Author: Douglas McLennan

“The Voice” Promises Superstardom And The American Dream. But It Can’t Deliver

“After 11 seasons of fizzle-outs, it doesn’t look like The Voice is in the business of really making superstar dreams come true. But it has perfected the art of selling the glittering El Dorado promise of the American Dream, a myth so enticing that it still draws seekers, though all evidence suggests they probably won’t find what they’re looking for.”

My Life With Oliver Sacks

“Not long after I moved to New York, Michael Jackson died. O had no idea who Michael Jackson was. ‘What is Michael Jackson?’ he asked me the day after the news – not who but what – which seemed both a very odd and a very apt way of putting it, given how much the brilliant singer had transmuted from a human into an alien being. O often said he had no knowledge of popular culture after 1955, and this was not an exaggeration. He did not know popular music, rarely watched anything on TV but the news, did not enjoy contemporary fiction, and had zero interest in celebrities or fame (including his own). He didn’t possess a computer, had never used email or texted; he wrote with a fountain pen. This wasn’t pretentiousness; he wasn’t proud of it; indeed, this feeling of “not being with it” contributed to his extreme shyness. But there was no denying that his tastes, his habits, his ways – all were irreversibly, fixedly, not of our time.”

Thieves Break In To Berlin Museum And Steal Giant 100 KG Gold Coin Worth €3.7 Million

“The coin, which police said was protected by bulletproof glass, carries a nominal value of C$1m and was produced by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007. Known as the “Big Maple Leaf” and made of the purest bullion, only five have so far been produced, according to the mint’s website. One side features a maple leaf, the other a portrait of Queen Elizabeth II.”

Ex-NYT Theatre Critic Charles Isherwood Joins Startup Broadway Website

“Isherwood will be writing for Broadway News, a new online venture from Broadway Briefing, an aggregator of theater news. Isherwood will be joined in reviewing by Elizabeth Bradley, an arts academic at New York University and former producer, manager and administrator with long ties to Canada’s Stratford Festival and the Sony Centre in Toronto, among others. The new site will launch next week.”

My War With Language (Why Romanticize It?)

“Some writers swoon over language: ‘It’s my muse, my lover’, and so on. Well, it’s my enemy, and I seem to spend all my life arguing and battling with it. Also, sitting down at a desk aggravates my sacroiliac joint, so by the end of a week of solid writing I’m pretty much bed-bound or crawling around on all fours. What else? Writing is static, unsocial, and restricts opportunities for the uptake of vitamin D via dermal synthesis.”