Bartleby and 'Vertigo'

I thought you might like to see how Manny Two is settling in among the other plants in our dining room. Manny is second from the left, on the blue plant stand. He looks much better than when I found him! Five of the large plants in that picture -- and all of the orchids on the windowsill -- are foundlings.

See how badly our front garden needs trimming? That big bush is engulfing the window. I e-mailed the management company yesterday to ask where that stands. I filed the maintenance request in August and I've heard nothing.

Last week, when I was complaining about spreadsheets at work, blog pal Elizabeth left a funny comment: "You could write your own version of Bartleby, I think!" I thought, "My God, I AM Bartleby!" Bartleby the Scrivener is a character from a short story by Herman Melville, about a recalcitrant legal clerk who gradually stops doing any work at all, telling his boss at every request, "I would prefer not to." Eventually he will only stand at a window, looking out on a blank brick wall. He won't go home -- if he has a home -- even when the boss, who feels oddly responsible for Bartleby, reluctantly fires him. Eventually the boss has to move offices because Bartleby won't leave.

Nowadays this would be interpreted as an obvious case of incapacitating depression, but back then Bartleby was considered merely eccentric. I don't have the depression but I have at work recently been sorely tempted to answer some of my boss's requests with "I would prefer not to"! For the record, though, I usually do what's asked, even when it involves spreadsheets, and I am doing my utmost to be positive and agreeable. So I guess I'm not quite Bartleby yet.

Anyway, I bring all this up because Elizabeth's comment prompted me to re-read Melville's story yesterday, and it was darned amusing.

Here's another thing I did yesterday -- I rented Hitchcock's "Vertigo," from 1958. I had it in my head that I hadn't seen it in a long time, but no sooner had I clicked the rental button than I realized I'd watched it earlier this year. Argh! Not wanting to waste my $3.99, I watched it again, and was once again struck by Hitchcock's amazing eye (along with cinematographer Robert Burks) for composing beautiful shots.

Look at those dramatic shadows!

Again, terrific framing, and I loved the way Kim Novak's scarf blows in the wind as she walks along the bay (before eventually jumping in).

I mean, seriously. Does the use of light and color get any better than this?

I thought of what Barbra Streisand said about movies in her autobiography -- that they are time capsules. While we all age -- Kim Novak is now 91 -- and San Francisco is dramatically different from the city depicted in the film, we can time travel back to 1958 while watching it.

As much as I enjoyed it, I now have to remember that I have seen "Vertigo" and I don't need to rent it again! At least not for a while.

While all this was going on, Mr. Russia spent FOUR HOURS power-washing the terrace over our heads. It's only about 10-by-20 feet, but he wasn't just washing the surface. No, he was lifting all the pavers and washing BENEATH them, and informed us he had found cracks and will have to do waterproofing. (Although actually, it's our ceiling, so why does he care?) I told him to tell the landlords. It's always something with that guy.