I was lucky enough to catch a recent bit on PBS’s modern arts showcase, SPARK, about LA-based painter Sandow Birk. He said that he was staying in San Francisco for a week or so, and as he’d tell people he was from Los Angeles, their usual response wore on him. He got tired of hearing their diatribes against the smog, and traffic, and all the other things people tend to hate about The City of Angels, and thus, he was inspired to create.
Birk, after spending some time in San Francisco, began to grow bitter at hearing the diatribe against Los Angeles every time he told someone he was from Los Angeles. This inspired him to create “In Smog And Thunder”, a documentary about a fictitious Civil War where the South (Los Angeles) invades the North (San Francisco).
Not quite finished, he then went on to create a version of The Divine Comedy, set in modern-day California with the Inferno set in Los Angeles, and Purgatory in San Francisco. The work will be an animated movie in the style of a puppet show, and from the sets on display, it looks like it’s going to be freakin’ sweet.
If you have RealPlayer installed, you can check out the Spark segment here. Trailers for both The Divine Comedy and In Smog And Thunder can be seen here and here, respectively.
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