My friend John Law is a legend of San Francisco's underground with an incredible resume of culture jamming brilliance. In the 1970s, he was an integral part of the Suicide Club, a Dadaist group of urban explorers and adventurers that eventually led to Law's co-founding of the Cacophony Society, Burning Man, and the Billboard Liberation Front. Over 40 years, he's also co-founded or contributed to Communiversity, Dark Passage/Ars Subterranea, Seafoam Palace LLC, SF Cyclecide Bike Rodeo, Survival Research Laboratories, SantaCon/flash mobs, Madagascar Institute, SEEMEN, Laughing Squid, and The Bronx Pipe Smoking Society. And he's still keeping the SF Bay Area's high weirdness torch burning even amidst the city's massive (and mostly unfortunate) transformation.

Starting tonight, celebrate John's contributions to the counterculture with SIGNMAN: John Law, a three-month long retrospective of Law's life of art (and art of living). The exhibition at Oakland's Pro Arts Gallery will include "rare documentation of events, pranks and explorations, neon art, and multi-media installations." Complementing the exhibit through the summer will be public programs that include lectures, film screenings, book signings, and, I would bet, some unexpected surprises.

SIGNMAN: John Law (Pro Arts Gallery)

(above photo: John Behrens)

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Political rabble-rouser and anti-Trump activist Claude Taylor wants to make sure that we don't forget the fact that the Saudi government, likely ordered by the crown prince, brutally tortured, murdered, and dismembered a U.S. resident and Washington Post journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. To that end, he has made street sign-styled bumper stickers that you can place over existing street signs to turn any road in America into Khashoggi Way. You can get one of your own, for free, by following the instructions below.

Thanks to Claude, in his Mad Doc Pac "Rat Truck," Jared and Ivanka's street in DC is now Khashoggi Way. Claude tweets:

I’m back from today’s delivery of #KhashoggiWay. I went to Jared. Or close. Let’s not lose sight of the fact that Jared Kushner assisted in the coverup of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder. #complicit @KarenAttiah

If you want to support Taylor's resistance projects, he has a Mad Dog Pac account on ShareBlue.

[Images via Claude Taylor's Twitter feed] Read the rest

Bargain shoe chain Payless recently took over a Santa Monica retail shop and turned it into Palessi, a luxury store selling their bargain shoes. Then they invited influencers to the store's grand opening to punk them. Shoes and boots that normally retail for $19.99 to $39.99 were presented as designer shoes.

Adweek:

Party goers, having no idea they were looking at discount staples from the mall scene, said they’d pay hundreds of dollars for the stylish shoes, praising the look, materials and workmanship. Top offer: $640, which translates to an 1,800 percent markup, and Palessi sold about $3,000 worth of product in the first few hours of the stunt.

Payless, or “Palessi,” did ring up those purchases but didn’t keep the money. Influencers got their cash back, along with free shoes. Their reactions caught in the short- and longer-form ads—those shocked “gotcha” moments—are fairly priceless.

Head over to Adweek (login required) to watch the video of the unsuspecting influencers gushing over the "designer" shoes and then watch the videos as a couple of them learn they've been fooled.

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A street art collective known as ArtBitch, currently operating as VoteBitch, has been droplifting humorous pro-voting signs up in a bunch of public Bay Area locations.

Each sign shows a figure holding up a dog poop bag in one hand and a leash attached to the United States in the other, with the word "VOTE" and the hashtag #itactuallymatters underneath it.

The group has made the sign's art a free download on their site.

You pick up your mess – why should the neighbors sit home watching football while you rock the whole civic duty thing? Tell folks to get with the program with this chipper yet irony-laden “Vote” sign.

Vote! It does actually matter.

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Pick it up! Want a free PDF of this? Print your own dang sign by emailing me thru the website (link in profile). #vote #itactuallymatters #streetart #culturejamming #adbusters #art #Election #elections #elections2018 #election2018 #registertovote #register #bluewave #blacklivesmatter #politics #TheFutureIsVoting #BeAVoter #CivicMinded #Civilrights #2018Election #rockthevote #bluewave #rememberinnovember #moveon #democracy #democracynow #leagueofwomenvoters #feminist #feminism #activism

A post shared by VoteBitch (@votebitch2020) on Oct 13, 2018 at 12:27pm PDT

photo by Rusty Blazenhoff (VoteBitch tipped me off on a few of the locations so I could photograph the signs. The lead image was captured at the bus stop on Webster Street near the corner of Atlantic Avenue in Alameda.) Read the rest

Thanks to the members of a street art project, some bus shelter adverts for Facebook in London were improved by a good ol' fashioned culture jam.

The Protest Stencil is taking credit for these subvertising efforts which altered Facebook's messaging to say, "Fake news is not our friend, it’s a great revenue source," and "Data misuse is not our friend, it’s our business model."

They refer to their work as "honest Facebook ads," writing, "To facebook, you’re not a ‘friend’, you’re the product on sale." Preach it!

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those honest facebook ads are really getting around... . . . #facebookads #adhack #londonstreets #adtakeover #advertisingshitsinyourhead #acab #fakenews

A post shared by Protest Stencil (@proteststencil) on Aug 15, 2018 at 6:02am PDT

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TFW you realise that *you* are the product that’s on sale... . . . #facebookads #adhack #adtakeover

A post shared by Protest Stencil (@proteststencil) on Aug 13, 2018 at 8:36am PDT

(Design You Trust)

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The UK's Office of Communications is pursuing a pirate radio prankster who has interrupted the Mansfield 103.2 broadcast eight times over the last month. He cuts into the regularly scheduled programming with the below tune from 1978, "The Winker’s Song" (1978) by Ivor Biggun. From The Guardian:

Tony Delahunty, managing director of Mansfield 103.2, said: “Some people have told me that their children have started humming the song in the car.

“We have had calls from people who have found it hilarious, while some have raised their concerns, including our competitors, and a lot of people in the industry are aghast at how difficult it is to stop these people...."

“We are told by Ofcom who are investigating the matter, that you only need, and this is the frightening thing, a small transmitter and if you can get near where there is an outside broadcast or a signal and you can overpower that signal [and] you’re on the airwaves.”

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A group of artists placed signs in NYC subway cars that look like standard "If You See Something, Say Something" signs, but they contain additional information. Example:

“I’m glad I was reminded to report that suspicious bag. But I wonder, when my own president uses a willing media to perpetuate a constant state of fear, who are the real terrorists and who profits off my panic?”

And:

“It’s important to report suspicious activity. I feel weird telling people this when I know ratting out a fellow cop for unethical behavior or brutality could make my life a living hell.”

And:

“I knew to report the unattended bag I saw. But why wasn’t I also encouraged to speak up when I saw my government destabilizing the Middle East which led to increased terrorism in the first place?””

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Last night, a prankster used strategically-placed tarps to improve the iconic Hollywood sign to read Hollyweed! Well done! (L.A. Times)

This was a reprise of a 1976 alteration celebrating California's decriminalization of marijuana.

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From one of science fiction's most versatile writers comes a caper novel about corporate sleaze and net-savvy guerrilla activists that is as thrilling as it is trenchant. Cory Doctorow reviews Paolo Bacigalupi's The Doubt Factory.

Last week, in a coordinated attack by guerrilla artists across the UK, 365 outdoor ads were replaced by hand-printed works of art. It was a project of Brandalism, and they hit 10 cities, using hi-viz vests and steely nerves as camouflage while they did their work. Read the rest

I have no idea who shot these, or who is responsible. Update: here are some daytime shots, from the San Francisco Mission district.

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