An end of the year blog at MRB would not be complete without reviewing someone else's blog, so now you know why I included the word probably in today's previous article:
But it's not just an "end of the year" sentiment that I'd like to post about tonight. Hopefully it's also the end of an era.
Which is why it is with bittersweet appreciation that I review (and thank the blogger gods for):
Firstly, please don't mistakenly think that all of the photos he's posted on his blog are his own doings, because they do not fairly represent the beauty and simplicity of his own freeway blogging work (which is usually far more elegant and understated than some of the ones people send in, yet despite being a bit more well-mannered and tempered they're still enormously powerful, communication-wise).
This is an excerpt from his initial welcome message (click to biggify the picture):
Although I could rhapsodize forever about why more people need to do this, the chief advantages are these:
- The numbers are staggering.
Depending on where and how you place it,
a sign that cost you a nickel to make can be
seen by over 250,000 people per day.
Personally, I believe that this dude has produced one of the most useful and entertaining blogs of the entire Bush/Cheney dictatorship.
It's one of those things where, after the fact, you often wonder to yourself:
"How on earth did I first find THIS gem?"
Well, the truth is, I have no idea how I stumbled across this wonderful blog but I do remember posting about it a few years ago.
For some reason, I keep thinking that I discovered it sometime around Thanksgiving of 2005, appropriately enough. If I'm not mistaken, it was some sort of happy accident. I may have been scanning the blogspot archive for people who shared my taste in music because, besides ending the war, the only other interests he has in his profile is one word: Eno.
Anyway, Scarlett (sp), as he so appropriately calls himself, is one of the funniest, most intuitive writers/artists/persistent good guys that I've ever had the pleasure to regularly read.
And he's an American's American.
While everyone else in the nation was fearfully staying silent (including all of the mainstream media), blindly swallowing whatever pure bullshit Bushco was feeding them at the time, Scarlet(t) was on the road, every day, putting up signs of intelligent protest on the heavily traveled thruways of California and elsewhere. And inspiring a few others to do the same. Though not nearly enough, all things considered. A mere handful, unfortunately.
And while you may think that he was breaking some laws or at the very least cluttering up the highway with childish graffiti, what he was actually doing was perfectly legal, highly honorable, and greatly needed (not to mention a whole lotta fun).
Born out of what must have been an aggravating sense of frustration with all of the lies he saw being unopposed and unexamined by the fourth estate, Scarle(t)t was posting his non-commercial free speech on public property in the spirit of dissent that had previously been a long tradition of the American Way, enthusiastically engaged in by people such as Thomas Jefferson, etc..
There's much more to write about this wonderful blog of his, but I just wanted to start the article Still in Progress before 2008 ended. So I'll pause here for a bit and go celebrate the coming new year with the rest of the world.
Here are just some of the aspects I'll be covering as I tweak this thing along:
- The Freeway Blogger's Huffpo video
(including how I may have, in some small way,
helped it become a winning reality as the
top-voted Huffpo video for July 2006). - Several of my own Huffpo videos
(inspired partly by Scarlet's blogging). - Some of my favorite excerpts from the FWB blog.
- Some of the best FWB Photos.
- Scarlett's lyrical no-nonsense approach to communication.
- Why it's important to keep Free Speech alive.
- My own procrastinated Freeway Blogging adventure
(with only one photo to show for all my efforts).
And many more musings on America and these United States (and life as we know it on planet earth this side of the Milky Way).
...
Here's a couple of the videos I made back in the days when, except for the Freeway Blogger, democracy and Free Speech seemed to have almost disappeared completely:
myspace.com/freewayblogger
freewayblogger.com
How to Take Back Your Country
How to make a sign in 5 minutes
...
(Still In Progress)
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