Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
NPR Quits Twitter
“At this point I have lost my faith in the decision-making at Twitter,” said NPR CEO John Lansing in an article posted on NPR’s website....
The Ultimate LA Books
How can we know if nobody reads and, just maybe, resurrects them? Obscurity doesn’t necessarily mean inferiority. - Los Angeles Times
Is This The Most Important Opera Of Our Time?
“I’m absolutely sure that this is one of the most important works of our time,” says Susanna Mälkki, who conducted that premiere with the London...
New Zealand Arts Education Collapsing
A new national report reveals that achievement levels for primary-aged learners in dance, drama, music and visual arts have plunged compared to 2015 scores. - The Big Idea
Citing Its Own WWII Experience, Poland Helps Lead Efforts To Save Ukraine Culture
“It’s equally important to preserve their cultural heritage, because this is their identity,” Kubicki said, “This is how they remain Ukrainians—who they are.” -...
Missouri House Of Representatives Votes To Eliminate Funding For Public Libraries
Missouri House Republicans voted to defund all of the state’s public libraries, in a proposed $45.6 billion state budget that will soon move to...
Why Complex Systems Are Weaker Than Simple Networks
Recall the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back. A straw is a very small thing, it weighs almost nothing, but it can bring...
Fans’ Loud Singalong Halts Theatre Performance
A rowdy singalong by audience members has halted a performance of The Bodyguard. Singer Melody Thornton was unable to complete her rendition of I...
Broadway Box Office Bumps Up
Attendance for the week ending April 9 was 280,760, up 4%. The more modest jump in attendance left ticket prices to do some heavy...
Did These Four Women Change Classical Music?
Leah Broad paints vivid, at times over-imagined, pictures of all four women and the worlds in which they lived and worked. She deftly interweaves...
Santa Fe Center For Contemporary Arts Shuts Down
A press release announcing the closure and local media coverage cited pandemic mandates and protocols, changing models of film distribution and consumption, and long-standing...
Diversity Of The Ancient Classics
To suggest the Classical inheritance is monocultural, or “pale, male and stale”, is to do a disservice to the patchwork of cultures, backgrounds, outlooks...
Were The 20th Century Modernists Really So Radical?
In fairness, Schoenberg never pretended that he was out to smash the system — maintaining, to the end of his life, that art was...
The Value Of “Splendid Uselessness”
The real project of humanity – of understanding ourselves as human beings, making a good world to live in, and striving together toward mutual...
The Next Step In Broadening The Classical Music Canon
Something critical is getting overlooked amid the fervor with which classical music claims its new sense of conscience: the artistic value of the works...
Why Williamstown Theatre Festival Is Throttling Back Its Productions This Summer
The reason for the absence of theater amounts to what is essentially a public atonement for how the festival treated interns, apprentices and other...
UNESCO Chief Pledges To Help Rebuild Ukraine Culture
“in order to rebuild but also to redress the situation, it will be necessary to invest $6.9bn in the cultural sector in Ukraine over...
The Internet Archive Publishing Ruling That Will Change How Libraries Work
The judge wrote that the IA had simply “copied the Works in Suit wholesale for no transformative purpose and created ebooks that … competed directly...
How Governments Are Using Science Fiction To Predict Potential Threats
Not only can science fiction help us imagine a future shaped by new technologies, but it can also help us learn lessons about potential threats....
The Mystery Of Who Attacked Jascha Heifetz 70 Years Ago
Seventy years later, the man who attacked Jascha Heifetz has not been identified. A faction called Han oar Haivri (or Hebrew Youth), later linked...
Something To Consider: A Post-Human Economy
One estimate is that 99.9% of internet content will be AI-generated by 2030. The future, in other words, will be by bots and for bots....
Scientists: Human Memory Can Be Unreliable Almost Immediately
Scientists exploring our ability to recall shapes say people can make mistakes after just a few seconds – a phenomenon the team have called...
How Hip Hop Influenced Visual Art
Modern art was profoundly affected by jazz. You can see its influence not only on American artists such as Romare Bearden, Robert Colescott and Bob...
NPR Says It Will No Longer Tweet After Twitter Designated It “State-affiliated Media.”
While it remains unclear why the “Chief Twit” suddenly decided to place NPR in the same category as Chinese and Russian government propaganda, Musk reacted with an...
AI-Created Pop Culture Is Already Among Us
This idea of “illusory realism” struck me as apt. The A.I. content has the appearance of realism, without actual reality—reality solely as a style....
