Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Art Commissioned By The Obama Presidential Library
For the Obama Presidential Center on the South Side of Chicago, Barack and Michelle Obama commissioned original works by 30 artists from diverse backgrounds, a bold move never...
A Professor Despairs Of What AI Reveals About Students
There will always be idealistic, ink-stained people who want to devote their lives to scholarly pursuits—their role to inspire young people to love ideas...
“Teaser” Events Have Become A Powerful Way For Pop Stars To Introduce Their Projects
From a marketing perspective, this approach blends internet culture and storytelling to create a memorable experience for fans. These teaser releases are particularly effective at...
Are Most Children’s Books “Crud”?
“There are so many bad kids’ books,” Mac Barnett writes, “and kids’ books are bad in so many different ways.” He states that “a...
Mathematics And The Tools Of Reasoning That Ai Is Tackling
Understanding is a lively topic for philosophers, but not for the tech industry. In their race to the ultimate prize of AGI, Silicon Valley’s...
The Problem With AI Writing (And The Opportunity For Human Literature)
If, as a French saying has it, “style is the man himself,” what does the style of AI writing tell us about it? For...
Film Critic Gene Shalit Dies At 100
Shalit started on Today in 1970, according to NBC's report on his passing, and became its arts editor in 1973, interviewing celebrities and reviewing books as well...
What We Learned About How To Celebrate A Divided America’s Birthday From The Bicentennial
Philadelphia, as the cradle of American independence, was supposed to be the center of attention 50 years ago. From the beginning, deliberations involved arguably...
Jurgen Habermas And The Public Sphere
Habermas’s death might mark the end of a mode of main-stage philosophizing that, in the German-speaking world, reaches back, by way of Adorno, Heidegger,...
The Aesthetic That Fits Our Times: Tragicomic
This cockroach of forms—adaptive, resilient, unkillable—was named by the Roman dramatist Plautus in the second century BC, enjoyed its heyday in 17th-century Renaissance theater,...
San Francisco Symphony seeks Deputy Director of Development
Reporting to the Chief Philanthropy Officer, the Deputy Director of Development (DDD) is a key strategic leader and the second most senior position on the
A Landmark Deal for Music, and a new TV/Video Giant
Good Morning,
Two big stories for a Monday. First a landmark licensing deal between an AI company and industry-wide music publishers. (Music Business Worldwide). This...
The Old Are Taking Over America
Samuel Moyn argues that the oldest Americans, because of their retrograde politics and ever-increasing presence, are profoundly reshaping our collective life. - The New Yorker
Reimagining The Benefits Of Music In Dementia Care
Music has a unique capability to engage multiple areas of the brain that can function in sync with one another. This includes areas involved in hearing...
Study: There Are Cognitive Benefits To Reading Paper Books
Reading a book involves a complex series of mental tasks. A reader must decode words, interpret pictures, and connect new information to what they...
Sagrada Familia Might Have Topped Out, But Big Challenges Ahead
"The biggest will be Glory Facade, which is the main facade. Maybe it will take 10 years, but we don't yet have a...
Fox To Acquire Roku
The transaction combines Fox’s sports, news, and entertainment content and the Tubi streaming service with Roku’s connected TV platform, The Roku Channel, first-party data...
Attack: FCC Opens Early Comment Period On ABC License Renewal
The early renewal order represents one of the most significant actions the Trump administration has taken against a media company, a potential regulatory death-blow to go...
AI Company Makes Industry-Wide Licensing Deal
David Israelite said the Udio agreement is the first industry-wide licensing deal struck with a major AI music company, and the first to “value songs and sound...
The Kennedy Center Sign Is Restored. But There’s A Bigger Issue
My biggest concern is that the Kennedy Center will remain nominally open—as in, I’ll be free to walk through the doors and perhaps buy...
Behold The New Obama Library
After standing in the glow of this new South Side landmark, I admittedly feel like a buzzkill focusing on documents, kind of like visiting...
What The Kennedy Center Might Have Been
Imagine a scenario in which Bernstein and the Kennedys — John and Jackie both — bequeathed a proactive White House arts component prioritizing American...
Kennedy Center As De-Trumpification Warning
Trump’s threat to walk away from the Kennedy Center suggests an additional danger: He could lose interest and doze off, as if at yet...
Biggest Hits On Spotify Are From The 70s And 80s
On May 14, almost exactly 43 years later, Michael Jackson's Billie Jean was No. 1 again, prancing to the top of Spotify’s global chart...
Spotify Ditches Its Much-Hated Disco Ball App Icon
On Thursday an update to the Spotify iOS app switched the icon back to the well-known logo users are familiar with. That did away...
