the groundhog day project

I've been obsessing over the Groundhog Day musical of late. I often obsess when I get a new musical to listen to, of course; this is not unique to Groundhog Day ; it's just the latest. And, I wanted to talk about it. I have not gotten to see it live yet, of course, because it's just in New York for now and I cannot afford to just fly off to New York whenever. As much as I'd like to. (And, as I was writing this, I just got a notification about Tim Minchin's tweet about the show being nominated for seven Tony Awards.) Thing is, I cannot cover all of it in one entry. Nor would I need to. Nor would I want to. This isn't a blog about stage musicals, after all. But, there are a few details that stand out. First: Nancy. I've written about Nancy many times, of course. I swear I spent an entire entry just on her once but I cannot for the life of me find that one. But, that's almost poetic in itself--that she is just a detail in other entries. That is Nancy...

So, today is Labor Day, and the movie I watched at the theater featured in Groundhog Day (aside from Groundhog Day two mornings in a row) was Labor Day starring Kate Winslet and Josh Brolin, directed by Jason Reitman. It should have been better than it was, given its parts, but still, I scored it higher than a lot of people on IMDb . Oh, I’m also not watching Labor Day right now. Gotta watch Groundhog Day one more time to get through the final revision of the screenplay. Not too many pages to go. This should be ending today. Then, on to other movies tomorrow. Unless I get sidetracked. Or just want to make it an even seven days, to echo what I was doing with so many other movies last year. Or something really controversial comes up that demands a detailed analysis and an intricate study of Ramis’ themes, his writing tendencies, his Buddhism, or the complicated question of which of the flat tire ladies is which... ...which is actually going to be not that complicated, once the s...

I used to try to stay up all night sometimes. I thought if I could stay conscious I could figure out what was going on, or at least hang onto something from the day before. But I gave up on that a long time ago. (Ramis, 1992, January 30, p. 98) Oh, and let's subtitles this, there's no way these notes on Ramis' third revision of the screenplay for Groundhog Day ... is ever going to end, as long as I nitpick the details . (But, what the hell? Details be damned.) Phil has managed to get good at not only pool and bowling , but also juggling and hacky sack, and he can ride a unicycle (p. 99). There's an extra detail to the moment at the end of "god day" in which Rita inspires Phil. Phil concedes that he isn't a jerk and adds, "It really doesn't make a lot of difference. I've killed myself so many times, I don't even exist anymore. I'm just completely empty." "Or completely clean," Rita replies. "If you're g...

I need Groundhog Day tonight. Tonight I'm definitely a "glass is half empty kind of guy." But, that is secondary to something I just noticed: there is a piano at the bed and breakfast. When Phil does his little weatherman spiel for Mrs. Lancaster, you can see it in the background... and now that doesn't sound very important either. Sometimes you just have to feel unimportant yourself as well, I suppose. It's probably necessary. If you never felt useless, never felt powerless, never felt unimportant, then you would never do anything, would never change anything, and life would be very boring. I actually had a pretty good day. Slept in, watched some TV, went grocery shopping, built with LEGO blocks and watched a couple British comedies while doing so. Then went to play cards at my sister's house. Got home and, well, I don't know. Cats are annoying--one just had surgery, another keeps hissing at him. Kids were going to watch a movie with me then both lef...

Hopper's helping Andrea deal with Eddie's body... I don't remember them talking about Eddie previously. I think he's Andrea's ex-partner. Oh, he's alive. Day Break again. But, I'm also most of the way through Groundhog Day for today already. I was cheating a little. Limited time because I was judging at a high school debate tournament most of the day and then went out to dinner with two of my kids. Got home and just had to watch the season premiere of Game of Thrones but don't want to stay up until all hours of the night because I have plans tomorrow. New resumption on Day Break . But, I was telling the story about Game of Groundhogs ; that is to say, I turned on Games of Thrones on one screen and Groundhog Day on another. Now, I could have simply ignored Groundhog Day and claimed I had watched it, but no, I did my best to pay attention to both and got some awesome moments out of the juxtaposition. For example, as Phil talked to Larry about his...

If we took Benesh (2011) at face value, then we would have to assume every film in which characters have hands is somehow using those hands to mean something. I don't even think Benesh is all wrong in some of the symbolism she describes in Groundhog Day but she chooses such simplistic things--hands, snow--that the choices are more banal than meaningful. If there were closeups of hands--to be fair, there are one or two--or characters talked about hands or their hands were particularly meaningful in context of the story... except Benesh doesn't want us looking to the narrative; she advises (by way of Izod (2000) citing Hillman (1983 presumably) that we "focus on an image-oriented reading versus one that rushes, as it typical, to narrative conclusions" (p. 63). But, the problem here is when looking at images pushes us not just past the narrative but into an entirely different universe from it. She wants to look at the film in terms of Jungian psychology and dream inter...

I'm watching Meatballs again before Groundhog Day tonight. And, while I had a title in mind for today's blog, I come to the writing of it without a plan. In fact, given that I'm watching Meatballs first, I probably won't even be posting this entry until after midnight, so my prediction will be wrong. Since I'm in a pessimistic mood, I will suggest that I'm wrong about a lot of things like all the time. I thought about writing some generic stuff about spring, but that just seems wrong since Groundhog Day is all about winter. And Meatballs is set in the summer. My seasons are all confuzzled today. Timing. That's the issue. All I really want to say, in line with the title above, is this: March 21st will come just as any other day will. Time will go on. We may make new friends or lose old ones but life goes on. So anyway, Benesh (2011) says, At a given point in development, less conforming and more assertive agentic persons may cultivate a latent a...

Thirty-three minutes into the film before I even open up a blank document to start writing tonight. I'm tired and I'm thoughtful tonight. Thinking about what I want from life, generally, and specifically, long-term and short. I was wondering last night what the worst thing I might do if I had the benefit of a time loop would be? I didn't come up with an answer because I wondered how long the time loop would have to keep going before I trusted it as the norm, before I knew, without a doubt the next morning would be the previous morning and no matter what I did no one would know about it but me... Of course, then there's the problem of me knowing about it. I don't believe in the existence of the human soul, but for lack of better terminology, I must say that even there were no consequences outside myself, my soul would be scarred by doing deliberately in a time loop the things I wouldn't do outside it. For the record, I don't mean stuff like Phil taking that...

I’ve been avoiding reading Julie Ellen Benesh’s dissertation, “Becoming Punxstuawney Phil: Symbols and Metaphors of Transformation in Groundhog Day ,” because if I’m going to use this project and all the research involved to build my own thesis next year I didn’t want her influencing the direction(s) I might take things. But, I’ve decided to start sampling it if not to actually just read it straight through. Sure, Benesh may influence what I do, but she could also a) give me specific things to respond to b) demonstrate things I should avoid, 1) not just because it’s been done but 2) but also because, like with so many of the other pieces I have read for this blog, I may just disagree with her conclusions or her theories. For example, just glancing at the section on the use of Lines and Spheres in the film, I’ve found some things I find questionable. And this may be funny coming from me. First, I don’t know the original location for this quotation from Hemingway, but it’s worth bringi...

In the first revision of Rubin's script--which I cite only by way of Ryan Gilbey because I have yet to get my hands on the thing--Buster chokes on fish not steak. Ryan Gilbey describes: Rubin's first revision included even more examples of Phil's good deeds - pumping the stomach of Janey, a lovesick girl who has attempted suicide; removing an old lady from the path of a truck - but the real ingenuity comes when he devises some short cuts to help maximize limited hours. He places a rock in the road so that the lorry carrying the fish to the restaurant - the fish that Buster will later choke on - will not make its delivery. He tells Janey that the object of her affection had feelings for her. And he puts chewing gum on the pavement to delay the old woman on her way to the road. I actually quoted a little more than I had intended there because I wanted to comment on the Janey situation. I am glad that one didn't make it into the film. Not just because we didn't need...

On the DVD for Groundhog Day , there's a behind-the-scenes bit called "The Weight of Time." Today, I finally watched it. Honestly, there isn't a great deal in there that is new... to me. I mean, I've listened to the Tobolowsky Files episode about Groundhog Day , I've read Rubin's book and Gilbey's book, listened to Ramis' commentary, and I've watched the movie every day for more than two months. Some of the behind-the-scenes footage is nice. I will have to try getting some screencaps (but I can't today--I am not at home so I am not on my usual computer) and make some new gifs or put some new clips on YouTube . In this blog, I haven't gotten into Bill Murray as an actor just yet--for some reason, I'm still stuck on Phil Connors as being more important--but I thought that Rubin's take on Murray's humor here was nice; he said Murray was "not afraid to be cruel." One thing I may have to get a clip of later: there...

Ryan Gilbey's got this line about beginnings in his BFI critique of Groundhog Day . The film, he says, "manipulates the notion of structure: though it has three discernible acts, the entire picture is disguised as a succession of beginnings. Even the end, after the spell has been broken, is another kind of beginning." He calls this a "maddening extreme, offering an unspecified string of once-upon-a-times." I imagine, like I think I mentioned way back when , the alternate universes the result from each of Phil's days, and we're only seeing the beginnings of those. And, I wonder what happens afterward. Imagine, if you will, the day after Phil gets arrested. Were Gus and Ralph also thrown in Punxsutawney's "drunk tank" along with Phil? If so, is February 3rd just another day for them. Wednesday, they roll out of beds in the drunk tank they've probably been in a few times before, they get a warning about their public drunkenness, get aske...