Tony Blair on masterful form in Newsnight interview with Paxman

I've been frustrated all this week by the BBC website's erratic policy on deciding which of their video clips can be embedded on other sites and which ones cannot.

The clip I've been unable to post here - of Tony Blair's Newsnight interview with Jeremy Paxman on Monday night - will be available for a few more days on iPlayer.

If you didn't see it, I'd strongly recommend that you act quickly and watch it before it disappears (from HERE) , as it's an fascinating reminder of just how effectively he can (still) perform, even in an interview - and of how much he must be envied by his successors and their supporters.

Had I not wasted so much time looking for an 'embeddable' version, I might have been able to add an analytic comment or two, but that will have to wait until it becomes more readily available.

If any readers did make a video of it and/or stored it on their Sky box, you'd be doing a public service, at least for me, by posting it on YouTube, ASAP....

The strange sound of North Korean music

Apart from being intrigued by yesterday's first public speech by North Korea's new supreme leader, I was fascinated by the sound of the marching music, brief snippets of which could be heard on the video clips (HERE) - so much so that I looked on YouTube for some more specimens (e.g. above, which is also well worth watching for its commentary and finely coordinated non-verbal behaviour).

Although I know nothing about North Korean music, what surprised me was its similarity to marching music from the corrupt capitalist world.

Looking beyond marching music, I came across the following reminders of the Red Army Choir, which perhaps explains why North Koreans feel at home with Russian music that was once acceptable Stalinist music:

But the following extraordinary performance sounds as though the North Koreans may have been influenced by Welsh choral music too:

Nor is it clear to me what makes this, from a group of accordianists (already enjoyed by 1,701,000 YouTube viewers in the past four months), sound particularly 'North Korean Style':

And, if piano accordians make you think of France, so too might this rebranding of Edith Piaf's Milord (about 45 seconds in) as a 'Russian Gypsy Song':

Eventually, I did come across something that sounded (to my amateur ears) a bit more like music from the far East, but such exhibits are far outnumbered on YouTube by the earlier much more Western-sounding examples:

Comments welcome, especially from anyone who knows about the North Korean party line on music...

Breaking News: Kim Jong-un can read and speak

Unlike his father, who apparently only ever made one speech during his 17 year rule of of North Korea, Kim Jong-un is game to give it a go.

The commentator introduces him as "rarely looking up from his prepared statement", but I suppose it's a good sign that the youngster has learnt to read at all, even though he still has quite a lot to learn about how to make an effective public speech.

More on his speech and its implications can be read HERE and HERE.

And on reading speeches, see To read or not to read - that is the question.