Author Archives: Will Schlesinger

David Halperin, the W.H. Auden Distinguished University Professor of the History and Theory of Sexuality at the University of Michigan, has been credited with establishing the field of queer theory, though his relationship to the discipline is more complicated than you might think. Even so, he’s one of the best-known names in an amorphous but »

Procrastinator’s Delight from WILL SCHLESINGER. nature+supposedly challenging music/art+beauty in motion What’s that? You grew up watching “Celebrity Deathmatch,” and you don’t care that freak-folk is a made-up genre. Check out Grizzly Bear’s latest video, “Ready, Able.” While being bored by the music, you can at least be entertained by the accompanying visuals and the prospect »

Lady Gaga released a new video this week. And scene was inspired to respond. DANNY SERNA Haters, hate on. Gaga is a genius. She’s not Britney Spears, okay? Hating her just because you think it’s cool to hate female pop-stars is stupid. “OMG, it’s so mainstream…” So what? To quote Lil’ Boosie, “Real recognize real, »

The spring of my junior year of high school was the time when my musical sensibilities began to take shape. I started attending noise shows, downloading album upon album of math rock and ambient drone and exhibiting a condescending lack of interest anytime my friends tried to talk to me about music. Oh yeah, I »

When I heard early last year that “Where the Wild Things Are” was being adapted into a film, I didn’t really care. When I saw the first few clips in the preview, I still didn’t really care. When “Wake Up” by the Arcade Fire started to play, though, I cared. I wanted not to care. »

“True Grime.” Printed in 2005, this was the title of the first Sasha Frere-Jones article I ever read. Thanks, Dad, for having both a subscription to the New Yorker and the wherewithal to identify and foster your son’s interest in hip-hop culture. Regrets? Grime, a catchall classification for hip-hop that combines elements of dancehall and »

Despite the fact that Toad’s Place is barely a minute’s walk from the gates of Old Campus, the club/venue/cesspool is a culture unto itself. I’ve seen a solid variety of venues in my concert-going history — from sport stadiums to rock clubs to basements — but never have I experienced the bizarre pastiche that is »

Whether you know him as Young Hova, Jigga Man, Mr. Knowles or Jay-Z, Shawn Carter is a hip-hop mogul. Jay broke into the game as a free-styling youngster in the Marcy Projects of Brooklyn, and after dropping countless hit releases (“Brooklyn’s Finest,” the singles off “Blueprint”) featuring the rap scene’s hottest rising stars, ascended to »