Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Why Facts Mostly Don’t Change People’s Minds
For many people, a challenge to their worldview feels like an attack on their personal identity and can cause them to harden their position....
Dances With Chairs: How A Wheelchair Artist Conquered Australian Stages
One day a dance tutor, Catherine Chappell, came to show the children a video about “mixed ability” dance. She invited Rodney Bell to play harmonica...
Gen Z Dilemma: What Actually Is A Healthy Relationship With Social Media?
Because young people have grown up with online communities, they have a more inextricable relationship with platforms and their identities. This changes the idea...
The Publishing Eco-System Is Consolidating, Narrowing What Americans Read
The Justice Department argues that the resulting merged company would control close to half of the best-seller market, continuing a longer history of publisher...
Salman Rushdie Attacked On Stage
An Associated Press reporter witnessed a man storm the stage at the Chautauqua Institution and begin punching or stabbing Rushdie as he was being...
Steve Martin Is Busier Than Ever. Retirement?
What these projects have in common — and what distinguishes them from Martin’s early days as the only guy onstage — is that he...
Disney Passes Netflix In Number Of Subscribers
Disney’s numbers include Disney+ (152M), ESPN+ (22.8M) and Hulu total, including Live TV, at (46.2M). - Deadline
Our Ever-Evolving Definitions Of What’s Obscene
Many words we consider, at best, crude were medieval common-or-garden words of description and were not considered obscene. To say ‘I’m going to piss’...
Why The Role Of Poet Critics Is Different From Other Critics
Most often the role of the poet-critic is neither to delineate nor disseminate, but rather to illuminate. In such manner the main subject of...
Does Life Have A Purpose?
There is no controversy in saying that a single organism wants to remain alive. Even bacteria purposefully move toward where there is more sugar....
Ah, Soviet Architecture. How Stylish! Stalin’s Architect Had To Make Compromises (You Think?)
Rather than not build at all, he was prepared to build what the dictator demanded of him. As a result, Boris Iofan is now...
Streaming Services Are Consolidating Or “Rebundling.” Maybe Not A Good Idea
We live in an age when identity is intimately tied to cultural consumption. Trying to be everything to all people is a risky strategy...
Spotify Starts Selling Concert Tickets With Its Playlists
The site lists gigs that are available to book on the home page, and under the My events section, users can see their past...
Pew Study: Teen Social Media Use Has Doubled Since 2015
The share of 13- to 17-year-olds who say they're "almost constantly" online has nearly doubled, from 24% in 2014-15 to 46% today. Among Black...
A UK Band Dishes On Its Farcical Post-Brexit Problems Playing A European Tour
Live performances can account for 90%-95% of a band’s income, according to Help Musicians, but Brexit has cut into one of their most important...
Post-Modernist Wong Turn? Maybe We Need To Redefine Reality…
Postmodern ideas have gained the status of absolute truths. Relativism, selectively appropriated into the language of both left and right politics, has metamorphosed into...
How “Effective Altruism” Grew From A Movement Into A Lucrative Business
It’s safe to say that effective altruism is no longer the small, eclectic club of philosophers, charity researchers, and do-gooders it was just a...
Just In: A New Theatre Season That Exhibits All The Current Trends
"This playwright read a Wikipedia page that mentioned a fascinating historical incident wherein Benedict Arnold and Frank Sinatra spent a night at the same...
Cox Media Buys News Startup Axios For $525 Million
The deal offers a rare flicker of hope for the digital publishing sector, which has been fraught with difficulty for investors and operators over...
Canada’s New Online News Act Builds On Australia’s And Could Be A Model For...
The Canadian code probably won’t have a material financial impact on these platforms, but countries learning from each other, improving on the model, and...
Artists Will Get Resale Fees Under New Canadian Copyright Law
Painters, sculptors and other visual artists stand to get a payout when their work is resold at auction and by galleries, in a government...
John Harbison: My Life In Music
"I identify much more as a composer. A couple of times, I backed away from conducting for a while. I felt it’s not a...
The Line Between Art And Propaganda Sometimes Isn’t Easy To See
Values are promoted through cultural strategies where buzzwords chime loudly. Terms like networking, collaboration, common good, connection and cooperation promote an ever-closer union with...
Why People Are Attracted To The Density Of Urban Living
Rubbing shoulders with strangers is considered both a pleasure and a pain of urban life. Density can be an endless source of social possibility,...
Does Social Media Negate The Wisdom Of Crowds?
Here’s the thing about the wisdom of crowds – it only applies when those individual decisions are reached independently. Once we start influencing each...
