This is part one of a 14 part series on North Korea that you can view on VBS.tv. I’m watching part one now, but the buffering is killing me. The first episode takes the VBS crew from Seoul in South Korea to the DMZ that borders the two countries.

UPDATE: After watching up to episode 12, I’m a bit disappointed. It’s definitely worth watching to get a rare glimpse inside North Korea, but Shane Smith seems rather presumptuous in a lot of his reporting. In episode 12 when the visits a state school for the best and brightest, Smith mentions over and over again that the students are basically being forced to learn for the state. While this may very well be the case, there’s nothing in the video that illustrates that, other than the children being very young for their high level of talent. My favorite episode so far is no. 6 with the tea girl, because it paints a really personal picture that gives more insight into the situation for average folks in the DPRK. The rest of the series seems to focus heavily on the propaganda aspect of the government, which seems to be par for the course in everything I’ve heard about visits to the country. I am looking forward to the final two episodes that cover the MASS Games, however.

Critics and cred seekers were powerless against M.I.A.’s first release Arular, and I fell for it pretty hard too. Her sophomore effort Kala will be released tomorrow on XL/Interscope, and it kinda makes me wish I didn’t have such a crippling fear of dance floors. Spike Jonze spent a day with Maya Arulpragasam traveling around London where they talked about Polish hairdressers on ketamine, getting beat up in Greenwich, current events and a whole bunch of other stuff. Jonze posted it on VBS.TV, where he’s a creative director, and you can check it out here.