Quiet Halls . . .

The NY Times blog has a little video of an empty North Korean Banquet hall, from a VBS documentary called, “The Vice Guide to North Korea”.

There is more on the VBS documentary here.

13 Comments

  1. KrZ
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 9:43 am | Permalink

    Looks good, but I can’t find anything else on it. When does it air?

  2. R. Elgin
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 10:07 am | Permalink

    I’m sorry “KrZ”, I added a link to the NY Times blog regarding the VBS show.

  3. KrZ
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 10:30 am | Permalink

    This looks so good. Like Anthony Bourdain’s ROK episode only with hot commie dictatorship action! Thanks!

  4. Maddlew
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 10:54 am | Permalink

    This Shane Smith guy is someone I’d like to continue to follow. If you click a bit further there’s video of him in Jamaica and Iraq that looks extremely compelling. All this stuff shows him treading a fine line between uncovering very unique perspectives and having himself one day disappeared. Strangely, it looks as though he’s already stockpiled considerable footage yet nothing is showing in its entirety yet. At least not to the average viewer. Obviously, somebody’s seen it and commented on it already. He seems to have rung up some awards. What’s he waiting for?

  5. Posted March 1, 2008 at 11:07 am | Permalink

    That’s not PBS, it’s VBS, which is a free internet-based network started by Vice Magazine and Spike Jonez.

  6. Maddlew
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 11:56 am | Permalink

    Found some! I think this thing is just kinda snowballin on this guy. He did some stuff on hunting nuclear mutated animals in Chernobyl and did some other quirky shit. I just watched one where he interviewed leaders of a group of boys training to be suicide bombers in Beirut. What it started out being is the filming of a skateboard park in Beirut. When he got the film home and translated what was being said the film took on a whole new bend.
    I think he just goes to off the beaten trail type places and shows what normally isn’t seen. Some of this stuff is fairly mundane but some other’s pretty startling.
    It’s funny and sometimes scary but very different. It is Gonzo. There’s no adherence to the usual journalistic decorum.

  7. Maddlew
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 12:00 pm | Permalink

    Yeah, I believe the PBS thing is on one segment, the North Korean one, of this VBS guy Shane Smith.

  8. Posted March 1, 2008 at 12:09 pm | Permalink

    There’s nothing PBS about it. VBS.TV is an internet “TV station” and this is part of a series that Smith has been doing for a while. I don’t think PBS would touch something like this. His stuff is like “jackass” in the real world. It’s all on the site and it’s all free.
    I did a post on my site this morning if you want to read some correct information about it:
    http://eastwindupchronicle.com.....rth-korea/

  9. SomeguyinKorea
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 12:41 pm | Permalink

    I won’t bother watching the documentary. Making comments based on conjecture, such as the one he made about them cleaning up the table in order to serve the leftovers the next day, won’t change the fact that taking a 5000$ package tour is not going off the beaten path.

  10. Maddlew
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 1:09 pm | Permalink

    Sorry Dude, but it is talking about the “Vice Guide”, vice as in VBS, and then it says to find out more about the PBS documentary click… which goes to an article linking directly to this guy Shane Smith.

  11. R. Elgin
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 1:10 pm | Permalink

    Yeah, it’s VBS. I’m so used to seeing PBS that my typing slipped. Dag!

  12. Maddlew
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 1:10 pm | Permalink

    Oh, now it’s changed. Cool!

  13. Maddlew
    Posted March 1, 2008 at 1:16 pm | Permalink

    Wow! One out of every three kidnappings in the world take place in Columbia. Brutal!
    The world sees that kind of stat and cringes while VBS and missionaries are quickly buying plane tickets.

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