Douglas McLennan
Doug is the editor of ArtsJournal
In War, Poetry Has Become Very Popular In Ukraine
Over the past two years, poets have emerged as some of the nation’s most popular voices, their verse capturing the raw emotions of the...
Tampa Bay Times Book Critic Signs Off
"As book critic I’ve read, on average, three books per week, about 150 per year, which adds up to about 2,500 books over 17...
“Inside Out 2” Becomes First Animated Film To Earn $1 Billion At The Box...
Though 55 films have grossed $1 billion globally (which is comprised of domestic and international ticket sales), just a dozen have managed to hit...
Books Are Ideas, Yes. But I Need To Hold Them
"I will always prefer a book I can hold in my hand, the kind that smells of paper and glue, the kind whose unfolding...
Dance Parties For Really Young Kids Are A Growing Thing
St. James Joy is now one of a handful of dance parties around New York City where house music fanatics and babies alike find...
Ron DeSantis’ Culture War On Books Is Mired In Scandal
Sarasota’s New College, the once liberal arts school subjected to a “hostile takeover” by well-rewarded, ultra-conservative DeSantis allies, was exposed by the city’s Herald-Tribune for dumping thousands...
Washington Post Kills Its Galleries Column
In an email sent to several DC-area art exhibition spaces on Monday, August 19, column author and critic Mark Jenkins announced the series would shut down...
Lessons For Theatre From This Year’s Edinburgh Festivals
While the international plays are overtly political, encompassing disability rights, antiracism and ecology, the homegrown works explored the more personal terrain of addiction, recovery...
What Republican, Democratic Pop Music Choices At Conventions Says About Them
These days, you get this sort of unabashedly instructional approach to pop music only from Republicans, whose musical choices at July’s Republican National Convention...
Did Google Get Off Easy In California’s New Media Law?
Critics say it’s a textbook political maneuver by tech giants to avoid a fee under what could have been groundbreaking legislation. California lawmakers agreed...
A Librarian Targeted By Hate After She Defended Access To Books
She was labeled a “sicko, pig, trash,” she writes in the memoir. "The sense of betrayal was overwhelming." One message was particularly alarming: “Continue...
Why “Weird” Works As A Critique
In the 20th century, the word lost its hint of the macabre as its meaning became something quieter. “Weird” now means peculiar — perhaps...
Takeaways On The TV Industry From This Year’s Edinburgh TV Conference
The problem is, at the moment, networks aren’t taking risks, as the tough economic conditions of recent years have led to glut of tried-and-tested...
The Museum Of London’s New Logo (A Pooping Pigeon): Weird? Or Inspired?
The new design features a white porcelain pigeon trailed by a golden “splat”. It’s a choice that the museum’s director Sharon Ament interprets as...
Only Eight Percent Of UK TV Workers Are Working Class –What’s The Solution?
“It is the category of representation with the largest disparity between make-up of the country and make-up of our industry … Yet it is...
Greek Filmmakers Pull Films From Oscar Contention
The confusion began in early August when the Greek Ministry of Culture, as is customary, invited a committee of Greek film professionals to select...
Intimate Opera On The Prairies
Des Moines Metro Opera, founded in 1973, can’t rival Salzburg or Aix-en-Provence in scenic luxury. Yet musical values by no means suffer; casts are...
The Genius Of Banksy’s London Animal Murals
The murals have captured the public imagination, not because they’re artistic masterpieces, but because they play with something beyond the world of pop art...
In Praise Of Dilettantism
I’m a serial learner and hobbyist. Maybe you’d call it being a dilettante. Over the past 20-odd years, I’ve tried my hand at painting,...
What Determines Whether A Book Is Remembered?
Even limiting ourselves to literature, it’s simply the case that what endures has minimal correlation to either contemporaneous popularity or contemporaneous acclaim. - Countercraft
How A Play About Depression Became A Worldwide Phenomenon
An uplifting play about depression, Duncan Macmillan’s Every Brilliant Thing has become a global phenomenon since its Edinburgh fringe debut 10 years ago. It has...
Why Seattle Dance Companies Have Started Touring
“Touring gives the dancers a chance for exposure for our creativity and artistry.” And a chance for audiences around the world to get a...
What The Grooves Of A Vinyl Record Look Like At 1000x Magnification
Here’s a photograph of the record grooves captured by Supranowitz at 500x magnification. Those dark chunks you see are dust particles. - Hasan Jasim
Scottish Arts Organizations Protest Deep Funding Cuts
Many of Scotland’s best known arts organisations, including the Edinburgh fringe and national jazz orchestra, are in uproar over plans for deep cuts in...
Anatomy Of An Artworld Fraud
Describing a particularly vertiginous exchange in which “somewhere between $125k and $175k is created out of thin air, a few phone calls and an...
