Washington Post wins 6 Pulitzers

Douchenozzelry wasn't the answer I was looking for here. :

That Romano's story deserved at least finalist status was clear to anyone with simple reading or journalistic comprehension.

 

I'm sure there were tons of great stories that didn't get a nod. To get so passionate about one seems kinda over the top.

 

Congrats to Steve Fainaru, a former baseball writer for Hartford Courant and Boston Globe among others.

 

Not really, Dools.

Of the thousands of stories I've read in my life, none have had the impact that piece did. Every person I sent that story to (more than 20) -- and I had my college class read it -- said the same thing.

You're well-read enough. Certainly there have been stories you've read that possessed that kind of impact.

And considering the plaudits that came in when that story was posted in the sandbox, I don't think my disbelief is unwarranted in the least.

 

Shouldn't it be "Steve Fainaru-Wada" like his brother?

Or is blood thicker than "Wada"?

 

But sports writers can't switch to news! They only know about games and stats and stuff!

 

Hey, now. The Pulitzer Prize bylaws are what they are. They were absolutely convinced that he understands the situation - and they grasped that it was a bit of a sticky wicket for them. But it wasn't a conflict of interest because, hey, he said he wasn't going to let it be.

Good enough for me!

 

I have to agree with this sentiment. I read the story after hearing the NPR interview with Weingarten yesterday. While the story is well-written and the Web presentation effective, it really does strike me as condescending. It over-analyzes the reactions or lack thereof of the passers-by (for example: the fact that one person was listening to his iPod instead of a "street musician" becomes the basis for drawing the ludicrous conclusion that technology is limiting our exposure to great music). And I don't share the author's surprise that people won't stop to appreciate a good violinist. If you told me that you were going to put a musician who plays a style of music that's not widely appreciated in this country in a subway station -- where street musicians are not uncommon -- during rush hour, and that almost no one stopped to appreciate the music, I would've asked you, "What the heck did you expect?!" It's a well-written story, but the condescending tone really ruins it for me. To me, the picture of people rushing past a famous violinist isn't quite as powerful a statement about American life as the picture of an elitist experiment on people's taste in classical music taking place where a homeless man died and next to a stand where a Brazilian immigrant is trying to make a living shining shoes.

 

If the iPod person was listening to Dylan or the Stones or Nirvana or any number of artists, past and present, his/her net exposure to great music survived just fine.

 

Well, that's just it, I think. Not to detract in any way from the job he did, because he did a very good one, but if we weighed every story according to their emotional impact, well, we'd all be in television. And it has the same emotional impact on everyone. Because it's supposed to. And tells us what? That good people die in wars and their loved ones grieve for them?

I think Weingarten's violin piece has different effects on different people. Some would think it's funny, some would consider it a stupid gimmick of a story, some would say it's a sad commentary on modern life, some would say it's a metaphor for the human condition and neither sad nor happy, some might say it's an insight into how fame affects our assessment of talent and vice versa, some might even say it's elitist crap. It is what you make of it. Which is what great art does. And which, in a very subtle way, is what the story is telling us, at least that's the effect it had on me.

 

When I started the Weingarten piece, I thought it was about a great violinist choosing to play at a subway station for the love of it.

Nah.

 

Well, maybe, but calling that piece art just because people's reactions to it differ seems to be adopting the same esthetic criteria that gave Weingarten the vapors in the first place.