Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Another “What’s Killing Classical Music” Theory
It's really "the near-total inability of post-World War II America and Europe to produce more than a small number of classical works that any normal...
Publishing Is Afflicted With Groupthink
People in publishing are increasingly nervous of causing offence. I have been told that some books are being rejected not because the publishers don’t...
Can NFTs Stop Art Theft?
In theory, artists can indicate that a file containing their work, whether it is digital art or a reproduction of a physical piece, belongs...
The Ukrainian Dancers Dancing In Paris
“Before the war started we danced for our company and each dancer felt like they danced for themselves,” he says, “But now we are...
The Mindset Behind Censoring Others
The censor is convinced that “some forms of expression are so vile or dangerous that they should be restricted, or so valuable that they...
Old People Are Turning To TikTok To Redefine Aging
Many older people are turning to TikTok – best known as a playground for Gen Z – to reframe the experience of ageing and...
The Surprising Musical Inspiration That Led To Invention Of The Post-It Note
On April 6 1980, Post-it Notes as we know them hit the shelves, and a year later they were also launched in Canada and...
The “Scorched Earth” Option: San Antonio Symphony Board Goes For Broke (Literally)
In comments to TPR, Sebastian Lang-Lessing, the symphony's former music director, blasted the board's move as a scorched-earth solution. The maestro has led a behind-the-scenes...
Struggling With Creativity In A Time When Everyone Thinks Everything’s Creative
When I hear people in the corporate world talking about creativity and storytelling — how what they’re really doing is ‘telling a story,’ how everything is...
Acclaimed French Actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, 91
Trintignant received a number of accolades throughout his 60-plus-year career, including the best actor prize from Cannes in 1969 for Costa-Gavras’ political thriller Z and a...
Dumb Thieves Steal Million-Dollar Sculpture To Sell For Scrap Metal
Two suspects were apprehended on June 9 after investigators determined that the oblivious pair had peddled the art objects—weighing in at around 2,200 pounds...
Thieves Stole Metal Gates By An Iconic Northwest Sculptor To Melt Them Down. Now...
The Seattle Police Department, savvy to metal theft, one of the fastest-growing crimes in our region, quickly recovered the cut-up pieces of gate through...
Why It’s So Difficult To Repeat Productions Of New Operas
Most works of art don’t yield their secrets all at once. It takes time, and repeated exposure, before listeners have a good sense of...
Why Singers And Actors Often Don’t Get Treatment For Injured Voices
Voice disorders carry a stigma among performing artists. This has made performers hesitate to seek proper and timely medical help. - The Conversation
Stewart Brand, The Super Salesman
Brand, 83, is a huckster—one of the great hucksters in a time and place full of them. Over the course of his long life,...
Stradivarius Violin Sells For $15 Million
The violin, made in 1714 by master craftsman Antonio Stradivari, belonged to virtuoso Toscha Seidel, who not only used it on the score for...
Did Yoko Ono’s Celebrity Doom Her Art?
Like any artist, Ono wanted recognition, but she was never driven by a desire for wealth and fame. Whether she sought them or not,...
Is Spotify Just Not That Good A Business?
Questions about its profitability outlook often have been seen as keeping a lid on its stock. - The Hollywood Reporter
It’s The Purity Of Ideology That Gets In The Way
The quest for purity informs cancel culture. It pushes partisans to ever-greater extremes, even when those positions are politically self-defeating. It turns historical heroes...
Why Is The Entertainment Industry Obsessed With Pre-existing Content?
Today’s entertainment marketplace is defined by its faith in the limitless potential of preëxisting intellectual property. There are sprawling franchises. There are reboots, dark...
What Radio Hosts Bring To Classical Music
Throughout the country, radio hosts play a key role in bringing classical music into the everyday lives of listeners and connecting them to the...
This String Quartet’s Board Fired Them. Now The Board Has Been Replaced And Musicians...
The resolution was reached with help from two attorneys who read about the plight of the fired quartet members – cellist Myles Jordan, violinists...
Keeping Jazz Alive In Detroit
You cannot tell the history of jazz in America without also telling the history of jazz from Detroit. From the mid-20th century until the...
Why Do Dictators Have Such Bad Taste?
Their palaces and possessions are their trophies and their way of bragging to the world that they have succeeded. And they become the physical...
Welcome To The Cheech: Major Chicano Museum Opens
Cheech Marin has amassed a collection of more than 700 paintings, drawings, sculptures and mixed-media works by Chicano artists. In art-world circles, Marin’s...