the groundhog day project

"Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known." - Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters Today I mostly finished a draft of my thesis. Gotta add a couple things tomorrow, check some formatting, then hand it off to my committee for comments. Officially, I turn it in in two weeks. Defend it a couple weeks after that. So, today, I was writing about how a blogger can deliberately manipulate their public identity, become the words. High Fidelity , which is really just a placeholder as I get to tomorrow--Day 1000 as well as the end of the main part of my thesis writing. It's a big day. I imagine my world without this blog and me not being a blogger. I think about labels. Online, I can label myself whatever I would like to label myself. I can play the information game and control what you know about me. I can do my research to talk about a film thoroughly, make myself look like I know what I'm talking about even when I don't. And,...

The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her has me thinking about versions of self. More accurately, how the self we project and the self that others actually experience are probably never the same thing. Not exactly, and sometimes barely at all. Like the difference for the class clown between the class laughing at you or with you. You hope for the latter, but it's usually the former. It's like that encoding/decoding thing again --you choose how to present yourself and other people get it or they don't. The interesting moments are not when they get you wrong in a negative way--that laughing at you bit--but when they get you wrong in a positive way. Like someone likes you and you don't get why. I feel that sometimes... mostly when I'm not feeling that great about myself so maybe it's an entirely different issue. My self-esteem issues and/or depression rearing its head. (Ten minutes before Stu shows up.) I understand Eleanor a little too well I think. That need...

I spent 365 days (plus today is the 10th follow-up viewing) explaining and exploring why I chose (or, in retrospect, needed to choose) Groundhog Day for this blog. (And, I didn’t set up a recap for the past month—and those entries take more time than a single viewing—so I will recap two months next month... maybe.) If you want a good idea of what that was all about, start with Day 365 - so this will be the last time we do the groundhog together and work backward. There are some good highlights in that entry alone, with some links to past entries. Or, if you want to be able to see all of the topics ever covered, start with Day 363 - and you’d be an expert and work backward from there instead. Yesterday I argued that my discussion of films in this blog serves as a deliberate counterpart to discussion of life. I also do it because it’s fun. Officially, I’m going into my upcoming (starting in the next week or two) reread of all of my entries without a specific goal in mind. I’...

In the past 24 hours, I've watched Toy Story , Toy Story 2 and five Toy Story shorts (don't know the proper order, but they are the three "Toons" Hawaiian Vacation , Small Fry and Partysaurus Rex ; Toy Story of Terror! and Toy Story that Time Forgot ). For the record, I have never seen more than a couple minutes of the Buzz Lightyear of Star Command cartoon. Right now Toy Story 3 is playing. The "end" of the feature story, of course, leads into those shorts; they are all set after the toys become Bonnie's. Still, it is an ending of a sort of the story of these toys. (Those shorts focus more on other characters more than, say, Woody or Buzz (except Small Fry ) or Jessie (though the climax of Toy Story of Terror! does depend on her). Instead (taking the order above), they focus on Barbie and Ken (minor nitpick: Barbie and Ken stay at Sunnyside at the end of Toy Story 3 , so they really shouldn't be with Bonnie's toys), a fast food restau...

I happened upon a copy of John Hughes: A Life in Film at the bookstore today--seriously, I went there to see if they had LEGO minifigures, didn't even go to look at books--and I noticed this scanning through it: I already wanted to write about the clothing in this film, from Barry Manilow-wardrobe-raiding Assistant Principal Vernon's suit to John Bender's denim jacket with its various pins--and I really wished I could have seen some of his pins better on the bigscreen last night but the only one that ever really gets near the camera is the NOT SAVED pin on his glove. These characters are quite deliberately defined by their clothing and their general appearance. And, there really isn't much to be said about the character types and what they wear that hasn't been time and time again--not that that stops me usually. What I think is notable outside of the costumes themselves in The Breakfast Club is two things: these characters try on parts of each others cost...

A good chunk of what I am about to write, I figure, goes out to near-future me, writing away on his master's thesis. Don't fret. Don't be discouraged. This writing thing, after all, is what you do. My week with Across the Universe and my month with movie musicals comes to an end tonight. And, a part of me kinda wants to stay here, tucked away in the fantasy of it all. In the world of the musical, anything is possible and even heartbreak comes with a nice song and dance number. Well, maybe not dance. Three of the four musicals this month were built on existing songs, existing thoughts and feelings, existing emotional experiences... well, really, all four were built on existing thoughts and feelings and emotional experiences. Every movie is, musical or not. We can live vicariously in a film best when more parts of it are just close enough to be relatable to our realities. And when it's a musical we get to relate ourselves into, to commit a sort of method participation...

Yesterday 's entry was, I think, incomplete. And, I think I did that on purpose. When writing about becoming something, becoming someone , it's hard to put a finishing touch on the piece. Like life itself, it's open ended. Even after you die, if there was anyone who knew you, who you were changes depending on who's looking back, and in what context. Don Lockwood actually doesn't change a whole lot over the course of the movie. He begins as a star and ends still as a star. The guy in his Dora Bailey story--as opposed to the guy he presents himself as--that guy seems like someone who could already appreciate a girl like Kathy. What really changes about Don is his public persona. Maybe. Similarly, though Cosmo's job changes, from humble piano player to the guy in charge of music, Cosmo himself--he doesn't really change. He's still the same guy at the end of the movie that he was at the beginning of it. Lina gets the opportunity to be pushy, but her per...

John McClane is "a New York Cop." His label makes him who he is. It defines him. It keeps him from moving to California to be with his wife. His wife's label: "Gennaro, Holly." (also, Genn e ro, movie mistake.) Her label paints her as a single woman, available to do business with Nakatomi clients. It also invites--even though he actually knows better--Harry Ellis to hit on her. The reality of her being married is less important to her day-to-day life than the "reality" of who she presents herself as. Goffman's presentation of self or something similar that I've referenced before... Insert that here (as I noted yesterday , I'm away from my binders and working on two devices which limits on-the-spot research.). We are who we say we are, until our actions prove otherwise. Through Die Hard , McClane remains a New York cop. Holly, on the other hand changes, giving her name as McClane at the end of the movie... which is actually rather wro...