Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
How Thelonius Monk Changed Music
Like his hero Duke Ellington, he had a gift for reconciling musical experiment with the immediacy of pop, finding freedom in the constraints of...
What Literary Criticism Is (And Isn’t) For
What is literary criticism — specifically, the kind of highly specialized, theoretically sophisticated textual readings generated by academic critics — really for? - The New...
Our Need For Constant Entertainment Has Ruined Everything
We have surrendered ourselves to our entertainment. We will become so distracted and dazed by our fictions that we’ll lose our sense of what...
Ukraine Ballet Comes To US
Some 60 dancers who fled the war make up The United Ukrainian Ballet. With help from local dance professionals and city officials, the company is...
UK Playwrights Protest Low Pay, Working Conditions
“Theatre is in danger of just being a museum piece – not current and not tackling the things that are going on right now...
Monterey Jazz Festival Head Steps Down After 30 Years
Tim Jackson co-presented the ’92 season with Jimmy Lyons, who launched the festival with San Francisco Chronicle columnist Ralph J. Gleason in 1958. By...
Why Are People Bullying Librarians?
In a comically transparent escalation of this anti-intellectual crusade, they are targeting libraries. Worse, they’ve embraced a characteristically cruel approach to doing so: bullying...
How Americans Lost Confidence In Journalism
When ratings drop, and with them advertising revenues, correspondents change, anchors change, coverage changes. News, especially but not only cable news, is curated for...
Facial Recognition Is Here To Stay At Entertainment Venues
Whereas Madison Square Garden is using face recognition to deny entry to people previously expelled from the venue—and certain lawyers—many stadium and entertainment center...
Museums Begin To Rethink Their Expensive Climate Control Practices
A growing awareness of the impact of those systems on the climate has led a number of major institutions to rethink their most fundamental...
Tracking Study: Women Still Remain Under-represented In The Music Industry
The Southern California Annenberg Inclusion Initiative report reveals that while the amount of women represented in Billboard’s year-end Hot 100 chart jumped 28.7% last...
Colleen Hoover Sold Tons Of Books. Then She Published A Coloring Book And It...
It Ends With Us is a book about domestic violence. Hoover detractors who say she romanticizes abuse had a new weapon in their arsenal: How...
How Wikipedia Distorts Indigenous History
Generally, U.S. history pages follow one strict interpretation of history written in the 1960s and ’70s, and most editors treat these matters as settled....
The People Who Have Been Marking Dickens’ Birthday Every Year Since 1905
The Toronto branch of the Dickens Fellowship, a group of dedicated Charles Dickens fans who have celebrated the birthday of the Immortal Boz annually...
Why We’re Fascinated By Unbuilt Buildings
Sometimes buildings are designed as a way to create prototypes and visionary schemes for the future – architects allowing their creativity to be unbounded...
Are The Language Wars Alienating Rather Than Including?
The flap over the French underscores the ongoing project to revise terminology in ways that are meant to be more inclusive — but which...
ChatGPT Reaches 100 Million Users – Fastest-Growing Digital Service In History
The report, citing data from analytics firm Similarweb, said an average of about 13 million unique visitors had used ChatGPT per day in January,...
Study: Public Radio’s Important Role In Local News
“Strengthening local public radio stations is a democratic imperative. With additional funding, public radio has the capacity to fill much of the gap in...
Tate Modern Neighbors Win Suit Over Museum’s Viewing Platform
The five residents had applied for an injunction requiring the gallery to prevent members of the public observing their flats by "cordoning off" parts...
How People Romanticize Their Childhoods
Considering the aspirations of so many people to return to it, you’d think the answer was a place, a spot in the world, with...
Why Pop Stars Are Selling Their Back Catalogs
For artists who are thinking about retirement, it’s a way to enjoy the fruits of their labour and create a pension for themselves. It...
How The Humble Tote Bag Became A Status Symbol
In the decades that followed, totes have grown from a journeyman staple to a ubiquitous literary trophy on the streets of many major cities...
San Francisco Symphony Contract Talks Escalate
“We, the musicians of the San Francisco Symphony, have been playing without a contract for months and are the only major American orchestra who...
LA’s Public Radio Station KPPC Rebrands After A Website It Acquired
The goal is to connect KPCC to the LAist’s presence online and in social media and in-person events. The rebrand for KPCC will be...
Australia’s New Cultural Policy Stokes Optimism
With $286 million in funding over five years, ‘there is a lot to like in the new cultural policy, restoring cuts made under Brandis,...
