HOTEL BACKGROUND: The Ryugyong Hotel resides in N. Korea. Work began in 1987 and was abandoned in 1992.
At 105 stories, with 7 revolving restaurants, it would have been the tallest hotel in the world. However, word has it that is suffers from crumbling concrete, problems with the elevator shaft, and funds to complete it.
Questions remain about how such a poor communist country with widespread famine and not enough electricity could even support such a hotel. Mostly, who would go there?
It was such a bizarre discovery for me to suddenly learn of it's existence and abandonment that I felt compelled to make this compendium of available photos, along with that video from "untochables".
UPDATE: Construction resumed April, 2008! They are adding the glass facade. See new photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/k ernbeisser/sets/72157615664866 904/
SOCIAL COMMENT:
Despite this fascinating and bizarre story, everyone knows that N. Korea is the "problem child" of the world and quite dangerous. Their people are starving, yet they pump most funding into nuclear proliferation and structures such as this. Recently, they literally threatened to blow the U.S. off the map. So, just to be clear, I was only prompted to make this music video as a means of expressing how weird this hotel fiasco made me feel. As for my thoughts on the country itself, I am as concerned about their belligerent behavior as anyone.
ABOUT THIS VIDEO:
I made the news intro using LiveType and Final Cut Express (looks like a "real" news broadcast! :o)
ABOUT MY MUSIC SOUNDTRACK:
Previously, I had posted my video using a music mash-up I had quickly edited to evoke the weird feelings this story gave me. However, after considering a prior viewer comment, I felt the need to revise the soundtrack to become entirely my own composition, with no supporting commercial excerpts. So, except for the royalty-free "news" intro, I created all the music in REASON 4 - my song composition software of choice. Those are even my real chimes, sampled for playback! Unfortunately, YouTube provides no facility to replace a video and retain the hits. All ego aside, I was inclined to remove the first one and let the counter reset back to zero from about 11,000 hits.
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