Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
How Napoleon Systematically Plundered Europe’s Art
These were not smash-and-grab operations. He sought out experts to advise him on which cultural treasures to ship back to Paris. Napoleon wanted to...
Where Dancers Go To Rehab As Performances Resume
Dr. David Weiss, an orthopedic physician with the NYU Langone facility in Kips Bay, compared the runup to Broadway’s comeback to a training camp...
Social Media Has Redefined Gen Z Elite Athletes
Through social media, they have opened up conversations about performance, mental health and the impact of the media. Sports stars are making their voices heard...
Why Intellectuals Have Such Lowly Public Status
The general public in the United States sees intellectuals as disconnected from their everyday struggles and concerns. From this perspective, intellectuals don’t actually work...
All The Reasons Book Reviewing Is Lacking
If there is a problem with book reviewing the problem is that those of us who are good at it aren’t good enough, there...
The Case Against Beach Reading
Reading is not a beachy activity. Reading is for armchairs and bay windows and loverless beds. Bring a book to the beach and you’re...
Marc Ribot: Why I Have To Play My Music Super-Loud
Audiologists say this could make one’s ears howl, create an uncomfortable sensation of density in one’s head, and eventually make it impossible to hear...
In Praise of The Lowly Lullaby
Individuals who heard them as babies relied on them, decades later, as parents and grandparents. Not even the symphony or fugue or sonata can...
How Universities Get To Define The Universe
Universities, more than any other institution, shape our conception of what constitutes worthwhile knowledge. Therefore, if we want philosophy to thrive in the contemporary...
Behold The Manifesto!
This is a form that asks readers to suspend their disbelief, and so like any piece of theater, it trades on its own vulnerability,...
Riccardo Muti at 80: Tired Of Life
"I’m tired of life, because this is a world that I no longer recognise and since I can’t expect the world to adapt to...
The Problem With Today’s Book Reviews
The main problem is that the contemporary American book review is first and foremost an audition — for another job, another opportunity, another day in the...
Why/How We Die Badly
Death catches too many of us unawares and unprepared these days, because we prefer to look away, to deny the approach of the one...
Blow To New Zealand’s Identity: Amazon Pulls Filming Of “Lord Of The Rings”
The move came as a blow to many in New Zealand. The production is one of the most expensive in history, with Amazon spending...
Resignation Over £6M Artificial Hill In London Park Meant To Lure Tourists
“With regret, I have accepted the resignation of my deputy leader, Melvyn Caplan, who led the mound project. We have also instigated a thorough...
Olympic TV Viewing Might Have Been Down, But Streaming Ratings Exploded
YouTube said, Olympics content was viewed more than 190 million times per day during Tokyo, five times more than the average daily views during...
The Extraordinarily Improbable Path To Publication For This Booker Nominee
After many rejections, An Island was published by tiny indie press Holland House in a print run of a mere 500 copies owing to the pandemic....
Twitter Changed Its Font. Users Aren’t Happy
The font that they’re calling Chirp is extremely similar to GT America, which is itself based on Franklin Gothic. They changed the spacing ever so...
Yayoi Kusama Sculpture Swept Out To Sea In Storm
The sculpture, a giant black and yellow polka-dotted pumpkin by the celebrated artist Yayoi Kusama, has stood at the end of a pier on the...
Critic Michael Phillips: Go Inside A Movie Theatre Right Now? Maybe Not!
With the delta variant in our lives now, studios and film distributors who have the nerve to require in-person screenings for review are being...
When NYC Dance Companies’ Artistic Directors Started Talking…
Newly close colleagues and friends, they have shared ideas, problems, strategies and solutions, and for the first time will present a series of performances...
You Believe In Privacy? Turns Out We Believe In Convenience More
Despite this surge in support for privacy, we’re looking at a situation where routine surveillance of citizens will continue to become normalized—not through coercion,...
Study: NYC TV Production Back To Pre-Pandemic Level
After a brutal 2020, TV production was one of the first industries back to work in the city and continues to advance. - Deadline
Justice For College Improv!
Eliminate the distinction between collegiate and professional improv, because there is none. We henceforth reject the label “amateur improvisers.” “Improvisers” is embarrassing enough, we...
Saving The News? We Need To Rethink The News
More and more observers are agreeing that a wholesale rethinking of how news is produced is necessary if rigorous, trustworthy journalism is going to...