This shot of my store window is a screen grab from the K-pop music video Likely by South Korean “girl” group Twice.

A year ago, a film crew and a bunch of young women arrived at our store to shoot a music video. The young man in charge explained that the “girls” were a K-pop group from South Korea. He didn’t mention their name. They spent a couple of hours shooting outside and inside my store, and the young women danced in Maple Tree Square outside my store.

About a month later, I got an email from a friend, asking if I had seen this new video that featured my store. He sent me the link to the video, which had been released hours earlier but already had six million hits. It was called Likey by a group called Twice. It was a catchy tune and the video was shot entirely in Vancouver.

That first day, I would check back every few hours and was amazed to watch the numbers of viewers climb: 7 million only 30 minutes later, then 10 million a few hours later and 21 million views within 48 hours. It reached 100 million after only 33 days, a new record for a Korean group.

Now, one year after it was released, the Likey video now has been watched 318 million times (a number that will be out of date by the time you read this).

The video also spawned kids from South Korea gathering in front of my store window to pose. We had two young women yesterday, taking photos. This summer, an older man came into my store and said: “This store is very famous in Korea.”

We even has some young Mexican men come in the store and start asking questions. “Did you meet them?” one of them asked. “How tall are they?”

Twice lead singer Jeongyeon looking in the window of Angel.

Here’s the video, released Oct. 30, 2017:

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Angel is Vancouver’s first Desigual boutique, offering the latest styles for men, women & kids.  We also have Desigual designed by  Christian Lacroix.

The Desigual Fall-Winter 2018 collection is on sale this week: 20% off everything, with up to 50% off Desigual from previous seasons.

Angel has the largest selection of the latest Desigual on the west coast of Canada. We ship worldwide, with free shipping in Canada for purchases of $150.  We also offer personal shopping by appointment: Call (604) 681-0947.

Desigual is characterized by its different, optimistic and colorful designs. The Barcelona company began operating in 1984. La Vida es Chula (Life is Cool) is Desigual’s way of looking at fashion and life. It’s an enthusiastic, positive and optimistic message that nails its colors to the mast.

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Here’s a music video filmed in Vancouver in 1978 by Elvis Costello & the Attractions:

The song was written in 1974 by Nick Lowe, who recently played in Vancouver with Los Straightjackets:

Lowe is a great songwriter who has written about 400 tunes. His only big hit came in 1979:

Nick started another song in 1979, The Beast in Me, which he wrote for his then father-in-law, Johnny Cash (at the time, Lowe was married to Cash’s stepdaughter, Carlene Carter). But Lowe didn’t finish the song for another 12 years. This is Lowe’s demo, which he sent to Cash, who recorded the song in 1994 (the Johnny Cash version is here):

Ten years ago, Lowe appeared on a Canadian TV show called Spectacle hosted by Elvis Costello, where Nick recalled the disaster when he first played the song for Johnny Cash. Those guys in the shadows are former drummer of The Band, Levon Helm, and on the far right guitarist Richard Thompson.