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Rise & Shine Campers! Bob Mould, Redwalls, Swee' Pea   Printer-friendly page   Send this story to someone
Monday, February 04, 2008 - 08:00 AM
Posted by: Karl

Karl

I got flowers...in the Spring...

First D.J.: Rise and shine, campers and don't forget your booties 'cause it's cooooold out there today.
Second D.J.: It's cold out there every day. What is this, Miami Beach?
First D.J.: Not hardly. So the big question o­n everybody's lips...
Second D.J.: o­n their chapped lips...
First D.J.: ...their chapped lips is, "Does Phil feel lucky?" Punxsatawney Phil! That's right, woodchuck chuckers it's...

(IN UNISON): GROUNDHOG DAY!!!

Actually, Groundhog Day was Saturday, when the real Punxsutawney Phil ---  the Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary -- predicted six more weeks of winter.  Other groundhogs differed.  According to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, Phil has seen his shadow 98 times, and hasn't seen it (predicting an early spring) only 14 times.  Phil's track record is hotly disputed, though he's has been right 80 percent of the time over the last ten years.  Nevertheless, a crowd of 40000 spent a night of revelry awaiting the sunrise and the groundhog at Gobbler's Knob in the tiny Pennsylvania hamlet that has become known as the "Weather Capital of the World," due in no small part to the movie, which makes every day Groundhog Day.

This is o­ne time where the Internet really fails to capture the true excitement of a movie about a large squirrel predicting the weather. However, you can see the trailer as a refresher.

In 2005, Roger Ebert revisited Groundhog Day, declaring that the film "finds its note and purpose so precisely that its genius may not be immediately noticeable. It unfolds so inevitably, is so entertaining, so apparently effortless, that you have to stand back and slap yourself before you see how good it really is."

At the other end of the political spectrum, Jonah Goldberg's equally effusive movie meditation grabbed the cover of National Review: "When I set out to write this article, I thought it'd be fun to do a quirky homage to an offbeat flick, o­ne I think is brilliant as both comedy and moral philosophy. But while doing what I intended to be cursory research -- how much reporting do you need for a review of a twelve-year-old movie that plays constantly o­n cable? -- I discovered that I wasn't alone in my interest. In the years since its release the film has been taken up by Jews, Catholics, Evangelicals, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, and followers of the oppressed Chinese Falun Gong movement."

Indeed, a 2004 article mentioned by Ebert (but not linked) from London's Independent observes that the Harold Ramis comedy has been hailed by some religious leaders as the most spiritual film of all time. In addition to the examples given in that article, another can be found at the Christian Science Monitor.

Don't drive angry!

As Phil Connors ultimately observed: "When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter."

ACCORDINGLY, we start off a new week:

...with Sonny & Cher o­n Hullabaloo and famously o­n Letterman years later, plus UB40 with Chrissie Hynde, not to mention The Cynics (from the Bonograph tribute CD), and David Bowie & Marianne Faithful.

SALES VS. INFLUENCE:  The Times of London lists the 20 best-selling albums and it its lsit of the 20 most influential albums ever.

BOB MOULD visited the World Cafe Thursday, so you can stream the set -- with selections spanning his career --on demand now via NPR.

CAT POWER:  At Chromewaves, Frank Yang has a nice take on the way her covers albums mark different phases of Chan Marshall's musical evolution.

RICHARD HAWLEY stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and mini-set -- including comments on the UK's efforts to address "antisocial behavior" -- that you can stream via NPR.

THE REDWALLS, a Chicago band I should plug more often, plays "Modern Diet" from their self-titled LP for Letterman.

BEST of 2008:  Apparently, the Times of London believes it's never too early to start making a list.

SHARON JONES & THE DAP-KINGS stopped by the World Cafe for a chat and live tracks you can stream on demand via NPR.

LILY ALLEN has been dumped by Chemical Brother Ed Simons, just weeks after losing their unborn baby.  She appears to have been involved in a last-ditch attempt to salvage the relationship after she was pictured leaving his flat yesterday morning.

AMY WINEHOUSE was on a hospital drip after becoming dangerously dehydrated as she went "cold turkey" from drugs.  However, she has since been spotted out and about London

BRITNEY SPEARS got her stay in a psychiatric ward extended Sunday, as doctors decided to keep her hospitalized an additional 14 days.  People magazine describes conditions at the hospital.  Meanwhile, her house may have been robbed.  This can happen when the world knows you're not at home.  A Los Angeles court commissioner has placed the pop wreck and her estate under the temporary conservatorship of dad Jamie Spears and attorney Andrew Wallet.  Jamie now has the power to restrict her visitors, arrange 24-hour care and security, cut off all of hers credit cards and to prosecute any restraining orders on her behalf.  Britney did not take the news well, responding with a profanity-laden tirade in her wacky British accent.  Sam Lufti, on the outs with the pop tart's parents, calls her family crazy.  A British photographer has quit the chasing media pack, warning the hounding could kill her.

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE:  Hannah Montana's digital 3-D concert movie crushed the box office, taking in 29 million bucks on 683 screens.  That is the biggest win of any film playing over Super Bowl weekend -- including Titanic.  And the budget for Hannah Montana was a rumored seven million.  The folks at Disney are swimming in Scrooge McDuck's money bin today.  You do that by charging 15 bucks per ticket, even for kids, with a one-week limited engagement.  Jessica Alba brought in 13 million for The Eye, while the other new releases opened below the Top Ten.  Katherine Heigl's 27 Dresses held a respectable third place in its third week, while last weeken's openers all tumbled 50-60 percent.  The adorable Juno shot back from seventh to fourth with 110 million in total receipts.

HEATH LEDGER:  The Daily Mail prints stills from the unreleased video the late actor made of "Black Dog" by Nick Drake -- the cult singer-songwriter whose death bore disturbing similarities to his own.  Eerie, verging on creepy.  Or maybe just plain creepy.  Baby mama Michelle Williams is heart-broken and begs for privacy.

JESSICA ALBA has -- according to the uber-reliable Aussie tab New Weekly -- walked out on her fiancé Cash Warren after a series of explosive fights over her pregnancy, vowing she'll never have another baby.  Look for them to be photographed together shortly.

KYLIE MINOGUE is reportedly back together with ex Olivier Martinez, supposedly on the condition of a "life plan" including marriage and children.

EVA MENDEZ reportedly checked into Utah's Cirque Lodge rehab clinic and has been in the facility, which deals with substance-abuse problems, for several weeks.

KIRSTEN DUNST "on the verge of a breakdown?"  Her rep denies it.

WESLEY SNIPES was found not guilty of federal tax-fraud and conspiracy charges Friday, but was convicted on three misdemeanor counts of failing to file a tax return.

SUPER BOWL ADS:  You can watch 'em all via AOL, including the new trailers for Iron Man, Prince Caspian (Narnia) and Wall-E, as well as  Beyonce doing the Thriller dance with lizards for Life Water.  Alternatively, you can watch and vote for your favorites at Spotbowl through noon on Tuesday.

HOLLYWOOD WRITERS' STRIKE:  Informal talks between representatives of Hollywood's striking writers and production companies have eliminated the major roadblocks to a new contract, which could lead to a tentative agreement as early as this week, according to the usual anonymous sources.

MATT DAMON took Jimmy Kimmel's long-running gag to a whole new level on the fifth 5th anniversary of Kimmel's show, by starring in a heavily-bleeped, but still NSFW video with Kimmel's girlfriend, comedienne Sarah Silverman.

CARLA BRUNI is in fact the new first lady of France, according to People magazine.  French President Nicolas Sarkozy and the ex-supermodel turned singer-songwriter wed in a civil ceremony Saturday morning morning in Paris.

THE UGLIEST BUILDING EVER:  The Ryugyong Hotel in North Korea -- the world's 22nd largest skyscraper -- has been vacant for two decades and is likely to stay that way.  It is such an eyesore, the Communist regime routinely covers it up, airbrushing it to make it look like it's open -- or Photoshopping or cropping it out of pictures completely.  Pics and video at the link.

THE STANS:  There is an excellent round-up of our precarious position in Afghanistan and Pakistan at the Small Wars Journal blog.  Bill Roggio reports that the fighting in Swat is currently more deadly than in Iraq.

IRAQ:  Al Qaeda fanatics plumbed to sickening new depths by turning two women with Down's syndrome into human bombs to kill 99 people in Baghdad.  There is a whiff of desperation in that depravity, esp. given AQ's attitude towards women.  Top Sunni politicians tried to stop final approval of de-Baathification legislation, but Iraq's presidency council approved it yesterday, the final step for the first US-backed benchmark approved by parliament.  US commanders and allied Iraqi sheiks have begun recruiting "concerned local citizens" directly from US detention facilities.

SWEE' PEA the border collie was just one of the record-breakers featured on a special edition of the Oprah Winfrey show.  You can see Swee' Pea is doing balancing that glass while climbing the stairs at the link.

WHEN LIONS ATTACK, it might just be a case of mistaken identity.  But that was probably small comfort to British teacher Kate Drew as the 400-lb beast sank its teeth into her head...

SHIH TZU SCANDAL forces the resignation of the mayor of Alice, TX.  Shih Tzu happens.

THE DOG at my Super Bowl tickets.  Like no one has heard that one before.  Video at the link.

COW!  An automobile accident caused Tonya Coccia to pick up an uninvited passenger in Rehoboth, Mass.  Video at the link.

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