Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Lessons In Creativity From Metallica
Thanks to a massive box set issued earlier this year for the 30th anniversary of Metallica’s squillion-selling self-titled 1991 album. It includes 14 versions...
Phantom Restorer Strikes Again – “Repairs” Historic Church
While the mayor’s report this fall of a “masked restorer” had set off angry calls for an investigation to find the culprit, information that...
Bob I. Retires From Running Disney. Bob C. Takes Over
Bob Chapek must simultaneously steer Disney through a cataclysmic transformation while keeping it the world’s most powerful and recognizable entertainment company — despite incursions...
The Canadian English Dictionary Hasn’t Been Updated In Almost Two Decades – No New...
The entire Canadian Oxford research staff was laid off in 2008 due to declining sales, and responsibility for identifying our country's words was placed largely...
An Abusive Violin Teacher Drove Me To Give Up. As An Adult I Learned...
The experience of being confined in a tiny practice room with an emotionally and psychologically threatening adult is, alas, not rare for children learning...
Ben McFall, Strand Bookstore’s Heart And Soul, 73
McFall enjoyed duties and perks not given to any other Strand employee. For much of his tenure, he was the only person in charge...
A Dance World Reckoning Of Liam Scarlett’s Death
The shock of Scarlett’s death has gone on causing wave upon wave of complex emotion across and beyond the dance world. Large parts of his career...
LA Gets A Flashy New Cultural Center For “Older People”
The pavilion, a futuristic, three-story trapezoid with a wood-paneled event center, sunken garden and rooftop terrace in the center of the city, will serve...
Machines Are Good At Reading Information. What Happens When They Read Emotion?
Since the start of the pandemic, more of our relationships depend on computer-mediated channels. Amid a churning ocean of online spats, toxic Slack messages,...
Growth Industry: UK Vinyl Album Sales Increase For 14th Year
More than 5m vinyl albums have been bought in the UK over the past 12 months, up 8% on sales in 2020 and the...
Why Historians Are Taking Video Games Seriously
“The attention paid by the game developers and their historical consultants to details of both the actual and social geography of these urban settings...
What’s The Point Of New Year’s Resolutions If Time Is Already Determined?
If all moments of time exist, does that mean that my staying in bed every morning in 2022 instead of going for a run...
Why Obama-Era Pop Culture Seems So Dated Now
As millennials age into the solid middle of the culture here at the end of 2021, they’re getting to experience that disorienting slip with...
Big Tech Is Betting This Will Be The Next Big Cultural Thing
After 15 years of riding a boom in mobile computing that has turned tech’s biggest companies into giants worth trillions of dollars, the power...
Betty White, 99
A trailblazer and pioneer in media, Betty had the longest running career for any woman in TV prior to her death -- starring in...
A Comprehensive List Of Arts And Entertainment Figures We Lost In 2021
It's a long list. - BBC
How Artificial Intelligence Is Being Used In Making Music
The use of AI in music is here today, and while its contribution is still small, it will likely grow. If you take that...
2021’s Jazz Critics’ Poll: The Year’s Best Jazz
In being asked to stand in for clubs, concert halls, and festivals so frequently these last two years, recordings are still being asked to...
Lincoln Center Was An Enormous Urban Renewal Project. What About The People Who Were...
The Lincoln Center complex, which opened in 1962, was a citadel. Critics noted that it was designed to separate itself from the Black and...
How The Pandemic Has Changed Cities (Perhaps For Good)
Even with those opinions on the books, the pandemic—or really, the haphazard response to it—has shifted people’s perceptions of what a city can be. -...
TikTok Is Now The World’s Most-Trafficked Website (Beating Out Google)
Regardless of where it sits, TikTok is no joke when it comes to popularity. It had a surge of growth during the pandemic which...
Seattle Musician Shares The Scoop On Streaming: 80,000 Plays = $90
“I just mean to really expose what these numbers mean and what they don’t mean." After splitting the revenue with a collaborator, those...
Ways To Think About Death (It Might Not Be So Bad?)
This is not an argument that death is not bad. This is the titular argument that death is probably not as bad as you...
Puzzling Over What To Make Of 2021 In The Movie Business
For Hollywood studios, 2021 was a year of great experimentation and the rare chance to relentlessly test movie distribution patterns in ways they had...
Why Are NYC’s Public Monuments Crumbling From Neglect?
Dozens of monuments and artworks await repairs and conservation that may never be forthcoming because of rising maintenance costs and shifting priorities to newer...
