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Two Europes — Divide Deepening

November 13, 2011 / Mark / 0 Comments

So, even as half of Europe is tanking economically — record unemployment, huge debt problems, interest rates spiraling — German is suffering from the lowest unemployment rate in 20 years. At a certain point, I think it is becoming increasingly apparent that the problems in Europe are not about “bad”, lazy, overspending countries threatening to bring down the EU and euro. Rather, the euro is fundamentally out of balance, and Germany has spent the last decade gaining from the inflated “currencies” of the PIIGS. As Paul Krugman recently graphed:

I quite like the spirit of Edward Hugh’s post here, saying one possible solution to the euro problem would be to divide Europe basically in half, with one euro (call it Euro1) for Germany, Finland, Holland and Austria, and another euro (Euro2) for the rest — and France could go either way. That way, the countries that need devaluation would devalue all together, then get move on the rebuilding their economies, rather than try to endure the long, horrid process of internal devaluing.

Of course, that would be a very problematic and only temporary measure — but at least it would give Europe time to come to grips with the fact that if you want a monetary union, you also have to have a stronger fiscal union. It might also give the Germans time to get off their high horse and realize how much they have been benefiting for the past decade from the sweat of their neighbors.

Simply Unreal

November 9, 2011 / Mark / 0 Comments

A fun reminder in the New York Times today that long before television was blurring the lines between real life and fantasy with “Reality” TV, the art world was doing it, too.

Okay, the article I linked to is actually an overview of a performance art biennale. But that is the takeaway I got from reading it. In performance art, installations, live births, etc., artists have long taken the creation shortcut, trying to say their lives, actions, and more (and less) are actually worth the label “art”. Of course, sometimes this is totally legitimate, but all too often it is just vulgar — just like Reality TV.

Some Singer That I Used to Know

October 30, 2011 / Mark / 0 Comments

Am I late to the party? I just discovered the joy that is the Belgian-Australian singer Gotye. Of course his big single “Somebody That I Used to Know” is good fun (perhaps the most angst-written song I’ve enjoyed this much since my 20s), but also great are songs like “Giving Me a Chance” and “Eyes Wide Open.”

And most of his videos are good fun, too:

(If you find “Use to Know” a bit boring, try looking for the Loot & Plunder remix… much more upbeat).

Even Old, Even Newer — Great New Book in Korean Cinema History

October 27, 2011 / Mark / 0 Comments

I just received my copy of a wonderful and very important new book about Korea’s movie history, KOREA’S OCCUPIED CINEMAS, 1893-1948, by Brian Yecies and Shim Ae-Gyung. It’s really a subject that has long needed more exploring, not just in English but even in Korean, and so far I am really enjoying the read.

Certainly there is too little literature available in English about Korea’s cultural history this century. And I find that too much of Korean scholarship has focused on re-iterating boring old nationalism or re-fighting old cultural battles rather than digging into archives and unearthing more information about the past (probably a lack of language abilities has hurt, too).

But Brian and Ae-Gyung have gone into the archives and gotten a lot of great stuff that really changes and fleshes out the period. Most previous literature has focused on the movies made by Koreans, glossing over how foreign films did in Korea and how international cinema influenced and changed Korea. They take issue with the commonly told story of the first sound picture in Korea, talk about the success of Hollywood films in Korea in the 1930s, and lots of other stuff.

The book is rather academic — not surprising, considering that Brian and Ae-Gyung are academics and it was published by Routledge. And sadly, it is priced like an academic, library book, so you might want to get it from the library, at least until the paperback comes out. But when I do finish it, I will write up my thoughts and give it a proper review. Anyhow, great going, Brian and Ae-Gyung. I’m really happy and looking forward to reading it.

A Korean Classic Rock Revival

October 20, 2011 / Mark / 0 Comments

A feature I wrote for the International Herald Tribune about Shin Joong-hyun and the revival of Korean classic rock music is now online. I hope you find it interesting. It should be in Friday’s print edition, if you prefer dead trees.

I’ve written about Mr. Shin before, so rather than just re-hash his biography I tried to do something a little different with this story, connecting a bunch of different trends. First, there is the re-issue of Mr. Shin’s music in the West, which is pretty cool. And there is the growing interest in old Korean rock music in Korea, with retro bands like Chang Kiha and the Faces and the retro sampling of DJ Soulscape.

Plenty of modern rock bands are also covering classic rocks songs these days (like Galaxy Express), and several Hongdae clubs have had special days focusing on classic rock covers (which I think Badabie started with its Kim Jung-mi cover night) — oh, and the neo-70s group Funkafric & Boostah, they’re great — but unfortunately I could not find a way to fit in those details.

Anyhow, I’m just happy to spread the word a little about some great Korean music besides K-pop. I hope a few people out there might read it and listen to Mr. Shin’s music or other great stuff from way back when.

Here are a few links to some other things I have written here about Shin Joong-hyun: here (about the Light In The Attic releases), and here (about a 1963 article on Mr. Shin from Stars and Stripes).

Now if I could just find a reason to write about Han Daesoo or Sanullim…

Occupy Barcelona

October 16, 2011 / Mark / 0 Comments

Last night I was walking through Barcelona, and accidentally stumbled upon the local “Occupy” march, and I must say it was quite impressive. Now, there is never any shortage of protests going on in Spain, whether in Puerta del Sol in Madrid or along the Passeig de Gracia in Barcelona (and they have had their own social movement, modeled on the Arab Spring, going strong since around May). But usually, compared to the “real” protests I got to enjoy when I was living in Korea, the ones in Spain seem pretty minor. The march of crowds coming to and going from Camp Nou for each Barca football home game is far larger (and rowdier).

But Occupy Barcelona was different. Or October 15 Barcelona, I guess I should call it. For one, it was a lot bigger — police say 60,000 marched, activists say around 400,000. But it certainly felt big. People marched from Placa Catalunya, up Passeig de Gracia, then down Arago to Sant Joan, then to the Arc de Triomf and Parc Ciutadella. They were orderly and good-natured, and a pretty wide mix of ages and social groups. Seeing grandmothers marching with V for Vendetta masks is pretty striking (I wish I had taken a picture of them, but sadly I did not).

The nature of Occupy Barcelona is a bit different than Occupy Wall Street, which is natural, considering that the Spanish economy is quite different than America’s. Unemployment is huge here — 21%. They actually do need some business-minded reforms. Basically, a huge property bubble that ran from the late 1990s until about 2008 (thanks to cheap money from the Euro) led many here to think they were living in a German-sized economy. The readjusting to reality has been pretty ugly for most of the country.

That said, though, I think the Occupy movement has a role to play here, too. Like America, a big reason for the property bubble was bank-business-government collusion, a distortion of the basic social contract that needs to be fixed.

In sports, no one likes the referees, but we know that referees are needed for the sake of the game. Wanting to fix the rules and support the referees doesn’t mean we are anti-football or anti-basketball (or whatever). We love our sports, we just want them played fairly and well. I think that is the core of what the Occupy movement is about. Most people are not anti-business, but we are seeing something essentially unfair and broken that needs fixing.

Gayageums Rock

October 5, 2011 / Mark / 1 Comment

Here’s a fun little video I just ran across of a woman playing Jimi Hendrix’s “Bold as Love” on the Gayageum. It’s really well done.

Of course, if traditional instruments playing cool, modern music is your thing, the best band out there is still Jambinai.

Busan Cinema Center

September 30, 2011 / Mark / 0 Comments

Hard to believe that the Busan Cinema Center is finally opening. I think I first wrote about it — and its ambitious architecture by Coop Himmelb(l)au — way back in 2005. But despite the odds, Busan actually built the $143 million movie haven, pretty much as first envisioned. You can read about it here (with some good video) and here (more pics). And plenty of pics here, of course.

Here are a couple pics of the Cinema Center under construction. Doesn’t it look like the USS Enterprise in dry dock?

From the Speaking-Too-Soon Department…

September 12, 2011 / Mark / 0 Comments

Maybe I was too quick to laud Billboard’s Hot 100 K-Pop chart … Both CJ Music and Soribada have been accused of illegally selling K-pop and other Korean music internationally. Worse, they sold much of that music on the cheap, for as little as 6 cents/song, screwing the artists in the process.

This is hardly the first time this has happened — it seems like half the Korean music available on iTunes is not supposed to be there (especially the classic rock), thanks to some, uh, “overenthusiastic” distributors who would decide that they could sell someone’s music internationally. But now there is some noise that this latest scandal might have some legs … and might actually lead to some consequences. Expect to hear some news in the next few days.

Lord knows the Korean music industry needs to be cleaned up… but I’ll believe it when it happens.

K-Pop on Billboard

September 5, 2011 / Mark / 0 Comments

Considering that I wrote about Billboard a couple of times last week, I really should have mentioned that the trade magazine has started to run a K-Pop chart (although I cannot seem to get it to work at the moment).

It’s quite a change from back when I was writing for Billboard. Back around 2003 or 2004 or so, Billboard had a pretty wide variety of little charts from all over the world, including such non-hot spots as Malaysia. There was never much interest in adding Korea to the mix, especially since there was nothing resembling an authoritative, transparent music chart. Most of the TV channels put together their own charts, based on call-ins and a variety of cryptic data. Every so often, not surprisingly, there would be some sort of kickback/payola scandal about a chart, causing a big outcry and shutting down that chart for a time. Things got so bad in 2003 that all the major music charts in the country were taken down.

I always thought it significant that Korea was unable to put together a reliable music chart at the same time music sales were falling off a cliff. It was a telling contrast that the movie industry was booming as movie box office data were getting better and better. Of course, the music industry eventually regrouped and went all-online in Korea, which I guess helped them put together the data for this new chart.

On the other hand, The Hollywood Reporter appears to have stopped running its box office chart for South Korea. That did not last very long. Back when I wrote for THR, I bugged them for years to start including the official box office charts, but never found much interest — even though the information was easily available online, and even though, at its peak, Korea was about the world’s fifth-largest box office. In one of THR’s more recent revamps, it started to include Korea’s movie chart, but I guess it was too much trouble…

Anyhow, it looks like Billboard’s new K-Pop chart has gotten a bit of press. Such as this article at the Globe & Mail, which says “It’s as if disco had a baby with European house music — then weaned it on candy” (thanks to Gusts of Popular Feeling for the pic).