Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The Power Of Music To Drive TikTok Memes
Though TikTok didn’t invent the audio meme, its effortless interface may have perfected it, and the platform, which recently ended Google’s 15-year-long run as...
Argentine Prosecutors Link Placido Domingo To Criminal Gang
Numerous broadcast channels in Latin America have been airing excerpts of audio recordings, obtained by wiretap, that include the voice of a man whom authorities claim...
The Unexpurgated Darwin — Lost Notebooks Reveal His Thinking
For academics, the uncooked contents of the notebooks represent some of the liveliest writing in biology. “A lot of Darwin’s prose feels quite Victorian....
The Internet Has Become A Giant Whataboutism Chamber
Attention is finite, the record of how we spend it public, and it is easy enough to check if somebody who tweets every day...
Publishing’s Blockbuster Merger Trial Is Turning Out To Be Something Of A Circus
The spectacle has been curiously entertaining. Publishing executives have had to initiate federal employees into a dialect of “backlists,” “advance copies,” and “BookTok influencers.”...
Why Streaming Services Are Adding Ads
But ads are coming back because streamers have more info about our consumption habits than the cable companies or networks ever did, so the...
UK Literary Festivals Are Back. But…
“The mood music seemed that ‘leisure’ activities had to be jettisoned due to the already felt increased cost of fuel/food, and there was a...
Mounting Evidence? People Are Stopping Listening To Music
For the last few years, I have felt the inescapable disappearance of music from my friends’ lives. Even people with whom I have longstanding...
Seattle’s Arts After The Pandemic: Reckoning Or Opportunity?
In the ’80s and ’90s the arts were ascendant here, and Seattle was well regarded nationally as an up and coming arts town. Then...
Performers Were Among The Hardest Hit In The Pandemic. Recovery Is Slow
During the worst days of lockdown, some artists who couldn’t afford rent squatted in empty theaters to save money. Others left the art world...
Carl Sagan’s Warning On The Dumbing Down Of America
“The dumbing down of American is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, but especially a kind...
Can Theatre Make Any Impact In The Abortion Debate?
When faced with a loss of human rights—with accounts of real women being forced to bleed out because they cannot get an abortion for...
A Warhol Copyright Case With Potential Big Implications For Artists
On Oct. 12, the justices will consider whether he violated the federal Copyright Act by basing a portrait of the musician Prince on a...
Evidence Howard Carter Stole Some Of King Tut’s Treasure
An accusation that Carter handled property “undoubtedly stolen from the tomb” has emerged in a previously unpublished letter sent to him in 1934 by...
What Kids Learn From Play (And We Don’t Have To Teach Them About)
If you are a kid, it is your job to get inside a cardboard box from time to time and pretend it is a train. It...
Seattle’s ACT Theatre Board Has Resigned En Masse (No, It’s A Good Thing)
“The question we asked most pointedly was: ‘If you can do this all over again, what would you have done differently? And the outcome...
Fifty Years Late, Motion Pictures Academy Apologizes To Native American Actress
Almost 50 years after she was booed on the Oscars stage for declining Marlon Brando's award on his behalf in protest at the film...
The TikTok Music Phenomenon
The world’s biggest new social media platform hasn’t just propelled thousands of its users to viral stardom, it’s also provided huge momentum for...
Indigenous Musicians Are Getting Attention For New Experimental Music
A loose confederation of Indigenous artists is finding a wider audience by working at the fringes of modern music. These musicians and many of their...
Why Storytelling Is A Critical Part Of Good Medicine
“Yes, it’s important to examine people, but you work out what’s going on from the stories. And if people know you and trust you,...
Might The Next Blockbuster Movie Be Based On NFTs?
The question is simple: Is it possible for a show based on NFTs to cross over to a mainstream audience that may not even...
A Salzburg Festival That Portends The State Of The World
It is a telling bit of weakness as Salzburg faces renewed competition, especially from the growing Aix-en-Provence Festival in France — and even from the likes...
McWhorter: Cancel? Let’s Just Acknowledge Missteps And Move On
We should be able to evaluate various figures, past and present, by noting their indecorous or hateful views and continuing to appreciate, even celebrate,...
What It Takes To Be A Conductor
“I didn’t know this when I started down this path, but leadership, charisma, group psychology and the ability to motivate people and manage egos...
Edinburgh Fringe Cancels Comedian After He Made Audience “Uncomfortable”
Jerry Sadowitz, 61, an American-born Scot, is a veteran of the Fringe and known for his provocative stand-up shows. The venue said it received...
