In the End Times there will be Signs.

It is well known the most important aspect of public relations is name recognition. Placing one’s name before the public eye is of paramount importance to politicians, merchants, artists, and of course rock bands. Many bands change their name with new personnel, making it hard for fans to recognize favorite music amid changing band identities. Rio Bisbee.Band retained identity for 45 years while out of over 60 Bisbees including three drummers died, guitarists moved on to other bands, singers switched to theatre, got pregnant, left the state, or went noisily nuts, enough Bisbees still remain for rock ‘n roll.  That turned out to be wise as RIO BISB initial plates on the Bismobile are still valid, and so is the old stock of Rock Pointilism T-shirts. Thrifty!

Speaking of T-shirts, with Tim at Inner Sense, we discussed highway signage. He doesn’t do BDS, but he suggested using step stakes, the little placards on wire legs politicians stick by the roadside in October. At first I thought it was rather tacky. There was one lying in the dirt right outside the print shop. I don’t want to wind up like that! However, upon reflection, I decided to give it a try and ordered a first batch of stomp signs. They replicate the new band business cards with RIO BISBEE.BAND on hazard yellow. A few weeks later, 30 signs were ready to fit with steel legs. It is a trick to make the wire fit in the fluting, but done just so it holds good. I was ready to post.

Mid-summer 2024 I placed a first sign in the lane divider at the intersection by Marden’s on the Bar Harbor Road in Ellsworth, Maine. Wanting to avoid trespassing on private property, I choose lane dividers at intersections because roadways are all what is left of the commons, cars stop for the traffic light, and besides, who is going to complain? I select raised, paved lane dividers that developed cracks through which grass is growing up. I jam the wire legs in between layers of asphalt, and that holds!

By summer’s end I calculated that with Route 3 the only road to Acadia National Park, at least a million people could have seen the sign with our minimalist message, which a single glance forms indelible memory. Signs were supplied all Bisbees to erect. Soon they could be seen around the state and across the country. You may have seen one? Take a picture and send it in! Signs have been successful beyond fever dreams. For the first time, instead of saying Never heard of that! folks now reply Rio Bisbee.Band! I’ve seen the signs!

It did not take long however before signs were removed. At the Marden’s, a dark skid-mark crossed the green paint at the spot where the sign had been. An accident? I was informed Bar Harbor town ordinance prohibits stomp signs - police were taking them - though political signs are condoned. It was a surprise to see another band put signs in spots where ours had been removed. Ha! Imitation is sincerest flattery! But what’s so special about that other band? I tried putting a Rio Bisbee.Band sign near their sign. Next day the Rio Bisbee.Band sign was gone, but the other sign abides. That proves it. There is anti-Bisbee vigilantism out there selectively sniping our signs. It takes fanaticism to park one’s car near the intersection, dash across traffic to yank our sign out of the crack in the asphalt, and steal off with it so I cannot re-erect. Now I always carry one in the car so I may replace a missing sign as I go about my lawful pursuits.

But why stop there? Crew T-shirts with Louise’s UGBUG drawing show venue staff we are organized. Sam Johnson’s intricate Dobbshead skull image reproduces nicely on T-shirt, frisbee, and decal. People bought T-shirts at rare Rio Bisbee,Band shows, wear them about in public. Cool! Thanks! Magnet decals were disappointing – edges curl up and they blow off vehicle side panels at speed. I ordered stickers instead, including the Spartan RIO BISBEE.BAND brand on yellow.

By my reckoning, highway lane dividers are fair game for signs as the narrow strips are no one’s private property. Apparently though, the Maine Department of Transportation takes a different view. I expected the stomp sign in the divider at the intersection of the I-95 cut-off in Augusta would not survive the winter. What I did not expect in springtime there are new signs along the roadway every tenth mile that read Controlled Access Highway, Post No Signs! Huh! Did they install those special for me? Not the first time government ramped up repression because something I did.. One by one, there was a Post No Signs sign each place I put a stomp sign. Wow! They really ARE after me! Okay! I know where I am not wanted. Instead of wasting more signs at $17 each, I put up stickers instead. They may be smaller, but they are harder to remove. I place a sticker carefully over the word NO. Now the official signs read Post Rio Bisbee.Band Signs.

It is a First Amendment challenge. Free speech means being heard, or in the case of signage, being seen. It takes pertinacity to persist in a free market controlled by corporate/government. International firms can afford pervasive publicity, and hire scabs to censor any competition for the public’s attention span. Government retains unitary command of all public access, subject to the whimsy of individual bureaurats. Guerilla signing is culture-jamming - exercising one’s 1A right to be a drop in the media tsunami.

Decades of repeated moves to squelch Rio Bisbee.Band messaging have incurred status as Maine’s Most Dangerest Band. Not because anyone ever gets hurt, but because we oppose and resist the Normals, the Pinks, the Barbies and Kens, the grey ones, the gatekeepers, the glorps, the green energy ghouls, the talking somnambulax, the sewer snoids, the shape-shifting reptilian alien overlords, the aluminum jet-powered Nazi super-sonic hell-creatures from the center of the hollow Earth. You know – Them.

When conspirators are frightened, that is Victory for Rock ‘n Roll!

RIO BISBEE.BAND  - -  a sign you can believe in!

Yo Bisbee – Minister of Propaganda