George Carlin - The Hustler 1961 - Father Ted TV - Brenham, Kansas - John Pilger TV - Woody Allen - The Sopranos TV - The House is Innocent 2015 - Tracey Emin - Amish: Out of Order TV - Simon Schama TV - Carry on Teacher 1962 - Breakaway 1955 - Panic in Needle Park 1971 - The Corporation 2003 - Grand Wizards for Goldwater - Abortion: Stories Women Tell TV - Trailer Park Boys 2001-2018 - The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution 2015 - 21st Century Mythologies with Richard Clay TV - Exodus 4:1-7 - Judges 6:17 - II Kings 20:8&9 - II Chronicles 32:24 - Isaiah 7:14&15 - Isaiah 66:19 - Matthew 12:38-40 - Matthew 16:1-4 - Mark 8:11&12 - Mark 16:17&18&20 - Luke 11:16&29 - Luke 21:25 - John 4:48 - Koran 2:118 - Book of Mormon Alma 30:43 - Book of Mormon Helaman 14:20 - Brazil 1985 - Church signs - Seven Days to Noon 1950 - Punch 2011 - The Saint Valentine’s Day Massacre 1967 - Psycho 1960 - Gangs of New York 2002 - Saboteaur 1942 - Woodstock Home & Hardware - Hotel Coolgardie 2016 - Airport Sign - Bebop Club sign - District 9 2009 - The Blues Brothers 1980 - Yellow Sky 1948 - The League of Gentlemen TV - Nellis Bombing Range -
Personally, if I were trying to discourage people from smoking, my sign would be a little different. In fact, I might even go too far in the opposite direction. My sign would say something like, ‘Smoke if you wish. But if you do, be prepared for the following series of events: first, we will confiscate your cigarette and extinguish it somewhere on the surface of your skin. We will then run your nicotine-stained fingers through a paper shredder and throw them into the street, where wild dogs will swallow them and then regurgitate them into the sewers, so that infected rats can further soil them before they’re flushed out to sea with the rest of the city’s filth. After such time, we will systematically seek out your friends and loved ones and destroy their lives’.
Wouldn’t you like to see a sign like that? George Carlin, When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?
No Gambling Allowed. The Hustler 1961 starring Paul Newman & Jackie Gleason & Piper Laurie & George C Scott & Myron McCormick & Murray Hamilton & Stefan Gierasch et al, director Robert Rossen, sign in billiards hall
No Massé Shots Allowed. ibid. sign in billiard hall
Craggy Island Crazy Golf. £1. Members 50p. Father Ted s1e2: Entertaining Father Stone, sign blown over by downpour, Channel 4 1995
World’s Largest Hand Dug Well & Meteorite. Brenham, Kansas, welcome sign
‘Please help these efforts and leave this property as you find it. Thank you for your kindness and understanding.’ John Pilger ***** The Coming War on China, US sign in bunker on Bikini Island, ITV 2016
If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name at a Swiss bank. Woody Allen, Selections from the Allen Notebooks, New Yorker 5th November 1973
Hitchhikers May Be Escaping Inmates. The Sopranos s6e15: Remember When, road sign, HBO 2006
1426F Street Sacramento: ‘Trespassers Will Be Drugged and Buried in the Yard.’ The House is Innocent, house sign, short 12.33, 2015
I Want My Time With You. Alan Yentob, Imagine … Tracey Emin: Where Do You Draw the Line? neon sign at St Pancras, BBC 2018
‘The Amish believe everything is a sign from God.’ Amish: Out of Order V: 9 to 5 Amish, Mose, National Geographic 2012
Elizabeth I’s Rainbow Portrait: This one pulls you into a labyrinth of signs and symbols. Face of Britain by Simon Schama, BBC 2015
Maudlin Street. Carry on Teacher 1962 starring Kenneth Connor & Charles Hawtrey & Leslie Phillips & Joan Sims & Kenneth Williams & Hattie Jacques & Rosalind Knight & Cyril Chamberlain & Ted Ray & Roy Hines & Carol White & George Gowell & Richard O'Sullivan et al, director Gerald Thomas, sign on gate opening scene
Berlin: Russian Sector Begins In 50 Meters. You Are Now Leaving The British Sector. Breakaway 1955 starring Tom Conway & Michael Balfour & Honor Blackman & Bruce Seton & Brian Worth & Freddie Mills & Alexander Gauge & John Horsley & Paddy Webster & John Coliocos & Arthur Lowe et al, director Henry Cass, drives past sign
This Is A Raided Premises. Panic in Needle Park 1971 starring Al Pacino & Kitty Winn & Alan Vint & Richard Bright & Kiel Martin & Michael McClanathan & Warren Finnerty & Marcia Jean Kurtz & Raul Julia & Angie Ortega et al, director Jerry Schatzberg, notice in hallway of block of flats, with rozzer in chair
Bow Your Heads: The Corporations Will Now Lead Us In Prayer. The Corporation, Canadian protest sign, 2003
Grand Imperial Wizards for Goldwater. support banner, cited Rich Hall’s Presidential Grudge Match, BBC 2016
Wake Up America STOP Abortion (Legalized Murder) Cemetery of the Innocent. Abortion: Stories Women Tell, sign in field, Sky Atlantic 2017
Sunnyville Retirement Community: Come grow young with us. Trailer Park Boys s9e1: Why in the Fuck is my Trailer Pink? park sign
Baked Bean Supper And Bingo. Trailer Park Boys, Countdown to Liquor Day, 2009, stolen church sign
Free Breakfast For Children Served Here Every School Morning. The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution, sign, Netflix 2015
The Myth of signs … humans have this amazing ability to create and follow conventions … ‘the sign is a visual signal of authority.’ 21st Century Mythologies with Richard Clay, BBC 2020
The Myth of Money: It’s a myth, something so insistent, as Barthes put it, that we accept it without question. Once, money was worth its weight in metal; today, it’s flimsy paper at best. An abstract idea with value only because we’ve so used to it being something valuable. To buttress money’s authority, banknotes are adorned with symbols of the nation state and the face of prestigious historical figures conveying a legitimacy and stability. ibid.
What happens if you subvert the myth and protest, maybe by using art? ibid.
And Moses answered and said, But, behold, they will not believe me, nor hearken unto my voice: for they will say, The Lord hath not appeared unto thee.
And the Lord said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod.
And he said, Cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from before it.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Put forth thine hand, and take it by the tail. And he put forth his hand, and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand:
That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath appeared unto thee.
And the Lord said furthermore unto him, Put now thine hand into thy bosom. And he put his hand into his bosom: and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous as snow.
And he said, Put thine hand into thy bosom again. And he put his hand into his bosom again; and plucked it out of his bosom, and, behold, it was turned again as his other flesh. Exodus 4:1-7
And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me. Judges 6:17
And Hezekiah said unto Isaiah, What shall be the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up into the house of the Lord the third day?
And Isaiah said, This sign shalt thou have of the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing that he hath spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees? II Kings 20:8&9
In those days Hezekiah was sick to the death, and prayed unto the Lord: and he spake unto him, and he gave him a sign. II Chronicles 32:24
Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good. Isaiah 7:14&15