Is It Possible To See Lubbock Through The Eyes Of A Visitor?

Getting lost in a rabbit hole of Lubbock videos brought up this question.

Is it possible to see Lubbock through the eyes of a visitor?  It's a pretty valid question because it feels like a few items about the Hub City are being spun by people with certain interests.  The Lubbock that is portrayed doesn't have much basis in the reality of my day-to-day life, but maybe I'm just not seeing it.

If you watch any pro-Lubbock piece out there one of the first things that's mentioned is wine. I don't really know anybody who drinks wine or makes an effort to do Lubbock wine tours. I know our wines are award-winning and shipped all over the world, but I'm not so sure it's a Lubbock thing.

The next thing always mentioned is "live music". Uhm, maybe twenty years ago. Now before you get your boot-cut wranglers bunched up, I'm not saying what we have is good, bad or indifferent, I'm just saying that it's no longer really prevalent. Do you think there are more than a half dozen places with live music on a Saturday night? What about on a Wednesday night? So yes, it's out there, but there's not a whole lot of choices.

What about the cuisine? We have tons and tons of restaurants but frightfully few non-chain restaurants. Again, there is absolutely no shortage of good places to eat, but if you're looking for a "Lubbock" experience it's not that easy to find.

Lastly, let's get to culture. Here you go: The Texas Tech Museum, The Buddy Holly Museum, The Silent Wings Museum, The Lubbock Lake Landmark, and the Ranching Heritage Center are all awesome and really could be conquered in a day or two at the most.

So what makes it good here? Maybe it's the fact that we aren't "all-in" on these things and we are instead a giant sampler plate of a bunch of good things.  I love this town but I find it absolutely weird when some p.r. firm comes in and issues a Lubbock sizzle real that is absolutely unrecognizable from the place I live.