[Nemesis6]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZdBKZne9kA

The U.S New York Philharmonic playing the North Korean anthem Aegukka in Pyongyang.

The New York Philharmonic orchestra has arrived in North Korea, for what has been described as a remarkable display of cultural diplomacy.
The orchestra is due to play in Pyongyang on Tuesday, and the concert will be broadcast live on local TV.
It is the largest US presence in the reclusive state since the Korean war more than half a century ago.
The US State Department has authorised the trip, despite deadlock on the issue of North Korea's nuclear programme.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she welcomed the concert but cautioned against expectations that it would lead to dramatic change.
"I don't think we should get carried away with what listening to Dvorak is going to do in North Korea," said Ms Rice, herself a classical pianist.

'The power of music'

According to John Sudworth, a BBC reporter travelling with the musicians, the concert will be the most prominent cultural exchange between the US and North Korea in the isolated country's history.
   
Music to N Korea's ears?

Pyongyang has made unprecedented attempts to accommodate the orchestra, allowing a delegation of nearly 300 people to fly to Pyongyang for a 48-hour period.
Even the anti-American posters that usually line the streets of Pyongyang have been torn down, the Philharmonic's executive director, Zarin Mehta, told the Associated Press.
"This journey is a manifestation of the power of music to unite people," Mr Mehta said ahead of the trip.
"It is our sincere hope that these concerts will aid in the beginning of a new era between the peoples of our nations."
The concert will feature Antonin Dvorak's Symphony Number 9, An American in Paris by George Gershwin and the Korean folk song Arirang.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7262409.stm

Events like this leave me torn, because on the one hand, we all know what North Korea is like, which is the basis for most of the west's overwhelmingly negative relationship with them, but at the same time, hostility mostly just breeds mutual hatred, so I like small events like this, when we focus on things we have in common, however small they might be.

[Mongoose]

If it gets even a few random citizens to realize that, hey, maybe everyone in the West isn't an evil capitalist pig-dog after all, then it's probably good thing.

[Polpolion]

not terribly new

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUfI6v6SwL4

[Nuke]

when i hear dvorak's 9th, i think of fascist dictatorships, so i guess its fitting.

[Mongoose]

The fourth movement kicks indescribable amounts of ass, and I say that as someone not very well-acquainted with classical music as a whole.

[BrotherBryon]

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Either this is a misprint or it happened quite a while ago. Rice was Bush's Secretary of State.

[General Battuta]

vid was posted in 2008

e: so was the article

[QuantumDelta]

So was the news article..

[BrotherBryon]

Thought as much, couldn't click on the links from the work PC to verify. Old Kim could afford gestures like this once in a while (those few lucid times when he wasn't totally bat **** insane any way). The new Kim has several years if not decades of saber rattling to do before he could even think of it.

[FireSpawn]

I say that it's the perfect time to introduce them to Gwar.

[Nuke]

The fourth movement kicks indescribable amounts of ass, and I say that as someone not very well-acquainted with classical music as a whole.

aye, its a good piece maybe one day i should listen to the whole thing.

I say that it's the perfect time to introduce them to Gwar.

their last 2 albums kind of sucked. show gwar to normal people and theyre like , show them to north koreans, and they might push the button. yea! bring back the bomb!

[FireSpawn]

Or it could turn them into a nation of Beavis and Buttheads, and ruin their own country.

[Nuke]

gwar uses shocking imagery and lyrics and toilet humor to get a higher unspoken point across. where as bevis and butthead were just pure toilet humor with no point what so ever but to make hordes of grunge-listening teenagers laugh at fart jokes. aside from links between the 2, the b&b video games featured gwar for example, and gwar may have done the theme song for the show (ive never bothered to research this fact and it may be completely bogus). but other than that its like comparing apples and oranges. south park is actually a better parallel to what gwar is about, its shocking, gross, etc, but it usually has a moral behind the plot.

[FireSpawn]

So...It will turn them into a nation of Cartmens instead?

[General Battuta]

Did you know that there are secret North Korean labor camps in Siberia? ****ing mind-boggling. Apparently they export older men with families as slave labor (they have families so they can't run away).

[Nuke]

doenst supprise me, most of russia is too big to fully govern. alaska is much the same way, theres so much territory and anyone who wants to stay completely off the grid could do so if they knew how. so you could grow dope in cargo containers buried in the woods