Ambassador’s Mission | The Scoop

by Andrew Norman

I woke up late on Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001. From my alarm-clock radio, I heard news about some sort of explosion, but I ignored it as I hurried to dress and make it to my 9:30 a.m. Drugs and Society sociology class at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Once there, I found the doors to the building locked, so I walked back to my car. On the way, I called my dad, as I often did during that time in my life ? to prove that I was up before noon. He told me about the planes striking the World Trade Center, that the country was attacked. I raced home and watched TV for about the next two days. For my generation, it was Kennedy being shot. It was Pearl Harbor.
 
Right now, I'm typing this column from a cheap hotel room in Columbus, Ohio, watching television reports about Osama bin Laden's death ? another moment that will no doubt resonate with me forever. After 10 years, these interconnected moments deserve reflection.
 
On 9/11, I was 21 years old and had just returned from a summer teaching water sports at a boys camp in the Berkshire Mountains near Beckett, Mass. That summer offered my first experience living outside the state. And it was formative. I didn't know a soul, and had to make friends based solely on how I presented myself. I remember being hyper aware of what it meant to be a Nebraskan at that time, and trying to hide it. I didn't want to appear as a coveralls-wearing, wheat-strand-chewing, square-dancing hick ? I did my best to enunciate, disguising to some degree my casual Midwestern language (lots of “yeps”). I didn't want people to think of me, or of Nebraska, as backwards. 
 
I grew up watching the state be lampooned for this sort of simple, lazy stereotype in popular culture. And while I'm not proud of acting (or reacting) so insecurely, I didn't have enough experience in the world to know why I should have been, instead, so proud.
 
Now I do.
 
Here in this hotel room are my wife, Angie, and three other friends ? Andrew Roger, Daniel Muller and Django Greenblatt-Seay ? who are representing our state exactly as I wish I had done 10 years ago. They're doing it with confidence, hard work, creativity and humility. With not a hint of embarrassment or need for self deprecation. It's an attitude that says the rest of the country is missing out on something great. And they're creating a product that assures it's true.
 
We're closing down the third night of a 15-day tour to shoot Love Drunk videos in 13 cities with 16 different bands. It's a tour meant to produce as much awareness about Nebraska's creative class, arts community, bands and venues as it is to create visually and sonically striking videos that introduce Nebraska to some of the country's best artists in some of its most interesting locations. 
 
We've already met three bands [Everyday/Everynight in Kansas City; Cassie Morgan & the Lonely Pine in St. Louis; and Everything, Now! in Indianapolis] with hand shakes, and said goodbye with hugs. We've left them with Hear Nebraska stickers and with CDs and vinyl from local bands who donated them for this purpose. And we've offered places to stay and help booking shows in Nebraska next time they come through. By the time you read this, we'll be on our way to Pittsburgh to shoot Mariage Blanc at a bar called the Brillobox. After that, it's Philadelphia, then New York, then Providence, and so on.
 
Our plan is to release one video each weekday, starting today with Everyday/Everynight, which we shot in front of the Bloch Building at Kansas City's Nelson-Atkins Museum for of Art. You can watch it below, or at LoveDrunkStudio.com.
 

We've gotten our set-up and tear-down to a science ? everyone has his or her job, involving mic stands, mics, cables, headphones, rack equipment, the control surface, cameras, the sound check, shot planning, etc. As soon as the shoot is over, Andrew begins uploading data so that Django can edit the video during the trip to the next city. Daniel shoots some promo photos with the band, and Angie makes sure everyone within a mile radius knows about Love Drunk and Hear Nebraska. I specialize in loading equipment into the van. We're having a lot of fun. And we're excited to see what tomorrow brings. 
 
We hope you enjoy the videos, and check here each day to see the new one. We'd love it if you'd share them on Facebook and Twitter, and encourage your family, friends and coworkers to do the same. We feel confident that we're helping promote what's cool about Nebraska, building its reputation as a culturally progressive community and making small steps to turn the state into a must-stop touring destination. 
 
It might take a decade. And it will definitely require new leaders. But every hand shake greeting and hug goodbye gets us a step closer to mission accomplished.
 
* Photo by Daniel Muller
 
Andrew Norman edits Hear Nebraska. He hopes to see spontaneous parties in Nebraska streets when he returns from tour — not for him, but for the hell of it. Send hate mail and love letters to andrewn@hearnebraska.org.