i'm not big on awards because i think most of them are bullshit. so i pay little attention when most award winners get announced.
the macarthur "genius award" is the exception. they're much more interesting than the average award. that's probably because they are not really a reward, they're just a grant, though an unusual grant because the recipients don't apply for it, which is why they are popularly referred to as an "award." what makes the macarthur grant recipients so interesting is that they manage to find such interesting people doing a variety of stuff i have mostly never heard about before. this year's list is no exception.
each year i skim down the list looking to see if i have heard of any of the recipients. most years i will recognize one name, two at most (and one time i actually knew one of them as he was my friend's father). this year the only one i have heard of is david simon because it's not that jorge pardo. simon is a pretty interesting choice. if a tv show can be a mark of genius, then the wire is just that, yo.
