Notes from the Highway

Usually, my drive morning down the 10 East is not very interesting. It's besotted by routine -- NPR and Morning Edition's daily reportage on Iraq, my frustration with Marketplace's cutesy introductory tagline, and, when I'm feeling more frivolous and very tired, a medium sized English Breakfast Tea Latte from the Coffee Bean. Today was no different. But then I got onto the interchange for the 110, and in front of me was this great burgundy Toyota pick-up with the bumper sticker "Art Warrior." And above that, on the tailgate, there was a worn bumper sticker for "brushbymiho.com".

So, I was compelled to visit the site because the quiet publicity of her bumper stickers made me really interested in seeing what the deal with this person was. And I think her promotional strategy is perfect for Los Angeles. The line between publicizing yourself by getting the word out and overdoing it is a little difficult to tread, and even though I'm usually wary of bumper sticker websites, I think it was her awesome, no-bones truck that made me surf toher URL. After visiting, it also made me wonder why more people -- i.e. artists (besides Dennis Woodruff, I suppose) -- here in L.A. don't use this strategy deftly and quietly. I think, if done tastefully, it could do wonders...