Friday, December 21, 2012  2012 in Words and Pictures  It's
Mayan Apocalypse day, I'm listening to 2112 as I type this, and
it seems appropriate to reflect on the end of the world through
the words that caught my attention over the last twelve months.
Some time today, fittingly, Psy's monster hit Gangnam Style is
going to reach a billion views - it's about 998 million and
counting as I type these words. The song is of course a parody
of Seoul's posh Gangnam neighbourhood, and the style secret to
the video is, "dress classy and dance cheesy." Making fun of the
rich and their excesses is nothing new, but nobody did it better
than Psy in 2012, and boy, it needed doing!  What's ironic is
the phenomenon that made this possible, K-Pop. Psy is but one of
a collection of Korean musicians who hit the charts in 2012 - I
spent a week in September exploring bands like Sistar, Girls'
generation, Big Bang, SM Town, The Wonder Generation, and the
puzzling Man With a Mission (from Japan).  K-Pop is big
business. According