LA 12/31

"Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph." ~ Haile Selassie

"Throughout American history, there have been moments that call on us to meet the challenges of an uncertain world, and pay whatever price is required to secure our freedom." -Barack Obama

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson

"Now, it is true that the nature of society is to create, among its citizens, an illusion of safety; but it is also absolutely true that the safety is always necessarily an illusion. Artists are here to disturb the peace." ~James Baldwin

"Saying that cultural objects have value is like saying that telephones have conversations." -Brian Eno

Berkeley/Oakland

"

That which is not just, is not Law; and that which is not Law, ought not to be obeyed." -Algernon Sydney

"Man's inhumanity to man is not the last word. The truth lies deeper. It is economic slavery, the savage struggle for a crumb, that has converted mankind into wolves and sheep." -Alexander Berkman

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick.'" -Mikhail Bakunin

"Courage is not the absence of fear but the awareness that something else is more important." -Stephan Covey

"I may not be able to say all I think; but I am not going to say anything that I do not think. I would rather a thousand times be a free soul in jail than to be a sycophant and coward in the streets." -Eugene V. Debs

"If you don't have enemies, you don't have character." -Paul Newman

"I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything,
But still I can do something;
And because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do."

-Edward Everett Hale

"Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time — of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid." -Stephan Colbert

"You know, 'power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely'? It's the same with powerlessness. Absolute powerlessness corrupts absolutely." -Studs Terkel

San Luis Obispo/Sonoma County

(Signs posted on Highway 101 in San Luis Obispo and Sonoma counties.)

Of course, we’ve all seen signs on the freeways before: usually hand- or spray-painted bed sheets or butcher paper, hastily scrawled with messages like “Stop the War!” or “No Blood for Oil!” hung loosely or held by protesters on top of overpasses.

The difference between this and freewayblogging is simple: with freewayblogging you use a stiff medium, either cardboard or wood, painted white, and lettered in black with an overhead projector so it can actually be read. You don’t just make one sign and hold it, you make lots of signs and post them everywhere, covering as much traffic on as many freeways as you can with the least amount of effort.

Freewayblogging means you’re fighting an information war - a battle of ideas - and that the only way to win that war is to state one’s case as well and succinctly as they can in front of as many eyeballs as possible.

The warrior’s creed is to do as much as you can with as little as possible, to avoid being captured or killed and to always try to preserve one’s strength - physically, mentally and emotionally - for the long battle ahead.

The true warrior understands that they’re in it for the long run - win or lose – and they don’t stop fighting until the war is over. It’s not enough to just participate.

The Pasadena Freeway Is A Hotbed Of Social Unrest

In terms of sheer convenience, it's really hard to beat this overpass on the Pasadena freeway just east of downtown. Here signhanging is simply a matter of parking, walking thirty five feet or so and dropping the cardboard in between the railing and the fence. No fumbling around with bungee cords or duct tape, just drop and go.

(Signs pictured have appeared over the past month.)

This just came in the mail: Posted December 9th and measuring 27 feet across, this sign stayed up over 24 hours and was installed in seconds.

This sign, on the other hand, stayed up for five days, with over half a million drivers passing underneath.

This sign has been up for close to a month now, in plain view of literally millions of drivers. Although difficult to reach, it's by no means impossible, but for some reason nobody has bothered to take it down.

I'm a big fan of this guardrail. Hovering just above eight lanes of some of LA's densest traffic, these signs are almost close enough to touch. Good luck taking them down though: to physically get off of the the freeway, back to the sign and back on the freeway again will cost you dearly in terms of time and mileage.

Nevertheless, a motivated individual could pull it all off in ten or fifteen minutes, so it confuses me to see these signs staying up for days and weeks on end.

Could it be that each and every one of the 110.000 people passing by per day agreed not only with the content of the sign, but the right of the sign to be there?

Or could it be that none of 110,000 drivers per day who disagreed with the sign actually had the extra ten or fifteen minutes required to do something about it?

Either way looks bad for America, but good for the signposter.

If you've got a point you want to make, or a message you want to spread, you won't find a more abundant and captive audience than freeway traffic, or a better way of reaching them than simply putting up signs.

What's important is to take some time, practice some art, and make them look good.

If it's worth saying, it's worth saying well.

Using cardboard, paint and an overhead projector, these signs took minutes to make, cost practically nothing and have been seen literally millions of times.

East Bay/Jack London

"Life achieves its summit when it does to the uttermost that which it was equipped to do."

"Age is never so old as youth would measure it."

"Don't loaf and invite inspiration; light out after it with a club, and if you don't get it you will nonetheless get something that looks remarkably like it."

"Life is not always a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well."

"The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time."

San Francisco Postings

(Signs placed over the weekend on the 280 and 101.

All quotes by Mark Twain.)

"I haven't a particle of confidence in a man who has no redeeming petty vices whatsoever."

"Be respectful to your superiors, if you have any."

"Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please."

"I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position."

"Heaven for climate, Hell for companionship."

"We have not the reverent feeling for the rainbow that the savage has, because we know how it is made. We have lost as much as we gained by prying into that matter."

"The only reason why God created man is because he was disappointed with the monkey."