In Brazil, where about 49.2% of homes have at least one car parked in their garage, drive-ins and drive-thrus quickly became an obvious option. The city of Londrina, in the southern state of Paraná, with a population of 575,377 and 375,179 automobiles – the equivalent to 0.62 cars per resident, one of the highest rates in the country – formally regulated this type of gathering in June and events exploded throughout the city. 

From pre-wedding parties to charity events to church services, there seems to be a variety of options for every taste. Even as more stringent restrictions were lifted, many people still prefer to enjoy some activities from the safety of their personal four-wheeled bubbles. 

Pastor Jefferson Emerick de Freitas of the Central Presbyterian Church during a moment of worship at a drive-in Sunday service. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 22, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

A churchgoer prays inside her car at the Central Presbyterian Church’s drive-in Sunday service. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 22, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

Churchgoers at the Central Presbyterian Church turn on their cars’ blinkers to signal applause. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 22, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

A church worker goes around the parking lot to collect offerings. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 15, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

Mariana Brunetto and Geovani Candido throw a drive-thru couple’s shower before their wedding. Amanda, the bride’s youngest sister, plays with a balloon while the groom looks out for arriving guests. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 14, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

Geovani accepts a gift from their first guests. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 14, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

Mariana picks up little pieces of paper from a basket and explains to her friend that there will be a raffle later. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 14, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

Most of the couple’s friends also brought gifts. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 14, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

Military police officers load a minivan with diaper donations at a charity drive-thru organized by the 2nd Military Police School in Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 21, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

A military police officer picks up a pack of adult diapers at a charity drive-thru. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 21, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

A participant shows off his donation. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 21, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

A military police officer exchanges a fist bump with a driver – a common form of greeting during the Covid-19 pandemic. Londrina, Brazil. Nov. 21, 2020. Photo by Luana Harumi

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The film, directed by late “Ghostbusters” writer Harold Ramis, has been dubbed the perfect quarantine movie. Or the worst, depending on how you look at it. Since its release, the title has become an expression of its own and has been referenced in dozens of articles over the past month. Esquire gave tips on how to avoid feeling like you’re stuck in groundhog day while social distancing and even Jeep re-edited its Super Bowl commercial with Murray himself back in character with a message for these uncertain times.

To be fair, it’s hard not to draw parallels between whatever piece of entertainment we consume and the general situation we’re inserted in. I’d say it’s human nature. However, all those articles are missing an important point. “Groundhog Day” is not just a movie about a man living the same day again and again for – what some people speculate – over 30 years. It’s about how he’s able to make the most out of the situation and use this time to grow.

The movie introduces us to Phil Connors (Murray), Pittsburgh Channel 9’s weatherman who is also in charge, for the fourth year in a row, of covering the traditional Groundhog Day festival in Punxsutawney – an assignment, he makes no effort to hide, he absolutely dreads. This time around, he’s accompanied by Rita (Andie MacDowell), the new producer, and Larry (Chris Elliott), the cameraman.

After Connors wraps up his weather broadcast, in which he confidently reassures viewers they can “leave their galoshes at home,” the trio heads to the small town to cover the festival the following morning.

On February 2 at 6:00 a.m., the radio alarm clock in Connors’ hotel bedroom blasts Sonny and Cher’s “I Got You Babe” for the first time. He exchanges some words with another guest and with a lady at the hotel diner and, eventually, meets up with the TV crew at the festival.

Each has a different mood about covering Groundhog Day; while our main character is sick of it, Rita faces everything with cheerful enthusiasm and Larry, well, he’s basically just trying to deliver witty comments about everything Connors does.

After the announcement that Phil – groundhog Phil – has seen its shadow, meaning six more weeks of winter, they’re ready to travel back home, but can’t: all roads are blocked because of a blizzard. Yes, the same one that Connors said wouldn’t hit the area. Oops.

“What blizzard? It’s just a couple of flakes,” the weatherman tries to convince the traffic officer, unsuccessfully. Forced to stay in town, Rita and Larry invite Connors to a dinner party, to which he declines saying he just wants to take a hot shower and go to bed.

By the end of day zero, the original “groundhog day,” we learn that the protagonist is a plain jerk, claiming special treatment for supposedly being a celebrity (he’s not) and treating everything with a big eye-roll attitude. And if you have been paying the minimum attention to the movie (and not scrolling through social media on your phone), you can probably pick up on all the quirky lines foreshadowing its main plot – “Do I want to stay for an extra second in Punxsutawney? Please,” Connors says in the opening scene.

As we follow the multiple repetitions of that day unfold, the various parallels between the story and our new warped reality become more evident. Obviously, not only Connors is confined to Punxsutawney, he’s trapped in a seemingly never-ending loop, in which every day looks the same. There’s only so much he can do with the resources available – although having a whole town with people to interact with sounds much better than being alone in a tiny apartment.

The phases that the main character goes through also seem very familiar. At first, he’s understandably confused by what’s happening. By the third loop, he’s experiencing despair, quickly replaced by something that resembles an excited acceptance, which he channels through taking advantage of the town’s residents in various ways and devouring pastries like there’s no tomorrow.

At some point, he starts to take Rita on dates that always fail after she realizes he’s still the same conceited guy from the day before – Connors is the only one aware of the repetitions. He then enters a deeply depressed, somewhat nihilistic stage: the pastries give way to binge-drinking and pajamas become his new uniform. Nothing matters, so why bother?

Then, something about his attitude changes, as if a switch was flipped, and he decides to read more books and master a range of new skills, from throwing cards to playing the piano to ice-sculpting. Of course, that phase isn’t permanent, either. After being so invested in improving his own life, he’s finally brought back to reality – well, his new reality – and finds out about all the tragedies happening in the other residents’ lives that he has been missing this whole time.

In contrast, it can be hard to find excitement these days when you have no choice but to be stuck in the same place for weeks. From the start, many people were downplaying the current situation – “It’s just the flu!” – and displaying attitudes such as “I’m young and healthy, it won’t get me,” or “I’m an important person, those rules don’t apply to me.” I’ll admit Connors’ “People are morons” line is more relatable than I’d wish it were.

The “nothing matters” vibe might be hovering over us most days; who cares if I’m not wearing pants or if I give myself a bad haircut? Eating a whole pie by myself doesn’t sound like a bad idea, either. For how long has this been going on? Are deadlines still a thing?

Some days, the motivation to practice new skills and pick up on old hobbies finally kicks in. Turns out you had more books than you remembered. Or more art supplies than you remembered. Actually, you find out you have been a hoarder this whole time. Sorry, Marie Kondo.

After hours (or days) of self-absorption, you finally decide to check out what has been going on in the world. Muting every keyword related to the situation on social media is a nice way of escaping the flood of news that keeps coming all day, every day. But, at some point, you have to inform yourself. And the news isn’t that good.

 Despite all of your efforts and days of isolation, people are still getting sick and many are passing away. Confinement is leading to higher cases of domestic abuse and invasive thoughts. Many people just can’t work from home and others don’t even have a place to call home. It’s still hard to find toilet paper.

I’m doing what’s within my reach. But is it enough?

Connors does what he can to make some of the residents’ lives better. By doing that, he becomes a better person himself. He becomes revered in Punxsutawney, delivers beautiful speeches about the groundhog and even enjoys the dinner party he had at first scoffed at. He learns to do things for the benefit of others and not just for himself. The time loop is finally broken.

And that’s one of the most important – albeit cheesy – messages from the movie, especially in a time like this. We can lock ourselves at home, worry about our own health and that of the people we love and try not to care if others are still going out and about and inviting people to their place. If they want to get sick, that’s their problem, after all, right?

Or we can come to the realization we’re not doing this just for our family and ourselves. We’re doing this for those who, for some reason, can’t. It’s not just about you not getting sick, it’s about your upstairs neighbor who you’ve only seen twice not getting sick; it’s about the old lady in the supermarket who might hold the contaminated handrail just ten minutes after you’ve covered your sneeze and unconsciously touched it.

Many other works of fiction have explored the journey of a character who’s stuck in a time loop that is only broken when he or she becomes a better self. In fact, the second silver screen adaptation of “12:01,” a science-fiction story based on that premise, came out the same year as “Groundhog Day,” with writers and producers threatening to sue Columbia Pictures for plagiarism. However, “Groundhog Day” is able to do it in such a genuine unpretentious way that could have easily fallen into tackiness, but didn’t. The movie is able to make fun of itself while also reminding the viewer of much simpler times. Also, I’ll take anything with Bill Murray in it, so it’s definitely worth a quarantine watch – or two, or three.

The post Stuck in “Groundhog Day?” Embrace it. appeared first on Pavement Pieces.

The situation is so critical that not even the participants of the various ongoing Big Brother editions around the globe, who are usually left in the dark about anything going on in the “outside world,” were allowed to carry on with their reality TV show life in ignorance. It feels as if we were trapped inside a dystopian novel – and not even a good one. As Cardi B gingerly puts it: s*** is getting real.

Facing these historic, strange and uncertain times is not an easy task and people have their different ways of coping. But I wasn’t ready for the constant reminder of the gazillion things we can do while stuck at home!

 By now, you might have heard about how Shakespeare wrote King Lear over his quarantine during the plague. Or that, for virtually the first time ever, supermarkets are running out of yeast as people are going into a bread-baking frenzy. And what about that newsletter listing dozens of ways to be more productive at home? No matter what newsletters you subscribe to, I’m 99% positive you received one like that.

“How to be productive in quarantine” has over 52,800,000 results on Google. Searches for “productive at home” have been dramatically increasing since the beginning of March (a trend also observed for “bread recipe”). This obsession over productivity is not entirely unexpected. We live in a capitalist society, after all, where the perception of our worth is strongly tied to how productive we are – or seem to be.

We’re encouraged to be productive while on vacation, on holidays and, as we can see, even during a global pandemic. In his 2013 book “24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep,” essayist Jonathan Crary suggested the only barrier capitalism has yet to surpass is sleep: that’s the only time we can’t consume or produce. “The huge portion of our lives that we spend asleep, freed from a morass of simulated needs, subsists as one of the great human affronts to the voraciousness of contemporary capitalism,” he wrote. “Sleep is an uncompromising interruption of the theft of time from us by capitalism.”

Even our hobbies need to be productive somehow. If we’re spending time on something, personal gratification is not enough of an outcome – otherwise, it’s just seen as wasted time. It needs to provide us with some kind of reward, either financial or something more abstract such as attention. “An attention economy dissolves the separation between the personal and professional, between entertainment and information,” Crary said, “all overridden by a compulsory functionality of communication that is inherently and inescapably 24/7.”

It’s perhaps why (privileged) millennials – the generation born between 1981 and 1996 – feel more encouraged to pursue careers that they’re passionate about rather than what’s going to provide them financial stability. You can’t just feel good about doing something, you need to capitalize on it. You can’t just bake bread for fun, you have to share it with your friends (and I don’t mean the “breaking bread” kind of sharing).

Social media is the window through which we can watch our peers live their passionate, productive lives. The so-called overachievers are everywhere. Hashtags like “#hustle” and “#workhard” are sprinkled over more than 23 million Instagram posts each. And even though leisure time is what is mostly pictured through photos of pets, kids, and amazing food and places, the underlying message is: they’ve earned it through their hard work.

Sure, we all know social media is just a frame for the best moments of our everyday lives. But, with everything that has been going on in the world lately, it is especially frustrating to see posts about how amazing it feels to be working and studying from home when all I want to do is sit in my sweatpants and watch questionable reality TV shows all day while trying to figure out what day of the week it is.

In short: I don’t feel productive at all. But why is that a problem?

“Hustle culture” was a thing long before coronavirus. Work it harder, make it better, do it faster – Daft Punk already knew all about it back in 2001. Avoiding work means procrastinating and if you’re a procrastinator, you should feel bad about it. At least that’s the message out there.

It has been suggested that procrastination is directly connected to negative moods. “Procrastination isn’t a unique character flaw or a mysterious curse on your ability to manage time,” Charlotte Lieberman wrote in The New York Times last year, “but a way of coping with challenging emotions and negative moods induced by certain tasks — boredom, anxiety, insecurity, frustration, resentment, self-doubt and beyond.”

And, well, a global pandemic is not exactly a mood-lifter. So it was quite weird realizing the immediate response the crisis triggered were piles of “How to Be Productive in Quarantine” articles.

As we lose our freedom and march towards an uncertain future, it’s as if we’re experiencing collective mourning. As late psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross stated in her book “On Grief and Grieving,” there are essentially five common stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, despair, and acceptance. Perhaps productivity fits somewhere in there and I just haven’t reached that stage yet.

I’m not saying we should all be stuck in a negativity limbo as we go through this phase. One of the biggest tips on how to stay sane during this period is to try to maintain a sense of normalcy and if being extra productive is how some people will achieve that, good for them. But things aren’t normal. I’m not Shakespeare and, well, excuse me if I don’t really feel motivated to learn a new language, graduate from an online Harvard course or bake bread (okay, I do actually kind of want to bake some bread). And that should be okay, too.

Luana Harumi is a graduate student in NYU’s Magazine and Digital Storytelling program

The post I Can’t Be Productive Right Now and That Is Okay appeared first on Pavement Pieces.