I, Zoren X. Cross—“The Rebel Rodder”—petition Americans and the rest of the world to rightfully request the Guinness World Record (GWR) to officially acknowledge my first successful attempt to establish a new street art world’s record as “The fastest to place at least one art poster in all 48-contiguous states in America” in less than three weeks (or to be more exact at 18 days, 20 hours, 14 minutes or 451 hours and 51 minutes). This transcontinental trek has been documented in my new book, “THE REBEL RODDER: A Race Against The Descending Sun Of Democracy Through A Cross Country Challenger Quest (C3Q) To Set A New Street Art World Record.” The book verifies this successful epic endeavor through substantial amounts of proof in the form of 1) outline overview of the route, timeline and poster placements, 2) maps showing such sites, 3) photos of placements of posters, and 4) written documentation like a) credit card statements, b) expense receipts for i) food, ii) fuel, and iii) lodgings, along with 5) a signed witness log and contact information of at least two people per state that verifies our accomplishment beyond reproach. The in-depth documentation within this book is my second attempt at verification and acknowledgement of our epic achievement. I first submitted my documentation to GWR back in March of 2017 but my application was rejected. Their official reason was given in a February 16, 2018 email: “Your evidence is currently in our North America office and arrived there via London back in the spring. Your record title suggestion was rejected because we at Guinness World Records wouldn’t measure it. The title of first artist to place posters in the longest art campaign in all 48-continental U.S. states is not standardisable. We also don’t tend to measure “firsts” because they’re not necessarily a record — records have to be breakable, measurable and comparable, e.g. tallest, fastest, heaviest, etc. We tend to measure firsts that have arisen as a result of a great deal of (usually international) interest and competition.” 

There are four problems with this response: 1) Their description of our record attempt as “the first artist to place posters in the longest art campaign…” is an incorrect characterization. I was not applying for “the longest art campaign” but for the fastest unathorized, guerrilla street art postering campaign in all 48-contiguous states of America. 2) As such, it becomes easily “standardisable,” “measurable” and “comparable” by merely providing proof of both the postering (through videos and/or photographs in each of the 48 states) and the travelling through all 48 states (via the documentation I’ve previously mentioned in the last paragraph). There is no need for “in-person refereeing” to confirm the results. 3) Their claim that they “don’t measure ‘firsts’ because they’re not necessarily a record” seems nonsensical and a “cop-out excuse” considering that all current GWR’s records were at some point in time, in the beginning, the “firsts.” Since, you can’t have a “breakable record” unless one first sets the record. 4) The GWR book even has a grouping for what we accomplished classified under the category: “Adventures/ Epic Journeys.” If what we did does not qualify as such, then I don’t know what does. This book is proof of such an unrecognized feat. So in the spirit of American defiance against, once again, the arbitrariness of the UK (GWR) that I, “The Rebel Rodder,”publicly declare becoming the first guerrilla street artist to place at least one art poster in all 48-contiguous states of America in 18 days to set the new world’s record! In doing so, I ask all independent-minded citizens of the world to fill out our online petition at s3k.org to create “a great deal of international interests” for GWR to officially recognize our bold record on their website and in their hard copy book under “Adventures/Epic Journeys.” And together we can succeed in this global goal to move forward to a C3Q II attempt to break my own “unofficial” record with my phantom black 6.1 Dodge SRT8 Challenger for the second time! 

The REBEL RODDER is a self-declared moniker as a result of the end of an epic road trek to set a new street guerrilla art world record. He and his wife journeyed 11,600 miles in 21 days to post at least one unauthorized art poster in all 48 lower contiguous states of America—living out most people’s fantasy vacation, while driving in many American’s dream hot rod. However, this was no vacation and the modern American muscle car—the DODGE 6.1 CHALLENGER—served as a fitting symbol to dare others to break this newly established (unofficial) world’s record by fellow road rebels. During this quixotic quest, they met a wide variety of people from across the entire political spectrum that stated we need to end hyperpolarization, political paralysis, cultural divisions, competition between alternative moral systems. They also experienced what most people never will—the velocity blur of a Nebraska landscape, while driving a nitrous equipped black 2010 Challenger SRT8 over 175 mph before running out of road on their way to poster junked-vehicles at the outdoor, art installation “Carhenge.” They did things most people will never do like hiking along the rim of a dormant volcano, (overlooking four states on The Four Corners: Colorado, Utah, New Mexico & Arizona), only to descend into its charred, molten, cooled rocky center in Raton, New Mexico. They experienced the extremes of living out one’s passionate purpose in collaboration with the unconditional love of a life partner, while at times during intense difficult moments in the trek also experienced contempt for each other and yet coming out the other end as stronger steel, forged from the fires of triumphs and tribulations (perhaps in preparation for more grandiose projects yet to come). On top of everything they have unofficially established a new world record (pending another review of our records provided in this book) by being the first guerrilla artist to place at least one, unauthorized, street art poster in every state in the continental U.S., documented by credit card statements and receipts; along with pictures, video and a witness log book filled with names, signatures and contact information to confirm their whereabouts. (Pictures available on Facebook under the search term: “C3Q: Cross Country Challenger Quest” on the Zevin X. Cruz page). 

268 art posters were placed in 48 states, 60 cities at 106 sites in less than 3 weeks’ time. All posted in different locations without authorization, approvals or permits—street art at its simplest, speediest and grandest. Placement of posters ranged from the conventional like: college bulletin boards at Yale University, all variety of power and electrical traffic boxes (tall vertical ones to short wide ones and a diversity of colors: green, pink, salmon, stainless steel, black, white and beige) to strange sites like: statues, head busts, dumpsters, gas stations (trash cans, fuel pumps and pillars), signs (state visitor centers, pedestals, back of billboards), utility rooms, abandoned shacks, sheds and buildings, baseball stadiums, outdoor art projects, graffiti-ridden junked cars, a green plastic dinosaur, in front of a police department, behind of a fast food chain order speaker board, on a freeway overpass, highway bridges, pillars and pedestals, a steel train bridge, a Grand Canyon gift shop, a cowboy straddling a rocket on top of a firetruck, a giant water tank on a Montana hilltop that can be seen for blocks, inside the largest book store in the country at Portland, Oregon, in the foyer of a Denny’s in Indiana, and behind a national park sign like John Brown’s at Harpers Ferry in West Virginia—an American abolitionist who believed an armed insurrection was the only way to overthrow the institution of slavery in the United States. What will be America’s new transcendent higher purpose? C3Q II 2026: The Road To Reunification Begins on September 1st!