the groundhog day project

It has been a good long while since I have connected a film to impromptu quotations... For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about, the usual setup for the impromptu speaking event at our speech tournaments--I'm a coach, and we just had two tournaments in two days this weekend--is you get a quotation, and you use that as a prompt for a 5(-ish) minute speech after 2(-ish) minutes of prep. During phase one of this blog, when I was watching Groundhog Day every day, several times after a tournament weekend, I would take a sheet of the quotations we had and link them to the film because when I was a competitor and participated in that event I used Groundhog Day as an example in nearly every round. Anyway... I judged the final round of impromptu today and instead of quotations, per se, competitors were given a choice of three meme-ish images. So, I'm looking over them and on speaker two's sheet, I see this one: Now, it really is not that great a line. But, it...

There were 6 speech (and 2 debate) rounds today. I judged all 6. Mostly it was interpretation, but I also judge on round of impromptu. You may recall, if you've been following this blog long enough, that I've tied Groundhog Day to impromptu quotations before... Here , here , here & here and here & here , and here & here . Today's round was run differently than those previous ones--I won't bore you with the details, but it only had one quotation and competitors came in one at a time. So, this should be easy. The quotation was: "If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent could ever get done." - Ludwig Wittgenstein First of all, it was sad how competitors butchered Wittgenstein's name. Second of all, the interpretation is simple-- But, I neglected to mention some recent... developments (though that seems like an inappropriate word for some of what I am about to mention) at the Groundhog Day Project . 1. As I mentioned yeste...

This is like part four: written in a lounge area on the University of Utah campus. Just judged some informative speeches, not judging this round. So, it's time to explain what the sticky wet dreams referred to. First up is sticky . Really, it's stick and it's not that exciting. In fact, having just checked the transcript of the movie, it's not exciting at all. I thought I had a line wrong in the transcript. When Phil describes "the same old schtick" of the Gobbler's Knob bit, he says "the guy comes out with a big stick and raps on the door." I thought I had it wrong--something like the guys comes out and raps on the door with a big stick. Nothing major. But, I want my transcript to be as accurate as possible. The version I shared here has already undergone some changes--well, the changes were made to my annotated copy, anyway. Interestingly, I didn't misplace the stick but I did leave out the and . So, there is something to fix. But, as...

Linking Groundhog Day to impromptu quotations--as I did here , here and here & here and here & here -- yesterday and the day before and it is not going as... I guess you could say smoothly. It's not going as smoothly as other days. I'm getting bogged down in details and the picking of nits--which obviously is not like me at all. As a regular reader of this blog, you would understand that I never obsess about anything to the point of picking it apart until it dies. Seriously though, how does something get labeled as a Danish Proverb when it is neither Danish nor a Proverb? But, then there's a bigger problem; spend too much time on "random" quotations and I miss the boat on larger things I could be doing. Like spending four days revisiting eternal recurrence or deja vu, or a whole week on some other topic... perhaps deja vu. I mean, just because Carl Sagan supposedly once said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known," does...

Was too tired to do much linking of Groundhog Day to impromptu quotations--as I did here , here and here & here and here & here -- yesterday . So, now for some more: "What we obtain too cheap[ly] we esteem too little. It is dearness only that gives everything its value." - Thomas Paine An obvious one. What Phil Connors gets out of his life pre-loop or the early days of the loop are gains too easily gotten. He has shallow relationships. He steals money and (presumably) spends it absurdly. He Phil Connors Nancy rather than actually try to ask her out properly (which she might have said "yes" to). It is the stuff he gets later in the loop, the stuff he has to put real effort into, that holds "dearness." His ice sculpting, his piano playing, his saving of lives-- (Note: I do not include learning French, though one could argue it belongs on the list... one would be a presumptuous idealist, and maybe a moron, but one could argue it) --this i...

Today I will be once again linking Groundhog Day to various quotations used in an impromptu round at today's speech tournament (this one down in Long Beach)... as I did here , here and here & here and here & here . "Life is a challenge - meet it. Life is a song - sing it. Life is a dream - realize it. Life is a game - play it. Life is love - enjoy it." - Bhagawan Sri Sathya Sai Baba This quotation (like a few others I saw today) is almost too easy because it is so broad. But, I could make it (relatively) difficult by breaking it down. There are five parts to it. Groundhog Day links to each of those. Phil's life (both pre-loop and in-loop... and post-loop if I was right here ) is definitely a challenge. His good days, his bad days--they all take work. Even his worst days--the breaking-of-the-alarm-clock days and the suicide days--take work. He doesn't just hit a snooze button; he destroys that clock. And, he doesn't do the obvious (and possib...

Today is the very special Day 121 recap of what’s been going on in The Groundhog Day Project since the Day 62 recap. Day 63: kindest, sweetest, prettiest was a piece about love. Day 64: there ain’t no hill or mountain we can’t climb was the time I talked about the comic book Daytripper and explained how Groundhog Day leads to nuclear war. Day 65: it’s all one big crapshoot anyhoo is the entry in which I deal with the hypothetical days after some of the various February 2nds we see in the film. Day 66: not my kind of fun is the entry in which I describe some details of the behind-the-scenes extra, The Weight of Time that’s on the DVD. Day 67: going out on a limb here involves google maps and locations used in the movie. Day 68: the people and the fun is an entry about some background extras and how they amuse me. Day 69: i don’t even have to floss is actually one of the more “important” entries, I think, starting with Phil’s lack of a need to eat and getting into h...

It continues: "You know, my faith is one that admits some doubt." - Barack Obama Faith cannot be faith, here, obviously, if I want to link this to Groundhog Day . So, the question then becomes, what is faith? Faith is when we believe stuff without evidence. Pre-loop Phil believes he's better than he is, that he deserves more than other people... Well, I'd actually probably argue that he doesn't really believe that, but I think he would think he believes it. Contrary to the quotation, I don't think Phil's "faith" then allows for doubt. But, the loop changes that. It breaks down his barriers, his defenses, and gives him a whole lot to doubt about who he believed he was. But, that is cheating, because that isn't what the quotation is about. The quotation, I think, when taken on its own, suggests that faith should always admit doubts. I think this is actually a bad impromptu quotation, though, because it provides no conclusion with which t...

I interrupted the "impromptu" tradition--previously here , here and here (that last one spilled into a part two )--last week to answer the obvious question people ask me about this blog: why? (To be fair, that's not usually the first question; the first question is something along the lines of "you're doing what?" with a sort of shocked, confused tone.) Today, I will not be interrupting... I don't think. I will be attempting to once again link impromptu speaking prompts to Groundhog Day . "Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons." - Bertrand Russell I think it's necessary to broaden this one right off the bat to link it to Groundhog Day since, obviously, this film has next to nothing to do with patriotism. But, if we broaden this out to something bigger, it connects. See, I think this quotation is dealing not exclusively in "patriotism" but all -isms. When we subscribe to -isms, we set asi...

Continuing from yesterday , like I have done twice before , it's impromptu quotation tie-in night. I meant to do all 21 quotations from round 2 of impromptu from yesterday's tournament, but I was apparently quite tired. I actually don't usually get so exhausted from a tournament as a coach as I used to get as a competitor, but it was a long three days. I've got a few weekends off now before another 3-day tournament. In the meantime, The Groundhog Day Project continues. "What I like in a good author is not what he says but what he whispers." - Logan Pearsall Smith. To tie this to Groundhog Day the first step is to broaden it a bit so it isn't all about authors--our quiet actions are more genuine than our louder actions, I might say. Our best actions are not the ones about which we take the time to boast. Pre-loop Phil Connors is the kind of guy who would boast about most anything he could. Rita calls him incredible--and just did this as the movie play...