On Wednesday, The Stranger gave out cakes to the artists they selected, as they have done every year since 2003, as Geniuses. This years recipients are filmmaker Lynn Shelton, author Sherman Alexie, arts organization Implied Violence, playwright Paul Mullin and visual artist Wynne Greenwood. The award comes with $5,000 and is chosen arbitrarily by the staff at The Stranger.

No disrespect intended to the other Geniuses but Greenwood's selection is the one that pleases me the most. She's probably best known for her brilliant and hilarious Tracy + The Plastics – a DIY electro-pop band that has Greenwood playing the parts simultaneously of frontwoman Tracy, keyboardist Nikki and drummer Cola.

The last thing I knew she did was another musical project called Libber, who I remember seeing open for Team Dresch's reunion about 2 years ago but wasn't sure what she was up to these days.

In a post on Slog today that came pretty damn close to making me tear up, theater editor Brendan Kiley wrote:

Wynne teaches art to kids (who’ve been convicted of crimes) at Southeast Youth and Family Services in Columbia City. [Art editor] Jen Graves texted her, she came outside, saw the cake, turned away, then turned back with tears in her eyes and hugged Jen. “You have no idea what this means,” she said. “Now I can make art again.”

If you're unfamiliar with Tracy + The Plastics but curious (and you should be), I'd suggest starting with the Culture for Pigeon album, which is an album that also includes a DVD of the "band".

Congratulations to all of the Geniuses and if you want to deliver congratulations to the Geniuses in person, the celebration will be at the Moore Theater on Saturday, September 13.

Here's a video of Tracy + The Plastics playing in Olympia in 2002 or 2003.