Once upon a time, back during my agoraphobic “Captain Caveman” era, I accidentally stumbled onto one of the healthiest creative habits I’ve ever had.
I called it Studio Saturdays.
The concept was delightfully low-tech: spend at least part of the day reading a book, watching a movie, tumbling headfirst down a Wikipedia rabbit hole, flipping through old photography books, doodling, daydreaming, or learning something that seemed completely useless at the time but might prove surprisingly useful six months later.
Basically, I gave myself permission to play.
As a kid, Saturday mornings meant cartoons, a bowl of sugary cereal, and an entire morning stretching out in front of me with absolutely nothing I had to do.
Studio Saturdays became the grown-up version of that feeling. Less Bugs Bunny cartoons, more physique photography. Fewer Cap’n Crunch commercials, more queer art and artists.
The funny thing is, those “unproductive” Saturdays laid the foundation for some of my favorite work.
A random article became a montage. A forgotten photographer inspired an entire collection. A half-baked note scribbled in a notebook eventually turned into a blog post, a design, or a video.
Turns out creativity is a sneaky little bastard. It usually shows up after you stop chasing it around with a clipboard.
Somewhere over the past year, though, I quietly abandoned the routine.
Not for any dramatic reason.
Life just...life’d.
I moved. I unpacked. I procrastinated. I rearranged my studio apartment roughly seventeen times until everything finally felt “right.” Well, “good enough.” Before I knew it, Saturdays had become just another day for emails, errands, and pretending that being busy was the same thing as being creative.
Spoiler alert: It isn’t.
Maybe it’s because I turn 54 next week, but I’ve come to believe that creativity isn’t fueled by productivity alone. It needs breathing room. If all I ever do is crank out posts and videos, sooner or later the well runs dry. Like every artist, writer, musician, designer, and professional daydreamer, I need time to refill it.
Or, in my case, refill it with obscure LGBTQ history, vintage beefcake photos, forgotten graphic designers, mid-century typography, and whatever wonderfully weird rabbit hole catches my eye that day.
So today, after a pre-birthday breakfast with my best friend, I’m officially bringing sexy back. I mean...Studio Saturdays back.
No deadlines. No metrics. No algorithms. No guilt for spending three hours researching something absolutely nobody asked me to research.
Just a few hours to doodle and noodle, read and research, and wander wherever my curiosity decides to take me.
Will I discover my next big project? Maybe.
Will I spend forty-five minutes learning about an obscure typeface nobody has used since the Eisenhower administration? Also possible.
Will I somehow end up watching someone restore a 1938 toaster on YouTube? Not likely, but you get the idea. Some of my best ideas just showed up one day without me looking for them.
They showed up while I was “just playing” around.
So here’s to the return of Studio Saturdays. May they once again be filled with curiosity, serendipity, and just enough goofing off to accidentally create something worth sharing.
Keep calm and play on, player!
Clint 🌈✌️
COLLIDE PRESS is a reader-supported publication.
Please consider becoming a Paid Subscriber or Patron.
NEW + NOW SHOWING
MORE SFW MONTAGES
On YouTube
FROM THE ARCHIVES
MORE NSFW MONTAGES
On Substack
BORN THIS WAY ON THIS DAY
07-18 = Dick Button (1929-2025) = American figure skater and analyst 🌈
07-18 = Elio Di Rupo (1951- ) = Prime Minister of Belgium 🌈
07-18 = Elizabeth Gilbert (1969- ) = American journalist and author 🌈
07-18 = Laurence Housman (1865-1959) = English writer and illustrator 🌈
07-18 = Lillian Faderman (1940- ) = American scholar, historian, and writer 🌈
MAN CRUSH OF THE DAY
“I don’t care who you are, the pressure is on to go to the next task immediately. What happened to the days of hanging out in the hammock all afternoon?”
James Brolin
🌀🇨🇵✔️🌈🦜🇮🇪🎹🌹🥐🏳️🌈🫲🦫🐓🍰🤠🏳️🌈
OH, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU NEXT WEEK!