Michael Slenske

Things Are Looking Up(town) for Rag and Bone

April 13, 2012

All the uptown girls can stay living in their uptown world—while maintaining their downtown style—now that Rag & Bone is opening a new boutique tomorrow at 73rd and Madison. Located inside a four-floor, 9000-square-foot Federal-style townhouse (and former Chase bank) it’s “definitely the biggest and grandest of the bunch,” says designer David Neville.

Kelly Pratt Finds Bright Moments Everywhere He Goes

February 14, 2012

During a break from touring with Beirut in the fall of 2010, New York-based brass player Kelly Pratt began writing songs for what would become the basis of his solo debut Natives (Luaka Bop), out Feb. 21.

Exclusive Song Premiere: ‘Someone Loves You,’ Tom Vek (Cookies Re-Dip)

December 6, 2011

Brooklyn-based electro-poppers Cookies are back in the cover seat with a groovy “re-dip” of Tom Vek’s “Someone Loves You.”

Marilyn Minter’s Precious Metals

October 28, 2011

In recent years, Marilyn Minter has shot and painted icons (Pam Anderson), stereotypes (stiletto-heeled 3 am girls), and lots of mouths spewing everything from pearls and diamonds to vodka-spiked paint. All those tropes are on display in her eponymous two-years-in-the-making exhibition, opening tonight at Salon 94’s Bowery gallery.

Keeping Score with Morricone: Hayley Westenra

October 3, 2011

Hayley Westenra went from busking on the streets of Christchurch to having Ennio Morricone write new compositions for her (while letting her pen lyrics for—and sing them over—some of his most famous arrangements).

The Van Dyke Parks Department

September 20, 2011

Van Dyke Parks, 68, isn’t going gently into “the end game,” as he calls it.

Scratching the Surface Surfers

September 13, 2010

Australia’s Julian Wilson is the new new thing in competitive surfing. But before he made his jump to the pros, the 21-year-old Queensland native took a year off (with a posse of mates, including American shredder Ian Walsh and his Aussie mentor, Taj Burrow) to surf his way around the world. Of course, if you’ve been sponsored by Red Bull and Quiksilver since before you can drive, taking a year off to surf means hitting the waves, camera crew in tow, shooting some of the most cutting edge footage (via the ultra hi-def RED, Phantom, Cineflex heli-cams which made those migration scenes in Planet Earth so epic).