So we get back to California with a sense of joy and relief, unload, unpack and set up house only to have one of us head right back to Orlando. Yes, it's true, our second week home has actually been just my second week home as Sarah was required to return to Orlando for business meetings. She tells me she feels like someone trapped in a dream, thinking she is clear and free of danger only to find herself back in the black room with the shadowy man creeping closer and closer, only the dull white of file like teeth visible in the gloom. Actually, Orlando isn't that bad - more like a shadowy puppy, perhaps.

I have been working the last couple of days - temp work for my former employer in San Francisco (hereafter referred to as The City). I won't bore you or myself with the details. It is good, though, to have some income to keep up with the outgo.

With Sarah away I have amused myself the last two nights with videos rented from one of the many places we missed in Orlando - Reel, the real world incarnation of the on-line movie site.

The videos in question were Guy Maddin's, Careful







and Roman Polanski's, The Tenant


.


I am not going to offer up any movie reviews or opinions here save to say that both of these are movies worth a look if you like your cinema challenging, strange and/or surreal.

The reason I bring these videos to your attention is not to discourse upon their cinematic qualities but to muse a moment on the coincidence in which they participated. Actually the latest in a series of coincidences involving video rentals. A coincidence flap , if you will.

We usually leave the video shop with two or three videos minimum, typically selected at random. Recently it seems we are exhibiting a tendency to "randomly" select videos that upon viewing reveal a demonstrable connection in regards to plot, subject matter, cast or crew, as many as three videos sharing the same thread on one occasion. This has happened a number of times of late, five or six including this latest example.

I picked each of these videos from the cult shelf (organized alphabetically by title) and that was the only connection I could make between them prior to viewing. Now that I have seen them I can tell you that they share a plot element.

Careful takes place in the alpine village of Tolzbad, where towering mountains, dreamy white snow and the constant threat of avalanche have shaped a cautious way of life and made a dark virtue of silence.

The Tenant sees Roman Polanski as the timorous Trelkovsky inhabiting an apartment in Paris whose last tenant broke the window if not her lease when she threw herself through the glass to the concrete three floors below. As soon as he moves in circumstances and neighbors force him to adopt a hushed mode of life.

See the connection?

It may or may not seem like much depending on your views regarding coincidence and statistics.