the groundhog day project

Today is Day 1279, which means that 1278 days ago... No, that's that not true. Day 1000 , I stopped this blog. I had completed (except for a few edits required by faculty later) my master's thesis about blogging and about the presentation of identity on the Internet, and I decided a few days earlier that 1000 was a nice round number and I would finish up this thing and do something else. I tried my hand at YouTube movie reviews for a bit, tried to build a review blog , and eventually made my way back here. So, really, it was 1644 days ago that I sat down to watch Groundhog Day and write about it. Every day. For a year. And, I altered the course of my life. Now, arguably, every little decision does that. One of the points you could take from Groundhog Day . Each little decision has repercussions. I wish the shows around them were better (so I could recommend them), because Joan of Arcadia had a science fair scene and John from Cincinnati had a parking lot barbecue scene th...

A thought: I spend so much time in this blog on older movies... It used to be for practical reasons; if I had previously seen the film (and prior to this recent deconstruction, I didn't have to have seen the film numerous times) it made it easier to write about it while the movie was playing. Saved a lot of time that way. More recently, the premise has been films I have seen multiple times, especially when I was young. So, aside from the occasional new film that really offers something to add in the context of this blog, I don't say much about new films. But, I like talking about movies, old and new. I liked doing my YouTube reviews while I was doing them (and I have described before how the frustration with getting views timed badly with me getting better at editing the clips together). And, I'd like to do something like that again. I'd prefer a slightly different format (or maybe a bit of both), discussion with another person, but I never made an effort to find some...

Today, I watched Mudbound . Today I watched Columbus . Right now, I'm watching Brigsby Bear for the second time. I avoided doing any teaching work--it's technically finals week, but my classes' final speeches/debates were finished last week. I stayed home, watched some TV, those movies, and had leftover chili for dinner that I made yesterday. It was a mostly relaxing day. There was also talk of the special election in Alabama. I won't get into the details on that. It didn't go how I thought it would go, and that's a good thing. Instead, movies. These three. All of them, ever. Movies. Take Brigsby Bear , for example. It's a really dark concept that twists its way into a surprisingly optimistic, upbeat story. Guy who has been held captive his whole life, who has had one tv show to watch, produced by his abductor father, and out in the real world, all he wants is to have more of that show. Because, the fantasy that was central to the only reality he knows i...

          My daughter is in the room as I'm watching Groundhog Day --it's the 2nd of the month (and it's also her birthday today). She's reciting lines along with the characters and proclaiming that she hates the movie. Methinks she doth protest too much. Me--I'm reciting some lines, but I'm not thinking much about anything to write. Hoping for something new... And then I notice a tiny new thing; right before the snow shovel hits Phil when he's in the gas station, it hits the phone on the wall. New, sure. But, not substantial...           I'm watching, and waiting. Not in the mood for politics. Didn't see any other movies today. (I did have a stray observation about The Room , though, as I turned it on while I was writing about The Disaster Artist yesterday . The way The Disaster Artist presents the production, it's entirely inept, like they filmed scenes from only one angle, barely managed multiple takes, and in one in...

The last recap was Day 942 - what we got here is a little game of show and tell . Today is Day 1000. So, how about a quick reminder of where we've been lately. Day 943 - the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth took Murder in the First as its jumping off point, ended the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon month and was maybe the thematic end to this blog because that's where every movie was every other movie and the message was on repeat. Day 944 - i'm going out to punxsutawney was a thing I wrote for class about my pilgrimage to Woodstock, Illinois and meeting Danny Rubin, and Danny Rubin later sent me a lovely message about it on Facebook. Then I drifted. The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them 945 946 947 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Him 948 949 950 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Her 951 952 953 The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby: Them 954 955 Antichrist 956 The Squid and the Whale 957 958 959 Mrs. Doubtfire 960 961 ...

Rita’s a robot. Let’s just get that one out of the way. She’s also the kind of person who will use poetry to insult a man, which is a) annoying and b) awesome. She is also a liar. Case in point: she is not easily amazed… she claims. But: You know, just saying. Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to be amazed by even the smallest thing.

Today’s entry will contain very few words. I just wanted to compile the various YouTube videos I’ve put together for this project because, though I make them and have shared a few on Facebook , they rarely are useful here in the blog. In fact, I cannot remember having included any of them here. Note: These are not just clips from the film that I put on YouTube ; those I probably have used here when I made them. Like this one: The ones I mean to share are this one, which worked out quite well: And this one (which I’ve had to reedit twice now because for some reason the original version I put on YouTube repeated the first bit for no reason, and then when I reedited, apparently I uploaded the same version again and deleted the new one): And these two silly ones: And, I used this Doctor Who one . But, here is the latest: Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to systematically edit bits of Groundhog Day into every other movie I can find. P.S. The Groundhog Day...

I imagine the days where Phil Connors gets contemplative. Maybe it’s before he turns to depression. Maybe it’s after. And, a weird thought occurs to me—he can never fast. I mean, he can go without food for a day, sure. But, that’s it, a day. His digestive system will have food from the day before, so he probably won’t be all that hungry. I mean, yeah, when we’re used to eating regularly, we’ll get hungry after missing a meal. But, that’s not real hunger. There’s an interesting bit in Siddhartha in which Kamaswami asks Siddhartha what he has learned that he can give. Siddhartha’s response: “I can think. I can wait. I can fast.” Kamaswami asks, what good is fasting? He’s a businessman, a merchant who certainly doesn’t value the contemplative moments of life. Siddhartha explains: It is of great value, sir. If a man has nothing to eat, fasting is the most intelligent thing he can do. If, for instance, Siddhartha had not learned how to fast, he would have had to seek some kind of work t...

Then put your little hand in mine There ain't no hill or mountain we can't climb Babe, I got you babe I got you babe Sonny and Cher were living in their manager’s house when Sonny, late one night, according to Rolling Stone , woke Cher up to get her to listen to the song he’d just written on a piece of shirt cardboard. She thought it was OK but really wanted a song that modulated. So he changed the key at the bridge and woke Cher up again hours later to hear it; she was delighted. I’m not a musician, so I’m not entirely sure I understand that bit about “a song that modulated” but we all know the song. It’s simple, it’s cute and cheesy. And, it was in Groundhog Day from the beginning. Rubin put it in the screenplay, he says in How to Write Groundhog Day , …because of the way the recording ends. The song winds down with a long, soft, definitive “I – got – you – babe,” but then instead of ending, the song comes back: “I got you, babe!. I got you, babe! I got you, babe!” dri...