Clapton is Diplomat

In December, we learned that North Korea was so unimpressed with the Bush administration's inane attempts at diplomacy that they invited the New York Philharmonic instead.

It would appear that a pattern is now developing where North Korea would rather deal with musicians than heads of state. Next on the bill, Eric Clapton:

North Korean officials have invited rock guitarist Eric Clapton to play a concert in the Communist state, a diplomat at the country's embassy in London said Tuesday.

The diplomat confirmed reports in the British media that Clapton had been officially invited to Pyongyang — the first such invitation to a Western rock star to the isolated nation.

"Eric Clapton is a well-known musician and guitarist, famous throughout the world," said the official, who declined to give his name. "It will be a good opportunity for Western music to be understood better by Koreans."

I think it would be appropriate for Eric to include "Crossroads" in the set list, just as long as he turns up the distortion a bit and lets it rip.