John: Point taken - I'll try to focus this entry on more or less one idea. The other day I was a guest on a CBC radio show as part of a panel talking about "applause inflation." Of course it does seem that all anyone has to do anymore is walk on stage and get off without tripping over themselves to earn a standing O. Some people are upset that audiences give it up too easily, that their standards … [Read more...]

Doug: By actual count there are 4,217 really good ideas in your five paragraphs. Well, maybe one or two less, but they're all piquant and deserve response. Here's a start: Just as artists resent others laying their taste/biases/criteria on them, so might critics object when artists (or their enabling presenters, and I was one of those too) want the critics to genuflect before their own … [Read more...]

For the next week, critic John Rockwell will be joining me in a conversation on ArtsJournal. John started working at the New York Times as a critic in 1972, and is currently the paper's chief dance critic. He was also the paper's first pop music critic, wrote extensively about classical music, invented a "job" prowling the capitals of Europe and writing about what he found interesting, and edited … [Read more...]

We've had lots of comments on the new design for ArtsJournal - many of them positive - and then a full-throated chorus of those who find the new look wanting (ouch). I've changed a number of things based on these comments. The biggest change is restoring the topic groupings to the newsletters. Many complained that it was more difficult to scan the stories when they weren't grouped by topic. I'm … [Read more...]

Actually it's more than just a new look. The entire website has been rebuilt from the ground up. Why change something that's simple and easy to use and has worked well for the past four years? Content management systems have advanced considerably since we last rebuilt ArtsJournal, and the new system will allow us more flexibility in compiling and delivering ArtsJournal. New News Format The first … [Read more...]

As my post below says, right after I started this blog I embarked on a major overhaul of ArtsJournal. The site hasn't been upgraded in about four years, and it was time. Of course it's taken much longer than I ever expected. The first version of AJ took about a week. I got the idea to do the site on a Tuesday, the next day I registered the name, got a web host and bought some books on html. By … [Read more...]

Right after I launched this blog I delved into a major redesign of the ArtsJournal website. It's been four years since the last redesign and not only has the look of the site become a little creaky, but the backend has needed some major work as well. The new ArtsJournal will have some new features and the blogs will play more of a role. So I'll be back blogging later this week after I finish the … [Read more...]

In just about a year-and-a-half, YouTube has become the biggest website on the internet. Each day 65,000 videos are uploaded to the site. One hundred million videos are streamed from the site everyday. It's an amazing service - easy to use both as a watcher and as an uploader. People are adding video of every kind, from things they've shot themselves to current TV to classic videos. Video is … [Read more...]

I like the Guardian. Though it has a good stable of writers, its biggest strength is its editing. The Guardian is a consistently lively read day in and day out. This is a paper that isn't afraid to argue with itself. A critic might sound off on some topic one day, only to be contradicted a few days later by another critic. A day after that the head of the National Theatre is weighing in to tell … [Read more...]

Over the past three years I have talked a couple hundred people into blogging. While I've never considered ArtsJournal itself a blog, it does satisfy one reason to blog - pointing readers towards interesting things elsewhere on the web, and I think of the skein of these stories as a curated conversation about culture and ideas. There's been an explosion in the number of blogs about culture in the … [Read more...]