i'm just gonna show you this one thing and kick you right out

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I'm looking for something new tonight. It's the 2nd of the month so I'm watching Groundhog Day as has been the usual since phase three of this blog. I want to catch some new detail, to revel in something other than the same resumptive nostalgia that comes every month. Had I known I didn't have much specific to say tonight going in, I might've planned for a recap day, but on short notice, recap days are hard.

So, I sit here, waiting for something interesting to catch my eye--or my ear; I actually noticed a line early in the film that I had wrong in my transcript and had worded wrongly as the title of an entry--Day 180. Kenny tells Phil, "Look, Rita thinks it would be a great idea to stay around for some of the other events, get some incredible footage." I had it as "it would be great to stay" which is just unfathomably incorrect and I, of course, tore my clothes and wailed with shame when I noticed... Or I just immediately set to fixing it on that old post, then browsed the transcript for a line to use today that I hadn't used yet, and which jogged up something to talk about.

 

 

 

 

 

It's been a strange--I don't know--week, I guess. Spring break for me last week, and the school where I'm teaching this semester also had today off, and I have Tuesdays off, so break is still going tomorrow. Sick people here at home, so I kept figuring I'd end up sick during the break. Instead, I managed to see some movies--

--and watched movies for this blog, of course--Police Academy, Romancing the Stone, The Natural. Also a bad horror film from the 70s called Cathy's Curse.

I played my last D&D game at Meltdown in Hollywood. The store closed this past weekend so last Sunday was our last game there. (It also turned out to be the last session of that particular campaign, and I had only just introduced my new character the session before.) Yesterday, we played at a new store. It was... different. The game itself was fun, but the play was different. I figure we'll get used to it.

I caught up on a lot of television this past week as well. Binged a couple Netflix shows.

I bought some books. I bought some miniatures and painted them. I made a bloodforge out of LEGO blocks--and even if one of my D&D players happens to read this blog today, I will assume they have no idea what that means. I guess I also can't explain it here for any of the rest of you, but it was the first time in a while that I made anything out LEGO blocks; I've been slacking in that regard--

Stop the presses!

Or stop the rambling, anyway. Because I did it! I just found something new.

INSERT: Montage of me loading the STARZ copy of the film I'm watching on the TV onto my phone to try to get screencaps--not allowed, so they come out black. I load my iTunes copy which is where I got a lot of my screencaps from this movie and, apparently, not allowed there anymore, either; they come out black. So, I let the movie play on my phone, bring the iPad with me to keep writing, and go to the desktop to find my old mp4 copy of the movie (not that I'm admitting to having one of those). Getting some screencaps. Eating a bit of chocolate. Refilling my drink. Making sure I've got the right images to include here. And, hoping that I can manage all this before the movie ends... Although that last image is just me typing away, the internal stuff barely coming across in my performance.

As for the new thing... Here's the thing. The extras at Gobbler's Knob don't quite match up to the extras at the Banquet or the extras in the Tip Top... Actually, a lot of the Tip Top folks do show up elsewhere, at Gobbler's Knob or at the Banquet. Like this guy who witnesses God Day--

--and awkwardly claps at the Banquet (and earned himself a goof on IMDb)--

--or the dancer I don't like, who is at the Tip Top--

--before he is at the Banquet--

--and is volunteered right away to be auctioned--


Hardly any extras manage to be in both of the big crowds. At least not obviously. Some do. And I just noticed two at Gobbler's Knob--as our protagonist Phil Connors Nancy Taylor by the gazebo.

Let’s get a better shot. The guy in the colorful jacket.

At the Banquet, you can see them dancing while Phil and Rita dance and keep getting interrupted by locals that Phil has helped.

And magically shifts about ten feet when the music stops.

But, more obviously, that's the guy who acts all weird when the auction is starting, refusing to go up on stage as if everyone is demanding it...

Actually, his dance partner does push him just before the closeup bit.

And, then there's the closeup bit. The casual viewer would be focused on Doris. I noticed people like this guy pretty early on in my long endeavor.

Tonight, I noticed that awkward guy is at Gobbler's Knob, that they teleport as the music ends, and that she does, indeed, push him to join the auction.

[Note: I did not finish getting all the screencaps ready before 1) the movie had ended or 2) I had written all the filler bits to go between the images.

Today’s reason to repeat a day forever: to catalog every extra in every film, ever, shot by shot.

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