June 2008 Archives
I was reading a news article today about trucker strikes in Spain, and at the very bottom of the article it mentioned that workers of the French rail company SNCF are also striking.
The very moment I read 'SNCF', my brain played back their station chime. We heard the chime so many times on our European tour that it drove me mad. I remember thinking "if I hear that chime one more time, I'm going to kill someone!!"
But today when I "heard" the chime, I felt nostalgic about it! I hadn't thought about it since we got back, until today... So I looked it up and found it here. Listening to this mp3 really takes me back, it was pretty crazy hearing announcements all the time and having no clue what was being said.
I also found this song which is a remix of the chime... kinda cool.
If sometime last month you had walked up and asked me "Jake, who is your hero?" I would have said "Hmmm... Dunno that I have one..." If you asked me the same question today, I could answer you in a second. Sadly it took his death for me to realize who that person is.
Tim Russert of NBC's Meet the Press fame was the person in the public eye that I most looked up to. His sudden death hit me really hard, and my reaction surprised me. So, I thought about it... what was it about this guy that meant so much to me?
If I had to sum it up, I'd say it was his passion for life. You could tell that he absolutely loved his job. He had a boyish enthusiasm for politics that was absolutely infectious. The level of professionalism and detail that he brought to his job made it a pleasure to watch him work.
The round-table discussions he hosted on Meet the Press didn't feel like a TV show, it felt like a window in on a group of friends hanging out and chatting. Tim's enthusiasm was plain as day, he'd say things like "what a race!" or "can you believe we get paid for this year?" And it felt exactly that way when watching him, like I got to watch him get paid to play!
His interviews had a completely different tone than the round-table discussions. He'd ratchet down the boisterousness and focus his energy to laser-like precision. It was incredible to watch him cut away the spin, and drill down to 'just the facts.' Interviews always looked so grueling for his guests, but never biased or unfair. And somehow, even during a line of tough questioning, Tim never seemed against his guests. It felt like he was simply providing his guests an opportunity to say what they truly feel about the current topic.
So now Tim Russert is gone, and that makes me sad. I'll miss the personality and enthusiasm he brought to politics, but I do have one consolation... When I moved to Australia six months ago, I was no longer able to watch the cable news channels on a daily basis. I could still get Meet the Press as a video podcast, but one hour a week was not enough for me. So, I turned to the familiar faces that would pop up week after week on Meet the Press. Their frequent appearances meant, in my mind, that Russert vouched for these people. So now I read articles by Maureen Dowd, Eugene Robinson, and David Brooks and I download Gwen Ifill's Washington Week podcast each week. Tim Russert is no longer here to bring these folks all together, but he showed me where to go for continuing insight and analysis.
If it's Sunday, it's still Meet the Press... but it'll never be quite the same.
