Author: Douglas McLennan

The Culture Story In Los Angeles This Year? The LA Philharmonic

Mark Swed: “The biggest story of all has been the stellar rise of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, becoming surely the most successful arts organization of the century so far through an insurmountable belief in the value of music to the betterment of humanity. The vision has been if you build a better concert hall, make new music widely available, and view the world through the lens of music and give it to kids who wouldn’t otherwise have it, good things happen.” – Los Angeles Times

Peter Schjeldahl On The Art Of Being Peter Schjeldahl

When I started writing criticism, in 1965, in almost pristine ignorance, I discovered that I was the world’s leading expert in one thing: my experience. Most of what I know in a scholarly way about art I learned on deadlines, to sound as if I knew what I was talking about—as, little by little, I did. Educating yourself in public is painful, but the lessons stick. – The New Yorker

In Retrospect “Cats” Was A Brilliant Idea. At The Time? Not So Much

The idea proved anything but irresistible. No one wanted to finance the project: the show’s producer, Cameron Mackintosh, had to solicit small-fry investors through newspaper ads; Lloyd Webber took out a second mortgage to make up the ultimate shortfall. He had composed an epic, genre-spanning score, using a Moog synthesizer to imitate meowing, but, when he played it for Twyla Tharp, hoping that she would choreograph what would have to be a very dance-heavy musical—Valerie would permit the production only if they relied entirely on Eliot’s material, which left little room for plot or spoken dialogue—Tharp said no. – The New Yorker

A Critique Of The Meritocracy: A System That Makes Things Worse?

“By presenting itself as a means of providing equal opportunity, it has preemptively shut down opposition; it pushes inequality to ever-higher levels; it serves as an efficient mechanism for the inheritance, rather than the upending, of privilege; and it turns even its relatively small number of beneficiaries into miserable, relentlessly pressured workaholics who have to expend most of their large incomes on their children’s private schools and tutors.” – Foreign Affairs

Why Authors Like Austen Became Canonical: Cheap Books

“Cheap books make authors canonical.” Thousands of mid-century readers consumed “yellowback” versions of Austen’s novels, so-called because of the yellow paper stuck to the back of them on which advertisements were printed. The sheer proliferation of cheaply produced editions of Austen’s fiction has been invisible because very few of these books have survived. – The Guardian

Illusions,Realities, And Metaphors For What’s Real

“When I interact with the computer, I have limited access to the events occurring within it. Thanks to the schemes of presentation devised by the programmers, I am treated to an elaborate audiovisual metaphor, an interactive drama acted out on the stage of keyboard, mouse, and screen. I, the User, am subjected to a series of benign illusions: I seem to be able to move the cursor (a powerful and visible servant) to the very place in the computer where I keep my file, and once that I see that the cursor has arrived ‘there’, by pressing a key I get it to retrieve the file, spreading it out on a long scroll that unrolls in front of a window (the screen) at my command.” – Aeon