In Smog and Thunder: Historical Works from the Great War of the Californias [With CD]

by Sandow Birk

Book Overview

What if the rivalry between San Francisco and Los Angeles erupted into civil war? Drawing on images and icons of contemporary culture as well as European and Latin American art history, Sandow Birks paintings reflect a meditation on cultural identity, nationality, and history. The book comes with a CD of songs from this imagined war and features 16 pages of new posters.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 086719541X
• ISBN13: 9780867195415
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Last Gasp
• Length: 80 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 8.6" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

War of California is smart and funny

This is an excellent book that fits somewhere between a picture book and a novel. The paintings are beautiful and very funny and the writing is incredibly imaginative and hilarious. It tells the story of a fictional war between Los Angeles and California but its real point seems to be the skewering of many contemporary social issues about California today, from arguments about which city leads in cultural aspects to politics, racial problems, immigration, Hollywood and the movie industry, and on and on. The back section contains all the critical reviews to put the work into art historical perspective and its quite interesting as well, and you don't need to have studied art to get it. Get this book and pour over the pictures, read the text, and then put in the CD. Its an over the top production featuring interviews with surviors, sounds of battle, music, historical analysis, and even drive-time radio traffic reports from the middle of the battles!! The price is worth the CD alone.A perfect gift and relevent to anyone, not only Californians but Americans as well with its skewering of the Civil War.I bought every copy in my store!!!Loved it!!!