Followup: Weingarten wins Pulitzer

April 7, 2008 12:53 PM

Remember that post about Joshua Bell busking in a DC Metro station? Gene Weingarten just won a Pulitzer for the stunt.
posted by MrMoonPie to MetaFilter-related at 12:53 PM (37 comments total)

Just wait, he's gonna win it like five more times now in the next few days.
posted by cortex at 12:57 PM on April 7, 2008 [6 favorites]

Some discussion in the previous MeTa about that article being a sextuple post.

preview: Cortex for the win.
posted by ALongDecember at 12:59 PM on April 7, 2008

That goddamn article was an embarrassment. Yet another feelgood bourgeois ball-scratch for people who don't know how to listen to hip-hop.
posted by waxbanks at 12:59 PM on April 7, 2008 [7 favorites]

WTF Weingarten beat a story about a bear attack? I bet bears are planning their retaliation now. Everyone be vigilant.
posted by spec80 at 1:10 PM on April 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

rematch! didn't that guy break his violin? I bet bears will win this time.
posted by jessamyn at 1:14 PM on April 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

jessamyn: Do you mean David Garrett?
posted by ALongDecember at 1:18 PM on April 7, 2008

You don't stop to listen to one out-of-context violin virtuoso, you've not stopped to listen to 'em all.
posted by cortex at 1:23 PM on April 7, 2008

And yet I stopped to watch the bear attack in the subway.
posted by Astro Zombie at 1:25 PM on April 7, 2008

.
posted by ardgedee at 1:28 PM on April 7, 2008

Do you mean David Garrett?

Also an FPP.
posted by ericb at 1:28 PM on April 7, 2008

And yet I stopped to watch the bear attack in the subway.

I gotta take public transport more.
posted by From Bklyn at 1:41 PM on April 7, 2008

And yet I stopped to watch the bear attack in the subway.

If by "bear attack in the subway" you mean "large furry butch gay men making out excessively on the #24 SFMTA/MUNI line" - then yes, you can has a bear attack in the subway.
posted by loquacious at 2:10 PM on April 7, 2008 [2 favorites]

I walked right by that article and had no idea it was Gene Weingarten. Why didn't I recognize the astounding good quality?
posted by Miko at 2:41 PM on April 7, 2008 [4 favorites]

Pulitzers are clearly not the indicator of journalistic worth one might have assumed they were.
posted by Artw at 2:42 PM on April 7, 2008

You don't stop to listen to one out-of-context violin virtuoso, you've not stopped to listen to 'em all.

I was a violin virtuoso. I played all the right notes, in the right time, with the right amount of feeling. Just in the wrong order.
posted by djgh at 2:55 PM on April 7, 2008

I think the success of the article should lead to more busking experiments, like bringing in kung fu trained bears to show off their art, versus your average every day subway bear buskers. (You just know that money goes straight to honey....yeeesh.)
posted by Atreides at 3:02 PM on April 7, 2008

I thinl from now on whenever we see a busker we should punch the nearest person who looks like they might be a journalist.
posted by Artw at 3:05 PM on April 7, 2008 [7 favorites]

your average every day subway bear buskers

All standing there with a ball on their nose and a crappy cardboard sign that says

PLEEZ BE GENEROUS
STRUGLIN ARTIST
"BEARLY" HOLDING ON
posted by cortex at 3:20 PM on April 7, 2008 [4 favorites]

Cortext, I flagged your comment as "other" because there was no option for a painful moan.
posted by davejay at 4:34 PM on April 7, 2008

For the next experiment, they should try putting Pulitzer Prize winning stores only in the print version of papers, and see if anyone reads it.
posted by drezdn at 5:17 PM on April 7, 2008 [3 favorites]

Hell, even Bob Dylan got a Bullshitzer, I mean Pulitzer.

Hey man, pulitzer my finger


fraaaaaaaaaaap
posted by Eekacat at 5:32 PM on April 7, 2008

I would've listened to the dude twice.
posted by ludwig_van at 7:32 PM on April 7, 2008

Thbbbt!

What a bunch of shit. You guys sensitive much? How dare Weingarten insinuate I'm a philistine!

The article was typical journalism. He had a hook and went with it. Did he deserve a Pulitzer? Hey, if Maureen Dowd can win one why not Weingarten? Evidently, Pulitzers aren't worth much.

But the reaction here, previously and now, indicates a sensitive nerve was touched. You're responding like a bunch of fops who've been told that their lacy collars weren't quite up to snuff.

You don't like classical music? So what! You would have rushed past Bell because you were intent on getting to work or intent on all the things you had to do that day? So what! Et cetera.

You assume an elitist position because some hack might have dared insult your ego?

Thbbbt!
posted by TrolleyOffTheTracks at 8:12 PM on April 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

Gene Weingarten? THE Gene Weingarten? The Googlewacker who I crossed paths/swords with last year? You'd think that the Google Abuse column he wrote would have disqualified him from all major journalistic awards... so, I'm one degree of separation from a Pulitzer. No wait, I already was from the Berkeley Breathed/Opus connection. And didn't I once get Dave Barry to tell me to "buzz off" in his blog once?
posted by wendell at 8:14 PM on April 7, 2008

Evidently, Pulitzers aren't worth much.

they won't mean a damn thing until they have one for online snarking, right?
posted by pyramid termite at 8:46 PM on April 7, 2008

they won't mean a damn thing until they have one for online snarking, right?

That's funny. It would be interesting. Comments from MeFi would defintely be in the running if it was a fair contest. But certainly not from me.

I thought the reaction was over the top and I posted. It was frustrating. It's as simple as that.
posted by TrolleyOffTheTracks at 9:06 PM on April 7, 2008

I would have stopped for this.
posted by TrolleyOffTheTracks at 10:36 PM on April 7, 2008

I would have stopped for this.

O, that singularly modern sensation, that bittersweet moment of relief, that feeling of having narrowly avoided calamity, on realizing that a youtube link is not, in fact, a Rickroll.
posted by ludwig_van at 11:16 PM on April 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

"didn't that guy break his violin?"

Remarkably, it was a busker just like that who inspired a young Pete Townsend to take up music.
posted by Eideteker at 4:22 AM on April 8, 2008

they won't mean a damn thing until they have one for online snarking, right?

I'd settle for a category for original online reporting not affiliated with a print newspaper. *That's* when the Pulitzers will start to matter again.
posted by mediareport at 6:58 AM on April 8, 2008

I think Pulitzers used to matter. But I think now they're more about...I dunno. Not good journalism or good reporting or good writing or calling attention to something that needs attention called to it.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 7:51 AM on April 8, 2008

wendell, I got a shout-out on Dave Barry's blog once. Not from Dave, himself, but close enough?
posted by MrMoonPie at 8:16 AM on April 8, 2008

I felt that the most of the pieces over at the Washington Post were pretty deserving, myself. So why I'll meh the amazing violinist as paltry busker piece, I won't meh the entire Pulitzer crowd.
posted by Atreides at 8:27 AM on April 8, 2008

Because I'm having a crappy day, I would like to point out that I fucking rule! I am a duplicate-posting god. Yes!

Oh, and Gene? On reflection, it was an annoying, bogus story. The Pulitzer board must have been really light in your category.
posted by mojohand at 9:19 AM on April 8, 2008

How do you get a feature writing Pulitzer for engineering a stunt (self-link)? As much fun as I had reading Weingarten's piece, and as much as I like his work, I hate the idea that he won a Pulitzer for a situation he contrived.
posted by rcade at 9:30 AM on April 8, 2008

I'm waiting for the story documenting a bear attack on a world-famous violinist posing as a busker on the subway.

And, if one doesn't present itself, I think we should make one happen.
posted by scrump at 11:19 AM on April 8, 2008

guh... I should have known that the same Mr. Weingarten who wrote the the subway busking article was the same douche bag who wrote the 24 hours of punditry article...
posted by clockwork at 2:51 PM on April 8, 2008