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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

JCC VISIT PYONGYANG

Discussion in 'Community' started by Rogue_Ten, Aug 9, 2014.

  1. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002


    apparently rollerblading is compatible with the juche idea
     
  2. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

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    Feb 18, 2001
    Senate thread.
     
  3. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

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    Aug 18, 2002
    i dont see how a lighthearted tourism ad is cause for a senate thread
     
  4. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    lol they actually have a wannabe Tiananmen Square? Complete with a pretend gate to the Forbidden City, with portraits of the Kims on it?
     
  5. beezel26

    beezel26 Jedi Master star 7

    Registered:
    May 11, 2003
    yeah and on every day an innocent Korean stands up to a line of cardboard tanks only to be dragged away to his death.
     
  6. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

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    Aug 16, 2002
    I like how the camera focused on the DHL van. I want to visit that van.
     
  7. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

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    Aug 18, 2002
  8. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    I read this story on the New Yorker or something about the LA Philharmonic going on a cultural tour to the DPRK, and they explained the vast resources at your disposal in their computer lab/library. I think they have something like 500 books, all written by the incredibly prolific Kims of course.

    Theyhave the whole Stalinist architecture thing down pat. These are people who make a triumphal arch just slightly larger than the Arc de Triomphe, and a monumental obelisk just slightly taller than the Washington Monument. They know all about phallic architecture and will not be caught short.
     
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  9. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

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    Aug 18, 2002
    i dont know about you, but i would read the **** out of any book (actually) written by kim jong-il
     
  10. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001

    Can you please hit yourself in the face? Full on fist, no open slaps.

    Interesting video though, but I was just left with the sense of how cold and sterile the place is.
     
  11. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Aug 18, 2002
    yeah the aforementioned stalinist architecture is kind of a bummer but at the same time open spaces and lack of advertising is pretty appealing to me for some reason

    also it is a tourism ad. the logo at the end is for a dprk tourist agency, and supposedly the north has been ramping up their efforts to attract tourists since last year
     
  12. Darth Guy

    Darth Guy Chosen One star 10

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    Aug 16, 2002
    Lack of obnoxious billboards is great. So are the open spaces (although other cities have that). Not so much everything else.

    Did that giant hotel that dominates the skyline ever get finished?
     
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  13. GrandAdmiralJello

    GrandAdmiralJello Comms Admin ❉ Moderator Communitatis Litterarumque star 10 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Nov 28, 2000
    Yeah it's like... creepy and regimented and soulless. I love grand architecture and the like, but the sort you find in Western Europe or the U.S. East Coast -- the kind that invites the viewer in, and makes them a part of it. The stuff there in Pyongyang is forbidding and not very pleasant.

    Agree about the open space, though I think that's just only possible because of the hugely low population there. Beijing also has similar Stalinist buildings in its government areas, but it doesn't have the same sense of open space because of the population (and the air quality, lol).

    The ornamental, central parts of DC, Paris, London, Boston, etc. have some open space. Can't avoid having a ton of cards and all, but it's still nice.

    Yeah, that's the trick isn't it? I don't know that he would've ever sat down to write anything, unless it was about basketball or something.
     
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  14. Rogue_Ten

    Rogue_Ten Chosen One star 7

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    Aug 18, 2002

    my understanding is it was finished in like 2012
     
  15. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

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    Feb 18, 2001
    No I get that, and yes - the lack of billboards I noticed too. But it's something else. There's just no joy anywhere. They're all so grim and functional.

    But take this video as a contrast:

    My brother's company did this and a Taipei (there might also be Shanghai too) ad for Louis Vuitton as part of their brand launches in those places.

    Despite the LV logos, there's no emphasis on billboards or ads or anything but the cities seem so much more alive. Even Taibei, which is pretty sleepy by comparison with Hong Kong, feels like there's life there.

    I watch that HK LV ad and I want to go to HK. I don't want to buy a Vuitton wallet or belt for example, but I do want to go.

    I don't want to go to Pyongyang, despite having heard about how interesting the experience is from friends who went.
     
  16. beezel26

    beezel26 Jedi Master star 7

    Registered:
    May 11, 2003
    You go to Pyongyang like you want to go to a zoo.
     
  17. LostOnHoth

    LostOnHoth Chosen One star 5

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    Feb 15, 2000
    Apparently there is no night life there or cafés or restaurants. Where will the tourists sleep and what will they eat? Tourism ad 101 fail. I did like the look of fear in the eyes of everyone in the close ups, except for the kid who is too young to understand fear.
     
  18. beezel26

    beezel26 Jedi Master star 7

    Registered:
    May 11, 2003
    Tourists go to North Korea to gawk at the oddity that is North Korea. It has no history or anything else for that matter. It has the Kims and the regime. People are openly starving and the few tourists that do go just simply want to see the curiosity of the zoo. They want to stay at the residents and record what weird things are going on.
     
  19. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Feb 18, 2001

    What.

    I feel like you should know people who have been before making this comment.

    Shush beezel.
     
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  20. beezel26

    beezel26 Jedi Master star 7

    Registered:
    May 11, 2003
    Explain to me then what people go to North Korea for besides spying.
     
  21. Ender Sai

    Ender Sai Chosen One star 10

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    Feb 18, 2001
    I can't explain because I don't understand what you are saying.
     
  22. LostOnHoth

    LostOnHoth Chosen One star 5

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    Feb 15, 2000
    Beezel I was commenting on the content (or lack thereof) of the ad, particularly the absence of any shots of the place at night or any shots of people eating or drinking. This oversight is pretty much an unforgivable sin. You will note the other ad of HK featured some night scenes and some scenes of eateries. The ad leaves you underwhelmed because it does not cater to our basic human needs.
     
  23. beezel26

    beezel26 Jedi Master star 7

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    May 11, 2003
    People who visit North Korea visit for the shock value.
     
  24. Darth Morella

    Darth Morella Force Ghost star 6

    Registered:
    Apr 5, 2004
    AFAIK, it's just an empty shell with no electricity or running water, let alone habitable rooms.
     
  25. duende

    duende Jedi Grand Master star 5

    Registered:
    Apr 28, 2006
    this was a fun watch:



     
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