the groundhog day project

Yesterday was Father’s Day, but I had people over and had to write about that . I had intended to write a companion piece to the Mother’s Day one. Today will have to do. Two things: First, Phil refers to the Old Man, Jedson O’Reilly as “father” and “dad” and “pop”—something that I have always found to be a bit, well, weird. Gilbey (2004) suggests that Phil’s use of “father” specifically, “with its religious connotations, is interesting here, though it doesn’t feature in Rubin’s first revision” (p. 74). (Note: I have never read Rubin’s first revision, just Rubin’s original and Ramis’ second revision. A quick Google search just now and I still cannot find that one online. However, I just found Ramis’ third revision, it is already printing, and I will read it soon. So, I got that going for me.) Me—I hear Phil call O’Reilly “dad” and it sounds to me like that moment in Back to the Future when Marty accidentally calls George in 1955 “dad” then awkwardly tries to cover it by calling ...

Change in the world comes from individuals, from the inner peace in individual hearts. Just as ripples spread out when a single pebble is dropped into water, the actions of individuals can have far-reaching effects. --Dalai Lama, Facebook , 16 May I think we ought to be personally responsible...I think if you can take care of yourself, and then maybe try to take care of someone else, that's sort of how you're supposed to live. --Bill Murray, Squawk Box (CNBC) And I have very little to say for myself today. The mood in the room right now is sedate. Two of my kids are in their rooms, minding their own business. The third is taking her last final exam of her spring semester, her first year at college. They've all got bags packed because they are heading out of town for a week to visit their grandparents and their aunt and uncle on the other side of the country. I will miss them but I am not sad. My mood is actually pretty good. I took a break from studying today. Made a g...

Just noticed and my mind is blown by: opening scene, Phil says he's "gonna go out on a limb" then at the end of the time loop, he saves a kid who has literally gone out on a limb... Ok, my mind wasn't really blown. But, hey, if there are more examples like that, I could certainly make an argument about the mirrored structure. In other news, a mistake--or just evidence that Phil is a fantastic performer: the news footage showing in the newsvan at the beginning of the date night sequence-- --is the same footage shown on Day 1. But, that's not what I want to talk about today. Today's business: Phil Connors may be a Christ-Figure , but that doesn't mean he's nothing else. I've spent plenty of time talking about other things Phil represents of course. Today, I wanted to get started down the road to the Bodhisattva , even though I've got a binder of articles on cinematic Christ-Figures and a paper I could be drafting about that very topic. ...

Every day, think as you wake up, "Today I am fortunate to have woken up. I am alive, I have a precious human life. I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others, to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others, I am not going to get angry, or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can." - The Dalai Lama While you ponder that, I will begin what may amount to very little. Subtitle today's entry, things noticed watching GroundhogDay on blu-ray for the first time. First thing noticed: a mistake. Phil's clip-on microphone disappears when he gets up from the news desk. He's got it for the weather report, he's got it when he sits down by Nan. Next shot he's by Larry and Kenny and he's got no microphone. Now, maybe Phil violently tore it off in that split second we couldn't see him. But, more likely, h...

Well, it's Groundhog Day ... again. Actually, and weirdly, the movie hasn't gotten old just yet. Watching it on DVD the past week, because I've been away from my apartment, has allowed me to notice a few new things (e.g. black people ) and figure out some old stuff (e.g. locations ). My current schedule, with the added classload of grad school (as opposed to the freedom of summer break), coaching forensics, and staying with my kids at my wife's place while she's away, has pushed my viewing time into the late night. But, I kinda figured that might happen just because of school, hence the 6am rule . (And that rule makes total sense for this movie anyway.) And, it's nice having something relatively consistent in my schedule day-to-day. Plus, I have an excuse to share stuff like this bit from the Dalai Lama today on Facebook : Mentally, physically and emotionally we are the same. We each have the potential to good and bad and to be overcome by disturbing emotion...

We need to be clear which emotions are harmful and which are helpful; then cultivate those that are conducive to peace of mind. Often, due to a lack of knowledge, we accept anger and hatred as natural parts of our minds. This is an example of ignorance being the source of our problems. To reduce our destructive emotions we strengthen the positive ones; such emotional hygiene can contribute to a healthier society. That’s the Dalai Lama, on Facebook this morning. Just this afternoon, I was reading about Socrates’ “rationalistic moral philosophy”—that is, the idea that, as T.Z. Lavine describes it in From Socrates to Sartre: The Philosophic Quest , “reason, or rationality, is the exclusive or the dominant factor in moral conduct.” In other words, “to know the good is to do the good.” While I have some issues with this idea—and will probably bring them up in class tonight, I mention this reading and the Dalai Lama post because together they put my head onto a more serious bent than I ha...

…that being said, Phil, human like the rest of us, probably still has no idea what love is (if it’s anything) at the end of his journey… Except, maybe he actually knows it better than any of us; it just isn’t isolated to romantic love anymore. Phil loves everyone. After years of repetition, after getting past his arrogance and his egocentrism and his chauvinism and his narcissism, he has become the ultimate, well, hippie I suppose. Without all the lazy stereotypes, of course. Phil’s world has become a literal microcosm of the larger world, so it may be easier, but he has come to care about, presumably, everyone in it. He doesn’t just save a kid from falling out of a tree, or save Buster from choking, or fix Felix’s back. He also changes a tire, lights a cigarette, and “fan the flame” of a young woman’s passion for her fiancé. And, so much more, I think we can assume. (In Rubin’s first revision (according to Ryan Gilbey; I haven’t seen that draft), Phil also “pump[s] the stomach of Ja...