Both Frontmedia and Cinnamon Interactive are organized, clean and surprisingly simple. While Frontmedia is fluid and slick in Flash, Cinnamon Interactive is hot and spicy in css.

College Years

Reading this post reminded me of my good old college days. The phrase “1 hour in class equivalent to 3 hours of study time” is way exaggerated. I hardly spent any time reading during college. In fact, after my freshman year, I stopped buying textbooks. They were a waste of money and I never read them. So how did I get through college? Of course I didn’t get straight As but some As and Bs were not bad for not reading textbooks either. First of, I never missed class time. Yes, it was very important not to missed class because my C grades turned into B with perfect attendants. Secondly, I listened carefully to the lectures and wrote down all the notes. At night, I would revised my notes to make it clearer and readable. The night before exam, I would spent three to four hours studied my notes. Yes, it worked every time. Well, except for one History class. I had a 12:30 class and my professor put me to sleep everyday with his monotone. The class started out with 19 students. Two weeks later, there was 11 left. After I bombed the first 2 exams in a row, I knew it was time for me to withdraw. I received a W on my report card but it didn’t effect my gpa. I had to take an extra class the following semester to make up for it. I still remember it till this day. Other than that, I was doing good.

InspirAsian
Asian designers that inspired me: Yugo Nakamura, Gicheol Lee, Chris Dang and Hien Nguyen. I know there’s a lot more fantastic asian designers out there; however, these guys just came to my mind for the moment.

Rồi em cất bước ra đi
Tim anh giá băng hồn anh chết lặng
Em đã ra đi không nói năng chi
Anh nhớ mãi dáng em thiên thần

Thanks for leaving a deep, gorgeous voice in our hearts. Now that your spirit is truly free, fly high my dear, but please keep singing for the rest of us who are still here trapped.

Hip-hop lyrics could be frightening sometimes, especially coming from someone as heartless as Young Jeezy. Considering the following confession from his song entitled “Dreamin’”:

Mom’s smokin’ rocks
Same shit I’m sellin’
So who’s wrong, her or me?
She’s addicted to the high
I’m addicted to the cash
Almost put my hands on her
When I caught her in my stash.

Hip-hop is a form of expression. As listeners, we are responsible for making the distinction between art and reality. I love rap music as an art form, but never influenced by the content. As much as I like the ruthlessness in Jeezy’s rhymes, never in this life I would put my hands on my mama no matter how wrong she could have done to me. Even if she wants to kill me, I would not stop her. When I was bad, mom would make a half-chided remark like if she knew (I turn out that way), she would have pinched my noise and let me go when I was a baby. My reponse was it is still not too late, ma. You gave me this life; therefore, you’re the only one that can take it away from me. But deep down inside, I know that you won’t stop loving me even if I turn out to be a monster.

Just decorated the site with some yellow blossoms for our New Year. Instead of posting traditional New Year tunes, I am going to post something a bit different from Clispe called “Chinese New Year.” The chorus goes, “I’m at your door, your eyes are like why are you here / Judging by my steel I got something to do here / Give up the money or the angel cries two tears / Front of your crib sounding like Chinese New Year.” So you better give them the red envelop or you’re going hear, “Brrraaattt… brrraaattt, brrraaattt… brrraaattt, ka-ka-kat-kat,” not the typical firecracker sound.

Julia likes to drink
Julia likes to smoke
Julia likes to mix Arm & Hammer with her coke.

(Ooops! Humming to the wrong tune.)

Julia got her move on
Julia got her groove on
Julia sings better than her auntie Nhu Loan.

Although her fingers are no where near the size of Fats Waller’s bananas, she’s capable of hopping and jumping her way around his infamous “Ain’t Misbehavin’.” Her tempo isn’t as fast as his, but she demonstrates her ability to stride. This wonderful performance is taken from Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. Nice chops, Keys!

Duke Ellington’s “Melancholia,” a piano-solo composition, got a lyrical treatment from Norah Jones. The live performance is extracted from her appearance on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz. Although Jones herself admitted that writing lyrics to the Duke’s composition is sacrilegious, she pulled it off well without killing it.

In addition to his virtuoso flow, flawless breath control, and idiosyncratic syncopation, Jay-Z has my admiration for his improvisational skill, which means he doesn’t write down his rhymes. Words just roll off his tongue as he feels the beat. Comparing to Jiggaman, I am not even a small time crook, but I know exactly what he meant on the second verse of “Moment of Clarity”:

I dumb down for my audience
To double my dollars
They criticize me for it
Yet they all yell “Holla”
If skills sold
Truth be told
I’d probably be
Lyric-ly
Talib Kweli
Truthfully
I wanna rhyme like Common Sense
(But I did five Mil)
I ain’t been rhyming like Common since
When your sense got that much in common
And you been hustling since
Your inception
Fuck perception
Go with what makes sense

Here is Mr. Dee’s “Di Hoc” from his Giao Thong album. Hope you can find something creative for your skit with this fun, encouraging tune. Would love to hear what you do with it.

Even my mama is feeling this joint!

In addition, I have uploaded “Trong Com” for you. Although the beat and the rhymes aren’t exciting, the tune featured your babes 5 Dong Ke holding down the vocals.

With her Billie Holiday’s sense of swing, Madeleine Peyroux gives “I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate” a playful rendition. Love the way Marian McPartland’s spare keys accommodate Peyroux’s rag-like guitar. They work so well together. The live performance is taken from Piano Jazz program.