Surreal Nimrod Nation?
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Surreal Nimrod Nation? Posted on Dec 7 2007 at 7:29pm by It's a tad bizarre--I watch this series and then, as a resident of Gogebic County, find myself tuning into the clothing, the accents and the lifestyles more than ever before.
I watch the show like the rest of the world--through this camera. I see the shots of the naked trees...the snowstorms and high snowbanks...the beat up pickup trucks. And then I turn off the t.v...walk outside and see it all right there around me. "Wait a minute," I say to myslef. "This isn't about some separate group of people somewhere...this really is about us!".
I was just in Watersmeet last week and still find it surreal to think that this is the same landscape that's being broadcast into thousands of homes across the land.
And let me give a shout out to Dr. Steven Fiorucci, whose office sits on the main drag in Watersmeet (hiway 45) right next to the school!! A friend...and the best physician in the western U.P. (if not in the Upper Midwest)!
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RE: Surreal Nimrod Nation? Posted on Dec 16 2007 at 7:27pm by Huh? I don't get it! What's the buzz all about? These are not athletes!They couldn't even compete in larger city sports like Los Angeles and New York. Hunting? The only way this project made it to a network was because of the people behind the scenes. This story is garbage! RE: Surreal Nimrod Nation? Posted on Dec 18 2007 at 12:01am by I believe this story is about life and basketball in a small town. Watersmeet has under 200 students from 9-12 grade. No, they can't beat NY and LA basketball teams but I bet if you dropped off a gang of inner city punks in Watersmeet they wouldn't last the day.
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RE: Surreal Nimrod Nation? Posted on Dec 19 2007 at 8:38pm by The reason this is a series on an independent film channel is that the majority of the folks who are viewers of this channel have NO idea what folks in small town America are like. To that demographic of viewers (upper middle class urban dwellers) this series is like an anthropological film of exotic "others." People like the folks depicted in Nimrod Nation are the equivalent of the Indian Nations that are just barely NOT marginalized in this series.. that would be my only problem with the series.... the attempt to exoticize the Blackfoot boy who plays on the school basketball team (Brian).
As for me, I grew up in a small town JUST like Watersmeet (and I've been to Watersmeet many times). I love the cohesive, gossipy, monoculture of little towns. My town is Hayward, Wisconsin, which is now an "up north" boutique destination and not the gritty, beautiful, ice fishing place that Watersmeet is.
Mary at STONELAKE PHOTOGRAPHY [www.stonelakephotography.com]RE: Surreal Nimrod Nation? Posted on Dec 20 2007 at 3:55pm by Well, truth be told Watersmeet ain't THAT remote. It sits just across the border from a sizeable summer recreational region that makes up most of northeastern Wisconsin. Lots of lakes...lots of money over there. In the summer this area floods with families from the Chicago, Green Bay and Milwaukee areas.
Though the basketball players from LA or NYC might out-perform the kids here, I would bet you that if you dropped both groups into the middle of the winter (or summer) woods and left them....then came back a week later to see which group was still left standing...the city kids would be crying slush. As one nationwide article proclaimed, living aorund here can be very hard in ways that other people don't understand (and, to be fair, that can probably be said about many communities in some unique way). But honestly...my guess is that there are probably lots and lots of people who have never had to change an alternator in a car in minus twenty degrees F (no wind chill) ...or had their snowmobile break down on the trails and had to hoof it back to town in a stinging, white-out blizzard
RE: Surreal Nimrod Nation? Posted on Dec 21 2007 at 6:36pm by What they did show was how a small community can come together for one thing, basketball. That is all some small towns have is one thing that will bring them to agree on something, winning. I watched that with my home town, we all disagree with views, politics and beliefs but once week for 12 weeks we all come together and agree on one thing, being number 1 and the next day we talk about it. People like to feel good and that is what happens when you support the same team. Nimrod Nation is a great example of America.
RE: Surreal Nimrod Nation? Posted on Dec 20 2007 at 4:35pm by I am in awe of Brett Morgan!!! I stumbled onto Nimrod Nation and was immediately swept-back 40 years to my roots in the central UP. Watersmeet is viewed through the same gritty, unpolished lens that is buried in my minds eye! With regards to the people and issues my emotions are all over the boards. I found myself totally involved in the personal interplay portrayed in this film. Good stuff - great job!!!
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