Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Startling: Americans Without A College Degree Have Dramatically Lower Life Expectancy
For those without college degrees, life expectancy reached its peak around 2010 and has been falling since, an unfolding disaster that has attracted little attention...
New Owner Eliminates Half Of Bandcamp’s Employees
Half the staff at Bandcamp, the online music platform known for championing independent artists and labels, have been laid off following the recent purchase...
How We Determine Copyright Law Is An Existential Issue For AI
Legal experts told me that copyright challenges pose a near-existential threat to existing A.I. models if the way they’re being trained isn’t aboveboard. If...
The Internet Is Broken. Here’s How We Should Fix It
The internet is worth fighting for because despite all the misery, there’s still so much good to be found there. And yet, fixing online...
Study: Women Are Dramatically Underrepresented In Opera Companies
Men accounted for 95 percent of the conducting credits at the 11 largest American opera companies between 2005 and 2021. But men also dominated...
Don’t Believe Your Eyes: Suddenly All Our Photos Aren’t Real
As smartphones go, this integration of AI signals a new era, one created with tech that is intuitive to the kind of ferocious simulation...
How To Think About The Threats Of AI?
Maybe the nightmare about AI isn’t that it will go rogue and threaten our existence with lethal viruses. Maybe the likely endgame is similar...
Influencers And The Conflict Between Quality And Popularity
It’s the age-old problem of the relationship between the good and the popular. Plato saw the popular as the enemy of the good, but...
The Breakdancing Countertenor Explains the Aesthetic
"When I'm in my practice sessions with my breakdance crew, sometimes I put some classical instrumental music and I invite them to actually explore...
What Happened To San Francisco? Everyone’s Talking…
“We’re the first to see our downtown as impacted as it is, because when we said ‘Work from home,’ everyone just grabbed a laptop,...
Machines And Humans Are Merging. This Actually Isn’t Controversial
Bound together as parasite/host, neither people nor technologies can exist apart from the other because they are constitutive prostheses of each other. Such an...
Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Has Been A Financial Phenom. So How Much Money Are...
The biggest windfall is headed straight to Swift, who stands to make as much as $4.1 billion from the Eras Tour, according to estimates...
Google Joins Other Tech Companies To Say It Will Defend Generative AI Users From...
Google said on Thursday that it will defend users of generative artificial-intelligence systems in its Google Cloud and Workspace platforms if they are accused of...
English National Opera Plans To Cut Orchestra. Music Director Quits. ENO Responds
The statement comes hours after Martyn Brabbins said he could not “in all conscience continue to support the Board and Management’s strategy for the future of...
New Technologies Usually Arrive In Clusters. So What’s Coming With AI?
The potential — and hype — surrounding machine learning, artificial intelligence, and especially generative AI is everywhere. Some are predicting a full suite of...
Disney Is 100-Years-Old: Its Business Smarts Have Been Its Superpower
The business acumen of those behind the scenes at Disney have been central to the peaks and troughs of the company’s enduring presence in...
When Public Art Is Funded By Corporate Interests (Yes, There Are Issues)
While publicized as an investment in art and beautifying the city, the location, impact, and funding sources of these murals seem to correspond closely...
Why Disney Is Going All In On Sports Betting
Sports betting company Penn Entertainment will pay Disney $1.5 billion in cash while ESPN will receive warrants worth about $500 million to purchase shares...
What It Costs When A Big Concert Is Canceled
Generally speaking, a sudden cancellation could mean an arena loses out on roughly $500,000 in revenue, according to some estimates. For music’s largest shows—stadium...
The Lines Between Galleries And Museums Has Blurred
In an increasingly difficult fundraising climate, dealer involvement in museum shows has become ever more prevalent. This begs the question: are the works we...
The Movie “Oppenheimer” Versus The Opera “Dr. Atomic”: Is Opera Better At Ambiguity?
Is musical drama better suited than film to represent tragedy without manipulating its audience? - Van
Public Radio’s Largest Station Steps Back (A Bit) From Podcasts
Last week, 6 percent of New York Public Radio’s workforce was let go — with most of the cuts targeting its podcast vertical, WNYC...
Best Buy On The Leading Edge: Will (Finally) Stop Selling DVDs
“To state the obvious, the way we watch movies and TV shows is much different today than it was decades ago,” a Best Buy...
Coming To A Mall Near You: Bricks-And-Mortar Netflix Stores
The stores will sell merchandise based on hit Netflix shows, so you can finally snag that Lincoln Lawyer coffee mug you’ve always dreamed of. - Engadget
Robot Fido Scours Pompeii And Finds Work As Tour Guide
After Learning to Paint and Patrolling the Ruins of Pompeii, a Robot Dog Is Helping Humans Visit an Abandoned Monument in a State of...
