Looking Forward

On Jury Duty + Rolling With The Punches

Photo by Daniel Tanase on Unsplash

Yesterday’s showers offered the perfect excuse to cozy up, stare out the window, and let my brain drift into daydream mode.

Rainy days are good for that. The world slows down just enough for me to imagine what could be next. New montages. New blog posts. New Studio Saturday rituals. New creative experiments that may or may not ever see the light of day.

The soft pitter-patter on the roof and windows makes everything feel possible.

And then reality knocked. Hard.

I remembered I have to call in for jury duty today. And I might have to go in tomorrow. Or one random morning this week. So much for my best-laid plans.

Nothing like civic duty to remind you the universe loves a good plot twist.

I know jury duty is important. Truly. I also know it is the ultimate schedule killer.

Photo by Tingey Injury Law Firm on Unsplash

All my daydreaming about workflows and art projects and editing sessions may need to be paused. Or reshuffled. Or tossed right out the window like a soggy Post-it note that lost its stick in the rain.

Here’s what I am trying to remember: Planning is great, but so is rolling with the punches. Creativity thrives in those weird in-between moments. The delays, the pauses, the hurry up and wait.

Sometimes the best ideas come to me when I think I have no time for them.

If I do get called in for jury duty, I’ll bring a notebook. And my iPad. Anything to help keep the creativity flowing while I “hurry up and wait” in a room full of half-awake citizens clutching their coffee cups.

If I don’t get called in, I’ll take it as a gift and as a sign to get back to my regularly scheduled chaos.

Either way, I am choosing to look forward today. To stay excited about what is coming next for COLLIDE PRESS. To keep that spark lit while navigating whatever civic duties, random delays, or unexpected rainstorms drift my way.

Here’s to planning when we can, pivoting when we must, and staying inspired no matter what the day throws at us.

Keep calm and create on!
Clint 🌈✌️

P.S. If anyone is looking for me over the next few days, I’ll either be working on new montages or sitting at the courthouse trying my best not to get picked.

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FYC = FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION

• Connecting With: Karl Dunn (Aidan Wharton + Karl Dunn)

• Your Shame Thinks It’s Keeping You Safe (Gino Cosme)

• The People Who Carried Us (Waymon Hudson)

• PalCinema Review: Nouvelle Vague (Dan Pal)

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ICYMI = IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

• SUNDAY = Social (Media) Experiments

• MONDAY = ‘Some’ People

• TUESDAY = Early-Morning Drives

• WEDNESDAY = ‘3 Things’

• THURSDAY = Open For (Whose) Business?

• FRIDAY = Buyer (+ Seller) Beware

• SATURDAY = A Rainy Studio Saturday

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ON THIS DAY = NOVEMBER 16

BIRTHDAYS

• 1873 = W. C. Handy = American composer and “Father Of The Blues”

• 1889 = George S. Kaufman = American director, producer, and playwright

• 1896 = Lawrence Tibbett = American actor and singer

• 1907 = Burgess Meredith = American actor, singer, and filmmaker

• 1922 = José Saramago = Portuguese novelist and Nobel Prize laureate

• 1946 = Barbara Smith = American writer and activist 🌈

• 1946 = Beverly Smith = American writer and activist 🌈

• 1948 = Dennis Severs = American-British designer 🌈

• 1951 = Paula Vogel = American playwright 🌈

• 1952 = Glenn Burke = American baseball player 🌈

• 1958 = Marg Helgenberger = American actor

• 1964 = Diana Krall = Canadian singer-songwriter

• 1967 = Lisa Bonet = American actor and director

• 1970 = Jamie Babbit = American filmmaker 🌈

• 1970 = Martha Plimpton = American actor

• 1972 = Missi Pyle = American actor and singer

• 1977 = Maggie Gyllenhaal = American actor and singer

• 1993 = Pete Davidson = American comedian and actor

EVENTS

• 1914 = The Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens.

• 1920 = Qantas, Australia’s national airline, is founded as Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services Limited.

• 1938 = LSD is first synthesized by Albert Hofmann from ergotamine at the Sandoz Laboratories in Basel.

• 1945 = UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) is founded.

• 1959 = The Sound of Music opens on Broadway at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre.

• 1981 = About 30 million people watched the fictional couple Luke and Laura wed on General Hospital in the highest-rated hour in American soap opera history.

• 1990 = Home Alone is released in theaters.

• 1990 = Pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because they didn’t sing on the Girl You Know It’s True album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals.

HOLIDAYS + OBSERVANCES

• National Button Day

• National Fast Food Day

• Transgender Awareness Week (November 13-19)

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PORTRAIT + QUOTE OF THE DAY

BURGESS MEREDITH

“I disappear from the public eye and get rediscovered quite often.”
Burgess Meredith