Maybe he's not all bad?

[Bad Monkey]

man, this dude was at our gig last night. He kept asking for Freebird.

[Astro]

Funny picture I saw online...

Actually, thats a picture of Chris Theile on the set before he ate the snickers bar...

[Ron McMillan]

For a guy that wrote a book that had plenty of funny material in it--yes, I read it--glad to see you have a sense of humor

I appreciate you saying so. If you have a minute to put up a review on Amazon, I'd be very grateful. I know, I know, always looking for something, we writer people

[Bertram Henze]

I thought of posting that 'creepy as hell' kids ensemble and went as far as looking it up...then decided, with respect, that it's not fair game to make fun of little kids growing up in an evil totalitarian dictatorship. I hope they find their way to happy adulthoods.

It's not about making fun about the kids. It's about making fun of the dictatorship, and that is not only fair game, it's the only way to cope with terribly sad things. These kids will grow up to be adults and fondly remember the dictator because he gave them guitars.

[Ron McMillan]

It's not about making fun about the kids. It's about making fun of the dictatorship, and that is not only fair game, it's the only way to cope with terribly sad things. These kids will grow up to be adults and fondly remember the dictator because he gave them guitars.

Sadly, Bertram is right. I was one of the few journalists to get into North Korea (five times between 1989 and 1995), each time on assignment for magazines in Asia, Europe and America. Those trips were the most disturbing assignments of my professional life, but the really terrifying thing is how, almost thirty years since I first went there, things have not actually changed very much.

[Petrus]

I follow DPRK News Service on Twitter. It's a satire account written by a guy in America and frequently hilarious.



https://twitter.com/DPRK_News

For fun we could try to write an appropriate DPRK News Service style caption for that original photo.

[Jess L.]

Edit: duplicate post, deleted. See next post below.

[Jess L.]

...

At first I thought someone had Photoshopped him into a mandolin store, but then I looked closer at the peghead:



Looks possibly similar to the instruments in the video below, sounds like a mandolin orchestra and certainly some very capable musicians, this was supposedly a performance for his birthday (according to the YouTube page). See 0:50-1:07, and more tremolo closeup at 3:12, and a nice solo from 3:35-3:58:


(or direct link)

However, the person in the pic below seems clearly displeased with the excess scrolls on this Schmergel mando-bass (click pic a few times to make bigger) :





(Yeah, that mando-bass pic is Photoshopped.)

[FLATROCK HILL]

(Yeah, that mando-bass pic is Photoshopped.)

That's OK...The one in this "news" article has been tampered with too. Unless the supreme leader has figured out a way not to cast a shadow.

[MikeEdgerton]

You folks act like this is a new development. Back when he was just a colonel he actually sponsored a band.

[Jeff Mando]

He looks younger without the glasses!

[Bertram Henze]

You folks act like this is a new development. Back when he was just a colonel he actually sponsored a band.

Yeah, just before he founded Korean False Colonel...

[Jess L.]

That's OK...The one in this "news" article has been tampered with too. Unless the supreme leader has figured out a way not to cast a shadow.

Good catch.

I hadn't read that article until you mentioned it, then I figured I'd better go read it and see what I'd missed. The comments section was, er, enlightening. Lol. Good one.

[T.D.Nydn]

(Yeah, that mando-bass pic is Photoshopped.) of course it is,,Schmergel never made anything that stupid looking..

[Jess L.]

(Yeah, that mando-bass pic is Photoshopped.) of course it is,,Schmergel never made anything that stupid looking..

Yeah the green top is the giveaway, and the scrolls aren't big enough. A genuine Schmergel mando-bass has a purple top and much larger scrolls (everywhere!). Clearly an imitation.

As a Mr. Dave Cowles so wisely points out in another post a few years ago,

"The [Schmergel] Devastator is available in many variations, including the Hypothetical Series, The Detergence Series, The Absconder, The Fulminant, and so forth. No fool Mr. Schmergel, he knew from the start that tastes differ."

[T.D.Nydn]

He also made an A model,,the " Dominator"..

[Bertram Henze]

Looked into my video channel statistics today, and found that as much as 14% of the recent views come from North Korea. There can't be too many people allowed to surf the net there, so it's obvious: He's watching me

[Steve VandeWater]

Oh yeah, he plays some killer licks!

He's okay, but he could never make a Korea out of playing the mandolin.

[Roger Moss]

That's OK...The one in this "news" article has been tampered with too. Unless the supreme leader has figured out a way not to cast a shadow.

I don't want to step on anybody's fun, but the shadow from the instrument cases shows that the light source is behind them. The shadow (or lack of) has been cropped from the bottom of the photo. Sorry to be a wet blanket. Resume festivities please.

[Teak]

Happy to see this thread dredged up again.

I heard that his solos really take off and then kind of sputter back down.

[BrianWilliam]

To the OP:
Combining politics with mando content. Wow!
Way to get around the moderators!
Kirk

Indeed.

Sorry to bring reality into this thread but take a look at North Korea'a extensive human rights violations and think of the country's suffering population.

No offense intended to anyone but let's get back to Blue Chips, Tone-Gards, and fancy cases.

[Steve VandeWater]

I don't want to step on anybody's fun, but the shadow from the instrument cases shows that the light source is behind them. The shadow (or lack of) has been cropped from the bottom of the photo. Sorry to be a wet blanket. Resume festivities please.

Yes, but his left leg/foot are still in the pic and cast no shadow either

[Bertram Henze]

Indeed.

Sorry to bring reality into this thread but take a look at North Korea'a extensive human rights violations and think of the country's suffering population.

No offense intended to anyone but let's get back to Blue Chips, Tone-Gards, and fancy cases.

The way to deal with suffering is holding reality in one hand and hope in the other. Humor belongs to the latter and is therefore a factor of balance. Charly Chaplin once did the same and lit up the life of many. I wouldn't want it any other way.