- Last Sunday Jeff Hiller won the Emmy for Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, for his work in the HBO show Somebody Somewhere.
If you haven't seen this show, I recommend it. It follows a woman in her Kansas hometown after the death of her sister.
The show explores grief, aging, building community, navigating relationships with friends and family. It's funny, poignant, and has a lot of heart. I loved it.
Another aspect of the show I loved was the setting. Not because I'm particularly attached to Kansas (I've never been there). But because I really enjoy stories that take place in the Midwest, especially those that humanize Midwesterners instead of painting backwards caricatures of uncultured rubes from flyover country.
- Along those lines, I read a zine this week called The Story of Minot, North Dakota Punk 2001-2008. (There's also a 1989-2000 one, but it was out of stock when I placed my order.)
North Dakota is not a place many people think of as a cultural hotspot — if they think of it at all. Minot, even less so. It is North Dakota's fourth most populous city.
So I found myself a little touched when I read about how small, isolated Minot's punk scene grew, and how it eventually became known in other places in the U.S.
Despite North Dakota being a deeply red state, and despite Minot's problems - flooding, insufficient housing and infrastructure during the oil boom, economic issues after the oil bust - there were and are good people there. They were able to create a community of art, music, mutual aid.
As someone with "build community" written on my bucket list in ultra-permanent marker, I find that very beautiful. As the world's biggest apologist for the Midwest, I find it inspiring.
- Anyway, regardless of my personal feelings on the matter: the Midwest is not the place of success in the cultural imagination. You're a success story if you find your way to the coast. I'm drawn to media that challenges that.
One of my pie-in-the-sky dreams as a writer/editor is to build some type of small-time publishing project that fosters this interest. I would really love to raise up Midwestern artists and publish Midwestern stories.
Like, what does it mean to live here? Are we really trapped here in our decrepit, dusty little shattered dreams, like the movies say? What does it mean if we want to stay?
