My final Pyongyang post for the TONY Blog is up now, as is my second post for Symphony magazine and its related photos. There's still one more Symphony post on the way, with its own set of images.
As for unfinished business, I've got more thoughts to process, more photos to share and a comprehensive article on the entire experience coming in a future issue of Symphony. But for now, time to sleep: I've got a day and a half to prowl Seoul, and I don't want to waste a minute of it.
Post number two from Pyongyang is up on the TONY Blog now. The first report for the Symphony website has just gone up here, and there's a small gallery of photos here. This photograph, of course, is the famous colossal bronze of Kim Il-Sung on Mansu Hill. (I'm no great photographer, but this is effectively a foolproof shot.)
It's the end of the first day in Pyongyang -- actually, about 4:30am on Tuesday -- and my first eyewitness account is on the TONY Blog. Another report, differently detailed and richly illustrated, will be posted shortly on the Symphony magazine website. Stay tuned.
I promised big news, and here it is: On Friday morning -- actually, about seven hours from now, weather permitting [knocks wood] -- I'll be flying to Beijing. And on Monday, I'll hook up with the New York Philharmonic for a trip I could never have conceived of taking: I'm heading to Pyongyang, North Korea, to report on the orchestra's historic visit and concert.
I can't fully anticipate what kind of access I'll have to the Internet during my trip -- and honestly, that fact is in itself part of the story. Ideally I'll be filing on-the-scene reports for the TONY Blog and also on the League of American Orchestras website. Eventually I'll write about the entire experience for Symphony magazine.
The amount of extra work I've had to put in over the last few weeks in order to prepare for this trip has left me drained and slightly delirious. Strangely, that feels somewhat appropriate as I contemplate visiting a place I never even imagined getting to see firsthand. The fierce debate that has surrounded the Philharmonic's visit has only added to the surreality of knowing that if all goes as planned, I'm actually going to be a witness.
Call it vanity, call it ego, call it what you will -- after chasing my desired domain name for several years, I have finally secured it this week: www.nightafternight.com is now officially open for business.
I'm assured that all links to the old address (nightafternight.blogs.com) will continue to work, as will all individual links to old posts. I figure this will probably cut into my ranking next time someone posts a Top 50 list. But hey, now I'll have something other than my own inactivity to blame.
A much bigger, far more interesting announcement is coming very, very soon. Stay tuned.
The issue of Net Neutrality -- preventing major telecoms and special interest groups from controlling access to the Internet, not to mention potentially terracing access and service in favor of those who can pay the most -- is a critically important one right now. That's why I've had that cute little "Save the Net" button on my left column for quite a while.
The button takes you to SavetheInternet.com, where today you can watch a streaming video of Representative Ed Markey (D-Mass.) as he describes his introduction of the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008," intended to preserve the web as a resource to which most citizens of free countries have the potential for equal access. Representative Markey's bill is co-sponsored by Representative Chip Pickering (R-Miss.). The movement enjoys the support of a strikingly large range of organizations, from the Christian Coalition and Gun Owners of America to PETA and the ACLU.
From a SavetheInternet blog post on the subject:
Big phone and cable companies like AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner have padded the pockets of Washington lawyers, lobbyists and shills to kill Net Neutrality and pave the way for "network management" practices that allow blocking of certain content in favor of Web sites and services the companies prefer.
The new bill requires the FCC to actively protect the free-flowing
Internet from gatekeepers, enforcing protections that “guard against
unreasonable discriminatory favoritism for, or degradation of, content
by network operators based upon its source, ownership, or destination
on the Internet.”
You can go here to read more, then here to sign the petition if you feel moved to do so.
I also think Representative Markey's video was a nifty idea—but it's not nearly as hott as the one made by Leslie Hall (of "How We Go Out" fame):
