Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Just Why Are “Fans” Throwing Things At Performers This Summer?
Collective action by fans can create a sense of "belonging" within their community and lets them "express their identity". "However, I think something is...
Why Pop Music Today Doesn’t Resonate?
The music of today has grown up on the internet rather than adapting to it. Instead of using the infinite archive to show superior,...
Disturbing New Trend: Concert Performers Are Being Hit With Objects Thrown By Audience Members
In the latest bout of singers being pelted by concert fans, the country star Kelsea Ballerini was hit in the face by a bracelet thrown...
Blockbuster No More? “Indiana Jones” Struggles To $60 Million Opening Weekend Box Office
The film, reportedly budgeted north of $250 million, came in on the lower end of projections with $60 million in ticket sales from 4,600...
The Idea Of “Nature” Is A Human Invention
The ideal of nature as it used to be before human intervention and before we introduced what we now call “invasive species” is one...
Music Streaming Is Collapsing On Itself. The Music Industry Is At An Inflection Point
The music industry is at a tipping point. There is still time for the creators and businesses within it to help shape what comes...
Why Canada’s New Media Deal With Online Platforms Isn’t Good News
I was part of an Australian research team that wanted to understand how Google and Meta were able to have such different responses to...
Virginia Johnson’s Groundbreaking Career
“I wanted to continue the way that Arthur Mitchell had started Dance Theatre of Harlem, and show how diverse ballet could be as an...
And Another Theatre! Chicago’s LookingGlass Theatre Lays Off Staff, “Pauses” Productions
The ensemble-driven theater, founded by a close-knit group of Northwestern University classmates and friends in 1988, famously has produced original work for the last...
Beloved DC Theatre Leader Dies
In its nearly half-century as a fixture on the region’s vibrant theater scene — GALA (short for Grupo de Artistas Latinoamericanos) orbited around Hugo’s...
Controversy Over Translation At The British Museum
As momentum grows behind the criticism of the museum, it is a good time for all of us to consider how we value and...
Why Canada Is Aggressively Growing
Canada’s zeal for greater population inflows is matched by its determination to recruit the best and the brightest en masse. The country’s points-based immigration...
Trisha Brown Dance Gets A New Director
Most recently, Kristin Kapustik served as the Executive Director for six years at The House Foundation for the Arts, Inc, a nonprofit that produces...
The Culture Bubble Has Popped
The present contraction has not only slowed down the cultural assembly line but also led to the erasure of the product itself. The issue...
25 Years Ago, This Critic Made Some Literary Predictions. He Revisits.
How do those books and authors strike me now? For one thing, that mini pantheon makes clear why old-fashioned literary histories employed phrases like...
The Great Tchaikovsky Competition, Much Diminished By Russia’s War
As the storied competition unfolds this month for the first time since Russia invaded Ukraine and became a pariah in the West, it is...
TV Game Shows Are Still Thriving. Why?
Game shows offer two big benefits for executives: They are one of the least expensive programs to create, in part because many episodes can...
Want Happiness? Compete To Be An Also-Ran
Fortunately, there is a formula to solve this problem without unrealistically suggesting that we dispense entirely with our competitive urge: Instead of always going...
Chicago Reconsiders Its Public Monuments
So much for those romanticized images of noble Native Americans blissfully welcoming their European plunderers. Or, alternatively, attacking them. - Chicago Reader
Virginia Johnson Joined Dance Theatre Of Harlem In 1969 As A Dancer. Now She’s...
"Those early years of Dance Theatre of Harlem were extremely — it was a lean time for us. It was a small company. We...
New Canadian Literary Press Launches
The press, which is entirely self-funded, at least for the time being, will focus on literary fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. - Toronto Star
Study: Intelligent People Take Longer To Solve Tough Problems
The study showed that "while people with higher intelligence scores solved the easy problems quicker, they took longer to solve the difficult ones, apparently...
History Told Through Families Rather Than -isms
Readers interested in isms—feudalism, imperialism, capitalism, etc.—won’t find these subjects explicitly discussed. Rather, the author addresses the faceless structures of human existence by writing about...
Life Lessons From A Musician Turned Cognitive Scientist
We can learn to anchor our identities not to what we do – but to why we do it. Thinking of our identities in this...
Studies Point To Health Benefits Of Singing With Others
The study, which enrolled 192, is part of a growing body of research that points to the physical and mental health benefits of singing...
