Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra And The Role It Tries To Play
In the face of these vast geopolitical movements, and accompanying humanitarian catastrophe, you can’t help but consider the purpose and the impact of cultural...
Why Are We Attracted To Fear? (As Entertainment?)
Why do we do that—why do we crave small doses of terror? Why do we like “safe” fear? - The Believer
Why The Can Can Dancers In The Olympics Opening Ceremonies Couldn’t Couldn’t
"We were so dissapointed. It started to Rain just before the Can Can began. 10 seconds before you saw us. We were trying to...
Is Culture An Industry? It Doesn’t Work As An Argument
The policy discourse framing culture as an industrial sector, which became a trend in the 1980s, has not proven effective - for the economy,...
Podcasts: Where The Big Money Is
There are still nearly 450,000 active shows that have published recent episodes, according to Podcast Industry Insights. But the top 25 podcasts reach nearly...
This Year’s Booker Prize Longlist (Just What Critics Feared?)
In a development that might raise the hackles of those who criticized the now decade-old rule change that broadened eligibility for the prize, six are...
Fake Images Are Getting Harder To Spot. Here’s How To Tell What’s Real
Try it the next time you get a weird feeling about a photo. Just be sure not to focus on the wrong things. To...
Russia’s Artists Say Putin Regime Is Killing Russian Culture
Musicians, actors and writers who oppose the war are being hounded into exile or driven underground — while artists remaining in Russia are compelled...
Engineering Popularity of Music: Fans Are Getting Restless
There is a fundamental disconnect between what feels popular and what is statistically popular, which has contributed to this weird tension among pop fans....
How Kids Learn: Not All Screen Time Is Equal
Instead of worrying about the quantity of screen time that preschoolers engage in, the new guidelines suggest, parents should consider the quality of it....
Deadpool And Wolverine Has Biggest Box Office Weekend For An “R”-Rated Movie
The movie brought in $205 million in its first weekend domestically at the box office, according to Comscore estimates. It cost $200 million to...
How The Enrollment Industrial Complex Is Harming Higher Ed
“The concept is to award financial aid in a way that results in the maximum total amount of net tuition revenue for the institution.”...
A Performance Artist Steals A Coin From The British Museum. Is It Art?
The central focus of the project was the coin, its removal from its display and its deposition in a donation box at the museum....
What I Learned Memorizing A Poem A Day
Because the process is as simple as it is stultifying, memorizing a poem always begins as a crime. The tedium of repetition reduces the...
Remembering Lewis Lapham
His goal: “to ask questions, not to provide ready-made answers, to say, in effect, look at this, see how much more beautiful and strange...
Report: People Are Posting Less On Social Media
Billions of people access social media monthly, but users are posting less and favoring a more passive experience, surveys of users and research from...
The Woman Who Invented The Apple Dance
The dance was dreamt up by Kelley Heyer, a New York-based actor and content creator who decided to film herself making it up “on a...
What Orwell Would Have Thought About Cancel Culture
“Orwell would have been more disturbed by the mendacity of those claiming to have been canceled than he would have been by the decision...
“Brat” Summer And The Emptiness Of Zombie Publicity
Something about this “Brat” summer we’re living through gets me down — something about our eagerness to replace the seasons of our lives with...
Sonos CEO Admits Enormous Failure Of App Update
I am having trouble thinking of an app update fiasco large enough to compare it to this one, because in my time as a...
Leonard Slatkin At 80
Few currently active conductors have developed such a natural affinity with the recording studio. The independent producer Andrew Keener, who collaborated on his UK...
Study: Memory For Music Doesn’t Degrade With Age
Research has shown that many aspects of memory are affected by ageing, such as recall tasks that require real-time processing, whereas recognition tasks that rely...
Astonishing French Department Stores Changed Cities. Can We Learn From Them?
Inspired by opera houses, the grands magasins were astonishing spectacles, built on a pharaonic scale. A new exhibition in the French capital charts the golden age...
US House Fends Off Cuts To NEA, NEH Budgets
As of June 28, the House of Representatives has approved $203.9 million each to the NEA and the NEH, evenly distributing the Biden-Harris administration’s...
Musing On Dance And Addiction
A dancer's day is all about discipline, be that in relation to movement or intake (even healthy, appropriate eating: food is fuel etc). So...
