OK! I admit it. I have been peeping on college chics get butt naked. Blame it on the New Yorkers for exposing CollegeHumor.com. Beside the sexual photos, I find a few videos below to be hilarious:

The two little Asian twins kissing. Aren’t they adorable?

This little boy is just amazing.

Asian Fat Joe is up on the video.

Ma, you straight frontin’, let’s get the date jumpin’ / See your booty panties, ma shake somethin’ / Shake something!

If you don’t know, now you know. Don’t say that I didn’t tell you so.

I am currently enjoying Patrick Gallagher’s Some English Words For Some Vietnamese Popular Songs booklet. Gallagher is an American who has a fine taste in Vietnamese music. Upon reading my reviews of Hong Nhung’s Doan Khuc Thu Ha Noi and Bai Hat Ru Cho Anh, Gallagher contacted me and would like to share some Vietnamese songs he has translated. What a coincident! I was wondering who is Patrick Gallagher since the English versions of “Bai Hat Ru Cho Anh” and “Van Hat Loi Tinh Yeu,” performed by Hong Nhung, were credited under his name. So when I received his email, I replied immediately with “Please! Send me your work.”

In order to translate these songs, one must know Vietnamese, but Gallagher translates with his passion. “I don’t actually know Vietnamese,” he says “but my dictionary does, if given all the decorations of the vowels.” Then he goes on explain his method of translation, which I find intriguing. He looks up every word in Nguyen Van Khoi’s Viet-Anh dictionary and tries to understand the meaning of the song. Once he understands the lyrics, he rewrites the song in English that would best fit the musical compositions. Isn’t that a challenging task? Of course, some of contexts are lost in translation, but Gallagher manages to stay as close to the content as possible, and his translation of Trinh Cong Son’s “Hat Tren Nhung Xac Nguoi,” peformed by Khanh Ly in 1969, is a good example.

Now I Sing The Dead

Noon, I walk the hills
Now I sing the dead
On the roads, I have seen, I have seen
Each one has one, this one screams

Noon, I walk the hills
Now I sing the dead
I have seen, I have seen, garden here:
Dead tired ma holds her dead girl

This ma claps above her child
This ma claps for peace, for peace
Here some clap for life, for life
Here some clap for end of life

Noon, by berry groves
Now I sing the dead
By a road, I have seen, I have seen
Old man hugs his stone cold son

Noon, by berry groves
Now I sing the dead
I have seen, I have seen, ditches, shelters
Filled with bodies, his and hers

This ma claps, lets have more war
This ma clap, no more, no more
Here some clap for hate, for blame
Here some clap to shake off shame

Gallagher’s love for Vietnamese music is inspiring, and making the translations available would extend Vietnamese music beyond the Vietnamese community. Like Gallagher says, “for me, the idea that English words for VN songs might someday make them an export product, maybe not as big as rice or coffee, but better than plaster elephants.” I hope that that will come soon. Thanks Gallagher for sharing your work.

The most celebrated holiday in Viet Nam is a couple weeks away (Feb. 9). Back in Viet Nam, decorating our house with flowers was one of my favorite activities before Tet. I always wished that I would get my li xi (red envelopes) before New Year so that I could buy more flowers. Of course, the saddest part was to take down the flowers after Tet.

Ever since I came to America, my Vietnamese New Year celebrations aren’t the same anymore. No more fresh bright golden yellow flowers (Hoa Mai). Now that I live in an apartment, I have no motivation to decorate the place since no one will be visiting it anyway. On my virtual home, however, I do have a few visitors; therefore, I have adorned Hoa Mai on the top left to give this space a spirit of Tet.

New Year celebration would not be complete without Nhac Xuan (New Year Music). So here are a few Xuan songs for your enjoyment:
“Canh Thiep Dau Xuan” (Nhu Quynh) – Thanks Tommy!
“Nhung Kiep Hoa Xuan” (Ngoc Lan)
“Lang Nghe Mua Xuan Ve” (Hong Nhung & Bang Kieu)
“Doan Ca Xuan” (Quang Linh & Thuy Trang)
“Xuan Da Ve” (Doan Trang)

And a few poems for those of us who celebrate Tet outside of our homeland:
“Tet Nho Ve Ha Noi” by Le Hai Anh

“tet” by Song Vinh
tet di roi tet lai ve
tet qua tet lai van minh voi ta
van em qua lai khieu xa
van ta go may lam tho tang nguoi

Jin opens the door and now Chan is coming in. Smacky drops some ill ryhmes on his latest work Part of the Nation, especially on the sentimental “I Feel Sorry For Your Mother.” Go cop the album and your purchase will go toward Red Cross to help the Tsunami victims. He is doing something positive so go support the brother.

Speaking of donation, iLoveNgocLan.com gave a small amount to Red Cross this morning. Many thanks to the fans who have contributed.

Sasha digs foxymoron, so do I. It’s catchy as hell. I am tempting to get my own coxymoron.org to rock with the fox.

Apple introduces Mac mini. She is so cute. I need to adopt her.

After having no luck searching through the local Vietnamese stores for Hong Nhung’s Mot Ngay Moi, I decided to make an online purchase through Vietnamese websites for the first time and my experience is not so pleasant. I placed an order on SaigonCD.com, waited for a week and received nothing. I logged back into my account and the order was cancelled because they were out of stock. They did not bothered to notify me.

I hopped over to Hoa Phuong Nam since it is the only place that has the album I want. Made the transaction through PayPal, received a payment email with the product name Xa Roi Toc May, which I did not ordered. I contacted Hoa Phuong Nam to clear things up and they requested additional money for Hong Nhung’s Mot Ngay Moi. What? I can’t believe it. They did not stated why they needed additional two dollars, but I paid them anyway since it is only a small amount. I contacted them again regarding to the status of my order and no one replied.

Vietnamese websites need to conduct more professional customer services. Until then, this is my first and last time buying a Vietnamese product online.

She sits on her couch. She watches every Hong Kong TV series at least twice. She rewatches Vietnamese music DVDs for the 10th time. She stares out the window. She goes to bed. She lives her life in America.

At iLoveNgocLan.com, we are putting together a funding to help the Tsunami victims. Please contact me if you would like to contribute. All your donations will go directly toward Red Cross.

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Just launched a new theme (Innocence) to celebrate Ngoc Lan’s birthday.