kim jong ilness feering a ritter bit ronery?

tis a nice story though nothing more.
these little artistic endeavors look fine on paper in the extension of good will and all of that... but that's about it.
even condi was tempering optimism on how well things are going over there.
lil kim appears to be playing us as we send the little music buff an orchestra.
gershwin is on the agenda... makes good sense.
i wonder if they ensemble would have been permitted to play shostakovich... a powerful 20th century composer who openly fought his russian state in grand fashion.

It is rumored that Meatloaf begged the Philharmonic to tagalong so he could do Bat Out Of Hell just one more time...

I heard Ozzfest is performing in North Korea this summer.

no sense, its much more than that.
this trip was brought about by the state department to show the little dog eater that we were willing to keep open a line of communication and nothing does that like music. this may not be as big as when barenboehm played wagner in israel but its big because its shows that we are a cultured people even though many here think we are not.
the main thing about it is that there will be no language barrier.

Saw a piece on Nightline where Bob Woodruff went - as the first reporter ever - into their now dismantling nuclear reactor 2 hours north of Pyongyang.

The philharmonic's visit is a good thing. U.S.-China relations were opened up through a tour of the Chinese ping-pong team throughout the U.S. (I happened to catch them in Ann Arbor, MI)

For most North Koreans they will be the first Westerners they've ever had a chance to meet or talk to.

Hope they have a very successful trip.

PBS just did a promo for an upcoming special of the New York Philharmonic in North Korea with host Bob Woodruff.

its shows that we are a cultured people even though many here think we are not.

Posted by bushlovertwo at 2008-02-25 10:44 PM

Hey man, don't forget that the DR is open to public viewing, 24/7...

A private concert, all expenses paid, for a brutal, psychopathic dictator and 1,500 of his "friends". Oh, the rest of the world gets to watch, too, but what about the poor souls who have to actually live, or better said, survive, in that Demonic Disney World? What exactly is this suposed to do other than stroke their tormentor's ego?

its a few moments of being free of the yoke of the suppressed. its a few moments of being in tune with masters of musical arts that just possibly might inspire a young person to follow a dream of being a musician or possibly even starting a feeling among the people ruled by this dictator and inspire them to free themselves from the same. and music can do that under the right circumstances and its also in the paper that they played the star spangled banner and if you dont think music can bring people to those heights then you dont understand why communist regimes ALWAYS keep composers, and all the arts for that matter, under wraps and dictators never want the people to be able to hear some music that can bring people together and inspire them to do things they otherwise would never even consider.
but mainly its a chance for even these poor people to 'hear some tunes' and whats so wrong with that?

North Korea seems to be a place where the Bush sytle of diplomacy worked. They seem to be backing away from the atomic bomb and this seems to be a step in the right direction.

In thinking about what the difference is between here and say Iran. What comes to mind is that the people in the region went along with the plan. China, Japan, South Korea, etc. bought into showing a untied front and the US resisted the urging by some to go it alone.

This at least is part of why we are not succeeding with Iran. The people who would need to partner with us refuse to do so. Until there is a untied front, Iran will continue doing what they wish.

Isn't that how a lion gets the gazell? It splits one off of the herd.

SAWDUST

It's a shame Bush rebuffed Khatami's overtures to restoring relations while he was president of Iran. Double shame Bush rebuffed him 2 years ago when he offered to meet with Bush and offer his help in bridging diplomatic chasms too.

Iran was one of the first countries in the ME to offer to help stamp out Islamic radicalism in concert with us.

Bush blew the pooch by rebuffing all the ME powers and invading Iraq against the pleading of neighboring countries not to.

Give the finger and it just might be broken off.

Saw vid of this event tonight.

Gotta admit it was kinda trippy watching the NY Philharmonic play America the Beautiful in PyongYang.

About a month ago a couple of classically trained folks from BC travelled to NK to give a recital for Lil Kim.

Fols hereabouts were conflicted on the move but at the end of the day Spud could see it doing more good than harm.

Same thing here.

Make music not war.

Be Well.

I watched it live last night. Very nice. Made you proud to see our New York Philharmonic orchestra over in North Korea playing their finest. If we were going to take out some lousy dictator I would rather we did it in North Korea than Iraq. NK's guy is the worst.

but mainly its a chance for even these poor people to 'hear some tunes' and whats so wrong with that?

Posted by bushlovertwo at 2008-02-26 09:35 AM

you think the poor people were invited to the concert? Think they had the music piped into the prison/slave camps? The ones who attended were those who were already in good with the maniac midget. I never knew what poor is until I saw a documentary following a Chinese underground smuggler who's been rescuing people from N. Korea for a number of years (can't remember the number, otherwise I would have mentioned it, it was around 10).