Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
The End Of Great Travel Writing?
Travel sections in bookshops have been reduced to “three feet of guidebooks and celebrity jaunts”. Meanwhile, travel books struggle to make the literary review...
Why This Revered Writer Was Almost Denied His Nobel Prize
The newly opened archives show that, although 1971’s winner Pablo Neruda was praised by the prize-givers for “a poetry that with the action of...
Painting, Thought To Be By Caravaggio, Will Get A Chance At Restoration
In March of 2021, the painting, which had been up for sale in Madrid and priced at a measly $1,800, was pulled from its auction...
As Metal Prices Increase, Thieves Are Stealing Statues, Melting Them Down
As the price of metals has soared worldwide, people have taken to stealing streetlight wiring, plumbing valves, catalytic converters and fire hydrants. But the...
How To Design A Better Hospital? Start With Light
Numerous recent studies show that exposure to nature and natural light can reduce pain, and that even a brief contact with the outdoors reduces stress. -...
NPR Is Boosting Its Podcasts. That’s Where The Listener Growth Is
Subscription podcasting offers a new digital business model for NPR and its member stations. But its long-standing mission to inform the public limits how...
The Link Between Emotions And Making Good Decisions
One way emotions aid decision making is by steering attention to both threats and opportunities. - The Atlantic
The Artist’s Intention? Actually, It Doesn’t Matter
Authors must accept that art is prone to inspiring disparate, and potentially conflicting, responses — and they can’t do anything about it. - Washington...
No, Norman Mailer Hasn’t Been Canceled By His Publisher, Says His Son
“They didn’t feel they were the right house to do this book right now. I don’t think they have any interest in trying to...
Lots Of Great Art Entered The Public Domain This Week. Don’t Celebrate – Marvel...
This massive release isn’t something entirely worth celebrating. Instead, it’s a pointer to the sheer absurdity of American copyright law, which long ago came...
What The Movies From Decades Ago Predicted 2022 Would Look Like
As you can imagine, many of the visions from long ago about what today would look like were dystopian. Here's what they portrayed. -...
Judge Dismisses Nirvana Baby Album Cover Lawsuit
"He has re-enacted the photograph in exchange for a fee, many times; he has had the album title... tattooed across his chest; and he...
Broadway Box Office Rebounds but Still Struggling
Box office rebounded, climbing to $26 million from Christmas Week’s grim, Covid-decimated $14 million. That’s an overall, week-to-week increase of 87%, and reflects a...
Jan. 6 As Zombie Apocalypse?
In the 20 years that zombie apocalypse narratives have grown and reached critical mass in popular media, such comparisons at an insurrection at the seat of American democracy — where five...
Manuscript? With Words Created On Computers And Produced On Other Computers, What Is It?
A book nowadays is likely to have left its author’s computer to become a bunch of digital assets in Adobe InDesign. These digital assets...
Italy Returns Piece Of The Parthenon Marbles To Greece
Sicily’s regional archaeological museum said Wednesday it had signed an agreement with the Acropolis Museum in Athens for a once-renewable, four-year loan of the...
Tarnished Golden Globes: Diminished Into Irrelevance?
When the Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. hands out this year’s awards on Sunday, there will be no party atmosphere: No TV show. No stars....
Vinyl Record Sales Are Booming – But The Pressing Plants Can’t Keep Up
Buyers want way more records than the only two remaining pressing facilities in Southern California, can supply. That’s true globally, too: There aren’t enough...
Lessons In Creativity From The Demise Of The Once-Ubiquitous Blackberry
The sheer number of cultural artifacts is stupefying. More photographs were taken yesterday than in the entire first century of photography. Odds are that some were...
Why Universal Music Group Supports A Far Right Senator
On Sunday, federal regulators put UMG’s PAC on notice, flagging the group for giving Marsha Blackburn more than the legal limit allowed in an election. -...
How Hobbies Took Over America (For Good And Bad)
“Hobbies take on this aura of being good, useful, appropriate, and socially sanctioned. Something you should—the word here is should—be doing. And if you’re one...
Art World Trends That Will Build In 2022
Above all else, the popularity of Immersive Everything spoke to the way in which a year-long period of cultural life existing mostly on tech platforms...
Yes We’re Productive. But Burned Out Too. A Revolution Is Under Way
For knowledge workers, the biggest sign that the status quo is broken is the rise in self-reported burnout. McKinsey and Lean In collaborated on...
We’re Awash In Stories. We’re Addicted To Stories. To What Effect?
Now that we have more storytelling than ever, has empathy increased apace? If stories have such sunny effects, why has the big bang of...
An Economist Wonders: Why In The Arts Are “The Greatest” All Oldies?
Why are composers like Mozart, Beethoven and Bach widely regarded as the greatest of all time? Why is it that in a 1985 survey of art experts...