kim jong il vs. joe strummer

is it just me or is it possible the kim jong is a fan of the clash?

a few months ago i started listening to classical music on a pretty regular basis. it's great for studying, background music, and going to sleep. tonight i was channel surfing for a while before i started to doze and i came across a classical concert on cnn. i stopped surfing for a minute to see why this was news, and saw the headline across the bottom of the screen; "new york philharmonic performing in pyongyang, north korea". this is huge. i was excited to watch because these kinds of things have the potential to change history. this is the largest group of the first song that i caught was 'an american in paris' by gershwin. when the conductor was introducing this masterpiece, he made a comment that he hoped one day someone would write 'an american in pyongyang'. i couldn't agree more. the best part of the comment was that the north korean audience applauded in response. they are brought up to believe that we are an evil empire, filled with hate, so for them to applaud that statement gives me hope that someday we can be at peace with this country. i know there is a long way to go in attaining peaceful relations with north korea, but if that road can be built by visits from the nyc philharmonic instead of the us military i think we would all be better off. that's not a dig against our military, but rather a dream that we can achieve our goals through something as universal as music. i think music has the power to save the world. in the early 1970's different musical groups were allowed unprecedented access to china, and several years later the entire country was opened up to the west. in africa, groups of former children soldiers are rallying people against violence that has shattered their country for years.
i know it's easy to get stuck in the rut of listening to whatever 3:33 that gets fed to us by the labels. but for my money, the best music out there is the music that is honest, earnest, and dangerous. johnny cash ended his career with a song about God's vengeance, james brown began his career with songs about racism, and tonight i'm watching a group of new yorkers play on the other side of the korean border. it makes it all the more meaningful for me to end with...
one love, one heart.