Goodbye Vassar. Thanks for a great five years.

Ben Ratliff:

First, let’s just get this over with: Where were you in 1965, Recording Academy, when Mr. Hancock made his venerated album “Maiden Voyage”?

Let’s just say that the Grammy is about forty years behind.

A gorgeous site from the Profission Partnership.

Dan Love’s Deconstructing Illmatic, Nas’s classic album, beat by beat.

Being in the old and cozy apartment brings back the good old days. After accepting the new job and in the period of transitioning, my mother moved back to the apartment where mom, sister and I used to live in when we first arrived in the States, which was in 1992. Sixteen years have gone by and coming back to this place is like coming home.

Mom is living by herself and she has done a great job of clean up the place. She seems to like place. Below the apartment is my aunt’s Chinese restaurant and next to that is my cousin’s grocery store. Mom can just come down and interact with the customers. When I lived here, I would come down and help my cousin bagged. With all the activities mom can do, I still feel guilty for not being there to take care of her, although my sister is only fifteen minutes away.

Every time I think of my mom, I ask the man above to bless her with prosperous health. Either the man above has done his job or she is taking good care of herself, my mother is in a very good condition. Calling her everyday just to hear that she’s doing fine makes me happy.

I overheard Monk’s “Straight No Chaser” as I was walking back from lunch. I followed the sound and landed into GW’s Music Department. The jam session is free to the public from noon to 2pm. I sat in and enjoyed the familiar standards played by the faculty. Then they encouraged the students to come up and join them. They were impressive and passionate. I didn’t get to stay long for the obvious reason, but I’ll try to work it into my lunch break every Friday.

New issue of GWSB News is up and emailed out. Forbes ranked George Washington University number one on “The World’s Most Expensive Universities” with the figure of $39,240 (room, board and books were not included) in 2007-2008. The article, however, explains the more tuition results in more financial aids:

Those costs reflect a trend among private American universities–charge a stratospheric tuition fee, then offer a generous financial aid package. A GW official says the university provides the most need-based aid in the country, according to national rankings. For this year’s freshman class, that package was an average of $23,466. Next month, the school’s new president is expected to announce a plan for improving affordability at GW.

Vassar’s new theme for the homepage.

NPR profiles Nat King Cole:

Singer and composer Nat “King” Cole was undoubtedly one of America’s most identifiable and beloved musicians, and his silken voice helped jazz gain wider popularity. But Cole was also an elegant keyboard player whose innovative groups popularized the jazz piano trio.

In “Is Obama a Mac and Clinton a PC?,” New York Times‘ Noam Cohen breaks down the differences between hillaryclinton.com and barackobama.com:

That is, Mr. Obama’s site is more harmonious, with plenty of white space and a soft blue palette. Its task bar is reminiscent of the one used at Apple’s iTunes site. It signals in myriad ways that it was designed with a younger, more tech-savvy audience in mind — using branding techniques similar to the ones that have made the iPod so popular.

In contrast to barackobama.com, Mrs. Clinton’s site uses a more traditional color scheme of dark blue, has sharper lines dividing content and employs cookie-cutter icons next to its buttons for volunteering, and the like.