Creative Insights

They didn’t follow rules.
They rewrote what a magazine could be.
Underground mags from the 60s and 70s used chaos as fuel for creativity.
They experimented with layout, language, and purpose.
They were loud, political, strange — and unforgettable.

Sayonara Seventy Nine selects 7 standout titles that shaped counterculture through design and disruption.
These weren’t just publications.
They were creative acts of resistance.

Improvisation is brilliant—when it’s the last resort. In this Sunday Blooming Reading, Blithe Ernst unpacks the myth of improvisation as a creative method. While being able to improvise is a gift, relying on it as your only tool is reckless. True creativity is not about waiting for inspiration to strike, but about training, weaving, building. Improvisation can save the day—but it should never be the plan.

What happens when you reach for the “wrong” tool, wear the “wrong” thing, or say the “wrong” words? You open doors. In this Sunday Blooming Reading, Blithe Ernst explores the power of the inadequate as a creative disruptor. It doesn’t guarantee brilliance, but it pulls us off the beaten path—and into the unknown, where originality hides. Adequacy maintains. Inadequacy invites novelty. And novelty is half of creativity.

Creativity doesn’t thrive in isolation—it needs impact, resistance, and response. In this Sunday Blooming Reading, Blithe Ernst explores the essential role of collision in the creative process: not just between inner desire and outer limits, but between minds. Ideas grow sharper when they bounce off others. Like a tennis match, creativity comes alive when it’s played with someone else. Lucid, collective, and always better with a rally.

Creativity has nothing to do with madness—and everything to do with sharpness, clarity, and real-world usefulness.
It’s not reserved for “geniuses” either. That old myth only served to scare people away from their own creative power.
The truth?
You’re creative because you’re alive.
No special permission needed.
Tradition, your fear is showing. Time to move on.