First of all, thank you for the very positive response to the idea of this new and occasional series. It might now be a bit more frequent than I had anticipated!
Secondly, this is post number 4001 on the reincarnated version of the blog going back to July 2013. Given that I enjoy featuring so many guest contributions, I thought it was appropriate to have such an offering as post #4000. Oh, and I’ll mention just now that 4002 and 4003 will also be guest offerings from some of my dearest and oldest friends.
With that out of the way, let’s touch down somewhere on Planet Earth.
The capital and largest city in North Korea, with a population of approximately 3.1 million. It is located on the Taedong Rover, 109 km (68 miles) upstream from its mouth on the Yellow Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, having been founded in 1122 BC. Musically, there’s not a lot I can offer up, but it does seem that 2012 saw the formation of the Moranbong Band, the country’s first girl-band, with its members hand-picked by Kim Jong Un, the country’s supreme leader. The Moranbang Band are still on the go today, with one English-based reviewer stating:-
“The Moranbong girls are not what you’d expect from an unfashionably totalitarian regime where grey is the new grey. Their skirts are short, the hair is trendy, the music danceable. It could just about pass as a Eurovision entry from Azerbaijan.”
mp3: Blur – Pyongyang
A track from Blur‘s eighth studio album, The Magic Whip, released in April 2015. It was inspired by a trip Damon Albarn had made to the North Korean capital in 2014, and in a later interview with a glossy lifestyle magazine, he likened the city to ‘a magic kingdom, in the sense that everyone is under a spell.’.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
North Korea is a difficult place for free spirits. You have to be very careful not to get your brain washed. Or worse.
PopMatters recently named “Beyond Utopia” one of the most worth seeing documentaries of the last year. It’s about a priest and the North Korean citizens he helps to escape. According to Rotten Tomatos, this documentary is as exciting as a thriller and provides deeper insights into a world made of poverty and fear.
I forgive you for the 20 seconds I spent watching and listening to the video. You have a very large balance with me. [sk]