Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Is This Year’s Maligned Venice Biennale The New Globalism Frame?
It is a symptom of the fact that the whole system of art consumption and display otherwise feels itself deeply vulnerable to all kinds of other...
Subscriptions Now Come In Many Flavors. What’s Working?
Are subscriptions in free fall, and if so, what does that mean for the continuing health of theatres? Are subscriptions still a viable model,...
Inside Student Life At The Curtis Institute Of Music
Even among conservatories, it is exceptional, with a wide age range — from preadolescence to post-baccalaureate adulthood — and a personalized approach, of schedules...
Philadelphia’s University of the Arts Owns Important Downtown Buildings. Now What?
The collapse of a major art school, which has operated and invested in Center City since the 1800s, will also put a large real estate...
Why Do We Read News? Anxiety? Entertainment?
How do the reasons we read the news line up with the reasons we say we read news? Do we claim dedication to noble civic virtues...
Big Shift In Popularity Of Giant Music Festivals
Events like Lovers & Friends, with big R&B names from decades past, sell out immediately while Coachella sales plummet. - The Guardian
The Delicate Politics Of Firing Your Funder
Under pressure from activists, both Hay and the Edinburgh international book festival have sacked their main sponsor, the investment fund Baillie Gifford, blowing a...
Is Queen’s Song Catalog Really Worth $1 Billion?
If the group achieve the $1 billion price tag, it will be the biggest deal of its kind, surpassing the $500 million (£393 million)...
NY Times Sues Worldle Over Its Wordle-Sounding Name
The creator of Worldle is vowing to fight back on the grounds that there are many other games with similar titles. “There's a whole...
The Orchestra Messiah?
His Decca recordings of Sibelius and Stravinsky are unconvincing — ceviche in patches, if not totally raw. His live concerts are perhaps more exciting,...
Time To Ban Smartphones In Schools
Children do not use cellular technology; the technology uses our children—by monetizing their data and converting their attention into advertising revenue. - The Walrus
The Pitfalls Of Today’s Movie Criticism
The biggest flaw for film writers, I began to realize, was that often writers are told to draft superfluous articles about celebrities to satisfy...
Be Prepared: A Weird Summer For Movies
Last weekend’s failures may mark the beginning of an unusual summer packed with Pyrrhic victories and well-reviewed but overlooked projects. Still, a bad Memorial...
Alternatives to Higher Education Are Proliferating
"Programs that address this discontent exhibit a remarkably consistent set of characteristics. They are interdisciplinary, integrating methods and perspectives—from, say, engineering and the social...
Canada’s Film Industry Is Struggling To Survive
Because despite success at Cannes — and a few unforgettable notes at the Oscars — Canadian films and filmmakers still make up a small sliver of...
The False Gods Of AI
Computers might in fact approach what we call thinking, but they don’t dream, or want, or desire, and this matters more than AI’s proponents...
How Hollywood Got Trapped In A Doom Loop
Turns out Hollywood executives do believe in magic. Somehow they thought that forcing six months’ worth of strikes by writers and actors last year would come...
The Brilliant Art Of Being A Critic: Peter Schjeldahl
Peter’s prose was always ruthlessly concentrated. His wit had a bubbling, organic quality: The line punched, but you never heard the clanking windup machinery....
Ticketmaster Was Hacked, Exposing 560 Million Accounts
According to a screenshot of the post shared by Mr. Callow, the group posted that it had the identifying information of 560 million Ticketmaster...
Tokyo To Get Its Own High Line Park
The project is part of a global trend of repurposing old roads and railways into places for pedestrians and wildlife. While the skywalk won’t...
A New Generation Of Online Culture Curators
We are in a transitional phase of digital culture, and thus more in need than ever of friendly faces, personable human guides to help...
How Artists Go From Unknown To Famous
Hugo McCloud, 44, offers a recent case study of one path from obscurity to recognition. In just over a decade, he had gone from...
Study: Links Between Conservative Political Viewpoints And Creativity
A new study reveals that conservatism is associated with less creativity, across 28 countries. - Psychology Today
Massive Copyright Lawsuit Over 1000 Reggaeton Songs Moves Forward
A federal judge has denied the motion to dismiss a massive copyright lawsuit targeting over a 1,000 reggaeton songs from such globally recognized acts as Bad Bunny and J Balvin. -...
How Helen Vendler Pressed Meaning Into Poetry
Helen insisted that it was the poem’s shape—its form, the thing that made it look unlike any other type of utterance—that gave it meaning....
