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whatisraregroove.bsky.social
mark lafaro
@whatisraregroove.bsky.social
470 followers 220 following 540 posts
writer & vinyl dj

https://linktr.ee/marklafaro
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whatisraregroove.bsky.social
mark lafaro @whatisraregroove.bsky.social · Nov 19
Great years in Brazilian #Music: 1982

The post-disco era in Brazil was marked by some of the most unique boogie records ever made, as well as some overlooked classics by some of Brazil's greatest artists

25 Brazilian records from 1982
Album cover for Junior Mendes' Copacabana Sadia Album cover for Tim Maia's Nuvens Album cover for Djavan's Luz Album cover for Robson Jorge & Lincoln Olivetti
Reposted by mark lafaro
hollywoodsteve.bsky.social
"And she's GOT such a long way to GOOOOOOO"
November 11, 2025 at 12:42 AM
Reposted by mark lafaro
dril.bsky.social
watching you dildo brain cock suckers play w/ AI shit is like watching a dog paw at one of those puzzle boxes that you put treats inside of
July 31, 2025 at 2:11 AM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
Sessa’s new album Pequena Vertigem de Amor is another winner - improving on their 2022 record Estrela Acesa was a tall order, and they somehow managed to pull it off.

For folks who like the chill side of MPB and Verocai-esque arrangements, you will love this record

#musicsky #vinylsky #mpb
A vinyl copy of Sessa’s new album Pequena Vertigem de Amor
November 8, 2025 at 3:06 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
craiguito.bsky.social
Mamdani is going to implement Shalamar law. He’s going to make it a night to remember
November 8, 2025 at 12:09 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
richstaff.bsky.social
Seeing a disgusting loser get his ass kicked all over New York City really makes me miss the Mets
November 5, 2025 at 2:26 AM
Reposted by mark lafaro
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
hahahahahhahahha fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck Andrew Cuomo! hahahahaha
June 25, 2025 at 2:01 AM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
roflmao even
November 5, 2025 at 2:22 AM
Reposted by mark lafaro
kbernot.bsky.social
Bon Appetite has a big THC package out this week and I’m thrilled to contribute two drinks pieces!

First up: What are weed drinks doing to change the perception of THC socially?

www.bonappetit.com/story/the-fu...
The Future of Weed Is Liquid
Weed's true breakthrough won't come from smoking, vaping, or even eating, but from beverages analogous to booze.
www.bonappetit.com
October 30, 2025 at 12:30 PM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
this movie is a fucking blast

some of the worst (best) dubbing i’ve ever experienced, but the fight choreography is LEGIT and features an unironically terrific performance by Billy Chong.

Hua Shan’s an underrated director, and makes some interesting cinematographic choices throughout

##vhs
A VHS copy of Sun Dragon starring Carl Scott with a $3 price tag against a backdrop of VHS tapes
October 19, 2025 at 1:26 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
jazyjef.bsky.social
““Tom, tell that gringo he’s a moron,” an exasperated Gilberto said at one point in Portuguese to Jobim, who then translated for Getz: “Stan, Joao said to tell you that he’s always dreamed of making a record with you.” Despite the growing acrimony in the studio, the results were impeccable.”
Stan Getz / João Gilberto: Getz/Gilberto
Read Andy Beta’s review of the album.
pitchfork.com
October 19, 2025 at 10:35 AM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
what a masterpiece

“songs in the key of life” level of musical perfection
A vinyl copy of Voodoo by D’Angelo
October 14, 2025 at 10:59 PM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
devastated. so glad i got to be alive while this man was making music
a black and white picture of D’Angelo with smoke billowing in the background
October 14, 2025 at 6:50 PM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
this picture was a long time in the making, props to Selva Discos for helping me complete the set this past weekend.

if you’re unfamiliar, all three albums are brilliant, some of the finest music to ever come out of Bahia and some of the most beautiful, haunting harmonies ever recorded
All three 70s Tincoãs albums on vinyl
October 14, 2025 at 2:02 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
natepatrin.bsky.social
David Mancuso
katelynburns.com Katelyn Burns @katelynburns.com · Oct 13
name an italian more worthy of an american holiday than columbus
October 13, 2025 at 2:23 PM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
*finally*
A picture of the hardcover edition of Pynchon’s Shadow Ticket held up in front of a bookstore
October 12, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
vintageobscura.net
Junior Mendes - Toque Tropical [Brazil, AOR/Funk/Boogie] (1979)
https://redd.it/hggawe
https://youtu.be/8WGKX-COVFo
Junior Mendes - Toque Tropical [Brazil, AOR/Funk/Boogie] (1979)
youtu.be
October 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
viewtoakel.bsky.social
september playlist is ready....
rotation: 09.2025 by Kel on Apple Music
Playlist · 16 Songs
music.apple.com
September 30, 2025 at 1:21 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
jason1749.bsky.social
A reminder of how much great writing late-stage capitalism has robbed us of.
kalebhorton.bsky.social Kaleb Horton @kalebhorton.bsky.social · Aug 14
Sidebar: I was recently offered a sit-down with Robert Plant--how about you guys just hang out!!--but I could not sell it. I think editors thought "this is gonna be about that bluegrass shit, isn't it. They're gonna talk about Blind Willie Johnson aren't they."
September 27, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
nedraggett.bsky.social
And now I'm just spelunking around and here's this Facebook post by Kaleb Horton from September 2017. It was three months after MTV dumped its freelancers. I'm sure it would have been a piece there; instead he posted this on FB just to have it written out: Toys 'R' Us as societal microcosm.
Facebook post from Kaleb Horton, September 18, 2017: Toys R Us is probably going out of business this year. I'm fascinated by the collapse of retail, because what it really signifies is the collapse of the 20th century. The reason I pushed to profile guys like Harry Dean Stanton, Merle Haggard and Chuck Berry, was that writing about them is a way of writing about the 20th century, and how different it was from where we are now. How shockingly different, in retrospect. The migration out of the south, the descent of the Dust Bowl, which was a Biblical plague; the millions of people who were killed during World War Two. Monoculture, and the idea that a great episode of a television show would be seen by *half of all people.* The arrival of flight, and the end of horses. Homes without electricity. Coming of age without computers, without television. Listening to the radio for entertainment. The 20th century was a long time ago and it's a ghost now. It's a ghost you see in the places you wouldn't expect. It's seen in towns that were bypassed by the freeways, the dusty little towns out west that still have old diners and motels and payphones. It's seen in the places that we left, places where mines shut down, places where tourist attractions died off. It's seen in Bakersfield with Buck Owens' Crystal Palace and it's seen in Roswell, which stubbornly maintains the relics of the '90s UFO boom. Things like that won't be around forever. Someday owners will die and towns will burn and they won't be rebuilt. And it's difficult to suss out what those things are, because they're on roads, physical and metaphorical, that we no longer travel. The ghost sightings happen in stupid places, unexpected places, and uncool places. A few months ago, I went with Marie to the Toys R Us on Victory Blvd. in Burbank, which still looks exactly like it did in Back to the Future in 1985 somehow. It's not nostalgia that you see there, it's just a customer base and economic model that's aging and won't be around a lot longer, and it's *boring.* There's no reason for anyone to ever go to Lancer's, the little diner by that Toys R Us. Because it's not good. People go there out of tradition, and old habits. 80 and 90 year olds go there. We were lining up for a Nintendo, which is still a hard thing to keep stocked in stores. Toys R Us was actually the best place to obtain one, because it's no longer a place children beg their parents to take them to. When we went in, wham, there it was. The ghost of 1996. I was 8 years old, for a fraction of a second. The feeling wasn't nostalgia, it was a kind of temporal dislocation. A confusion. But it wasn't an immaculate 1996, it was a fading 1996. It was lonelier than I remember it. It's time for Toys R Us to go out of business. It was time ten years ago, fifteen. There are reasons to be nostalgic about the 20th century. We weren't plugged into so many wires, so many screens. We were a little bit closer to the process of manufacturing and agriculture than we are now. We made more things by hand, and our goals as people were uniquely audacious and driven by mad, desperate power that was temporary and had to end. But the 20th century was hopelessly cruel and soaked in blood. The 20th century gave us flight, but it also gave us bombs that can end the world and Richard Nixon and his evil sidekick Kissinger and it gave us new mutations of slavery and race and class subjugation and it gave us useless, disgusting monuments to Confederate slavers and traitors and cowards. It gave us President Trump, who wouldn't exist today without New York City's collective cocaine addiction in the 1980s. I want to find the ghosts, not because I miss the past -- the good old days can't return because they're imaginary and what you really miss is youth and if you're lucky a warm feeling of safety -- but because I don't even know what things we'll lose, or when we'll lose them, or how long we have to document them. I know ghosts when I see them. Toys R Us for the mundane side and the Salton Sea for the widescreen wasteland side. But I have absolutely no idea how many there are. I figure people go first, then places. Those are the things we have a limited time to physically document and historically examine and preserve on film. The ideas will go away much slower, and some of them may be eternal, like cold wars. But those are a lot less fun because you don't get to drive to them.
September 27, 2025 at 8:49 PM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
i remember this piece when it came out, and thought of it when i just recently came across this video of George modifying the lyrics to “Here Comes the Sun” to honor his friend Emerson Fittipaldi

what a fun writer, and what a loss for all of us

m.youtube.com/watch?v=lqj2...
September 27, 2025 at 4:14 PM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
legendary run of in-the-wild finds while i was between apartments

#vhs #dvd #physicalmediaisking
VHS copies of Ghost Dog (The Way of the Samurai), Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance, and David Lynch/Julee Cruise/Angelo Badalamenti’s Industrial Symphony No. 1 DVD copies of Shogun Assassin 1&2, Shaolin Rescuers, and Five Deadly Venoms
September 19, 2025 at 2:09 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
jazyjef.bsky.social
"As word spread of Mr. Pascoal’s fondness for complex harmonies, dense orchestrations and zigzagging melody lines, as well as his versatility and unusual appearance, he became an object of fascination among musicians, a phenomenon that continued until the end of his life."
Hermeto Pascoal, Eccentric and Prolific Brazilian Composer, Dies at 89
www.nytimes.com
September 14, 2025 at 2:12 PM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
people: you been keeping up on current events?

me:
September 12, 2025 at 3:54 PM
whatisraregroove.bsky.social
I am “just had a mini breakdown in Dunkin because I saw a teenager trying to Shazam Ace of Base” years old
September 5, 2025 at 6:50 PM
Reposted by mark lafaro
snowden.st
You know this song, sure, but just listen to Purdie drum, y'all. This is so stupid flawless.
The Five Stairsteps - O-o-h Child (Audio)
YouTube video by LegacyRecordingsVEVO
youtu.be
August 27, 2025 at 4:03 PM