Heidi McDonald
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I need to get something off my chest, folks. It involves the portrayal of Pittsburgh in Daisy Jones and The Six. I was born and raised there, and lived through the 1970's there. /🏮
11:08 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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Heidi McDonald
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In response to Heidi McDonald.
First: They could have added so much depth here, rather than just a Steelers pennant on the basement wall. There were major reasons why working-class people wanted to leave at that point in time. Steel mills were closing. It was an exodus by working-class folks.
11:09 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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Heidi McDonald
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In response to Heidi McDonald.
Second: About that pennant on the basement wall. It would not be a pennant. Anyone who has been a Steelers fan in the last 50 years knows it would be a Terrible Towel.
11:10 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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Heidi McDonald
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In response to Heidi McDonald.
Third: That their signature cheer when things go right is placing their hands in the middle and all yelling PITTSBURGH is ridiculous. Back then, the Pirates, Penguins, and Steelers were all on fire at the same time. We called it "City of Champions." This is what they'd yell.
11:12 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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Heidi McDonald
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In response to Heidi McDonald.
Fourth: They clearly just looked on a map and chose the name of a neighborhood for these guys to be from. I don't personally remember Hazelwood being a good neighborhood, even back then. Bloomfield or the South Side would have been the ticket.
11:13 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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Heidi McDonald
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In response to Heidi McDonald.
If you are writing and need a city, and you choose one randomly, and all you do is choose a neighborhood on its map and look up the name of its sports team, you are doing that city and its people a disservice, and it's lazy writing.
11:34 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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Heidi McDonald
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In response to Heidi McDonald.
Talk to locals, visit there if you can, GET CONTEXT. Context creates believability when you're storytelling. It's as important as worldbuilding is to a D&D game. Give the story a reason for the characters to be from a certain place and time.
11:36 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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Heidi McDonald
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In response to Heidi McDonald.
In Daisy Jones and The Six, the band wants to get out and go to LA because it's a recording mecca. They missed an excellent opportunity to establish that this time and place held an important context: the exodus because of closing steel mills. People struggling with whether to stay, where to go.
11:38 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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Heidi McDonald
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It could have been WAY more emotionally affecting to have these guys' families decide they needed to leave because of mill closures, forcing the band members to figure out what they would do next. That's what you miss when you fail to seek context.
In response to Heidi McDonald.
11:40 AM - Apr 14, 2023 (Edited)
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Heidi McDonald
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In response to Heidi McDonald.
It was SO important that our sports teams were doing that well all at once because Pittsburgh had been knocked down from the mills closing. It was a scary, sad, hopeless time, and those teams gave us something to celebrate when it was sorely needed. THAT'S why they would've yelled CITY OF CHAMPIONS.
11:46 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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Heidi McDonald
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In response to Heidi McDonald.
It was something that gave us pride and resilience. I'm proud that Pittsburgh did bounce back as a center for healthcare, technology, and higher education. But it took years, and in the 70s, the zeitgeist was much, much different, and the show just completely missed this. It's unfortunate. /end rant
11:48 AM - Apr 14, 2023
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