Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
Douthat: Why We Don’t Build Beautiful Buildings Anymore
"We don’t necessarily need to repeal the laws of economics or solve Baumol’s cost disease to build as beautifully as our ancestors once did....
CDs Have Always Had A Flaw. Streaming Could Fix It
The majority of your CDs have probably been downsampled perilously from studio to disc. And streaming has now righted that wrong; we can indeed...
Another Semester Of ChatGPT Havoc At Universities
“If the first year of AI college ended in a feeling of dismay, the situation has now devolved into absurdism." - The Atlantic
Good Investment? I Paid My Kid $100 To Read A Book
My daughter is a whip-smart kid, definitely smarter than I was at 12. But until I resorted to bribery, she’d never read an entire...
The Successful Musician: An AI Advantage
"AI-generated songs lack the fluidity of music created by humans. But musicians who experiment with AI can give themselves an edge in an evolving...
This Fall On Broadway: Bring On The Divas
Theater stages are the diva’s holy playground, where complex characters and powerful performances ask audiences to question their received ideas. A new slate of...
Grade Inflation Has Made Grades Meaningless. Time To Get Rid Of Them
The more elite the college, the more lenient the standards. At Yale, for example, 80% of grades awarded in 2023 were As or A minuses. But...
The Australian Chamber Orchestra’s Extraordinary 50 Years
In the decades since Richard Tognetti became ACO artistic director at just 25, he has amassed some of the world’s most valuable instruments and...
Stanford Is Laying Off Creative Writing Lecturers. The World Protests
Stanford University’s announcement that 23 creative writing instructors will be pushed out of their jobs and replaced has set off a national backlash in...
Major Funder Of London’s National Gallery Expansion Left A Secret Note Inside A Pillar...
The eldest brother, John Sainsbury, despised aspects of the design, in particular the false columns in the foyer. Despite concerted pushback and the fact...
Hollywood — Creator Of Worlds (And Explanations)
We live in the era of the “explainer movie” — a creation like those in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Dune ecosystem, Star Wars constellation...
How To Find New Music In The Age Of The Algorithm
Some tastemakers say today’s music scene is a soulless algorithmic wasteland — others say it’s more vibrant than ever. However you find it, don’t...
Artists Struggle In Absence of Rules Of The Road For AI
“We see these celebrity replicas happening all the time, but our own data – us, the small people of the world – is being...
Academic Publishers Protest New Rule That Federally-Funded Research Must Be Freely Available
Although open-access advocates and library groups support the move, opponents argue the new policy will limit researchers’ ability to maintain control of their published...
Police Bust World’s Largest Pirate Movie Site
Fmovies launched in 2016 and racked up 374 million monthly visits more than 6.7 billion visits from January 2023-June 2024. Data from SimilarWeb ranked...
How Democrats And Republicans Are Using Music In This Campaign
In 2024, both main parties recognise the positive power of music. While campaign songs and rally playlists encourage a sense of unity, they also...
The Latest Takedown: ABBA Asks Trump Not To Play Their Music At Rallies
"Together with the members of Abba, we have discovered that videos have been released where Abba's music has been used at Trump events, and...
Is The Traditional Summer Vacation Bad For Education? (And Students)
Some education advocates tout the benefits of what’s called a “balanced calendar,” which spreads vacation time equally across the seasons—a reimagining of what school can be,...
Why Did Canada’s Top Museum Push Out A Visionary Curator?
For many, Nanibush’s departure was a catastrophe. Prior to her arrival, the AGO, like many museums, tended to treat Indigenous culture as something ossified...
What Netflix Standup Specials Say About The State Of Today’s Comedy
Like other performers in our Balkanized, make-your-own-prime-time-entertainment landscape, many comedians act less like artists or court jesters than like notionally humorous leaders of affinity...
How Policing Audience Phones Changes Meaning In The Theatre
The “Starbucks!” sticker is an effort to physically prevent photography and videos circulating online. But this seemingly innocuous action creates a ripple effect about...
How We Communicate: Everything Is Story
Even the driest academic monograph or most threadbare opinion piece usually begins with some act of storytelling, whether we hear how a previous generation...
Hollywood’s Shifting Portrayal Of Asian Actors
Since the 2018 blockbuster “Crazy Rich Asians” became a box office hit, Asian and Asian American stories and characters have proliferated in American pop culture. And after...
What Happens When You Put Contemporary Art In A Small Conservative Austrian Village
The contemporary art influx is a colour blast of creativity in an area that usually attracts tourists interested in historic villas, mountains and high-end...
Our Vanishing Culture: 78 Records
78rpm discs were the way we learned about each other and entertained the world. It was a time when the world became a much...
