Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Book Publishing Is About Free Speech? Ideas? Well That Myth Is Gone
"There may be an ideological component to publishing Pence and Conway, but it has nothing to do with ideas. It has to do with...
Head Or Heart? How You Listen To Music
When you listen to music, do you tend to analyze and think critically about what you are hearing (head)? Or is music listening pretty...
And The Oscar Goes To South Dakota
South Dakota's tourist attractions featured heavily in parts of Best Picture winner Nomadland, and now the (iconic to some) Wall Drug and Reptile Gardens...
Blaming Liam Scarlett’s Death On Cancel Culture Is Just Another Way To Shut Victims...
Reactions such as choreographer Alexei Ratmansky's social media post that claimed "Cancel culture is killing" are deeply harmful - they place "a burden of...
The Hollywood Foreign Press Association Vowed To Change
From there? Things have been falling apart. NBC's contingency plans if the group that runs the Golden Globes doesn't get it together by their...
What It Feels Like To Finish A Project During The Pandemic
Just ask novelist Ali Smith, who finished the last of a four-book sprint during the first lockdown: "I felt the usual failure ... ...
Will LA MOCA Recover Its Footing?
Yes, LA MOCA is having trouble again. "MOCA’s current trials have come just as the museum was hoping to emerge from a tumultuous history...
The Great Mural Wall Of Los Angeles Gets An Extension
Judy Baca's 2,700-foot mural Great Wall shows the history of the city, from pre-historic California through the 1950s. But the 1950s were a long...
Fred Jordan, Who Defied Censorship And Published The Avant Garde, 95
At Grove Press, Jordan and Barney Rosset led the charge to publish as they wished. "Grove’s lawyers were instrumental in overturning anti-pornography court rulings against D.H....
Can This Modernist Gem Be Saved?
The planned demolition of the Derby Assembly Rooms, product of a 1970 architectural competition and former host to big acts from The Clash to...
A California Appeals Court Holds Amazon Responsible In Third-Party Sales
A hoverboard burst into flames, harming the person who bought it from a third-party seller on Amazon Marketplace and leading to a court case...
Music Festivals In The UK Say They’ll Have To Cancel Without Government Help
The main problem is an inability to get coronavirus cancellation insurance (perhaps understandable at this point). - BBC
Disney Apparently Decided Not To Pay Some Authors Their Royalties
And now there's a task force trying to get the authors of novels in the Indiana Jones, Buffy, and Star Wars universes the royalties...
Returning Moviegoers Are Ready For More
After being stuck at home, without movie cinemas, for well over a year, it's time to break out the big bucks for all of...
James Prigoff, Who Documented And Championed Street Art, 93
Prigoff was a the co-author, with Henry Chalfant, of Spraycan Art, "a foundational book in the street-art field that featured more than 200 photographs...
Seven Stories Press Runs Indie Risks, Reaps A Nobel Prize Winner
Running an independent press isn't easy in an era of consolidation - and in a pandemic. Seven Stories' editor-in-chief: "As a business the time...
A Humble Alley Boasts Hollywood History
Can tourists gain more appreciation of the real Hollywood - could the city do more (a lot more) to help them leave invigorated, and...
Rome’s Colosseum To Get New High-Tech Floor
Milan Ingegneria, a structural engineering and architecture firm, has won an €18.5m (£16m) bid to build and install a retractable arena floor that will...
How Genre Fiction Can Help Literary Fiction Deal With Assault
Crime fiction is, roughly speaking, concerned with plot - and literary fiction (again, roughly speaking) with the interior of characters' thoughts. Sometimes, that means...
Reimagining Black Life And Death Onscreen
The Oscar-nominated short film A Love Song for Latasha, says filmmaker Sophia Nahli Allison, was one way of figuring how to deal with the...
Move Over, Thomas Edison And The Lumiere Brothers
Britain may no longer have an empire, but at least it could have this: the title of the "true" father of cinema. "Film director...
The Grammys Overhaul Again, Eliminating Secret Committees
The scandal-plagued Recording Academy is making the change after decades of complaints. Instituted in 1989, "the committees’ work began to be seen as evidence...
Asian American Choreographers And Dancers Demand Recognition
After the shootings in Atlanta, the already planned 10,000 Dreams Virtual Choreography Festival transformed into something that Asian American ballet dancers and choreographers have...
The Pivot To YouTube
For Oscar-winner Brie Larson, who won for Room and has since played Captain Marvel in the eponymous movie and Avengers: Endgame, it's not as...
Evaluating Eli Broad In Los Angeles
He was a friend and foe to museums, writes Christopher Knight. And Carolina Miranda writes, "Over the course of his life, he helped bring...