Tales of the Freewayblogger: September 2007

Sunday, September 30, 2007

Mozart Piano Concerto 23, mvt. 2

Vladimir Horowitz

FB - 1738

USA - 1327

Saturday, September 29, 2007

from "Man of La Mancha"

It is the mission of each true knight... His duty... nay, his privilege! To dream the impossible dream...

All signs posted yesterday in Sonoma County.

"Hear me now Oh thou bleak and unbearable world,
Thou art base and debauched as can be;
And a knight with his banners all bravely unfurled
Now hurls down his gauntlet to thee!" -I, Don Quixote

"To each his Dulcinea, that he alone can name...
To each a secret hiding place
Where he can find the haunting face
To light his secret flame."
-To Each His Dulcinea

"I have dreamed thee too long...
Never seen thee nor touched thee
But known thee with all of my heart.
Half a prayer, half a song...
Thou hast always been with me,
Though we have been always apart." -Dulcinea

"And of course there's my father...
I've heard that young maidens
can point to their fathers
with maidenly pride.

Mine was a regiment,
here for an hour.
I can't even tell you which side."
-Aldonza

"This is my Quest, to follow that star...
No matter how hopeless, no matter how far.
To fight for the right
Without question or pause.
To be willing to march into hell
For a heavenly cause."
-The Quest (The Impossible Dream)

FB - 1728
USA - 1327

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

By the Dawn's Early Light

This morning I got up before dawn and drove to San Francisco to catch the early morning light. It was a gorgeous morning, clear and warm and still.

I hung about 25 signs today, all within direct sight of the 101, 280 and 580 freeways in San Francisco, Marin and Sonoma counties.

As a child I was taught that one of the Truly Great Things about America was that its citizens could say pretty much whatever they wanted as loud as they wanted and to as many people as they could reach. One of the things I'm trying to accomplish here is to put that theory to the test. Scroll through the last month or so of this blog and you'll see what I mean.

Right now I'm going through a batch of really, really thick cardboard, which is great because you can just lean it up against things.

This sign took about four seconds to hang:

Thread bungee through fence.

Place sign under bungee.

Secure hooks to fence.

Leave.

While it takes about 50,000 protesters holding signs in the same place at the same time to get media attention, it'd take about 50 committed Freewaybloggers to bypass the media entirely.

All you have to do is figure out what you want to say, paint it on a dozen signs or so, then drive to a large city and then start sticking them up around freeways. Even if you do it badly you'll probably reach ten or twenty thousand people. With just the slightest bit of diligence, cleverness and luck, you can reach half a million. Tomorrow.

The first thing you have to do though is paint the signs.

FB - 1720
USA - 1327

Dumbya

All signs painted and posted on Sept. 24th in the SF Bay Area.
Quotes by George W. Bush: many, many more here.

"It's a time of sorrow and sadness when we lose a loss of life."

"I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut off by Saddam Hussein."

"People say, how can I help on this war against terror? How can I fight evil? You can do so by mentoring a child; by going into a shut-in's house and say I love you."

"The illiteracy level of our children are appalling."

"I think we are welcomed. But it was not a peaceful welcome."

"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."