Steinbeck Country

Signs made with cardboard, paint and lettered by overhead projector. These signs were placed next to highways in and around Paso Robles, Salinas and the Monterey Bay September 13th.

"A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us." (All quotes by) John Steinbeck

"I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts."

"It is true that we are weak and sick and ugly and quarrelsome but if that is all we ever were, we would millenniums ago have disappeared from the face of the earth."

"Power does not corrupt. Fear corrupts... perhaps the fear of a loss of power."

"The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid, stable business."

" If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people. They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones."

"In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage."

Los Angeles

"I love LA... Such bon vivance in the face of inevitable doom..." -Bette Midler

(All signs made with cardboard and paint and placed on public property in accordance with First Amendment rights regarding free political speech. Locations here.)


"Strip away the phony tinsel of Hollywood and you find the real tinsel underneath." - Oscar Levant

"The freeway experience… is the only secular communion Los Angeles has. Actual participation requires a total surrender, a concentration so intense as to seem a kind of narcosis, a rapture-of-the-freeway. The mind goes clean. The rhythm takes over." - Joan Didion

"... a city where the only cultural advantage is that you can make a right turn on a red light." - Woody Allen

"Tip the world over on its side and everything loose will land in Los Angeles. " -Frank Lloyd Wright

"The final story, the final chapter of western man, I believe, lies in Los Angeles." - Phil Ochs

Phoenix!

"Bomb Bomb Bomb, Bomb Bomb Iran"

(John McCain channeling Weird Al Yankovich... not so funny when you consider that, unlike you and me, he's actually spent time bombing people. Sometimes humor is a cry for help.




In the Revolutionary era, farmers, artisans, and small shopkeepers read and wrote pamphlets, distributed broadsheets, gave speeches at town assemblies, and ripped essays from the presses to debate with one another the points they made. They didn’t subcontract out the patriot’s task of speaking up to a professional pundit class. They saw their own voices as being vitally necessary to the crafting of the Constitution and, even more important, to the life of the new nation.

We have to abandon the passive role we have accepted as mere consumers of media; we must see ourselves in a new light – or rather, see ourselves once again in a revolutionary light – as citizen leaders with responsibilities to speak the truth. - Naomi Wolf , The End of America


Photos Courtesy of a guy in Phoenix with an overhead projector, some paint and a car.

Peace Tour OC/Sept. 11th

September 11th Memorial


"I just don't spend that much time on it, to be honest. " George W. Bush, regarding Osama Bin Laden



"I call upon all nations to do everything they can to stop these terrorist killers. Thank you... Now, watch this drive!" -George W. Bush, golfing



"I think we should just trust our president in every decision that he makes and we should just support that. " -Britney Spears

Peace in San Diego

I love this overpass... look at how long it is. (click for full size)

The best way to hang cardboard on a spiked fence is to duct tape a coathangar to the top. In general, coathangar wire makes it easy to attach cardboard signs to pretty much anything.




Here's how it looks from I-5 heading north. Even though it's just a few feet away, you'd have to drive about twenty miles if you wanted to take it down.

I-5 South in Oceanside by Camp Pendleton


I-5 North and South by Lindbergh Field



Trellis behind dumpster area of TGIFridays next to Hwy 163

Interstate 15 North and South.

These signs were made with cardboard and scrap vinyl and lettered with an overhead projector.
They were placed between noon and 2:00 pm and all still up for rush hour. They were easy to make, fun to put up and seen by a couple of hundred thousand people.

West Coast Peace Tour!

Over the next two weeks I'll be touring the west coast and placing large "Peace" and "Peace on Earth." signs alongside the freeways.

Like the flags that went up on overpasses after September 11th, political banners are entirely legal and constitutionally protected speech. So long as they're non-commercial, safely posted political messages, it's not just your right to put up signs, it's your right to put up as many of them as you want, as big as you want, and your right to use public property to do it. At least that's my theory.

Granted, there are some officials who may take issue with this, but I've put up over 5,000 signs so far and nobody's done much to stop me. My take on the first amendment is that when it comes to limiting a citizen's right to political Free Speech, you'd better have a damn good reason for it.
When it comes to civil liberties it's our job as citizens to assume each and every right we can, and to fight tooth and nail for anything anyone tries to take away. Especially when it comes to Free Speech.



How To Make Signs


Freewayblogger.com

Coming Soon...

Here are some of the hundred-plus peace signs I've been making for my upcoming tour. Signs were made using large cardboard boxes and used billboard vinyl and lettered with an overhead projector. They will be appearing by freeways up and down the west coast over the next two weeks.