the groundhog day project

Day Break Episode 12: "What if she's the key?" Hopper finds Damian with Nick... conversation ensues. Meanwhile, I went to the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books today, met Stephen Tobolowsky, got his autograph. And, Chad's and Rita's last name is Shelten, not Shelton. Who knew? Tobolowsky read the story "It's Not My Dog" from his 2012 collection, The Dangerous Animals Club . Hopper just ran into Margot, who apparently did not get hit by the bus today (maybe he called her offscreen to warn her). Is she the "she" in this episode's title, a little diversion from Rita? Hopper-less scene, Rita and Chad go to see Billy, Detweiler is there. Before Tobolowsky started the reading, he mentioned that he's got 2 rules for his stories: 1) they are all true and 2) they all happened to him. He said something like he's had enough of the lying "friend of a friend" and its descendant, "the internet." Apparently, the...

I won't post details just yet, but I thought this was worth sharing before I get into today's thing. Yesterday, now that I had finished critiquing and nitpicking, and occasionally insulting, Benesh, I sent her a message online. And, she messaged me back. But, that is all I will share for now (she'd only read the latest couple posts regarding her dissertation, as far as I could tell from our second round of messages). So, Day Break . Episode 9: "What if they're connected?" Episode begins with Detective Choi at Garza's house. On the one hand, it is not particularly jarring to have Hopper-less scenes, but on the other hand, given the premise, there is no real logical sense to including them except to avoid some exposition later to cover their contents. The writers of individual episodes should pay better attention. Last episode, Rita suggested Hopper has not told his sister or mother about their relationship. This episode she offers to answer his phone ...

Episode 5 of Day Break : "What if they're stuck?" Today I will be watching several episodes of Day Break , so I will try not to just list details about the plot with a comment on the time loop stuff here and there. Instead, I hope to comment on the larger use of the time loop and the show's themes. For example, Hopper's got a To Do list this morning, and he tells Rita that for the first time in a while "I see some daylight." The metaphor is simple; the time loop is Hopper (or Phil) in the dark, with all its complications, but there's light at the end of the tunnel (to mix metaphors). Speaking of which, I haven't commented on the title of the show itself: Day Break . On the one hand, the time loop seems to begin and end around daybreak (one word). When Hopper headed out of town a couple episodes ago, as the sun rose over the horizon-- Ehrmentraut (at the rock quarry, where this time they have Hopper and Rita): "Do you believe in deja vu?...

Tonight, another milestone was reached in the Groundhog Day Project --I killed one of my copies of the movie. My blu-ray copy has been "laser burned." It will no longer play. A moment of silence, please.               That is enough of that... except, with the DVD copy I can no longer see all the fissures in Phil's face. I can be alliterative, though, it seems. No biggie. I have certainly run that disk a lot of times. Now, to kill the DVD. Of course, starting next week, I'll be watching the copy on my iPad a lot while I am out of town. But, anyway, today is not a day to lament the loss of a blu-ray disk. Today is a day to come at Benesh's (2011) Becoming Punxsutawney Phil: Symbols and Metaphors of Transformation in Groundhog Day hard. I've got a deadline . I was just looking at the screen and... I miss my blu-ray. Whatever definition this is, it is a sad sad simulacrum of a much more enjoyable (read: clear and crisp) version of this film. S...

The Groundhog Day Project is, in a way, in its home stretch... really, it won't be winding down until summer time, but it's Day 251. This thing is more than 2/3 of the way complete... if it could ever be complete , that is. Since I hope to tie all of this into my thesis next year, I suppose I will have Groundhog Day as an integral part of my life well after the "Project" part is over. I wonder what I haven't done yet that I need to do. For example, other than a bit on Bill Murray , I haven't really done any actor profiles, which I thought would be obvious part of this thing--and I really should do something about Stephen Tobolowsky, if for no other reason to decipher the relationship between Groundhog Day 's Ned Ryerson and Glee 's Sandy Ryerson. I still need to finish reading Hannam's The Magic of Groundhog Day and Yoder's Groundhog Day and write about those. I will work on finishing and writing about Day Break . I keep having the urge t...

It is 10:43 PM. It is Day 250 of the Groundhog Day Project . My internet connection is a black hole of nothingness. We’ve got a new provider scheduled in a couple days. In the meantime, I cannot do what I was going to do for today’s landmark entry. It involved a TV Tropes page, some corrections, probably a few screencaps, and no mention of Benesh or Day Break . But, Phil just offered Rita his sausage… which sounds about as dirty as Bill Murray or Harold Ramis probably hoped it would more than 20 years ago when they imagined me blogging about the film. Now, the mouth full of cake, and Rita’s insult poetry. You can load the page on your own, I suppose. It’s address: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/GroundhogDay . I will celebrate Day 250 without rambling. Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to celebrate a new milestone every day, especially when that means inventing new ones.

No Day Break today. It's what I call "Sinus Day" (though I haven't had one in a while) and I think I'll be going to bed early. Phil Connors is lucky he wasn't feeling sick or having allergy issues on the day that kept repeating. That would really be a horrible curse. No Benesh today either. My eyes don't feel like reading. But, so this isn't too brief, I would mention something that occurred to me last night. I've been assuming that Groundhog Day is set in 1993. My presumption about films in general is that if a film does not specifically say in what year it is set (and it is not obviously set in some year in the distant past or future) then it is set in the present year in which it is released. Groundhog Day , filmed nearly a year earlier, was released in February 1993. The exact setting hasn't been very important mostly; after all the film is rather timeless. Maybe the only entry in which the particular year matter was the one about Phil...