the groundhog day project

There’s a new arrival on my shelf. That Beanie Baby Punxsutawney Phil on the lower shelf (in the photo below) was a gift from the speech team for which I am one of the coaches. It was supposed to be part of my gift basket thing at last week’s banquet but hadn’t arrived in the mail in time. I got it yesterday before class. And, since I was asked yesterday by Tracey (next year’s Vice President of our speech team) what stuff I’ve got on my Groundhog Day Project shelf (after I mentioned that this guy would end up there), I will explain what’s in the photo. Top shelf has Paul Hannam’s The Magic of Groundhog Day (which I just realized I may have called The Groundhog Day Effect in a recent blog— which I cannot seem to locate, so maybe I’m imagining it —or maybe I was referring to the concept and not the title, in which case all is well), Ryan Gilbey’s BFI critique of Groundhog Day , Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha and Thomas Moore’s Utopia for the books. In front of them is a Woodsto...

Warning: I am in the mood for meaning, apparently. Predictions show a steady low, You’re feeling just the same. But seasons come and seasons go. I’ll make you smile again. If you don’t believe take me by the hand, Can’t you feel you’re warming up? Yeah, I’m your weatherman. They say it’s gone, say winter’s done That don’t mean a thing. ‘Cause I’m the one that moves the sun For you I’d turn it into spring So when you’re feeling lonely, try to understand, Baby, I can warm you up ‘cause I’m your weatherman. The lyrics to Weatherman heard just before and after the bit inside the van on the ride to Punxsutawney. Benesh (2011) says it just "masquerades as a pop romantic love song" (p. 90). She thinks there's more to it. Obviously, the lyrics themselves give us a metaphor, winter for a low mood, spring for being happy. Benesh's take is interesting, since if we choose to link the song to the characters, we would presume this is Phil talking to Rita; he's the weatherm...

This is from yesterday : [Benesh] writes about references to eating the groundhog--Phil says he "had groundhog for lunch" and he reports about how the people of Punxsutawney "used to take the hog out and they used to eat it"--and she adds one more: "In another reference to ingesting the Other, Phil Connors once proposes toasting [to] the groundhog" (Benesh, 2011, p. 88). I don't know how it works in Benesh's circles, but whenever I have been present for a toast, we have not then eaten the person (or thing) being toasted. Still, there's a pink tab here labeled "eating groundhog." She continues: Phil Connors' desire to ingest the groundhog seems a parallel to his early hostile come-ons toward Rita, the allusion to his pelvic tilt, and to her sleeping alone and missing him, followed by his attempts to seduce her. (p. 88) Because, clearly, Phil wants to eat Rita... and I'm using "eat" in the literal sense. This is ...

There may be a scientific explanation for why groundhogs (in the wild) would actually wake up midwinter. Consider this a sequel to my entry about the origins of Groundhog Day. Groundhogs are very simple animals; Stutz (2006) tells us, “They live pretty solitary lives, are good swimmers and adequate climbers, and, when not browsing on grasses, plants, and tree bark, spend the time working on their underground network of burrows. These activities take up half their lives. They spend the other half asleep. (p. 21) He goes on to explain how “winter in the northern hemisphere can mean sparse pickings” for a plant eater like the groundhog, hence they have evolved, like many other mammals, to hibernate through the colder months because that’s “better than retiring hungry every night and a lot less work than migrating”—and here’s where Stutz is just rude—“especially if you’re a lumpy creature with stubby legs.” Then Stutz provides a lengthy explanation about the hormone melatonin. Th...

(Click on image to enlarge) Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to refrain from using words when it is a) appropriate and b) more fun.

I The thing is, maybe the time loop isn't even about Phil Connors at all. A case could be made... or rather I would now like to make the case that the time loop might... oh, I'll just say it. The time loop is about the people of Punxsutawney and it begins when they boo Punxsutawney Phil's prediction that there will be six more weeks of winter and ends when they are listen quietly but alertly to Phil Connors eloquently proclaiming more winter to be something good. Maybe Phil has to change to get to that point, but it could all come down to the people. They don't appreciate winter. And, that seems very wrong to me, considering they live where they do. You'd think they were new to cold winters. Unfortunately, the film Groundhog Day chronicles not the learning experience of the locals but only of Phil, the one stranger who knows what is going on. I imagine the god of winter is a fickle bastard, punishing the whole town and not even letting them know about it. II In al...

I keep meaning to get to more shallow topics, an overview of Bill Murray’s films maybe, or something about “I Got You Babe,” or maybe some notes on Danny Rubin’s first draft of the screenplay—I read a chunk of his book, How to Write Groundhog Day last night, including the entire first draft of the screenplay, and there is definitely some interesting stuff in there, like Phil’s “calendar” of books, Phil stalking Punxsutawney Phil with a rifle, and that twist ending (that one, I won’t say more now because I think it might be worth an entire entry in the future). But, I keep getting stuck on what Groundhog Day means. Whether it’s about the meaning within the film, man’s search for himself or some variation on that, or what the film’s popularity says about us. I mean, I’ve written whole reviews about movies before explicating what they say about the society from which they sprung. Oddly, I think Groundhog Day doesn’t hold up what are probably the actual values of, say, the average Ameri...