So as an editor, you’d think my fascination with famous people would have dulled issues ago, but looking through this week’s stories I am once again a little giddy and star-struck just getting to edit words these people once spoke to people I have talked with personally — on several occasions.

I mean, Christopher Walken? He’s so cooool! Check out the interview with him on page 6 to find out why his footwork in Fatboy Slim’s now infamous “Weapon of Choice” video is so proficient. And it turns out his characteristic diction actually is a product of a pathological disregard for things editors like me live by — periods and commas.

And then there’s the interview with everyone’s favorite dream-boat crooner, Rufus Wainwright on page 4. The problem with editing stories about singers you love is that their songs get stuck, stuck, stuck, stuck on repeat in your head every time you read through them. I think maybe I should apologize right here and now to my roommate, fellow Daily staffers, and anyone who has passed me in the street or hallway in the past three days for my perpetual tone-deaf rendition of “Vibrate.”

Last time I saw Wainwright he didn’t look nearly as waif-ish as he does in the photo we have, but they usually make him cut his hair and clean up for his album release photos. Either way, I’m looking forward to Pick-Staiger’s intimate setting and a preview of the material on Wainwright’s apparently less self-indulgent (but that’s what he does so well) second “Want” album.

Then there are Northwestern’s very own rising stars, the Music graduates who started OperaModa. The cover story on page 3 explores this post-college opera company and its attempt to bridge the awkward gap between academia and the professional world (something particularly close to my heart as a senior). These women aren’t being profiled by PBS quite yet, but all indicators point to the fact that I might soon be able to say I edited a story about them way back when.

So this is the part where I draw some larger lesson from all this musing … riiight. I guess the best thing I can come up with is this: The one thing that will almost single-handedly make people treat you like a professional is to just DO what professionals do.

Meaning if you go to an interview with THE Christopher Walken, he will answer your questions just as he would any other “journalist.” Likewise if you want to have more professional performances on your operatic resume, simply (and I use that term loosely) create an opera company for you and your friends to participate in. What I’m slowly learning from all these over-achieving graduates is that NU gives us all a solid enough background to eventually reach impressive heights in whatever field we could possibly choose — now it’s just up to us to contribute the effort and initiative.4

Medill senior Miki Johnson is the PLAY editor. She can be reached at [email protected].