Author: Douglas McLennan

Is Kenyan Literature Finally Finding Its Footing?

“Kenya’s literary dwarfism is partly a result of the virulent anti-intellectualism of the longest running regime in the country, the period from 1978 and 2002 when Daniel arap Moi was President. Those years were characterized by arbitrary arrests, detention, and the exile of scholars including world-renowned author Ngugi wa Thiong’o and Micere Mugo, both former professors of literature at the University of Nairobi.” – Guernica

“Fullnaming” Famous Composers Is Silly

Chris White’s “fullnaming” idea—an invented word for his invented crusade—seems to belong more in a social studies department at a middle school than a music department at a university. Johann Sebastian Bach versus Bach. We get the point. Doesn’t insisting on full names for everyone seem a little pretentious, annoying, tedious, and dare I say . . . elitist? – The Bulwark

Unethical Museums Are Unsustainable

“If institutions had not already demonstrated their steely commitment to protecting power – how a museum director who depletes an endowment ends up at the helm of another museum, for instance, or how sexual harassment allegations against an administrator disappear as he moves from one post to another – it would seem that the institutional artworld was in a freefall from which it might not recover. Yet even if institutions do manage to survive, thanks to donors, endowments, and blind eyes, it has become clear that museum employees feel greater allegiance toward each other than to their employers.” – MOMUS

AMC Theatres Report 90 Percent Decline In Revenue

The world’s largest exhibitor suffered a brutal 90.9% drop in revenues during the most recent earnings period, with sales clocking in at $119.5 million. Losses hit $905.8 million or $8.41 cents a share. In the prior-year quarter, a time when cinemas were open around the globe and world-altering pandemics were largely the stuff of Hollywood thrillers, AMC logged revenues of $1.3 billion on a net loss of $54.8 million or 53 cents a share. – Variety

Zoom Reveals Architecture Is Even More Important

“I would like to think of every Zoom grid not as the death of architecture, but at its proliferation into different spaces that are trying hard to recreate, at the microscale of the individual grid square, a world made possible by the architecture that it exposes: a glimpse of a bedroom here, a garden there, a living room, a bookshelf. The absence of architecture is equally ostensible when for example, an image of the landscape is projected behind the person on the screen. We yearn for the presence of architecture even in a fake background in order to transport us, through the architectural imaginary, to other worlds.” – ArchDaily

Streaming Services Likely To Dominate This Year’s Oscars

It was always inevitable that Netflix’s awards tally would tick upward. The same goes for Hulu, Amazon and their myriad competitors. With Hollywood’s traditional studios prioritizing big-budget franchises that don’t appeal to prestige sensibilities, streaming platforms are becoming go-to vessels for the original, star-driven films that attract Oscar esteem. – HuffPost