Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
For Writers, Failure Has Increased Exponentially. Failure Now Defines The Writing Life
I’ve known writers who used to submit, literally, the manuscript of a work. It might loiter for six months in some publisher’s office before...
The #MeToo Hollywood Music Problem And How Women Are Trying To Fix It
Music is a sphere where young performers and composers tend to look to their teachers and bosses as mentors. This can give rise to...
How Abstract Art Is Related To Music
The deliberate attempt to emulate music culminated in the works of abstract artists like Kandinsky, where colours and shapes, devoid of representational contents, are...
How ChatGPT Is Like A Blurry JPEG
Think of ChatGPT as a blurry jpeg of all the text on the Web. It retains much of the information on the Web, in the same...
The Strategy Behind Selling Si Newhouse’s $150 Million Art Collection
“Si collected Johns in depth, but can we sell more than 10 Johns for $10 million apiece all at once? Absolutely not. So instead...
Morality: So What If Humans Go Extinct?
What does it matter if Homo sapiens no longer exists? The astonishing fact is that, despite acquiring the ability to annihilate ourselves back in the 1950s,...
An Algorithm For A Fandom Site? Makes No Sense
AO3 is one of the biggest fan fiction sites today. It’s an open source, multi-fandom archive for transformative fanworks that, as of January 2023,...
King Charles Taps Andrew Lloyd Webber For Coronation Music
Lord Lloyd-Webber said he wanted his new coronation anthem to reflect a "joyful occasion". A gospel choir will sing and there will be Greek...
Why Millennials Are In To New Age Music
As my generation grew up, new age seemed a bit like a lost world—a faerie realm we were promised but never got to go...
The Key To Happiness? Low Expectations
High expectations aren’t always a bad thing. But if you’re finding yourself flooded with disappointment more often than you’d like, you might consider the...
A History Of The Game “Monopoly”: Meant To Critique Capitalism But Turned In to...
There have now been more than a thousand versions of Monopoly, based not only on different cities but on properties such as “The Big...
BBC Relaxes Dress Code For Presenters: Sweaty Is More Authentic
“It’s a bit like, be as sweaty and dirty as when we’re in the field is actually more trustworthy than if we look like...
Time To Rethink The Meaning Of Indigenous?
Today, nearly half a billion people qualify as Indigenous. If they were a single country, it would be the world’s third most populous, behind...
Understanding The Wonder That Is BookTok
Although the Barnes & Noble event caters to fans of romance and fantasy, BookTok is vast and multifarious. The community is a constellation of...
Conspiracy Theories: Toxic Influence Or The Price Of Democracy?
If great masses of people maintain a certain belief over long periods of time, one can be fairly sure that there is something in...
Is This Painting A Raphael Or Not?
What began with a chance discovery turned into a quest that consumed Mr. Ayers for decades. He managed to discover a great deal about...
How The Mythologies Of UFOs Color Our View Of Government
A recent edited collection of essays by leading ufologists notes that, some seventy-five years after the alleged Roswell crash, we arguably know no more...
The Limitations Of Our One-Dimensional Schooling
In the consumerist world, the difference between true and false needs vanishes—we become convinced that ultimate fulfillment can be found in our next luxury...
How Harry Styles Caught Our Collective Mood
Harry’s House is simply just fun pop music at the perfect time. We are coming out of a pandemic and are in a cost...
US Movie Releases Are No Longer Necessary For International Success
The U.S. theatrical market is no longer always an accurate model. Certain genres, particularly action and thriller, tend to out-perform globally — there’s a...
Are Theatre Creators Being Shut Out Of Credit?
Today, a de-emphasis on the authors and director seems more common within theatre marketing – a far cry from the days when contractual language...
What Membership Data Say About Health Of Public Media
Median Membership Revenue for the three-month period from October through December is down 0.6% year-over-year. TV and joint-licensee stations saw a decrease of 0.7% in membership...
Alex Ross: Being Realistic About Dudamel
Unlike its future-oriented counterpart on the West Coast, the New York Philharmonic is always looking back to its glory days under Mahler, Toscanini, Bernstein,...
The Hammer Museum’s Building Transformation Has Taken 24 Years
After a 24-year renovation and expansion and a $180m capital campaign (of which $156m has been raised), the Hammer has announced 26 March as...
How Google Lost Its Creative Edge
Google was incredibly insecure—always was, and still is. The company, which had toppled a market leader by building better technology, is haunted by the...
