Orange = Just Say "Whoa!"
If Haters Gonna Hate, Lovers Gotta Celebrate!
Like many born in the 1970s, I have a love-hate relationship with anything orange.
It likely started with Anita Bryant and her anti-LGBTQ crusades and tirades.
My dad wasn’t having her holier-than-thou mess…and, surprisingly, neither was my mom. Bryant succeeded in making my family avoid orange juice like the plague for years with her White Christian Nationalist superiority complex.
Or it could have been whatever interior designer convinced my mom that her kitchen would look great in a palette of browns, greens, yellows, and oranges. Despite being told it would “grow on me,” all these years later, I still “ugh” every time I remember it.
To my dad’s credit, he pretended not to notice how ugh-ly it was.
Love is blind…and color-blind too.
Long story short, however you feel about the color, the flavor, the fruit, or the smell, Collide Press will feature at least 80% less orange from now on.
Specifically less about the orange-brown-flush-it-down cult leader, faux politician, reality-tv billionaire/villain, and wannabe dick-tater who’s been sucking up far too much attention, energy, and oxygen for most of my life.
Going forward, I’m going to do my very best to refrain from bitching and glitching about what Orange Dingus and his mob of infantile sycophants are or aren’t doing.
One full week into this new regime, I’m so tired of seeing his name that I set up filters in Gmail and Bluesky to help mitigate the sensory assault. He’s morally bankrupt and visually repugnant, so I have no use for him.
Chaos monsters thrive on attention, so I’m choosing to focus on better things.
I know sticking my head in the sand won’t make him—or them—go away. It also won’t make him look any less like an Oompa Loompa. But the filters might help improve and protect my mental health.
In my opinion, a little orange goes a long, long way. It’s an accent color.
Not something I want to see everywhere…or even every day.
There are so many other colors in the crayon box. Even Pantone’s “Color of the Year” is better than orange in my book. (Though I’d rather have Mocha Mousse as a dessert than as a wall color.) Bold, vibrant colors? Yes, please.
Personally, I miss the days when public servants didn’t suck up all the oxygen in a news cycle like toddlers whose diapers are full and/or who need a very long nap. Preferably six feet under.
But just enough voters liked the taste of Tang enough to vote him back into office.
Like Tang, the next four years are going to leave a nasty stain on human history and a bad taste in our collective mouths. Brusha-brusha-brusha. Rinse and repeat.
Hopefully, Orange Dingus won’t spike the Kool-Aid or Flavor Aid like Jim Jones.
In the meantime, I’ll keep celebrating the art, beauty, and booty of “The Male Gayze.”
I’m sure few—if any—will miss my hot takes on the chaos of current events.
If you do, drop me a line, and I’ll point you to a few reliable sources.
When in doubt, don’t hate…celebrate!
Clint 🌈✌️
P.S. Everyone rebels and resists in their own ways. Mine include following the advice of RuPaul’s Mama: “Unless they gonna pay your bills, pay them bitches no mind.“
ON THIS DAY = JANUARY 28
BIRTHDAYS
1833 = Charles George Gordon = British Army officer 🌈
1873 = Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette = French novelist 🌈
1900 = Alice Neel = American painter
1912 = Jackson Pollock = American painter
1936 = Alan Alda = American actor, director, and writer
1959 = Frank Darabont = American director and producer
1968 = Marnie McBean = Canadian rower 🌈
1969 = Mo Rocca = American comedian and tv journalist 🌈
1968 = Sarah McLachlan = Canadian singer-songwriter
1971 = Mickalene Thomas = American artist 🌈
1977 = Joey Fatone = American singer, dancer, and tv personality
1978 = Big Freedia = American musician 🌈
1980 = Nick Carter = American singer-songwriter and actor
1981 = Elijah Wood = American actor and producer
1985 = Tom Hopper = English actor
EVENTS
1915 = An act of the U.S. Congress creates the United States Coast Guard.
1956 = Elvis Presley makes his first national television appearance.
1958 = Lego patents the design of its bricks, still compatible today.
1985 = USA for Africa records We Are the World.
1986 = Space Shuttle Challenger disintegrates after liftoff.
PORTRAIT + QUOTES OF THE DAY
“When I say ‘artist’ I mean the man who is building things…. It's all a big game of construction - some with a brush - some with a shovel - some choose a pen.”
Jackson Pollock
NEW + FEATURED
MORE FROM COLLIDE PRESS
Bluesky + Ko-Fi + Linktree + Shop
+ Storefront + Threadless + YouTube
Ever a boy born in the wrong century, the color combinations you mention were always painful to me. In drama school, I excelled in my stage makeup class, and (for instance) could produce a reasonable resemblance for the stage of FDR on almost any face. Someone is obviously unwilling to listen to anyone on that topic. Oompa Loompa! ROFL. Yes, less orange is good for the soul.
A much older friend of mine, retired after 30 years in the U.S. Army (Colonel) P.O.W. of the Japanese in WW II, headmaster of a respected military academy preparatory school, and Republican; could not stand Anita Bryant. He referred to her as "that woman" and declared her to be self-aggrandizing and artificial. I never understood why until years later, but was pleasantly surprised by his prescience as I learned more. I also learned that he was more of a friend to me than I realized as a teen-ager, and I am grateful.
. He would be appalled and outraged by the depredations being perpetrated against our Federal structure, national reputation and, especially, Department of Defense by the current criminal occupant of the Federal Executive Mansion.
Pax vobiscum.