Contact

EMAIL: Douglas McLennan, Editor artsbeat@artsjournal.com

Read the story in

‘YES! I Have Wanted This Book for Years …’
‘Publishing event of the year for me.’ — zanntone, via Twitter Via Twitter Moloko’s extended facsimile reprint of the original. ... read more
AJBlog: Straight|UpPublished 2019-08-23
The land is bright
National Review has published a symposium in its latest issue called What We Love About America. The thirty-one contributors include Richard Brookhiser, Joseph Epstein, ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-23
Replay: an interview with Aldous Huxley
Aldous Huxley, the author of Brave New World, is interviewed by John Lehmann on Monitor, originally telecast by the BBC on October 12, 1958: (This is ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-23
Almanac: Artie Shaw on the meaning of life
“I think we are to God, if there is such a thing, like a microscopic cell in the left toenail of Garry Kasparov in the ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-22
The “Times Change” Excuse for Past Antiquities Misdeeds: Kapoor/Metropolitan Museum Edition
“Times Change” is a time-dishonored argument for justifying moral lapses, whether they’re #MeToo transgressions (Plácido Domingo version) or retention of antiquities that were likely looted ... read more
AJBlog: CultureGrrlPublished 2019-08-22
So you want to see a show?
Here’s my list of recommended Broadway, off-Broadway, and out-of-town shows, updated weekly. In all cases, I gave these shows favorable reviews (if sometimes qualifiedly ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-22
Almanac: Ronald Knox on ambivalence
“I’ve now reached the stage of being in two minds about whether one ought to be in two minds about things or not; and an ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-22
P.P.C.
I forgot to mention it on Monday, but I just started a two-week holiday from my duties as drama critic of The Wall Street Journal. ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-21
Snapshot: Britten’s First String Quartet
The Escher String Quartet plays the first movement of Benjamin Britten’s First Quartet, composed in 1941: (This is the latest in a series of ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-21
Almanac: Lennox Berkeley on artistic originality
“True originality in an artist does not consist in his being peculiar, but in his being peculiar to himself.” Lennox Berkeley, “Britten and His String ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-21
Relationships Checkup
Some time ago, while discussing relationship maintenance, a student of mine shared with her training group a practice she employed to keep community relationships ... read more
AJBlog: Engaging MattersPublished 2019-08-20
Lookback: a biographer makes last-minute fixes
From 2009: Pops: A Life of Louis Armstrong, which comes out in December, is about to go to the printer. This means that I still ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-20
Almanac: Ronald Knox on the devil today
“It is so stupid of modern civilization to have given up believing in the devil, when he is the only explanation of it.” Ronald Knox, Let ... read more
AJBlog: About Last NightPublished 2019-08-20