Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s 1988 Manifesto For The Musical Theatre
Through Phantom, Lloyd Webber presented an argument for the destiny of musical theater itself. The operatic tradition had always been divided over the relationship between music...
Apple’s Turn To Address Classical Music Meta-data
The problem was the way that classical music is categorized. The structure of classical music is completely different from pop music’s, which makes it...
What Archaeologists Are Learning About Notre Dame After The Fire
Allowed to delve into the structure’s innards as never before during the ensuing reconstruction (which is set to finish in 2024), a team of...
Publishers Versus Libraries Versus Readers Of Digital Books
After a brutal decline following the Great Recession, print-book sales are up 33 percent in the past 10 years. If the high costs and complexity of...
Trump Claims A Song Featuring Him Is Topping The Charts. Is It Really?
“The J6 is beating Taylor Swift,” Trump told Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday, two days after the rally. “It’s Donald Trump and the...
That Time A Couple Walked Into A Gallery… And Stole A DeKooning
In 1985, a couple walked into an art gallery on the campus of the University of Arizona and left 15 minutes later with a...
Canadian Actors Union Calls For Boycotts
The Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television and Radio Artists has turned to shaming brands including Rogers and Walmart as it seeks higher pay, protections...
Shape-Shifting Genre-Busting Stories
The question of where a story should begin and end is one that recurs throughout “White Cat, Black Dog,” and is part of what...
Why We’re Fascinated By Fortunetellers
These accusations of harmful magic were often combined with the suspicion that fortunetellers were frauds taking advantage of popular credulity. In the 17th and...
Why I Want To Believe In Coincidences
There is a part of me that, despite myself, wants to entertain the possibility that the world really does have supernatural dimensions. I don’t believe the Universe contains...
Agatha Christie Is The Latest Target Of Sensitivity Readers
Poirot and Miss Marple mysteries written between 1920 and 1976 have had passages reworked or removed in new editions published by HarperCollins to strip...
The Weird Way Rare Books Are Catalogued
Learning how to catalogue properly is an essential part of bookselling, though exactly what constitutes “properly” will change depending on who you ask. - LitHub
We Worked On “Phantom” For 35 Years
For a lot of us, we started out doing this young. And our lives have changed. It’s like watching a child grow up. I...
The Art Of Remaking (Reimagining?) A Classic Video Game
Several developers behind horror games described their task like choreography, requiring precise timing and deft choices to deliver the terrifying experiences that players crave. -...
Thinking About Machines Being Self-Aware
Theory of mind helps us communicate with and understand one another; it allows us to enjoy literature and movies, play games and make sense...
Why Our Handwriting Is Getting Worse
“The bad handwriting specifically comes from I’m thinking too fast for my hand. I feel like being able to type as quickly as I’m...
Global Museum Attendance: Which Museums Have Recovered (And Those That Haven’t)
That 141 million is double the number we recorded last year, and nearly three times that of 2020. But there is still some way...
What Elephants Are Teaching A Neuroscientist About Music
Elephants tend to keep a steadier beat than humans do, a study by the neuroscientist Aniruddh Patel later found, and Luk Kop’s sense of...
How Public Radio Could Fill Gaps In Local News
With more staff, local public radio stations could help fill the information gap created by the decline of local newspapers. They could afford to...
Something’s Terribly Awry With The “Creator” Economy
For the past few years, social-media platforms have used creator funds to lure content creators from their rivals with the promise of money to...
Sorry, The Problem Isn’t Misinformation, It’s “Knowingness”
In 21st-century culture, knowingness is rampant. You see it in the conspiracy theorist who dismisses contrary evidence as a ‘false flag’ and in the...
Ibrahim X. Kendi: Changing The Definition Of An Intellectual
The traditional construct of the intellectual has produced and reinforced bigoted ideas of group hierarchy—the most anti-intellectual constructs existing. But this framing is crumbling,...
Met Museum Attendance Down By 1.7 Million In 2022
The Met was not alone among New York’s major institutions in experiencing a drop in attendance compared to 2019, with the Solomon R. Guggenheim...
Hong Kong’s New M+ Becomes One Of The Most Popular Museums In Asia
M+ reported 2,034,331 visitors for the whole of 2022, placing it 18th on our table of the world’s most visited art museums. If visitors...
Family Discovers Hidden Brueghel “Masterpiece” Behind Door In Their House
The family, who wishes to remain unknown, had asked Malo de Lussac of auctioneers Daguerre Val de Loire to estimate the value of their...
