Author: Douglas McLennan

Meet The “Intellectual Dark Web”

The movement sees itself as an alliance that defies established political categories in order to defend these ideas against the creeping influence of thought control. This leads us to another important meaning of the term intellectual dark web, the suggestion that its ideas are not only controversial, but particularly innovative in our political moment. If the dark web arouses the anger of certain commentators in the media or the academy, it is for the same reasons that new technologies in the internet age are “disruptive.”

The High-Stakes, Highly Combative World Of Amazon’s Self-published Romance Authors

A genre that mostly features shiny, shirtless men on its covers and sells ebooks for 99 cents a pop might seem unserious. But at stake are revenues sometimes amounting to a million dollars a year, with some authors easily netting six figures a month. The top authors can drop $50,000 on a single ad campaign that will keep them in the charts — and see a worthwhile return on that investment. In other words, self-published romance is no joke.

When Your Kid Becomes A Big Social Media Star (It’s Lucrative!)

YouTube is the pinnacle, with the highest earners – 7m subscribers or more – able to demand $300,000 for an ongoing video brand-partnership. On Instagram and Facebook, the biggest influencers are taking home anywhere between $150,000 to $187,000 per post. And even smaller “micro-influencers” with followings around 100,000 are able to command up to $5,000 per sponsored post – a pretty good living when you add it up at the end of the day.

Remembering The Now-Gone Music Stores On NYC’s 48th Street

Forty-eighth Street was once famous for stores that sold musical instruments. Those stores catered to musicians of every stripe, but the vibe was very rock and roll. The names that stand out for me are Manny’s and Sam Ash, but there were several others, packed together, one next to the other, each a world unto itself. In my own private atlas of the city, that street was also notable for the degree its character changed in the course of one block, from Seventh Avenue to Sixth Avenue. The music stores, like the support of a seesaw, were the point at which that character made its pivot.

Plagiarism? Are There Really Any New Ideas?

Writing consists of basically two things: idea and execution. You come up with an idea, and you figure out how to execute it in terms of style, setting, and genre. Writers are understandably protective of our ideas, but for better or worse the law only really protects execution. Unless someone is directly stealing your exact words, it is nearly impossible to prove that they took the idea. And it probably wouldn’t be a good thing if it did.

Does The Future Of Stagecraft Lie In Virtual Or Augmented Reality?

Howard Sherman: “While I don’t look forward to watching plays while holding up my mobile phone (ringer off, of course) for two hours, technology is beginning to offer ways for companies to create more immersive worlds without the construction of physical scenery. As work increasingly bursts out beyond prosceniums, augmented reality may offer possibilities to performances anywhere people can congregate, but without the need for lugging scenery into parks and playgrounds.”

Opera Australia Bets The Future On A (TK) Digital Revolution

Lyndon Terracini is staking much of the future and reputation of the national opera company on a digital revolution designed to immerse audiences and create an experience more akin to watching a movie than traditional opera. The glittering reptiles on the Joan Sutherland Theatre stage are part of the wholly digital production design for OA’s upcoming Aida. It’s the first step along a road Terracini says will revolutionise the way opera is staged and experienced.

Everywoman in Ohio

Tracy Letts is one of this country’s foremost writers, a playwright who is unafraid to explore the private lives of Americans of all kinds, from the sleazy trailer trash of “Killer Joe” to the freshly divorced misanthrope at the heart of “Linda Vista.”