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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!!!" Saturday, Punxsutawney Phil --- the Seer of Seers, Sage of Sages, Prognosticator of Prognosticators, and Weather Prophet Extraordinary will predict whether we will have six more weeks of winter. According to the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, Phil has seen his shadow 103 times, and hasn't seen it (predicting an early spring) only 18 times. Phil's track record is hotly disputed. In general, Groundhogs Do Not Make Good Meteorologists. Nevertheless, thousands will await 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 that 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 (while BuzzFeed compiles trivia). 
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. More examples can be found at the NYT and the Christian Science Monitor. 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 conclude: 
...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 Faithfull. WILCO plays KCRW. BLACK PUMAS plays World Cafe. BILLY JOEL returns with “Turn the Lights Back On,” his first pop song since 2007. THE DISMEMBERMENT PLAN cover Circus Lupus's "Unrequited," their first recording in over a decade. HOOTIE: Busted. VICTORIA MONET's Grammys Moment. BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN's Mom passed at 98. 
THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED. Tomorrow is the anniversary of the passing of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson in a plane crash outside Clear Lake, IA, and it is still bringing people to the historic Surf Ballroom (now a National Historic Landmark), as well as the Riverside Ballroom, where the Winter Dance Party made its penultimate stop. So it's worth linking to an MPR audio feature on the Winter Dance Party and a Weekend Edition piece on Buddy Holly's old classmates.. We'll start with some video of Buddy Holly playing "That'll Be the Day," and "Peggy Sue." There's even less video of Valens, outside this lipsync of "Ooh, My Head!", but there's rare live audio of "La Bamba" and "Donna" on the Tube. And no survey would be complete without the Bopper's signature song, "Chantilly Lace." The tragedy has echoed through the years in movies like The Buddy Holly Story and La Bamba. The latter featured Los Lobos, who would make "La Bamba" a hit again almost 30 years later, with Marshall Crenshaw as Holly, who can be seen here covering "Crying, Waiting Hoping", introduced by Wolfman Jack. MATTHEW VAUGHN does care what you think. LARRY DAVID attacked ELMO on live TV. BRAD PITT will star in Quentin Tarantino's The Movie Critic. TIM BURTON and "Gone Girl" author Gillian Flynn are remaking "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman." CHRISTOPHER NOLAN hopes Oppenheimer points the way to a new movie landscape. WHY 2-D ANIMATION is so hot right now. MICHAEL SHANNON. MATTHEW MACFAYDEN. James Garfield. HOW "THE HOLDOVERS" achieved "the film look." A BABY CAPYBARA with hiccups. TODAY THE TOWN, tomorrow the world. JUST ME and my shadow. THE BIRDS: A murmuration in Italy.
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