s actually less impressive than it sounds, since DeCamp actually only got 312 votes to Croteau’s 109, but we had a feeling that DeCamp was going to win this one when we saw her out in front of Ward 3’s only polling station, waving a sign that said “Vote Green.”

We chatted briefly with DeCamp, who shared her concern that the Weekly has not been giving her adequate coverage. But it appears that things worked OK for her in the primary, despite our failure to give her much ink. (For the record, we did invite both DeCamp and Croteau to send us any information about her platform so we could post it right here on our well-read blog, but they both choose to focus their campaigns in another direction.)

Meanwhile, over in the Ward 1 Democratic primary, City Councilwoman Regina Romero easily dispatched Joe Flores, the former pharmacy owner who drew his support from a small group of conservative Hispanic Democrats and Republican Tea Party types. Romero captured more than 75 percent of the vote.

So ends a rather lackluster primary season that nonetheless drew a remarkable number of voters to the polls in Tucson’s first all-mail primary. There are a few votes still out there, but once those roll in, we’ll be crunching the final numbers for analysis. While a primary with so little competition makes for a bad model to draw many conclusions from, it appears that all-mail voting, at first glance, boosted voter turn-out.

Onward to the general election. Besides the mayor’s face between Rothschild, Grinnell and DeCamp, we’ve got three Council races:

• In Ward 2, Democratic City Councilman Paul Cunningham will face Republican Jennifer Rawson. More on that race here.

• In Ward 4, Democratic City Councilwoman Shirley Scott will face Republican Tyler Vogt. More on that race here.

• In Ward 1, Romero will face Green Party candidate Beryl Baker, who managed to get 10 write-in votes, exceeding the three votes she needed to make the ballot.

Official election results here.

Essentially, we've just dipped officially into Mad Libs culture, where we just throw pop culture references together and see what happens, but yes, there's a song out by Insane Clown Posse, produced by Jack White, with indie rock act JEFF the Brotherhood playing the music, interpolating a bit of Mozart. And that song is called "Leck Mich Im Arsch".

Insane Clown Posse - Leck Mich Im Arsch by Third Man Records

With a B-side called "Mountain Girl" (which, according to Pitchfork, "concerns itself with "tall tales about a shotgun wedding, meth problems and moonshine") will go on sale in 7" vinyll and digital form on September 13 from White's label Third Man Records.

This is clearly the beginning of Detroit's revival artistically, right?

There was a saying I used to hear that went something like "if you want to know what God thinks of money, look at who he gives it to". I don't know if that's exactly true, but then you hear that designer diapers aren't just an item thrown on the shelves as a lark, but a product that people are actually spending money on.

A note to anyone buying designer diapers: you're spending extra money on something uses to contain feces that will be thrown away sooner rather than later. Please stop. Seriously. Stop it.

There's something strange and wonderful in the reality that a band playing instrumental songs generally lasting eight minutes or longer being popular enough to play the Rialto. Even as surprising as that idea probably is, Explosions in the Sky will be there Thursday night, playing their somewhat symphonic compositions for electric guitar and drums. The flyer that ended up being the catalyst for the band's formation asked for musicians looking to form a "sad triumphant rock band" and I guess that's what they are. Without the help of lyrical cues, I probably won't have a clue which song is which, but for me, that's sort of a blessing, so I'm not waiting around for the song I came to hear, I'm just going to find a wall to lean up against with my beer and just take it all in.

Okay, It's another cat video—but it's a hilarious, NEW cat video! Via The Hairpin:

The first 30 seconds is where the action is. In the real cat's defense, it must be creepy to confront an identically colored, electronically-purring version of yourself.

Music editor Steve Seigel and senior writer Jim Nintzel were on Arizona Illustrated yesterday to discuss tomorrow night's Tammies event at the Rialto Theatre. Learn the process behind finding the winners, feel like you learned something about some of the nominees, share in the memories of past memories, etc. Steve wears a Big Star shirt under his blazer, so the video is totally worth six minutes of your time.

[Also, they discuss the HoCo Festival, three nights of music which are also highly recommended, but which is not the subject of this post. More on HoCo in this week's issue, available on newsstands and online Thursday.]

So, you're going to the Tammies, right? There are a number of excellent reasons you should attend:

1. It's free.
2. The lineup is actually one of those rare occasions when there's something for everyone. You can see quite excellent music performances from...Gabriel Sullivan and Taraf de Tucson, Seashell Radio, The Tryst, Greg Morton, and Hollywood Knights, and 2011 TAMMIES Tucson Music Hall of Fame inductee, Neon Prophet.
3. Not only is the event free, there's free food from BrushFire BBQ, Don Pedro's, and Eegee's starting at 6:30.
4. You can always record the Challenge: Rivals reunion special on MTV. That's what DVRs are for.

I'll be there, and I don't even like going out and being around people all that much. Look for the guy with the video camera. See you tomorrow night!

Brushfire BBQ at 2745 N. Campbell Ave. now serves beer, making one of Tucson’s favorite barbeque destinations just that much better.

Work is still underway on the second location on the corner of 22nd Street and Kolb Road, although the opening inches ever closer. Keep up on the progress of that over yonder.

While I'm expressed my general confusion about the rise in My Little Pony fandom among seemingly socially adjusted adults, I'm not above wasting time making my very own super-cute pony online. The number of options available (add your own cutie mark!) are truly staggering and the creator still wants to add "about 20 manes and tails and some more accessories". Can you imagine the possibilities? I can't. It's too much for my brain, to be honest.

Related, but not really:

[Pony Creator]

A New Jersey school district has apologized to parents after requiring high school students to read books that include graphic depictions of lesbian sex and a homosexual orgy.

“Some of the language is inappropriate,” said Chuck Earling, superintendent of Monroe Township Schools in Williamstown, N.J. “We were not trying to create controversy. We were just trying to get students to read.”

[...]

One book, “Norwegian Wood,” was on a list for incoming sophomores in an honors English class. The book includes a graphic depiction of a lesbian sex scene between a 31-year-old woman and a 13-year old girl, according to a report first published in the Gloucester County Times.

“I don’t think that’s relevant for any teenager,” parent Robin Myers told the newspaper. Her daughter was assigned to read the book. “I was just kind of in shock,” she said.

[...]

Peter Sprigg, with the Family Research Council, said he’s not surprised by the controversy surrounding the books.

“Here we see the intersection of parental values being offended, the hyper-sexualization of our youth and the homosexual agenda being pushed,” Sprigg told Fox News Radio. “This just illustrates why a lot of American parents are not willing to entrust their children to the public schools anymore.”

Maybe New Jersey isn't exactly the best state to have a discussion about what's good for children, since the impression most Americans have of the state's youth culture consists of fist-pumping, binge drinking, and how orange Snooki's skin is. However, I'm a parent, so it's not like I don't understand the idea of protecting the minds of children, but I think I'd rather have my son and daughter reading, asking questions, and experiencing fully formed chararacters with realistic emotional responses to life's twists and turns than them getting their cultural information exclusively from the music of Pitbull and the various shows about teen moms.

On a related note, this week's New Yorker has an excerpt from Murakami's newest novel 1Q84. The plot involves cats and some sort of futuristic 1984-ish world, and I believe lacks lurid lesbian sex, for better or worse. Good luck keeping your thoughts pure reading that trash, if you choose to.