Recipes for Disaster: an anarchist cookbook

at night. Take note of all activities in the area. Who is around at two a.m.? How visible will you be while scaling the support structure? Keep in mind you will make noise; are there any apartment or office windows nearby? Is anyone home? Walk lightly if you're on a rooftop?who knows over whom you're walking.

What is the visibility to passing cars on surface streets and freeways? What can you see from your work position on the board? Even though it is very difficult to see a figure on a dark board at night, it is not impossible. Any point to which you have line-of-sight vision is a point from which you can be observed. How close is your board to the nearest police station or highway patrol headquarters? What is their patrol pattern in the area, what is the average response time to Joe Citizen's call? You can get an idea by staking out the area and observing. Is it quiet at night or is there a lot of foot tiaffic?When the bars

let out, will this provide cover?i.e., drunks keeping the cops busy?or will it increase the likelihood of detection by passersby? Will people care? If you are definitely spotted, it may pay to have your ground crew approach the observers rather than just hoping they don't call the cops. Do not let them connect you with a vehicle. Have your ground crew pretend to be chance passersby in order to monitor their reactions. We've been spotted at work a number of times, and most people were amused. You'll find that most people, including officials, don't look up unless given a reason to do so.

Go up on the board prior to your hit. Get a feeling for being there and moving around on the structure at night. Bring a camera?it's a good cover for doing anything you're not supposed to: "Gee, officer, I'm a night photographer, and there's a great shot of the bridge from up here ..." Check your escape routes. Can you cross over rooftops and leave by a fire escape across the block.^

D) Illumination. Most boards are brightly lit by floodlights of some type. Most large boards are shut off some time between ii:oo p.m. and 2:00 a.m. by a time clock control somewhere on or near the board. Smaller boards frequently are controlled by photoelectric cells or conventional time docks, also somewhere on the board. If you find the photoelectric cell, you can turn the lights on the board off by taping a small flashlight directly into the cell's "eye." This fools the unit into thinking it is daytime and shutting off the lights.

As noted, most larger boards are controlled by time clocks. These can be found in the control panels at the base of the support structure or behind the board itself These panels are often locked, particularly those at the structure's base. Unless you are familiar with energized electrical circuitry, we caution you to wait until the clock shuts itself off at midnight or so. Many of these boards run 220 volts and could fry you to a crisp.

E) Daytime Hits. We don't recommend this method for most high boards on or near

You can get solar panels to power your own projects from solar-powered billboard lighting systems.

Billboard Improvement

freeways and major roads. It works well for doing smaller boards lower to the ground where the alteration is relatively quick and simple. If you do choose to work in the light, wear coveralls (company name on the back?) and painters' hats, and work quicldy. Keep an eye out for parked or passing vehicles bearing the billboard company's or advertiser's name, as well as police cars. Each board has the company emblem at its bottom center.

Producing Graphic Oi^erlays

Billboard Improvement 118

Though powerful improvements are occasionally executed wdth nothing more than a spray can and a sharp wit, some actions require the production of some type of graphic overlay to alter the board's message. The more professional these overlays look, the greater the impact your modified ad is likely to have on the public. This is not to say that every hit needs to look exactly like an original?that would be prohibitively expensive for most groups. While technical competence is a worthy goal to pursue, the success or failure of your alteration wiU ultimately depend more on the quality of your thinking and the power of your altered message than on how well you can match a font.