I’m back!
I’m back in Atlanta, I’m back to my normal routine, and I’m back to work at 11Alive.
The Olympics suddenly seem so long ago.
But the 2016 Summer Games remained a remarkable event, both for viewers at home and for those of us who got to experience it on the ground in Rio. I’m taking the week off from blogging, but in the meantime, here’s a look back at every entry of mine from these past Olympics:
This assignment is not normal.
I’ve said that before, right?
In fact, I have probably detailed it quite a bit in this space over the past few weeks. I have discussed how this three-week Olympic experience affects my diet, sleep, and health.
But I probably have not described much of the minutiae.
Here, then, is this list. As my assignment winds down (I leave Monday following the closing ceremonies), I bring you 16 odd observations from covering the 2016 Olympics:
A few years ago, I went with my sister and a good friend on a three-day hike of the Grand Canyon. At the outset, our guide gave us each a bag of snacks – greasy stuff like Fritos and corn nuggets. We canvassed the snack bags with some apprehension over the sheer unhealthiness of the products inside.
Our guide, perhaps sensing our bafflement, paused and then said with a smile:
“Enjoy it. It’s the only time you’ll be able to eat this stuff without worrying.”
His point was clear. For the next three days, we would be scaling mountains, carrying backpacks, and burning massive amounts of calories. We wouldn’t just want those snacks, he was saying; we would need the empty carbs to stay nourished.
I thought about that conversation the other day in Rio as I stared at my dinner plate of fried fish, egg noodles, and French fries.
Surely, this isn’t healthy, I thought. But I need to stay nourished.
Such is the state of mind at the Olympics, where I have essentially hit the halfway point of a three-week assignment. Several days into Week 1, I noticed my belt felt a little looser than normal; I quickly realized I had already lost enough weight to drop a whole buckle. I also saw my daily step counts reaching the 15,000 mark and my daily sleep count dropping toward the five-hour mark.
I knew then I needed to eat more frequently – and more heftily – than I had for the first few days.
The Olympics have just begun, but I am nearing my halfway point.
Tuesday marks the tenth day since I touched down in Rio. In that time I have worked for nearly 150 hours and slept for maybe 50. I have collected some pins, held a silver medal, and watched one of the most exciting sporting events I can remember seeing live.
In short, the assignment has been extraordinary in just about every way imaginable.
I always aim during these trips, as with any story, to take you with me as much as possible. I try to provide, through my stories, social media posts, and blog entries, an understanding and perspective of what I see on the ground.
With that in mind, I offer 10 observations from my first ten days at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro:
1. Rio is as picturesque as we hear. Put the Olympics aside for a second. As a vacation destination, Rio is pretty impressive. Between the beach, the mountains, the sights, and the food, a tourist can definitely find a week’s worth of activity in this vibrant city.
2. Brazilian food, when I get to eat it, is outstanding. For the most, I eat whatever is served in our workspace at the NBC commissary. But every so often, I get to dine at a legit Brazilian restaurant. Whenever I do, I love what I eat.
I can barely believe it, but I have already been in Brazil for nearly a week. In that time, I have done multiple reports and made numerous posts to Facebook and Twitter, cataloging some of Rio de Janeiro’s most iconic sights and elaborate Olympic venues.
But nothing has gained as much attention as a seemingly innocuous Tweet about a Brazilian culinary staple.
My first coxinha! It’s like a chicken hush puppy … and it’s delicious. (That’s @Dave_Schwartz photobombing) pic.twitter.com/cF5jlm8I8b
— Matt Pearl (@MattPearl11) August 3, 2016
On Wednesday, a large group of us went on a day-long tour of the city, and midway through we stopped at the famous Selaron Steps. As we wrapped up and awaited our buses, one of my colleagues began talking with a Rio resident and pointed at an item in her hand from a street vendor.
It was a coxinha.
I had no idea what a coxinha was, but my colleague described it as a chicken hush puppy. Then she started passing it around.
I had to try … and I’m glad it did, because it was delicious. Within minutes, I posted the proof of my culinary victory to Twitter. It received a few likes and re-Tweets but quickly sank into the ether, like nearly every other Tweet, never to surface again.
Except it did.
Every week, I shine the spotlight on some of the best storytelling in the business and offer my comments. “3 Great Stories of the Week” will post every Monday at 8 AM.
It isn’t easy to figure out which foods contain sugar (5/21/16, New York Times): I found myself taken this week by the New York Times.
I think it’s easy to overlook the consistently strong and thorough reporting provided by the third-largest newspaper in the country. I do not consider myself a loyal Times reader, but I regularly find an article or two every week that increases my knowledge or shifts my perspective on a given subject.
This past week, I read three.
In this example, Margot Sanger-Katz of the Times’ Upshot series discusses the new FDA nutrition labels and their increased emphasis on “added sugar”. She breaks down the many sneaky and unhealthy ingredients that often find their way into seemingly nutritious products, and she even provides two lists of ingredients that, in her words, “really just mean added sugar”. This is a deceptively simple presentation, providing insights and takeaways in a compact package about a dietary issue that affects all of us.
Every week, I shine the spotlight on some of the best storytelling in the business and offer my comments. “3 Great Stories of the Week” will post every Monday at 8 AM.
Hit charade (October 2015, The Atlantic): How much do you want to know about how a chef prepares your meal? What about how a litany of behind-the-scenes employees prepare your favorite songs?
The answers to the latter come from this absorbing article, written by Nathaniel Rich for The Atlantic (with a major hat-tip to author John Seabrook, whose book The Song Machine supplies much of Rich’s material). With no concern for spoiling or party-pooping, Rich dives into the factories that produce, with seeming cold-hearted machinery, an increasing number of the hits that grace the Billboard charts.
Much of this story’s success derives from its thoroughness; Rich, through Seabrook, dives into the subject with great detail. It shows in paragraphs like this, including some wit from a writer basically saying Santa Claus isn’t real:
Pop hitmakers frequently flirt with plagiarism, with good reason: Audiences embrace familiar sounds. Sameness sells. Dr. Luke in particular has been accused repeatedly of copyright infringement. His defense: “You don’t get sued for being similar. It needs to be the same thing.” (Dr. Luke does get sued for being similar, and quite often; he has also countersued for defamation.) Complicating the question of originality is the fact that only melodies, not beats, can be copyrighted. This means a producer can sell one beat to multiple artists.
Every week, I shine the spotlight on some of the best storytelling in the business and offer my comments. “3 Great Stories of the Week” will post every Monday at 8 AM.
Hundreds gather in Roseburg to mourn shooting victims (10/2/15, KING-TV): On its own — and, really, that’s all that matters — this is a powerful story of the upsetting, unfiltered emotions of a community after last week’s school shooting in Oregon.
What makes it more impressive, from a behind-the-scenes standpoint, is how quickly this story was produced: from start to finish, in 70 minutes.
KING5 reporter Alex Rozier and photographer Dan Renzetti were dispatched to Oregon to find compelling stories, and they discovered one here in a candlelight vigil at a nearby park. Renzetti makes some beautiful maneuvers in his shooting and editing; I found particularly poignant his allowing a candle to naturally light one interview subject. Rozier writes the piece with care and context.
I would love to hear their takes on this, but I imagine the compressed time frame forced a certain level of precision and focus. Regardless, Rozier and Renzetti produce a package that brings home the emotions of a tragic situation.
My diet has taken a turn for the … abnormal.
Today I hit the halfway point of my Olympics trip to Sochi, eleven days since touching down in the Russian resort town.
And food, in my life, has never been more functional.
Let me be clear: normally, I love food. Good food. I love trying cuisines of all nations and replicating them in my kitchen. I love picking out a top selection on Yelp or OpenTable and giving it a try. I love visiting places that have deep culinary traditions.
I also eat consistently. I rarely miss a meal, and I eat various snacks throughout the day to satisfy my wide-beyond-its-years appetite.
Now, I eat to stay nourished, and I eat with the goal of not being hungry for the foreseeable future.
Every week, I will shine the spotlight on some of the best storytelling in the business and offer my comments. “3 Great Stories of the Week” will post every Monday at 8 AM.
I’m back.
After two weeks of vacation and four fill–in–the–gap blog posts, I return with fresh Telling The Story content, starting with three great stories from this past week.
And in the spirit of vacation, I have chosen stories on the opposite side of serious.
Perhaps I am speaking too broadly. After all, the stories in question deal with millions of dollars, ancient traditions, and behind-the-scenes heartache. But mostly, these are not front-page matters. They are in-depth looks at lighter fare.
How Bobby Bonilla landed the luckiest baseball contract ever (7/1/13, Celebrity Net Worth): This is one of those stories that actually ran a full month ago — but that I saw last week for the first time.
Bobby Bonilla is a former Major League Baseball star who these days, despite having long ago ended his career, receives a million-dollar check every July from the New York Mets. Sports aficionados know all about the famous contract, but few people know about how it came to be.
Enter Brian Warner of Celebrity Net Worth.
Warner details the behind-the-scenes details of Bonilla’s deal, including the unlikely role of notorious Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff. This is not the best-written article you will ever see, but it is informative and thorough. Sometimes, for matters like this, “informative” and “thorough” are what make the difference.