spice core

This blog is blue because WordPress cut my lights off! I actually love low light because I find it more intimate but black would’ve been my first choice for a space disclosing thoughts. I’ve committed to blue because black is a premium style but now I think it’s because I’m experimenting. Blue is also intimate, albeit a cool colour, it seems metaphysically warm. It’s the light bearer. It’s the face of the unknown that brings knowledge of Self: the ocean, the night, our inner rhythm (and blues)… Did you know curiosity driven science or exploration in domains where the real world applications aren’t apparent is called “blue skies research”? I think the ruminations you’ll find here fall into that same category of study…At this moment I’m driven to make a connection between this discussion and a film set I’ve been thinking about.

What Happened Was (1994) is a profound gem of independent cinema and a unique statement piece of romantic comedy. One night, in a very blue New York apartment, two coworkers share what one of them – Michael – so aptly calls “a cryonic dinner.” They’re eating Jackie’s defrosted meal prep, scallops, which Jackie says “are better microwaved than fresh.” I found ‘cryonic’ such great word choice because as their night unraveled, I couldn’t help but feel that I was watching the deep freezing of people who’ve died someways, in hopes that they may be revived in the future. The date you’ll witness is a merciless projection of shame and the hilarious inelegance with which we try to cover it up. I thought Jackie’s apartment, the cryonic chamber in question, generated the essence of how cool reserve begets closeness so well.

INTERIOR – DAY

Hours before the date, Jackie’s empty apartment is a glacier shade of blue.

INTERIOR – NIGHT

Glaciers appear bluer the more they compress the bubbles inside which block the passage of light. When the date ensues, cool exteriors invite inquiring minds and as internal walls begin to thaw— the apartment becomes a deeper, denser blue:

As the characters descend into vulnerability, blue no longer evokes detached facades but a return to the fundamental state of being: raw and bare. For the inciting incident of this return, the chamber reverts to the ancestral properties of this primary colour: spiritual transformation (purple) and courage (red).

In this scene, Jackie reads a personal work to Michael that suggests more about her than many people are willing to excavate in solitude. What Happened Was packs the mass unveiling experienced in a long term relationship into a first date. It captures the high stakes of the “blue skies research” that dating demands of people and it offers a contradiction to what romantic potential traditionally looks and feels like. It’s an investigation of how far into darkness is safe to venture with a stranger.

The most purposeful date is typically the kind we’re told not to have. We’re advised not to discuss money, religion, politics and not to give the person too much time so as to not seem “too available.”

All three hues are integrated into the final frames of the film as both Jackie and Michael finally find themselves emotionally stripped.