Well, if you weren’t sure, the line up of movies on TV the last few days should reassure or horrify you that football season is back.
Remember the Titans, Friday Night Lights and All the Right Moves have been on TV and I’m a sucker for each and every one of them. They remind me of being a kid, being a swimmer, and Pittsburgh. Even though only All the Right Moves took place here, each reminds me of Pittsburgh’s grittiness, the seed of wanting better but not being able to leave that is in everyone born in Pittsburgh.
 Okay, that’s an awful generalization, but really, unless you’re a Frick, Mellon, or Scaife, there’s someone on one or the other side of your tree that slaved away in a steel mill, dreaming of a way out of the soot.
Pittsburgh is so different now, but things like that, the organic seediness of it, is passed on through families, like it or not.
Beyond Pennsylvania being a highschool football haven, the area, specifically Pittsburgh has turned out many successful artists. Many can barely write a best selling novel without mentioning Pittsburgh, or setting the entire thing there. Wonder Boys? Remember that one? Movie directors, broadway choreographers, they love their new homes, but do their best to get their next big show filmed in Pittsburgh.ÂÂ
There’s something wonderfully optimistic about a town that so often wallows in its weaknesses. Like the people have a step up on everyone else, because at least they know what their problem is.
Those football movies are like that. So sad, but at the same time, at least one guy goes onto do something great, to make everyone else believe they can be fantastic too.
God, I love those movies.
Sorry for the sweeping generalizations, folks, just the mood I’m in…
You know, football movies are generally very good. I don’t watch football, but the movies they make about them are good. Invincible is coming out with Mark Wahlberg – I’m taking hubs to see it.