Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Just What Was Behind The Popularity Of Barbenheimer?
Apart from being the latest works by beloved writer-directors, there is one quality that Barbie and Oppenheimer share, which is that they’re both movies of ideas: not just...
What’s Behind Our Addiction To DuoLingo?
It’s far from clear we’re getting anything from Duolingo’s purported speed. I’m not even sure it’s fun anymore. And there are quicker ways to not learn...
The War Has Galvanized Ukraine’s Culture
The fight against the urge to let hatred win can be seen playing out on the front lines—but also in homes, in institutions, and...
Sonny Rollins, Omnivore
To be able to make creativity and invention sound “natural,” one needs an avid, almost greedy urge to absorb anything—and everything—that is out there. -...
How Five Days Of Russian TV Can Warp Your Brain
The first thing you notice when you switch on Russian TV is its totemic fascination with the swastika, which regularly appears on one of...
Story Ballets Are Still Popular (But Problematic). So How To Fix Narrative Dance?
“There are no mothers-in-law in ballet”, George Balanchine, who dominated American ballet throughout the twentieth century, liked to say: dance, he believed, is not...
How Our Digital Devices Killed Literary Fiction
Are you reading this on your phone, swiping up the paragraphs, swipe, swipe, swipe, wondering how far you're going to have to swipe to actually finish this...
Mindfulness Is Overrated. Escapism, On The Other Hand…
Meditating and other forms of mindfulness offer a metaphysical escapism that lets you pretend for a while that you are no more than an...
Eight Ways Taylor Swift Has Changed The Music Business
She’s an advocate, a style icon, a marketing wiz, a prolific songwriter, a pusher of visual boundaries and a record-breaking road warrior. And she...
Write For Free? An Existential Question
At a moment of upheaval in the arts, the suggestion that writing’s value may simply be intrinsic—a creative act worth less than the website...
An Encouraging Weekend At The Movie Box Office
“Barbie” ended up with $162 million in its first weekend of release, above Sunday’s already record-breaking estimate of $155 million. "Oppenheimer,” too, beat expectations with $82.4...
A Crisis In The Avant Garde (Or, Where Are The Provocateurs?)
What’s to blame for the lack of a coherent movement? If the avant-garde is dead, what killed it — and what’s been lost along...
Why (Despite Repeated Attempts) Books Can’t Be Disrupted By Technology
One reason books haven’t been particularly disruptable might be that many of the people looking to “fix” things couldn’t actually articulate what was broken—whether...
Odesa Cathedral Hit By Russian Missiles
This was the second time that the vast, sand-yellow Transfiguration Cathedral, which sits in the heart of Odesa’s Unesco-listed historic centre, had been attacked:...
End Of An Era: Yoko Ono Moves Out Of The Dakota And NYC
After a half century Ms. Ono has moved out of New York City to the sprawling Catskills farm she bought with Mr. Lennon in 1978....
“Sustainability” Festival Canceled After Being Unmasked As Conspiracy Theories Event
The Think Local Festival, which promised attendees the chance to “discover the roots and taste of tradition,” was due to be held on Wednesday...
Master Of The Universe: An Epic NYer Profile Of Larry Gagosian
Traditionally, the model for dealers has been to bet on raw talents, and support these artists until work by some of them sells well...
Why Presidents In The Movies Always Look Young
On screen we want our romantic leads flawless, our sitcom families lower middle-class but quirky, and our presidents capable of single-handedly killing terrorists and...
Scientists Develop Whitest Paint Ever (It Can Cool Surfaces)
“We weren’t really trying to develop the world’s whitest paint. We wanted to help with climate change, and now it’s more of a crisis,...
How Writers For TV Became Just Another Cog In The Machine
Over time “you get this tiered work force of prestige workers and lesser workers” — fewer officers, more grunts. The writers’ experience shows how...
Dallas Arts Leaders Say They Need Significant Help From City, Not Just Token Support
Arts leaders say the city is treating the needs of cultural institutions like paper cuts, when the issues they’re facing are more like bleeding,...
Study: Turns Out There Are Effective Strategies To Counter Bullshit
Turns out, the interventions do help. Reminders to think about accuracy, tips on digital literacy, and effective crowd-sourced accuracy ratings improve the information hygiene...
Reinventing Hubbard Street Dance For The Next Generation
Audience numbers had dropped off well before the pandemic, leaving some in the administration to question if they could continue to support a home...
Hollywood CEOs Have Fallen For Tech’s “Magical Thinking”
It’s not, ultimately, technology that’s at the root of the problem. It’s that the studio executives both new and old have embraced the powerful...
A Vanishingly Small Number Of International Plays Are Produced In The US. Why?
Theatre scenes in scores of countries around the world are every bit as sophisticated as ours in the U.S. (and in many cases far...
