Pharrell Williams: ‘Cease and desist, Mr. President’

Ideas & Opinion · Music
In a cease and desist letter sent Monday, October 29, 2016, Pharrell Williams‘ attorney Howard King called on the President of the United States to stop playing the singer’s “Happy” during events. In an act of disgusting insensitivity, the song was played at a rally over the weekend just hours after a gunman killed 11 ...

Review: Antiquity updated in SOLUNA Fest’s ‘Rules of the Game’

Architecture & Design · Dance · Fashion · Film · Music · Reviews · Visual arts
Vulnerable humans cower in the debris of a humongous classical bust crashed to earth. An unnatural occurrence … like an airplane felled. Symbols of ancient civilization  — either Greek, Roman, or a modern approximation of both — tumble down, explode into shards. Not to worry; it’s all fake. It’s video art. This stunning and impactful ...

In Dallas, for SOLUNA Festival, coming apart at the seams

Architecture & Design · Dance · Music
In  a world that seems to be fraying if not coming apart at the seams, the ultimate deconstruction, that of the human body — a startling central image at last night’s premiere of “Rules of the Game,” a collaboration by visual artist Daniel Arsham, choreographer Jonah Bokaer, set to an original score by Pharrell Williams. ...

Pharrell Williams “happy” to jam with Herbie Hancock

Fashion · Music
A highlight of last Sunday’s 2014 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition was pianist Herbie Hancock kicking it with Pharrell Williams, the massively popular young r&b vocalist and music producer. The duo reworked Williams’ percolating hit song “Happy” as a jazz arrangement. Williams won my approval with his cool fashion, his trademark chapeau by model-turned-hat-designer Nick ...