This year's MacArthur Grant winners: pick two, discard two

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http://www.macfound.org/programs/fel/winners_overview.htm

― The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 20:49 (twenty years ago)

my picks: Murphy, Carter

my discards: Ames, Harbury (dude yr already at Stanford what you need the money for)

― The Obligatory Sourpuss (Begs2Differ), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 20:52 (twenty years ago)

I'll pick Lethem, because I've enjoyed his novels (I also wonder what he will do with the buxx), and Emily Thompson because this ...

Aural Historian bridging the history of the United States and the histories of technology, science, sound, and acoustics to examine transformations in the American soundscape.

...sounds awesome.

Discard: Gmachl (using lasers for homeland security? whatever) and Sheikh (he looks like a tool).

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 20:55 (twenty years ago)

discard: Julie Mehretu, Lethem - everyone else seems to have a use for their $500k - research, or travelling to the undeveloped world, etc.. Whereas I'm not sure what either of them would use the bank for aside from a new townhouse.

picks: all roughly the same to me

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 20:56 (twenty years ago)

Pick: Goldie the Physician and Kleinberg the Computer Scientist sound useful. So does Carter the Urban Revitalization Strategist.

Discard: The violinmaker, because I don't care for violins much, and the sculptor, because, you know, whatever.

I like Lethem too, but he seems like he's doing just fine these days. I'd like to see another Ken Vandermark type grant that would really help out or document a music scene. Come to think of it, it should seriously go to some responsible New Orleans musician, like Bob French or Phil Frazier!

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:03 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, you guys are right, I take back what I said about Lethem.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:04 (twenty years ago)

and the sculptor, because, you know, whatever.

Ha! I almost said the sculptor, too, but I couldn't think of a way to properly articulate why. Good job, Jordan.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:05 (twenty years ago)

haha

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:06 (twenty years ago)

I can't believe you discarded Ames, he's a crusty old seaman. You know the grant will be put to good use (buying booze).

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:10 (twenty years ago)

MacARRRRRthur Grant.

― jaymc (jaymc), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:12 (twenty years ago)

I'm skeptical of the pharmacist as well. Reducing errors in prescriptions is all very well and good, but it comes down to having good healthcare software and an electronic medical record, the scope of which is much bigger than pharmacies.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:14 (twenty years ago)

Pick: Julie Mehretu. Her art is fantastic, and given that she tends to conceive of stuff on a pretty grand scale, I suspect something interesting will come of this.

― Douglas (Douglas), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 21:57 (twenty years ago)

fuck, lost my post

too reconstruct, don't know or feel comfortable speaking abt most but Lethem has always struck me as someone I like more in theory than practice and holy shit! I'm psyched abt Julie Mehretu! First and most importntaly her works are stunning and second ETHIOPIA REPRAZENT!!!

― H (Heruy), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 22:03 (twenty years ago)

Wow, Colson Whitehead got a MacArthur grant? I wonder what he did with it.

The list of music recipients is pretty crazy too, I didn't know that the Vandermark thing was preceded by, like, a million out-jazzers and modernists getting grants.

― Jordan (Jordan), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 22:08 (twenty years ago)

Lethem's done well, but he's hardly super-rich. It's still books we're talking about, and the amount of books he sells vs. the amound of ink he gets might surprise you. Guy has worked incredibly hard for many years, he desesrves it. At least he writes books instead of making internet posts about more talented people than himself all day long.

― shookout (shookout), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 22:14 (twenty years ago)

Yes, but my point is that a chemist or biologist (or even the historian) can use the money for research, the documentary filmmaker needs the award and more for her films.

The questionable ones are the artist grants (and this assumes that all MacArthur grants are the even $500k, if different amounts are awarded that changes things) and most of all the writer grant. What's a writer going to use the money for in order to fund his 'genius'?

― milozauckerman (miloaukerman), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 22:25 (twenty years ago)

I'd like to see an award with the citation, "Unknown, unaccomplished, but well thought of by his friends and allegedly much smarter than he appears, M.V. will likely use some of his windfall to buy a convertible, a faster computer and a gleaming espresso machine."

― M. V. (M.V.), Tuesday, 20 September 2005 22:27 (twenty years ago)

hes got harper collins money and hes in the new yorker, he doesnt strike me in the preview of the grant.

i love the violin maker, the seaman and meithua(sp)

― anthony.easton, Wednesday, 21 September 2005 03:53 (twenty years ago)

alright! Aaron Dworkin's on there! he'd always be on michigan NPR. primarily does music classes & performances to teach classical music to black & latino kids.

― kingfish superman ice cream (kingfish 2.0), Wednesday, 21 September 2005 05:46 (twenty years ago)

Haha, it looks like all of my picks and discards (incl. Lethem) won their grants:

http://www.macfound.org/programs/fel/winners_overview.htm

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 26 September 2005 20:30 (twenty years ago)

Oh, I'm an idiot, for some reason when this thread started I thought that not all of those people were actually getting grants.

― Jordan (Jordan), Monday, 26 September 2005 20:51 (twenty years ago)

three months pass...

Pick: Julie Mehretu. Her art is fantastic

I'm just discovering her, and I love this. It seems like she's making pictures of the weather patterns of emotion/perception.

― Dominique (dleone), Wednesday, 18 January 2006 19:45 (twenty years ago)

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