Hilary Clinton has entered the race and Elizabeth Warren told Bill Maher on Real Time that she won’t be running even if he promised to contribute a million dollars to her campaign. If Warren stays true to her word, although I hope she would change her mind, I am all for the Clinton-Warren ticket in 2016.

If history repeats itself, we will have another Clinton vs. Bush, and I won’t mind seeing the Clinton in the White House for eight more years. Maybe Hilary will get her revenge by having some young male interns tossing her salad—just kidding.

Giang Trang is apparently a devotee of Trịnh Công Sơn’s music. In her debut, Lênh Đênh Nhớ Phố, she brought some fresh air into his songs with her earthy interpretation backed by pared-down accompaniment of violinist Anh Tú and guitarist Anh Hoàng. In her sophomore release, Hạ Huyền, she continued to record Trịnh’s music, but experimented with richer sounds from guitarist Nguyễn Văn Tuấn, flutist Sương Mai, cellist Lê Thanh Long and percussionist Trần Xuân Hòa. The result was not pleasing. The exotic arrangements drowned out her singing. In her third recording, Hạ Huyền 2, she and her arranger Thanh Phương wisely return to the minimalist setting.

Recognizing that Giang Trang has an effortless style of singing that is best placed in an intimate atmosphere, Thanh Phương backs her voice with his own acoustic guitar. Although his accompaniment alone can create a musical dialog between the vocalist and the guitarist, he incorporates a few voices into the conversation. With Vân Mai on the Vietnamese 16-string zither, Lê Thư Hương on the flute and Trọng Kiều on the piano, their playing enhances rather than distracts the whole experience.

To hear how these instruments come together, listen to “Nhìn Những Mùa Thu Đi.” The zither starts off with a beautiful folk tradition. The guitar picks up the vibe and the flute joins in to create a zen setting. All the instruments drop out to focus on Giang Trang’s singing. The guitar alone returns to back the vocals. When Giang Trang gets through the song the first time, the guitar takes over the solo with the keyboard comes in. The keyboard stays on and the guitar plays an ostinato pattern as the vocal returns. After the vocal naked vocal faded out at the end, all the instruments join force to take the tune out.

The entire album is orchestrated in similar fashion; therefore, the experience is coherent, but never boring. What makes the arrangements so intriguing is that they never reveal the original melody because they don’t have to. The ballads are already too familiar and Giang Trang sings them straight on. As I am listening to record, I can’t help but wonder what if she takes Billie Holiday’s approach and deviates away from Trinh’s melody completely? That would be the art of reinterpretation.

Thanh Hà’s Đến Bên Anh is neither groundbreaking nor cohesive. Her delivery is straightforward and her song choice is all over the map. What makes the album enjoyable, however, is the productions.

Most of the arrangements come from Roland Casiquin Jr., her lover. Unlike Thúy Nga’s typical producers, Casiquin brings some fresh vibes to the table. The title track, for example, is groovy as hell with uptempo rhythm made up of energetic percussions, sweet keyboard comps, and slick guitar riffs. With “Anh Muốn Em Sống Sao” (Chi Dân), he wisely turns up the base drum to drown out Chi Dân’s cheeseball lyrics. Thanh Hà is also smart enough to make it less campy than drama queen Minh Tuyết.

Casiquin’s guitar chops and dance production skill are displayed on “Huyền Thoại Người Con Gái” (Lê Hựu Hà), but the best track on the album goes to Minh Hoàng. His string arrangement and bossa nova flavor make “Xóm Đêm” (Phạm Đình Chương) so damn hypnotizing. Thanh Hà’s alto is also so fine and sexy floating along the swaying rhythm. Although I don’t mind her youthful pop covers, I would rather hear her taking on the more mature level.

The SNDDC’s two-day conference, “The Future of News Design,” was informative and inspiring. Although journalism is not my field, I have always interested in the news space. It was such an eye-opening experience to see how these news organizations including The Guardian, NPR, The New York Times, and The Quartz stepping up their digital game. Vox and Breaking News have embraced the digital space from the start; therefore, it was intriguing to see where they are heading in the future. Many problems they have solved could easily apply to higher education. I was so glad to be at the event and had a two-minute talk with one of my design heroes: Jason Santa Maria.

The first day of the Society for News Design’s workshop in DC is impressive. The News Type session was filled with exceptional presentations from respected type designers and typographers such as Roger Black, Christian Schwartz, David Berlow, and Indra Kupferschmid. Francesco Franchi showed off the amazing work he and his team had done for the printed IL magazine. Greg Manifold shared the redesigns of the printed edition of The Washington Post and Dan Zedek gave some insights on The Boston Globe’s digital experience. The News Type session alone is worth the price of the admission, which is quite cheap for educators. I can’t wait to attend the next two days.

Lara Callender Hogan’s book is concise and yet packed with useful information on web performance. From images to CSS to JavaScript to gzip to caching, Hogan’s writing is accessible to even non-coders because she knows that performance is everyone’s responsibility, not just the front-end developers. Read it and share it with your team—even your boss can benefit on changing the culture at your organization—if you want to provide your visitors a faster experience.

I damn near overlooked Quốc Thiên’s Tình Khúc Một Thời when the album first hit streaming web sites late last year. Quốc Thiên is a new face with a warm baritone and sincere delivery. For his debut, he chooses a rather safe approach: covering standards. The album kicks off with a gentle, Latin-inflected version of “Nếu Xa Nhau,” a Đức Huy’s ballad. The second track, “Chiếc Lá Mùa Đông,” a duet with Uyên Linh, is disappointing. While their vocal chemistry blended well, their Chinese-translated song choice, is such a letdown. I didn’t make it past the third track, “Tình Như Lá Bay Xa,” which is another Chinese ballad.

A few days ago I copped the entire high-quality album and decided to give it another try. Without the Internet streaming interruption, the album comes to life. Standout is the bluesy rendition of Quốc Dũng’s “Em Đã Thấy Mùa Xuân Chưa.” The blues-turn-valse arrangement is hypnotizing. The strip-down version of “Tiếng Mưa Đêm” (Đức Huy) is refreshing. The strumming guitar, the brushing percussion, the thumping bass, and the accenting piano work their magic to accompany the vocals. In addition, Trịnh Nam Sơn’s “Quên Đi Tình Yêu Cũ” gets an elegant bossa nova makeover.

If Quốc Thiên were to focus Tình Khúc Một Thời on the jazz side, he could have created a sensational experience. Too bad the album is wasted with sugary, Chinese-translated ballads. He definitely has potentials. He just needed an executive producer to guide him to the right direction.

Zack O’Malley Greenburg’s unauthorized biography of Jay-Z reads like a long résumé detailing the business successes (and failures) of a gifted rapper turned exemplary entrepreneur. Since he has no direct access to Jay-Z, Greenburg offers no inside information on how the man handled his business. If you have followed Jay-Z closely from his music to his venture, the stories come at no surprise. To be fair, the book is not as “terrible” as Jay-Z had criticized. It does provide some intriguing glimpses of Jay-Z’s accomplishments.

Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli’s book has received the endorsement from Apple’s top executives to be the correct biography of Steve Jobs. Unlike Walter Isaacson’s Steve Jobs, Becoming Steve Jobs focuses mainly on Jobs as the business genius. The authors also shed the light on the warm, gentle side of the man who had been known as the “asshole” who had no sympathy for others. What missing from this book, however, is Jobs’s personal story. Isaacson has done a superb job of providing the readers the personal accounts including Jobs’s relationshipS with women as well as his love for Bob Dylan. Having read both books, I find each has its own strengths and weaknesses in covering such a complex man. I enjoyed reading both.

Both Molly Johnson and Rebecca Ferguson know too damn well that no one can phrase like Billie Holiday and no one can touch the dark corner like Lady Day; therefore, they reinterpret Billie’s repertoire with their own approach: lighter and less serious.

Whereas Johnson still shows some traces of Holiday’s timbre and texture in Because of Billie, Ferguson draws no resemblance in Lady Sings the Blues. “Fine And Mellow” for instance, Johnson’s version is swinging a bit faster than Billie’s, but Furguson takes it to the retro soul. Both versions lost the emphatic of “Love is just like the faucet / It turns off and on,” in which defined Billie’s signature style. In contrast, Ferguson’s rendition of “Lady Sings the Blues” is closer to Billie’s than Johnson’s, which is a faster blues-swing cover.

Because of Johnson’s and Furguson’s vocals and choices of arrangement, they have created different vibes of Billie’s classic materials. For a wine-and-dine time with friends and family, Furguson’s album is ideal. For a more intimate time with a lover, Johnson’s album is the perfect mood. For an up close and personal experience, Billie’s albums remain unmatchable.