#lamaar

[donaardaardendrian]

"Not many Trick or Trickers this year..."

"Welp..."

"More for you !"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY @gvrde !!!"

[dustedmagazine]

Four Albums I Almost Slept-On But Fortunately Did Not: Alex’s 2023 Superlatives for the Nearly Left Behind

Lamaar

Superlatives are silly, but they structure the hell out of a list. Below you’ll find the music I’m glad to just barely not have missed. Whether it was deciding to pull on several layers and go to a show or having the radio on at just the right time, these releases could’ve easily passed me by, but, once noticed and nabbed, stayed with me throughout 2023. Special shoutout to Mary Lattimore, whose Goodbye, Hotel Arkada, was my favorite thing to review this year and to Gina Birch, whose triumphant, funky, biting solo album, I Play My Bass Loud, towered over everything.

Best release I would’ve slept on had I not braved snow and windchill to see a show

Laamar – Flowers EP (self released)

I was introduced to multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Geoffrey Lamar Wilson’s music by a magnetic set* not quite two weeks into 2023 in central Minneapolis – his hometown and my adopted one. Wilson’s stage presence, at once calm and direct, unassuming but earnest, was matched by his band’s warm, enveloping mix of percussive acoustic guitar, trotting drums, and walking bass. These paved a smooth path for his lyrics: plain-spoken, incisive confrontations with the insidious ravages of racial violence, both implied and perpetrated, that still manage to bloom with love. A few weeks later, the stop-in-your-tracks “Home To My Baby,” started playing on local indie radio and an EP, Flowers, followed some months after. The qualities that made that set so memorable were not lost in the recording and I’ve had it close to hand ever since. It’s an intimate, haunted, and bewitching release.

*A well-deserved mention to Poolboy and Yellow Ostrich, who book-ended Laamar, and also released new music recently. The former are practitioners of bright guitars, tight drums, and subtle but knowing lines like “breaking bread with ten close friends until your early thirties.” The latter, who organized the show, is a project from Alex Schaaf, an adept in the live combination of emotive synthesizer loops and shredding guitar.

Best new album from an artist I had previously slept on but, fortunately, no longer will

ANOHNI and the Johnsons – My Back Was A Bridge For You To Cross (Secretly Canadian)

This summer, my step dad sent me a box of vinyl he no longer had the desire (or functional turntable) for. What I found weren’t the fetish objects of a hairy-handed crate digger, but rather a small though satisfying slice of canonical rock, blues, and adjacent subgenres, from the mid-1960s through the mid-1980s. Nothing unfamiliar, at least in name and gist, but also very little I’d actually spent much time, you know, listening to. So on went, among other things, Taj Mahal’s Giant Step/De Ole Folks at Home, Bruce Springsteen’s Darkness on the Edge of Town, The Time Has Come by The Chambers Brothers, Cat Stevens’ Tea for the Tillerman, and, with apologies to the guys at Championship Vinyl, the soundtrack to The Big Chill.

That trip yielded hits and misses, but also the inspiration to dig back into some of the contemporary music that passed me by. I’d been aware of ANOHNI and the Johnsons since 2005’s I Am A Bird Now, but for some reason, and despite vigorous recommendations from my high school carpool, things never clicked. Thanks to the magic – chaos? – of streaming, I threw convention to the wind and started with track four. As “Can’t” built towards its bursting apex, Anohni Hegarty blurting the title and riding the groove like Van Morrison, something finally did. My Back Was A Bridge For You To Walk On isn’t all fireworks – although the brief guitar solo on the backend of “Scapegoat” streaks about as high. More often, the album lives on elegant plucked guitar or an effortless rhythm and blues, over which Hegarty delivers her potent reports, at once deeply personal and vigorously political.

Best album I had no good reason to sleep on but did

Mary Jane Dunphe – Stage of Love (Pop Wig)

Growing up in Seattle with an ear for punk and indie rock, it’s hard not to turn south to Olympia, home of labels like K and Perennial (née Perennial Death), bands like Bikini Kill, The Microphones, and the inimitable Hipster Piss Party. Also in that milieu, beginning in 2013, was the singer and songwriter Mary Jane Dunphe. Her work, from the pulsing synth pop of CC Dust to the rumble and roar of CCFX, tends toward the fist-pumping. Her voice is an otherworldly purl, an odd and captivating instrument that bends genres in its path – her aptly named duo The Country Liners is just as satisfying as the clubbier projects in its formidable if weary honky-tonk tales of heartbreak.

Which leads me to Dunphe’s first proper solo release, Stage of Love. Country, it is not. It’s more in keeping with her earlier work in CCs Dust and FX. Particularly early on, songs like “Phantom Heart” and the title track deal in immersive dance beats, chanted refrains, and, on occasion, a rip of chainsaw guitar for emphasis – some of the last is courtesy of another Olympian, Earth’s Dylan Carlson. Others like “Longing Loud” or “Always Gonna Be The Same,” take that basic template, but turn the rawness and throb down, giving more space to the airy curve of Dunphe’s vocals over an agile mix of keyboards, xylophone, and rubbery drum patterns. Elsewhere Stage of Love opens yet further. Songs like the strumming, shimmering fog of “Moon Halo,” “Saint Dymphna,” a wash of synth and field recorded birdsong, and the closer, a second instance of the spare, romantic “Just Like Air,” walk the album into a fresh, if possibly hungover, morning.

Best album I would have slept on were it not for 89.3 The Current

Partial Traces – Stay Dreaming (Salinas)

Amy Rigby’s The Old Guys is one of my favorite albums of the last five years. I love the grit in Rigby’s voice, the way that, not unlike Lucinda Williams, she strains sorrow, humor, and yearning through it to deeply cathartic effect. Partial Traces’ principal vocal- and keyboardist Maren Macosko has that quality too, though with more of a quaver – Ian Curtis’ suppressed fury alongside Williams’ knack for resolute and candid storytelling.

I heard “Days Between Dreams” from Partial Traces’ latest, Stay Dreaming,driving south along the Mississippi river. It’s the perfect music for steady motion, for catching glimpses of cloud and sky through the trees. By the time Macosko gets to the emotional center of the song in the lines “I want to stay in that day in the sun/I want to not understand anyone/except for you…a perfect day lost with you in Berlin” you’re right there with her, walking with the other “dumb young Americans.” It’s bracing. The rest of Stay Dreaming follows suit. Like Rigby on The Old Guys, or fellow Minneapolitan Paul Westerberg, Macosko and her fellow lyricist Brad Lokkesmoe write big, heartfelt songs about getting older, its joys and losses, and the detritus of younger, not always freer, times – like Macosko sings later, on “Oceans of Coffee,” “sometimes it all goes up in flames.” The music is straightforward and stirring, exactly what I want from my melodic indie rock. It can at times recall Handsome Furs in its propulsion, the relentless, echoing drums and airborne guitars that always feel, and often are, pushing the band into another heart-on-sleeve chorus.

Alex Johnson

[girlactionfigure]

Hedy Lamarr was considered one of the most beautiful women in Europe. Born Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler in 1914 to a Jewish family in Vienna, Austria-Hungary, she became a film star in Europe by the 1930s, and soon after, she achieved similar recognition in the U.S. In addition to her acting career, Hedy pursued inventing.   Motivated to assist U.S. efforts during WWII, she focused on designing a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes that would counter the threat of jamming.   Although her innovation was not used during the war, the principles she developed are now integrated into modern technologies such as Wi-Fi, CDMA, and Bluetooth.   On August 11, 1942, Hedy Lamarr was granted a patent for her revolutionary “frequency hopping communication system,” which forms the basis of much of today’s wireless technology. In recognition of her achievements, she was inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.

humansofjudaism

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

Live Footage: The Sextones Perform Soulful "Without You"

Live Footage: The Sextones Perform Soulful "Without You" @TheSextones @nickrecordkicks @RecordKicks @monophonicsfunk

Reno-based soul outfit The Sextones — Mark Sexton (vocals, guitar), Christopher Sexton (piano), Alexander Korostinsky (bass), and Daniel Weiss are childhood friends, and as a result their musical chemistry is effortless and forms the foundation of the band’s longevity and creative process.  Over the years, the band’s members have also been able to channel their creativity into other acclaimed…

[sodapop1033]

if it's possible could you do kleiner and lamaar cuddling? :3

Maybe kleiner is asleep and Lamarr is cuddling with him

ta daaa

[hotvintagepoll]

hi!! when you get a chance to look at the hot ladies submissions, do you mind telling us which ones are guaranteed for the tournament? i wanna submit but i dont have much free time, so id rather focus on submitting my underrated girls (missed my chance for farley granger but i will not miss it again!)

I did a quick skim and I can tell you these ladies are definitely accounted for by now:

Ingrid Berman

Katherine Hepburn

Clara Bow

Hedy Lamaar

Grace Kelly

Audrey Hepburn

Barbara Stanwyck

Marlene Deitrich

Lauren Bacall

Julie Andrew

Judy Garland

That doesn't mean you can't still submit propaganda for them—the more the merrier—but these ladies are already definitely in the tournament by now. When we're closer to the tournament proper I can post a fuller list.

[mrmrsdarklordjrthethird]

A drawing of Lamaar I’m doing the drawing my mutuals so I’ll just say this is my first of many

@donaarcondensed

[ihatebrainstorm]

Ok I got a bunch of work I need to finish but also just need to spitball some long winded Half Life/Portal universe Transformer crossover thoughts:

(Will contain Half Life 1 & 2, Portal 1 & 2, Aperture Desk Job, and ofc TF IDW spoilers btw)

Perceptor fitting as more of a Gordon Freeman role in Half Life's Black Mesa Institute bc he matches the more gritty atmosphere and serious tone of the Half Life games + Both Gordon and Perceptor taking on similar "scientists by trade, but still a competent as hell fighter when the situation calls for it" roles... Their appearances even kinda give similar vibes? But that could just be me

Brainstorm's fascination with the Dead Universe in IDW working well with Black Mesa's dubious research into Xen and all the alien life there- I can see him being incredibly interested in headcrab parasites? But he also sorta matches more with the eccentric type of experiments ran by Aperture Science.. Turrets and portal gun technology seem right up his alley,, (Also not to mention the mantis society human DNA stuff has weird Brainstorm type experimentation written all over it)

Percy working at Black Mesa while BS is in Aperture bc they're rival companies etc. etc. u get the gist hopefully

I need to look at Portal's lore again bc it's been a long while and I don't remember what his story was, but whenever I look at that one photo of Doug Rattman, he reminds me of BS sdkfs

Shockwave and Glados. I know technically Glados and Caroline are separate, but the parallels behind Caroline/Glados and Shockwave's backstories are still there ksdkfsd- What if Glados and Shockwave swapped places actually, and Shockwave were to run Aperture..... hm

Domestication and their parallels to the procedure done by the Combine to create stalkers.....

Whirl having a pet headcrab? Like Lamaar? Maybe?? Similar to his scraplets I dunno

Brainstorm would have so much fun with potato Glados and all the personality cores I think

Rodimus meeting and yelling at the G-man because I think it'd be funny

Brainstorm jokingly speculating that the G-man's briefcase is a plagiarized version of his time-case bc of how he's always carrying it around, able to blip in and out of random portals, as well as control time-

[mydivasfan]

Hedy Lamaar, Hollywood, Life Magazine, 1938

Alfred Eisenstaedt

[deantheofficial]

240221 / lamaar

[theblackcubeofdarkness]

Ok so I got this idea for a Roblox Pressure OC. He's this Urbanshade scientist named Dr. Tanner and is the physical embodiment of chaos... Metaphorically. He is just this silly mad man running about causing chaos indirectly and directly (The number of times they have had to make a PA system announcement about this guy...). Although he has a habit of causing property damage he is considered an asset due to his ability to get the job done and provide Urbanshade with stellar research and technologies so its majorly looked aside (HR hates him though). He has been known to be able to take random things and make strangely effective things with them like a machine he calls the MFE Device which stands for "MY FUCKING EARS!!!" which is a modified radio with an ion battery taped to it and handles screwed onto the side of it made to be a defensive equipment that creates an ear splitting sound to disordinate foes (left 23 hospitalized on initial test). He also has a close connection with an anomaly he has named "Lamaar" after his late dog. "Lamaar" is a unknown entity composed of a dark void like substance that it can control at will. For unknown reasons the creature has shown no hostility towards the doctor and has now taken a wolf like appearance when in his presence. The entity tends to stick to dark places out of instinct however can traverse lit spaces however when in light become more on edge.

Dr. Tanner as of the Blacksite Lockdown is currently hiding out in the maintenance tunnels of the site presumably with Lamaar due to them being missing from their containment cell.

WELL THATS MY IDEA! I will post a drawing of him in a bit.

[donaardaardendrian]

Cringetober Day 22 : Maid Dress

Sibling got sick, couldn't draw, quickly threw this together, no poem for this one.

[totallynotgayforyou]

I heard drake trapped kendrick lamaar in an ancient crystal for a thousand years

[unprofessionalclownery]

my Half Life headcanons no one asked for

Alyx:

- trans mtf, she/her pronouns

- pansexual

- likes walking around white forest with dog

- the base has a small junkyard similar to black mesa east, where she spends free time messing around there, collecting n building stuff

- has a lot of anxieties but does her best to keep an upbeat optimistic attitude

- decorates her jacket with little patches and things she finds

Gordon:

- trans ftm, he/him pronouns

- bi and ace

- mute n autistic, uses asl

- desire to protect his loved ones makes him prone to take risks

- spends time getting better at using his weapons since he was a scientist just forced into a situation and doesn't know shit about guns

- also loves helping Eli, Kleiner, and Magnuson in the lab

Barney:

- bi with a preference for women

- him n Alyx help teach Gordon how to properly use weapons as he has experience bc of civil protection n black mesa

- is away from white forest a lot, finding different routes to get ppl to the base undetected

- still freaked out by lamaar but is slowly warming up to her

Eli:

- unlabeled but still very much loves Azian

- is working a lot on resistance plans but always makes an effort to spend time with alyx

- I like to think he passed on some recipes of meals that the vance family liked to the cooks at white forest

- still alive, idc about ep2

- I feel like he would collect books :)

Kleiner:

- gay but closeted for most of his life

- has loads of papers of info on the aliens Gordon runs into; fascinated by them

- Lamaar is like his cat and he makes or asks Alyx to make toys for her :)

- probably neurodivergent

- seems like a tomato enjoying kinda guy

[flapperdame16]

legendary people I lived within their lifetime

Diana, Princsss of Wales

James Stewart

James Garner

Julie Andrews

Queen Elizabeth II

Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh

Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother

Robert Redford- actor director

Malcolm Young- ac/ dc

Carl Wilson - the beach boys

Natasha Richardson

Maggie Smith

Angela lansbury

Lauren Bacall

Paul newman

Frank Sinatra

Elizabeth taylor

Heddy Lamaar

Maureen O'Hara

[radikalrags]

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Jerome Lamaar Colorblock Varsity Jacket Size large.